Look In My Eyes

What do you see?
The Cult of Personality

I sell the things you need to be
Im the smiling face on your t.v.
Im the Cult of Personality
I exploit you still you love me

I tell you one and one makes three
Im the Cult of Personality ~Living Colour

With the recent Cult followings which have arisen around Barack Obama and Sarah Palin, neurologist Robert Burton recently reiterated the well established findings published in his book "On Being Certain" which show once people have made up their minds they do not change them. Obama and Palin have invoked a visceral emotional stirring in their followers which has metastasized into full blown fanatical devotion demanding unrestrained political warfare to destroy the enemy.

No Quarter is to be given. Obama and Palin and their campaigns do nothing to stop this and actively encourage it. This is why elaborate, detailed speeches on their stances aren't given. That would nail them down and limit their appeal. By not telling the people what they believe or what their positions actually are, they allow the deluded people to graft upon them their hopes and dreams. And people convince themselves often times despite the spoken facts that their beloved savior holds those same beliefs themselves.

The certainty and unwillingness to change one's positions is not a new phenomenon and has been mentioned by Carl Sagan, Isaac Asimov, Betrand Russell and an apocryphal Zen Story.

The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt.

Despite all the rhetoric of Change We Need and Maverick Reformers, whichever ticket of the Two parties wins they are going to be beholden to certain powerful groups which do not represent 99% of the People in this nation. And the new President and Vice President will use their position to further entrench the power in the hands of the Few. The question remains which deluded group do you belong to which thinks they are going to help you?

Update 09/25:
LT Nixon warns America of the Palin of the Corn.