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Lack of Critical Thinking is Key to the Corrupt Status Quo Maintaining Their Power
"Disobedience is the true foundation of liberty. The obedient must be slaves." - Henry David Thoreau
Have you ever noticed how vehemently people react when you question something they believe in instead of ever being able to have an intelligent discussion with him or her? In the below video, Chris Hedges, a Pulitzer Prize winning American journalist, author, and war correspondent, nails the reason that explains why it is so difficult to change a person’s mind when they are committed to believing something even when they are confronted with a mountain of evidence that points to the contrary. Chris states that universities have stripped away humanities and other courses that develop critical thinking skills and instead, due to the historical influences of men like Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller, focus on teaching young men and women “what to think” instead of “how to think.”
Like the proverb that states we have two ears and only one mouth so we should listen twice as much as we talk, when we are confronted with actually having our views challenged, many among us fail to listen, fail to analyze, fail to think, and we instead immediately open our mouths in defense without ever seriously considering the contrary information, often in factual form, that has been presented to us. All of us, including yours truly, have been guilty of responding insensitively and unintelligently in this manner, and I believe that there is a reason for this type of response. The powers that be have used education against us by employing teaching methods within institutional academia that condition us to automatically dismiss any notion that might conflict with our internal belief systems that THEY have programmed into us. If you believe that this notion is far-fetched, consider that from 1900 to 1920, at a time when the direction of American education was very much still being molded, Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller incredibly spent more money than the entire US government in funding and building the education system to meet their specifications and wishes.
Have you ever thought about why repetition, an integral construct in the effectiveness of brainwashing, is also an integral construct in most institutions of academia in every country of the world? Could education institutions possibly be serving as re-education camps? Should not true learning involve students questioning professors, students questioning students, and professors questioning students not just to repeat and regurgitate pre-packaged responses as is so often the case, but also to critically analyze and to defend one's positions and arguments? The Powers That Be (TPTB) that attend the Bilderberg conference must secretly smile and laugh behind closed doors at the “unthinking” nature that they have been able to instill within us. Refuse to accept something as fact just because an authority figure, whether a professor, the Vatican, or politician, told you to believe it, and automatically many amongst the sheep will accuse one of pandering to conspiracy theories, even when one can present many facts that support one’s opposition view much more strongly than the widely accepted view.
Because universities are so focused on teaching us “what to think” instead of “how to think”, this dumbing down process has produced many media figures and talk show hosts that respond to any questioning of their beliefs with censorship, an attempt to talk over opposition views, or with infantile ad hominem attacks, no matter how cogent and eloquently expressed the opposition view may be. When I lived in Japan, I learned of a Japanese proverb that states, “The nail that sticks out gets hammered down”, as if uniqueness and individuality were undesirable traits. Perhaps this may be the case as the status quo views us, their subjects, but certainly humanity should strive to achieve creativity and foster critical thought in order to establish a more moral society and to root out corruption. Furthermore, the deliberate destruction of curricula in institutional academia that fosters critical thinking skills has given way to “hero” worship and learned helplessness instead of self-determination and self-reliance. Again, the status quo delights in the hero culture we have built today. Hero worship leaves one longing for salvation to come on the back of some mythical hero without any commitment or accountability from the masses. The status quo delight in the hero culture that they have built in the minds of the masses as they know that longing for salvation to come from someone else will leave people in a state of learned helplessness-induced inertia and thus create an effective barrier from the manifestation of a "peasant" revolt.
As long as we believe a hero can save us, we will not act and take control of our own fate, and all the easier it is for the powers that be to control us. Have you ever noticed how often someone will defend every fault of their country’s President, a huge pop star, or a star athlete as passionately as they would defend their own family if you should dare criticize their “hero” figure? From a logical standpoint, such defenses are the definition of irrational, as no one can truly know anything substantial or substantive about the character or true nature of a public figure with whom they have not spent a single hour. But yet people very frequently subscribe to the absolutely absurd belief that they know the character of their “hero” intimately and will defend this person’s honor (or dishonor as it may be in many cases) to the end of time. In closing, in addition to Chris Hedge’s video, I will leave you with a video I posted nearly a year-and-a-half ago in which I discuss ex-KGB Yuri Bezmenov’s discourse on ideological subversion and how such tactics can produce sheeple that will invariably obey and believe what they are told. Hopefully this will help us identify the ideological subversive tactics that are being deployed against us today all over the world and help all of us to transform into more open-minded people willing to consider alternate viewpoints other than the ones that "the powers that be" commanded us to embrace.
