The Darker Side of "Group Think"

In his article in the Asia Times, Groupthink and the slide into fascism, Ritt Goldstein addresses some of the darker implications of "Group Think".

Not to be misunderstood, the "groupthink" in question is far from innocent error, and administration critics charge that the Senate Intelligence Committee reports' attempts to couch blame as mere "fuzzy thinking" highlight the propaganda efforts ongoing, the groupthink still dominating policy. But this psychological phenomenon perhaps best translates to a broad failure to appreciate the reality of circumstance, the nature or implications of actions, the very difference between right and wrong. And while a hard core of believers/leaders is typically central to such a phenomenon's workings, their influence radiates broadly outward through their immediate group(s) and those they interface with.

He goes on to compare the atmosphere that led up to the Iraq war to the rise of fascism in Europe in the 30s.

While groupthink is undoubtedly to blame for the Iraq war's false premises, the full implications of the "groupthink" that occurred, as well as that which is ongoing, appear to have yet to emerge.

Highlighting a disturbing reality, [Canadian psychologist Daniel] Burston had noted parallels between the social psychology of the present and that of the 1930s
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Burston had said he believed the US could be poised "on the verge" of a corporate fascism, and eminent political scientist Dr Michael Parenti (Yale PhD in political science and author of 18 books) spoke similarly. And indeed, the slippery slope of "groupthink" in effect provided the basis for the psycho-dynamics dominating the rise of 1930s fascism, its proponents of a "new order" perceiving endless lies, propaganda, repression, mass violence, and even mass murder as legitimate means to what they perceived as their "noble" ends, versus tragic and criminal delusions. Students of history will note the "groupthink" evidenced in Germany's 1930s mass rallies at Nuremberg, though the realization of what was then occurring didn't fully emerge until the Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunals of the 1940s.

Eisenhower spoke of the "Military industrial Complex" which may be just a polite way to say fascist.

In practice, the big decisions regarding the political economy were made by the industrialists," Parenti noted, but prefacing that by saying all groups within the Italian corporative state were "supposed to" share the decision power. .....................After a moment, Parenti quickly observed that "the people always get a share of this action, though. The American people get a share of it, the Italians did ... their share is the taxes and the blood. They pay the taxes, and they send their sons off."