The mob mind is characterized by ten things:
1. Inability to ask and answer any but the simplest of questions – “for” or “against” – about anything.
Inability to accept answers such as “maybe,” “this, as well as that,” “true and also true,”
“we don’t know,” “who knows” and “so-so.”
2. Inability to read or cite people with whom they fundamentally disagree. Inability to learn from their enemies.
3. Inability to understand that one can believe a religion without condemning every other religion. One can accept one own’s faith and yet be honest and see how one’s faith is seen by others.
4. Inability to understand that in a time when the vast media conglomerates behind the establishment and alternative press are spewing one-sided declarations, exposure of the opposite side of the argument is a necessity and a virtue.
5. Inability to see through labels, such as “Hindutva,” “Islamophobic,” “Zionazis,” etc. even when the labels conform to their own perceptions.
6 Inability to respect process more than results; adherence to truth rather than achievement of political goals.
7. Inability to grow or change an opinion when confronted by new facts.
8. Inability to understand differing contexts or historical situations.
9. Inability to understand different levels of power and address them accordingly.
10. Inability to rise above their own personal preferences and beliefs and give due measure to others.
I will combine comments for this and the previous post
(Barnhardt) so to be quick.
The ten failings are a valuable concise list of the shortcomings of most humans. Probably because most humans are socialized into the need to associate and relate to a group. I just recently had a conversation with a colleague in regard to “the LBGTQI” (elmop?) “community”. I asked why was there such a “community”? Were not my gay and lesbian friends and associates part of the community in which I reside? Do we not have common concerns like the fact that the roads here in NYC are thrid world quality at best?
The problem is the obsession with the group. With acceptance. It is a tribal mentality that is ATMO detrimental to the human mind. It is THE vehicle through which ALL atrocities are conducted save for the extremely RARE Mansonesque type thing.
So with the Barhardt piece Wilders and Hausman are referenced. My base knowledge of these two tell me that my idea above holds true.
BUT. WAIT.
Are we not supposed to try to understand from where THESE guys are coming in their beliefs and ideas? Or did I miss something? Am I not supposed to try to understand those with whom I disagree, try to see their point of view, and take account THEIR historical reference? Just sayin’. Wilders is a clown ATMO but perhaps the assassination of the film maker in the streets of The Netherlands at the hands of a religious fanatic who was “offended” might have something to do with it?
Here’s the thing and I’ve made this point before. Neither side of the coin is operating with a full deck. I can see the logic of Bibi Netanyahoo (too rich that YAHOO is in his name!) and in the same sentnec see the logic or motivation of The current Ayatollah’s position on Israel. Makes perfect sense for me when both fools are blinded by their tribal pile of proverbial horse shit which gives them some sort of righteousness that they can internally rationalize behavior that is nothing more than evil.
Hi Keith,
I kind of agree with what you are saying except for the horse **** part.
I think religious texts are filled with valuable truth…
When do universalist faiths emerge from tribal gods and is it possible for tribal gods to be universal faiths? Interesting question.
Islam, however, is under sustained attack already, from every quarter (right-wing Christian, conservative traditionalist, liberal secularist, left Marxist, left Christian, hedonists, pornographers, the military, the NSA, the Israeli lobby, Hindutvadis, their own rebels and schismatics and paid insurgents)….millions of Muslim innocents have been killed; their culture is denounced and derided everywhere; their scriptures denounced as heretical and Satanic, even though the Koran is far more respectful to Jesus and Christianity than, say, the Talmud.
Let others do critiques of Islam. My conscience doesn’t permit me to. They are neither my people nor my faith, but I don’t raise my hand against people who have not hurt me.
The Rothschild one-worlders or the neocons?
Another issue. They have hurt me. They steal my savings. They subvert my culture. They attack and undermine my religion. They make it impossible for me to understand it….they poison all of my understanding with their subtle lies.
I will expose every shape they shift into, whether it’s a ultra=Catholic shape (Barnhardt) or a Mormon (Beck) or a liberal (Greenwald) or intelligence (Snowden, Assange)….
That’s all I do here. Analyze the shape-shifters and the cons they run.
The Christian musings are to let you know where I’m coming from, because that’s only fair and because I realize I am an odd-ball in many ways.
I don’t like received wisdom, false history, propaganda, and manipulation. I love “sky-gods” and their son because they have demonstrated their power to me when mere positive thinking, meditation, deep breathing, and even hermetical lore, proved weak. I might not understand what fuel is made of or how it works. But if I pour it into my engine and my car runs, I would be a fool to stop using it until I figure out every last bit of the chemistry…or got into fights with other people’s chemistry equations.
The house is burning. Do you start reading textbooks about fire or do you put out the flames with water and hand the water to anyone else whose house is on fire?