{"id":41695,"date":"2025-04-16T17:26:45","date_gmt":"2025-04-17T00:26:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=41695"},"modified":"2025-04-16T17:26:45","modified_gmt":"2025-04-17T00:26:45","slug":"whose-mind-is-infected-by-parasites","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/whose-mind-is-infected-by-parasites\/","title":{"rendered":"Whose Mind is Infected by Parasites?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Special assignment: Before reading <\/span>The Parasitic Mind<\/span><\/i> by Gad Saad, answer these questions: <\/span>What do I believe about \u201cmodern ideologies\u201d? Why do I believe what I currently do? <\/span><\/i>What are my current convictions and most deeply held beliefs and understandings based upon and why? <\/span><\/i>Then do an inspectional reading. <\/span>How have my beliefs been affirmed by the readings? How were they challenged and why?<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

First, I wanted to make sure I knew exactly what an \u201cideology\u201d is. Merriam Webster helped with that:<\/span><\/p>\n

a: a manner or the content of thinking characteristic of an individual, group, or culture<\/span><\/p>\n

b: the integrated assertions, theories and aims that constitute a sociopolitical program<\/span><\/p>\n

c: a systematic body of concepts especially about human life or culture [1]<\/span><\/p>\n

Then I tried to find out what, specifically, a \u201cmodern ideology\u201d is. All I could come up with were \u201cpolitical ideologies.\u201d Oh\u2026 OK. Now I see where this is going.<\/span><\/p>\n

So I turned to Wikipedia (among other sources) to get a simple list of ideologies that I could even consider beyond Left or Right, Liberal or Conservative. What else is there?<\/span><\/p>\n

But it wasn\u2019t that simple. Wikipedia states, \u201cAn ideology is a collection of ideas. Typically, each ideology contains certain ideas on what it considers to be the best form of government (eg, autocracy or democracy) and the best economic system (eg, capitalism or socialism).\u201d [2]<\/span><\/p>\n

But it gets confusing after that. \u201cThe same word is sometimes used to identify both an ideology and one of its main ideas. For instance, socialism may refer to an economic system, or it may refer to an ideology that supports that economic system.\u201d And even more confusing because \u201cthe same term may also refer to multiple ideologies\u2026\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Then this all-knowing resource clears everything up when it states, \u201cPolitical ideology is a term fraught with problems, having been called \u2018the most elusive concept in the whole of social science.\u2019\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

No wonder I was uncertain where to begin.<\/span><\/p>\n

Deeply Held Beliefs and Convictions<\/span><\/h2>\n

So let\u2019s keep it simple (sort of). Using the Wikipedia list that follows their confusing explanation, it seems to me that modern political ideologies seem to swing on a pendulum. When they go too far in one direction, they end up swinging back in the other direction. I say this because I can see the pendulum swinging between \u201cleft\u201d and \u201cright\u201d even within the last one hundred years.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

My own ideologies were seeded early on. I grew up in a Republican town in northern NJ, in a home where we almost never talked about politics. When I got to college, a small, liberal arts women\u2019s college, I discovered that there are many ways to look at the core economic and societal issues that affect us all.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Over time, as a young adult, through to today, I have developed my own values and beliefs. The most important things to me include: providing opportunities for everyone; making sure that no one goes without; lifting people up when they are down; showing hospitality, compassion, and empathy, just as Jesus taught us and showed us; and giving people the benefit of the doubt, at least at first. Are those ideologies? I think of them more as core values.<\/span><\/p>\n

These values and beliefs weren\u2019t only based on what I learned in church, though that did play a big role. I also saw them lived out in my parents\u2019 daily lives. My dad had a very good job in finance in New York City, and I was aware that my parents were (and still are) generous with their money.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

They were (and still are) also generous with their time. My mother, in particular, has always had the gift of hospitality. While I was growing up, we not only opened our home to 25 foster infants over 10 years, but we also hosted three year-long exchange students from Austria, Portugal, and Germany. And numerous other short-term international students as well.<\/span><\/p>\n

