Posted on 07/12/2003 1:03:28 AM PDT by f.Christian
"For example, I get e-mail from people who have chanced to read one or more of these articles and drop me a cordial line or two just to let me know what a numbskull I am. After all, the way I tell the story is not the way they have heard it. If my version were correct it would mean that they have been grossly misinformed, and the implications of that are too terrible to contemplate."
"It would mean that in order to be properly informed they would have to stop skating over the surface of issues such as these, letting the anchor people do all the heavy lifting, and start doing their own thinking. But thinking can be kind of like work. Besides, a lot of people just don't quite have the hang of it. The raw material required to do one's own thinking consists of facts gathered from a wide variety of sources, not just the one that happens to materialize when the TV set is switched on."
"The "facts" presented by the mass media are typically folded into a smarmy batter of tendentious fiction calculated to elicit a response from the viewer that will be useful in advancing the hidden agenda which the presstitutes are paid to promote. The viewer, who does not comprehend that he or she is being manipulated responds emotionally, as though watching a soap opera or a TV series. After all, most people have a lot more experience responding emotionally to TV plots than they have at thinking critically and analytically. The script writer manipulates the emotions of the audience who respond in a predictable fashion."
The viewers are being ... conditioned --- to react in a certain way."
"The leap from the semi-conscious emotional response evoked by TV "entertainment" to the conditioned response elicited by the politically motivated propaganda inserted into "news" presentations is a short one."
THE FACE IN THE MIRROR
"The black-shirted, brown-shirted and red-banner-waving totalitarians of the twentieth century missed the point on a grand scale. All that rough stuff is really unnecessary in building a totalitarian state. In fact, if overdone, it tends to give the game away."
From a legal standpoint, there do appear to be certain criteria in distinguishing legitimate evangelization from illicit proselytism:
All humans have the right to have religious beliefs, and to change these beliefs, even repeatedly, if they so wish. (Freedom of Religion)
They have the right to form religious organizations for the purpose of worship, as well as for promoting their cause (Freedom of Association)
They have the right to speak to others about their convictions, with the purpose of influencing the others. (Freedom of Speech).
By the same token, these very rights exercise a limiting influence on the freedoms of others. For instance, the right to have one's religious beliefs presumably includes the right not to be coerced into changing these beliefs by threats, discrimination, or similar inducements.
Hence a category of improper proselytizing can be discerned.
It would not be proper to use ... coercion, threats, the weight of authority of the educational system, access to health care or similar facilities in order to induce people to change their religion.
It would be improper to try to ... impose one's beliefs on a 'captive audience,' where the listeners have no choice but to be present. This would presumably require restraint in the exercise of their right to free speech, by teachers in the classroom, army officers to their inferiors, prison officers in prison, medical staff in hospitals, so as to avoid impinging on the rights of others.
It would not be proper to offer money, work, housing or other material inducements as a means of persuading people to adopt another religion.
fC ...
We are not discussing the right or wrong of torture ... only the proper application of it --- better methods - perfomances --- " showers " !
OK kids ... were going to the temple - gulag (( gas chambers)) today !
also ...
in college I studied some ' para ' psychology ...
most of our cultural perception - learning is based on --- ' hypnotism ' -- levels (( barriers )) of consciousness !
Most people function out of habit (( programming )) ... w / o understanding --- voluntary participation !
Plato wrote quite a lot about this phenomena ... in his allegory of the cave dwellers --- thinkers - objectors and critics (( escapees - informers )) will be destroyed !
In case you're wondering !
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