Paranoia

“The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed, and hence clamorous to be led to safety, by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.” -H.L. Mencken

7 Responses to “Paranoia”

  1. There are 50 ways to leave your lover and 1001 ways to govern your people. To rule with an iron fist and spreading fears is an evergreen of the mighty.

    It took me years to come to terms with fear, but I am glad I faced fear.

  2. John:

    At the bottom of my emails I have:

    Our calamity is heightened by reflecting that we furnish the means by which we suffer - Thomas Paine

    That short sentence from “Common Sense” written in 1776 is still true today, and will be true for many decades to come.

    The problem is that we do not seem to learn. Either that, or somehow the learned experience doesn’t seem to pass from generation to generation.

    Both you and I have seen it happen time after time. We both wonder why we never learn and keep falling for the same political BS over and over again. The whole theory is if you can scare’em good enough they’ll do almost anything.

  3. Rainer & Darrell,
    The two most effective tools to manipulate the masses are fear and guilt.
    If I can create sufficient fear in you, you will run for help.
    If I can then convince you that it is I that can help you, I can control you.
    This has been the primary power of the shaman, the witch doctor and the priest.

    The second weapon is quilt. If I can shame you because of what you possess, then I can convince you to part with some of your possessions to give to those less fortunate.

    Guilt and fear are closely related. If I can create the feeling of guilt in you for something that you have done, then I can instill in you the fear of retribution for which you must make a sacrifice.

  4. You’ve been tagged! Visit http://www.wholelivingtoday.com/blog/2008/01/31/tagged-7-random-facts-about-me/

  5. Hello John, I agree on your last comment. I’ll be back.

  6. I’ll be back

  7. Definition from the Oxford American Dictionary:
    paranoia |ˌparəˈnoiə|
    noun
    a mental condition characterized by delusions of persecution, unwarranted jealousy, or exaggerated self-importance, typically elaborated into an organized system. It may be an aspect of chronic personality disorder, of drug abuse, or of a serious condition such as schizophrenia in which the person loses touch with reality.
    • suspicion and mistrust of people or their actions without evidence or justification : the global paranoia about hackers and viruses.

    Get this! All the doctors consulted claimed Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961) had become mentally ill. “They’re watching me; they hear every word I say; they make copies of everything I write!” He was given Thorazine. Nothing about the “they’s” changed and because the prescribed drugs dulled his mind, Hemingway could not write, knew he would never again write, knew he would never again bring forth any additional stories to fashion into more award-winning literature. He believed he was up against the wall of permanent writer’s block. Sooo, he took a shotgun and blew his head off.

    Wait, there’s more. After his death it was released through American Freedom’s Act documents that the Federal Bureau of Investigation HAD Hemingway under close surveillance. His paranoia was justified and real, not imagined.

    And sooo, all governments can and do use fear to control you, and by Gawk! to destroy you! Nothing better puts down a pest, who cannot be controlled, than death.
    –30–

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