[MD] Problems with Intellectual control of Society

[ARLO J BENSINGER JR]

[WillBlake]
I agree with you that it happens with any political system. 

[Arlo]
I firmly agree with the idea that modern politics *all around* is the Rule of
Nightmare (to borrow from the BBC's Power of Nightmare documentary). Raising
the spectre of Hitler is one such tool. If you listen to any pundit these days,
we are three-steps from oblivion (and you can fill in your own "doomsday
event"). Many felt Bush was evidencing the biblical end of times, rushing
towards Armaggedon, and undermining democracy with a fascist regime, blind to
civil rights. And the pro-Bush camp laughed. Now the same thing is happening
again. Except this time its the anti-Obama camp screaming Armaggedon and
fascism, and the pro-Obama camp laughing. Guess what will happen if a
Republican wins the next election? How much money you want to wager that it
will be less than a month until people are marching with that persons face
graffiti-ed with a Hitler-mustache? 

[WillBlake]
Sometimes, I have a hard time when personal opinions are put into historical
fact, but maybe history is all personal opinion.  

[Arlo]
There is something I want to say here about Dusenberry and anthropological
objectivism... but I think you sum it up. History is shared experience, and
that experience is always unavoidably filtered. This is why we'll never sell
our American History textbooks on Lakota reservations. 

[WillBlake]
However, selective specific references in Wiki which is explaining the meaning
of anti-intellectualism, as examples, has no place in an encyclopedia that is
now being considered a quotable reference.

[Arlo]
Can you give me an example?

[WillBlake]
Yes, I think I know what is happening, my bad. 

[Arlo]
My comment was not directed at you, but at the many people who have bought into
the "fear ideology" of their party. Take the people who firmly believe that
Bush orchestrated the 9/11 attacks, his own private Reichstag moment, if you
will. They "think they know what is happening". Or the people who believe Obama
is a foreign citizen, thrust into power by enemies seeking to destroy America.
They "think they know what is happening."

Or take this guy (http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/158696). He "thinks he
knows what is happening". Or the original author of this
(http://educate-yourself.org/cn/fakedalieninvasion.shtml), he sums up what he
"thinks is happening" ("Something very sinister is going on.") relating to
MJ12, and how extraterrestials and Bush are cornering the global illegal drug
market. 

I'm not just being funny here. My point is that there are many, many people who
"think they know what is going on", and they simply have no clue. Many have
been fed "fear" for so long they simply are lost to the depths of paranoia and
xenophobia. Others have fallen into the blind ideological drumbeat that casts
all of the world into an epic war between "their side" (conveniently truth,
justice and the American way) and "the other" (a great horde that seeks to
destroy all that is good at every turn, that relies on lies, deceit,
manipulation, enslavement and covert dealings).