Does a brainwashed person have free will/moral culpability?

[JackVk]

I’ve been playing a video game called BioShock. The protagonist, Jack, is trying to escape from an underwater city whose entire culture is based on Objectivism (the game supposed to be a refutation of Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged. )

Anyway, it turns out Jack is some kind of test-tube baby made in this city, and has been programmed to unquestioningly carry out any command that someone gives him when they say the phrase “would you kindly” before the request, like a Manchurian candidate. One of these includes beating the city’s founder to death with a golf club (the founder is his biological father).

Does Jack have free will in this case? And can he be held culpable for his actions?

 

[JamalChristophr]

Free will is diminished, and culpability is mitigated, I believe. I don’t know a lot about real life stories, but what happened in Guyana in the 70s comes to mind. I guess there are lots of examples really.

 

[GEddie]

Free will is diminished, and culpability is mitigated, I believe. I don’t know a lot about real life stories, but what happened in Guyana in the 70s comes to mind. I guess there are lots of examples really.

Our minds are highly suggestible, there’s no way around it.

Precisely why our LORD condemns those who **lead **the innocent astray so badly.

ICXC NIKA

 

[Robert_Sock]

I believe that we are all basically brainwashed, whether from the media or our learning institutions. A lot of people secretly believe that it’s only the other people who get brainwashed.

 

[edwest2]

I’ve been playing a video game called BioShock. The protagonist, Jack, is trying to escape from an underwater city whose entire culture is based on Objectivism (the game supposed to be a refutation of Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged. )

Anyway, it turns out Jack is some kind of test-tube baby made in this city, and has been programmed to unquestioningly carry out any command that someone gives him when they say the phrase “would you kindly” before the request, like a Manchurian candidate. One of these includes beating the city’s founder to death with a golf club (the founder is his biological father).

Does Jack have free will in this case? And can he be held culpable for his actions?

After reading about some actual cases of brainwashing, individuals get their behavior modified to do different things. In a few cases, it was as if they were two different people. As you pointed out, once they heard a certain phrase, they would act as if in a dream or as having a different identity take control. They usually do not remember what they did.

So, in your example, no free will and if it can be proved, no culpability. But, these persons may not survive after completing their mission, or be considered too valuable to be captured by the authorities.

Ed

 

[Bahman]

I believe that we are all basically brainwashed, whether from the media or our learning institutions. A lot of people secretly believe that it’s only the other people who get brainwashed.

Very well said.

 

[Usagi]

Free will is diminished, and culpability is mitigated, I believe. I don’t know a lot about real life stories, but what happened in Guyana in the 70s comes to mind. I guess there are lots of examples really.

It turns out that even the Jonestown “suicides” were not as voluntary, in many cases, as was originally thought. Jones had armed henchmen, and a number of his followers were forcibly poisoned rather than willingly embracing death. So even years of cult membership doesn’t always completely break someone’s will if the demands become crazy enough.

Usagi

 

[JamalChristophr]

I believe that we are all basically brainwashed, whether from the media or our learning institutions. A lot of people secretly believe that it’s only the other people who get brainwashed.

Who’s telling you to say this?

 

[edwest2]

Who’s telling you to say this?

Oh no! He’s been exposed

Ed

 

[Exiled_Child]

I believe that we are all basically brainwashed, whether from the media or our learning institutions. A lot of people secretly believe that it’s only the other people who get brainwashed.

I agree entirely with this. I see Christianity as a very pointed and deliberate method of *de-*hypnosis and *un-*brainwashing. And as you point out, everyone believes it’s only other people who are brainwashed, and that they themselves are immune. This would seem to suggest that “humility” might have a much different and more severe meaning than we commonly recognize, one where we have to truly humble ourselves in order to try to face up to our helplessness and weakness and our lack of control and true freedom in the face of being influenced and manipulated by outside forces, both societal and supernatural. So from this perspective we don’t really have full moral culpability, rather, that is our goal; we are striving to un-brainwash ourselves enough to develop true culpability and self-responsibility.

 

[Bahman]

I agree entirely with this. I see Christianity as a very pointed and deliberate method of *de-*hypnosis and *un-*brainwashing. And as you point out, everyone believes it’s only other people who are brainwashed, and that they themselves are immune. This would seem to suggest that “humility” might have a much different and more severe meaning than we commonly recognize, one where we have to truly humble ourselves in order to try to face up to our helplessness and weakness and our lack of control and true freedom in the face of being influenced and manipulated by outside forces, both societal and supernatural. So from this perspective we don’t really have full moral culpability, rather, that is our goal; we are striving to un-brainwash ourselves enough to develop true culpability and self-responsibility.