Tuesday, July 24, 2007

THE DEVIL YOU SAY
"Mass movements can rise and spread without belief in a God, but never without belief in a Devil.

Every difficulty and failure within the movement is the work of the devil, and every success is a triumph over his evil plotting.

The ideal devil is a foreigner. Self contempt is here transmuted into hatred of others. They are an expression of a desperate effort to suppress an awareness of our inadequacy, worthlessness, guilt, and other shortcomings of the self.

The most effective way to silence our guilty conscience is to convince ourselves and and others that those we have sinned against are indeed depraved creatures, deserving every punishment, even extermination. "


Does this scenario sound familiar?


Bush found his perfect Devil in Osama Bin Laden just as Hitler blamed the Jew and the Puritans blamed the Normans. It seems that homo escapeons always resort to some form of xenophobic Devil to distract themselves from their own shortcomings.

One of my favorite books is THE TRUE BELIEVER by Eric Hoffer (1951) Harper & Row, which examines the psychology behind mass movements. Fanatics from many different groups can easily be exchanged with other groups because the dynamics stay constant and sadly people don't seem to change much.
I often wonder how long it will take for the majority of humans to intermingle, share DNA, and produce a more uniform looking species. Of course we will still have the customs, religions, and traditions of foreigners to HATE even once we all look identical. We will never run out of Devils!
That is really pathetic.

24 comments:

  1. Anonymous10:22 am

    is it just me or didn't you always secretly want the cartoon-baddies to win? Just once?

    I'm not sure how my comment is relevant.

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  2. Yes, even if you have identical twins, they will always have their differences.
    You're right, we'll never run out of Devils... but we could run out of determination to stand up to them and then humanity will be a green mass of vegetables.
    Do you think there'll still be heroes?

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  3. Hey you,

    We are already there. We think alike in so many ways that we look the same. Think about this, if we are told to hate government is wrong and unpatriotic then the "mass" believes it. To the point of fearing not believing it.

    We are told to be thin is good and healthy. Now I would agree, but I would not agree that people should be treated as though they are beneath us because they have too much weight, flip it and be too thin and well you have to have something wrong with you as well and so we believe it; adding our own distaste shunning them and adding stigma to them, therefore making our children believe the same.

    The government tells us that Iraq is now filled to their hip boots with Bin Laden's boys and we believe it. It might be true but we do not ask for proof, just like those mass destruction weapons right? We still stayed there and now Bush has found a new way to keep us there.

    Big brother is watching so intently that we are seen on an average of 7 cameras a day and thats without trying.... We do not need to physically look alike because we act like marching soldiers afraid of our own shadows playing follow the leader. Ugh, I am rambling. I think the world is headed for hell if we do not stop the madness and remember the love...

    As always I enjoy you

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  4. I wouldn't mind trying to find the book you mention at my local libraray. In fact, I shall do that tomorrow after I ahve been to gym.

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  5. Weirdly enough...I was thinking of the devil and our perception of "it" today as I was building a shelf in my workshop. I was sanding away at a length of pine and I considered things that I have sanded away from my faith construct...the concept of a devil being one thing. I have a new name for the devil, and it is FEAR. THAT devil is real in all of us. But that's all the devil is. If we stand up to it and call it by it's name, it has quite a bit less power each time.

    Not bad for an afternoon's work. And I only got into the Crown Royal once the project was done...go figure.

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  6. Powerfully true and to the point.

    Great to see your illustrations appear on your blog again.

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  7. Always thought provoking. I've never thought of the devil as propaganda. It saddens me that so many of us are gullible and ignorant. I don't see a change anytime either.

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  8. Reading this for some reason reminded me of that old Twilight Zone episode...

    But yes, no matter how uniform we may eventually evolve into being, there will always be a reason for hatred.

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  9. seriosuly this is thought provoking. The good thing is I belong to an evil organization know as science fiction lovers. Heh! :p

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  10. "I often wonder how long it will take for the majority of humans to intermingle, share DNA, and produce a more uniform looking species. "

    Overpopulation will kill us first.

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  11. dude- you shoulda been twins!!!

