Dirty Tricks Occur In Local Politics As Well
Welcome To Live Oak Florida – Home Of The New Live Oak Garbage Dump!
A Poem:
WELCOME TO LIVE OAK
By: liveoaklandfill/youtube
A rich stranger entered the town of Live Oak, looking to purchase a plot.
He chose land at the town’s archway, with a hole in the center of its lot.
The townsfolk thought this strange, who would live on land with a hole.
They fast learned that he wanted to turn this big hole, into a large toilet bowl.
Landfill is what he named his bowl, soon to be filled with garbage and swill.
Trucks showed up to dump refuse, quickly turning BIG HOLE into BIG HILL.
A mountain of trash with aroma so foul, grew and grew in to a gargantuan summit.
Live Oak now is symbol of how flimflammers, can make prosperous towns plummet.
THE END
Please see videos on youtube – key word liveoaklandfill
Live Oak Florida was hoodwinked into allowing a Garbage Dump right at its entrance and near a newly erected water tower and well. The people don’t like it, the businesses don’t like it, and the city commissioners don’t like it, so why can’t it be STOPPED?
Welcome To Live Oak’s Garbage Dump on youtube.
A Thanksgiving Gift – Rev Al’s Turkey Tips
I hope everyone enjoyed their Thanksgiving in spite of the hard times so many of us 99%ers are going through. But even during Holidays, politics never seems to take a break, so with the help of Rev. Al Sharpton I thought it apropos to send his Turkey Tips your way.
A cup of enlightenment with a dash of humor. 
thinkingblue
Is OWS Getting Stuck In The Corporatist GOP’s Craw?
Look Out OWS The Lobbies Are Coming, The Lobbies Are Coming!
The memo said U.S. financial firms should be concerned about comments that Democratic campaign consultants have made in the news media about trying to harness the energy of the Occupy Wall Street protesters.
“This would mean more than just short-term political discomfort for Wall Street firms,” it said.
“If vilifying the leading companies of this sector is allowed to become an unchallenged centerpiece of a coordinated Democratic campaign, it has the potential to have very long-lasting political, policy and financial impacts on the companies in the center of the bull’s-eye.”
The memo is from Clark Lytle Geduldig’s four name partners. Two of them, Sam Geduldig and Jay Cranford, are former aides to House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner, a Republican.
Using shorthand for Occupy Wall Street, the memo said:
“It may be easy to dismiss OWS as a ragtag group of protesters but they have demonstrated that they should be treated more like an organized competitor who is very nimble and capable of working the media, coordinating third party support and engaging office holders to do their bidding. To counter that, we have to do the same.
It’s starting, the GOP, along with their (collective corporations) counterparts is getting a little nervous. “OWS” is making the little darlings skittish and this in turn is starting some exorcist head spins. This could be a good sign or a bad one; bad because they have the loot to pull out all stops that possibly can drown out the voices of the 99%. Look out “Occupy”, masses are not suppose to unite and agree that something is wrong with a system that makes the upper-class richer and the middle-class slip, slip slipping away to a lower income rung on ye old ladder of success, bringing each downward slide a little less chance for opportunity.
Ignorance is bliss to a corporatist nation that needs a misinformed, unaware and unknowing populous to feed their greed. They have to keep creating a steady stream of unintelligent dribble to keep the hoi polloi spiritless and asunder,(Fox News comes to mind) so they can go through their lives without questioning why they keep climbing a greased pole while the upper crust enjoy the fruit of the 99%’s labor.
This grassroots’ movement is troubling to those at the top; the Tea Party was so easy to seize because so many members had what it takes to be gobbled up by the Fat Cats: FEAR AND HATE!
Occupy Wall Street doesn’t possess such vulnerable emotions, what they feel is disquiet and worry about the injustices they are suffering that bring more inequality and desperation for them and for their future generations. Their movement is authentic and will not be so easily crushed by the usual LOBBY FORCES that have forever slapped the 99% around and literally have committed terrorism without any retribution… NONE whatsoever! thinkingblue
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
U.S. banks should “undermine” Occupy protesters: memo
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Occupy Wall Street movement is a big enough problem for U.S. banks that they should pay for opposition research into the political motives of protesters, said a firm that lobbies for the industry.Clark Lytle Geduldig & Cranford, a Washington-based firm, proposed the idea in a memo to the American Banking Association, an industry group which said on Saturday that it did not act on the idea.
