-Caveat Lector- http://www.anti-state.com/murphy/murphy1.html Believing is Seeing by Bob Murphy You think you have an open mind. No you don't. Nobody does. We necessarily interpret our sensory input to be consistent with our model of how everything changes with time. The one thing everyone does-and so instinctively and automatically that it goes largely unremarked-is try to become a better predictor of the future. And I don't mean, in a hokey, Magic Eight Ball sort of way. ("Will Bob ever dupe a girl into marrying him?" My sources say no.) What I mean is, people don't like being surprised by things, especially the more responsibility they shoulder over time. (Young punks like me roll our eyes at our parents for being "conservative," but you're damn right you have to be cautious as hell if other people depend on you going to work every day.) Physics is a collection of models of reality which enumerate precise laws that describe and hopefully predict observable, "natural" phenomena. The actual physicists might be in it purely for aesthetic reasons, but there is a definite practical payoff: It's how we learn to better manipulate the rest of nature. But physics is just the most blatant field of the more general search for understanding. The adolescent trying to figure out how to make someone "like" him or her is really, when you come down to it, just trying to figure out how to manipulate people. It would be easy to castigate politicians as people plotting to manipulate you to serve their ends. But so was your favorite teacher ever. So was Mother Theresa. So was Jesus of Nazareth. (The difference with these latter people is that they didn't resort to intimidation or deception. And that's precisely why they were so influential. But the politician is either too weak to attempt such nobleness, or too stupid to realize that that sort of legacy is a far greater shrine to one's accomplishments than any monument or bust in the side of a hill.) Now everybody is self-centered. You have to take care of yourself, in the literal sense. People think that some benevolent virgin tenderly attending to some old dude in a "rest home" who shits his pants everyday and has to have his pork chops cut up into little tiny pieces and mixed in with his applesauce (you know what I'm talking about), people think that this scene blows up the bitter cynicism of kooks like me and Ayn Rand. No it doesn't. Which of the two people is not self-centered? The old guy sure is. He can't do much, but whatever he does do, is to take care of himself. And the nurse is self-centered, too. She thinks, "What can I do to comfort this man?" And of course, she never fails to get enough food and rest to ensure her survival. Now if you're smart like me, you'll start devoting more and more time to convincing people to see things your way. You have to stop shuddering at the flagrant egoism of that bold proclamation. You can be very polite about the matter, and in fact you have to be if you want to get anywhere through mere persuasion. But make no mistake: You are trying to persuade others to think like you. Maybe not your views about politics or religion, but whenever you throw a party, or approach a pretzel vendor with a dollar bill in your hand, you are employing a model of social interactions, and you are about to make a pitch to get people to do their part to make the future unfold the way you want it to. And, as in the examples of throwing a party or obtaining a pretzel from its owner, the easiest way to convince the others involved to go along is to demonstrate to their satisfaction that they too would enjoy this possible course of events. I used to get really angry arguing with people who were really smart about some stuff, but so damned stupid about other stuff. Like how can anybody like Al Gore?? But then I realized that, back in the day, I had never heard about libertarianism. I used to dream about being a fighter pilot on a Navy carrier, when my uncle would give me glossy photographs of F-14s and those sweet surveillance jets with the big fat radar dishes on top. And I certainly had no desire for world conquest or foreign plunder. I just wanted to squeeze off a few Sidewinder missiles and blow up some Russians. (Now, can you imagine how eager the military personnel are to use all their cool shit and to implement all of their battle plans? Show of hands: How many of you, during every fire drill, thought, "This is just a drill. It would be so exciting if there were a real fire. Then I could see if I could scale down the building from the fifth floor, because I've thought about how I'd do it."? No?) Anyway, my point is that if half your relatives are cool about most normal stuff but not about politics, it's not that they're stupid, it's that they're ignorant. They have honestly never thought about the nature of government the way you have. You know how fortune tellers stay in business? It's because the people who go to them are "looking for answers," usually about love interests. These people are so vulnerable and so damn suggestible that they truly believe it's possible for a foreigner with a funny hat to contact Aunt Rita, who's been in the ground for a good 14 years now. Doesn't such ignorance disgust you? Well that's exactly how I feel when I watch the news or read the paper. The American public is so ignorant of basic economics that they are hoodwinked by "scientific" charlatans and the tyrants they serve. Let's back up. Remember Moses? Do you remember how the Bible says that the Pharaoh's magicians were able to turn their staffs into snakes? Well, you shouldn't scoff at that. Those people had no reason to doubt the possibility of such a thing, since their