ehpolitical

Lol, you win.

Ok, thanks for taking the time, I enjoyed chatting with you.

Oops, sorry, never seen it.

This is seriously fascinating to me. I kept this bit to myself because I didn't want it to affect people's answers, but the thread is old enough now... my question and its answer arose from my religious beliefs, and here you are arriving at the same answer scientifically, that we are all followers by nature.

It eventually occurred to me after hearing the word "sheep" thrown around enough times that I've never met a person so original that they follow nothing and no one. Being told, for example, that I'm incapable of rational, intelligent, independent thought (because of my religious beliefs) by people who believe themselves to be superior critical thinkers... when the very idea of "critical thinking" was originally born from the mind of Socrates... another mere man, as fallible as any other, who himself believed he was guided by an inner voice that he alone could hear. So we religious folk are commonly ridiculed for aspiring to follow God by people who follow a mere man that, by today's definitions, would be diagnosed a schizophrenic. I do love irony, seriously, I really do.

To be clear, I've been debating religion with people for a very, very long time, so none of this upsets me in the least... I just find it all extremely fascinating.

Anyhow, the conclusion I eventually reached is that there's very real danger in denying our own nature as followers, because that's when we open ourselves fully to the risk of blindly following anyone and anything.

Not a clue what that means. Are you just compressing some chit?

In all seriousness, he strikes me as someone who's compelled to act out something from his past, maybe even his childhood... if true, that's very scary given the immense power he has today, that he simply can't be reasoned with like with a healthy-minded person.

ETA Even scarier, the same appears to also be true of Trump, and the two of them have now paired up together.

I'm not sure, but I think maybe it goes beyond that, that maybe we wouldn't have the words in any language to be able to express it. I knew a man once who passed out, went into convulsions and almost died... we had to call an ambulance and he was taken to the hospital. He later said that when he was passed out, he saw something he had no words to describe... years later, he showed me a magazine article about a man who'd had the same experience (of having no words) and said, "This is what it's like". Even then, years later, he still couldn't tell anyone what he'd seen. So maybe that's the best we could come up with, someone saying they've had a thought with no words to explain it? I've never had a 100% original thought, so I'm just guessing.

Very interesting. So to be sure I'm understanding you, let's suppose what you're saying here is bang-on... wouldn't that mean we are each and all followers by nature and can't be anything but?

I get it. It's just the kind of meaningless babble I'd expect in a social setting, like at a bar or party.

I think the States have some 🤪

So it's just empty blathering then, when this German ambassador says they have our back. Great.

You addressed me, I responded... not to flatter you, but with my honest answer. If that doesn't suit you, by all means carry on chatting with someone else.