Social control

Social control is the process by which individuals are led to develop thought and behavior patterns acceptable to the ruling institutions of a society.

Signs warning of prohibited activities; an example of a social control

Quotes

• It was not necessary to know much. So long as they continued to work and breed...They were born, they grew up in the gutters, they went to work... a brief blossoming-period of beauty and sexual desire, they married... the care of home and children, petty quarrels with neighbours, films, football, beer, and... gambling, filled up the horizon of their minds. To keep them in control was not difficult.
  • George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949)

• It appeared that there had even been demonstrations to thank Big Brother for raising the chocolate ration to twenty grammes a week. And only yesterday, he reflected, it had been announced that the ration was to be REDUCED to twenty grammes a week. Was it possible that they could swallow that, after only twenty-four hours? Yes, they swallowed it. Parsons swallowed it easily, with the stupidity of an animal. The eyeless creature at the other table swallowed it fanatically, passionately...
  • George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949)

• A few agents of the Thought Police moved always among them, spreading false rumours and marking down and eliminating the few individuals who were judged capable of becoming dangerous... It was not desirable that the proles should have strong political feelings. All that was required of them was a primitive patriotism... Even when they became discontented, as they sometimes did, their discontent led nowhere, because being without general ideas, they could only focus it on petty specific grievances. The larger evils invariably escaped their notice... The great majority of proles did not even have telescreens in their homes. Even the civil police interfered with them very little. There was a vast amount of criminality in London, a whole world-within-a-world of thieves, bandits, prostitutes, drug-peddlers, and racketeers of every description; but since it all happened among the proles themselves, it was of no importance.
  • George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949)

• Social power [is the] potential influence, the ability of a person or group to induce or prevent change in another. Social control [is] the process by which members of a social entity are influenced to adhere to values and principles of proper behavior deemed appropriate for that social entity.
  • Bertram H. Raven (1999). "Kurt Lewin address: Influence, Power, Religion, and the Mechanisms of Social Control." Journal of Social Issues. 55(1):161-186. p. 161

See also

• Control
• Mind control
• Social change
• Social choice theory
• Social power