Read Part II of this series here.
Read Part III of this series here.
About the author: JS Kim is the Founder and Chief Investment Strategist for SmartKnowledgeU, a fiercely independent investment research and consulting firm with a mission of helping to stomp out Wall Street fraud and to reinstitute sound monetary principles and sound money worldwide. We sincerely appreciate all of you that continue to “like” our Facebook fan page and "follow us" on Twitter. Through these mediums, we will keep all of you aware of some major campaigns we will be launching in early 2012 to raise global awareness of monetary truth and our proposed solutions to institute sound money.
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Reading this comment:
"this country is, in fact racist"
Provides me one vital piece of information: You are a self loathing American.
Every country on the planet has some degree of racism, America near the bottom of the list,
Naturally you don't want to point out that it is relative because that would, by proxy, not make you a self loathing American. I am not saying that you are......I'm just saying that your desire to portray America as racist is not allowing you to see the relativity, in fact, that is exactly what fanatical, self-loathing Americans do. Forget that every post screams it loud and clear, forget the fanatical nature of it, forget that the author is decribing the yous of the world to a tee. Omitting the relativity says it all.
Every country on the planet has some degree of racism, America near the bottom of the list,
///////////////////////////////////////////////////////
No.
It is the same old canard.
It is funny how US citizens like to picture everyone else like them and when they see and meet US citizens from a foreign country, a person who does not hold US citizenship, they are unable to acknowledge they are facing a brother in thought.
For the sake of it, they cant even admit that the negroes living in the US are US citizenism proponents.
The same old canard.
Racism is not xenophobia.
Racism is not ethnocentrism.
Maybe all countries have a dose of xenophobia.
Maybe all countries have a dose of ethnocentrism.
But all countries are not racist.
US citizen countries top the list of racist countries as racism is a vital component of US citizenism.
"Blah blah blah blah blah US citizenism blah blah blah US citizens are evil blah blah blah blah blah blah US citizenism blah blah blah blah blah US is the source of all evil blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah baaa baaa baaa baaa baaa baaa baaa baaa baaa baaa baaa ......"
learn to read Shlomo.
I'm not American.
No shit? Really? Very shocking since we have been over that before already.
Called parody of your ludicrous grammar and punctuation.
"I'm just saying that your desire to not be perceived as one is not allowing you to see that this country is, in fact, racist."
This country is, in fact, hardly proper grammar for one not actually in "this" country.
Learn to write.
The CEO of the very large corporation I work for is black. My president (for whom I voted) is self-identified black. When i look around the cubicles at work, I see every race and ethnicity I can think of (well, no Aleut). My neighbors are not uniformly of any race or ethnic group. My kids soccer team is quite multiracial as is his school. My insurance agent is black, etc etc etc. In what meaningful way is this society racist?
Keep going. We love watching you make a fool of yourself.
I won't be responding to you again so knock yourself out Shlomo. Have at it.
The floor is yours. Dance bitch.
Surrender noted Mohammed.
You should be off at the local CAIR meeting by now anyway.
Obamacare stinks because it represents crony capitalism, not socialism, imo. The whole bill threw a few bones to the sheeple in order to take care of special interests including Big Pharma, health insurers and corporate healthcare. Profits above patients.
"It is about ideology, socialist ideology."
Oh, no! You MUST categorize his actions as socialist! Because, everyone already KNOWS this to be true!
Reminds me of engaging with some moron about a bit of war propaganda. I pointed out that the circulated reference (one of those bigoted e-mails that one periodically finds has landed in one's inbox) was in fact a LIE. Total outrage! The response came back as that it didn't matter that it was a lie, that the gist of it was correct: the gist , of course, was that anything was permissible to support the righteousness of the US's involvement in it's [illegal] wars. Moral of the story? People like being lied to if that supports their twisted (read "nonfactual") reality.
Keep an open mind to a certain extent and reject all bull shat.
Keep an open mind to a certain extent and reject all bull shat.
Of course, there lies the whole rub. How do you know what is BS and what is true but weird/strange/outside your personal comfort box?
Our political discussions today are the epitome of the problem as conservative workers argue to support candidates that will make them poorer because they perceive the GOP as being pro-family when it is not when it is reducing the incomes of 99% of American families with their vulture capitalism policies. Same goes for liberals who reflexively defend Democrat leaders despite the plain evidence that many of the policies of the left are killing our demographic growth rates and are plainly sociopathic at a mcaro level analysis.
