LOL @ Osho.

I agree with him. The concept of a family unit, and some of the attached concepts like ownership of and dominance over the children in the family by the adults, is undesirable. The idea that you are kin to some people, and thus not kin to others, is undesirable. This whole idea of responsibility to stay in a relationship through thick and thin is frankly bizarre. The idea of responsibility to stay together "for the children" is a bit absurd. I sometimes wonder what society would look like without this concept of family at the heart of it. I like the idea of communal raising of children. In fact I've met people who put this into practice. I think this could go hand-in-hand with some welcome diversity in models of relationships: ie, a new judgement model in which same-sex relationships, and polyamorous relationships are recognized and accepted as valid.

Any visions of how society would change if this were to happen?

I find this subject pretty interesting. (and pretty nasty). I've heard tell of a drug that can be used to put a person into a very suggestive state, in which they'll do whatever you tell them with full alertness .. and forget everything afterwards. As the story goes, there are gangs in South America (where the plant this drug is made from is grown and harvested) who drop this drug into tourists drinks, then ask them for their financial information - which they give up freely, with no memory of having done it. I don't know if it's true or not, but it makes a compelling story anyways.

I've always been a little skeptical of the idea of forced brainwashing. Could a person's mind, their internal thought processes, be significantly changed - even changed to opposing points of view - through repeated external stimuli? I don't think so. But then again, I've never had the misfortune of going through that.

But the fact is, behaviour control is a part of life. People are always trying to make other people behave in ways they want them to: even just by persuading them to see one movie instead of another. Law enforcement officers, prison guards, and investigative services officers are trained in techniques of behaviour control. How to speak, what actions to take, and how to interpret the behaviour of the person they're controlling. The military takes it a bit further, and includes behaviour control using extreme force. And covert intelligence operatives have always been the stereotypical masters of controlling a person's behaviour - by deception, coercion, persuasion, or outright physical force. It's their job - they have to excel in it to stay there. It makes sense that they would have an interest in anything that would help them do their job better.

Law only works if there's behaviour control enforcing it. They're inseparable. If the law were not enforced, would it be followed? Any system of law has two basic components: the definition of the behaviours people should and should not perform; and the techniques that are used to control people into conforming to those behaviours. The written laws, and the law enforcement. I think this is why a lot of people make the blanket statement "I hate the cops": they're saying that they resent the idea that some person somewhere has defined some way they should behave, and is controlling them into it against their will.

Parenting also includes behaviour control. For some people it's: Yell at them until they conform, smack them into shape if they don't, or threaten to smack them around good - that'll teach 'em to "behave". I'm a fan of parenting techniques that invest a little more fundamental human dignity in the child. They didn't ask to come here, after all. They never signed a contract saying they would behave the way the parents (or other adults) indicate they should. How disturbing that the parents presume totalitarian dominance over them.

We practice behaviour control on our pets (there are even books detailing how to do it). Cults seek to ensnare people who are easily controlled, for the pleasure of the leaders. Employment is a form of consentual behaviour control - I'll let you control what I do (during this timeframe on these days), in exchange for money. Girlfriends and boyfriends complain about the behaviour of their SO, then try to control them into doing something different.

And advertising / marketing, of course, is the art of mass behaviour control. How can the actions of masses of people be directed? What is it that motivates people's actions - and how can we control those motivating factors to our own benefit? This is used by commercial interests, and also by political interests during election campaigns. The mass media is a powerful medium for this sort of mass behaviour control.

So it's really not that big a leap for someone in power - who perceives they have a lot to lose if things go the wrong way - to turn to more and more extreme means of controlling people's behaviours. How far has it gone? What means are being researched today, under cloak of secrecy?

If you have any stories about mind control I'd be curious to hear 'em.

This is ripe ground for moral controversy (and outrage). How far do you think is too far? Is it easy to draw a line somewhere? Or is it fuzzy - there's some areas that are not clear? Is it OK to control a foreigner's behaviour, but not someone of your own country? It it OK to control your kids behaviour, because they're your kids?