You Can Set Yourself Free from Propaganda

In “The Rape of the Mind,” Joost Meerloo says, “In the totalitarian regime, the doubting, inquisitive, and imaginative mind has to be suppressed. The totalitarian slave is only allowed to memorize, to salivate when the bell rings.”

Scary words.

Many theorists have called our attention to the dangers of mind control. These works include “Propaganda” by Edward Bernays, “Propaganda: The Formation of Men’s Attitudes” by Jacques Ellul, and “Media Control: The Spectacular Achievements of Propaganda” by Noam Chomsky, among many others.

These writings argue that people are easily measured, manipulated, distorted, conformed, shackled, repressed, and subdued by messages. And those messages appear to be everywhere.

Indeed, propaganda is so pervasive that it may simply be a byproduct of our complex social systems. Many believe that there is little we can do to curtail it. We can’t defend ourselves. It is everywhere—crammed into our brains against our will. No one escapes. We can only passively accept it as normal.

Is this true? We are overburdened with propaganda, but is it unstoppable?

Or can we muster a defense?

As it turns out, we can. There are deceptively easy ways to inoculate oneself against propaganda. Being mind-controlled is not a given. We don’t require a high IQ or specialized knowledge to repel insidious information. Instead, we can evade the effects of propaganda by understanding our psychology.

This is where Choice Theory comes into play.

Psychiatrist William Glasser developed Choice Theory in the 1990s. It posits that five basic, genetically encoded needs drive us: survival, love and belonging, power, freedom, and fun. Unlike older psychological theories emphasizing conditioning or unconscious desires, Choice Theory asserts that our behavior is intentionally chosen and directed to satisfy these needs.

Prior theories, such as Freud’s psychoanalytic or Pavlov’s conditioning, contend that our subconscious controls our behavior or that environmental stimuli condition actions. Choice Theory departs from these ideas. It holds that “all we do is behave” and that behavior stems from conscious motivations. It states unambiguously that our choices are intentional and purposive—that we are not ghosts in a machine.

This shift from external control to internal choice is crucial in understanding how to resist propaganda. If we realize—and truly know—that our actions, thoughts, and feelings belong to us, then attempts to control us will fail. Propagandists can present information, but they cannot force us to act.

For example, many people seemed compelled to obey, without question, when the lockdowns began during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, acquiescence was a choice. Messages from the media bombarded the airwaves and flooded cyberspace, yet many people chose to disregard them. My wife and I were among the dissenters. We knew we could decide how to react to the deluge of signals. We had Choice Theory at our disposal. We understood that we could comply or resist. We chose to make our own decisions, despite the pervasive propaganda.

This is a demonstration of how Choice Theory works in practice. It also suggests that our psychological well-being depends not on external stimuli but on our ability to make responsible choices that meet our needs. Recognizing and embracing your ability to choose is essential inoculation against propaganda.

Glasser never explicitly wrote about propaganda, as he did not consider it relevant to his thesis. However, he did discuss an artifact of psychological distress called “external control psychology.”

In Glasser’s terms, external control psychology is the widely held belief that people can—and should—be controlled by others. Glasser rejected this approach, holding that it harms mental health and tarnishes relationships.

Ultimately, Glasser believed that no one can control another’s behavior unless they allow it. In this sense, he would have argued that propaganda does not exist. It is not real because no one can make another’s choices for them. Words and messages cannot subvert a mind unless the person allows it. Propaganda is only a byproduct of a society obsessed with influence, control, and marketing.

Glasser’s work suggests that the constant use of external control psychology underlies a dysfunction in human relationships—a fact that social engineers and propagandists use to their own advantage. Unsurprisingly, Glasser was critical of most laws, schooling systems, disciplinary regimens, and psychiatry. He saw these as mere extensions of external control psychology.

Choice Theory is thus about preventing external control, defending individual liberty, and respecting human dignity. Gaining freedom and dignity also means pursuing what Glasser termed our “quality world pictures.” The quality world picture is the final piece of Choice Theory that inoculates us against propaganda.

The quality world picture is a mental model by which humans visualize their lives and attempt to reach their goals. It is the notion that we all have an idealized vision of ourselves, the world, and the life we would like to achieve. The quality world picture is our imagined ideal state, and gaps between our current condition and this ideal state motivate action in pursuit of the ideal.

If we see ourselves having many friends, a happy family, a poodle, and owning our own restaurant business, we will work toward achieving these goals. If we see ourselves as self-sovereign, consciously aware individuals, that will be our “quality world” objective.

Thus, if we simply augment our world with values antithetical to self-subjugation or gullibility, there is no way propaganda can impact or affect us. It becomes a non-issue. Signals from the media or bureaucrats become irrelevant.

The idea of a quality world picture inspires tremendous optimism. When we take control of our choices and our vision for what we want out of life, the pervasive social engineering and darkness of the modern world diminish, and our minds light up with self-respect. In a world that seems on the brink of self-destruction, realizing that we can control ourselves, inoculate against propaganda, and maintain internal happiness seems like the most liberating thing imaginable.

Propaganda only succeeds when people have surrendered their capacity for self-determination. But when we understand our needs, clarify our values, and act in alignment with our quality world picture, external control loses its power. We don’t need to memorize facts or master counter-propaganda. We only need to remember that our choices are ours.

In a world of fear, coercion, and informational warfare, the most radical thing we can do is govern ourselves.