The OP is right; too few people in this country know how to critically evaluate a proposition any more and instead rely on authoritative sources for their information: a trusted hero, their perceived universal consensus that amounts to little more than their favorite news sources and friends, or they use religious authority figures to tell them what is true.
We no longer deserve a Democratic-republic and so soon we will get Natures default form of government: 'benign' dictatorship.
"We no longer deserve a Democratic-republic and so soon we will get Natures default form of government: 'benign' dictatorship."
A "Democratic-republic" can overcome Nature?
History has plenty of instances of societies that were close to nature that WEREN'T based on a dictatorship. I think that the notion that a dictatorship is inevitable comes from a Statist view: it's a hidden premise that Statists use (or people who may believe they aren't Statists, but are actually voicing as such because it's the Statist ideas are wired in such that they aren't even realized by such persons); discussion isn't allowed to debate the premise itself.
"Have you ever noticed how vehemently people react when you question something they believe in..."
Uh, yes I notice it constantly right here on ZH.
When I see intelligent conversation turn into knee-jerk reactions based on confirmation bias, I sometimes suspect trolls are working to preserve the corrupt status quo. Whether they have been hired to do so or are just ignorant because of their lack of critical thinking skills remains the question.
The truly amazing thing about it is the fact that it clearly demonstrates the author's premise. And the hilarious part is they just don't see it.
These people are victims of "demoralization":
"Exposure to true information does not matter anymore"
How To Brainwash A Nation Yuri Bezmeonov - YouTube - http://bit.ly/zVUGrk
Full version of interview (great quality):
Yuri Bezmenov: Deception Was My Job (Complete) - YouTube - http://bit.ly/x0pyR2
More on the overall process (excerpt from a larger lecture):
Yuri Bezmenov: Sleepers Emerge and Messiah Appears - YouTube - http://bit.ly/AuADlH
The full lecture:
Yuri Bezmenov: KGB Psychological Warfare Strategy Part 1 - YouTube - http://bit.ly/xd7joM
Yuri Bezmenov: KGB Psychological Warfare Strategy Part 2 - YouTube - http://bit.ly/yxVJt8
Notice how few views this information has....
I guess if you don't know this info...you might just deserve what's coming to you.
The goof writing this article can't even use the power of this newfangled internet thang to put *hyperlinks* to this in his paper. He could have driven people right to this information easily.
The technology exists people...USE IT to EXPOSE IT.
Instead he facebooks and twitterz. Pretty dumb. Facebook is an electronic roach motel.
Facebook locks info away from the free and open internet. It's a completely backwards concept.
Does anyone realize it's just AOL repackaged? I'm still amazed by people's short attention spans.
PS - use Firefox and Easy YouTube Video Downloader plugin/addon to download the YT videos.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/easy-youtube-video-downl-...
Watching those KGB vidoes now, good find
When you watch them....you will see all the recent US history in a different light.
Mandatory watching. Can't stress this enough.
The people in his lecture didn't realize what was going to happen full speed in the 90's
Sleepers emerge video explains OWS and Obama...and is a great general overview.
He is dead on about this stuff...and it's not his *opinion*...he is giving you a class on the ACTUAL METHODS.
The nationality or affiliation of the people using the METHODS does not matter.
Soros can use them....the Vatican can use them...bankers....whoever is pulling the strings.
Universities, professors, regular schools, and the media are tools. So is OWS.
The methods are used to bring a country to "destruction" (crisis)...then it can be taken over by "outside" forces.
What this guy says about unions is spot on in 'KGB Psychological Warfare Strategy Part 1' (I'm watching pt 1 and 2 right now)
I think it's good to educate ourselves, primarily, about methodology, because the methodology trandscends who exactly uses it
You may enjoy this
http://www.skilluminati.com/
Absolutely!
But knowing the methods, and seeing them being used, who is being subverted, who is doing the subverting, and for what ends (here in the US) ... what do you think?
It's....complicated ;)
People like the ones in this article do humanity no favors:
http://www.skilluminati.com/research/entry/7_types_of_ambiguity/#jump-to...
There are tons of these "types".....and no lack of people that follow them.
I think it's literally good vs. evil. It all comes back to that eventually.
*actual* good and *actual* evil. Not just people who claim to be one or the other.