The four-page memo outlined how the firm could analyze the source of protesters’ money, as well as their rhetoric and the backgrounds of protest leaders.
“If we can show they have the same cynical motivation as a political opponent, it will undermine their credibility in a profound way,” said the memo, according to a copy of it on the website of TV news channel MSNBC, which first reported on it. (See MSNBC’s report http://upwithchrishayes.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/11/19/8896362-exclusive-lobbying-firms-memo-spells-out-plan-to-undermine-occupy-wall-street-video)
Clark Lytle Geduldig (LOBBYING FIRM) counts the banking association among its regular lobbying clients, U.S. Senate records showed.
Other clients include MasterCard Worldwide and a banking coalition concerned about interchange fees.
The firm did not respond to requests for comment.
Its memo said it could deliver research, survey data and plans to use the information in 60 days at a cost of $850,000.
Banking association spokesman Jeff Sigmund told Reuters the memo is authentic, but his group was not interested.
“Our government relations staff received the proposal – it was unsolicited and we chose not to act on it in any way,” Sigmund said.
The memo is dated November 24, five days after it became public. Sigmund did not respond to a follow-up question about the date. November 24 is also the Thanksgiving holiday.
The memo said U.S. financial firms should be concerned about comments that Democratic campaign consultants have made in the news media about trying to harness the energy of the Occupy Wall Street protesters.
“This would mean more than just short-term political discomfort for Wall Street firms,” it said.
“If vilifying the leading companies of this sector is allowed to become an unchallenged centerpiece of a coordinated Democratic campaign, it has the potential to have very long-lasting political, policy and financial impacts on the companies in the center of the bull’s-eye.”
The memo is from Clark Lytle Geduldig’s four name partners. Two of them, Sam Geduldig and Jay Cranford, are former aides to House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner, a Republican.
Using shorthand for Occupy Wall Street, the memo said:
“It may be easy to dismiss OWS as a ragtag group of protesters but they have demonstrated that they should be treated more like an organized competitor who is very nimble and capable of working the media, coordinating third party support and engaging office holders to do their bidding. To counter that, we have to do the same.” MORE HERE
(Reporting by David Ingram. Editing by Kevin Drawbaugh)
OCCUPY WALL STREET – AMERICAN AWAKENING
OCCUPY WALL STREET 4TH WEEK UPDATE
OCCUPY WALL STREET WEEK SIX – We Shall Overcome
The NY Gangbusters (1%-ers) Order Police (99%-ers) To Annihilate The ‘Occupy’ Camp – November 14, 2011
The Powers That Be, (The One Percenters) are still ordering the breakup of the Occupy Movement under the guise of health concerns. It’s funny the only health problems I’ve seen so far has been police mace/pepper spraying victims while punching others in the face or hitting them over the head with batons, or just having good old fashion fun picking out faces in the crowd, who are standing peaceably, to shoot a teargas projectile, point-blank at.
1%-ers motto: “THE MASSES MUST BE HERDED AND CONTAINED FOR THEIR OWN GOOD!”
thinkingblue
Police arrest 70 Wall Street protesters
NEW YORK (AP) — Police arrested 70 protesters at New York’s Zuccotti Park early Tuesday, including some who chained themselves together, while clearing the park so that sanitation crews could clean it.Concerns about health and safety issues at Occupy Wall Street camps around the country have intensified, and protesters have been ordered to take down their shelters, adhere to curfews and relocate so that parks can be cleaned.
At about 1 a.m. Tuesday, New York City police handed out notices from Brookfield Office Properties, owner of Zuccotti Park, and the city saying that the park had to be cleared because it had become unsanitary and hazardous. Protesters were told they could return in several hours, but without sleeping bags, tarps or tents.
Paul Brown, a spokesman for the New York Police Department, said the park had been cleared by 4:30 a.m. and that about 70 people who’d been inside it had been arrested, including a group who chained themselves together. One person was taken to a local hospital for evaluation because of breathing problems.
Police in riot gear filled the streets, car lights flashing and sirens blaring. Protesters, some of whom shouted angrily at police, began marching to two locations in Lower Manhattan where they planned to hold rallies.
