Here’s a quote for you, but I’m not revealing who spoke these inauspicious words just yet:
Read it again:
“What good fortune for those in power that people do not think.”
Yea, yea – YOU’RE a thinker so you don’t count here. I must be talking about someone else! Well, I got news for you. You might think you’re thinking, but actually you’d better go and double-check. I’ll wait right here while you do….
OK. Here’s the deal. When you’re in a situation where someone has power over you -- for our purposes let’s say it's YOUR BOSS -- and he/she abuses that power, you can easily begin to lose your ability TO THINK. You don’t NOTICE you’re losing your ability to think because that’s the very nature of this ABUSE OF POWER phenomenon. That person basically puts you under a spell and now you’re dealing with SCARY POWER because it’s no longer just related to office deadlines, workload and quality control, it’s now related to your SELF-ESTEEM. And when that someone takes a hacksaw to your self-esteem, you begin to question everything you know about yourself and that’s when you start believing every negative thing you hear and feel. And when you believe these things, they control your emotional state. Understand that for many people in powerful positions, the thought of you being an independent thinker is threatening -- they need to break you down so they can then build you back up under their rules.
Hitler. Adolf Hitler. That was his quote. Wanna go back and think about that one some more? It’s effin scary, that’s what it is.
When your emotional state is controlled by ANYONE, you begin to behave in ways you normally wouldn’t and even the most (formerly) grounded individual becomes something less than the person he/she was 6 months or 10 years ago.
The key is to THINK AND QUESTION (critical thinking) so you always hold on to what’s true for you. Use your trusted friends as “reality meters” and ask them if they think your perceptions might be skewed by something. If they say “yes,” please trust them. You can easily be under the “spell” of the person to whom you’ve given all of this power and, seriously, you won’t have a clue! You get a clue through your AWARENESS of the situation and often that has to come from someone you trust on the “outside.”
Just having AWARENESS kick-starts your brain. And when you’re aware, you’re thinking. And when you’re thinking and questioning you can survey your surroundings and recognize when someone’s hijacked your brain! Get it?
Now go rescue your brain and never again give ANYONE the good fortune to have power over you.
P.S. While we’re on the subject of unmitigated power and its nemesis, critical thinking, please be sure to THINK ABOUT AND QUESTION what the Republicans are offering up this election.