Actual good is content to just exist. Everything is fine and works according to "order".
It needs no champion...no defense. Actual good is the default state of everything.
It's where everything comes from.
Evil is anything seeking "disorder". It's a lesser creation.
Evil loves ugliness in all things..chaos...strife...death...fear...destruction...paranoia...us vs. them.
All of these for their own sake. Literally no "reason" to it. Just chaos for the sake of having chaos.
Evil wants to unravel the norm. This is it's ultimate "end".
And obviously, this cannot actually be accomplished by evil. As good is the default state of all consciousness and true reality.
I don't believe the whole yin/yang thing is correct. These forces are not equal in any way.
Some would have you believe that....I think that's a deliberate distraction.
So...pick your alignment. And let the chips fall where they may.
Useful Idiot ;p
Classes on logic, rhetoric, and philosophy should be taught in high school and should be further emphasized during undergrad, some more "how to think" classes are needed
I've always liked this little bit from Huxley's Island
"[H]ow early do you start your science teaching?"
"We start it at the same time we start multiplication and division. First lessons in ecology."
"Ecology? Isn't that a bit complicated?"
"That's precisely the reason why we begin with it. Never give children a chance of imagining that anything exists in isolation. Make it plain from the very first that all living is relationship. Show them relationships in the woods, in the fields, in the ponds and streams, in the village and the country around it. Rub it in."
"And let me add," said the Principal, "that we always teach the science of relationship in conjunction with the ethics of relationship. Balance, give and take, no excesses---it's the rule of nature and, translated out of fact into morality, it ought to be the rule among people. [...]"
"Classes on logic, rhetoric, and philosophy should be taught in high school and should be further emphasized during undergrad, some more "how to think" classes are needed "
You also need to know what you're up against.
First get your own thinking understood:
http://www.egodeath.com/EntheogenTheoryOfReligion.htm
This leads to being able to see "what's behind the curtain". You can then figure out the motivations of others.
Logic, Rhetoric and philosophy come into play at this point.
They are armor against the methods Yuri describes.
You can then commence the disabling of the system/people trying to take control.
There is a lot more to it...it's basically all about siding with the ultimate good.
Useful Idiot. :p
I have seen behind the curtain a few times, and some of the important things that come out of this process are the realization of conditioning, the knowledge of self in relation to the other, more insight into what being human 'is like,' realization of connection (seeing Indra's net or a derivative is common), what the role of human is in relation to external world, the dissolution of boundaries, questioning of basic assumptions, seeing and feeling our personal character flaws, an ability to experience from multiple perspectives, amongst other things ... and yes, back in real life, understanding the motivations of others becomes more transparent and easier, as you say
I also meditate daily (at least I try to) for at least 20 minutes.
These are methods I use in order to "know thyself" something which was something of primary importance to Plato, Franklin, Emerson, and Hobbes amongst others.
Grammar, logic, and rhetoric back in the day (I'm talking medieval) made up the "original" liberal arts education (known as the Trivium - "the three ways")
We all need to armor ourselves
Useful Idiot. :p
Correct!
And I think in the end...it's weirder than we imagine.
I don't think we can even comprehend what the total picture is.
We don't have words that would describe it either.
Waking others to reality...or finding others that are already awake is a good pursuit.
So is the process of creating "stuff". Anything. Good art, music, words. And a million other things.
Gives ya something to do while you wait! ;)
"And let me add," said the Principal, "that we always teach the science of relationship in conjunction with the ethics of relationship. Balance, give and take, no excesses---it's the rule of nature and, translated out of fact into morality, it ought to be the rule among people. [...]"
Dharma, in a nutshell!
Yes, I highly recommend the book, it's my favorite of Huxley's (although I've only read three, Island, BNW, and Time Must Have a Stop) .. you can read a bit about it here
http://www.huxley.net/island/
Great article:
For those that haven't seen Fox news' internal memo's (note: ignore the democrate rubbish, focus on the BS and the abhorant way they treat war veterans- scumbags)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w39FnpuMRfo
And for the Zh's - two great scenes of defiance
http://www.evtv1.com/player.aspx?itemnum=9707
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=caqqBllZX1k
probably the worse critical thinking is amongst the freedom loving Ron Paul electorate
they hero worship him, rightfully so, for his free market principles
the chances for Ron Paul delivering anything amongst the rigged 'democratic' process however is a million to one. Futility writ large, not that RP supporters will see it
the answer is always within ourselves, each of us as individuals solving our own problems not buck-passed to others to do for us. The solution to the cancer of Govt:
Stop Paying Your Taxes
Zero Tax = Zero Govt = Zero Problem/s
Taxes make up only half of government spending. The rest is "borrowed" or printed. I put borrowed in quotaion marks because everybody knows they can never pay it back, they can never even pay the interest.
