Salting the Fields of Imagination

According to legend, when the Romans defeated Carthage in the Punic Wars, they salted their fields, which I think is a poetic way of saying they utterly erased the city from existence. (To me, it's pretty unlikely that the Romans literally salted the fields.)

If you wanted to salt the fields of imagination, it would be a much easier, more straightforward task: Give the curious some inane puzzles to solve, for example turn the geometry of the Earth into an issue of debate, rather than one of measurement. Create complex and convoluted ideologies, whether it's a door stop tome on Communism, or Anarchism, or some other "ism", the effect will be the same. Or, the all time success: create a religion with complicated rituals, multiple prayer sessions per day, or severe food, clothing or sexual restrictions.

The acolyte will carefully study seeking an escape from their mental straight jacket and fail to understand that their very act of struggle cinches the straps ever tighter. They'll never use their mind for their own purposes. They'll expire deep in the labyrinth engaged in futile, fruitless tasks.