The Power of Suggestion
What is the power of suggestion and how much of our beliefs are shaped by it? The power of suggestion works through the conduit of ignorance and the absence of the ability to bare witness to truth by individuals. From our infancy, people who we love or trust makes suggestions to us about life, culture, religion and a host of other things that we are either ignorant of and or cannot bare witness to independently discern truth.
It is the absence of the ability to bare witness to the comprehensive truth that allows suggestion and beliefs to diverge from reality. Thus, in this state of ignorance, people tend to gravitate towards the beliefs or conclusions that offer them the most physical or psychological comfort, if not pleasure. For example if an attractive person of the opposite gender makes eye contact with you and smiles, that can be interpreted in many different ways. The person could just be friendly; the person could have mistaken you for someone else. The person could be attracted to you. The person could be smiling because there is something funny looking about you. Given that you cannot bare witness to the person motivation at that point, most people will choose to believe that which is in line with the personal self image. If the person is insecure, they will think the negative. If the person is secure, they will think the positives.
In America, there is inherent power in having the power of suggestion over millions of people, who cannot bare witness to certain truths. In this electronic age, that power of suggestion is held by the media. Thus, the media selects the opinions and truths to disseminate out to the people, for the primary motive of monetary profit. In this way, the media is biased because profit being its primary motive means that it has to suggest the truths or beliefs that are palatable to the demographic group who advertisers cater to and hence make the media profitable. For all intents and purposes, the demographic group in America is Caucasians. Therefore, the media often simply presents information that reinforces what Caucasians already believe. For if they did not, their ratings, advertisement and profit would fall because whites would not patronize what the media was suggesting. Consequently, the media is not an objective instrument for truth, but rather, the media simply panders to white beliefs in order to remain profitable.
Take a look at this recent presidential election and the power of suggestion. No one suggested that race or racism played a role in the GOP victory, but many people did suggest that values and morals played a role. Whites no longer want to talk about race and white racism because they invariable come out looking like the bad guys. Hence, even though race and racism is still a big factor in America, the media has stopped suggesting it because the white masses are suggesting that it is no longer a problem. Now, they are suggesting that morals and values are what is guiding their behavior and inspiring their choices. This is because white America wants to see itself as the morally and ethically superior group…so the suggest it. However, they do not want to see themselves as racist and immoral…so they ignore the issue of race, because they nearly always come out appearing as racist to blacks.
Black people lack the power of suggestion in America for a couple of reasons. The primary reason is that black people are not respected and or trusted by whites in America. All throughout our history here, suggestions coming from the black community are incredulously unless co-signed by white suggestion as well. A good example of this is when television showed picture of blacks being, beaten, hosed and attacked by dogs while demonstrating peacefully for their rights in the South. This ability to bare witness to what blacks had been saying created many Northern white co-signers to the Civil Rights Struggle, there by making it more legitimate. Even today, whites cannot respect the fact that blacks voting overwhelmingly democratic is done out of intelligence and the ability to discern the lesser of two white evils. The secondary reason blacks lack the power of suggestion is because we do not control any media of significance, which is born from our economic and numerical weakness as a demographic group in America.
In light of this, America is a nation out of sync with reality. There is too much profit linkage in the media and politics from pandering to the beliefs, ignorance and prejudice of white America for the nation to affectively move forward in a progressive mode. Politicians are afraid to tell the white masses the truth; for fear that they will not get reelected. The media is afraid to suggest the truth out of fear they will lose in the ratings and hence become less profitable. Consequently, structural and systematic problems in this nation, such as social security and race are not being addressed because white folks do not want to accept any responsibility or burdens to solve these problems.
posted by Noah TA @ 11/08/2004 08:41:00 AM
6 comments
6 Comments:
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Blacks make up about 13% of the populations. With a 52% of them being in big cities. So for the majority of whites black people are a non issue.
They don't give a damm about us either way. You need to move beyond your constant conspiracy theory.
What conspiracy theories? I never presented a theory of conspiracy, but rather, shared individual interest of many whites. Now, given that black and white and black experience in America has been radically different, in the summation of over 300 years, it stands to reason that black and white interest have evolved to be different, notwithstanding overlap. Thus, white folks looking out for their interest simply CONSERVES white supremacy and the condition there of, to the detriment of black folk.
I have never suggested that white folks sit in a room conspiring to do black people in. That is no truer that black folks sitting in a room and conspiring to vote democratic. The truth is that people with shared history and experiences have shared and similar interest born from the history that the come to independent of a planed conspiracy. Thus, the fact that white people are “white” gives them a vested interest in preserving white supremacy…or its euphemism “the system” or “conservatism”.
Any idiot can see that conservatism is preservatism. It is simply the rational for PRESERVING the status quo. When one attempts to conserve/preserve a status quo that is characterized by racial inequality…the ideology thus becomes racist in effect, regardless of intents. Hence, you need to ask yourself, Scott and other Negro-Cons, just where you fit into this ideology of conservatism.
As I was cleaning out my DVR yesterday, I came across a recording of the Tavis Smiley show from the night of the last debate and he had this white cat on there name Dennis Prager. This cat believe he had it all figured out why Black folk and Jews vote primarily democratic. He went into this big explanation that ended up saying that Jews vote Democratic because they fear Christianity, and Black folk vote Democratic out of various emotions we have as well. He is suggesting that we can not logically conclude who we should support based on the platforms of both candidates, instead he suggest we vote our emotions and we all know white folk vote logically. This again is the example of a white person thinking they know what is best for us and that we are too emotional to know what is good for us thus we need a logical white person to tell us.
The funny thing about the whole moral and value vote is people are voting that way because of something they have been told and not because they practice these morals and values. All those white immoral men and women that vote based on morals are doing so because it makes them feel good about themself and voting for morals and values is an act of morality itself. A vote against what is considered moral is immoral and no one wants to believe they are immoral.
Here is the qoute from Dennis Prager on Tavis show...
Dennis: But I would really love to come and talk to you about why blacks so automatically vote Democrat.
Tavis: Mm-hmm.
Dennis: Because I have a theory on it, and it may be too long for now.
Tavis: Give me the short version. I'm gonna follow up...
Dennis: I wrote one of my columns on why Jews and blacks are liberal and vote Democrat, and my basic bottom line--there are many reasons, obviously. It is what I call the paralysis of memory. Jews--most American Jews--and I'm Jewish. But I'm Republican. Most American Jews still remember the Inquisition and the Crusades and Christian anti-Semitism in Europe, and they are very afraid of a resurgent Christianity, and they don't recognize how much American Christians are different from Europe's Christians. Most blacks still powerfully remember the dogs and the water--the water, uh...
Tavis: Water hoses.
Dennis: Hoses of the south and don't want to recognize or can't recognize how much whites have changed in America. And I think both groups are still paralyzed by anger and by fear, and that explains largely the emotionality of their voting, 'cause I think it's emotional, not political
The sad part is no one challenged him on this garbage.
his reasoning is illogical. If blacks are emotional in regards to the past those emotions should be directed at whites in general and not whites in a particular political party. Besides blacks did switch party affilation in the 60's which meant that there had to be some logical cognitions taking place to do that
Post a Comment
<< Home