> > I haven't had contact with Deans in over 27 years but I knew him when he was > a regular working stiff and I can tell you this: he was the most successful > person in his field, was a go-getter, and there wasn't anything spaced out > about the guy. This is not someone who had to escape to the confines of the > Movement because he couldn't make it in the "real world". He outshined > everyone in the real world. >
The medical term is "ideology", it rots the brain and makes intelligent people do stupid things. There are plenty of examples in the TMO of otherwise bright well organized people who get infected with ideology and then behave as if they've had parts of their brains removed. Technically they have, but without having had the operation, they've silently shut down parts of their intelligence in order to "be with the group". It's not something that's unique to the TMO, other groups can get infected too. In fact so common that it's the rule rather than the exception. Look at the number of otherwise bright scientists who think that the laws of thermodynamics no longer apply to the earth's atmosphere and therefore by some miracle increasing CO2 isn't going to make the earth warmer. A simple hand calculation, as Fourier did in 1845, would show that it can't possibly work like that, yet to "be with the group" they'll shut off parts of their brains and believe obvious nonsense even though they have the intelligence and training to actually sit down and do a hand calculation to show that it's nonsense. Michael Shermer in "The borderlands of science" relates an example of someone being hypnotized to forget that the number 8 exists. They'll count on their fingers 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,9,10,11. They know the real answer is not 11 but they can't work out why they keep getting 11 when they count their fingers. Even an explanation won't help them, they have to be un-hypnotized to be able to see the number 8 again. Google "groupthink" for other examples of clever people doing dumb things. If Ashley Deans was taken out of the TMO and recovered his intelligence he'd most likely be a very sensible person.
