Controlling Cognitive Dissonance

Living in the Age of Diaprax

By J. Jeff Toler for Shenandoah Christian Alliance  j.toler@sca4christ.org

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. —Proverbs 1:7

“There is a major move to change the way Americans think. Some call it ‘the re-culturing’ of America,” others call it “reinventing government,” and still others refer to it as “being competitive in a global economy.” This scheme that socio-psychologists have designed for American education, business, and politics consists of the three phases: 1) “social-class” consciousness; 2) sustainable “social mobility,” and 3) perpetual “equality of opportunity.” The reason behind the quest of these “socio-psychologists” [sic] is simply the resentment of having anyone in authority tell them what they must do. It is rebellion against authority. It is rebellion against God—Intellectualized.”

“This attitude goes back beyond the garden experience of Adam and Eve and, as you will see, ‘justifies’ itself according to a particular ‘scientific’ way of thinking. This work is about this New Age way of thinking, the dialectic, and its environment of deceit and manipulation, called praxis. This way of thinking is currently being used in education, business, and politics around the world. The answer to the world’s problems, according to those who worship this process, is not found in maturity, but is instead found in adolescence—not found in what ‘is,’ nor found in what “ought to be,” but is instead found in the combination of the two: ‘potential.’” —Dean Gotcher

Written nearly thirty years ago and published it in a potent little pamphlet to accompany Gotcher’s lectures on The Dialectic & Praxis: Diaprax and the End of the Ages. He warned his audiences of what the future would look like, based on what he was already seeing with his own eyes.

Gotcher appears to have created the portmanteau, diapraxis, from “dialectic” and “praxis.” It explains how critical theorists tear down the fundamental, historical, and religious orthodoxies—which compose a culture of personal achievement and personal freedom. Diaprax is the cornerstone of an enslaved society.

Dialectic: Using dialogue as a means to resolve conflicting positions. Synthesizing a thesis with its obverse, or antithesis. [Thesis + Antithesis = Synthesis.]

Praxis: To practice the experience of speculating, conjecturing, theorizing, etc.

Diaprax: The dialectic driving for unity through the “controlled” use of cognitive dissonance, within the environment of social praxis—to praxis the dialectic.

The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception

In the seminal chapter, Dialectic of Enlightenment (1947) Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer are critical of how capitalist societies mass-produce culture to pacify and control populations. Here’s a breakdown of their core argument:

Adorno and Horkheimer argue that the Kulturindustrie or culture industry—a term they coined—transforms culture into a standardized commodity, eroding critical thought and perpetuating capitalist domination. Unlike authentic art, which challenges audiences, mass-produced culture, which includes films, radio, and pop music, enforces conformity, creating passive consumers who uncritically accept societal norms.

What irony. Adorno and Horkheimer and their disciples, through appropriation, would use the very cultural expressions they decried as the vehicles for their propaganda.

This explains why—even now—movies, music, and all forms of entertainment have become not much less entertaining, and decidedly more propagandist.

I have written a lot about the culture. Just what is it?

Culture encompasses the shared beliefs, customs, and traditions that shape behaviors, even the language of a community. It influences how people interact with each other and their surroundings, eventually shaping societal identity.

Passed down through generations, culture manifests in various forms, including, but not limited to:

Material Culture: are the tangible constituents such as clothing, architecture, and technology.

Non-Material Culture: which are the intangible features like language, religion, ethics, and social norms.

Popular Culture: is identified as the trends in entertainment, music, and mass media that shape societal influences.

Subcultures: these are the unique groups within the broader culture, like youth movements or professional communities.

Over time cultures invariably will, as they inevitably have, evolve. In the modern era, they are greatly influenced by factors like globalization, migration, and technological progress. In the age we are living, traditional values are both intrinsically and personally precious. This why others want to take them away, and often as not by force or coercion.

The real problem is this: others don’t always want what you have nearly as much as they don’t want you to have it. Such are the people Gotcher is warning us about.

“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it.” —Matthew 13:45-46 (ESV)

We can find no evidence from Adorno and Horkheimer even suggesting a faith in God. They certainly wanted no part of the Kingdom of Heaven. They clearly had no affection for the family.

Gotcher cites the late James Coleman, who said, “The family must be prepared to deal with [the adolescent’s] early social sophistication. Mass media, and an ever-increasing range of personal experiences, gives an adolescent social sophistication at an early age, making him unfit for the obedient role of the child in the family.”

“Equality of Opportunity,” writes Coleman, “becomes ever greater with the weakening of family power.” This was the plan all along.

Gotcher explains, “If the family could resolve this situation (the artificially produced generation gap), Coleman believed it would get in the way of ‘Equality of Opportunity,’” It’s not for the family to resolve, but for educators to leave the family alone.

In the history of the diaprax, members of the Institute for Social Research from Frankfurt, what we call “The Frankfurt School, including Theodor Adorno, Erik Fromm, Max Horkheimer, along with others in Europe, brought the diaprax to America in the early 1930s. It has now become the “new basic” way of thinking in education, business, and politics—replacing traditional thought and processes. This produced the paradigm shift.

We can also say that this way of thinking shaped our culture into what it seems to have now become: complicated, divisive, and harsh.

Yet, there is more to the irony.

The worship of diversity has only created unchecked pluralism and tribalism. This idea is unsustainable. “Primus inter pares”—first among equals—might work among members of Parliament or some religious institutions, but in a secularized culture it tends to usher in tyranny. Someone will usually rise up to tell the people what to do and how to think.

Or worse, how to worship.

The implications of this, has motivated Christian thinkers and theologians to reflect on the one-world religion described in Revelation 17, and introduced in the Gospel of Matthew:

For false messiahs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. —Matthew 24:24

I am not confident in my prophetic abilities, and so I will not speculate when these days may occur. But it’s hard to ignore how much is happening all around the world in this present day and age. Nations are immersed in the turmoil of forced migration, technological upheaval, and the politicization of our basic beliefs.

Praxis means the practical application of a theory. For the Christian, his response should be the purposeful application of true faith in fighting against the culture the diaprax has created.