Re: psychoceramics: Cult of Personality

[Tom Easton <teaston @ acadia.net>]

At 01:32 PM 10/5/97 -0700, you wrote:
>... Unswerving patriots and hair-trigger Child Protectors are good for
>a yuck, too, by the way.
>Frankly, so are any self-righteous supercilious know-it-alls.
>
        As are some of us, at times?
        Well, humph!

>I -- and hopefully some few others of us on this list -- really want to
>know what makes people believe stupid things...

        I see--and teach--a distinction between those who want to see the
world as is and those who want to see it as wished, between those who
believe in checking things out (via experiment) and those who believe in
taking some Authority's word for the Truth.  There is also a powerful human
urge to seek scapegoats, someone to blame when things go wrong.
>
>But why bother poking these folks with a "Ha ha, you're stupid" message?
>
         That truly is mean-spirited, in a way most of us were raised to
avoid.  It's tempting, but better we should indulge in our yucks in seemly
privacy.


          - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
                                    Tom Easton
          - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
                         http://www.sff.net/people/teaston/ 
                   http://www.thomas.edu/easton/profid.htm                      
http://www.parsonstech.com/genealogy/trees/teaston/easton.htm