Are More And More Americans Losing Their Ability To Think?

 Recently, a gay student was relaying her experiences of being bullied to a school board when a parent interrupted her sharing. The parent yelled out that what the student was saying was 'indoctrination.'

The Cambridge Dictionary carries the following definition of the word 'indoctrination' (click here for the reference):

the process of repeating an idea or belief to someone until they accept it without criticism or question

Here we should note that indoctrination is a way of teaching an idea or belief, not the idea or belief itself. And in that meeting, a student was not even relaying a belief or idea, the student was sharing personal experiences. So why did that parent protest by claiming that the mere sharing of experiences was indoctrination?

The student who was so rudely interrupted should be relieved to know that other things than personal sharing have been called indoctrination. For example, Critical Race Theory has been called indoctrination by some who want to prohibit the teaching of such theory in the schools. Now if we were to go strictly by the dictionary definition of the word 'indoctrination,' we might find that those who were making that claim about CRT in the schools were actually projecting.

What is clear from the above example is that the word 'indoctrination' is sometimes used as a pejorative. And when used as a pejorative, there is little regard for the actual meaning of the word. In other words, the adult who who claimed that it was 'indoctrination' when a student shared their experiences with being bullied because of their sexual orientation, was emotionally reacting to rather than describing what was happening in the meeting. Likewise, those who claim that CRT is indoctrination are so adamantly protesting the teaching of that theory without accurately describing the theory. In other words, the word 'indoctrination' a word that expresses emotions rather than meanings.

We should console the word 'indoctrination' by telling it that it is not alone. There are other words that are used as pejoratives. There are other words used to express the emotions of strong rejection and disagreement.

Some of these other words in addition to 'indoctrination' are 'anti-choice,' 'anti-life,' 'socialism,' 'deplorable,' 'Marxists,' and 'Fundamentalists.' Some of those words have rational meanings but are also used as pejoratives while others are used only as pejoratives.  

We should note something else about the pejorative use of words. Such a use transforms the words used when speaking pejoratively into labels whose implied meaning is that the label used expresses all there is to know about a person or thing. And thinking behind such a use of labels involves black-white thinking, which is a trait of the authoritarian personality type. In other words, when people use pejoratives to a given view or a person, those using pejoratives are sometimes attempting to bully others into accepting their position. 

The growing use of pejoratives shows where we are in America. We are abandoning rational engagement and, sometimes, reasoned thinking itself. We have abandoned them to embrace raw emotion and, often, authoritarianism. And we should note that authoritarianism is a fear-driven response according to Erich Fromm (click here). So wherever we see the increased use of pejoratives, we could be witnessing an outbreak of fear. It is a fear that favors emotional power over rational thought. It is a fear that demands compliance and hates any deviation from what those with that fear believe. And it is a fear whose presence negatively answers the question asked at the end of the first verse of our National Anthem.