//LucasHutmacherDotCom

The idea, which entered Western consciousness several centuries ago, that black people are less than human, made possible the Atlantic slave trade, during which perhaps 40 million people died.  Beliefs about racial inferiority, whether applied to blacks or Jews or Arabs or Orientals, have led to mass murder.

The Idea, presented by political leaders and accepted by the American public in 1964, that communism in Vietnam was a threat to our ‘national security’ led to policies that cost a million lives, including those of 55,000 young Americans.

The belief, fostered in the Soviet Union, that ‘socialism’ required a ruthless policy of farm collectivization, as well as the control of dissent, brought about the deaths of countless peasants and large numbers of political prisoners.

Other ideas – leave the poor on their own (‘laissez-faire’) and help the rich (‘economic growth’) – have led the US government for most of its history to subsidize corporations while neglecting the poor, thus permitting terrible living and working conditions and incalculable suffering and death.  In the years of the Regan presidency, ‘laissez-faire’ meant budget cutting for family care, which led to high rates of infant mortality I city ghettos.

We can reasonably conclude that how we think is not just mildly interesting, not just a subject for intellectual debate, but a matter of life & death.

- Howard Zinn – Declarations of Independence

Wondering what has changed? Read about it here.