06-06-2017, 02:05 AM | #11 |
Join Date: Mar 2011
Location: Spinward Marches
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Re: Literary source for anti-psionics prejudice?
A real life example are people who are legally declared schizophrenic, with a typical symptom being that they believe their minds are being read with "microwave" technology. Ergo crazies who wear tin foil hats.
The truth of the matter is that it's a psychiatric technique to discover why someone is acting out by drugging them up. You can get a subject to talk in their sleep about their daily thoughts, and toss it back in their face in casual conversation. The cumulative effect is that they believe they have no privacy (which they don't due to doctor and/or court order). It's actually a facet of Traveller, as it seems to have riffs on security and law enforcement themes as seeds for adventures. So called "psionics" stemming from this practice. |
06-06-2017, 06:12 AM | #12 | |
Join Date: Jun 2006
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Re: Literary source for anti-psionics prejudice?
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The bit that may be original to Traveller are the Psionic Institutes, I can't actually think of a precedent for those - there are organizations that train people that are *already* psis, but the teach anybody model, and the related concept that anybody can join this persecuted minority by attending one, seems new. Though of course it follows the religious persecution model quite well - underground religious academies that seduce our children into their evil cult certainly aren't an unprecedented fear.
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06-06-2017, 07:03 AM | #13 |
Untitled
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: between keyboard and chair
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Re: Literary source for anti-psionics prejudice?
Would this have literary sources, cinematic sources, or both?
There are quite a few 1950s and 1960s atomic-horror movies where somebody gained powers that nowadays we would call psionic, and was persecuted and hunted because of those powers - some of those movies ended up on MST3K. The "powers are evil" attitude also appeared on television shows of the time (for example, the second pilot episode of Star Trek).
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Rob Kelk “Every man has a right to his own opinion, but no man has a right to be wrong in his facts.” – Bernard Baruch, Deming (New Mexico) Headlight, 6 January 1950 No longer reading these forums regularly. |
06-06-2017, 07:27 AM | #14 |
Munchkin Line Editor
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Austin, TX
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Re: Literary source for anti-psionics prejudice?
"Crazy" is offensive in this context and not everyone who believes in mind control is mentally ill.
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06-06-2017, 10:04 AM | #15 |
Join Date: Mar 2011
Location: Spinward Marches
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Re: Literary source for anti-psionics prejudice?
Well many apologies, mister Hackard, it wasn't meant to be. It is an actual psychiatric technique.
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06-06-2017, 11:57 AM | #16 | |
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Portland, Oregon
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Re: Literary source for anti-psionics prejudice?
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In any case Traveller had an elegant arrangement wherein psi were an oligarchy in one empire and a persecuted minority in a rival one.
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06-06-2017, 01:49 PM | #17 | ||
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: traveller
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Re: Literary source for anti-psionics prejudice?
That is possible, although the rest of the series wasn't published until the 1990's. The Center may have served as a model for the Psionic Institutes as well.
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The cited sources are strongly literary. The only exceptions are Star Wars and Star Trek, which I think we can agree are only peripheral influences at best. Mostly irrelevant to the current discussion, as these features came much later in Traveller's development. Both the Psionic Institutes and public prejudice against psionics were there from the beginning. |
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06-06-2017, 01:58 PM | #18 | |
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Berkeley, CA
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Re: Literary source for anti-psionics prejudice?
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The Xavier Institute. |
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06-06-2017, 02:48 PM | #19 |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: traveller
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Re: Literary source for anti-psionics prejudice?
... for Gifted Youngsters? I agree with malloyd, this is the usual: a school for people with already identified paranormal abilities. The ability comes first, and mutants are distinct from the general populace.
We're looking for a setting where (1) virtually everyone has psionic potential, (2) an "extremely low profile" organization exists to test and train that potential, and (3) "[t]he climate of public opinion about psionics is extremely negative." |
06-06-2017, 03:52 PM | #20 | |
Join Date: May 2009
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Re: Literary source for anti-psionics prejudice?
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old school, psionics |
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