*'s Power Struggle with the People.

[patrice]

Have you ever seen a real power struggle go down between any two entities?

As a public high school teacher I've seen these kinds of relationships devolve into sheer cussedness on both sides. The particulars of whatever issue become lost relative to counting coup on the opposition and who gets the last word in.

It isn't about what is good, nor right, nor functional, nor helpful, nor desirable; it isn't about anything except ONE THING, who comes out on top. And many people will sacrifice EVERYTHING for that.

Maybe you've seen this happen; the "winner" "wins" at ALL costs, even if it means "cutting your nose off to spite your face".

This is what this country is now.

[Lin]

1. pls tell me that at SOME point nobody defends the indefensible, pls

tell me that at SOME point common decency emerges as MORE important that defending the "team" & PLEASE tell me HOW this CULT OF BUSH EVER became so solid??? (for lack of a better word)

[patrice]

2. It's solid because it is built on an absolutely fundamental physical

responses, beginning with Fear, which the hardest wired emotional response of all.

Start with something that people are afraid of and through various semantic allusions, and associations connect to whatever your objective is, repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat . . . . It's a basic physical mechanism called Conditioning (i.e. stimulus:response behaviorism).