I recently had the pleasure of appearing on the Bottom Up Radio Show hosted by Rob Kall of OpEdNews. Rob and I spent an hour in a wide-ranging discussion about my new book, POLITICAL MIND GAMES: How the 1% Manipulate Our Understanding of What’s Happening, What’s Right, and What’s Possible. I’ve posted the YouTube video below. Various options for listening to the audio only are available here.
Watch the interview:
**POLITICAL MIND GAMES is available through IndieBound, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, other online outlets, and neighborhood bookstores.**
While reading this fascinating and disturbing book, I couldn’t help recalling the vast, conformist and obedient crowds summoned by our Predator-In-Chief to his various pre- and post-election campaign stops – crowds referred to alternatively as the President’s “base” and, by former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, as his “basket of deplorables.”
These crowds have not yet been mobilized as “storm troopers,” although the prospect is there. Even worse, they are not likely to read Dr. Eidelson’s book, being too old and intellectually-depleted, now, and too firmly entrenched as adherents to “negativity dominant” practices, as discussed in Chapter 4.
To limit the further growth of these classic “baskets of deplorables” in future generations, Political Mind Games should be made required reading in college-level Critical-Thinking classes. Consider this as a form of “innoculation therapy.” The book is beautifully written, eminently readable, logically developed, extraordinarily researched, and completely adaptable to changing times, which makes it timeless. The book is also rather terrifying — until Chapter 6, which offers a promising degree of hopeful respite.
History repeats itself. The predatory greed of our 1% plutocrats will continue, sustained as always by the manipulative techniques captured in Dr. Eidelson’s book. The ultimate danger to our democracy is a shortage of properly-trained critical thinkers. An appropriate remedy would be to capture the minds of our younger generations by introducing Political Mind Games as required reading in classes focusing on this required skill.