5 great ways to wash your brain no matter how smart you are

Zombie can kazhdogoI again all talking about Scientology. Why not? This cult, which revolve billions of dollars. And, apparently, his main task - to convince the actors that they have superpowers. However, the highlight was the cast there is no reason. Just look around and you will see that the world is full of people brainwashed that make or something strange (for example, too much addicted to yoga) or something suicidal (for example, attached to LIH).

But since you something, of course, you are never going to do anything like that, right? So what is different from you all these people? Why do all sorts of stupid (or horrible) movement is so easy to recruit followers, including from among the intelligent and educated people? Here's what happened when you try to figure it out.

1. Ideas do not matter - people care only what "works" Probably most of you reading this are thinking that Scientology - it's pretty funny garbage, so let's use it as an example.

You've probably heard all these crazy myths that 75 million years ago an evil ruler Xenu froze billions of their kind, and buried them in terrestrial volcanoes.

If you join Scientology means to believe in such nonsense, why among Scientologists, along with tens of thousands of ordinary people are people successful, rich and had not suffered from mental illness?

Every cult, a political party, a group of people united by hatred for anything, have long understood that the people are easily lured into a trap, if you take strange things and connect them thread of common sense, so that in the end all will agree with them h4> Let me show how Scientology works its wonders.

Here, for example, that Scientologists are advised to do when work or life becomes unbearable. And these tips are not reduced to "perform the ritual call thetan" or something similar.

Instead, you will be offered to concentrate on a single task and try to perform this task quickly and correctly. So that you will not think about the hated work, and the task to be solved right now. After this task you will have confidence, you can go to the next task.

And this is a great piece of advice: every successful person does so. "But wait a minute - you might say - in fact, Scientology has invented nothing, it just borrowed it all from mailing" 10 tips allowing to work better. " It's just common sense, and nothing more ».

Right. Mythology does not matter if all these rituals facilitate our lives.

Every cult, a political party, a group of people united by hatred for anything, long understood that people are easily lured into a trap, if you take strange things and connect them thread of common sense, so that in the end with them all agree.

But why the trapped people will not go away even after members of their group are beginning to do something repulsive? Well ...

2. Mainly due strahaPozvolte me to return to a favorite suit. At the beginning of the film "The Lord of the Rings" shows a massive battle between the elves and orcs. It is not necessary to listen to the voice-over, to understand why someone should get sick in this battle.

If tomorrow you run into a group of boys beating an orc in the alley, you join them, even asking about the reason for the fight and did not learn that the guys have stolen from the orc bicycle. It just does not matter, you would have fought on their side, even if these people were neo-Nazis.

People justify their horrific actions, thinking that they are fighting with some enemy that is much worse than they are.

But always remember: people first determine exactly what they hate.

Think about how little people on the network to talk about their favorite bands, and how many of those who speak of their hatred of the group Nickelback, for example. Strong guys in high school did not care about how to become an athlete, but very cared about, not to be nerds. You can never understand who really want to be, but know exactly who you want to be. Everything that you know - no matter how stupid or damaging your beliefs - is that they simply do not help you to stand on the side of a villain who, as you seem to have.

Wait, does this mean that members of the group, united by hatred for someone, actually feed off each other and that the warring parties really are in a strange symbiosis, which ultimately ensures their survival?

Yes! That is why we always ascribe negative traits to people who do not agree with. It is not enough simply to say that antifeministki wrong. We have to say that they are thick and asexual. Conservatives - backward redneck, liberals - hippies who have no power. And our own movement we are willing to forgive a lot, because, no matter how corrupt we are, we are, at least, not the orcs.

3. Friends are more important than politikaEsli you talk to those who have been at war, and ask how he went through it, it is unlikely you will say something about the love of their country or of the convictions. No, he will tell you about the guy beside him. They cover each other's back, that's how they managed to survive.

People take those views that allow better fit into their social group, because the fit - more important than any abstract nonsense about taxes and foreign policy h4> I remember an interview with a former neo-Nazi who I joined the skinheads before realizing who they are. A few months later he was asked: "Well, now you hate Jews, is not it?" And he, like everyone else, said: "Of course».

Over time, he really learned to hate the Jews, but that came much later. And in the beginning it was a question of simply support your friends.

"I would never have agreed to destroy an entire people just to please your friends!» - You might say. Maybe, but there is a more subtle process, due to which you can get involved in something that is foreign to you. Tell me honestly: how many of you really see the arguments that lead the warring parties?

When there is a serious debate, most people do not seek to understand its details, to understand how to operate more efficiently. They simply follow their team. That's because for the most part people accept those opinions, which enable better fit into their social group, because the fit - more important than any abstract nonsense about taxes and foreign policy. We always choose what is most significant for us.





4. Code of Ethics at all the same, just used in raznomuSchitaete Do you consider yourself morally superior to people who burned witches? I hope that this is so, because the people were executed innocent women, based solely on an absurd superstition.

But if all of a sudden it became clear that not only the witches really existed, but everything said about them was true? And the only way to stop them was the murder?

When someone wants to objectively determine which group the best, somehow always best recognized from that to which belongs to the man h4> And then it becomes clear that you do not necessarily tolerance compared with the witch hunters, you just do not share their belief in witches. And your moral code may in fact be the same as theirs, but you just do not agree with them in this particular case. The facts may be true or false, but they are moral or immoral.

Now consider a serious political dispute. Both liberals and conservatives agree with the moral principle that government tyranny - it's bad. However, they disagree about whether health care reform pursued by the President, an example of such a government tyranny.

And it does not mean that the position of one side of the moral, and the other - is immoral. It only means that the parties come from different factual prerequisites.

It also happens that some party simply lying about what he believes. Witch hunters really did not believe in witches. They just liked to mutilate women. The Conservatives do not really think that health care reform - an example of tyranny. They just need an excuse to leave all the poor people sick.

But if you ask these people about their moral values, a list of all cases is the same: to minimize the damage, equity, respect for authority, the preservation of the purity of body and mind. If the list and there will be some differences, it is very minor.

5. Most of the people involved in their group sluchaynoKogda someone wants to objectively determine which group best, for some reason always best recognized from that to which the person belongs. Oddly enough, is not it?

Read the discussion of poor participants of the forum on wealth management - it is quite clear that people become poor because they are so weak and immoral, that they can not control their immediate desires.

Almost always people consider a mortal sin is something that personally it is by no means safe. In other words, we try to adjust your moral code so that the rise in the "right" side with minimal effort. You can think of it as his "moral default settings," and they are determined by where you were born, how you are brought up to a group of friends you've joined.

The fact that different people have different moral values ​​- and above all, believe in them equally strong - it is almost impossible to understand.

Admit it: you secretly believe that he never would have been a racist, bringing you to live in the South during the time of slavery. And if you were a young German, I would never have joined the supporters of Hitler. If we are using the imagination transported to some other time and place, for some reason we always believe that our "moral default setting" will be with us, because we simply can not imagine my life without it. And that's one thing, because we will never be able to truly understand each other.

And when we're trying to get someone to give up his "moral default installation", then, in fact, we want it to be:

He refused that still works fine; let bastards on the other side to win; He betrayed his friends; done something (in his view) immoral. Many would rather die than go on this.

via www.cracked.com/blog/5-reasons-you-get-tricked-into-believing-stupid-things/