[TheForge] jobs OT

[Andrew Vida]

Grant Marcoux wrote:

>  Acts of terrorism could very well spur the very "fearmongering" you
> reference.  And in such a climate, fear eclipses reasoned debate, the free
> exchange of ideas and transparency. This is the truest threat to our
> existence as a nation.

	Very astutely put, I must say.  What amazes me is the seemingly 
bottomless ability of people to fall for the same tricks over and over 
again.  Recall the old definition of insanity - doing the same thing 
over and over, expecting different results.

	Ever watch "Pinky and the Brain"?  There was one line that was very 
good where Brain says "People believe what they want to believe, Pinky". 
  People WANT to believe such things.  It gives definite form to all 
their fears and therefore makes their lives far easier to live.  I have 
found that many people don't care a whit whether what they believe is 
true or not - whether it is "nice" or not - just as long as it 
simplifies the requirements placed upon their thought processes, such as 
they may be.  AFAICS, most folks are very uncomfortable with 
uncertainty, with shades of grey, with vague notions.  They want to 
believe in something solid, in the absolute.  This is why people have 
maintained their death grips on morbid religions... because the softly 
spoken lies provide an illusion of solidity and security.  People don't 
care if it is false - as long as they can pretend that it is not, they 
can get through their days without imploding.  That is, it makes 
peoples' lives tolerable.  I don't know if this is human nature or the 
product of millenniums of social engineering - I only know that this is 
how many people are.

	One would think that after the unequivocal and unmitigated disasters 
that fascism, NAZIism, and socialism have proven, and given the well 
documented (spec. video) histories of these idiocies, that people would 
be a little smarter, that we would not have fallen for the Bush 
administrations bait.  For pity's sake...

	Sadder still is my prediction that the next one will be as successful 
as the last.  People seem to never learn... almost reflexively.
> 
> The "criminal gang" you reference isn't the Third Reich in the sense of it
> being a state, but rather it is both an aggregation AND and articulation of
> a set of values, which may or may not, now or in the future, have state
> sponsors.  We certainly can't afford to ignore this possibility.

	Interesting notion.  If I read you correctly you are suggesting 
wholesale insanity on the part of an entire nation.  Would not be the 
first time.  Germany was a real good example of this, methinks.