Dear Friends,
It seems to me, to take a rattlesnake and put it in your bed in hopes it will become a child, is common today. When a person is disconnected from reality, they can believe anything. This is because reality can no longer correct them. Moreover, if many people believe it, most will go along out of agreeableness. There have even been studies showing this to be true. When a test subject is surrounded by actors, and the actors answered a question in a way that was obviously not true, the subject went along most of the time. This shows we have a strong tendency to go along to get along, even when we know the group is wrong. So an agreeable person will gladly put a rattlesnake in his or her bed… then wake astonished at the mortal snakebite.
When people are isolated from criticism and reality, they become free to believe anything. It’s criticism that grounds us. This is the prickly part, criticism, to have effect must contain a kernel of truth. When I was a child in school, I was picked on for having greasy hair. That motivated me to take more showers to eliminate that avenue of criticism. It worked. If your hair is not greasy, calling it greasy has no meaning, no power. Criticism then has the ability to motivate people to better themselves. Those who live in rural areas have no choice but to engage with reality on a regular basis. It snows so we have to shovel, drive to work on icy roads, do something useful for a living, and maintain a home that wants nothing more than to collapse around our heads and ears. That is contact with reality.
The person who lives in an ivory tower has all those things done for them. They need never contact the reality of life. That’s why the elite can claim they can smell us. It’s because we sweat. Those who never lift a finger never perspire. They are utterly disconnected from reality. This gives them a mindset of superiority. We only see the problems with their plans, they see the potential. There’s an oft repeated story about when the Obama administration took over GM. Elites went to the executives and laid out the ideal car. When told it violated the laws of thermodynamics the officials responded, We have the House, Senate, and Presidency, we can repeal those laws… There is nothing more corrosive of common sense then lack of criticism and living in an ivory tower.
Regular people have a strong motivation to go along to get along. The Asch Conformity Studies concluded that about 75% of people went along at least once with a lie and about 25% never went along. This means that people tend to follow the crowd. Then again, that is an adage for a reason. So, if the leaders of society make absurd claims, about 75% of people will be strongly motivated to go along and 25% will balk. Here’s the problem, it only takes around 20% of a population that is zealous, to control that population. In Nazi Germany at its height, only around 15-20% were actual Nazis. The rest went along to get along. They were epitomized by Sergeant Schultz in the sitcom Hogan’s Heroes. This tells us that it only takes a small amount of people to embrace absurdity, to foist it on the rest.
Sergeant Schultz woke up one morning to find a rattlesnake in his bed. The snake isn’t his enemy, it’s where it shouldn’t be. The people that put it there are merely stupid. Moreover, we are “obligated” to follow the dictates of those who live in ivory towers. Kings used to justify their rule by saying, if it wasn’t the will of God that I rule, then I wouldn’t rule. Our modern philosopher kings, bureaucrats, politicians, and other elites, claim their wealth, power, and education proves they are the most fit to rule, the same argument dressed in atheist garments. This brings us back to where we began, it’s absurd to put a rattlesnake in your bed expecting it to become a child, but not to someone disconnected from reality and above criticism, nor to someone who goes along to get along.
Sincerely,
John Pepin
