11 January, 2009

"The Mind Stealers"

I caught flu since Monday and had terrible time as the beginning of the first week of a new class.

"The Mind Stealers" is an interesting reading to understand the social psychology and behavioral change done by our government. The noticiable part was at the end:

But even more ominous is the fact the federal agencies that are supposed to act as watchdogs in the public interest have also become involved in bizarre experiments with human beings, that violate basic ethical standards or constitutional human rights. And just like individual investigators, these agencies are also in hot pursuit of funds, and thus are equally ready to promote programs that are astonishingly out of character with the original purposes for which they were founded. In the process, not only is scientific integrity sacrificed but also the welfare of many thousands of this country's poor who make up the reservoir of experimental subjects: whether in the penitentiaries, the mental institutions, or as free individuals in the hospital wards. Senator Sam J. Ervin. Jr.. who for three years (1971-1974) headed a Senate subcommittee investigating the government's involvement in behavior-modification programs, warned that such a trend imperiled some of the basic constitutional rights of Americans. Whenever...therapies are applied to alter men's minds, he declared, extreme care must be taken to prevent the infringement of individual rights. He added that concepts of freedom, privacy, and self-determination inherently conflict with programs designed to control not just physical freedom, but the source of free thought as well.
I think the current situation that the gang stalking victim is facing is rooted in similar issue. Stalkers in our society clam someone as mentally ill or criminal. Others do not care as it is none of their business. In such situation, do stalkers have right to decide the mental stability or guilty of an individual? Stalkers are biased and they work to prove their target as what they believe. The target is facing pressures to be something the people around him or her expect. Isn't it a type of forced psychosurgery? By the way, if you are interested in similar topic in a healthy way, I suggest you to read Colin Wilson's "The personality surgeon."

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