<HTML><BODY BGCOLOR="#3dffff"> From: Wojtek Sokolowski <sokol@jhu.edu> That does not surprise me at all.  In my old country, the ruling elite always enjoyed over 95% support whatever they did.  As they used to say in my old country, paper is very patient, it accepts everything. Manufacturing news is is the principal activity of news media no? Of course, this is not just simple lie or even indoctrination.  The work of government propaganda must be understood in the context of how human cognitive facluties operate under conditon of uncertainty. ...etc. clip.</BLOCKQUOTE> ^^^^^^^^ CB: How's it going. Wojtek ?  I'll buy that analysis. I'd add that there can be a lot of negative reinforcment for opposing the President or the war, like losing your job, being spied on by the U.S. secret police, being chastised by peers. These ,along with the habituated form of thinking you describe , persuade many to go along with the Pres to get along. Plus, what do most Americans care about the people in Iraq ? About as much as they care about the people in Detroit or the Indians or the Mexicans or the Viet Namese or the Koreans or the Africans.  Most people are not passionate humanitarians or seekers of the Truth. They are just trying to survive , get over , get by.  They don't really care about doing the right thing in Iraq, so it is pretty easy to just go along with and mimic what the Boss says, for reasons of self-interest unrelated to what the hell Saddam Hussein does.  Pragmatism = Americanism = opportunism = survival in a dog-eat-dog world. </HTML>