The People are NOT Sheep

[RockPusher]

You have presented a wonderful cop-out for the sheep to emulate.

The reason they are sheep is that they show up to be FED information and they gleefully FEED on the opinions of others.

They are sheep because they are too weak and lazy to take responsibility and form their OWN understanding.

They are sheep because, being armed only with their self acknowledged ignorance and political ineptness, they follow the lines to polls bleating and chewing their cud to push the button that their 'betters' have told them to.

An ignorant PERSON who is aware of the implications of voting would abstain from blindly 'deciding'. They would either become informed, or if they don't have the time/energy.... they would stay home.

Sheep..... Yummy.

Originally Posted by David Octavius

I really have a problem with people who to this day call "the people" sheep or blind or stupid ...
The point is that politics and political science is also a specialty, the very depths of it, its core, is something only the very few can delve into and communicate to the rest. The people at large do not have the time/resources to do such things so they rely on those who do to come up with the right answers. ....

[David Octavius]

Originally Posted by RockPusher

You have presented a wonderful cop-out for the sheep to emulate.

The reason they are sheep is that they show up to be FED information and they gleefully FEED on the opinions of others.

They are sheep because they are too weak and lazy to take responsibility and form their OWN understanding.

They are sheep because, being armed only with their self acknowledged ignorance and political ineptness, they follow the lines to polls bleating and chewing their cud to push the button that their 'betters' have told them to.

An ignorant PERSON who is aware of the implications of voting would abstain from blindly 'deciding'. They would either become informed, or if they don't have the time/energy.... they would stay home.

Sheep..... Yummy.

Authoritarianists would stand an applaud your post

The people are not "weak" or "lazy" they (by "they" I really mean all of us, including you Rock) find and process information from sources they deem trustworthy (ie Foxnews, NYT or their friends and family) and formulate their belief structure around it. It's biologically proven that we ALL do things like this, its the basis of society, without which we would crumble. We are all biased to one view point or another because of this - you may think your position is sound while another may think it ignorant.

But is this the ignorant or sheeply behavior you speak of? Then what is the solution? Your implied authoritarianism? No, rather conclude that this isn't ignorant or sheeply, just too few avenues to which to find information, TV news, newspapers and radio are bought up by conglomerates who's first thought is ratings and ad revenue, making shows all to similar to explore anything in depth. However if there are alternatives, the people (us) will seek it out, find alternative information and begin to reprocess some of their beliefs or reinforce it if they believe it to still be true - enlightenment by choice, not force.

The solution is not an authority to tell us what to think and to conform to his ideas - the solution is the diversity of thinking and beliefs that people already have, all that is needed is effective ways to communicate it and there will be an avalanche of free thinking - the first of which is already happing thanks to the Internet.

[Dispatcher]

Originally Posted by kombayn

Yeah I hate when posters use the word "sheep" to try and disenfranchise another poster. It's tacky and takes on a role of teasing in a sense. But I usually ignore people that start using rhetoric like that, because they're usually the crazy conspiracy theorists.

Keep in mind that in some states, petting a sheep constitutes marriage.

I'll be right baaaack. I have to go shear my wife.