Promoting racial and gender equality were not popular opinions.
"... What we got to say
Power to the people no delay
Make everybody see
In order to fight the powers that be
Fight the Power ..." -- Public Enemy
- It was a mob mentality in Nazi Germany
- McCarthyism and blacklisting in Hollywood were mob mentality
- The bloodlust after 9/11 and during the Iraq war is a mob mentality
- Criticizing those against the war is mob mentality
- The media was cowed into perpetuating the lies of the administration by a mob mentality
"The public, with its mob yearning to be instructed, edified and pulled by the nose, demands certainties; it must be told definitely and a bit raucously that this is true and that is false. But there are no certainties." -- H. L. Mencken
- Conventional wisdom would have you believe that Iraq was linked to 9/11
- Conventional wisdom would have you believe there were WMD's in Iraq
- Conventional wisdom would have you believe only a godly man can be a moral one
Don't trust conventional wisdom. Don't trust conformity.
"... Come on!
Yes I know my enemies
They are the teachers who taught me to fight me
Compromise, conformity, assimilation, submission
Ignorance, hypocrisy, brutality, the elite
All of which are American dreams ..." -- Rage Against the Machine
- If someone tells you the Rapture is coming ... be afraid
- If someone tells you that dissent is not patriotic ... be afraid
- If someone tells you that you need to give up some of your freedom to get security ... be afraid
- If someone tells you that killing in the name of God is OK ... be afraid
- If someone tells you that the press shouldn't be free ... be afraid
- If someone cannot give an opinion that wasn't given them by the church or talk radio ... be afraid
- If someone believes everything their leaders tell them ... be afraid
- If someone believes that you can do whatever you want to our environment and it won't matter ... be afraid
- If someone believes that the free market is the cure-all for all ills ... be afraid
- If someone believes that Ronald Reagan was the greatest president ... be afraid
- If someone believes that our country is safer now than before Sept. 11 ... be afraid
- If someone tells you that it's OK for us to torture but not our enemies ... be afraid. "He that would make his own liberty secure, must guard even his enemy from opposition; for if he violates this duty he establishes a precedent that will reach himself." -- Thomas Paine
- If someone tells you that you can't help the poor and needy and criticize their oppressors at the same time ... be afraid
If someone tells you what you can think ...........
"Liberty is the possibility of doubting, of making a mistake,... of searching and experimenting,... of saying No to any authority - literary, artistic, philosophical, religious, social, and even political." -- Ignazio Silone, The God That Failed
13 comments:
Wow, i actually agree with some of what you said. I of course have to point out some disagreements as well as the agreements.
"Conventional wisdom would have you believe there were WMD's in Iraq" Actually, CW would now have you recognize that in spite of the initial beliefs that there were WMD's (as recognized by the Clinton administration as well as the Bush) they did not exist (or were removed) at the time that the war began.
"Conventional wisdom would have you believe only a godly man can be a moral one" Actually, every man is moral. Morals are not something that you have or don't. It is what those morals are that define you. So actually, i agree with your initial statement but see it as flawed.
"If someone tells you that you need to give up some of your freedom to get security ... be afraid" Unfortuantely, oftentimes security comes at the cost of freedom. The problem is that our society places too much emphasis on security and not enough on freedom. It is comfort at the cost of privacy, and too often Americans care more about comfort.
"If someone tells you that the press shouldn't be free ... be afraid" I would add to that; If someone tells you that the/any press is unbiased and has the best in mind of the people... be afraid
"If someone cannot give an opinion that wasn't given them by the church or talk radio ... be afraid" I would add, or the news media, or the entertainment industry, or the far right, or the far left, etc, etc, etc.
"If someone believes that you can do whatever you want to our environment and it won't matter ... be afraid" Amen to that!
I would also add; If someone tells you that science/scientists have all the answers (or even the correct ones)... be afraid.
If someone tells you that an education will guarantee success... be afraid.
If someone tells you that something that has been considered by many cultures for millenia to be wrong but that our culture in it's "progress" and "civility" tries to make acceptable... be afraid.
If someone tells you that research and especially statistics show something to be true... be afraid.
If someone tells you not to trust something because it is conservative... be afraid.
