Potentialities in the Control of Behaviour 
In all human relations accountability is a necessity. Empiri- 
cally I cannot see how a society emancipated from magic, 
superstition and animism can function unless individuals believe 
that they are free and responsible for their actions, and unless 
society can hold them responsible. Certainly our deepest con- 
victions tell us we are free to make choices. I believe that this 
intuitive conviction has been important to our survival by 
natural selection. The brain is an organ of adaptation, adjust- 
ing behaviour by way of feedback of information from the 
environment, including information resulting from the orga- 
nism’s actions upon the environment. Freedom to choose 
alternative courses of action appears as a conscious concomitant 
of adaptation of the individual to his environment. Experiences 
of what we consider to be our own freedom imply the freedom 
of others. It thus may follow that the belief in one’s freedom to 
choose alternative courses of conduct may be intrinsic to the 
cybernetic nature of brain function. 
CONTROL OF BEHAVIOUR 
The idea of the control of one person by another usually 
elicits strong adverse reactions in people. We treasure our 
convictions of freedom, and know either at first hand or vicari- 
ously the misery produced by coercion and tyranny. But we 
often fail to recognize that we are continually controlled in a 
variety of ways. Sanctions are derived from parents and other 
representatives of society, by laws and customs, and by the 
impact of irrational persuasion through myths and symbols that 
appeal to our subconscious drives, and may have little to do 
with the reason and logic we believe we use in making choices. 
A huckster or political propagandist may make us wish to have 
things we would be better off without. We are none the less 
controlled because we wish to do the things we do. 
The great problem of control of behaviour resides in the 
question of who controls whom and for what purposes. It is 
clear that control by a Hitler or a Stalin is bad; but control is 
real and pervasive. How can it be used to advance human 
welfare ? 
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