understanding of nature was so relatively poor. I bet those magicians soothed everyone with nonsensical chants, then quickly threw their staffs on the ground really hard, creating a sharp sound that frightened everyone. Then they used their arms in wild gesticulation to get everyone to focus on the part of the staff that was away from them, while they rolled the staff on the ground in a wriggly fashion with their foot. You'd think that wouldn't work, that someone would notice each guy's foot touching his staff, but then you don't know how magic tricks work. (Remember, these people really believed they were seeing snakes. Many probably turned away in terror. You still don't believe me: Don't you constantly "correct" your obvious "optical illusions" or other sensory data? If you stop and think that your answering machine message sounded different, then you replay it to check, and find it back to normal, you completely write-off your original suspicion, and assume your ears "played a trick on you." When you start reading a story about a UFO abduction, you immediately and without question think, "This person's nuts. I want to hear this ridiculous 'explanation.'") In the same way, the American people literally do not see that taxes are theft, that public schooling is imprisonment, that surgical military strikes are murder. We must explain to them that they are falling for a massive illusion being perpetrated on a gigantic scale. Now what does a magician need, above all else? Confidence. If he's going to get you to believe he has the power to do what he proposes, he first of all must act like he has that power. (Part of the success of the illusion is that many of the best magicians start to believe that they really do possess such superhuman abilities. I think it was Joe Sobran who suggested that Clinton was a better actor than Laurence Olivier. I don't think so. Olivier knew full well he was pretending. But I think Bill Clinton, at least by the end, believed he was a god among mortals.) Do you know why George W. Bush stutters when he speaks, whereas Bill Clinton was very glib? Because George W. Bush is nervous that perhaps he might do something wrong, and yikes would there be consequences! Bill Clinton, on the other hand, really didn't care. None of his blunders could ever truly hurt his reputation or influence. The American people are such sheep, in search of someone to blindly follow, that stupid shows reflecting on Bush's "First 100 Days" have analysts who worry over Bush's lack of stature and composure. He is not a "statesman" yet. The American public wants a leader who is so wonderful that he doesn't even need to tread softly in such areas as foreign policy. Everything can be reduced to a simple moral choice. That's why liberals are so confident. Because they truly believe they have the moral high ground. And that's really the only way to win back the ground lost to liberals. You must take the moral high ground. The thing is, you and I are too modest to wax indignant about how stolen taxpayer money ought to be spent, or precisely who should be killed next by our "smart" bombs. (Notice that Democrats and Republicans have no problem talking in this way.) But what I am sure about is that, if you look at government from my point of view, if you describe the President of the United States not as the winner of a majority of Electoral votes (which he is), but rather as the person in charge of a parasitical apparatus that is loved by few, hated by some, and feared by many, you will be able to speak with as much righteous indignation as the Left. The only difference is, your worldview is a lot more accurate than theirs, and so you'll win every argument, no matter who's listening. And, although it sounds a bit devious to say so frankly, really, if you think you're right, you need to do whatever you can to convince others to think about it your way. And the way to do that is to make everyone think you win arguments. So the next time someone echoes the latest liberal clich� at a party-and you normally would keep your mouth shut and think, "I can't wait to read Sapienza's take on this!"-why don't you get off your ass and stand up for what is so damn obvious? The other people in the room aren't going to think you're a dork, they're going to think you've got balls. You don't have to be "academic" or stuffy about it, either. It's as if we're all in a giant conformity experiment. If enough people just started questioning the official mantra-like pointing out that maybe the fucking sanctions on Cuba aren't working so well in ousting Castro, are they?-then there'd be a huge snowball effect. There would be a great advance in the "conventional wisdom," so that it would be just as obvious that "government is bullshit" as it is that "nobody can turn a staff into a snake." At least, that's how it seems from my point of view. May 18, 2001 Bob Murphy is an oppressively cocky graduate student in New York City. He is a columnist for LewRockwell.com and The Mises Institute. ================================================================= Kadosh, Kadosh, Kadosh, YHVH, TZEVAOT FROM THE DESK OF: *Michael Spitzer* <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> The Best Way To Destroy Enemies Is To Change Them To Friends ================================================================= <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/";>www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance�not soap-boxing�please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'�with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds�is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. 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