2026-10-07T05:08:58Z https://api.figshare.com/v2/oai

oai:figshare.com:article/34037040 2026-09-30T21:59:25Z category_27664 category_27694 category_27691 category_27724 category_27727 category_27736 category_27754 category_27763 category_27613 category_27655 category_27772 item_type_12 month_year_09_2026

<b>Hijacking the Intellect:</b> Kenneth Howell (23651350) Citizenship Political science not elsewhere classified Political theory and political philosophy Social change Social theory Sociology of culture Sociology of religion Sociology not elsewhere classified Communications and media policy Policy and administration not elsewhere classified Other human society not elsewhere classified Political theory—Moral and ethical aspects Moral Theology Patristic theology Kantian theory utilitarianism/consequentialism ethics christian ethics Psychology - Theory <p dir="ltr">This study examines the systematic erosion of rational agency and neighborly charity within contemporary political communication, focusing especially on fear‑based media strategies that bypass deliberative judgment and exploit cognitive vulnerability. Modern campaign advertising frequently employs logical fallacies, symbolic distortions, and emotionally charged imagery that activate rapid, intuitive processing rather than reflective reasoning. As this study notes, political messaging often compresses complex realities into emotionally charged images that bypass slow, deliberative reasoning, a dynamic that ancient rhetorical theory, patristic theology, and scholastic moral philosophy all recognized as a corruption of truthful speech. Through interdisciplinary analysis drawing on Aristotle’s <i>Rhetoric</i>, Augustine’s theology of truthful communication, Aquinas’s account of prudence and moral agency, and contemporary research in psychology, sociology, anthropology, and cognitive science, this study argues that fear‑based persuasion constitutes a direct assault on the human person’s rational dignity. Greek grammatical structures, particularly imperative and conditional forms, reveal how linguistic framing can impose artificial binaries or crisis‑oriented urgency. Historical case studies from American and British political advertising demonstrate how fear has been repeatedly weaponized to shape public perception. The paper concludes by proposing a constructive path forward grounded in theological anthropology, virtue ethics, and communal practices of hospitality, truthfulness, and hope, stressing that the restoration of civic life requires both individual ascetic discipline and communal solidarity oriented toward the common good.</p> 2026-09-30T21:59:25Z Text Preprint 10.6084/m9.figshare.34037040.v1 https://figshare.com/articles/preprint/_b_Hijacking_the_Intellect_b_/34037040 CC BY 4.0