Feelings Over Thinking

Feelings Over Thinking

Several Centuries ago, when the Ideals of Democracy were for the first time envisioned for the Modern World, they referred to their Age as the Age of Reason, and nobody spoke seriously of Democracy without putting forward the corollary notion that Public Education and the unrestricted publication of Ideas would inform the Public Mind and make Democracy Reasonable. Nobody ever supposed that an Uninformed and Unreasonable Public could possibly ever make intelligent and productive political decisions.

But at sometime during this long process toward Democracy the emphasis toward Enlightened Thought and Reasoning was allowed to recede into the Past. A New Ideal arose, though it was not so loudly spoken of, and that was that the Public Mind could be manipulated by Powerful Interests correct in Themselves, and the less the Public was actually Educated, the easier it would be to manipulate the Public Mind for the benefit of these Interests, assumed to be correct in themselves.

Well, actually it was not the Public Mind that would be influenced… we speak of the Public Mind only out of habit… but the Public’s Feelings – unreflective and uninformed gut reaction feelings. The less that anybody actually thought, the better. Feelings from the Heart. The Head would only get in the way of the purity of these feelings.

It puts me in mind of how I have always gotten out of Jury Duty… when the lawyers ask if I have any hobbies, I reply that I read books of fact and I think about it. Lawyers simply do not know what to do with that, as they have grown accustomed to only appealing to people’s feelings.

Now, some people might think that Feelings are the Way to Go, that Feelings are more honest than Thought. We can only Feel Good about Good things and if something makes us Feel Bad, well, it is a clear indication that it is probably bad. It is the Honesty of Aesthetics – the Good is Beautiful, and all Evil is Ugly. Well, that is what they want us to Think. But Art History shows us that Rembrandt thought fat chicks were cute. Feeling, Aesthetics, are not fixed.

But how are Feelings inculcated? All it really takes is Association – reward some Feelings and discourage others. Once Thinking has been discouraged, then the Propaganda Artist has a relatively easy job before him, as long as his Media Resources are veritably endless. For instance, both Nazis and Israelis are in fact bigots and in fact persecute the Minorities within their power (the Nazis call themselves the Master Race, and the Jews call themselves the Chosen People… whatever is the difference), and while the Media unexceptionally vilifies the Nazis, the Israelis, on the other hand are presented as the Chosen People of God, or at least quiet any opposition to Israeli Persecution by associating such criticism to a Renaissance in Nazi Evil. Any THOUGHT would quickly undo this Nonsense, but while the Public Discussion is only conducted within the realm of FEELINGS, then all this irrational manipulation of Public Feeling is allowed to seriously influence World Democratic Politics.

And it is continuing. Now, EVERYTHING BLACK IS GOOD, and all criticism of anything Black is BAD. So attacks on the Gay Community, exploiting easy Religious Based Propaganda being played out on the Black Community is given a Free Pass because it has become politically impossible to criticize anything Black. However, it was recently been uncovered that nearly all the money going into the Black Community to influence their FEELINGS on the Anti-Gay Issue have come from Out of State, from the Mormons in Utah. White Mormons. Again, while the System works only on FEELINGS we are all too easily manipulated by anybody who has become jaded and cynical enough to wish to Pull the Strings.

And few people are aware of the Problem. Even on so called Intellectual Discussion Forums elaborate thought and logical constructions are attacked whenever it is found that it simply does not FEEL RIGHT. And these Sites more often than not go with their Feelings. Feelings are automatic, but it takes work to Think.