When new methods of human reproduction become available:
1. Can traditional family life survive?
2. Will marital infidelity increase?
3. Will children and parents still love each other?
4. Would you be willing to have a "test-tube" baby?
As a first rule of journalism, I tend to agree with question everything, especially authority. When it comes to publication, a reliable news source answers questions over raising them. The heart and soul of journalism is for the sole purpose of informing the public. I didn't think Fox news existed in the late 1960s. Yet this incite-fear-filled prose on this magazine cover appears to be the very brand of sensationalism Fox revels in preaching.
From Eric's perspective, America's sexual revolution is what led the right to define itself by opposing contraceptive birth control, abortion, queers, etc. Eric believes to this day the right is still obsessed with and ultimately stuck in this era. To those Rip Van Winkles on the right I have some news for you; it's 2015.
I think I've discovered a way to time travel, at least to the past. It's surprisingly simple. Attend the Republican National Convention. That would be such a trip. I'd be interested to just sit in and listen to the archaic rhetoric, especially in light of recent victories for equality.
It's important to delve further into the fear factor. Eric acknowledged during our conversation, the easiest way to control people is to tell them they and/or their way of life is under attack. With that mindset, people can be manipulated in a variety of ways.
The 911 terrorist attacks are the most extreme example of mass fear-based manipulation in our modern age. As a result the American people agreed to sunset some of our most important rights involving due process of law in the name of the war on terror for national security. Make no mistake, the only beneficiaries to the abolishment of such civil liberties are the government and really the powerful financial interests it now exists to serve and protect. When the government states "for reasons of national security," what is really meant is "to insulate government and its corporate interests from the American people."
I mentioned the 911 example to Eric under the pretense of false flag domestic terrorism. He hadn't ever heard the term false flag before. Thus the explanation of an act purported to have been committed by a foreign entity when in fact it was carried out by the home country. His response to this was simply that he willfully disbelieves the U.S. government directly implemented 911. He said he thinks our government may have played a passive role in the event. He said if it was an inside job, the truth would have been revealed by now. We both agreed people often believe what they need to believe, mostly for self preservation purposes.
Eric comes from an uber conservative Christian upbringing. He acknowledges it took him such a long time to admit to himself he was misled. Then he broached another interesting subject, the Bhagwan Shree Rajnessh. Apparently one of Eric's former clients was a member of this notorious Oregon-based cult in the early 1980s. Eric thinks this individual stopped seeing him as a result of some negative remarks Eric made about the group's activities. The former cult member came to the Bhagwan's defense, stating the problem was with some of the people who worked for the Bhagwan.
I said to Eric it's much easier to fool people than to convince them they've been fooled.
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