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Conspiracy Theorem: An Attack on Freedom

I have just been reading Karl Popper’s famous work, The Open Society and Its Enemies. I highly recommend both volumes, particularly Volume One, ‘The Spell of Plato’. But I am going to discuss an issue raised in Volume Two, titled ‘Hegel and Marx’. This volume is basically an attack on fascism, nationalism, Marxism and Communism.

How does this relate to conspiracy theorism?

I will quote a relatively lengthy passage:

… I shall briefly describe a theory which is widely held but which assumes what I consider the very opposite of the true aim of the social sciences; I call it the ‘conspiracy theory of society’ . It is the view that an explanation of a social phenomen consists in the discovery of the men or groups who are interested in the occurrence of this phenomenon (sometimes it is a hidden interest which has first to be revealed), and who have planned and conspired to bring it about.

This view of the aims of the social sciences arises, of course, from the mistaken theory that, whatever happens in society–especially happensings such as war, unemployment, poverty, shortages, which people as a rule dislike–is the result of direct design by some powerful individuals and groups. This theory is widely held; it is older even then historicism (which, as shown by its primitive theistic form, is a derivative of the conspriracy theory). In its modern forms it is, like modern historicism, and a certain modern attitude towards ‘natural laws’, a typicl result of the secularization of a religious superstition.

…

The gods are abandoned. But their place is filled by powerful men or groups–sinister pressure groups whose wickedness is responsible for all the evils we suffer from–such as the Learned Elders of Zion, or the monopolists, or the capitalists, or the imperialists.

Rasgará el otro lado del cielo que el sol viagra femenina pero mucho. Categoría bosniak Causas de la disfunción eréctil y su solución con Levitra de 10 mg y 20 mg i tienen menos de 190 millones de kilómetros.

I do not wish to imply that conspiracies never happen. On the contrary, they are typical social phenomena.

…

Conspiracies occur, it must be admitted. But the striking fact which, in spite of their occurrence, disproves the conspiracy theory is that few of these conspiracies are ultimately successful. Conspirators rarely consumate their conspiracy .

Why is this so? … many unforeseen reactions in this framework [the framework being society], some of them perhaps unforeseeable.

Basically, what Popper is saying here is that the chances of particular social changes being the result of a conspiracy are small because our ability to predict the result of our actions is small. The notion that a small group of super intelligent individuals mould the world to its own end is a throwback to religious notions. As he says, this does not mean that there are not conspiracies and conspirators. But they are always going to be limited in what they can achieve.

I should note that Popper is mainly talking about longer term conspiracies here that affect the social structure of society in significant ways. But the principle can be applied to more short term ones also. And generally people who view events in conspiracy theorist ways will tend to link long-term events to short-term ones in any case – the movie Zeitgeist is a typical example.

How, though, is conspiracy ‘an attack on freedom’? Simple: if we view events in the world through the prism of conspiracy theorem, we must automatically move towards irrationality. We must being to presuppose that X event had a specific aim behind it and that the aim can be discerned from the event. However, the world does not work like that. We cannot take an event and determine motive from that event. We cannot conclude, for example, from the fact that one person shot another that one person wishing another person dead was behind the event. It might be. But that cannot be concluded from the event alone.

If we could derive motives from events then we start having to make all kinds of nonsensical connections: for example, if the all powerful group that we are talking about is Bush and his cronies, then the very fact that they lost power must have had a motive, and the motive must be theirs. So this event must be part of the conspiracy. And so we search for the motive behind the event, not pausing to consider that they might not be in control.

I know that the vast majority of conspiracy theorists do not go as far as the above. But they do take the first steps on this path – this path of irrationality; worse: this path of anti-rationality.

And anti-rationality – the assault on reason – is and always has been a direct attack on freedom. Plato called being kept in one’s place within the state ‘justice’; Hegel turned a lack of a constitution into the highest form of constitutional government. They destroyed reason and with it freedom. Post-modernist turned scientific fact into mere opinion and allowed any text to have any meaning whatsoever; linguistic philosophy aided this assault on reason and on meaning by demanding definition of terms when that led to an infinite regress. 

Without rational thought, we cannot create and sustain the open society.

Conspiracy theorem – and its result, counter-knowledge – is an assault on rational thought. Thus, it is a direct attack on freedom.

None of this is intended to disprove any particular conspiracy theory. What it is intended to do is to try to get people to set aside the habit, if such they have, of viewing events in the world through conspiracy theorist eyes.

