I just ran across the concept of Learned Helplessness (my background in Psychology is pretty weak, apparently it is a well-known idea) and after reading up on it (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Learned_helplessness) I thought it provided some great insights into modern political life. The research shows that animals who are given a negative stimulus with no opportunity for escape are easily conditioned to accept that stimulus even when the opportunity for escape exists. This explains the behavior of abused women, genocide victims and people suffering from clinical depression. What about the behavior of people in the political sphere? The masses are exposed to a constant stream of information about injustice, unfairness and a generally nasty set of threats to their well-being. We see a political system that fails to relieve us of these ills regardless of whether and for whom we "press the lever". We see a government (those of us in the U.S., at least) congenitally incapable of doing its job. Nobody votes. If we do vote, that's all we do. We utter phrases like "you can't fight city hall". We watch movies and TV shows about shadowy conspiracies that cannot be fathomed, much less resisted. We endlessly pursue murky events like Kennedy's assassination, the 2000 election and 9-11, fascinated by the intrigue and enthralled by the ideas they generate, but never reaching any firm conclusions. I'm sure you all can think of more examples. I suggest that the people of the United States are, as a whole, suffering from Learned Helplessness. We are conditioned not to act, just like the dogs in the barbaric behavioral experiments. And I don't think it's accidental. I'm not advocating conspiracy for which I have no evidence, I simply think that we have grown a set of self-reinforcing behaviors that have made it a whole hell of a lot easier to rule a people than through violent repression.
Actually, wasn't feudalism similar? If the peasants had united they could probably have revolted (and if you want to argue that the lords had better armour and weapons, well, their castle staff could have smuggled weapons out or stabbed the lords in their sleep, couldn't they?). But mostly they accepted the inevitability of their lot in life, even if they grumbled about it.
don't forget The Peasants Revolt....! as for thegeneral contention.....i see three things. ACTUAL oppression, propaganda, and fear the trauma/fear perpetuated by the States propaganda machineryis a main strategy to make people cling to its authoritarianism. because it is claiming to 'ptorect' them from 'evil'---the 'enemy'. when in reality it is te very system/myth/ideology which perpetuates the oppression and ongoing evils, s supported by the gullible frightened people who cant see or WON'T see--again cause of fear, for many reasons--what is really going down.
Jen very interest insight in to things, thanks for posting this. I guess you could say "it's a shit situation but at least we know it's shit". I think what it comes down to, is that people are scared of change, esp when we have been conditioned all our lives. Here in the UK we might even be worse than the USA. Our political partys are very much the same in policy etc, not much divides at all (less than the USA). Therefore it doesn't really matter who we vote for, we get the same party in power. But if someone did come along with a radical new idea, no one would want to risk the change, so why bother? Sounds like learned helplessness to me.
just by chance hapened to read an article whose argument would fit really well into here, adding a new dimension. it'd be good if someone could open tetext of it for here, a i cant do as such from my limited system if you go to here www.propagandamatrix.com an on righthand column open link titled America knows more about the Simpsons it its meaning that if you ask te average prson on the street there about te Constitutions, and its 'Five Freedoms' not many know........ but tey Do know about that animaton, its characters, and wo the judges names are in 'Pop Idol' and al the ticky tack celebriy media crap. yet th essewntial freedos which are theirs and are disappearing they dont know article lso goes into how tew schooling system was spcifically designed to dumb people down anyway check it
This evident American learned-helplessness seems to me less a conspiracy than a pathology- A convenient malady for a meteoric corporate-political class to exploit, but one that will also be their own undoing. The present manipulators of learned-helplessness are acting as much in ignorance of the big picture as their dog-matic subjects. The powerful too are ignoring many opportunities for a timely escape from political and economic dead-ends. Those who now profit from American apathy are allowing key principles to erode along with ideals of liberty, democracy, and patriotism: Good-will. Stability. Predictability. Even the great corporations of this era need to sustain their political symbiotes. Because when the political host loses its way, the profiteers will also be damaged. Even the most diverse multinationals are going to be stung if the Dollar suddenly takes a shit. Public befuddlement, cynicism, and apathy combined with international antipathy toward our ostensible national persona do not bode well for the future prosperity of the USA. Which can't be good for the K-street panhandlers. We've seen it before. Most recently, the Soviet empire lulled its citizenry into a surreal childhood that seemed so formidable, yet proved unsustainable and even fragile when it all fell down. Before the American herd is likely to afford manipulators unprecedented powers, I suspect that events will overtake this entire learned-helplessness lab, leaving the entire animal farm, whitecoats included, irrelevant. At the moment, I'm tired of trying to convince the contented and self-assured to awaken. So let this latest empire die of natural causes, hopefully with mitigated violence to each other and the larger environment. Good night, and good luck.
everything is learned... hence the need for censorship in our mass media... but we need specific censorship.... not blanket. and it should be highly regulated. -MT
If "everything is learned", maybe I can learn to follow the thoughts you offered. Assuming you have something on this topic in mind: What specifically would you like censored, Mosheh? How would you have the censorship regulated? Most importantly, please explain why it would be beneficial for such knowledge to be held in secret by an elite.
I DID SAY HIGHLY REGULATED.... specifically... i would vote to remove all sexual adverticing from the streets of america. if we did so?? what would change??? we would still have ads... but they wouldnt have half naked girls on them. and they wouldnt offer me a lap dance... or a gay crusie adventure. (this is what i see all day in LA.) all im saying ... literally is we go back to 1950's standards for public displays and advertisments..... they should be clean... by that standard. -MT
i dont know anyone frightened of the government (or othe boogeymen) at all, there are those frightened by scum bag criminals but not really the government at all. makes you wonder whats being shown on telly in other countries.
