Saddam as a boy

Hey Doc, you still ridin' that Harley ?

It is REALLY good to see you back here.

Sorry, don't answer that. I don't want this to go O/T.

 

If you'll go back and look you'll find that I posted the links to any information that I used.


You seem to be suffering from an extreme case of *cognitive dissonance and *group think.


Aesop tells a story about a fox that tried in vain to reach a cluster of grapes that dangled from a vine above his head. The fox leapt high to grasp the grapes, but the delicious-looking fruit remained just out of reach of his snapping jaws. After a few attempts the fox gave up and said to himself, ‘‘These grapes are sour, and if I had some I would not eat them."

Aesop’s fable is the source of the phrase ‘‘sour grapes." The story illustrates what former Stanford University social psychologist Leon Festinger called cognitive dissonance. It is the distressing mental state in which people feel they "find themselves doing things that don’t fit with what they know, or having opinions that do not fit with other opinions they hold."2

The fox’s retreat from the grape arbor clashed with his knowledge that the grapes were tasty. By changing his attitude toward the grapes, he provided an acceptable explanation for his behavior.

Festinger considered the human need to avoid dissonance as basic as the need for safety or the need to satisfy hunger. It is an aversive drive that goads us to be consistent. The tension of dissonance motivates us to change either our behavior or our belief in an effort to avoid a distressing feeling. The more important the issue and the greater the discrepancy between behavior and belief, the higher the magnitude of dissonance that we will feel. In extreme cases cognitive dissonance is like our cringing response to fingernails being scraped on a blackboard—we’ll do anything to get away from the awful sound.

Festinger claimed that people avoid information that is likely to increase dissonance. Not only do we tend to select reading material and television programs that are consistent with our existing beliefs, we usually choose to be with people who are like us. By taking care to ‘‘stick with our own kind," we can maintain the relative comfort of the status quo. Like-minded people buffer us from ideas that could cause discomfort. In that sense, the process of making friends is an example of selecting our own propaganda.


Eight Main Symptoms of Group Think

1) Illusion of Invulnerability: Members ignore obvious danger, take extreme risk, and are overly optimistic.

2) Collective Rationalization: Members discredit and explain away warning contrary to group thinking.

3) Illusion of Morality: Members believe their decisions are morally correct, ignoring the ethical consequences of their decisions.

4) Excessive Stereotyping:The group constructs negative sterotypes of rivals outside the group.

5) Pressure for Conformity: Members pressure any in the group who express arguments against the group's stereotypes, illusions, or commitments, viewing such opposition as disloyalty.

6) Self-Censorship: Members withhold their dissenting views and counter-arguments.

7) Illusion of Unanimity: Members perceive falsely that everyone agrees with the group's decision; silence is seen as consent.

8) Mindguards: Some members appoint themselves to the role of protecting the group from adverse information that might threaten group complacency.


I understand the pain you are suffering from the effects of dissonance and the need you have to seek comfort in the herd.

I understand that you've been subjected to years of government propaganda through a complicit corporate media.

I understand that after all these years of living in denial and taking shelter among the sheople facing reality isn't going to be automatic and painless for you. So in the interest of fair play and Christian forgivness I'm not going to react to any more of your insults in like manner.

* note * You'll find that I posted links to the information contained in this post at the begining.

 

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