One Sucker's Saga, Part IV: Gold, Both White and Black

[peristaltor]

In Part III of this saga, I ended with a mention of Michael C. Ruppert and the CIA's connection to drugs. His story began December of 1975 when (as many stories begin) he met a woman:

"(I)t's not too often you meet a woman who is beautiful, intelligent, literate and witty siting in a bar with a bunch of police officers," Ruppert said. "She was

Comments

[peristaltor]

On credibility exchange, I was mainly referring to the phenomenon demonstrated by the Asch experiments, a general measure of conformity to one's peers. If you haven't already, read up on the wiki. It's so simple, it's a bit scary.

One thing the experiments did not measure, however, were consequences, what happened to people who saw the right answer but refused to bend to the confederates and the answers provided by those in on the fix. After being constantly reminded of their non-compliance, I would suspect that these people might slowly start going mad. There must be negative consequences for such memetic isolation, for being thought wrong by so many.

After all, I've noted before that even our most closely held beliefs prove subject to change should those around us provide convincing feedback or prod us to question those beliefs. People who refuse to accept the common assumption that 2+2=5 might go crazy when they keep seeing the answer "4."

. . . there's too much evidence, and too much gain by the people who had/have power, to discount it entirely.

That second point about gain is the real clincher. I'm amazed at people who fail to see that the very people who so easily stole power afterwards are those being accused. Even if they prove to be innocent (after a real investigation), their vested interest places them highest on the suspect list.

[ironphoenix]

I hadn't actually read that; thanks for the link!

When the confederates are not unanimous in their judgment, even if only 1 confederate voices a different opinion, participants are much more likely to resist the urge to conform than when the confederates all agree. This finding illuminates the power that even a small dissenting minority can have.

This is also an important result, and a good reason for me to accept your earlier assertion that "spreading the word is not as ineffectual as it may seem."

And yes, pushing the folks who refuse to comply and seeing when they crack would be an interesting, although possibly unethical, experiment.