I’m reminded of Slavoj Zizek’s example of “soft” coercion of sophisticated nations vs the “hard” overt coercion of communist states. He compares it to a type of parenting. There’s 2 types of ways parents might get children to visit their grandmother. The hard way is “Go visit your grandmother, it’s your responsibility, or you’ll get smacked.” The soft way is “Go visit your grandmother, she loves you so much. You never know when it’s too late and she misses you all the time. It’s your choice in the end, but a good grandson would visit his loving grandmother in old age.” It goes without saying that the latter has much more lasting power and a deep psychological impact. While the former might incite the outward action of visiting the grandmother, it does not actually attack the psychological state of the grandson (he will do it against his will because he doesn’t want to get punished).
I’m reminded of Slavoj Zizek’s example of “soft” coercion of sophisticated nations vs the “hard” overt coercion of communist states. He compares it to a type of parenting. There’s 2 types of ways parents might get children to visit their grandmother. The hard way is “Go visit your grandmother, it’s your responsibility, or you’ll get smacked.” The soft way is “Go visit your grandmother, she loves you so much. You never know when it’s too late and she misses you all the time. It’s your choice in the end, but a good grandson would visit his loving grandmother in old age.” It goes without saying that the latter has much more lasting power and a deep psychological impact. While the former might incite the outward action of visiting the grandmother, it does not actually attack the psychological state of the grandson (he will do it against his will because he doesn’t want to get punished).