Perception and Reality

   In a world of constant challenge, it's easy to take the low road of accepting the impassioned speech of a gifted speaker.
   Call it suspension of disbelief.
   Just as theatergoers suspend what they know to be true and accept a substitute that entertains them, so also actors use this audience willingness to carry them to a new reality.
   Then, when the performance ends, the curtain falls and the lights go on, the audience returns to the known reality.
   But when a skilled orator uses similar techniques to persuade folks at a political rally that he brings them a new reality, or promises relief from a list of perceived woes in their current reality, listeners suspend their disbelief and accept without thought the proposed new reality offered them by what can only be called a demagogue.
   Grievances are no less real when abuses are only perceived.
   It is this perception of reality, rather than reality itself, that a demagogue manipulates to his advantage.
   When disappointed people accept and believe the promises of a demagogue, and do not devote thought to the validity or emptiness of the promises, that is when freedom is in greatest danger.

Belief without thought endangers freedom.