Phil Zimbardo’s book, The Lucifer Effect, Understanding How Good People Turn Evil, is fascinating regarding individuals. I may even have to modify my feelings about the existence of evil (I basically reject evil as a concept.)
The book got me thinking about what is going on right now in the United States with conservative talk show hosts and their guests finding nothing but fault with anyone who doesn’t agree with them. Actually it goes farther than that. If they listened to what liberals, those horrible Democrats, were saying or read what was being proposed; they would actually agree on some things but they reject totally anything that comes from the mouths or pens of those on the other side of the aisle.
Fomenting hatred can’t be a good thing. One wonders if a whole nation could be victimized by the Lucifer Effect or at least enough people to damage if not destroy democracy. Consider the disruptive tactic now being employed at town meetings across the country where democratic senators and congressmen and citizens who came to listen and to be heard are being shouted down. This tactic is praised by Fox News yahoos as free speech. Wait a minute good buddy. What about the free speech of the rest of the people in the room?
If you don’t think there may be a serious problem here, consider that 58% of republicans question the president’s birth certificate. There can be no conclusion other than 58% of republicans have shut down a thinking section of their brain.
PS I’m not a liberal but liberals don’t scare me. People who have stopped thinking do.
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I am neither liberal nor conservative, however this nation was set up by the founders as a Republic and not a democracy. They also did NOT found this country on any religion. To me politics and the divisions it causes is just as tragic as the results of fanatical religions. It is always “we are right and you are wrong” from both sides. A two party system is doomed to fail especially when the candidates have been chosen far in advance by the ones who truly run this nation and most of the world.
This whole sad story is as old as history and goes back to the ancient mystery schools and bloodlines that still exist today. We have been brainwashed to fight one another in both religion and politics. We are kept busy with issues created to keep us separate while the powers that be continue to slowly take more and more from us. If the majority ever realizes who the true enemies are we might stand a chance in turning this world around but we must begin at home. The good guy bad guy, good god bad god syndrome is a tactic that works and we still fall for it. Keep the masses divided and they will find some man to follow like the sheep we have been turned into.
Without opposing ‘gods’ and political agendas there would be no need for war. War makes fortunes for the rich who never have to go to battle. The common man has been programmed to be patriotic and shamed if he opposes killing. I highly suggest reading Major General Smedley Butler’s book War is a Racket. It can be found online and it is short and to the point from a man who knows what war is all about. When you convince people it is appropriate to kill in the name of god and country, you can convince them of anything.
I believe an individual and nation has a right to defend their property and life but I object to entering into other countries on false pretense of bringing freedom and democracy where we have no business being in the first place.
The OT is used by every warmonger that comes along to justify slaughter and the fools who have been indoctrinated into following certain religions and political agendas think they are doing gods will. History surely backs this up and you would think more poeple would be wiser by now.
Religions and politics go hand in hand. One could not exist without the other. They are both traps and neither side has the best interest of the people in mind. We became lazy and allowed the government and the clergy to think for us and decide what is best. Look at the world. Look at this sad nation and see if those two entities have been beneficial. Both are completely and repulsively corrupt yet millions still put their trust in one if not both organizations. We have allowed ourselves to become cowering feeble little herds that can’t function without a leader in every aspect of our lives. We are now seeing the results of years of complicity. Few use their gift of reason and even fewer are brave enough to stand and speak out about the powers that are destroying the very world we all live in. This is a sad time and if people don’t wake up we will be getting what we have been asking for. It won’t be pretty.
Posted 09 Sep 2009 at 3:13 pm ¶Here’s the book: War is A Racket
Posted 09 Sep 2009 at 3:29 pm ¶The Lucifer Effect is on scribd.com and also on google video.
Just think how people are turned into monsters by religion and also by political beliefs. They each can take a normal group of folks and in short order create a dangerous mob. Reading the OT shows the unbelievable cruelty mankind did thinking they were obeying god.
Yahweh was Baal and even admits it in Hosea 2:16..And it shall be at that day, saith the LORD, that thou shalt call me Ishi; and shalt call me no more Baal.
Just as jesus played both devil and god in the NT, yahweh played both god and baal in the OT.
I think Thomas Paine said it best “serving a mean god makes a mean man”.
Posted 09 Sep 2009 at 3:53 pm ¶BTW, even though I am not of any political leaning, I also have a problem with Obama and his refusal to produce a legal certified BC, and what is most troubling is the fact that congress has not demanded it. I have a feeling when people discover who and what that man is they will be so far down the proverbial garden path they will never get back. This is a serious issue and he is NOT the savior people think he is.