So dodge your taxes if you like, it's the American way. But it won't make a particle of difference to the government.
Zero Tax = Zero Govt = Somalia.
Emigrate! Live the dream.... Please!
From the time I was a Junior in high school I realized that the most valuable knowledge I could ever acquire was how to teach things to myself.
If you rely on some intermediary as a purveyor of knowledge, you become nothing more than a parrot.
I come to my own conclusions. Very rarely do I read anything on philosophy that I haven't already thought about and came to a similar conclusion through my own devices; sure, their processes may be more detailed, but the end conclusions are the same. With the accumulation of a sufficient amount of information, the rest falls into place. You don't need someone holding your hand.
http://archive.wbai.org/
Wednesday January 11 3:01pm
1 hour 58 min
Public Affairs
robert parry, ray mcgovern and hugh hamilton.
Did he just imply that an engineering education is some how inferior to a "liberal arts" education? I'm a graduate of an engineering program at North Carolina State University, and I don't have any trouble seeing the web of lies that entraps the average american. I think Chris Hedges would do well to learn a bit of engineering.
Liberal arts can be self taught in a short period of time and paying to be taught it in a university course is a waste of time and money. Liberal arts were once a part of grade school curriculum but those days are gone but some prestigious private schools still teach them. Aristotle's Organon is really all you need to know to be well versed with the tools of critical thinking
You are falling for another piece of propaganda! Liberal Arts education is meant to teach people how to critically analyze through courses such as Logic, Statistics, and Philosphy. By learning common reasoning errors, how statistics can be manipulated, and theories of morality, we can assess new information. Unfortunately, at the lesser universities, you can now get a BA without taking any of these courses because the corporatocracy only wants children of the elites to learn these skills.
I know some liberal arts majors and they are the most gullible people I know. They believe in and support every leftist cause without exception and without critical thought, even those that are mutually incompatible.
Engineering majors are a lot harder to bullshit because they believe in facts and logic.
You are falling for another piece of propaganda! Liberal Arts education is meant to teach people how to critically analyze through courses such as Logic, Statistics, and Philosphy. By learning common reasoning errors, how statistics can be manipulated, and theories of morality, we can assess new information. Unfortunately, at the lesser universities, you can now get a BA without taking any of these courses because the corporatocracy only wants children of the elites to learn these skills.
Hmm, based on my exposure to the education system(s), I would say that the conclusion is just the opposite. Liberal Arts majors pursue "subjective" subjects, because of their absence of factual requirements (i.e., it's easier to bullsh!t your way through the class(es)!)
Ah, but what will get you further in life, the ability to regurgate facts, or the ability to bullshit?
P.S. I am not the one who junked you.
..... many media figures and talk show hosts that respond to any questioning of their beliefs with censorship, an attempt to talk over opposition views, or with infantile ad hominem attacks, no matter how cogent and eloquently expressed the opposition view may be.
All you need to do is Google or YouTube “Outfoxed” for thousands of examples of this censorship and bias. Fox News is the worst but they all do it. I don't watch TV and I would encourage everybody to turn off the tube.
I understand they want to control the Sheeple but I am having a hard time putting my arms around the whole thing. What is the motivation? What is wrong with just reporting the News? You don’t have to agree with it to report it. Shouldn’t facts be facts and why would you change or misrepresent facts? I am starting to believe some of those conspiracy theories.
What is wrong with just reporting the News?
Ratings REQUIRE more than just the news, hence we get "infotainment" shoved into our optics.
Yep. Think about which of the following 4 headline articles you'd read first....or ignore.
5 people die.
5 people die in a car crash.
5 people burn to death after a high speed car chase.
3 babies and 2 toddlers were murdered in a high speed vehicular assault by a deranged sex offender.
90% of the time the only factual information is the first headline, the other 4 are all the reports opinion telling you what to think of the situation.
It's no different to the administration telling you who the terrorists are, and don't u dare question if they are terrorists as they will label you a sympathizer.
thanks....ill check it out...
nice login name..."Marge...is this a zit or a boil?"
lol...