...And by that I mean the ~create your own reality,~ subjective, solipsistic validation, and ~no negativity~ stuff that gets passed around as enlightenment and superior wisdom. If the following isn't an example of this type of mentality, taken to the highest positions of authority, I don't know what is. Speculation has existed since his "don't know what you don't know" speech that Donald Rumsfeld had been involved in Landmark or something similar and of course Landmarkers brag about their members in high places. If this is even close to being true, we've got our work cut out for us, for even if few ever join up or enroll in these "seminars," the stuff spreads through the culture like some intellectual plague.

[www.salon.com]


"...Bush's foreign policy has descended into a fugue state. Dissociated and unaware, the president and his administration are still capable of expressing themselves as if it all makes complete sense, only contributing to their bewilderment. A fugue state should not be confused with cognitive dissonance, the tension produced when irreconcilable ideas are held at the same time and their incompatibility is overcome by denial. In a fugue state, a trauma creates a kind of amnesia in which the sufferer is incapable of connecting to his past. The impairment of judgment comes in great part from a denial of distress. Bush's fugue state involves the reiteration of a failed formula as though nothing has happened. So he proudly reasserts the essence of his Bush doctrine: Our acts are independent of other countries' interests. And he adds new corollaries: Other nations must forgive our unacknowledged mistakes even if we threaten their national security. To this, Bush overlays cognitive dissonance: Our policy is working; it just needs more time. Thus the incoherent becomes coherent..."




Ellen

...And let's not forget Rummy's ~Transformation~ warfare:

[www.pentagon.gov]


(I wonder if he'd just "graduated" and was still in thrall of certain words and concepts when he came up with this one.)


Ellen

(A lot of Landmark insiders suspect he's done the program, though no one has come up with any published proof yet.)

Oh just smell the scientology:

"...Transformation is foremost a continuing process that does not have an end point. It is meant to create or anticipate the future. Transformation is meant to deal with the co-evolution of concepts, processes, organizations and technology. Change in any one of these areas necessitates change in all.

Transformation is meant to create new competitive areas and new competencies. It is meant to identify, leverage and even create new underlying principles for the way things are done. Transformation is meant to identify and leverage new sources of power. The overall objective of these changes is simply – sustained American competitive advantage in warfare..."

(From the above website.)

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elena
...In a fugue state, a trauma creates a kind of amnesia in which the sufferer is incapable of connecting to his past. The impairment of judgment comes in great part from a denial of distress.

It's that look in their eyes. Our PM, your President's lapdog, has that same faraway look on his face when asked to explain his last hypocrisy, his last blunder - to give some response to one of his many oversights. I think we have to accept that politician doesn't automatically connote honesty or intelligence or common sense. I just hope that this 'governance of people' we call politics would hurry up and sort itself out. I mean, sometimes it seems like we're going in circles and despotism is the shadow on the wall, again. (Should I get my sword and chainmail out for a dusting?)

And if any of this makes sense, this denial of distress is exactly the symptom LGATs like LE and CO$ prey upon. It's kind of funny in a very sad way how our politicians sometimes reveal our culture's worst characteristics and qualities.

Are we so much in a hurry to kill the pain - all the pain?

I suppose, on some level, we've always been a species looking for a quick fix, some snake oil and a good ol' brainwashing.

We just have to walk on.

"Cult Thinking" ? Isn't that an oxymoron?

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"Cult Thinking" ? Isn't that an oxymoron?

LOL!! I think so... :D

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question lady
"Cult Thinking" ? Isn't that an oxymoron?

Good one....LOL

Let's see what happens when the[b:d477e566e3] trainer-foon [/size:d477e566e3][/b:d477e566e3]stands up in front of a bunch of Iraq vets and diligently explains to them how they "created" the Iraq war by their "listening"....

You see, master sargeant, you were listening for that kid to have his head shot off and explode brains all over the inside of your humvee, and PTSD, well, that's a pathetic racket for not taking responsibility for your listening, you're not really traumatized, that's just your way of being inauthentic, now, if you were made of the stuff real men are made of, you "get" that your [b:d477e566e3]always-already-listening [/color:d477e566e3][/b:d477e566e3]was the cause of his his head exploding, you were, without knowing it, because of your sin of inauthenticity... listening for exploding heads[/size:d477e566e3].... and now you want to have a nervous breakdown ? For shame, asshole !

[b:d477e566e3]Fake, inauthentic head-exploder [/color:d477e566e3][/b:d477e566e3]! Boyoboyoboy are you PATHETIC ! In a parallel universe the kid still has his head and is home with his folks eating macaroni....

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question lady
"Cult Thinking" ? Isn't that an oxymoron?

I want to add my LOL!!!!!!!!!!

Nutrino but isn't that the way to enlightenment?