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.