Wednesday, February 28, 2007

Brainwashing In Libya?

I came across an interesting topic while reading about Horowitz’s adventures in Libya. While making an attempt to gather information about the alleged poison gas factory in Rabta, Horowitzs enters a conversation with a Libyan guard named Abdullah. Abdullah does not know the meaning of “source”. Tony tries to explain to him that it is a person or document that you could rely on for the truth. It never has occurred to this man that JANA, Qaddafi, or any other government leader could be capable of lying. This man was five when Qaddafi seized power, and Qaddafi is a symbol of his country and greatness. In the text Horowitz corrects one of Abdullah’s recitals from The Green Book. When Abdullah hears this, he thinks for a moment and replies by saying, “This is possible, because you have killed all the rest.” He is so committed to his leader and their propaganda it is comical. Abdullah is almost like a robot that just spits propaganda and statements form government officials. Thought Abdullah has no proof Rabta isn’t producing gas or that America hasn’t killed all of the blacks and native Americans he is still blind fully confident that his government and leader is always right. This blinded willingness to follow a leader can be referenced to Nazi Germany. Children underwent a more serious means of brainwashing under Hitler. Not only did Hitler instill a love from Germany and himself in every German child, but he also taught them to hate Jews. Problems in math books would talk about “dirty Jews”, anti-Semitism was everywhere. Being raised in that type of environment it is almost impossible to escape becoming what the ruler wants you to, which is what I think happened to Abdullah. The link below is a link to information about the Hitler Youth. Hitler set up this organization after he came to power. He knew the future of Nazi German was with the children, and he used the Hitler Youth to gain control of them and brainwash them.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazi_Youth
D.P.S.

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