Rob Naylor - Thanks very much indeed for that. I've just tracked down the story on s6.zetaboards.com and it's the one I had in mind. Patrish - First of all I have to make an admission - I haven't read any of Icke's books, and certainly don't have the mental stamina to sit through 9 hrs of him, so you could fairly say that I'm not in a position to argue against him in detail, only by criticising what I've actually heard him say on video, or read on the web. A year or two ago I was curious enough about his beliefs to look at his website and do a little internet research about him. I suppose you could say I am partly amused and partly exasperated by what he says, and also fascinated and puzzled by why his ideas have such a hold on some people. I wonder if those people all have something in common, and if so what. I suspect it doesn't have much to do with intelligence or education, simply because I knew a man who had plenty of both who accepted without question every crack-pot conspiracy theory he came across. (One day, when he was happily married, he just stopped believing it all). As far as that goes, you don't seem stupid or uneducated either. But then intelligence or education have nothing to do with delusions, and some delusions (as Tunesmith has noted above) are even approved by the dominant culture of a society. (By "delusion" I mean a logical system of thought and belief which is based on an untruth. When the delusion has a threatening nature it is a paranoid delusion.) There are many intelligent people who sincerely believe, for instance, that the universe is governed by invisible spirits, that their thoughts are controlled by radio waves, that the lady next door kidnaps and eats little children. Some of these people are looked after in hospital institutions, some work for religious institutions, some live lives that are otherwise quite normal and productive. Perhaps it's mainly Icke's personality which is more convincing than what he says. It's certainly not any proof for belief which convinces, because of proof he hasn't a shred. I mean, proof of a sort that would be acceptable to a scientist or detective. He boldly states a bizarre opinion (the moon is an alien spaceship, the world is run by shape-shifting lizards, governments deliberately weaken children's immune systems by vaccinations) with no pretence at independent verification, other than, for instance, a claim that ancient Hebrews believed this and it's in the Bible, or the same symbol appears here and here so the has to be an underlying conspiracy, or this word resembles that word so there must be connection. I'm not saying that there aren't conspiracies or secret government programmes going on, or that the rich and power do not have, well …. wealth and power. Nor that intelligent people can't believe in David Icke. I will say that it's possible to be intelligent and foolish at the same time. It is of course a feature of a delusion that that rational proof makes no impact at all on it. I remember a psychiatric worker once telling me about a man who believed he had two hearts. In an attempt to defeat his delusion they showed him an x-ray of his chest, but he just said it was someone else's. The delusion was too important to him to be affected by proof of the opposite. If there's one thing David Icke has it's personality. When he's in good form he is a fluent and persuasive speaker – conversational but very much in charge, with energy and flashes of humour, and a good command of his points of argument (what in other circumstances might be called "facts"). Once his points are taken as facts, and a kind of logic applied to develop them into a systematic belief, and the logic slanted to appear threatening, then you have a sort of religion based on what is usually called conspiracy theory – the belief that ordinary people are puppets made to move at the command of other humans, or of aliens from outer space, and that nothing in books, newspapers, the internet, TV, or radio, is true. Once you accept that nothing you are told is true, you have sealed yourself into a tiny enclosed space where the same stale air is continually circulated and the outside atmosphere is poison.
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