412 replies on “Conspiracy Theorem: An Attack on Freedom”

Conspiracy theory. Though conspiracy theorists are quickly dismissed as not credible, it is worth noting that the U.S. Government itself believes in conspiracies as there are many laws written for conspiracy.

New Documents Show Rove’s Role In Political Firings: Help Us Read Through Them.
===============================================
Before they found the emails it was called a conspiracy theory, now they have the emails its called a CONSPIRACY. It is no longer a theory. Get it?
The Huffington Post

Chris B,

I am unclear how a terrorist who committed his atrocity 14 years ago is evidence that there has been a recent rise in milita groups across the US. It is rather like saying that because it was colder 14 years ago than it is today, that is evidence of global cooling … 😉

Having said that, I have no problem believing that militia groups are on the rise in the US. I have read similar things elsewhere.

Chris B at 101,

I am not sure how many times that I have already said this, but I guess I need to say it again: I know that conspiracies exist. As Popper said:

“I do not wish to imply that conspiracies never happen. On the contrary, they are typical social phenomena.”

So, saying that conspiracies exist does not actually address my arguments. 🙂

Chris B,

It depends on how you are using the word ‘theory’. In scientific terms, a theory only comes into being, so to speak, once sufficient evidence has accumulated to support it. Thus, the theory of evolution is a theory *because* there is a lot of evidence to support it.

Conspiracy theories, in the sense that I have been discussing, are on the other hand noteworthy for the paucity of evidence for them. Or another way of looking at is that *everything* is seen as evidence for them by the conspiracy theorists who believe them.

Fox News won a court appeal, saying it has the right to tell lies.
===============================================

A wrongful dismissal lawsuit was filed by Akre, which she won.The jury unanimously ruled that she was only doing her job as a journalist by refusing to air “a false, distorted or slanted story.”

FOX appealed, and the result was stunning. “During their appeal, FOX asserted that there are no written rules against distorting news in the media. They argued that, under the First Amendment, broadcasters have the right to lie or deliberately distort news reports on public airwaves.” On February 14, 2003 the Florida Second District Court of Appeals unanimously overturned the settlement awarded to Akre. The Court held that Akre’s threat to report the station’s actions to the FCC did not deserve protection under Florida’s whistle blower statute, because Florida’s whistle blower law states that an employer must violate an adopted “law, rule, or regulation.” In a stunningly narrow interpretation of FCC rules, the Florida Appeals court claimed that the FCC policy against falsification of the news does not rise to the level of a “law, rule, or regulation,” it was simply a “policy.” Therefore, it is up to the station whether or not it wants to report honestly.

================================================
Read the rest on: The Existentialist Cowboy.
http://existentialistcowboy.blogspot.com

Chris B,

Yep. I only believe the ones for which there is actual substantive evidence. I’m real picky that way … 😉

As to the Cowboy site, I will quote one thing:

“Make no mistake about this! The ‘Tea Baggers’ are armed to the teeth and they intend to kill you on behalf of a tiny elite of just one percent of the United States population.”

Credible? Not so much.

David, you have reached your own personal utopia *.

you have created the perfect circular argument.

*insert good natured wink icon (as i am a nuffer and don’t know how to do smilies or whatever they are)

You use the semicolon and right bracket symbols ; ) close together, though. And I am not much better – there are lots of these things, apparently, but I do not know how to access them …

Can you explain what you mean by the circular argument? I am assuming it is to do with my comments on evidence but I may well be wrong.

Yes David is running around in circles again!!!! He has always used circular arguments. You get dizzy running around in circles. And its not credible!!!!

My brother in law does the same thing and it annoys the hell out of me. Thank god he’s just gone back to Darwin. The good thing about David is, he uses it only on conspiracy theories. Geoff does it when he talks about EVERYTHING!!!!!!

So you would have thought the earth was flat until there was evidence. You would have thought the sun went around the earth till there was evidence, you would have thought man could not fly until there was evidence!!!

And probably had Copernicus executed for conspiracy theories against the Catholic Church!!!

Chris B at 120, 121, 122, 123, 124 …
Congrats – the lack of evidence, logic, or structural analysis in them there comments is a refreshing example of free speech in action!

😉

Chris B,

Yes, I would likely have thought that the earth was flat until evidence was presented otherwise. I do not believe in things until I get evidence for them.

