Scientism and Values.pdf - Ludwig von Mises Institute

T he Psychopathology of Scientism 213
and appe.al to limited numbers, modern psychological techniques
have made this method scientific, all-inclusive, and nearly infallible.
It appears to matter little whether this totalitarianism is essentially
benevolent, as in Huxley's Brave New World" or malevolent,
as in Orwell's 1984; or, speaking in realistic and nonutopian terms,
whether hidden persuaders are employed democratically to promote
a washing machine or a politician, or autocratically to ensure
the reign of a dictator. For it is more than probable that methods
used for inconsequential advertising can and will be employed for
the deification of the state, the nation, its leader, or for global war
as those in charge desire.
There is a neologism which was introduced after the war,
namely, Hgenocide," meaning, according to the Oxford dictionary,
"extermination of a race." I submit that a similar term, "menticide,"
28 be adopted, meaning extermination of the individual
mind. As a matter of fact, extermination of a race is hard to
achieve. The scars in the body social heal rapidly, owing to its regenerative
capacity. Thus, in spite of the large-scale genocide of
the last World War, the Malthusian problem of an overpopulated
planet becomes more menacing every day.
Menticide, in contrast, is irreversible and irreparable. It is the
stultification of the human race, its progressive reduction to automatons
or morons by mass media and psychological techniques.
At this point, the psychiatric ,and criminological question arises:
Why, at a time when the Hgreatest happiness of the greatest number"
with respect to material comfort is achieved as never before
in history, is society beset with an equally unprecedented menace
of mental disorder and criminality?
The orthodox and, at first, plausible answer is that the heavy
and manifold stresses imposed in our complicated society are responsible.
Nevertheless, the theory is demonstrably untrue. For
example, World War II, the stress of which certainly was extreme,
as it endangered not only social amenities and values, but biological
survival, did not lead to an increase of either neuroses 29 or
psychoses. 3o On the other hand, under conditions of economic opu-