Friday, April 23, 2004
self-inflicted mass brainwashing
Ignorance is bliss synonymous with supporting Bush
A couple of new polls, one by Harris Interactive and another by the University of Maryland, have documented the persistence of the fantasies promoted by our government in advocating the takeover of Iraq:
. . . 57 percent of Americans continue to believe that Saddam Hussein gave "substantial support" to al-Qaida terrorists before the war with Iraq, despite a lack of evidence of that relationship.
In addition, 45 percent of Americans have the impression that "clear evidence" was found that Iraq worked closely with Osama bin Laden's network, and a majority believe that before the war Iraq either had weapons of mass destruction (38 percent) or a major program for developing them (22 percent).
There's no known evidence to date that these statements are true.
The article on the Harris poll adds:
"The remarkable stability of these numbers suggest that people have made up their minds on many of the key issues relating to weapons of mass destruction and links to Al Qaeda, and that it would take something very big to change them. It seems that people believe media reports which fit with their opinions and reject those which do not."
Supporting this theory is my favorite finding from the Maryland poll:
U.S. weapons inspector David Kay testified before Congress in January that no weapons were found and prewar intelligence on Iraq was "almost all wrong." CIA Director George Tenet last month rejected assertions by Vice President Dick Cheney that Iraq had cooperated with al-Qaida.
Despite that record, many Americans continue to believe that the threat from Iraqi weapons and its alleged links to terrorism justified the war. That conviction correlates closely with support for the war and President Bush, the poll released Thursday found.
For example, among those who say most experts agree that Iraq had banned weapons, 72 percent plan to vote for Bush.
What we're witnessing isn't a "war presidency"; it's a four-year experiment in self-inflicted mass brainwashing.
Needlenose - Posted by: Swopa on Apr 23, 04
prmn
A couple of new polls, one by Harris Interactive and another by the University of Maryland, have documented the persistence of the fantasies promoted by our government in advocating the takeover of Iraq:
. . . 57 percent of Americans continue to believe that Saddam Hussein gave "substantial support" to al-Qaida terrorists before the war with Iraq, despite a lack of evidence of that relationship.
In addition, 45 percent of Americans have the impression that "clear evidence" was found that Iraq worked closely with Osama bin Laden's network, and a majority believe that before the war Iraq either had weapons of mass destruction (38 percent) or a major program for developing them (22 percent).
There's no known evidence to date that these statements are true.
The article on the Harris poll adds:
"The remarkable stability of these numbers suggest that people have made up their minds on many of the key issues relating to weapons of mass destruction and links to Al Qaeda, and that it would take something very big to change them. It seems that people believe media reports which fit with their opinions and reject those which do not."
Supporting this theory is my favorite finding from the Maryland poll:
U.S. weapons inspector David Kay testified before Congress in January that no weapons were found and prewar intelligence on Iraq was "almost all wrong." CIA Director George Tenet last month rejected assertions by Vice President Dick Cheney that Iraq had cooperated with al-Qaida.
Despite that record, many Americans continue to believe that the threat from Iraqi weapons and its alleged links to terrorism justified the war. That conviction correlates closely with support for the war and President Bush, the poll released Thursday found.
For example, among those who say most experts agree that Iraq had banned weapons, 72 percent plan to vote for Bush.
What we're witnessing isn't a "war presidency"; it's a four-year experiment in self-inflicted mass brainwashing.
Needlenose - Posted by: Swopa on Apr 23, 04
prmn
Tuesday, April 20, 2004
self-interest
John Steinbeck said- "The things we admire in men, kindness and generosity, openness, honesty, understanding and feeling are the concomitants of failure in our system. And those traits we detest, sharpness, greed, acquisitiveness, meanness, egotism and self-interest are the traits of success. And while men admire the quality of the first they love the produce of the second."
prmn
prmn
Saturday, April 03, 2004
James, William
James, William
: (1842-1910) Psicólogo y filósofo idealista norteamericano, el más eminente representante del pragmatismo. Profesor de la Universidad de Harvard (EE.UU.) (1889-1907). Luchó contra la concepción materialista científica del mundo. Consciente de la falta de base del método metafísico, James, en vez de contraponerle la dialéctica, le contrapuso el irracionalismo. En el análisis de la psique, considerada por él como "torrente de la conciencia", hacía hincapié en el papel de los principios volitivo y emocional. Sustituyendo el concepto objetivo de verdad por el principio pragmático de acción útil, James abre la puerta al fideísmo, ofrece argumento en pro del derecho a la creencia, a la demostración y a la fundamentación inaccesibles. El 'empirismo radical' de James no es otra cosa que la reducción subjetivista de lo real a la "experiencia pura", a la conciencia, a la vez que su "monismo neutral" considera lo material y lo espiritual como dos aspectos distintos de una misma "experiencia". James defendió la religión y fue un activo miembro de una organización especial, fundada por él mismo en Nueva York, para el "estudio" de la "experiencia" mística. Trabajos fundamentales: "Los principios de la psicología" (1890), "Las variedades de la experiencia religiosa" (1902), "Pragmatismo" (1907). (Dic. Fil. Rosental)