To: King Prout
You raise an interesting lexical question, which is, what is the antonym of paranoia? A quick check on the web doesn't come up with anything.
Let's coin a new word!
The word has to have elements of denial and of obliviousness in it. Someone who really is paranoid sees things that aren't there - schemes, people following him, watching him. So the opposite would have to be someone who doesn't see things that really are there. The mindset of the 1940 Jews, who thought everything would be OK if they just complied. The Branch Davidians who thought they shouldn't shoot back, they can work it out with the ATF. The Warren Commission believers and TWA 800 NTSB report swallowers, the Vince Foster suicide subscribers, who deny the possibility of any government malfeasance whatsoever, and don't even bother them with evidence. (The magic bullet, the eyewitnesses, the lack of blood around the body.) Gullibility is also a component - one would accept at face value what people in authority say, no matter how facially wrong or mistaken those statements are.
Paranoia comes from para- "beyond," and noos or nous, "mind."
From: The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000:
Pablum: Trite, insipid, or simplistic writing, speech, or conceptualization.
Credulous: 1. Disposed to believe too readily; gullible. 2. Arising from or characterized by credulity.
credulity: A disposition to believe too readily.
naiveté: 1. The state or quality of being inexperienced or unsophisticated, especially in being artless, credulous, or uncritical. 2. An artless, credulous, or uncritical statement or act.
Combining these roots into a new word, we get: SHEEPLE.
16 posted on
02/10/2004 3:44:51 PM PST by
coloradan
(Hence, etc.)
To: coloradan
You raise an interesting lexical question, which is, what is the antonym of paranoia? Uh, liberalism?
19 posted on
02/10/2004 4:18:58 PM PST by
supercat
(Why is it that the more "gun safety" laws are passed, the less safe my guns seem?)
To: coloradan
MGD ---> nose ---> keyboard!
23 posted on
02/10/2004 5:24:53 PM PST by
King Prout
(why do all the moles pop up when I'm busy using the maul elsewhere?)
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