Some protesters refused to leave the park, but many left peacefully.
Ben Hamilton, 29, said he was arrested “and I was just trying to get away” from the fray.
Rabbi Chaim Gruber, an Occupy Wall Street member, said police officers were clearing the streets near Zuccotti Park.
“The police are forming a human shield, and are pushing everyone away,” he said.
Jake Rozak, another protester, said police “had their pepper spray out and were ready to use it.”
Notices given to the protesters said the park “poses an increasing health and fire safety hazard to those camped in the park, the city’s first responders and the surrounding community.”
It said that tents, sleeping bags and other items had to be removed because “the storage of these materials at this location is not allowed.” Anything left behind would be taken away, the notices said, giving an address at a sanitation department building where items could be picked up.
Alex Hall, 21, of Brooklyn, said police walked into the park “stepping on tents and ripping them out.”
MORE HERE: http://news.yahoo.com/police-arrest-70-wall-street-protesters-094303924.htm
~~~~~
Police Clear Out Downtown Occupy Oakland Camp
by Terry Collins
OAKLAND, Calif.— Riot-clad law enforcement officers cleared out a weeks-old anti-Wall Street encampment in Oakland just before dawn Monday, arresting dozens of Occupy demonstrators and clearing out tents from a downtown plaza after issuing several warnings over the weekend.
PS: This may seem quite OVER THE TOP but when I view the pictures and watch the video I can’t help but think about the opening scene in LITTLE BIG MAN, which to this day, tears me up emotionally. thinkingblue
OCCUPY WALL STREET – AMERICAN AWAKENING
The Question Is Not ‘WHO IS MAD’ It’s ‘WHO IS NOT MAD?’ (Pakistan)
The Question Is Not ‘WHO IS MAD’ It’s ‘WHO IS NOT MAD?’ (Pakistan)
We Americans for the most part cannot understand what is might be like to live in a world dominated by total insanity. Oh, we have our share of craziness unfolding before our very eyes, just watch the rhetoric and gestures coming from Backmann, Perry, Cain and too many other delusional right-wing demagogues. And when I hear some of the statements made by so called pundits from the far right like, Limbaugh, Beck, Coulter… (Again) too many other delusional small minded conservatives, I want to shout “How and When Did This Ship I’m Sailing On, Land In ‘La La Land’?”… But then I realize I didn’t leave reality THEY DID! Anyhow, I came upon this article from The Atlantic Magazine and thought it worthy of a few minutes of our time on Earth. It’s today’s nourishment for the brain. thinkingblue
Running the Asylum
A schizophrenic tries to save the mentally ill in Pakistan, a land gone mad.
By Graeme WoodGulzar Wazir, 61, a retired Pakistani army major and the founder of Peshawar’s only community mental-health clinic, was introducing me to Raja, one of his favorite lunatics, when we heard the soft whine of a single-engine plane, flying low and getting closer. Northwest Pakistan—land of suicide bombers, kidnappings, and American drone strikes—is not a relaxing place, and the background violence is enough to nudge the merely jittery into little episodes of paranoia. In the United States, that lawn-mower whine overhead might be a student pilot getting his wings, or a cardiologist at play. Here, for a visitor with dangers on the mind, it sounded like death from above, and it gave me a shiver.
What does it take to be counted as paranoid in such a place? “The question is not ‘Who is mad?,’” Wazir says. “The question is ‘Who is not mad?’” All of Pakistan—a nation of 185 million people—has no more than 350 psychiatrists, or roughly the same number as in a few blocks of the Upper West Side.
Peshawar’s hospital for the mentally ill lacks the capacity to treat patients for more than a month. Wazir’s clinic treats them indefinitely. Currently supported by the government of Norway, the clinic has ministered to the mentally ill in the poverty-stricken Tehkal Payan area since 2004. Known to donors as “Friends of the Mind” and to locals as “the crazy-people hospital,” it sees about a dozen of its 5,000 outpatients on any given day. Some visit daily for medical care and tea in its courtyard. Psychologists are on staff, as is a full-time psychiatrist trained in China’s Henan province. Most patients are depressed, addicted to hashish or opium, paranoid, or schizophrenic—or worse yet, some combination of the above.
