In this excerpt from his new book, The Iran Agenda, veteran independent journalist Reese Erlich challenges the conventional wisdom on Iran's nuclear ambitions.
Comment: While the author's historical analysis on the relationship between the U.S and Iran is very valuable. he is extremely naive in his recommendations of what the U.S should do. It is imperative that normal people, including the author, understand that most of governments in the world have been infiltrated by psychopaths who have no conscience. Therefore, normal reasoning and moral standards cannot be applied to them.
What we should be doing now is to spread knowledge about the nature of the psychopaths to a majority of human beings in the world. That is the only hope for us. Read the following article for more information: Hope.
Is hierarchical civilization a mad dream of drug addiction?
Introduction
What might head a list of the defining characteristics of the human species? While our view of ourselves could hardly avoid highlighting our accomplishments in engineering, art, medicine, space travel and the like, in a more dispassionate assessment agriculture would probably displace all other contenders for top billing. Most of the other achievements of humankind have followed from this one. Almost without exception, all people on earth today are sustained by agriculture. With a minute number of exceptions, no other species is a farmer. Essentially all of the arable land in the world is under cultivation. Yet agriculture began just a few thousand years ago, long after the appearance of anatomically modern humans.
Morally upstanding people are the do-gooders of society, right? Actually, a new study finds that a sense of moral superiority can lead to unethical acts, such as cheating. In fact, some of the best do-gooders can become the worst cheats.
Stop us if this sounds familiar.
When asked to describe themselves, most people typically will rattle off a list of physical features and activities (for example, "I do yoga" or "I'm a paralegal"). But some people have what scientists call a moral identity, in which the answer to the question would include phrases like "I am honest" and "I am a caring person."
Past research has suggested that people who describe themselves with words such as honest and generous are also more likely to engage in volunteer work and other socially responsible acts.
But often in life, the line between right and wrong becomes blurry, particularly when it comes to cheating on a test or in the workplace. For example, somebody could rationalize cheating on a test as a way of achieving their dream of becoming a doctor and helping people.
In the new study, detailed in the November issue of the Journal of Applied Psychology, researchers find that when this line between right and wrong is ambiguous among people who think of themselves as having high moral standards, the do-gooders can become the worst of cheaters.
I've had a lot of fun recently with my tiny (and unofficial) slice of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize awarded to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). But, though I was one of thousands of IPCC participants, I don't think I will add "0.0001 Nobel Laureate" to my resume.
Comment: For the record it was Mr. Christy who made a sign error in his satellite temperature analysis using MSU data. This resulted in an erroneously measured "cooling" instead of an actual warming of the lower troposphere. Perhaps it was this humility which he endured that allows him to write from such a perspective.
Rob Patterson Salon.com Tue, 11 Sep 2007 18:36 UTC
Comment: Psychologist and author, Andrzej Lobaczewski, outlines the characteristics of the Schizoidal psychopath in his book Political Ponerology. He also describes how it is that many people can be taken in and influenced by, such characters. Certainly two people can observe the same behavior and give it entirely different interpretations; an example would be the difference between how a journalist interprets the behavior and how a trained clinical psychologist would interpret the behavior.
Robert Draper seems to have succumbed to the "charms of the deviant" in that he has taken the "critically corrective" approach of the psychologically ignorant layperson to interpreting the character of George W. Bush. See the comments at the end of this article for a fuller explication of this problem.
Biographer Robert Draper explains that Bush has a surprising intellect but is incapable of curiosity and owning up to mistakes.
Revelations from "Dead Certain," Robert Draper's new biography of President George W. Bush, have received marquee play since the book's publication on Sept. 4. The disclosures have ranged from the petty -- Bush, a stickler for punctuality, once locked a late Colin Powell out of a meeting -- to the momentous. Among the more uncomfortable for the White House: Bush's claim that Paul Bremer, head of Iraq's Coalition Provisional Authority, made the disastrous decision to disband the Iraqi army without Bush's knowledge, an assertion rapidly rebutted by Bremer.
Comment: The following are excerpts from Political Ponerology by Andrzej Lobaczewski. After reading Draper's descriptions of Bush's behavior as well as the behavior of those who surround him, I think that the reader can draw their own conclusions as to how close a match we have here.
Schizoidia: Schizoidia, or schizoidal psychopathy From the [early days of modern psychiatry, schizoidal psychopathy] was treated as a lighter form of the same hereditary taint which is the cause of susceptibility to schizophrenia. However, this latter connection could neither be confirmed nor denied with the help of statistical analysis, and no biological test was then found which would have been able to solve this dilemma. For practical reasons, we shall herein discuss schizoidia with no further reference to this relationship.