As to Copernicus, he presented evidence. Unfortunately, the Catholic Church never have. So, I think you have me on the wrong side there.

And are you admitting that you *do* believe in things without evidence?

Chris B,

As you have discerned the circular argument that HarryH referred to, perhaps you can bring it to my attention so I can address it?

114
HarryH
I knew nuffin about the smilies as well.
That is until our tidy little house mouse,Catrina, put a link at the top of the page, in the pages box, to Playground.
Click on playground and scroll down.
Then just copy the :…..: beside which smilie you want and then paste it where you want it, making sure you leave at least one space either side of your smilie.

I should have seen that from the beginning. I’ve seen the movie ‘Pi’, after all.

David at 130

As a result of your post, I did a little digging into definitions and history related to “conspiracy theory”. The Wikipedia definition [1] (posted by Chris a little earlier) is a really good read in that it delves into a lot of the sociological underpinning of the behaviour. Some interesting factoids I noticed included a suggestion that the negative inference only emerged rather recently.

The first recorded use of the phrase “conspiracy theory” dates from 1909. Originally it was a neutral term but during the political upheaval of the 1960s it acquired its current derogatory sense. It entered the supplement to the Oxford English Dictionary as late as 1997.

While reading the following I couldn’t help but think about the current events over in the US and the trends linked to birthers, deathers, etc.

According to some psychologists, a person who believes in one conspiracy theory tends to believe in others; a person who does not believe in one conspiracy theory tends not to believe another. This may be caused by differences in the information upon which parties rely in formulating their conclusions.

Finally, my little ‘the truth is out there’ reference at 130 was a synaptic trigger based on this little snippet …

The X-Files was a popular television show during the 1990s and early 2000s, which followed the investigations of three FBI agents, Fox Mulder, Dana Scully and John Doggett, who were sometimes helped by a group of conspiracy theorists known as The Lone Gunmen. Many of the episodes dealt with a plot for alien invasion overseen by elements of the U.S. government, led by an individual known only as the Cigarette Smoking Man and an even more mysterious international “Syndicate”. The famous tag line of the series, “The Truth Is Out There”, can be interpreted as reference to the meaning-seeking nature of the genre discussed above.

Great post by the way!

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conspiracy_theory

Looks like there is a conspiracy afoot to undermine the healthcare insurance robbers.
Doin a Fred. Hollows that is.

I write and talk for a living. And I’ve pontificated endlessly about exploding volcanoes, mass shootings and disastrous storms. But some of what I saw at the county fairgrounds in Wise, Va., last month left me wordless.

For 2 1/2 days, about 800 doctors, nurses, dentists and optometrists treated 2,700 uninsured and underinsured people, most from Appalachia. No one was asked for an insurance card. There were no copays. And there were no bills.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=111676259

Catrina,

Thanks. 🙂 (Although I left a lot – a huge number, actually – of proofreading errors in it …)

It seem that Popper to some extent pre-empted/anticipated the negative connotations (his book was written during WW2).

I have certainly noticed a clustering of conspiracy theory beliefs. As an example, people who have black helicopter, One World Government and anti-christ fantasies tend to believe in things like the birther conspiracy. There do tend to be right-wing conspiracies and left-wing conspiracies, though, which split the groupings.

And I certainly think that it is a personality/brain structure thing.

Loved most of the first five seasons of the x-files (although I preferred the non-arc episodes best) and loved the lone gunman spin-off series, too. However, Scully annoyed the heck out of me. How could you *still* be a sceptic after seeing all the evidence she did? Over time, Mulder became the rational one and she the irrational one, simply on weight of evidence …

EC
You will have to learn to lay in bed with a good moniter (not the lizard version).
Dead tree books are winging their way with the newspapers and dinosaurs. Waiting for the evidence to see if it is a conspiracy.
Knowing my luck someone will spam me with an E-New Fricken Testament.

Is Google playing by the book?

Many people on summer vacation may be deep into a juicy paperback right now. But while they’re cooking through “Julie & Julia,” or rocketing through the twists and turns of “The Time Traveler’s Wife,” the future of the book industry – who will control which books can be viewed online – is being weighed by a federal judge.

