Skinner’s behaviorism was seen as equally compatible with libertarian and fascist politics

Evidence

The ensuing storm of controversy made Beyond Freedom & Dignity an international best seller. “Skinner’s science of human behavior, being quite vacuous, is as congenial to the libertarian as to the fascist,” wrote Noam Chomsky in a widely read review of the book. “It would be not absurd but grotesque to argue that since circumstances can be arranged under which behavior is quite predictable—as in a prison, for example, or… concentration camp.… therefore there need be no concern for the freedom and dignity of ‘autonomous man.’” (In the mid-1970s graduate department at Harvard where I studied and Skinner professed, many students referred to the book as Toward Slavery and Humiliation.) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1013

Categorization

• SHARE: The detail that Zuboff’s own classmates at Harvard called Skinner’s book ‘Toward Slavery and Humiliation’ is a delicious specific worth sending to anyone interested in Skinner or surveillance studies.
• SEED: The claim that behaviorism is ‘as congenial to the libertarian as to the fascist’ is a provocative essay angle: behavioral modification transcends political spectrum because it is indifferent to autonomy itself.
• XREF: connects to: Identical political beliefs can serve different psychological functions; B.F. Skinner extrapolated laboratory animal behavior into grand theories of social organization — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1147; Opposed imperialist temperaments produced identical toxic political effects — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 546

Broader Connections

• Identical political beliefs can serve different psychological functions #exemplifies (0.95)
• B.F. Skinner extrapolated laboratory animal behavior into grand theories of social organization #expands (0.85) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1147
• Opposed imperialist temperaments produced identical toxic political effects #exemplifies (0.80) — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 546