If someone tells you not to trust something because it is accepted by Christians / people of a religious background... be afraid.
I suppose i could go on, and on, and on.
JC, one of your more well-thought-out posts. Your technical definition of moral is correct. Perhaps, I should have said, "... can be a man of good morals".
I would definitely agree that our opinions shouldn't be obtained from the media or entertainment industry either.
Concerning education, I agree. Many people confuse knowledge with wisdom.
I would like for you to elaborate on the statement, "If someone tells you that something that has been considered by many cultures for millenia to be wrong but that our culture in it's "progress" and "civility" tries to make acceptable... be afraid." I have an inkling on what you are trying to say here, but I will give you the chance before I make a judgment. Cultures have in the past considered woman's rights, homosexuality, science, etc. as wrong. Just because that is the case doesn't mean it is right. Do you long for the days of slavery or public executions just because "many cultures for millenia" considered them appropriate?
Technically speaking mob mentality is different than groupthink, which is different than obedience - which is what some of your examples are. I do agree with most of it.
Mob mentality is a diffusion of personal responsibility for one's actions. Groupthink is the fear of being non-conformist. (like in the experiments where a subject was put in a conference room with several people in on the experiment. Everyone was asked which line was longer, A or B. B was obviously longer, but the confederates said A, so the subject says A also)... Chew on that.
Social organization is a very powerful thing.
laura, you are briliant as usual.
dbacdad- this was such an excellent post and the commentary so excellent, for once... I have nothing to add!
Laura,
Thanks for the info. Your background is certainly better in that regard than mine. I've never even heard of groupthink.
In answer to dbackdad's question, just like all of these other comments, it is dependent on what is being done or talked about at the time. Some of your examples are correct in that they were accepted by previous cultures but aren't necessarily good / correct / right. The problem in my origional statement is that there is nothing new under the sun. What our culture accepts even in it's "progress" and "civility" is not new to this culture. Thus my statement is both correct and incorrect.
Using your examples, homosexuality has been considered "acceptable" by previous cultures including the Greek, late Roman, and others.
In reference to Woman's Rights there have been matriarcial societies in whom the power resided in the women.
Science has been accepted by most societies in one form or another.
Thus the problem with the statement is not what i'm referring to, it is the flaw in that there is nothing new.
dback: eh, it's all the same basic concept. Individuality goes down the tubes when combined with the social structure...
JC: True, we often think of ourselves as temporally fixed (this is the way things have always been). We do have to take into account context, but sometimes broader patterns can be obscured when you don't 'zoom out' and generalize. It's a delicate balance...
I'd agree that's certainly part of our society's (the world ... not us specifically) problem. We don't realize that most of the problems that come up have happened before. We certainly don't learn from our mistakes. What is that they say? Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.
The environment, for example, certainly has cases in the past where a culture fucked up their ecosystem and perished because of it (Easter Island). It's just that now we're doing it on a global scale.
I would have more respect for Kayne West if I thought he actually believed in what he said. I just don't think he said what he said to "rock the boat" or make a powerful statement.
I think he was just exploiting the power of 'shock value'.
Bad attention is better than no attention and five minutes before he said anything, people were like, "Who's Kayne West?"
Sadie - Just because you don't know who Kanye West is, you shouldn't assume no one else does. Before Katrina he had a debut albumn that opened at number 2 in 2004. I'm not making a judgement about his motives for Bush bashing, just pointing out that you shouldn't assume his motives are self promotion.
I very much enjoyed this post. I particularly liked the Rage Against the Machine quote.
Thanks Coyote. I'm an unabashed RATM fan. I've seen them several times and appreciated their unique combo of aggressive music and the most pointed political lyrics of any band of my generation. Sad to see them go. System of a Down is doing a decent job of carrying the flag of political rock.
I always enjoy checking out your blogs, particularly ReTorte. Many great recipes.
eric--
Well obviously people who listen to that style of music know who he is...I guess I should have clarified that now, people who have never heard of him (because they don't listen to rap or hip hop or whatever he's classified as) know his name because of the publicity over what he said.
It would be the same thing if Ani DeFranco made a wild statement at a football game--people who don't listen to folk music would know her name because of the publicity even though she has a pretty big fan base already.
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