"Evil is the exercise of power to intentionally harm people psychologically, destroy them physically and commit crimes against humanity."
http://www.ted.com/talks/philip_zimbardo_on_the_psychology_of_evil.html
Throughout all the Targeting, you will find that there is a vast array of people from all walks of life that will jump on board and become a part of this Terrorist Organization.
I am not a writer, therefore, I found someone what I feel is the single most important breakdown of Group Think....The following is an excerpt from, "A BRAVE NEW WORLD" Revisited, Aldous Huxley.
He was able to encapsulate through the Words of Hitler of all people what Group Think has the capacity to do.
Chapter 5: Propaganda under a Dictatorship
What were the methods used by Hitler and Goebbels for “depriving eighty million people of independent thought and subjecting them to the will of one man”? And what was the theory of human nature upon which those terrifyingly successful methods were based? These questions can be answered, for the most part, in Hitler’s own words.... In his comments on crowds and propaganda he was writing of things he knew by firsthand experience....
As he himself said, “To be a leader means to be able to move the masses.” Hitler’s aim was first to move the masses and then, having pried them loose from their traditional loyalties and moralities, to impose upon them (with the hypnotized consent of the majority) a new authoritarian order of his own devising."[41]
Hitler's aim was first to move the MASSES and then, having PRIED THEM LOOSE from their TRADITIONAL LOYALTIES AND MORALITIES, to IMPOSE UPON THEM - (with the HYPNOTIZED CONSENT OF THE MAJORITY) a NEW AUTHORITARIAN ORDER of his OWN DEVISING.
'HITLER.' wrote Hermann Rausching in 1939, 'HAS A DEEP RESPECT FOR THE CATHOLIC CHURCH and the JESUIT ORDER, NOT BECAUSE OF THEIR CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE, but BECAUSE of the "MACHINERY" they have ELABORATED and CONTROLLED, their HIERARCHICAL SYSTEM, their EXTREMELY CLEVER TACTICS, THEIR KNOWLEDGE OF HUMAN NATURE and their wise use of HUMAN WEAKNESS in RULING OVER BELIEVERS.' ECCLESIASTICISM without CHRISTIANITY, the DISCIPLINE OF THE monastic rule, NOT FOR GOD'S SAKE or IN ORDER to achieve personal salvation, but for the SAKE OF THE STATE and for the GREATER GLORY and POWER of the DEMAGOGUE TURNED LEADER - this was the GOAL towards which the systematic moving of the masses was to lead.
LET US SEE WHAT HITLER THOUGHT OF THE MASSES HE MOVED AND HOW HE DID THE MOVING....
The first principle from which he started was a VALUE JUDGMENT: THE MASSES ARE UTTERLY CONTEMPTIBLE. They are INCAPABLE OF ABSTRACT THINKING and UNINTERESTED in any FACT OUTSIDE the CIRCLE OF THEIR IMMEDIATE EXPERIENCE. Their BEHAVIOR is DETERMINED NOT BY KNOWLEDGE and REASON -, but by FEELINGS AND UNCONSCIOUS DRIVES. it is in these DRIVES and FEELINGS that 'THE ROOT OF THEIR POSITION as well as their NEGATIVE ATTITUDES are implanted." To be A SUCCESSFUL PROPAGANDIST MUST LEARN HOW TO MANIPULATE these INSTINCTS AND EMOTIONS. 'The driving force which has brought about the MOST TREMENDOUS REVOLUTIONS on this EARTH HAS NEVER BEEN A BODY OF SCIENTIFIC TEACHING WHICH HAS GAINED POWER OVER THE MASSES, but ALWAYS A DEVOTION which has INSPIRED THEM, and OFTEN A KIND OF HYSTERIA which has URGED THEM INTO ACTION. Whoever wishes to WIN over the MASSES MUST KNOW they KEY THAT WILL OPEN THE DOOR OF THEIR HEARTS.