Raja, in his early 30s, is a typical case. He has been out of his mind and addicted to hash for most of his adult life. He’s tall and skinny, with a film of dirt on his face that suggests he can’t quite look after himself. Wazir says Raja routinely relapses by leaving the hospital and hanging out at a nearby shrine close to a police station, where addicts gather to smoke hash and opium. (Wazir blames the hash for worsening Raja’s mental problems. Research does indicate that some schizophrenics decline faster if they smoke hash. Other research, however, shows that cannabidiol, one of the psychoactive chemicals in hashish, has antipsychotic properties. Perhaps it’s a wash.)
Today is a good day for Raja. His eyes bug out, and his lips are pulled back in a huge grin that reveals teeth the color of brown sugar, looking so rotten that a swig of water might wash them away entirely. On bad days, he flies into uncontrollable schizophrenic rages. “If he is violent or too talkative or too mischievous,” Wazir says, “we put him again in the mental hospital, and if he requires it, he gets electric shocks.” He has gone through about 15 rounds of shock therapy. “But he’s young, so he can sustain it.”
Wazir says his countrymen have been mentally traumatized more or less continuously for the past 35 years. “First it was Afghan jihad, then it was Kashmiri jihad, then it was the nuclear issue, then it was terrorism and suicide bombings, and now floods,” he says. “I have not heard any good news coming to me in Pakistan.”
A native of Waziristan (a frequent target of U.S. drone attacks), Wazir is himself schizophrenic. He had a promising military career and became an adviser to General Zia-ul-Haq, then the president of Pakistan. In 1981, he began suspecting that Zia was plotting to kill him. “I was convinced that he had spies against me, that he was stealing my thoughts, that he wanted to court-martial me and arrest me,” Wazir says. Zia was, according to Wazir, himself terrified of plots against him, and was plotting against almost everyone. But on evaluation, doctors decided Wazir was indeed crazy, invalided him out of the army in 1983, and began a regime of medication that continues today. After recovery, Wazir resolved to set up an organization “for the mentally ill, of the mentally ill, by the mentally ill.”
Craziness carries a strong stigma in Pakistan, and many friends and families of the afflicted react by turning them out onto the street, or confining them. Wazir’s staff found one mentally ill man, Inam, chained in a basement. Now on his meds, Inam keeps returning to Friends of the Mind, but he has recovered enough to hold down jobs as a day laborer. Far better to be in the chaos of Peshawar’s streets and on the brink of insanity than in a basement and in the abyss.
Graeme Wood is an Atlantic contributing editor. MORE HERE http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2011/05/running-the-asylum/8450/friendsofthemind.org.pk
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OCCUPY WALL STREET – NOT YOUR ORDINARY PROTEST
An American War Veteran On Veterans’ Day 11.11.11
An American War Veteran
Tommy
By Rudyard Kipling
I went into a public-’ouse to get a pint o’ beer,
The publican ‘e up an’ sez, “We serve no red-coats here.”
The girls be’ind the bar they laughed an’ giggled fit to die,
I outs into the street again an’ to myself sez I:
O it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an’ “Tommy, go away”;
But it’s “Thank you, Mister Atkins”, when the band begins to play,
The band begins to play, my boys, the band begins to play,
O it’s “Thank you, Mister Atkins”, when the band begins to play.
I went into a theatre as sober as could be,
They gave a drunk civilian room, but ‘adn’t none for me;
They sent me to the gallery or round the music-’alls,
But when it comes to fightin’, Lord! they’ll shove me in the stalls!
For it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an’ “Tommy, wait outside”;
But it’s “Special train for Atkins” when the trooper’s on the tide,
The troopship’s on the tide, my boys, the troopship’s on the tide,
O it’s “Special train for Atkins” when the trooper’s on the tide.
Yes, makin’ mock o’ uniforms that guard you while you sleep
Is cheaper than them uniforms, an’ they’re starvation cheap;
An’ hustlin’ drunken soldiers when they’re goin’ large a bit
Is five times better business than paradin’ in full kit.
Then it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an’ “Tommy, ‘ow’s yer soul?”
But it’s “Thin red line of ‘eroes” when the drums begin to roll,
The drums begin to roll, my boys, the drums begin to roll,
O it’s “Thin red line of ‘eroes” when the drums begin to roll.