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  12. Anonymous11:29 am

    If there is no hatred, how do the so called world leaders survive?

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  13. Homey you nailed it right on the head. There will always be a "devil" because people are intrinsically hateful and will kill each other for nary a reason. Take me, for example. I'm a raving bitch - just show me a picture of a NeoCon Mysogynistic Republican and I'm ready to stab him with a fork. And I'm extremely non-violent. I guess we look for justifications everywhere to make up for our reasoning that tells us that we're being silly.

    Was WW right? Those are your doodles? I likes 'em. :) Good post!

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  14. so to get down to the root of it, what's displacement? is it a pack mentality artifact? this is something that i've wondered about for years. (in fact it was a therapy issue for me. )
    if you take that viewpoint you can see where it might have been really useful as a group device when it came to identifying and eliminating environmental competitors. on that level, fine.
    but it operates automatically, and it comes into being automatically whenever a group of people form.
    that property right there completely freaks the shit out of me. it literally is irrational.
    *returns to tiny hut on remote mountaintop*

    excellent, btw!!!

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  15. fathorse,
    You are not alone..since the 70s, Sympathy for the Devil and rooting for the Anti-Hero has become the mainstay of modern Art...well Film anyway.
    Think about it. Poor Lucifer,Star of the Morning, God's favorite creature, finally losses it and rebels with one third of the other angels and get sentenced to Earth...then God creates these free will monkeys and 'loves' them more than his old favorite, Lucifer.

    Poor Devil.

    Cream,
    There will always be Heroes because Heroes sell papers! It is surprising that the best educated humans in history elected a serial fibber TWICE..oh yeah I forgot they were too busy consuming to think about Politics.

    Inside Our Hands,
    Wasn't it Anderson Cooper's Mommy who said that you can never be too thin or too rich?
    IO actually prefer having surveilance everywhere..not as a deterrent, because the idiots who commit crimes aren't that bright, but as a recording of a crime so that we can prosecute them AFTER. The bommbers in England would have never been caught without all of those cameras...unfortunately most of the 'good' citizens get screwed by the few bad apples.

    See we need Darwinian tactics to just eliminate the bad seed.

    Cazzmania,
    It's an oldie but a goodie. Another would be the Culture Of Narcissism by Christopher Lasch.
    Believer is smaller and handled in snippets while narcissism is the full on frontal lobe assault..you know read a sentence gulp..digest..move on to next paragraph..but everything in that book was a lightbulb type experience, for me anyway.

    Brian the Millwright,
    Cardinal Ximinez once said:

    "NOBODY expects the Spanish Inquisition!
    Our chief weapon is surprise...
    surprise and FEAR...
    FEAR and surprise....
    Our two weapons are FEAR and surprise...
    and ruthless efficiency....
    Our *three* weapons are FEAR, surprise, and ruthless efficiency...
    and an almost fanatical devotion to the Pope....
    Our *four*...
    no...
    *Amongst* our weapons....
    Amongst our weaponry...
    are such elements as FEAR, surprise....
    I'll come in again."

    Without Warning,
    I can't remember what set this off..I think that it was after watching these Senators trying to persuade the Press that Bush shouldn't be Impeached for Lying and that they can't pull out of Irag in under 10 months...a battalion at a time or something, and the Pentagon has not started any of those preparations..

    Christine,
    It will never change because we free will monkeys like being scared. Why do you think that they make so many slasher/horror mopvies...we like it! DOH!

    Awaiting,
    So nice to see you again! Isn't it sad that we as a species can be equally capable of producing horrors or miracles...I hate that.

    ghosty,
    Yes and a tricky lot you are indeed. So many great and practical ideas have come out of Science Fiction/Fantasy that we totally expect to have all of the doodads that we see in Movies. I want a Transporter...Time Travelling outside of my head would be the greatest thing EVER!

    Allan!
    OUCH! You are probably true but I usually like to reserve the worst case scenario for myself. Some little virus will be accomodated by our overpopulation and reduce out ridiculous 6.6 Billion population down to a more manageable couple of million worldwide.....probably in our lifetime now that we intermingle so much...scary.

