Dear Friends,
It seems to me, a huge percentage of the human race, are effectively pawns without agency. Who? Those who are captured by an idea. They go through life parroting someone else words, zealously acting against their self interest, and daring not allow a thought to pass through their heads that isn’t vetted first. It’s like they’re possessed by demons. The demons in this case are ideas that capture. How can we tell if an idea is one that captures people? By looking at the history of that idea. Has it compelled multitudes to commit countless atrocities? Do people thoughtlessly march lockstep to the notion? Does debate about it generate curiosity… or an emotional explosion? That’s how you can tell a possessed person. Emotional reactions to logical questions.
To be captured by an idea is the easiest thing to do. Many ideologies offer simple black and white answers to grayscale questions. Which makes them easy to apply. The enemy is identified for you, the good guys are as well. All the sycophant need do is follow the leader. Although today’s enemy could be tomorrow’s friend. A position taken with violence today, could be called evil incarnate tomorrow, or visa versa. No thinking is needed. Saving those vital calories to be stored as fat. Being a zealot may be hard work but is lazy thinking. Then again, the ideas that capture were thought up by brilliant people. Why spend the energy trying to out think them? Zealots don’t trend pragmatist. So appeals to logic or outcome fall on deaf ears and blind eyes.
These blurry views of the world though have one thing in common. They all exploit some form of demagoguery. All the problems of the world are the fault of those people. Always people with negative political favor. If a person is, Black, White, a Jew, etc… they’re bad. Or maybe good, depending on the needs of the demagogue, and those needs could change by the day. The elite even demagogue themselves. Which is what happens when one faction of elites demagogues another. Showing an astonishing self blindness. Nevertheless, there is always a disfavored group. That hatred of the disfavored group energizes the robot. Giving it, not him or her, but it, the power to act. Otherwise he or she would feel powerless in the world.
Getting a person who’s possessed by an idea to realize it, is nearly impossible… because it requires several painful acts. The automaton must not only realize but admit to themselves they were wrong all this time. Which gives a sense of loss, betrayal, triggers the collapse of their worldview, and shows someone a part of themselves they had carefully hid. All of which is painful to deal with. The loss of a treasured worldview is like losing a loved one. Then rebuilding it from scratch is hard mental work. Especially for someone who’s let others do their thinking for them. Muscles unused become weak. Then there’s the self realization of having been duped. That can cause shame, indignation and outright rage. Which is why so many prefer to stay in the dream instead of wake to a harsh reality.
We have all been pawns at one time or another. When we’re youths, we lack the life context to recognize ideas that capture. As history shows, ideas that are so glittering they justify any atrocity… never deliver anything, but the atrocities. Those are the ideas that possess men’s souls over and over. Often because they tell people what they want to hear. Instead of the truth. So folks turn over their agency to the idea and become thoughtless robots… capable of anything. Since we’ve all been there, we should have compassion, as well as be wary of them and the evil they can visit. Ideas that possess are lies though, and lies enemy is truth. Moreover, these ideas give a sense of power, and laughter undermines power, like a torrent does to a road. Speaking truth and laughing at absurdity is exercise.
Sincerely,
John Pepin
