CONTENT AND CONTEXT OF ARTICLE WRITTEN BY JAMES HERVEY JOHNSON AND PUBLISHED IN YEAR 1949,IS RELEVANT EVEN TODAY !
The Mentality of the Common Man is Very Low :-
The great mass of people are very stupid. They are kept in stupidity by their rulers, priests, and preachers. All they know is to eat, gorge themselves to
The Mentality of the Common Man is Very Low :-
The great mass of people are very stupid. They are kept in stupidity by their rulers, priests, and preachers. All they know is to eat, gorge themselves to
the point of sickness if they get a chance, work when they have to, procreate, repeat what they hear, like parrots, have their childish pastimes and die after a life of exploitation by grafting rulers, politicians, preachers, priests, and parasites on the body politic.
Intelligence is not a necessity for survival. Rabbits have little intelligence, yet in a few years they overran the whole of Australia and grew from a few to millions. Stupid people multiply just as fast as intelligent people and under present conditions much faster.
Let us look at the mentality of the common mind. A baby is born. Its parents talk "baby talk" to it for four or five years. During that time it plays with toys, is entirely dependent on its parents, and cannot complete even its natural functions without assistance. It is almost unable to reason, to consider, to compare facts, to determine between right and wrong. It may have been brought up under the Santa Claus illusion and may have been taught that this mythical person flies through the air in a sleigh led by reindeer, and that Santa Claus comes down the chimney while his reindeer remain on the roof, then fills stockings with gifts and candy. Of course, the whole childish story has arisen in the minds of ignorant people of ages ago. Every effort is made to fool the child. While it is in bed, the father or someone else puts gifts in the stockings, even rattles sleigh bells and does other tricks to fool the youngster. Because it is given toys to play with, candy and other gifts, the child looks forward to this deception, and in fact, many grown persons never advance very far beyond the Santa Claus state of mentality; they want Christmas trees all their lives.
At about five years the child is sent to school, which he doesn't like. He is taught how to cut paper dolls and smear water colors in kindergarten. Next year he is taught the alphabet, how to read and write, and later, arithmetic. He is often sent to Sunday school and taught to repeat a lot of rig-a-ma-role which he doesn't understand. He is told that such and such is a fact and doesn't dare, even if he wanted to, dispute what he is told by his elders or teachers.
Later he is taught a little history, how to sing childish songs, a little painting, how to spell, and is given simple childish books to read. He is taught fairy stories and a little geography. When the youngster is old enough he is taught English, grammar, arithmetic, a carefully revised history of the United States, then histories of Greece, Rome, Medieval Europe, England, and the Western Hemisphere. He learns little about Asia, the primitive peoples and their superstitions, the sex worship of the Hindus, the religions of China, Persia, Arabia -- Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Japanese Shintoism, Mohammedanism, -- and the atheism of Russia and even of his sister Republic, Mexico. The cults and blurred ideas of primitive peoples are not given him. He is not taught to read Voltaire, Thomas Paine, Robert Ingersoll, and other great leaders of advanced thought.
Much of what he does read or is taught is too much for his weak intelligence. He usually cares little for it and if it were not for compulsion, he wouldn't even go to school. He is more interested in girls, moving picture shows, driving a car, games, football, baseball, dances, sex stories and other simple pastimes, than he is in his studies.
At 18 to 25, unless he goes to college, his education practically stops except for what he gets out of the daily papers, perhaps a magazine full of sex stories, and a moving picture with exaggerated sex or love as the main feature.
Philosophy, history, knowledge of peoples and their religious customs, and science are not interesting to him. He gets a job, marries and drifts along. If he goes to church to please his mother, or his wife or sweetheart he gets a lot of religious ideas which are vague and blurred in his mind. He does not see anything in the papers against religion, the movies do not carry any such information nor is it broadcast by the radio.
If he wants such information, he must buy books or get them from the library or take special magazines. This is too much trouble, as a rule, and so he drifts along, works when he has to, goes to his club, or his sports, sleeps, eats, has his sexual experience, perhaps raises a few children and doesn't care much whether the stuff he is told by a preacher is true or not.
There are some who do study and develop a reasoning mind, but they are a very small percentage of the public. We are talking of the great mass, 95% of which works most of its life, wastes, gambles, and drinks up its income so that it must be supported by private or public charity after the individuals are 50 years of age.
