The Common Error. by Dean Gotcher

The Common Error.

by
Dean Gotcher

Common-ism (the consensus process) begins with the false primes that man's heart is basically good or neither good nor bad, only needing "good" education (healthy socialist experience) to become "good."

Our framing fathers knew better, limiting the power of government.

"The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?" Jeremiah 17:9

"If, in the opinion of the people, the distribution or modification of the constitutional powers be in any particular wrong, let it be corrected by an amendment in the way which the Constitution designates. But let there be no change by usurpation [through one branch usurping authority over another branch, for example the courts, the president, or departments of government making law instead of the legislative branch]; for, though this, in one instance, may be the instrument of good, it is the customary weapon by which free governments are destroyed." "The spirit of encroachment tends to consolidate the powers of all the departments in one, and thus to create, whatever the form of government, a real despotism. A just estimate of that love of power, and proneness to abuse it, which predominates in the human heart, is sufficient to satisfy us of the truth of this position. The necessity of reciprocal checks in the exercise of political power, by dividing and distributing it into different depositories, and constituting each the guardian of the public weal [chastening or spanking] against invasions by the others, has been evinced by experiments ancient and modern; some of them in our country and under our own eyes. To preserve them must be as necessary as to institute them." (George Washington, Farewell Speech)

How "free government is destroyed."

"Bypassing the traditional channels of top-down decision making [overthrowing representative-limited-majority rule government where the constituents, under God, originate law], our objective centers upon .... transform public opinion into an effective instrument of global politics." "Individual values must be measured by their contribution to common interests and ultimately to world interests [from "the earth is the Lords and the fullness thereof" (the Word of God) to "the earth belongs to no one and its fruits to everyone." (Rousseau)].... transforming public consensus into one favorable to the emergence of a stable and humanistic world order." "Consensus is both a personal and a political step. It is a precondition of all future steps..." (Ervin Laszlo, A Strategy for the Future: The Systems Approach to World Order)

"A unanimous majority of three [a consensus] is more powerful [in the perception of the public] than a majority of eight with one dissenting." (Dennis Coon, Introduction to Psychology)

"... few individuals, as Asch has shown, can maintain their objectivity in the face of apparent group unanimity; and the individual rejects critical feelings toward the group at this time to avoid a state of cognitive dissonance. To question the value or activities of the group, would be to thrust himself into a state of dissonance. Long cherished but self-defeating beliefs and attitudes may waver and decompose in the face of a dissenting majority." (Irvin Yalom, Theory and Practice and Group Psychotherapy)

"We know how to disintegrate a man's personality structure, dissolving his self-confidence, destroying the concept he has of himself, and making him dependent on another. [Doing what Carl Roger's himself called] brainwashing [washing from the brain the Father's authority, the derivation of traditional Nationalism]." "We can choose to use our growing knowledge to enslave people in ways never dreamed of before, depersonalizing them, controlling them by means so carefully selected that they will perhaps never be aware of their loss of personhood." (Carl Rogers, as quoted in People Shapers, by Vance Packard) "We can achieve a sort of control under which the controlled, though they are following a code much more scrupulously than was ever the case under the old system, nevertheless feel free. They are doing what they want to do, not what they are forced to do. That's the source of the tremendous power of positive reinforcement―there's no restrain and no revolt." "By a careful design, we control not the final behavior, but the inclination to behavior―the motives, the desires, the wished. The curious thing is that in that case the question of freedom never arises." "If we have the power or authority to establish the necessary conditions the predicted behaviors will follow." (Carl Rogers, on becoming a person: A Therapist View of Psychotherapy)

"The individual [the legislator, the policeman, the minister, the spouse, the educator, the student, etc.] accepts the new system of values and beliefs by accepting belongingness to the group." (Kurt Lewin, in Kenneth Benne, Human Relations in Curriculum Change)

"Re-education must be clever enough in manipulating the subjects to have them think that they are running the show." "The objective sought will not be reached so long as the new set of values is not experienced by the individual as something freely chosen." (Kenneth Benne, Human Relations in Curriculum Change)

"Freud commented that only through the solidarity of all the participants could the sense of guilt be assuaged." (Norman O. Brown, Life Against Death: The Psychoanalytical Meaning of History)

Socialism (the consensus process) can function only when people are deceivable, i.e. have no "guilty conscience" for being wicked, i.e. justifying themselves, their thoughts and their actions in their own eyes.

"And he said unto them, Ye are they which justify yourselves before men; but God knoweth your hearts: for that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God." Luke 16:5

"Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths." Proverb. 3: 5-6