Literature provides us with descriptions of several varieties of this anomaly, whose existence can be attributed either to changes in the genetic factor or to differences in other individual characteristics of a non-pathological nature. Let us thus sketch these sub-species' common features.
Carriers of this anomaly are hypersensitive and distrustful, but they pay little attention to the feelings of others, tend to assume extreme positions, and are eager to retaliate for minor offenses.
Sometimes they are eccentric and odd. Their poor sense of psychological situation and reality leads them to superimpose erroneous, pejorative interpretations upon other people's intentions.
They easy become involved in activities which are ostensibly moral, but which actually inflict damage upon themselves and others.
Their impoverished psychological world view makes them typically pessimistic regarding human nature. We frequently find expressions of their characteristic attitudes in their statements and writings: "Human nature is so bad that order in human society can only be maintained by a strong power created by highly qualified individuals in the name of some higher idea." Let us call this typical expression the "schizoid declaration".
Human nature does in fact tend to be naughty, whenever the schizoids embitter other people's lives, that is.
When they become wrapped up in situations of serious stress, however, the schizoid's failings cause them to collapse easily. The capacity for thought is thereupon characteristically stifled, and frequently the schizoids fall into reactive psychotic states so similar in appearance to schizophrenia that they lead to misdiagnoses.
The common factor in the varieties of this anomaly is a dull pallor of emotions and a feeling for the psychological realities of this essential factor in basic intelligence. This can be attributed to the incomplete quality of the instinctive substratum, which is working as though on sand.
Low emotional pressure enables them to develop proper speculative reasoning, which is useful in non-humanistic spheres of activity.
Because of their one-sidedness, they tend to consider themselves intellectually superior to "ordinary" people.
The quantitative frequency of this anomaly varies among races and nations: low among Blacks, the highest among Jews. Estimates of this frequency range from negligible up to 3 %. In Poland it may be estimated as 0.7 % of population. My observations suggest this anomaly is autosomally hereditary.
A schizoid's ponerological activity should be evaluated in two aspects. On the small scale, such people cause their families trouble, easily turn into tools of intrigue in the hands of clever individuals, and generally do a poor job of raising the younger generation.
Their tendency to see human reality in the doctrinaire and simplistic manner they consider "proper", transforms their frequently good intentions into bad results. However, their ponerogenic role can take on macro-social proportions if their attitude toward human reality and their tendency to invent great doctrines are put to paper and duplicated in large editions.
(Or if they become president of the U.S.)
In spite of their typical deficits, or even an openly schizoidal declaration, their readers do not realize what the authors' characters are like; they interpret such works in a manner corresponding to their own nature.
The minds of normal people tend toward corrective interpretation thanks to the participation of their own richer, psychological world-view. However, many readers critically reject such works with moral disgust but without being aware of the specific cause. [...]
The famous utterances attributed to Zionist wise men at the turn of the century start with a schizoidal declaration.
The nineteenth century, especially its latter half, appears to have been a time of exceptional activity on the part of schizoidal individuals, often but not always of Jewish descent. After all we have to remember that 97 % of all Jews do not manifest this anomaly, and that it also appears among all European nations, albeit to a markedly lesser extent.
Our inheritance from this period includes world-images, scientific traditions, and legal concepts flavored with the shoddy ingredients of a schizoidal apprehension of reality. [...]
In spite of the fact that the writings [or actions] of schizoidal [individuals] contain the above described deficiency, or even an openly formulated schizoidal declaration which constitutes sufficient warning to specialists, the average reader accepts them not as a view of reality warped by this anomaly, but rather as an idea to which he should assume an attitude based on his convictions and his reason.
That is the first mistake.
The oversimplified pattern, devoid of psychological color and based on easily available data, exerts an intense influence upon individuals who are insufficiently critical, frequently frustrated as result of downward social adjustment, culturally neglected, or characterized by some psychological deficiencies [of their own]. Others are provoked to criticism based on their healthy common sense; also they fail to grasp this essential cause of the error.
Societal interpretation of such activities is broken down into the main trifurcations, engendering divisiveness and conflict.
The first branch is the path of aversion, based on rejection of the contents of the work due to personal motivations, differing convictions, or moral revulsion. This already contains the component of a moralizing interpretation of pathological phenomena.
We can distinguish two distinctly different apperception types among those persons who accept the contents of such works: the critically-corrective and the pathological.
