remote from the practical choice of behaviour. The problem is how a person is to act so as to live and even thrive in the world as it is, and adapt to the world as it will be?
In order to live, to come to terms with the present, it is no longer enough (if it ever was) for man simply to know, to be conscious. After all animals know and are conscious to a limited extent. Nor is it enough any longer for man to know that he knows, to be able to reflect, to have a certain self-consciousness or awareness; though it is fair to say that many people found that this was enough to enable them to lead decent lives until recently. But due to the greatly increased speed of modern life, due to the great improvements in communications, due to increased leisure and decreased privacy, and the greater awareness which is the result, it is now necessary for everyone to start doing what some people have always done; namely, to manipulate consciousness. Indeed this is one result of the construction of any valid theory of consciousness; the moment after someone produces a theory, someone else is going to use it. In a sense all education seeks to mould consciousness. It aims to draw out the character so that it reaches maturity, but it seeks also to mould the outlook to facilitate life in society. One has to learn to think of others; it is no good reaching a maturity which is unable to do so. In the Army too, parade ground drill had one purpose only, I believe, to give the soldier that instinctive obedience to orders, which would enable him to remain steady under fire, and without which he would be lost in battle. Similar examples from other walks of life come to mind. All this is good.
In contrast, manipulating consciousness means to most of us, a person…