Genesis of Gullibility: Beliefs, Superstitions, Lies

It can be astounding to what extent Americans will believe anything. I’m not using the phrase lightly, as a cliché, but in its literal meaning: they’ll believe anything. Belated epiphanies aside, they’re back to their Eisenhower-era naïveté, when anything spilling out of a marginally governmental mouth had the ring of gospel. It wasn’t to be questioned, merely transcribed and played up as news, whatever it happened to be. Any progress since? Not when a majority of Americans thought Saddam and al-Qaeda were in cahoots over 9/11, when more thought so on the eve of the invasion of Iraq three years ago (they had to hang the illegalities about to unfold on something), or still think the link was fact rather than one of those inventions out of the Bush junta’s treasure chest of slithers and lies. I’m reminded of one of the letters Air Force Capt. Jerry Shank wrote home in January 1964. He was flying in Vietnam and losing heart. He didn’t think the U.S. was bound to fail, but he saw the nonsensical ways the military was going about fighting the war. “If we keep up like we are going, we will definitely lose." Read the rest...