Because this great mass of humanity believe that there is a god, that Christ was born of a virgin and that those who believe as the preachers tell them, will go to Heaven and live a life of eternal happiness, does not make it true.
Most people simply do not know any better. They are ignorant. They have been told religious fables just like the Santa Claus fable and they have no way of knowing the truth. They have heard only one side. They do not realize that 400,000,000 Chinese believe a different story, that 300,000,000 Hindus have 80 religions, that 200,000,000 Mohammedans have a still different belief and that millions of primitive people believe thousands of divisions of their own religions. All are different and all think other religions are false.
They are continually mentally whipped, by priests and preachers and those who profit from religion, into antagonism toward other churches.
Their leaders make them think they are better than followers of other religions. The Jews were told that they were "God's chosen people." Every circumstance of fortune which favored them was said to be a sign of their God's protection. Every misfortune to those with other religions and gods was said to be because the Jew's God was unfavorable to the other religion. When great calamities came upon the Jews, the priests claimed it was because the Jews had sinned, that is, disobeyed the priests and rulers who, of course, claimed to represent their God.
The Roman Catholic Church claims to be the only true church. For 1500 years the leaders of this church killed, maimed, imprisoned, tortured, burned at the stake and destroyed everyone they could who refused to believe and publicly profess their belief as their priests told them they should.
Today members of various sects look down on others. The Adventists believe that those who do not belong to their religion will be destroyed at the "second coming of Christ." The Mormons think that the "Gentiles" (the word they use to describe all non-Mormons) are beyond the pale and will lose their "souls." All young Mormon men and girls are supposed to be missionaries for a year or two, at their own expense, to help get more converts in the field.
Men of intelligence should listen to the claims of all religions. Then the great conflict and absurdity of the claims can be well realized.
If the gods or priests of any of these religions were all powerful, as their leaders claim them to be, they could confound all other religions and there would be only one. But about the only way they can expand their religions is to use the sword, or send missionaries with medical or other physical benefits to work on the minds of primitive people in Africa, the South Seas, Asia, or South America.
The mentality of our average citizen is very low. Millions of Americans will not begin a journey on the 13th or on Friday. Millions of words about Friday the 13th are printed in the daily papers. Thousands of articles are written by newspaper reporters and editors about what happens to people on the 13th. Many hotels do not number their rooms "13" because ignorant people will not sleep in a room with such a number. Even railroads are said not to number their cars "13" because ignorant, religious, superstitious people will not ride in cars so numbered.
The fact that millions of people have traveled on Friday, slept in rooms numbered "13," traveled on Friday the 13th, etc., doesn't keep these people from their superstitious dread of the "mystic" number.
Other ignorant people, claiming good fortune, will tap on wood to keep their luck from changing, whenever they mention their good fortune. Housewives have dozens of similar superstitions, such as dropping dish rags, forks or spoons, reading tea leaves, coffee grounds, etc.
Millions of dollars are given annually to fortune tellers, astrologers, spiritualists, and other "wizards" and "witches" by ignorant, stupid people who more or less believe what these fakes tell them.
Many business men spend large sums in consulting mediums, clairvoyants, psychics, and fortune tellers. Women patronize tea readers, card readers and similar racketeers who grow rich from the credulity of their dupes.
As the years have passed since this book was first started, the tremendous stupidity of the masses of the people becomes more amazing. Apparently, the ability to reason is confined to a very small percentage of people. The masses almost invariably follow not the intelligent leaders who would bring peace, prosperity and happiness to the world, but the worst leaders who bring war, crime, disease, mental darkness. It is all the more important then, that the search for those few men who have the ability to reason be pushed. There are many whose eyes have not been opened, because, although they may have personal intelligence, they have been kept under such a blanket of ignorance and superstition that the first glimmer of the light of reason or rather, the first information upon which they can base the falsity of current doctrines, has been withheld. To such men this book will open a new world of intelligence and light. If the spark is in the mentality of the individual, the opening wedge will be sufficient to start him on the road to being a Superior Man.
