Ronald R. Cherry
Blind paranoia
By Ronald R. Cherry
Paranoia is currently defined in most dictionaries as an irrational suspicion of others. A more complete definition of paranoia would be the presence in one's mind of any persistent irrational belief – any persistent belief that something is true when it is false – or any persistent belief that something is false when it is true. When a person believes something to be true (or false), and the belief is supported by observation and reason, then the belief is not paranoia. Rational belief is based on truth whereas paranoia is based on untruth. To prove paranoia one must first prove that the belief in question is untrue.
Most people exclusively think of paranoia as "seeing" a threat that isn't really there – this is suspicious paranoia – it's the man who irrationally believes "someone is out to get me" when it is not true. There is however another type of paranoia – another type of irrational belief – which is intellectual blindness or blind paranoia. Those who suffer from blind paranoia can't see a threat that really is there – it's the man who believes someone is not out to get him when in truth someone is out to get him. Thus the blind fool is as paranoid as the suspicious fool.
Paranoia should be equated to any persistent irrational belief, so a definition of paranoia based only on irrational suspicion is incomplete since it only addresses a subset of irrational belief. It is self-evident that there are only two possible types of irrational belief – one where a person perceives something that isn't there – and the other where a person can't or won't perceive something that is there. The first instance can be rightly called suspicious paranoia and the later blind paranoia (or denial), but it doesn't really matter which name one uses as long as one understands the concept of irrational belief which, in the end, can only be expressed in these two opposite ways.
Phobia is an irrational fear which follows on the heels of suspicious paranoia – irrational fear of a supposed threat that is not really there – the hell of falsehood seen. Another form of distress eventually follows on the heels of blind paranoia – an irrational lack of fear for an unseen threat that really is there – the hell of truth unseen. The latter case is a restatement of an insight by Thomas Hobbes from Leviathan where he noted that "Hell is truth seen too late."
It appears to me that many Americans are unable or unwilling to see that our national government, including the current President, has used Marxist methods of divisive economic and social class struggle among our people, and has used the IRS to target American patriots who support our founding principles. Looking for terrorists in all the wrong places, our national government has used the NSA and other agencies to spy on ordinary Americans instead of targeting the domestic adherents of totalitarian Islam – with whom our national government has in effect formed an alliance. Our President and former Vice President promote the now discredited theory of man-made global warming – as the most important issue facing mankind. The consensus of real science informs us otherwise – yet too many Americans are blind to the truth – unaware that over a period of 600 million years there has been no direct correlation between atmospheric CO2 levels and atmospheric temperature, and that the recent relatively minor period of global warming, like prior periods of global warming, was probably related to the big yellow ball in the sky. By these actions and this disinformation our national government has tyrannically undermined the God-given, natural, unalienable human rights of ordinary hard-working Americans – and is thereby undermining the successful American way of life. My diagnosis is that too many Americans are suffering from the insanity of blind paranoia – individuals who can't or won't perceive the threats that are already inside our tent. In order to preserve sanity we must continue to speak the truth about our corrupt self-serving national government, and continue to hope and work toward a good prognosis for America – praying that the truth will not be seen too late.
© Ronald R. Cherry
September 18, 2013
Paranoia is currently defined in most dictionaries as an irrational suspicion of others. A more complete definition of paranoia would be the presence in one's mind of any persistent irrational belief – any persistent belief that something is true when it is false – or any persistent belief that something is false when it is true. When a person believes something to be true (or false), and the belief is supported by observation and reason, then the belief is not paranoia. Rational belief is based on truth whereas paranoia is based on untruth. To prove paranoia one must first prove that the belief in question is untrue.
Most people exclusively think of paranoia as "seeing" a threat that isn't really there – this is suspicious paranoia – it's the man who irrationally believes "someone is out to get me" when it is not true. There is however another type of paranoia – another type of irrational belief – which is intellectual blindness or blind paranoia. Those who suffer from blind paranoia can't see a threat that really is there – it's the man who believes someone is not out to get him when in truth someone is out to get him. Thus the blind fool is as paranoid as the suspicious fool.
Paranoia should be equated to any persistent irrational belief, so a definition of paranoia based only on irrational suspicion is incomplete since it only addresses a subset of irrational belief. It is self-evident that there are only two possible types of irrational belief – one where a person perceives something that isn't there – and the other where a person can't or won't perceive something that is there. The first instance can be rightly called suspicious paranoia and the later blind paranoia (or denial), but it doesn't really matter which name one uses as long as one understands the concept of irrational belief which, in the end, can only be expressed in these two opposite ways.
Phobia is an irrational fear which follows on the heels of suspicious paranoia – irrational fear of a supposed threat that is not really there – the hell of falsehood seen. Another form of distress eventually follows on the heels of blind paranoia – an irrational lack of fear for an unseen threat that really is there – the hell of truth unseen. The latter case is a restatement of an insight by Thomas Hobbes from Leviathan where he noted that "Hell is truth seen too late."
It appears to me that many Americans are unable or unwilling to see that our national government, including the current President, has used Marxist methods of divisive economic and social class struggle among our people, and has used the IRS to target American patriots who support our founding principles. Looking for terrorists in all the wrong places, our national government has used the NSA and other agencies to spy on ordinary Americans instead of targeting the domestic adherents of totalitarian Islam – with whom our national government has in effect formed an alliance. Our President and former Vice President promote the now discredited theory of man-made global warming – as the most important issue facing mankind. The consensus of real science informs us otherwise – yet too many Americans are blind to the truth – unaware that over a period of 600 million years there has been no direct correlation between atmospheric CO2 levels and atmospheric temperature, and that the recent relatively minor period of global warming, like prior periods of global warming, was probably related to the big yellow ball in the sky. By these actions and this disinformation our national government has tyrannically undermined the God-given, natural, unalienable human rights of ordinary hard-working Americans – and is thereby undermining the successful American way of life. My diagnosis is that too many Americans are suffering from the insanity of blind paranoia – individuals who can't or won't perceive the threats that are already inside our tent. In order to preserve sanity we must continue to speak the truth about our corrupt self-serving national government, and continue to hope and work toward a good prognosis for America – praying that the truth will not be seen too late.
© Ronald R. Cherry
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