“It is not that I believe that there are too many idiots in this world, just that lightning isn’t distributed right.” Mark Twain
Men occasionally stumble on the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing had happened." -Winston Churchill
"I'm an expert in homo sapiens behavior. They can rationalize anything. Take war. They'll bankrupt their economies, sacrific the best of their young, unleash a bloodbath that impresses even me, at the expense of providing shelter, food, and medicine for their own people." - Mario Acevedo, The Undead Kama Sutra
"What sets our species apart is not just what men will do to other men, but how tirelessly they justify it." - William Dietrich, Napoleon's Pyramids
"No one really knows why humans do what they do." - David K. Reynolds
"Men willingly believe what they wish."
-- Gaius Julius Caesar (100-44 B.C.) Dictator of the Roman Republic
"Truth does not become more true by virtue of the fact that the entire world agrees with it,
nor less so even if the whole world disagrees with it." -- Maimonides (1135-1204) Jewish philosopher
"Men prefer to believe what they prefer to be true." -- Francis Bacon- (1561-1626) Philosopher, British Lord Chancellor
"False words are not only evil in themselves, but they infect the soul with evil."
-- Socrates (469-399 B.C.) Greek philosopher
There is no absurdity so palpable but that it may be firmly planted in the human head if you only begin to inculcate it before the age of five, by constantly repeating it with an air of great solemnity." - Arthur Schopenhauer
America is the only country where a significant proportion of the population believes that professional wrestling is real but the moon landing was faked. ~ David Letterman
"There are two different types of people in the world, those who want to know, and those who want to believe." - Friedrich Nietzsche
The major difference between genius and stupidity…is that genius has it’s limits.
"Information that is consistent with our pre-existing beliefs is often accepted at face value, whereas evidence that contradicts them is critically scrutinized and discounted. Our beliefs may thus be less responsive than they should to the implications of new information" - Thomas Gilovich, How We Know What Isn't So: The Fallibility of Human Reason in Everyday Life
"A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right." Tom Paine, 1737-1809.
"The psychologists and the metaphysicians wrangle endlessly over the nature of the thinking process in man, but no matter how violently they differ otherwise they all agree that it has little to do with logic and is not much conditioned by overt facts." -- H. L. Mencken (1880-1956) American Journalist, Editor, Essayist, Linguist, Lexicographer, and Critic
One of the peculiar sins of the twentieth century which we've developed to a very high level is the sin of credulity. It has been said that when human beings stop believing in God they believe in nothing. The truth is much worse: they believe in anything. Malcolm Muggeridge
There are endless ways that our beliefs deviate from reality and result in actions detrimental to our health, life, prosperity and future. Beliefs untethered to reality often creates enormous problems for us individually, as a group or as a nation.
Some experts believe that humans have been getting dumber over the last 2000 years because our societies have protected people regardless of the foolishness of their thoughts. How many people do you see texting while driving? I rest my case.
It’s long been recognized that the most powerful propaganda tool comes from the understanding of crowd or mass psychology pioneered by intellects like Gustave Le Bon, Wilfred Trotter and Sigmund Freud. They saw that people are not so much moved by fact or reason, but by manipulating their emotions. Fear may be our most powerful motivating emotion. Unfortunately, the actions it motivates are usually not based on the best action to achieve a positive outcome.
Ignoring the facts/evidence: There is no shortage of words in the English language to describe this human tendency. Stubborn, obstinate, adamant, pigheaded, hard headed, unmoved, dogged, stalwart…we have all seen it and been it.
We can maintain a belief system even when presented with irrefutable evidence that a specific belief is erroneous.
Many creationists refuse to believe in evolution. Many Bush fans refuse to believe that invading Iraq was a mistake. Most liberals will always believe that more gun control will increase individual security.
Many conservatives insist that spending more on the military will increase our national security.
Most arms control experts continue to believe that more non proliferation efforts will increase our security.
Many environmentalists believe population control will help protect the environment.
