Blog Master G

Arianna Huffington on WMDs And The Psychology Of Fanaticism:

“By all accounts, the behind-the-scenes battle within the Bush administration over just what information should be used, or spun, or hidden, to make the case that Saddam Hussein posed an imminent threat to America and the rest of the world was a knockdown, drag-out fight between the facts and a zealous, highly politicized, ‘who needs proof?’ mindset. And, at the end of the day, the truth was left writhing on the floor.
…
“Dr. Norman Doidge, professor of psychiatry at the University of Toronto, has identified among the telltale symptoms of fanatics: an intolerance of dissent, a doctrine that is riddled with contradictions, the belief that one’s cause has been blessed or even commanded by God, and the use of reinforcement techniques such as repetition to spread one’s message.”

(Excerpts from story on Common Dreams.)