Quote:
Originally Posted by Arcades
minn19 the problem with people [deleted as not necessary ] tend to be that, their minds are already made up. Making them see differently generally doesn't work.
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This.
As a former Republican, probably the most amazing thing of my life has been watching the Republican party abandon all principles and convert to full blown fascism a la Eugene Ionesco's play Rhinoceros.
All of my teen and adult life I've hobby-studied the 1920s-1940s and I could never understand how all of these smart Germans, Italians, Spaniards, and French just rolled over for dictators and evil - and now I deeply and intensely understand.
There are really two general groups of humans when it comes to governance:
* those who are facts/reason driven
* those who are emotions/passion driven
The root of all emotions is fundamentally driven by
The Other: love, hate, fear, jealousy, avarice - with all of this tied to basic needs of food, shelter, sex and the human need to perceive access to those things as fair.
When a human perceives themselves as having less of those things than
The Other they make up a story about it: it's not their fault, it's unfair because [ fill in the blank ]. It's the natural way to cover our weaknesses, humiliations, and fears.
Facts/Reason driven people will tend to design their way out.
An extreme example might be Elon Musk with Tesla - he could sit around and blame others for not living in the low carbon World he desires, instead he designs a way out: the Tesla Model S. Others seeing new access to something they want, can easily get behind this.
Emotions/Passion people tend to blame their way out.
An extreme example might be blaming Jews for not having the things you think you deserve. Now that there's a moral theory, one is justified to take what one wants, as this is now seen as "fair" and "justice". Others seeing new access to something they want, can easily get behind this.
As a country, the US is on the precipice of being destroyed by passions that subvert the processes put in place by our founding fathers to control them - and they predicted this very danger:
On emotions vs reason:"Why has government been instituted at all? Because the passions of men will not conform to the dictates of reason and justice, without constraint."
-Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 15
"Has it not. . . invariably been found that momentary passions, and immediate interests, have a more active and imperious control over human conduct than general or remote considerations of policy, utility and justice?"
-- Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 6, "Concerning Dangers from Dissensions Between the States"
On Russia:"Men are rather reasoning than reasonable animals for the most part governed by the impulse of passion. This is a truth well understood by our adversaries who have practised upon it with no small benefit to their cause."
--Alexander Hamilton, Letter to James A. Bayard, April 16, 1802
On creating facts to justify passions:"We have taken up many ideas upon trust, and at last, pleased with our own opinions, establish them as undoubted truths."
--Alexander Hamilton, as recorded by Robert Yates in the Constitutional Convention, June 22, 1787