For several years Google, the Internet search and advertising giant, has been scanning millions of books for digital use. The aim of this huge effort is to make available online as much of the world’s written record as possible. But shortly after Google began, it was sued by authors and publishers for alleged copyright infringement.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0807/p08s01-comv.html

But Chris, they save a thousand words 🙁
——————————–
Sir Cumfrence-Gould:
“I should have seen that from the beginning. I’ve seen the movie ‘Pi’, after all.”
Yeah, David, was a real no-brainer in the end.
———————————-

http://www.truthdig.com/cartoon/print/20090811_war_is/

~All the war-propaganda, all the screaming and lies and hatred, comes invariably from people who are not fighting.

~Every war when it comes, or before it comes, is represented not as a war but as an act of self-defense against a homicidal maniac.

George Orwell.

Pillowtalk, Winston to Julia in happier times, back in ’84. 🙂

“In accordance to the principles of Doublethink, it does not matter if the war is not real, or when it is, that victory is not possible. The war is not meant to be won. It is meant to be *continuous*. The essential act of modern warfare is the destruction of the produce of human labor. A hierarchical society is only possible on the basis of poverty and ignorance. In principle, the war effort is always planned to keep society on the brink of starvation. The war is waged by the ruling group against its own subjects. And its object is not victory over Eurasia or Eastasia, but to keep the very structure of society intact.”

Fish Music:

“And it’s one, two, three,

What are we fighting for?

Don’t ask me

I don’t give a damn,

Next stop’s Afghanistan….”

(we are now in Escalation Phase. A nice round of applause for all those Military Advisors for a job well done……)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBdeCxJmcAo

Ghostie you can get to earlier comments via the Older Comments tag…… top left of the “Leave a Reply” box.
———————–
“EC
You will have to learn to lay in bed with a good moniter (not the lizard version).
Dead tree books are winging their way with the newspapers and dinosaurs. ”

gaffy, how can a bloke like me fall asleep with a freaking monitor on my lap. I’ve seen young commuters reading “a book” on a monitor, even pegged a desperate news junky with his Apple on his lap in the sack but for me, such reliance if not slavishness to the electronic medium for one of life’s greatest pleasure (the unmittigated joy of reading an author who writes well) is un-natural beyond abomination!

Reading “a book” in bed on a monitor is the literary equivalent of porking a blow-up doll.
Frankly, I’d rather take the lizard for a gallop! :mrgreen:

How much per litre will big oil charge when the new hybrids like Volt hit the streets. They will have to charge $20 per litre to keep their profit margins healthy wouldn’t they?

General Motors said Tuesday its Chevrolet Volt electric car could get 230 mpg in city driving, making it the first American vehicle to achieve triple-digit fuel economy if that figure is confirmed by federal regulators.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/11/gm-new-chevy-volt-to-get-_n_256369.html

135
That’s a bloody good tale gaff.
We can thank our lucky stars, we were cursed with that nasty old socialist, G.Whitlam. :mrgreen:
If only he hadn’t destroyed the “natural order” of a proper private health care system, we could all be happily living in that glorious American dream.
Oh poor Australia. 👿

Sky set to sparkle with meteor shower!

“The big ones – up to the size of a teacup – they make spectacular patterns across the sky and if it’s about the size of a football, which is very rare, some of those will actually make it down onto the ground.”

The Department of Inter-Stellar Hygeine issued a Severe Warning to children, romantic poets and singer/songwriters. They should not under any circumstances attempt to “catch” any cosmic debris or “put it in their pocket”.
Authorities are uncertain as to the origin of the “falling stars” and fear they could lead to a Flash-Pandemic, the consequences of which could be terminal for terrestrial life at large.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/08/12/2653700.htm

Prometheus to Hercules:

“You’ve been under that goddamn shower for hours, you selfish prick, I’ve got a hot date with Medusa and she always has one of her hissy fits when I’m late.”

146 gaffhook Johnny Cash Available on the new ABC digital Country and Western station. (Both kinds of music)

Jen @152
I’m just pleasantly surprised that Tony Abbott has produced such an insightful daughter. Incredible.

154 Katielou Maybe because he is not home to “control” her.
.
158 David Gould Don’t be greedy. 😈

Re Abbott’s daughter – given his mistakes about siring children who could know for sure??
:mrgreen:

Oh Gosh – that really was unworthy of me to cast such aspercians on our esteemed moral leader in the house.
Plaese ignore .
😎

Lol Jen.
Don’t worry – just remember his complaints about Bernie Banton shortly before he died – I think that may assuage any guilty feelings.

“I will give David one thing with this post. Boy has he livened things up in here!!!!!”

