R.D.

What a relief to come across, say, Nietzsche! “The truth is the lie that enables a species to survive.” Not because it is necessarily true, but because he was at least able to think and say it before he was taken off to the madhouse

It seems to be done, in part, by a kind of projection. Each generation projects onto the next, elements derived from a product of at least three factors.

What was

(1) projected onto it by prior generations,

(2) induced in it by prior generations, and

(3) its response to this projection and induction.

A simple way to get someone to do what one wants, is to give an order. To get someone to be what one wants him to be, or supposes he is or is afraid he is (whether or not this is what one wants), that is, to get him to embody one’s projections, is another matter. The best way is, within a hypnotic (or similar) context, not to tell him what to be, but to tell him what he is. Such attributions, in context, are many times more powerful than orders (or other forms of coercion or persuasion).