MICKEY Z.
Recognizing the Gates Around Us
Thu Apr 22, 2004 18:38
67.1.146.27

http://www.counterpunch.com/mickey04222004.html
April 22, 2004

Undoing the Latches
Recognizing the Gates Around Us
By MICKEY Z.

In his brilliant book, The Pig Who Sang to the Moon: The Emotional World
of Farm Animals, Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson writes: "I was told by some
New Zealand sheep farmers that sometimes a particularly smart lamb will
learn to undo the latch of a gate, evidently not an uncommon skill, and
the sheep farmer then worries that the lamb might teach his less clever
companions to do the same."

Masson asked a group of farmers, "What do you with sheep who can undo
the latch?"

"We shoot them," came the reply, "so they can't pass on their
knowledge."

"Others nodded in agreement," Masson continued. "They all had anecdotes
about particularly intelligent sheep who were shot as a reward for their
cleverness."

While this excerpt stands alone as a telling indictment of human
behavior in general and the treatment of animals in particular, it
additionally reminds one how important it is to not only undo the
latches on the gates that keep our minds imprisoned...but to pass on
that knowledge.

Of course, those who have learned to undo the latches in human society
are "rewarded for their cleverness," too. Deported (Emma Goldman),
murdered Gestapo-style (Fred Hampton), framed and imprisoned (Leonard
Peltier)...the tactics vary, but in America, these tactics are typically
more subtle than overt terror.

"If you come from the more privileged classes, if you're a white
middle-class person, then the chances that you are going to be subjected
to literal state terror are very slight," says Noam Chomsky. "It could
happen, but it's slight. What will happen is that you'll be
marginalized, excluded. Instead of becoming part of the privileged
elite, you'll be driving a taxi cab. It's not torture, but very few
people are going to select that option, if they have a choice. And the
ones who do select it will never be heard from again. Therefore they are
not part of the indoctrination system. They don't make it. It could be
worse, but it's enough to discipline people."

To a point, it certainly is more than enough to discipline people...but
even the most conditioned of societies can be pushed too far and that's
when the latches get undone, the knowledge passed on, and the gates fly
open.

These gates (usually unrecognized) can lock us into a limited way of
seeing things...a concept Masson also touches on in The Pig Who Sang to
the Moon. He spoke with some women who worked with cattle...asking them
about the cows' feelings. "They don't have any," the women agreed. "They
are always the same, they feel nothing."

"At that moment," Masson writes, "we all heard a loud bellowing. I asked
why the cows were making that noise."

The women shrugged it off as "nothing," explaining that cows that were
separated from their calves were calling them. "The calves are afraid,"
one woman said, "and are calling for their mothers, and their mothers
are afraid for their calves and are calling them, trying to reassure
them."

"It sounded to me," Masson stated, "as if these people were suffering
from... confirmation bias, which involves only taking into account
evidence that confirms a belief already held and ignoring or dismissing
evidence that disproves that same belief."

Think about that. Even the evidence of their own senses cannot convince
them.

There's an important lesson lurking in there for us all: The
gatekeepers-often using confirmation bias as their lock and key-are not
limited to the elite players in the corporate/government nexus.

Pass it on...

Mickey Z. is the author of two upcoming books: "A Gigantic Mistake:
Articles and Essays for Your Intellectual Self-Defense" (Prime
Books/Library Empyreal) and "the Seven Deadly Spins: Exposing the Lies
Behind War Propaganda" (Common Courage Press). He can be reached at
mzx2@earthlink.net.

--
Thank you, Be seeing you.
In the Village.
#6

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