The second and more important way we control other people’s voice-authority over us is by our opinions of them. Why are we forever judging, forever criticizing, forever putting people in categories of faint praise or reproof? We constantly rate others and pigeonhole them in often ridiculous status hierarchies simply to regulate their control over us and our thoughts. Our personal judgments of others are filters of influence. If you wish to allow another’s language power over you, simply hold him higher in your own private scale of esteem.

— Julian Jaynes, The Origin of Consciousness and the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind, p. 98

1. somebeautifulplace posted this