George Walford: The Technique of Suppression

Suppression of traits or features considered undesirable is preceded by the isolation, of those exhibiting the tendency in question, from the general body of the people; they are identified as criminals, or kulaks, or mad, or female, or unemployed, or disadvantaged, or black, or immigrant, or young, or old, or disabled or addicted to something; to drugs, or terrorism or agitation. They are cut out from the herd, and once this has been done they can be dealt with without causing the body of “normal” people either to object to the harshness of the treatment or, if it be beneficent, demanding similar favours for themselves.

The use of this method is not optional; before a tendency can be attacked with any hope of success it has to be identified with a limited group. By the same token, it is not practical to suppress traits with which the general body of the people identifies itself.

from Ideological Commentary 25, January 1987.