Talk:The Manchurian Candidate

From Conservapedia
Jump to: navigation, search

"Far fetched"

I removed that comment because the plot isn't at all far-fetched: one only has to view the results that Derren Brown can produce in a few hours to see that although unlikely (as are many movie plots) it certainly isnt "far fetched". 10px Fox (talk|contribs) 13:41, 12 January 2008 (EST)

Aside/tangent: He needs an article here :) 10px Fox (talk|contribs) 13:43, 12 January 2008 (EST)
Ah! But has anyone read the book? Do any of the editors of this article evenknow it was a best-selling book? And if any of them did, why is Condon given no credit in the opening section? Hollywood rules!!AlanE 17:48, 14 March 2009 (EDT)
IIRC I had a reference for "far-fetched". Anyway, it's based on a false premise: the theory of mind control which was discredited 20 years ago. There is no such thing as brainwashing that can make a person do something he ordinarily would not do willingly. And there's no proof that hypnosis has that power, either.
Conflict of interest statement: I am a member of a church whose members were said to be under mind control, and hundreds of them were kidnapped - which I find distressing, not to mention personally distasteful. So please watch me closely and revert me if I make any biased edits here. --Ed Poor Talk 21:06, 14 March 2009 (EDT)
The premise was certainly NOT far fetched in 1962. We don't usually ask that works of fiction be aware of what science will turn up 40 years later. RJJensen 01:03, 15 March 2009 (EDT)
  • Well, I think I fixed it up somewhat, on the fly, Doctor. And Ed, I know what you mean, and meant! --₮K/Admin/Talk 02:03, 15 March 2009 (EDT)
In 1960 the assassination plot was far fetched but not the brainwashing. For example Ronald Reagan starred in a 1954 fil, "Prisoner of War" that showed highly effective Communist brainwashing in Korea. Unless our users know that they will be baffled by the film. Whether this sort of brainwashing is or is not thought possible in 2009 is a different issue deserves a separate article on brainwashing. RJJensen 08:33, 28 March 2009 (EDT)
I think I know much more than the average person about attempts to "brainwash", but I wonder how effective the North Koreans really were. Did as many as 1 man in 10 voluntarily refuse repatriation after being released from captivity and torture? The film review mentions "so-called ‘defectors’—the American G.I.s who went over to the Communist side" but does not give statistics.
My concern is twofold. I am interested in why people support regimes that murder, and I am also trying to dispel the false accusation that religious groups such as the Unification Church (of which I am a member) have discovered a way to coerce people into joining them - even though they plainly do not resort to torture or imprisonment. --Ed Poor Talk 16:15, 8 April 2009 (EDT)

Inducement to murder

Cut from article:

Yet perhaps these nay-sayers have ignored one salient fact: the 1950s were not the first time that an aggressive power, dominated by "true believers" in an ideology, had used subconscious conditioning to impel men to commit political murder. Centuries earlier, at the time of the Crusades, the secret order known as the Assassins used a form of conditioning, part drug-induced (specifically, hashish, hence the name assassins or hashshasheen, literally "hashish addicts") and part sexual, to produce men dedicated to political murder in the name of Islam. That the USSR and/or the PRC would have used a much more sophisticated technique (described in the film as part light-induced and part drug-induced), if such a technique had been feasible, ought to have surprised no one. If today the consensus remains that no such mental conditioning (other than harsh interrogation under sleep deprivation) was possible, that is only because no Western psychiatrist or neurologist has ever duplicated the technique, nor do the archives of the Soviet Committee for State Security contain anything that one could reliably construe as a reference to any such technique.

This should not be lost, even if the present article is not the best place for it. All our readers would like to know what motivates terrorists, such as the suicide bombers. What sort of inducement do their masters use? Drugs, sex, promises of eternal bliss or of large cash payments to family survivors? --Ed Poor Talk 15:59, 8 April 2009 (EDT)

the "Communist brainwashing" idea really bothered Americans at the time, hence several novels and movies--we still have movies about the "programmed killer". There was no brainwashing in Korea. A tiny proportion (under 1/10 of 1%) decided voluntarily to stay with the Communists; most later came home The training of assassins who are aware of what they are doing is entirely a different matter, and is not part of brainwashing or hypnosis.

Promotes idea of brainwashing

Not particularly conservative to promote anti-scientific hogwash like mind control. Remember, it is chiefly liberals who oppose science, because a scientific idea can be proven wrong.

Moreover "brainwashing" was used to persecute new religions in the 1970s until the APA told mind control advocates to put or shut up, and they had to fold. --Ed Poor Talk 21:45, 1 August 2012 (EDT)

This movie is included in the Greatest Conservative Movies article. Maybe it should be discussed there. SharonW 22:43, 1 August 2012 (EDT)