After an Inspectional Reading<\/span><\/h2>\n

I have to say it\u2019s a good thing this was an inspectional reading of <\/span>The Parasitic Mind<\/span><\/i> by Gad Saad<\/span>. I got through fewer than 40 pages and kept wanting to put it down. I found the author arrogant, snide, and irritating. He would probably tell me I\u2019m one of those loony leftists. Well, fine, I\u2019ll take that label if he\u2019s willing to take \u201carrogant, snide, and irritating.\u201d Also, inconsistent.<\/span><\/p>\n

Saad shallowly complains that all progressives and Democrats are deluded fools. He clearly demonstrates his impatience with that ideology while he commits the same offense that he condemns.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

However, I believe Saad is correct that truth is missing from much of our social discourse. I also think he\u2019s correct when he writes, \u201cThe quest for truth should always supersede one\u2019s ego-defensive desire to be proven right. This is not an easy task because for most people it is difficult to admit to being wrong.\u201d [3] This is confirmation bias; humans will do anything\u2014including bald-faced lies\u2014to avoid the threatening and scary feeling of being wrong.<\/span><\/p>\n

And I also agree that people make decisions using both logic and feelings. But we also use heuristics, the mental shortcuts that make things easier to remember and understand, while using less energy for the brain. Unfortunately, that often leads us to make decisions that aren\u2019t very helpful. Sadly, critical thinking\u2014which could solve the short-cut problem\u2014is missing from our social discourse as well. I think this is where logic meets emotions, and where Saad misses something important.<\/span><\/p>\n

Saad talks about Trump in the first election. He was \u201cbewildered at the mass psychogenic hysteria that engulfed\u201d so many people when Trump won the 2015 election. The book section is sarcastically titled, \u201cDonald Trump Is Going to End the World.\u201d [4] Saad\u2019s criticism of people\u2019s concerns rings hollow today, as DT really is running the entire world into disaster in ways almost no one could have anticipated in 2015.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Saad\u2019s views are also confusing because he insists on free speech as a core right, yet DT is, and always has been, intolerant of opposition or criticism. He stirs up hatred and separates people by slicing through truth with the sword of malevolent fiction. This isn\u2019t new. If you\u2019re the kind of person who values what DT says<\/em> he values, then this is an example where affect must trump seeming logic (forgive the unintended pun) because DT has proven himself to be a bad person who rarely does what he says he\u2019ll do unless there\u2019s something in it for him. More critical thinking would likely have led to more people seeing DT for the existential threat he is.<\/span><\/p>\n

I do agree with Saad that free speech is an absolutely critical element in a free society. For instance, he states that holocaust deniers \u201cconstitute an affront to human decency\u201d because they \u201creject the well-documented historical fact that millions of Jews were systematically exterminated.\u201d [5] <\/span><\/p>\n

But I also agree that they have a right to free speech. I just wish there were a way to go back in time to their childhoods and fix the wrongs that made them so angry and bitter. Then they wouldn\u2019t need to spew such venom. Somehow, I think that desire to make life better and easier for children who don\u2019t have equal opportunities probably doesn\u2019t always make logical sense to Saad.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In short, perhaps I could have taken what Saad wanted to share more seriously if he had presented it in a more diplomatic and compassionate way.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But in his acerbic criticisms of postmodernism, \u201cradical\u201d feminism, political correctness, and other parasitic ills, he comes across as angry and intolerant himself, the very diseases of which he is most critical.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

1 – Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, s.v. \u201cideology,\u201d accessed April 16, 2025, https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/ideology.<\/span><\/p>\n

2 – <\/span>Wikipedia contributors, “List of political ideologies,” <\/span>Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia,<\/span><\/i> https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/w\/index.php?title=List_of_political_ideologies&oldid=1285631998<\/span><\/a> (accessed April 16, 2025).<\/span><\/p>\n

3 – Gad Saad, <\/span>The Parasitic Mind; How Infectious Ideas Are Killing Common Sense<\/span><\/i> (New York: Regnery, 2020), 12.<\/span><\/p>\n

4 – Saad, 30.<\/span><\/p>\n

5 – Saad, 49.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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