Acceptable Levels, 2005.
 Acceptable Levels, 2005. “This is, perhaps, the most fundamental lesson of our study: ordinary people simply doing their jobs and without any particular hostility on their part, can become agents in a terribly destructive process. Moreover, even when the destructive effects of their work become patently clear, and they are asked to carry out actions incompatible with fundamental standards of morality, relatively few people have the resources needed to resist authority. A variety of inhibitions against disobeying authority come into play and successfully keeps the person in his place.” "In order for us to maintain our way of living, we must, in a broad sense, tell lies to each other, and especially to ourselves. It is not necessary that the lies be particularly believable, The lies act as barriers to truth. These barriers to truth are necessary because without them many deplorable acts would become impossibilities. Truth must at all costs be avoided. When we do allow self-evident truths to percolate past our defenses and into our consciousness, they are treated like so many hand grenades rolling across the dance floor of an improbably macabre party. We try to stay out of harm's way, afraid they will go off, shatter our delusions, and leave us exposed to what we have done to the world and to ourselves, exposed as the hollow people we have become. And so we avoid these truths, these self-evident truths, and continue the dance of world destruction." -Derrick Jensen, A Language Older Than Words, 2000, page 2. "Our behavior is a function of our experience. We act according to the way we see things. If our experience is destroyed, our behavior will be destructive. If our experience is destroyed, we have lost our own selves." -R. D. Laing, The Politics of Experience, 1967, page "Monsters exist, but they are too few in number to be truly dangerous. More dangerous are the common men, the functionaries ready to believe and to act without questions." -Primo Levi, Auschwitz survivor "Violence can only be concealed by a lie, and the lie can only be maintained by violence." -Alexander Solzhenitsyn "But man's resourcefulness goes beyond simply protecting a belief. Suppose an individual believes something with his whole heart; suppose further that he has a commitment to this belief, that he has taken irrevocable actions because of it; finally, suppose that he is presented with evidence, unequivocal and undeniable evidence, that his belief is wrong: what will happen? The individual will frequently emerge, not only unshaken, but even more convinced of the truth of his beliefs than ever before." -Leon Festinger “Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority it is time to pause and reflect." -Mark Twain "That millions of people share the same forms of mental pathology does not make these people sane." -Erich Fromm "The exact contrary of what is generally believed is often the truth." -Jean de La Bruyere (1645-1696) Be the first to post a comment. | ||||||||||||
