“A mind is a terrible thing to waste” has been the slogan of the United Negro College Fund since 1972.  Despite the intuitive validity of such an admonition, we are, each and every day, encouraged and even exhorted to do just that – allow our minds to rest idle – by educators, advertisers, politicians, preachers, and a host of others who would then dictate that which is to be accepted as true by their unthinking audiences.

The unthinking mind, closed and unreceptive to new information and alternative modes of thought, has long been a tool employed by authoritarians – whether leaders of empires, nations, religions, groups, or families – to control the perspectives, attitudes, and behaviors of those under their sway.  In many instances, the subjects of such leadership have been stripped of their humanity and act as automatons, blindly and unsympathetically carrying out the desires and whims of their leaders.  Nazi Germany, Stalinist Russia, the Charles Manson family, and the Jonestown religious sect in Guyana are but a few of many examples throughout recorded history of charismatic, despotic leaders who exerted an almost hypnotic level of control over large proportions of their subjects who accepted, without careful consideration, the validity of the concepts propagated among them.

Whether established and maintained by force, intimidation, fear, brainwashing, or other means, the control of such leaders over their followers is absolute, because it resides within their minds.  The mind, shackled by an accepted belief system, regulates behavior to a degree unattainable by attempts at physical control.

Of course, the purpose of mind control need not be as nefarious as world domination, murder, or mass suicide.  It may be as simple and innocuous as convincing someone of the correctness of a particular philosophy, or promoting and selling a product.  Marketing, advertising, political discourse, religious proselytization, and many other forms of communication are intended to persuade their audiences to accept a concept as true, factual, or beneficial.  The convictions thus produced in the minds of audience members may come in forms including brand loyalty, association with a particular political philosophy, or adherence to the tenets of a religious belief system and will then function to regulate the behavior of those individuals in the marketplace, voting booth, and context of their dealings with others throughout their lives.

Education itself is a form of mind control in that its contents can shape the way in which it students think and perceive the world around them.  The concepts taught most of us from birth onward form the building blocks from which our language, beliefs, and thoughts are erected.  Beginning with our parents or caretakers and continuing in public or private institutions of learning, our early education has a very profound impact on the values and behaviors we exhibit throughout our lives.  With so much at stake, it is no wonder that so many groups – political, social, familial, religious, commercial – vie for the opportunity to inject their particular messages and values into the minds of the young.

As infants and young children, we absorb the information offered us by parents, relatives, teachers – secular and religious, communications media, and others, accepting its validity unconditionally.  Fortunately for all of us, our minds and thinking are not ordered permanently by our early programming.  With growth and maturation comes an innate ability to reason and evaluate thoughts, beliefs, and values. 

The problem is that most of us, in one or more areas of our knowledge and belief, never really utilize this capability.  We become obstinate and our modes of thinking, at least in some areas of life and belief, set.  This is the nature and definition of what is known as a “mind-set.”  If you have ever engaged in a serious discussion with someone whose mind is set, you understand that no amount of information or reasoning will alter that person’s perspective, regardless of its validity.  To you and others who may be witnessing or participating in such a discussion, the person with the fixed mind-set may appear stubborn or ignorant.

Now, imagine that the stubborn, ignorant individual is you, for we all have our “sacred cows” – those articles of knowledge, experience, or faith that we are unwilling to subject to close scrutiny, usually because we are lazy or fearful of the impact that a change of mind or belief will have upon our lives.  We, as human beings, are creatures of habit, and we find comfort and security in habitual thinking.  And yet, when we think habitually, we are not really thinking at all.  Absent our cognitive abilities, we become reactionary, like the lower life forms on our planet.  Without thought, we lose our freedom.

Thinking, like physical exercise and other discretionary activities, requires effort.  When we decline to expend this effort, however, we become subject to those who would dictate to us how we should think and what we should believe – whatever their purpose, good or evil.  Personal growth and the advancement of civilization depend upon thinking individuals who will remain open to new concepts and modes of thought.  As a matter of course, each of us should question and evaluate all ideas and information presented to us, as well as our own deeply-held beliefs.  For, if “idle hands are the Devil’s tools,” what can be said of idle minds?