BATR August 5 2013
If the human race survives into the future, the history of the current age will be entitled – A Love Affair with Authority. As the 21st century unfolds, the existential struggle between group worship of government and an inherent autonomy revolt against a popular culture of state obedience seems to forecast doom for civilization. By any measurable standard of success, the prospects of rescuing a society based upon human dignity and natural law is vanishing in a technocratic system of coerced compliance and punitive punishment. The limits of individual behavior are severely restricted to the requirements of the State and the willful confines of self-induced conformity.
The prison of institutional establishment restraints, based upon a designed hallucination of media newspeak and trendy pop culture gullibility, has the populace adsorbed in trivia and addicted to a governmental version of reality. The practice of “Free Will”, relegated to the acceptance of government dependency and peer pressure harmony, is common among the ranks of the conflict challenged. The motivation of individual liberty is foreign in the cultural cloning society that makes up the collectivist public consciousness.
Before placing primary blame on the usual suspects – corporatists, banksters, and politico sociopaths – understand the fact that the top down authoritarian framework operates on the tenet that public acceptance of the system is indispensable. What possible psychological disorder is in play that differentiates the current generations from their ancestors?
This inauspicious culture, dominated by the disorder of Groupthink, is explained in an informative power point presentation, from Psychologists for Social Responsibility. From the perspective of an “application of psychological knowledge and expertise in addressing today’s pressing societal challenges and in building cultures of peace with social justice” this left learning society offers the following breakdown.
What is Groupthink?
Groupthink, a term coined by social psychologist Irving Janis (1972), occurs when a group makes faulty decisions because group pressures lead to a deterioration of “mental efficiency, reality testing, and moral judgment” Groups affected by groupthink ignore alternatives and tend to take irrational actions that dehumanize other groups. A group is especially vulnerable to groupthink when its members are similar in background, when the group is insulated from outside opinions, and when there are no clear rules for decision making.