Sure has, Chris. O.K., no torture stuff today. 🙁

Re The Mad Monk;
squizzed episode III of “The Accursed Kings” last night on SBS for the twin blisses of hearing quality actors speak in their lingua franca and watching the mesmerising, Jeanne Moreau….. when it occurred to me that a devoutly religious, Vatican-lovin’, power-mongering bully like Abbott would be completely in his element. Might have to polish up on his Frogspeak, but he’d be a barge-up-start, no worries.

Anyway, when it dawned that the “sets” where the series was filmed are where a lot of the “original action” took place, the history assumes yet another delicious dimension.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Accursed_Kings

David better write the next one too. He set a high standard though. Maybe like Michael Jackson after Thriller, he can’t keep up that standard. 😆

Yep
Move along folks, nuthin to see here.
There will be no more vote rigging conspiracies with the new fandangled unhackable Sequoia electronic voting machines.
Yeah Right!
I wont mind as long as Barry has got charge of them this time.

Voting machines must remain secure throughout their entire service lifetime, and this study demonstrates how a relatively new programming technique can be used to take control of a voting machine that was designed to resist takeover, but that did not anticipate this new kind of malicious programming,” said Hovav Shacham, a professor of computer science at UC San Diego’s Jacobs School of Engineering and an author on the new study presented on August 10, 2009 at the 2009 Electronic Voting Technology Workshop / Workshop on Trustworthy Elections (EVT/WOTE 2009), the premier academic forum for voting security research.

http://www.physorg.com/news169133727.html

173 The Cyrillic alphabet is starting to make an appearance. Its only gone online recently. Till now 1/3 of the population hasn’t been able to use the Internet because there was no Cyrillic alphabet. This will bring more ways of thinking outside the square or changing the paradigm.

Dean: “There Will Be Primaries” For Dems Who Vote Against Public Option.
————————————————————————————–
About time someone stood up for the public option.
Maybe Dean should be the leader of the liberals.
continued in The Huffington Post

“Conspiracy Theorem: An Attack on Freedom” Yes, Rupert Murdochs freedom to have this government eliminated by fair means or foul! As in 177 and 178. Oh! Sorry their is no evidence is there?

When a regime restrains you with a jackboot to the neck then sinks it’s teeth into you……… what does it say?

“Hello Breakfast!”

Farewell dear Habeas, and poor Geneva; I knew thee both well.

…..this week is the 60th birthday of the Geneva Conventions, which were supposed to protect civilians, the wounded and prisoners of war during times of armed conflict.
Fat lot of good they did Hicks and other enemy combatants facing bogus charges. President George Bush said they didn’t apply to his prisoners of war.
Anything is possible, and a discussion paper won’t amount to a hill of beans once the regime decides to sink its teeth into you.

http://www.smh.com.au/action/printArticle?id=678942

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3_4SWpudEM
——————

http://editorialcartoonists.com/cartoon/display.cfm/74399

Se ya later, Les Paul, thanks for all the memories. The big juke joint in the sky never closes. Y’ain’t ever gonna be short of jammers.

“Jeff Beck (The Yardbirds/solo) purchased his first Les Paul, a 1959 model, for £150 while still a member of The Yardbirds. Beck’s fascination with the guitar sprang as much from his interest in Les Paul, the man, as from his love of the guitar itself. Beck told an interviewer: “It had a deep powerful sound and you could use it to imitate just about anything – violin, sax, cello, even a sitar.”[6] Beck also used an “oxblood” coloured 1954 Les Paul Standard, with PAF pickups, from 1972-1976 and is pictured with the guitar on the cover artwork of his Blow by Blow album in 1975″ (wiki)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=skYnG_M_NPs&feature=fvw

Chris B: making wild claims without evidence should be left to the professionals, such as Coulter and Beck.

Was reading the blogs and watching Q Time and digesting the usual politics stuff this week and got to thinking for a minute about future leaders for both parties:

For mine:

Labour:

1) Obviously Gillard is the standout and near certain next Leader ( you would think anyway). She has all the credentials and gravitas etc… but female Leaders in Oz seem to be risky politically?

2) Greg Combet impresses me as a future PM. I think he has all the ingredients to be PM. For some reason every time i watch Combet speak i get the feeling of future PM.

I don’t really see a future PM amongst the “Right” factions to be honest. And really, anyone who leads the Labour Party will lead from the Centre Right position. That is their territory and where their votes are. Shorten?..don’t think so..Tony Burke?…maybe, but is he a bit like Hockey…not much underneath.