Whole nations vote themselves into slavery on the promise of something for nothing from selfish or even insane leaders. Criminals run poorly checked. Labor racketeers take heavy tribute from every person in the U. S. As a people we consume billions of gallons of poisonous drinks, such as alcoholic liquors, which we know are detrimental to our health. Loafers, in league with crooked politicians, sponge on the people who work and save. The incompetents, lazy, and chiselers blame everyone but themselves for their conditions, and using false accusations as excuses, try and succeed in fooling a large section of the populace into believing that loafers and petty crooks are entitled to be supported at the expense of thrifty and hard working people.
Such, then, is the mental condition of the great mass of people in which superstition-religion flourishes.
Intelligence is not a necessity for survival. Rabbits have little intelligence, yet in a few years they overran the whole of Australia and grew from a few to millions. Stupid people multiply just as fast as intelligent people and under present conditions much faster.
Let us look at the mentality of the common mind. A baby is born. Its parents talk "baby talk" to it for four or five years. During that time it plays with toys, is entirely dependent on its parents, and cannot complete even its natural functions without assistance. It is almost unable to reason, to consider, to compare facts, to determine between right and wrong. It may have been brought up under the Santa Claus illusion and may have been taught that this mythical person flies through the air in a sleigh led by reindeer, and that Santa Claus comes down the chimney while his reindeer remain on the roof, then fills stockings with gifts and candy. Of course, the whole childish story has arisen in the minds of ignorant people of ages ago. Every effort is made to fool the child. While it is in bed, the father or someone else puts gifts in the stockings, even rattles sleigh bells and does other tricks to fool the youngster. Because it is given toys to play with, candy and other gifts, the child looks forward to this deception, and in fact, many grown persons never advance very far beyond the Santa Claus state of mentality; they want Christmas trees all their lives.
At about five years the child is sent to school, which he doesn't like. He is taught how to cut paper dolls and smear water colors in kindergarten. Next year he is taught the alphabet, how to read and write, and later, arithmetic. He is often sent to Sunday school and taught to repeat a lot of rig-a-ma-role which he doesn't understand. He is told that such and such is a fact and doesn't dare, even if he wanted to, dispute what he is told by his elders or teachers.
Later he is taught a little history, how to sing childish songs, a little painting, how to spell, and is given simple childish books to read. He is taught fairy stories and a little geography. When the youngster is old enough he is taught English, grammar, arithmetic, a carefully revised history of the United States, then histories of Greece, Rome, Medieval Europe, England, and the Western Hemisphere. He learns little about Asia, the primitive peoples and their superstitions, the sex worship of the Hindus, the religions of China, Persia, Arabia -- Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Japanese Shintoism, Mohammedanism, -- and the atheism of Russia and even of his sister Republic, Mexico. The cults and blurred ideas of primitive peoples are not given him. He is not taught to read Voltaire, Thomas Paine, Robert Ingersoll, and other great leaders of advanced thought.
Much of what he does read or is taught is too much for his weak intelligence. He usually cares little for it and if it were not for compulsion, he wouldn't even go to school. He is more interested in girls, moving picture shows, driving a car, games, football, baseball, dances, sex stories and other simple pastimes, than he is in his studies.
At 18 to 25, unless he goes to college, his education practically stops except for what he gets out of the daily papers, perhaps a magazine full of sex stories, and a moving picture with exaggerated sex or love as the main feature.
Philosophy, history, knowledge of peoples and their religious customs, and science are not interesting to him. He gets a job, marries and drifts along. If he goes to church to please his mother, or his wife or sweetheart he gets a lot of religious ideas which are vague and blurred in his mind. He does not see anything in the papers against religion, the movies do not carry any such information nor is it broadcast by the radio.
If he wants such information, he must buy books or get them from the library or take special magazines. This is too much trouble, as a rule, and so he drifts along, works when he has to, goes to his club, or his sports, sleeps, eats, has his sexual experience, perhaps raises a few children and doesn't care much whether the stuff he is told by a preacher is true or not.
There are some who do study and develop a reasoning mind, but they are a very small percentage of the public. We are talking of the great mass, 95% of which works most of its life, wastes, gambles, and drinks up its income so that it must be supported by private or public charity after the individuals are 50 years of age.
Because this great mass of humanity believe that there is a god, that Christ was born of a virgin and that those who believe as the preachers tell them, will go to Heaven and live a life of eternal happiness, does not make it true.