We aren’t no thin red ‘eroes, nor we aren’t no blackguards too,
But single men in barricks, most remarkable like you;
An’ if sometimes our conduck isn’t all your fancy paints,
Why, single men in barricks don’t grow into plaster saints;
While it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an’ “Tommy, fall be’ind”,
But it’s “Please to walk in front, sir”, when there’s trouble in the wind,
There’s trouble in the wind, my boys, there’s trouble in the wind,
O it’s “Please to walk in front, sir”, when there’s trouble in the wind.
You talk o’ better food for us, an’ schools, an’ fires, an’ all:
We’ll wait for extry rations if you treat us rational.
Don’t mess about the cook-room slops, but prove it to our face
The Widow’s Uniform is not the soldier-man’s disgrace.
For it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an’ “Chuck him out, the brute!”
But it’s “Saviour of ‘is country” when the guns begin to shoot;
An’ it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an’ anything you please;
An’ Tommy ain’t a bloomin’ fool — you bet that Tommy sees!
~~~
This is a picture from a facebook member on Veterans’ Day 11.11.11
It says a lot about our country, don’t you think? thinkingblue
Dan Kenney – Facebook
Based on various estimates, 500,000 to 840,000 veterans are homeless at some time during the year. It is also estimated by the VA that a veteran dies by suicide every 80 minutes. And nearly 20% of the returning forces from Afghanistan and Iraq suffer from either PTSD or major depression. This Veterans’ Day four or five veterans will commit suicide. The price of war continues throughout the life of a veteran. Today reach out a hand to a vet.
Rick Perry Sill Doing What He Does Best (that is if you don’t include his #’s on executions).
Rick Perry Sill Doing What He Does Best (that is if you don’t include his #’s on executions).
Oh, the GOP sure has learned how to gush (more like squirt) out the rhetoric that will perhaps get them a vote or two from the uninformed, intolerant and cantankerous few that comprise their base. But do they ever delve into or even maybe learn a few facts as to what their BIG TALKING hyperbole is all about? I doubt it! Their HYPE is only a sideshow to their dog and pony spectacle and we all have learned (most of us who pay attention to FACTS) that no self respecting reality would ever show up there.
Please read this little article that brings to light what the department of COMMERCE, EDUCATION & (the brain fart one) ‘ENERGY’ is all about. thinkingblue
DOG AND PONY SHOW -The term has come to mean a highly promoted, often over-staged performance, presentation, or event designed to sway or convince opinion for political, or less often, commercial ends.
Rick Perry wants to scrap three government departments. What would that mean?
Rick Perry’s excruciating brain freeze as he tried to remember which government department he wants to eliminate was clearly the YouTube moment of last night’s debate. But lost in the hilarity was the question of what Perry’s plan would actually mean.
Perry said he wants to scrap the federal Departments of Commerce, Education, and Energy (even though that last one eluded him for a while). So it’s worth asking: What do those departments do?
The Department of Commerce contains the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, which runs our system of intellectual property. Without it, America would have no way to ensure that inventors could fully profit from their inventions, giving them little incentive to spend the time and money needed for breakthroughs. The pace of American innovation would likely take a huge hit.
Commerce also includes the Census Bureau. The accurate count of Americans that the department provides each decade lets leaders and policymakers know how to allocate resources–housing, roads, utilities–around the country. And Commerce also encompasses the National Weather Service (NWS), which issues crucial warnings about severe weather like hurricanes and floods. When state and local officials make decisions about how and when to evacuate, they’re generally going off NWS information.
The Department of Energy, created during the Carter administration, protects U.S. nuclear weapons from accidents or terrorist attacks that could release dangerous radioactive material, killing thousands. Without the oversight that the Energy Department presently provides, it would be difficult to maintain a nuclear weapons program at all. The Energy Department also plays a key role in funding and promoting the civilian use of nuclear power.
As for the Department of Education–likewise created under President Carter–its role is more limited, because the U.S. education system is highly decentralized. Indeed, Perry is hardly the first conservative to pledge to abolish it. The Education Department does have a role in shaping education policy, however, by handing out funds to states that adopt its preferred reforms, and it also enforces privacy and civil rights laws in schools.
