By: mag. Tadej Ian
All Slovenians living today are, directly or indirectly, victims of communism. Although communism in the form of state socialism has been dead for 35 years, the communist brainwashing machine is still operating. Moreover, at this very moment, more than half of the Slovenian electorate is subject to communist brainwashing, which is not merely a remnant of the past.
Because we have been under the influence of the communist propaganda machine for 80 years, openly until 1990 and covertly since then, and because that machine is total and therefore comprehensive, it is almost unimaginable for people of weaker intellect, and very difficult even for the more discerning, to fully perceive and understand how intensely communist brainwashing has operated in Slovenia throughout these eight decades. A good way to explain this is to illustrate the misconduct of the communists, or their successors, by comparing it to another form of brainwashing, one that victims of communist indoctrination tend to view critically and with heightened awareness.
Nazi brainwashing
As we will see, the National Socialists (commonly known as Nazis), followers and disseminators of an ideology that flourished in Germany about a century ago, used persuasive methods very similar to those of the communists to subjugate the German people and make them follow blindly. This is not surprising, since National Socialism (as its name suggests) was originally, and remains, primarily a leftist ideology. For pragmatic reasons, the Nazis developed certain elements that led mainstream modern scholarship to classify them as far-right, but in their ideological essence, they were radical leftists who, unlike the communists, focused on the national rather than the international level.
The Nazis brainwashed people through ideology. They spread the belief that Germans were a superior race and culture. Once this ideology took hold among the masses, they introduced the notion of a problem that needed solving. For the Nazis, the problem was that Germans lacked sufficient living space and that their superiority was not adequately recognised by others, especially neighbouring nations. To mobilise their people, the Nazis employed aggression. According to their approach, the German nation was to fight to achieve its goals. They used the method of identifying both external and internal enemies: external enemies were neighbouring nations deemed inferior, who supposedly denied Germans what they naturally deserved. Internal enemies were, first and foremost, German Jews, targeted for their difference, and secondly, domestic opponents of Nazism, who were branded as a fifth column undermining prosperity and obstructing the realisation of national interests. This concept of internal and external enemies was crucial. On one hand, it enabled the Nazis to achieve totalitarian thinking among the German people, who more easily identified with the Nazi ideology. On the other hand, it allowed for the full mobilisation of the German nation.
Communist brainwashing
Communists also brainwashed people through ideology. They spread the belief that state socialism, imposed through a bloody communist revolution (unlike the Nazis, who came to power through elections and then abolished democracy), was the only progressive socio-political system that would bring prosperity, justice, and happiness. Once the ideology took hold among the people, they introduced the notion of a problem that needed solving. For communists, the problem was that foreign nations and peoples were still suffering under the chains of capitalism, which, according to communist ideology, was inferior, backward, and unjust. This was, of course, a lie. In implementing state socialism, communists adopted an elitist system that was essentially a flawed transplant of feudal hierarchy into modern society. In reality, state socialism was a dead-end in human development, less effective and inferior to the combination of market economy and democracy, which communists labelled as capitalism. To mobilise their people toward solving this problem, namely, spreading communism to nations living under capitalism, communists resorted to aggression. According to their approach, every nation living under state socialism was to fight for this goal. After the onset of the Cold War, when the free democratic world and the communist bloc held each other in check with nuclear weapons, military export of revolution across borders became impossible. Yet communist ideology demanded constant aggression. Thus, like the Nazis, communists used the method of identifying internal as well as external enemies to brainwash their subjugated populations. Since they could not fight external enemies, they focused even more intensely on internal ones. When real internal enemies in state socialism were eliminated, either killed or driven into exile, communists compensated by inventing new ones, targeting innocent people, imprisoning them, torturing them, sending them to labour camps, or otherwise persecuting them. In this way, they achieved both totalitarian thinking and constant mobilisation among their own people. This mobilisation was essential to prevent the population from realising the systemic economic incompetence of the communists, which kept them in poverty.
Post-communist brainwashing in Slovenia
Today, Slovenia has a powerful post-communist brainwashing machine, which is essentially a continuation of the original communist one. This system flourished because, after the fall of the totalitarian regime of state socialism, there was no lustration to sever the tentacles of the communist octopus. Additionally, communists had amassed vast national wealth over 45 years, much of it stashed abroad, and had created a “subterranean” network during socialism to manage certain affairs more easily in secret than in public view. After the introduction of democracy and a market economy in Slovenia, the entire subversive operation of the communists and their successors transferred into this underground system, which now thrives thanks to nearly unlimited financial resources. Among other things, it fuels the post-communist brainwashing machine discussed in this section.
Today, the successors of the communists continue to brainwash people with ideology. They spread the belief that Slovenia and its people will collapse if they are not constantly in power. Once this ideology took hold, they introduced the notion of a problem that needed solving. The problem is the Slovenian political right, or any political option that calls things by their name and condemns Slovenia’s totalitarian past from 1945 to 1990. To mobilise Slovenian voters, the successors of the communists have used aggressive media rhetoric. They employed the method of the internal enemy, personified in the leader of the Slovenian right, Janez Janša, or in “Janšism”, a phantom Slovenian movement invented by the successors of the communists and the mainstream media under their control. In this narrative, “Janšists” are the Slovenian fifth column, allegedly threatening the interests of the Slovenian nation, though in reality, these interests are personal or group interests of the self-proclaimed elite of Slovenia’s communist successors. The concept of the internal enemy is crucial for successful brainwashing of the Slovenian electorate: it enables the successors of the communists to achieve, on one hand, totalitarian thinking among the majority of public opinion, and on the other, mobilisation of voters during parliamentary elections to unite against the demonised “Janšists.”
