3. The Method of Unperceived Ideological Transshipment: Its Three Intensities and Phases

The method of unperceived ideological transshipment has three possible degrees of intensity and three phases. The intensity of its effects can be just as varied.

The first phase of this method is completely preparatory. It consists in using the fear‑sympathy syndrome to prepare the sectors of opinion likely to be alarmed and react at the advance of communism, to take an attitude of inertia and even resignation. We dealt with this phase in the last chapter (item 9). Unperceived ideological transshipment reaches its lowest intensity in this phase.

This intensity increases in the next phase. Without perceiving it, the patient of the transshipment process, whether an individual, a group, or a large sector of opinion, changes from an attitude of resignation to a somewhat favorable attitude of expectancy. The fruit of the process is no longer preparatory and negative; it now has something positive.

Finally, when it succeeds in transforming the sympathizer into a dedicated follower, the transshipment process reaches its full intensity and produces its characteristic result.