Most people simply do not know any better. They are ignorant. They have been told religious fables just like the Santa Claus fable and they have no way of knowing the truth. They have heard only one side. They do not realize that 400,000,000 Chinese believe a different story, that 300,000,000 Hindus have 80 religions, that 200,000,000 Mohammedans have a still different belief and that millions of primitive people believe thousands of divisions of their own religions. All are different and all think other religions are false.
They are continually mentally whipped, by priests and preachers and those who profit from religion, into antagonism toward other churches.
Their leaders make them think they are better than followers of other religions. The Jews were told that they were "God's chosen people." Every circumstance of fortune which favored them was said to be a sign of their God's protection. Every misfortune to those with other religions and gods was said to be because the Jew's God was unfavorable to the other religion. When great calamities came upon the Jews, the priests claimed it was because the Jews had sinned, that is, disobeyed the priests and rulers who, of course, claimed to represent their God.
The Roman Catholic Church claims to be the only true church. For 1500 years the leaders of this church killed, maimed, imprisoned, tortured, burned at the stake and destroyed everyone they could who refused to believe and publicly profess their belief as their priests told them they should.
Today members of various sects look down on others. The Adventists believe that those who do not belong to their religion will be destroyed at the "second coming of Christ." The Mormons think that the "Gentiles" (the word they use to describe all non-Mormons) are beyond the pale and will lose their "souls." All young Mormon men and girls are supposed to be missionaries for a year or two, at their own expense, to help get more converts in the field.
Men of intelligence should listen to the claims of all religions. Then the great conflict and absurdity of the claims can be well realized.
If the gods or priests of any of these religions were all powerful, as their leaders claim them to be, they could confound all other religions and there would be only one. But about the only way they can expand their religions is to use the sword, or send missionaries with medical or other physical benefits to work on the minds of primitive people in Africa, the South Seas, Asia, or South America.
The mentality of our average citizen is very low. Millions of Americans will not begin a journey on the 13th or on Friday. Millions of words about Friday the 13th are printed in the daily papers. Thousands of articles are written by newspaper reporters and editors about what happens to people on the 13th. Many hotels do not number their rooms "13" because ignorant people will not sleep in a room with such a number. Even railroads are said not to number their cars "13" because ignorant, religious, superstitious people will not ride in cars so numbered.
The fact that millions of people have traveled on Friday, slept in rooms numbered "13," traveled on Friday the 13th, etc., doesn't keep these people from their superstitious dread of the "mystic" number.
Other ignorant people, claiming good fortune, will tap on wood to keep their luck from changing, whenever they mention their good fortune. Housewives have dozens of similar superstitions, such as dropping dish rags, forks or spoons, reading tea leaves, coffee grounds, etc.
Millions of dollars are given annually to fortune tellers, astrologers, spiritualists, and other "wizards" and "witches" by ignorant, stupid people who more or less believe what these fakes tell them.
Many business men spend large sums in consulting mediums, clairvoyants, psychics, and fortune tellers. Women patronize tea readers, card readers and similar racketeers who grow rich from the credulity of their dupes.
As the years have passed since this book was first started, the tremendous stupidity of the masses of the people becomes more amazing. Apparently, the ability to reason is confined to a very small percentage of people. The masses almost invariably follow not the intelligent leaders who would bring peace, prosperity and happiness to the world, but the worst leaders who bring war, crime, disease, mental darkness. It is all the more important then, that the search for those few men who have the ability to reason be pushed. There are many whose eyes have not been opened, because, although they may have personal intelligence, they have been kept under such a blanket of ignorance and superstition that the first glimmer of the light of reason or rather, the first information upon which they can base the falsity of current doctrines, has been withheld. To such men this book will open a new world of intelligence and light. If the spark is in the mentality of the individual, the opening wedge will be sufficient to start him on the road to being a Superior Man.
Whole nations vote themselves into slavery on the promise of something for nothing from selfish or even insane leaders. Criminals run poorly checked. Labor racketeers take heavy tribute from every person in the U. S. As a people we consume billions of gallons of poisonous drinks, such as alcoholic liquors, which we know are detrimental to our health. Loafers, in league with crooked politicians, sponge on the people who work and save. The incompetents, lazy, and chiselers blame everyone but themselves for their conditions, and using false accusations as excuses, try and succeed in fooling a large section of the populace into believing that loafers and petty crooks are entitled to be supported at the expense of thrifty and hard working people.
Such, then, is the mental condition of the great mass of people in which superstition-religion flourishes.
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