Long ago when I was just in college, Patty Hearst was kidnapped from her apartment in the East San Francisco Bay area. She was an heir to the Hearst Publishing Empire (William Randolph Hearst) and college age herself. It was a cause celebre because she later showed up with her kidnappers as a perpetrator in a bank robbery. She was eventually captured and convicted of this crime. The sentence was commuted later because it was shown that she had been brainwashed by this violent cult. The Federalist online has an interesting discussion of the case and how brainwashing is considered to work in individuals. The author compared the techniques of achieving this to how the media and culture are brainwashing the public in general in current times. Certainly we are being “nudged” to accept a change in social mores or be shunned by society around us. An interesting article that can be found here.

On a side note and the 6 degrees of separation concept, Patty Hearst’s sister was engaged at the time of the kidnapping to someone I knew well after that time. His name is Francis Morgan and is a Welsh friend of our good friend, Stephen Morgan.

Tags: Current Affairs, Politics