Thank you. The ability of demagogs or apparatuses to use fear to manipulate public opinion, and the very weakness of our rational faculty to resist that power of fear, these are well known and exploited characteristics of humans and even other mammals. Once fear reaches a certain proportion, the critical faculties evaporate and become …
Thank you. The ability of demagogs or apparatuses to use fear to manipulate public opinion, and the very weakness of our rational faculty to resist that power of fear, these are well known and exploited characteristics of humans and even other mammals. Once fear reaches a certain proportion, the critical faculties evaporate and become tools of the effort to escape that terror. The testimony of many of our best soldiers who became prisoners of the North Koreans, for example, shows how effective is propaganda blended with terror. Those men all broke, eventually. (One can check out William Sargant's "Battle for the Mind" in this regard for a concise synopsis). And the examples of the effectiveness of what we have lived through (and will continue to endure) have myriad tragic examples throughout our history.
Thank you. The ability of demagogs or apparatuses to use fear to manipulate public opinion, and the very weakness of our rational faculty to resist that power of fear, these are well known and exploited characteristics of humans and even other mammals. Once fear reaches a certain proportion, the critical faculties evaporate and become tools of the effort to escape that terror. The testimony of many of our best soldiers who became prisoners of the North Koreans, for example, shows how effective is propaganda blended with terror. Those men all broke, eventually. (One can check out William Sargant's "Battle for the Mind" in this regard for a concise synopsis). And the examples of the effectiveness of what we have lived through (and will continue to endure) have myriad tragic examples throughout our history.