"Every powerful emotion has its own myth-making tendancy. When the emotion is peculiar to an individual, he is considered more or less mad if he gives credence to such myths as he has invented. But when an emotion is collective, as in war, there is no one to correct the myths that naturally arise. Consequently in all times of great collective excitement unfounded rumours obtain wide credence."I would add that such myth-making is especially easy to create when there is an organization (or cabal or party or corporation or whatever group you may choose) with a powerful voice in whose interest such myths are created.
"This myth-making facility is often allied with cruelty. [snip] Such myths give an excuse for the infliction of torture, and the unfounded belief in them is evidence of the unconscious desire to find some victim to persecute."
Bertrand Russell, from An Outline of Intellectual Rubbish.
Addendum, from the same source:
"Collective fear stimulates herd instict, and tends to produce ferocity towards those who are not regarded as members of the herd. [snip] Fear generates impulses of cruelty, and therefore promotes such superstitious beliefs as seem to justify cruelty. Neither a man nor a crowd nor a nation can be trusted to act humanely or to think sanely under the influence of great fear"That has been the game of the Republican Party for the last 8 years (longer, really, but moreso since 9/11).
2 comments:
Nice one. I do digs me a little Bert.
I have an hypothesis that, as nerds are basically people who lose themselves in their own fantasies despite the consequences, fundamentalists are pretty much the biggest nerds on the planet.
Oh...and destructive douche nozzles.
Russell Rocks.
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