Of course, Perry could eliminate the departments but maintain all these functions, by simply shifting them into different agencies. The Pentagon, for instance, might take over management over nuclear weapons. His economic plan, “Cut, Balance, and Grow,” doesn’t mention his plan to eliminate specific departments. Some agency functions might also devolve to state or local authorities in Perry’s plan, but it’s hard to see how major initiatives could get funded at the state or local level–particularly in rough economic times like the present. But we’ll learn more about Perry’s plan next week when he plans to give a speech on “government reform,” a Perry spokesman told Yahoo News.
Until then, it’s fair to say that doing what Perry recommends would mean either scrapping, or fundamentally reassigning, some key government functions.
OCCUPY WALL STREET – NOT YOUR ORDINARY PROTEST
Elizabeth Warren Vs. Ignorance Personified!
Elizabeth Warren Vs. Tea Party Member!
This is so typical of what we have encountered since the Republican base (ashamed of what had happened to our country after they clawed their way to get one, George W. Bush appointed to the highest office in the land) CHANGED THEIR NAME TO THE TEA PARTY. In the video below you will see the typical ignorance that emanates from the Tea Party by its members. If it wasn’t so vile it would be laughable (and possibly pitied). Please watch videos and read article. Elizabeth Warren is leading champion of working people. thinkingblue
BROCKTON, Mass. — Moments into a speech before volunteers here Wednesday evening, Elizabeth Warren was interrupted by a Tea Party supporter who hurled a gender-based epithet at the Senate candidate. The man, who said he’d been unemployed since February 2010, objected to Warren’s expressed affiliation with the frustrations of Occupy Wall Street, and argued that the Tea Party has been protesting Wall Street excess for longer than the nascent global movement.
The crowd tried to shout the man down, but Warren told her supporters to let him speak. “No, no, it’s alright. Let me say two things,” she said. “I’m very sorry that you’ve been out of work. I’m also very sorry that the recent jobs bill that would’ve brought 22,000 jobs to Massachusetts did not pass in the Senate.”
Speaking in a packed VFW hall, Warren went on to address his question about her association with Occupy Wall Street. “I’ve been protesting what’s been going on on Wall Street for a very long time,” she said, but added that the movement has its own independent agenda and will proceed along its own course.
“Yeah, so has the Tea Party,” the man said, before losing his cool. MORE HERE: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/03/elizabeth-warren-heckler_n_1073755.html
Uploaded by tjwalker on Nov 4, 2011
Elizabeth Warren Vs. Ignorance Personified!
This is so typical of what we have encountered since the Republican base (ashamed of what had happened to our country after they clawed their way to get one, George W. Bush appointed to the highest office in the land) CHANGED THEIR NAME TO THE TEA PARTY. In the video below you will see the typical ignorance that emanates from the Tea Party by its members. If it wasn’t so vile it would be laughable (and possibly pitied). Please watch videos and read article. Elizabeth Warren is leading champion of working people. thinkingblue
What Makes A Person Vote Against Their Own Best Interests?
WHAT MAKES PEOPLE VOTE REPUBLICAN?
This is an excellent read. Most of us liberals have been perplexed as to why any working class stiff (especially those in the lower income brackets) would vote against his/her own best interest and vote for corporate and wealthy interests instead. I am so glad to read that there are those in the field of psychology who are also perplexed enough to research this phenomenon and try making sense as to the WHY people willingly hurt themselves and their families in this political conundrum? Perhaps armed with some answers to this riddle, those who vote against their interests will be able to open their eyes and realize, they are doing themselves in, little by little, republican by republican. But then again, Liberals also have a lot to learn, DO WE NOT? thinkingblue
WHAT MAKES PEOPLE VOTE REPUBLICAN?
What makes people vote Republican? Why in particular do working class and rural Americans usually vote for pro-business Republicans when their economic interests would seem better served by Democratic policies? We psychologists have been examining the origins of ideology ever since Hitler sent us Germany’s best psychologists, and we long ago reported that strict parenting and a variety of personal insecurities work together to turn people against liberalism, diversity, and progress. But now that we can map the brains, genes, and unconscious attitudes of conservatives, we have refined our diagnosis: conservatism is a partially heritable personality trait that predisposes some people to be cognitively inflexible, fond of hierarchy, and inordinately afraid of uncertainty, change, and death. People vote Republican because Republicans offer “moral clarity”—a simple vision of good and evil that activates deep seated fears in much of the electorate. Democrats, in contrast, appeal to reason with their long-winded explorations of policy options for a complex world.
