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September 13, 2015

In Pursuit of a Place for Paranoia!

By Eugene Elander

The tone of many OpEdNews.com comments has become so paranoid that the point of the article is lost in the rhetoric of conspiracies and end-of-America assertions. Critical thinking is badly needed, as is more light and less heat.

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After many years of writing op eds, and commenting on those of other folks, here on OpEdNews.com, it is distressing to find the acceleration of the pursuit of paranoia by more and more authors and commenters. One is reminded of the old tale of The Boy Who Cried Wolf, who cries Wolf falsely and frequently, so that -- when the Wolf finally does arrive -- nobody believes the Boy anymore, and he is eaten, along with many villagers.


The relevant lesson based on this story is that, if everything is a conspiracy, then the true meaning of conspiracy is lost. And if every OpEdNews.com writer who challenges some of those alleged conspiracies is called an idiot or a warmonger, or just plain unenlightened, then ad hominem attacks replace sound reasoning and critical thinking.

And if some authors on OpEdNews.com take steps to forbid comments on their articles, for whatever reasons, as has happened recently, then defensiveness replaces openness, and so-called conventional wisdom replaces the quest for truth and progress.

The tone of many OpEdNews.com comments has become so paranoid that the point of the article is lost in the rhetoric of conspiracies and end-of-America assertions. Critical thinking is badly needed, as is more light and less heat.



Authors Bio:

Author's Biography

Eugene Elander has been a progressive social and political activist for decades. As an author, he won the Young Poets Award at 16 from the Dayton Poets Guild for his poem, The Vision. He was chosen Poet Laureate of Pownal, Vermont for his poem Pownal People. His three new verses for America the Beautiful:September 11, 2001 were widely acclaimed and read into the Congressional Record by U.S. Senator Chris Dodd.
Dr. Elander has authored four volumes of poetry: The Right Click, The World Click, Journeyings, and Philosophy over Fika, all written from 2004 to now, in the U.S. and Sweden -- as well as two published novels: The Goat of God, and Turning the Tides, both available via Signalman Publishing on Amazon.com in Kindle and electronic pdf editions. A self-help book titled Empowerment:Taking Charge of your Life was recently completed and is available via Amazon.com KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing.
Dr. Elander is a freelance columnist who published a newspaper for ten years in New London, CT. He is an economist and college lecturer, and has been an agency executive director, emergency management consultant, investigator; and former animal control officer, deputy code enforcement and health officer for Farmington, New Hampshire. He and his wife Birgit, who co-authored The World Click, divide their time between Georgia and her homeland, Gotland, Sweden.
Several other books are underway, including a sequel to The Goat of God, and a public version of his doctoral dissertation on Cooperatism, a new economic system he developed which includes all stakeholders (workers, consumers, and the public as well as stockholders) in crucial decision making. Dr. Elander has been a member of the Stonepile Writers group in Georgia and the Poetry Society of New Hampshire. He is president of his own Elander Press.


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