Prairie Dogs and
the Brainwashing Theorists – A Modern Comparison
As
information about John Walker Lindh started emerging last fall, the message
seemed to pass quickly through the brainwashing devotee colony that here was a
chance to bark about charismatic leaders and lump completely diverse realities
(man who learns Arabic and travels the world with space ship chasers in San
Diego with far right fundamentalists in Texas) into the “charismatic leader
lead them by the paw” theory.
Poking
up out of their burrows and stretching high on their haunches they started
yapping about how Walker’s mind was controlled.
Ever
alert, the media noticed the little mammals’ heads above ground, started asking
questions and dutifully noting the answers (or listening reverently on radio
interviews).
One obviously objective reporter even called dweller Steve
Hassan an “expert” on “mind control”. http://www.usatoday.com/news/comment/2001-11-05-ncguest1.htm
(Hassan’s
degrees granted by non pay-for-your-degree colleges; his studies released after
strict peer review and his books not published by a vanity press seem to be
safely secured deep below ground.)
Nevertheless,
self-promotion worked at least twice as Hassan also got himself on a TV panel.
http://www.lisatrust.net/Media/us-oreilly-taliban.htm
Here
is an example of Hassan’s “life is a cult and then you die” theory:
“There
is this perception that cults are religious, but religious cults are just one
type of cult. There are political cults, therapy cults, business cults, and
even family group systems that act like a mind-control cult. Essentially,
people are not allowed to be themselves as unique individuals in a mind-control
group.”
Others
in the closed circle of brainwashing theory reverence, including lawyer Paul
Morantz, surfaced as well. To justify
the leap of logic of Walker as brainwashed, Morantz decided that Hitler and
Stalin were cult leaders:
“When it comes to death tolls, no one can
match Hitler or Stalin, who hooked the downtrodden with promises of greatness.
We are all, to some degree, vulnerable to committing horrible acts if we become
convinced of a justification.” (LA Times,
January 25, 2002)
Luckily,
Dahlia Lithwick at Slate actually did her homework, and wrote an article that
gives the debunked theory its proper due. (http://www.cultawarenessnetwork.org/dbase/clippings/dahlia_lithwick1.html)
A member
of Walker’s defense team was contacted who made it clear that regarding the
brainwashing defense, “Anything you have heard is pure conjecture and
speculation. It did not come from this
team.”
As
evidenced by the hearing on February 5th and arguments used so far
by the defense team:
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-worldtrade-lindh-defense.story
Maybe
they looked around and found the scholarly documents debunking the brainwashing
theory, such as those cited at:
http://www.cesnur.org/testi/se_brainwash.htm
Looks
like that’s it for this season for the brainwashing theorists.
Back
down into your warrens to listen for the ground vibrating so you can emerge
another day.
Just
hope it isn’t raining that morning.
(Oops
– that’s groundhogs – rodents not squirrels – how could we have mixed them
up?)