“The driving force which has brought about the most tremendous revolutions on this earth has never been a body of scientific teaching which has gained power over the masses, but always a devotion which has inspired them, and often a kind of hysteria [passion] which has urged them into action. Whoever wishes to win over the masses must know the key that will open the door of their hearts.”[41-42]
Hitler made his strongest appeal to those members of the lower middle classes who had been ruined by the inflation of 1923, and then ruined all over again by the depression of 1929 and the following years. “The masses” of whom he speaks were these bewildered, frustrated and chronically anxious millions. To make them more masslike, more homogeneously subhuman, he assembled them, by the thousands and the tens of thousands, in vast halls and arenas, where individuals could lose their personal identity, even their elementary humanity, and be merged with the crowd....
Groups are capable of being as moral and intelligent as the individuals who form them; a crowd is chaotic, has no purpose of its own and is capable of anything except intelligent action and realistic thinking. Assembled in a crowd, people lose their powers of reasoning and their capacity for moral choice. Their suggestibility is increased to the point where they cease to have any judgment or will of their own. They become very excitable, they lose all sense of individual or collective responsibility, they are subject to sudden excesses of rage, enthusiasm and panic. In a word, a man in a crowd behaves as though he had swallowed a large dose of some powerful intoxicant. He is a victim of what I have called “herd-poisoning.”...[42]
During his long career as an agitator, Hitler had studied the effects of herd-poison and had learned how to exploit them for his own purposes. He had discovered that the orator can appeal to those “hidden forces” which motivate men’s actions, much more effectively than can the writer. Reading is a private, not a collective activity. The writer speaks only to individuals, sitting by themselves in a state of normal sobriety. The orator speaks to masses of individuals, already well primed with herd-poison....[43]
Twenty years before Madison Avenue embarked upon “Motivational Research,” Hitler was systematically exploring and exploiting the secret fears and hopes, the cravings, anxieties and frustrations of the German masses. [43]
It is by manipulating “hidden forces” that the advertising experts induce us to buy their wares—a toothpaste, a brand of cigarettes, a political candidate. And it is by appealing to the same hidden forces... that Hitler induced the German masses to buy themselves a Fuehrer, an insane philosophy and the Second World War...[43]
Unlike the MASSES - intellectuals have a taste for rationality and an interest in facts. Their critical habits of mind makes them resistant to the kind of propaganda that works so well on the majority.
“All effective propaganda,” Hitler wrote, “must be confined to a few bare necessities and then must be expressed in a few stereotyped formulas.” These stereotyped formulas must be constantly repeated, for “only constant repetition will finally succeed in imprinting an idea upon the memory of a crowd.”...[44]
Propaganda... teaches us to accept as self-evident matters about which it would be reasonable to suspend our judgment or to feel doubt. The aim of the demagogue is to create social coherence under his own leadership.[44]
HITLER CALLED IT "HIDDEN FORCE" to manipulate people, in the 20th Century. Today, we have something called "DATA MINING" - is there any difference? Not when it come to MANIPULATING PEOPLE....
Published: October 13, 2012
Strategists affiliated with the Obama and Romney campaigns say they have access to information about the personal lives of voters at a scale never before imagined. And they are using that data to try to influence voting habits — in effect, to train voters to go to the polls through subtle cues, rewards and threats in a manner akin to the marketing efforts of credit card companies and big-box retailers.
In the weeks before Election Day, millions of voters will hear from callers with surprisingly detailed knowledge of their lives. These callers — friends of friends or long-lost work colleagues — will identify themselves as volunteers for the campaigns or independent political groups.
The callers will be guided by scripts and call lists compiled by people — or computers — with access to details like whether voters may have visited pornography Web sites, have homes in foreclosure, are more prone to drink Michelob Ultra than Corona or have gay friends or enjoy expensive vacations.
The callers are likely to ask detailed questions about how the voters plan to spend Election Day, according to professionals with both presidential campaigns. What time will they vote? What route will they drive to the polls? Simply asking such questions, experiments show, is likely to increase turnout.