Controlling the Electorate

a few thoughts from Thomas Szasa -- relevant?

"People often say that this or that person has not yet found himself. But the self is not something one finds, it is something one creates."

"Psychiatry is institutionalized scientism: it is the systematic imitation, impersonation, counterfeiting, and deception. This is the formula: every adult smokes (drinks, engages in sexual activity, etc.); hence, to prove that he is an adult, the adolescent smokes (drinks, engages in sexual activity, etc.). Mutatis mutandis: every science consists of classification, control, and prediction; hence to prove psychiatry is a science, the psychiatrist classifies, controls, predicts. The result is that he classifies people as mad; that he confines them as dangerous (to themselves or others); and that he predicts people's behavior, robbing them of their free will and hence of their very humanity." --"Science and Scientism", p. 115

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Szasz
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Thomas_Szasz

I am familiar with the abuse of 'psychiatry/psychology' to control the electorate and suggest that the last paragraph applies equally to politics since Political Science is in many ways merely crowd control.