People whose feel for psychological reality is normal tend to incorporate chiefly the more valuable elements of the work. They trivialize the obvious errors and complement the schizoid deficiencies by means of their own richer world-view. This gives rise to a more sensible, measured, and thus creative interpretation, but is not free from the influence of the error frequently adduced above.
Pathological acceptance is manifested by individuals with diversiform deviations, whether inherited or acquired, as well as by many people bearing personality malformations or who have been injured by social injustice. That explains why this scope is wider than the circle drawn by direct action of pathological factors. This apperception often brutalizes the authors' concepts and leads to acceptance of forceful methods and revolutionary means. [...]
Schizoidia has thus played an essential role as one of the factors in the genesis of the evil threatening our contemporary world. Practicing psychotherapy upon the world will therefore demand that the results of such evil be eliminated as skillfully as possible.
A few years ago, Bret Easton Ellis wrote a book called American Psycho. It was about a psychopath called Patrick Bateman who killed people in horrible ways with no remorse whatsoever. The book was roundly condemned, often reviewed as without merit of any kind. The result was that it flew off of the shelves and made the author a pot of money. It later got made into a film with Christian Bale.
In recent times we've seen some disturbing characters come down the pike. From Charles Manson on we've had an epidemic of serial killers. We've had the celebrated cases of John Wayne Gacy, Jeffrey Dalmer and Ted Bundy. Then there have been the Menendez Brothers and O.J. Simpson. A certain personality type has become commonplace in society and spans the gamut from the very poor to the obscenely rich. This personality type is defined as a Psychopath. They've always been around but never so many as today.
H. Michael Sweeney proparanoid.com Fri, 13 Jul 2007 07:17 UTC
Strong, credible allegations of high-level criminal activity can bring down or damage a government, religion, or corporation.
Where the crime involves a conspiracy, or a conspiracy to cover up the crime, there will invariably be a disinformation campaign launched against those seeking to uncover and expose the truth and/or the conspiracy.
When these type of entities lack an effective, fact-based offense or defense, Propaganda Techniques for Truth Suppression are employed.
The specific tactics which disinfo artists tend to apply are revealed here. Also included with this material are seven common traits of the disinfo artist which may also prove useful in identifying players and motives.
The more a particular party fits the traits and is guilty of following the rules, the more likely they are a professional disinfo artist with a vested motive. People can be bought, threatened, or blackmailed into providing disinformation, so even "good guys" can be suspect in many cases.
The success of these techniques, Built upon Thirteen Techniques for Truth Suppression by David Martin, depends heavily upon a cooperative compliant press, an inept and token opposition force, and how naive, frightened, and apathetic the general public is.
Beware of what and who you trust.
Know and understand what these Propaganda Techniques for Truth Suppression are, and how they can be used against (to destroy / damage) and for (to support) any issue or point of view- or you.
Remember, most of the information in the Information Age, is false--(what you think you know, just ain't so).
WHAT: Antioch University Seattle hosted a day-long Guantanamo Teach-In on October 5. Antioch was one of 300 universities to participate in the nationwide teach-in on issues related to detainees at Guantanamo Bay and U.S. practices that involve detention and torture. The national teach-in began as a project of the Seton Hall Law School, which hosted a simulcast teach-in to the participating colleges and universities. A Noise Room was set up on Antioch's campus that featured video feeds from the national event, as well as a book display and take-action materials. "What Torture Means to 'Us' and What Torture Means to 'Them,'" were the topics of the keynote speech capping the day's activities.
Investigations of a buried layer at sites from California to Belgium reveal materials that include metallic microspherules, carbon spherules, nanodiamonds, fullerenes, charcoal, and soot. The layer's composition may indicate that a massive body, possibly a comet, exploded in the atmosphere over the Laurentide Ice Sheet 12,900 years ago. The timing coincides with a great die-off of mammoths and other North American megafauna and the onset of a period of cooling in Northern Europe and elswhere known as the Younger Dryas Event. The American Clovis culture appears to have been dramatically affected, even terminated, at this same time. Speakers discuss numerous lines of evidence contributing to the impact hypothesis. The nature and frequency of this new kind of impact event could have major implications for our understanding of extinctions and climate change.
Comment: While the author's historical analysis on the relationship between the U.S and Iran is very valuable. he is extremely naive in his recommendations of what the U.S should do. It is imperative that normal people, including the author, understand that most of governments in the world have been infiltrated by psychopaths who have no conscience. Therefore, normal reasoning and moral standards cannot be applied to them.
What we should be doing now is to spread knowledge about the nature of the psychopaths to a majority of human beings in the world. That is the only hope for us. Read the following article for more information: Hope.