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Julian Macfarlane's avatar

A really good, thought-provoking comment "The leaders have no power except the borrowed power of the masses. We create the leaders -- our scapegoats -- because we want them to tell us to do the evil things we secretly want to do. Like screw other nations for our own benefit. Or maintain an unfair status quo." Ouch. I got into an argument with Caitlin Johnstone about this on Twitter. She didn't like my assertion (rather milder than yours, actually) that the public must be held responsible for their leaders, who by and large mirror public biases and behaviors. I write a lot in the field of cognitive and what Pinker calls "evolutionary psychology" (even though no shrink has ever talked to a Neanderthal), and applied ideas picked up in this field in media work mostly successfully, but most people are invested in denying their own responsibility.

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Longtrail's avatar

I'm a big fan of Orwell. Mark Twain is pretty good but can't hold a candle to Orwell. The average (mediocre) American is a dumb animal easily herded.

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