The Third Wave — a recipe for a successful organization

This is an extract from my book Technomage.

The Third Wave is the name of an essay written by a high school history teacher named Ron Jones in 1972CE. It documented an experiment he conducted into the mindset of Nazi Germany in particular, and Collectivist Authoritarianism in general using his 10th grade students as a model for indoctrination. The question in his history class that sparked the experiment concerned the reasons why ordinary people go along with such regimes, even to the point where the majority fully endorse them. It was carried out at Cubberley High school in Palo Alto, California in April 1967CE.

Strength through Discipline

He began by giving a lecture on the power of discipline, and how nothing worthwhile could be achieved without it, whether in sport, academe or life in general. As an example he had the students walk around the classroom with instructions that when he blew a whistle they would all take their seats, which he timed. He then had them repeat the exercise in complete silence, whereupon they completed the task far more rapidly. The next step was to explain the correct posture for learning and sitting at their desks, with back straight and feet flat on the floor, again in silence. This was again expanded to a formal method the students were to use to answer questions in class. They were required to stand at attention beside their desk and begin their reply with the words: “Mr Jones”. The answer itself had to be three words or less. These exercises were repeated for the whole lesson.

Strength through Community

On the second day of the experiment Jones named the new “community” the Third Wave, supposedly from surfer mythology that the third wave is the most powerful one. He also instituted a salute, modeled on the Nazi one, and ordered the students to salute each other even outside of the class — which they did. He explained that community is that bond between individuals who work and struggle together. It is the feeling that you are a part of something beyond yourself, a movement, a team, a race, a nation, a cause… The class had to recite in unison the two slogans: — “Strength through discipline, strength through community.” The way he had them do it was interesting. He started with two students reciting it, then added two more, and two more until the whole class was involved.

Strength through Action

The third day saw the introduction of membership cards, with three of them marked with red crosses whose recipients were told to report other class members failing to comply with class rules. It was explained that strength and discipline were meaningless without action. To quote from the essay:

“I discussed the beauty of taking full responsibility for ones action. Of believing so thoroughly in yourself and your community or family that you will do anything to preserve, protect and extend that being. I stressed how hard work and allegiance to each other would allow accelerated learning and accomplishment. I reminded students of what it felt like being in classes where competition caused pain and degradation. Situations in which students were pitted against each other in everything from gym to reading. The feeling of never acting, never being a part of something, never supporting each other.”

To allow the students to experience this he gave each student an assignment:

“It’s your task to design a Third Wave Banner. You are responsible for stopping any student that is not a Third Wave member from entering this room. I want you to remember and be able to recite by tomorrow the name and address of every Third Wave Member. You are assigned the problem of training and convincing at least twenty children in the adjacent elementary school that our sitting posture is necessary for better learning. It’s your job to read this pamphlet and report its entire content to the class before the period ends. I want each of you to give me the name and address of one reliable friend that you think might want to join the Third Wave.”…

To conclude the session on direct action, he instructed students in the procedure for initiating new members. The prospective member had to be recommended by an existing member and issued a card by Jones. Upon receiving this card the new member had to demonstrate knowledge of the rules and pledge obedience to them. This unleashed a tsunami of action!
As an interesting aside, Jones reports that one of the boys in the class named Robert, who was the perennial outsider, finally found a place and people he was comfortable with. To express his gratitude he offered to become Jones’ personal bodyguard.

Strength through Pride

By the fourth day the Third Wave movement had exploded in membership, with over 200 students enrolled and many even cutting their normal classes to attend. Jones’ class that day had expanded to 80 students. There had also been several incidents of followers clashing with others and an irate father of one of the students, a traumatized WW2 veteran, confronting Jones upon recognizing the Nazi experiment being undertaken. Questions were also being asked by school administration. The final lesson was “Strength through Pride” where he explained…

“Pride is more than banners or salutes. Pride Is something no one can take from you. Pride is knowing you are the best… It can’t be destroyed …”

At the same time, realizing he had painted himself into a corner, he devised a way to extricate himself and end the experiment. He explained that Third Wave was a nationwide program to find students willing to fight for political change in the USA, and that tomorrow there would be a nationwide address by the leader, and all members were required to attend the rally where they could watch him on TV.

Strength through Understanding

To cut the story short, at the rally Jones unveiled a movie of Hitler at the Nuremberg NSDAP rally of 1934CE, and informed his audience that they were no better or worse than Nazis. Needless to say, it did not go down well, especially with Robert who was devastated.

When the experiment had gained a certain amount of publicity Ron Jones was called by the (later notorious) cult leader Jim Jones (no relation) of the People’s Temple to ask him the secrets of mass mind control! For those who do not know, Jim Jones later persuaded or coerced some 900 of his followers into committing suicide in Guyana. Ron did not cooperate.

Anyway, that was the “official” story, although in recent years some doubts have arisen as to whether that was the whole truth. For example, it has been pointed out that the students had considerable motivation to play along with the scenario since not only would it ensure good grades, but those good grades themselves would ease entry into college and deferment of the military draft. In other words, failure to comply might have meant a formal invitation to participate in the Vietnam War. However, this does not necessarily detract from the experiment, since in a totalitarian regime there are certainly comparable incentives to participate enthusiastically. Another claim that has come to light is that not all the students cooperated and that there was a “resistance movement” that attempted to sabotage the indoctrination.

So, what lessons can we learn from this experiment? By this I do not mean “How do we set up our own Nazi State?”, but the more general and benign lessons of how to run a successful organization. Particularly top down guided meritocracies — at least, that is the ideal. The key elements one can deduce from the above are as follows:

• Elitism
  The members must feel that they are special, and superior to “outsiders”
• Discipline
  There must be a (self) disciplined participation to both maximize efficiency and create the feeling that the “elite” tag is deserved.
• Repeated Drills
  Or in our context ceremonies, social events, repetitive rote learning. The more time and energy someone invests in something, the more valuable it becomes to them and the less likely they are to drop it.
• Body Language
  Something often overlooked in modern public schooling is the importance of body language — how to stand, sit, walk, speak, make eye contact and so forth in order to convey an air of authority, power and command. Notably, this is not overlooked by the military.
• Participation
  All members of the group must be encouraged to participate — they must all have a job or function of some kind. This leads to communal commitment.
• Community
  It must be emphasized that they are members of a community that will leave nobody behind. One for all, all for one, to quote from the Three Musketeers. Mutual aid.
• Clear Goals
  Backed by short sound-bites, slogans or mantras. Why we are here, what we are doing, what we want to achieve.
• Insignia
  Membership cards, badges, flags, “secret” methods of identification ranging from jewelery to distinctive body language, salutes, handshakes etc.
• Recruitment
  If you want your organization to expand, make recruitment a member’s priority.

There is one more element that is crucial and goes beyond the above experiment. Simply stated it is nothing for nothing, that is, nothing is given away freely. The members have to either earn the desired item, whether it be membership, knowledge or some other commodity, or buy it. In addition, it should not be cheap. It may seem obvious once stated but people value expensive things more than they value something cheap or free irrespective if its intrinsic value. I have personally seen this in the martial arts world where teachers who charge high prices tend to get more students than those who teach for free, even if the quality of the high priced tuition is less than that being freely given. There is an extremely common mindset that says: “If it is expensive it must be good”. This is especially true if the prospective customer or student knows nothing of what they are buying. It has even been found in the medical context that high priced placebos work better than cheaper ones! This is besides people being attracted to an expensive membership of an organization or hobby as a status symbol. If horses were cheap and donkeys cost a million dollars apiece, the rich would be members of the donkey club!