    Angel,
    Sometimes I think that there may be two of me..atleast..Cognitive Dissonance is the fancy schmancy term that they give to the feeling of uncomfortable tension which comes from holding two conflicting thoughts in the mind at the same time...don't we all?

    gautami,
    Hmmm. Well there is still inherent gullability to be manipulated by bells and whistles!The most famous leaders in History are those whom can be credited with STARTING and ENDING conflicts.

    tidalgrrrl,
    Shelley you are awesome! We all loathe those neo-con misogynistic aresholes..even they hate themselves...even the Devil hates them because they are so annoying.

    I try to justify my existence every morning...today is the first day of the rest of my life..and I'm good enough, smart enough, and doggonit, people like me.

    first nations,
    No kidding! I get very nervous in crowds because sheeple can bunch up into a 'Bait Ball' at the first sign of predation and if you, for whatever reason, don't fit in...you are abandoned or even attacked as the herd mentality prevails...WTF!?

    I agree this was obviously a natural response from our 'caveperson' ancestors but it would not have taken very long before serious inbreeding would occur and outside genes would have been very much in demand

    ...but it does explain why the fiddle and moonshine were invented about 500,000 years before the wheel!

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  16. Anonymous7:56 pm

    Well said.
    WE need an enemy people are more compliant when scared. WE have our intangiable enemies, the devil (the one who questions, brings enlightenment lucifer) we have the terrorists, Or the bushism Evil doers; they may be anywhere or everywhere most likely in areas that contain oil.

    Racial intermingling, we will find something to get scared of, maybe not quite the right shade of pink?

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  17. Mmmm, we may move around continents, but you're right, we have a long way to go before we're integrated. As a foreigner myself I believe in the philosophy: When in Rome, do as the Romans do!

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  18. When in Rome, we can happily do as the Romans do...but when in Baghdad, can we?

    Keshi.

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  19. Shelley:

    Yes, they're his illustrations, his artwork. I keep telling him to use them more, but he doesn't...

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  20. aidan,
    We won't be very pink in the future...except for those of us who decide to wait it out in subterranean societies.

    I always liked the Road Warrior (except there won't be ANY petrol) because of the feral boy and his little boomerang.

    hi bibi,
    Especially whilst lazing away a summer afternoon watching the gladiators. The Life of Brian always come to mind now and I think 'bloody Romans what have they ever done for us?
    "All right, but apart from the sanitation, medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, the fresh water system and public health, what have the Romans ever done for us?
    Attendee: Brought peace?
    Reg: Oh, peace - shut up!
    Reg: There is not one of us who would not gladly suffer death to rid this country of the Romans once and for all.
    Dissenter: Uh, well, one.
    Reg: Oh, yeah, yeah, there's one. But otherwise, we're solid."

    keshtar,
    Baghdad was a very secular city and I always wondered what the hell Bush was talking about when he said that Saddam and Osama were allies? From what I read they hated each other...couldn't have been more different..other than the megalomania. Don't get me started..

    snippets from a spaceman,
    I will look in my chest of drawers for any relevent doodles. I should show all of my abandoned cartoon strips...hmm.

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  21. Unfortunately, humans evolved as tribal creatures. For the sake of survival, and for territorial issues, any individual from another tribe must be considered suspect. Possibly a way of making sure we don't over-populate? I guess if we're always killing each other there's no risk of producing more humans than the environment can sustain.

    But yeah, it's pathetic.

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  22. I was going to say something pertinent, but now I'm just laughing and humming Always Look on the Bright Side of Life to myself

    so there you go!

    (am blogging from a hotel reception in the south of France and the other guests think I've gone quite mad)

    :-)

    (drag out the cartoon strips, why don't you. . .)(go on!)

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  23. HEY!! that's so funny

    I was thinkig of Mr Creosote tonight while I sat there. . .

    :-D

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  24. I wonder if we like feeling the fear because we like feeling protected. Maybe too many of us feel small and powerless and so we like hearing that there's a huge evil force out there from which we are being protected.

    I don't know. I'm just babbling, I guess. For a moment I was relating my craving for pain (which is directly connected to my craving for being comforted) to people's craving for fear.

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