From Richard Clarke
LEMMINGHOOD = SHEEPLE = THE UNITED STATES OF ILLUSION SLAVES!
Lemminghood is not an intellectual phenomenon – it is psychological. As such, no socio-economic class is immune to its strangulating effect. A grant- seeking university scientist can be a lemming just as much as a fashion obsessed teen-age girl. One blindly follows the latest trendy theory while the other follows the latest clothing style. What’s the difference? Neither can resist the force of nature. The power to fit in with one’s social peers can be irresistible. To a human lemming, the logic behind an opinion doesn’t count as much as the power and popularity behind an opinion. Man, like lemming, behaves collectively. And it could be no other way. Naturally, the individual must be equipped with this trait. Otherwise, the smallest steps toward civilization could never have been made. Lemminghood is a necessary, sociological survival trait, an inborn instinct in the majority of people. However, as with all natural phenomena, this tendency can be manipulated and used for harmful purposes. The same lemming effect which enables the masses of a justly governed society to make progress all at the same time, can, in an unjustly governed society, cause the masses to lose their sense of judgment, all at the same time.
This research paper will likely be wasted on many lemmings. For lemmings, denial is a basic psychological defense mechanism used to not only shield themselves from unpleasant realities, but also to reassure themselves that they will still fit within the acceptable range of opinion held by their peer group. At all costs, their beliefs must always be on the “right” side of the issue and conform within the boundaries of their lemming peers. Lemmings simply cannot bear the burden of responsibility, or the social discomfort, which comes with thinking independently. They are capable only of repeating that which they hear from the talking heads and “experts” on TV. Lemmings will not only resist efforts to change their misguided beliefs with all of their mental energy, but they will usually attack anyone who dares to question their myths. Lemmings are absolutely terrified at the thought of being labeled as an “extremist” or a “conspiracy theorist”. Ironically, the very same lemmings who instinctively ridicule all “conspiracy theories”, are always the first ones to blindly swallow the most ridiculous conspiracy theories imaginable when the government and media present them!
We can try to open the closed minds of lemmings and free them from their self-imposed blindness, but it’s not easy fighting the forces of Pavlovian conditioning and human nature. The chains of ideological conformity have too strong of a grip, and breaking them is a difficult task. With the limited resources at our disposal, it is next to impossible to compete with the media lemming-masters. Lemmings have been conditioned to obediently grovel before the “authority“ of their media and government masters. For this reason, the lie of the emperor is always believed before the truth of the peasant. Nevertheless, some of us must make the meager attempt, and thus lay the foundation upon which the truth might one day rise again.