Diagnosis is a pleasure. It is a thrill to solve a mystery from scattered clues, and it is empowering to know what makes others tick. In the psychological community, where almost all of us are politically liberal, our diagnosis of conservatism gives us the additional pleasure of shared righteous anger. We can explain how Republicans exploit frames, phrases, and fears to trick Americans into supporting policies (such as the “war on terror” and repeal of the “death tax”) that damage the national interest for partisan advantage.
But with pleasure comes seduction, and with righteous pleasure comes seduction wearing a halo. Our diagnosis explains away Republican successes while convincing us and our fellow liberals that we hold the moral high ground. Our diagnosis tells us that we have nothing to learn from other ideologies, and it blinds us to what I think is one of the main reasons that so many Americans voted Republican over the last 30 years: they honestly prefer the Republican vision of a moral order to the one offered by Democrats. To see what Democrats have been missing, it helps to take off the halo, step back for a moment, and think about what morality really is.
I began to study morality and culture at the University of Pennsylvania in 1987. A then-prevalent definition of the moral domain, from the Berkeley psychologist Elliot Turiel, said that morality refers to “prescriptive judgments of justice, rights, and welfare pertaining to how people ought to relate to each other.” But if morality is about how we treat each other, then why did so many ancient texts devote so much space to rules about menstruation, who can eat what, and who can have sex with whom? There is no rational or health-related way to explain these laws. (Why are grasshoppers kosher but most locusts are not?) The emotion of disgust seemed to me like a more promising explanatory principle. The book of Leviticus makes a lot more sense when you think of ancient lawgivers first sorting everything into two categories: “disgusts me” (gay male sex, menstruation, pigs, swarming insects) and “disgusts me less” (gay female sex, urination, cows, grasshoppers ).
For my dissertation research, I made up stories about people who did things that were disgusting or disrespectful yet perfectly harmless. For example, what do you think about a woman who can’t find any rags in her house so she cuts up an old American flag and uses the pieces to clean her toilet, in private? Or how about a family whose dog is killed by a car, so they dismember the body and cook it for dinner? I read these stories to 180 young adults and 180 eleven-year-old children, half from higher social classes and half from lower, in the USA and in Brazil. I found that most of the people I interviewed said that the actions in these stories were morally wrong, even when nobody was harmed. Only one group—college students at Penn—consistently exemplified Turiel’s definition of morality and overrode their own feelings of disgust to say that harmless acts were not wrong. (A few even praised the efficiency of recycling the flag and the dog).
This research led me to two conclusions. First, when gut feelings are present, dispassionate reasoning is rare. In fact, many people struggled to fabricate harmful consequences that could justify their gut-based condemnation. I often had to correct people when they said things like “it’s wrong because… um…eating dog meat would make you sick” or “it’s wrong to use the flag because… um… the rags might clog the toilet.” These obviously post-hoc rationalizations illustrate the philosopher David Hume’s dictum that reason is “the slave of the passions, and can pretend to no other office than to serve and obey them.” This is the first rule of moral psychology: feelings come first and tilt the mental playing field on which reasons and arguments compete. If people want to reach a conclusion, they can usually find a way to do so. The Democrats have historically failed to grasp this rule, choosing uninspiring and aloof candidates who thought that policy arguments were forms of persuasion.
The second conclusion was that the moral domain varies across cultures. Turiel’s description of morality as being about justice, rights, and human welfare worked perfectly for the college students I interviewed at Penn, but it simply did not capture the moral concerns of the less elite groups—the working-class people in both countries who were more likely to justify their judgments with talk about respect, duty, and family roles. (“Your dog is family, and you just don’t eat family.”) From this study I concluded that the anthropologist Richard Shweder was probably right in a 1987 critique of Turiel in which he claimed that the moral domain (not just specific rules) varies by culture. Drawing on Shweder’s ideas, I would say that the second rule of moral psychology is that morality is not just about how we treat each other (as most liberals think); it is also about binding groups together, supporting essential institutions, and living in a sanctified and noble way.
MORE HERE: http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/haidt08/haidt08_index.html
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