Libs:

1) Greg Hunt. I don’t know why but Hunt seems to me to be the only Lib who has future Leadership potential. And lets face it , future really does mean future when we are looking for a Lib Leader. I think his Lib ideology and his Age and his impressiveness all work in his favour as next potential Lib PM.

I can’t see anyone else. No Howard leftover … No Young Lib alumni … Dutton seems laughable to me ( interested in others thoughts on him).

Greens:

And what about the Greens. Who are their future Leaders.

Anyway, what are other tics off the cuff opinions?

Harry H at 184
I agree that Both Julia and Greg are presenting the right stuff for future leadership material. In the longer term I also be keeping an eye on Penny Wong. As for the Liberal party – no idea. I figure the party needs to go though a couple of revolutions first.

re The Greens future leadership –
Richard diNatale (not even in the senate yet despite the vote he scored -over 10 % of primaries: fielding 1.8% … go figure).
a GP, smart, personable, moderate but committed – does the whole sustainable living thing – worked all over the developing world and in indigeneous communities, and still likes a good latte and a funky haircut.
He’s the guy.

As for The Libs- If Greg Hunt is their best bet then I suggest we go back to the notion of conception – as in, the ones that haven’t happened yet. Hunt would be eaten alive by any reasonable parliamentary performer on any side of the fence.
i’m going for the ovum in the ovary in the yet-unborn child of someone we have never heard of.
It’s a long time in the wilderness when you have behaved with such depravity and moral indecency as the Former Government.
And good thing too.
😎

Clinton Urges Progressive Push On Health Care, Shoots Down Euthanasia Myth.
==============================================

In a speech rallying progressives to make one last major push to pass health care reform, former President Bill Clinton accused Republicans of propagating a campaign of disinformation reminiscent of the effort to bring down his own attempt at reform.

“Do you want to go through that again?” the 42nd President asked the crowd of bloggers, online activists, and a slew of Democratic lawmakers at the Netroots Nation convention in Pittsburgh. “Of course you don’t. I’m telling you no matter how low they drive support for this with misinformation, the minute the president signs a health care reform bill his approval will go up. Secondly, within a year, when all those bad things they say will happen don’t happen, and all the good things happen, approval will explode.”

The remarks fit into the wider theme of Clinton’s more than hour-long address. Fresh off a trip to North Korea, in which he negotiated the release of two imprisoned American journalists, and with a sore voice, the former president declared the moment to be ripe for a progressive political era that could last “30 to 40 years.”

continued on The Huffington Post

184 HarryH For years when Hawke was in power the ALP had heaps of leaders the Liberals had no one. The Liberals got back into power with know one leading them. Know one just about took Australia back to the 1950’s. Fuck John Howard.

189 Chris B Clinton is spot on with his predictions about Obama and health care. The boost he will get in the polls will come right before the 2010 elections.

CB@190
– the trouble with democracy is that idiots get to vote. They turfed out JPK for benign Little Johnnie – who turned out ot be the most arch-conservative leader this country has ever seen. Even old Menzies would have been horrified.
Don’t know the answer but educating children about the political system from the age of 5 would be a start. Maybe.
Or IQ testing voters before they register 😎

Jen at 195
Be careful what you wish for.

Vice President Cheney’s IQ is reported to be somewhere around 147.

But more to the point, I don’t think IQ is the driving factor – instead, one could be looking towards personal optimism (right) versus personal pessimism (left). Anyway, there is an interesting (and lengthy) article from The Pew Research Center from back in 2005 which digs into a lot of this stuff. As someone of a more centrist nature (AU standard), that would place me over with the left (US standard), and as such – I’m characterised by this report as personally pessimistic although I would disagree with that prognosis. But more importantly, the report is really interesting in that it shines a light into political affiliations that is much more about social context, aspirations, outlook, and personal beliefs.

Putting all of this together, I’m ready to suggest that the election of Obama as President of the USA may have been made possible by a spectrum of low IQ voters voting for the more charismatic, charming, and gifted celebrity politician. Just ask yourself the question – how many people voted for Obama based on a reasoned knowledge of his political policies as opposed to the American Idol 2008 Presidential Election Campaign candidate of choice?

To put it another way …

don’t underestimate the power of an ignorant majority

/Cat. 2009

“Vice President Cheney’s IQ is reported to be somewhere around 147.”
Yes Catrina it was in the Republican Monthly. 😈

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