Reply #37: An interesting take on this: [View All]

[juno jones]

I've been reading Peter Levenda's 'Sinister Forces' books and while I don;t always draw the same conclusion he does from his meticulous research, this stood out at me, especially in terms of that eternal 20% that always seem to go for the hardcore right-wing GOP:

Much of what has been written on the applicability of hypnosis to a Manchurian Candidate is fundamentally flawed: Many investigators claim that since only one in every five persons is a perfect candidate for hypnosis, and since a hypnotized subject will not do anything to which he or she morally objects, hypnosis is therefore useless. They ignore the obvious implication that fully twenty percent of the human population is capable of "going under" without too much difficulty, and that many of these subjects would no find murder, rape, theft, deceit,etc., morally objectionable, particularly if the command was given by a recognized authority figure.

(italics mine)

Hypnosis? Perhaps it is not so far-fetched. Levenda's first volume details the battle for the mind and the violence done to people to make them into controllable entities. It generally starts off with abuse and sensory deprivation, which we can see codified into fundie child raising- Dominionism and child abuse, part 1:

http://dogemperor.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/8/13/16852/9879/270/370953

Parts 2 and 3 are also instructional. Lack of love at an early age distorts people's ability to have compassion for others later in life. Another website with a sociological look at systemic childhood abuse and its results in our culture and others:

http://www.psychohistory.com/ -It should be no surprise that kids raised without love, with physical and sexual abuse issues should perpetuate violent societies and be attracted to authoritarian politics that validate their emptiness and lack of empathy.

Add to that TV which has been shown to put people in a state akin to dreaming (beta, IIRC).

Add to that the purposeful fueling of hate in a public setting such as fundie church or one of Palin's gatherings where, like the rallies of fascists gone by, hate and violence are seemingly made normal and quite acceptable emotions as a result of the exhortations of leaders and the shared mentality of the crowd. Mass hysteria/suggestibility if you will.

Finally, In that light, I find it instructional that accusations of hypnosis were something that was thrown at dems, as most of the things we are accused of they are usually shown to be doing...

So, I'm not really claiming absolute intentional hypnosis, but I would suspect that there are certain patterns at work that are going to make 20% of the population far more vulnerable to suggestion, especially from authority figures. And there are probably authority figures who take advantage of this phenomenon.