Spiral of Silence

So, why aren’t people shouting from rooftops and pointing to the lines in the sky, demanding in a collective voice to know what exactly is going on?

“Wait a minute. . . .THIS ISN’T NORMAL COMMERCIAL AIRCRAFT TRAFFIC ?!”

Connected? . . . in the same way that developers continue to build over environmentally sensitive land despite impact studies or the fall out of voter fraud during the 2000 Election, and the ushering in of HAVA and shiny new digital voting machines, 9/11 and now . . . . denial on the scale of mass hypnosis, as a ubiquitous aerosol program continuous to operate across the world.

Sociological theories such as consensus reality, the Spiral of Silence, well, I would like to stop and look at the Spiral of Silence theory right away. Here is the first paragraph from the wikipedia entry.

“The spiral of silence is a political science and mass communication theory propounded by Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann. The theory asserts that a person is less likely to voice an opinion on a topic if one feels that one is in the minority for fear of reprisal or isolation from the majority.”

Reprisal can translate into ridicule, social meltdowns, then ultimately isolation. . … “dude, what’s wrong him/her, they keep talking about the sky. Too much Star Trek, I guess.”

Fear not the truth haters. Their understanding comes after others have displayed the courage to take the initial risk. It’s a fact of life.

There’s something also called Groupthink and the Wisdom of Crowds.

Here’s more on Groupthink – Taken from George Orwell’s novel 1984.

“A type of thought exhibited by group members who try to minimize conflict and reach consensus without critically testing, analyzing, and evaluating ideas. During Groupthink, members of the group avoid promoting viewpoints outside the comfort zone of consensus thinking. A variety of motives for this may exist such as a desire to avoid being seen as foolish, or a desire to avoid embarrassing or angering other members of the group.”

Overcoming the silence

“The theory explains a vocal minority – by stating that people who are highly educated, or who have greater affluence, and the few other cavalier individuals who do not fear isolation, are likely to speak out regardless of public opinion.”

Well, the internet has allowed many to do just that. So, as we’re grappling with sociological theories of collective behavior and psychology, the powers that be do not think you’re worthy of information.

Different Stages of Awareness

AirshipAl calls up late last night and we’re talking about ways to communicate to you all and we recall certain moments of how we broke through the veil of consensus reality. Airship says after the initial epiphany of noticing something unnatural in the shapes and structure of the atmosphere, anger set in. He began to ask . . .How can people do this to us? How can others not see this? I think Rod Serling has scripted something similar.

Check out Airship’s new video page.

Breaking through the Spiral of Silence,
Kidstardust