"Brain-washing"

[thesummerqueen]

From the same conversation that sparked the "Democracy vs Republic" debate...

I'm having a bit of a conversation with my brother-in-law who is irate that
some teacher had students in a Spanish class reciting the Mexican pledge of
allegiance.

His feeling is that the words have meaning and somehow affect the kids. My
stance is that rote memorization and repetition doesn't change anybody.

It seems to me that this sort of fear/objection is loosely based on (and
sometime explicitly cited as fear of) brainwashing. But could there be
more to it than that? If you raise kids reciting their allegiance to the
US does it have any affect other than wasting a minute or two in the
morning?

I say repetition doesn't necessarily lead to belief. What do you guys think? Do commercials change the way people act and think after hearing them so many times? If you repeat a lie enough, does it become true? ("When the legend becomes fact, print the legend.")