zalternate

How is it that otherwise normal people—some of them intelligent—can be persuaded to follow blindly some “visionary”? There is no simple answer, not even one set of answers that applies to all cult followers. People are too complex to be reduced to a formula. However, there appear to be at least four critical psychological mechanisms at work.

*Emotional Connection

------The follower has found the leader inspiring for some reason. Perhaps the follower loves the leader at some level. This love blinds the follower to the leader’s flaws once they manifest.

*Dependency

-------The follower, because of her or his adoration for the leader, builds her/his life around the leader. Given the follower’s emotional, and at times financial, investment, it is actually psychologically easier for the follower to deny the accuracy of clear evidence that reveals the leader’s flaws than it is to accept reality.

*Suspension of Critical Thinking

-------This dependency ultimately leads to a near total suspension of the follower’s ability to analyze objectively and critically the leader’s pronouncements. Anything the leader says—even if it is contradicted by verifiable data—must be true. And instructions must be obeyed. To do otherwise would betray the leader—with whom the follower has now completely identified.

*Dismissal of Dissenters

-------Just as everything said by the cult leader is accepted as “gospel,” those who do raise questions or objections are dismissed peremptorily. Because these concerns often have merit, the typical approach is to avoid dealing with such concerns on their merits, and instead to attack the character or motives of the person presenting concerns. The dissenter is labeled disrespectful, a “troublemaker,” a liar, someone out for her/his own power, or someone in the pay of some outside interest. In Jim Jones’ case, the “CIA” was often identified as the malignant outside influence.

Dodge Charger owner upset vehicle crushed by suicidal fall

September 2, 2010

Her car was crushed -- and so is she.

A New Jersey woman is devastated that her precious sports car -- just repaired and fully gassed up -- was wrecked by a suicidal man's 40-story attempted death leap on the Upper West Side.

"I miss it. It's my baby," moaned Maria McCormack, who regrets lending her husband the 2008 Dodge Charger Tuesday for work. "I want to meet [Tom Magill] and say, 'Why? Why my car out of all the cars in the city?' "

McCormack's husband, Guy, had the $14,000 muscle car parked behind 75 West End Ave. when Magill soared from 400 feet and landed on the rear windshield and trunk

The vehicle broke his 126-mph fall and likely saved his life -- but it killed the car, which was so extensively damaged that the insurance company will total it out.

"I wonder how he feels now that he made it. Does he feel like an idiot?" said Maria. "I hope he's OK. But I just want to know why."

The 42-year-old mother of four from Old Bridge recently spent hundreds of dollars fixing the rear brakes -- and she says she got an oil change and filled it with gas just the day before the blazing red car was crushed like a tomato can.

"I was going to get the front brakes done . . . but thank God I had a migraine!" she said. "I can't believe my car is gone.

"I've had other cars, but I really loved this car."

Maria said it was just the second time she allowed Guy to borrow the car -- and the first time, a parking attendant damaged it.

"It's not Murphy's law, it's McCormack's law," she said, referring to her husband's bad karma.

Guy McCormack, 40, was far more merciful -- agreeing to pony up the $500 insurance deductible.

"Geico said I could sue him . . . but I'm not going to do that. He has enough to worry about," said the construction worker. "It's a very small price to pay."

Magill, 22 -- who miraculously suffered only broken bones and blood clots -- told investigators he "wanted to die," according to sources.

Doctors at St. Luke's Hospital initially doubted Magill could have dropped from 400 feet -- though multiple witnesses and the eyeglasses he left on the roof prove otherwise, sources said.

"The doctors say it's not as bad as they anticipated. Nothing is as bad as they anticipated," Magill's uncle said yesterday.

Magill had rods inserted in both legs, including his thigh and ankle during an extensive operation Tuesday night. Yesterday, surgeons operated on his groin and chest to relieve the clotting.

Meanwhile, a Dodge spokesman credited the car's "high-strength steel structure" for helping absorb the blow.

"We are glad that Mr. Magill survived the 40-story free-fall and that our Dodge Charger was able to cushion his landing," said company spokesman Jiyan Cadiz. "We hope that Mr. Magill gets well."

sept 2 2010
Mariner Energy  ( ME -  news  -  people ): News of an explosion on a Mariner Energy-owned platform in the Gulf of Mexico sent shares of the oil and natural gas production company into freefall earlier in the session and pushed options implied volatility on the stock to the highest level in at least one year. ME’s shares fell 16% in the span of approximately 15 minutes before recovering the vast majority of those losses in the 45 minutes that followed. Reports of the explosion incited frenzied options activity on the stock as investors seemed to expect the worst case scenario was upon them while all-too-recent memories of BP  ( BP -  news  -  people )’s disaster came to mind. Options implied volatility on the stock shot up as much as 241.5% from a reading of 22.37% before news of the explosion hit and touched a high of 76.40% post-explosion data. Put options flew off the shelves and overall options volume surged to 46,000 contracts versus previously existing open interest of just 6,547 lots.

Mariner puts at the September $20 strike received the most traffic as more than 21,000 lots changed hands there by 1:15 p.m. Investors appear to be buying and selling equal amounts of the September $20 puts at an average premium of $0.86 each. Some of the 9,200 puts sold at that strike may be the work of traders ditching puts they purchased while in panic-mode earlier in the session. Premium on the September $20 strike puts surged to a high of $4.30 each when ME’s shares were trading at their lowest price of the mini-crisis. If traders purchased the puts at $4.30 they would now only receive $0.40 per contract by selling them just a couple of hours later. Traders also picked up roughly 2,400 puts at the higher September $22.5 strike for an average premium of $1.28 apiece. It will be interesting to see how options trading on the stock will play out as more and more information about the explosion and its potential consequences for Mariner Energy are revealed.

just thought i'd put this here...

and welcome to the forum nonvalid...

and ditto from me too