Most religious followers continue to believe their faith best reflects God’s wishes.
But the most widespread and dangerous belief in the United States may be the pervasive thought that we are independent as a nation, as states and even as individuals. The word “independence” only reflects a mental construct that has no basis outside the human mind or the paper it is written on.
"To judge from the history of mankind, we shall be compelled to conclude, that the fiery and destructive passions of war, reign in the human breast, with much more powerful sway, than the mild and beneficent sentiments of
peace; and, that to model our political systems upon speculations of lasting tranquility, is to calculate on the weaker springs of the human character." -- Alexander Hamilton (1757-1804) Source: writing as "Publius," in “Federalist No. 34,” January 5, 1788
Artificial Intelligence is no match for natural stupidity.
Defining terrorism: There are over 200 definitions of Terrorism. Even within national agencies the definition can vary. One man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter. A terrorist is someone who has a bomb but doesn't have an air force. We believe we are the good guys. They believe they are.
"Those who can make you believe in absurdities
can make you commit atrocities!" -- Voltaire
[François Marie Arouet] (1694-1778)
"[I]n the big lie there is always a certain force of credibility; because the broad masses of a nation are always more easily corrupted in the deeper strata of their emotional nature than consciously or voluntarily; and thus in the primitive simplicity of their minds they more readily fall victims to the big lie than the small lie, since they themselves often tell small lies in little matters but would be ashamed to resort to large-scale falsehoods. It would never come into their heads to fabricate colossal untruths, and they would not believe that others could have the impudence to distort the truth so infamously. "-Adolf Hitler , Mein Kampf, vol. I, ch. X
"A half truth is the worst of all lies,because it can be defended in partiality." - Solon - (c.638 BC-558 BC) Athenian statesman, lawmaker
"Only reason can convince us of those three fundamental truths: without a recognition of which there can be no effective liberty: That what we believe is not necessarily true; that what we like is not necessarily good; and that all questions are open." - -- Clive Bell - (1881-1964) - Source: Civilization, 1928
"Our society is run by insane people for insane objectives. I think we're being run by maniacs for maniacal ends and I think I'm liable to be put away as insane for expressing that. That's what's insane about it." - John Lennon
"I can calculate the motions of heavenly bodies, but not the madness of people."
-- Issac Newton (1642-1727) English physicist, mathematician, astronomer, natural philosopher, alchemist and theologian. Source: 1721, after having lost huge amounts of money in the South Sea Bubble
"I think the subject which will be of most importance politically is
Mass Psychology. ...It's importance has been enormously increased by
the growth of modern methods of propaganda ...Although this science
will be diligently studied, it will be rigidly confined to the
governing class. The populace will not be allowed to know how
its convictions were generated." -- Bertrand Russell
[Bertrand Arthur William Russell] (1872-1970) Philosopher, educator
And we continue believing it inspite of evidence to the contrary.
"The path of least resistance and least trouble is a mental rut already made. It requires troublesome work to undertake the alternation of old beliefs. Self-conceit often regards it as a sign of weakness to admit that a belief to which we have once committed ourselves is wrong. We get so identified with an idea that it is literally a "pet" notion and we rise to its defense and stop our eyes and ears to anything different" -
John Dewey
“Science is the most powerful means we have for the unification of knowledge.” John F. Kennedy one month before his death.
"We need more understanding of human nature, because the only real danger that exists is man himself. He is the great danger. And we are pitifully unaware of it. We know nothing of man ... far too little. His psyche should be studied -- because we are the origin of all coming evil." - C.G. Jung. 26 July 1875 – 6 June 1961) was a Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who founded analytical psychology.
"What we think, or what we know, or what we believe is, in the end, of little consequence. The only consequence is what we do." - John Ruskin (1819 - 1900)
"In the last analysis we must be judged by what we do and not by what we believe. We are as we behave " - Geoffrey L. Rudd, The British Vegetarian, September/October 1962
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