Obama knows what an issue this has become so what is the problem that he refuses to ease the minds of the people? If one has nothing to hide, what is being hidden? This would be very simple to put at rest for once and for all.
There are two sides to every story and the truth usually is somewhere in the middle.
Posted 09 Sep 2009 at 4:14 pm ¶(Consider the disruptive tactic now being employed at town meetings across the country where democratic senators and congressmen and citizens who came to listen and to be heard are being shouted down. This tactic is praised by Fox News yahoos as free speech. Wait a minute good buddy. What about the free speech of the rest of the people in the room?)
I can’t believe what I am reading! It was a Democrat supporter of Obamas’ health plan that savagely bit off the finger of a Repulican at a town hall in Thousand Oaks!!! Talk about out of control! Why is that not discussed? If that had been a Republican it would be all over the place showing what heathens they are.
Anyone who could do such a dispicable thing needs to be locked away for the safety of society.
From what I have learned, it is the Democrats that put these people in place to start disruption and the Republicans are falling into the trap. Don’t be deceived.
Posted 09 Sep 2009 at 6:42 pm ¶Dear justme,
Posted 09 Sep 2009 at 10:36 pm ¶Your first two posts show that you have a functioning mind; that you can think. They are good thoughts. Your last two posts prove my point that many people shut down their minds when they come across something they don’t want to believe. This usually happens with fundamentalist democrats or republicans or with fundamentalists in any religion.
You say you are neither conservative nor liberal but let me guess: you have never voted for a Democrat. The President has shown a valid birth certificate. Do you really think someone can run for President of the US without proving citizenship just as anyone has to do when getting a drivers license or passport. Do you think Hilary Clinton or John McCain would have passed up an issue like this? Do you think…ah, well. Go to http://www.factcheck.org/tag/birth-certificate/ As they say there you will never get it, not even birth announcements in two newspapers in Hawaii will convince you because your mind has been short circuited by your political belief.
As for the finger incident, it certainly was stupid and I’ll agree with your characterization that it was savage. It was reported by the Associated Press, covered in papers across the country and even reported on MSNBC, the most liberal of the liberal media. I didn’t see their coverage so I don’t know how they reported it. I doubt they thought it was funny.
You’ve got a good mind. Don’t let it get trapped in a fundamentalist point of view.
Oh, so my mind is functioning as long as I fit in to a certain mold? How about your statement that everyone’s opinion is as valid as yours?
You have judged me to be a Republican and a fundamentalist, I am neither. I have never once voted anything but Independent and never will. I detested Bush and his entire lying cabinet and I feel the same about Obama and his bin of loonies.
As for his so-called birth certificate, again they are all cut from the same rotten cloth and they are all puppets playing their parts. No one will challenge another on the same team.
For years no one would believe Roosevelt knew in advance about the attacks planned against Pearl Harbor but thanks to the Freedom of Information Act we can know the truth, as disgusting as it is. 9/11 was another Pearl Harbor and hopefully it won’t take 50 or 60 years before all the facts are known.
If you truly believe you count or your vote counts, you are sadly fooled my friend. The people have been given so many issues to divide them and in the end conquer them.
There is a conspiracy against mankind and many have attempted to warn us. Eisenhower spoke of the military industrial complex becoming all powerful and it is here today.
Kennedy did the same and that got him killed.
J. Edgar Hoover made the following quote and he was in a position to know everything that was going on.
“The individual is handicapped by coming face-to-face with a conspiracy so monstrous he cannot believe it exists”.
We keep busy with petty political garbage that means nothing compared to an out of control conspiring greedy government. The Germans would have never believed their government could or would turn on them but it happened almost overnight. The people in this nation are so arrogant and brainwashed it is frightening. I guess they figure if we ignore the bad things they will go away. They won’t.
There is no place for discussion here and dialogue is impossible if we must all be clones of one another. I am not part of any herd and I advise you to not become trapped in one.
There is no need to reply as I won’t bother to post again, but you need to stop allowing comments if you only insult all who do not buy your views 100%. There is no one on this earth that knows it all and has all the correct answers. We may never find truth as long as this type of censorship continues. Degrading and talking down to those who have a different opinion is one of the oldest tactics in the world. Religious have used it for thousands of years.
Posted 10 Sep 2009 at 12:47 am ¶I’m sorry you felt insulted and talked down to. I don’t believe I did. I guessed you never voted for a Democrat and you confirmed same. I accept your views and opinions, all of them, as being validly yours. I have not removed anything you posted.
Posted 17 Sep 2009 at 1:24 pm ¶Post a Comment
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