Greetings good citizen,
Today we take a journey to find the birthplace of stupid.
In yet another ‘book review’, Alternet has provided a useful starting point for examining the issue of why rationality is so rare when it comes to politics.
While it is plain to see that these ‘wedge issues’ abound, the majority of the ‘body politic’ is fundamentally on the same page.
The Mexican standoffs displayed by conservative politicians are for the benefit of the One Percent and their bought and paid for Corporate owned media.
The vocal minority, otherwise known as ‘the Right wing noise machine’ provides the ‘illusion of popularity’ that the corporate owned media uses to hoodwink their viewers.
I suspect the authors findings point to a far more dire outcome…that the phenomenon known as ‘emotionally hard of hearing/deafness’ is more widespread than currently believed.
With its more chilling implication of ‘incurability’.
How do you ‘manage’ a society where a full fifth of its members are ‘certifiable’?
Short answer…you don’t.
Interesting to arrive full circle at the same problem the founders faced two centuries ago (when the Church kept most of the loons in check.)
How unfortunate is it for us that the founders established our current system BASED ON THE BELIEF that the system (of quasi religious dominance) would remain ‘intact’?
More disturbing is how modern conservatives mistakenly believe the system can be restored by more vigorous support of outmoded beliefs. (Thus their ‘partnership’ with the evangelicals.)
(It don’t have to make sense, all you have to do is ‘BELIEVE’!)
I don’t know about you good citizen but the sooner we start testing for this disturbing genetic defect (and isolating those who test positive) the better off we will all be.
Left unaddressed is how many of our fifth ‘learned’ their behavior from their crazy parents/siblings?
If we don’t test we won’t know.
Worse is the danger of this exercise in wisdom turning into a witch-hunt. The whole process, like government, relies a bit too heavily upon ‘honesty’.
Brings us full circle to the question of if it is even possible to rid ourselves of the psychopaths if we fail to reform money first?
Psychopaths are far more resourceful than we give them credit for…which has the potential to create really big trouble.
And they have zero problems with sacrificing the rest of us just to save their own worthless neck.
While the ‘safe’ thing to do is simply ignore the problem, we have arrived at a point in history that won’t allow us to pretend anymore…
Worse, too many of the unbalanced have seized positions of power capable of destroying civilization.
Which for some of them has always been their ‘goal’. (Remember, these people are not just insane, they are incurably insane and view the rest of us as the ‘enemy’!)
Did I mention that our current method of ‘screening’ for socially sensitive positions is woefully inadequate (if not wholly non-existent in most cases!)
But I belabor the obvious, don’t I good citizen?
Which is why the ONLY way to advance under A Simple Plan is through ‘testing’…which tests BOTH your job knowledge and your ‘psychological fitness’ to hold the job!
Given the ‘complex’ world we inhabit, you have to marvel at why we don’t have such safeguards in place right now?
Thanks for letting me inside your head,
Gegner
Today we take a journey to find the birthplace of stupid.
RH: Your book is based on the idea that most of us don’t understand the true roots of political differences. What are we missing?
Haidt: People often assume that politics is primarily about self-interest. They wonder why someone would vote for a candidate who’s going to raise their taxes or cut their benefits. But politics, especially at the presidential level, is more like religion than a shopping excursion. Despite all the individualism and materialism within our culture, our group affiliations matter deeply to most of us. Politics begins to make more sense when you understand it as a tribal phenomenon.
RH: So, in politics, group membership trumps individual need?
Haidt: Yes. The more we care about our ethnic group, our city, our state, our occupational group, the likelier we are to vote for politicians who we believe will advance those interests, even when they diverge from our individual interests. For example, it’s striking how many liberal parents with children weren’t more opposed to forced school bussing in the 1970s. Politics is largely about moral missions for the nation, and the president is expected to be the high priest of the American civic religion. It can be illuminating to see the left and right in this country as practicing different civic religions, and looking to very different high priests.
In yet another ‘book review’, Alternet has provided a useful starting point for examining the issue of why rationality is so rare when it comes to politics.
While it is plain to see that these ‘wedge issues’ abound, the majority of the ‘body politic’ is fundamentally on the same page.
The Mexican standoffs displayed by conservative politicians are for the benefit of the One Percent and their bought and paid for Corporate owned media.
The vocal minority, otherwise known as ‘the Right wing noise machine’ provides the ‘illusion of popularity’ that the corporate owned media uses to hoodwink their viewers.
I suspect the authors findings point to a far more dire outcome…that the phenomenon known as ‘emotionally hard of hearing/deafness’ is more widespread than currently believed.
With its more chilling implication of ‘incurability’.
How do you ‘manage’ a society where a full fifth of its members are ‘certifiable’?
Short answer…you don’t.
Interesting to arrive full circle at the same problem the founders faced two centuries ago (when the Church kept most of the loons in check.)
How unfortunate is it for us that the founders established our current system BASED ON THE BELIEF that the system (of quasi religious dominance) would remain ‘intact’?
More disturbing is how modern conservatives mistakenly believe the system can be restored by more vigorous support of outmoded beliefs. (Thus their ‘partnership’ with the evangelicals.)
(It don’t have to make sense, all you have to do is ‘BELIEVE’!)
I don’t know about you good citizen but the sooner we start testing for this disturbing genetic defect (and isolating those who test positive) the better off we will all be.
Left unaddressed is how many of our fifth ‘learned’ their behavior from their crazy parents/siblings?
If we don’t test we won’t know.
Worse is the danger of this exercise in wisdom turning into a witch-hunt. The whole process, like government, relies a bit too heavily upon ‘honesty’.
Brings us full circle to the question of if it is even possible to rid ourselves of the psychopaths if we fail to reform money first?
Psychopaths are far more resourceful than we give them credit for…which has the potential to create really big trouble.
And they have zero problems with sacrificing the rest of us just to save their own worthless neck.
While the ‘safe’ thing to do is simply ignore the problem, we have arrived at a point in history that won’t allow us to pretend anymore…
Worse, too many of the unbalanced have seized positions of power capable of destroying civilization.
Which for some of them has always been their ‘goal’. (Remember, these people are not just insane, they are incurably insane and view the rest of us as the ‘enemy’!)
Did I mention that our current method of ‘screening’ for socially sensitive positions is woefully inadequate (if not wholly non-existent in most cases!)
But I belabor the obvious, don’t I good citizen?
Which is why the ONLY way to advance under A Simple Plan is through ‘testing’…which tests BOTH your job knowledge and your ‘psychological fitness’ to hold the job!
Given the ‘complex’ world we inhabit, you have to marvel at why we don’t have such safeguards in place right now?
Thanks for letting me inside your head,
Gegner
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