Hintergedanke

HINTERGEDANKE: NAGGING UNCONSCIOUS THOUGHT, ESP. ONE THAT UPSETS THE EQUILIBRIUM OF DOMINANT PERSPECTIVES OR WORLDVIEWS; THE ULTERIOR MOTIVE; THE HIDDEN SAYING. HINTERGEDENKEN: THINKING AGAINST, ESP. AGAINST THE ‘APPARENTLY SO’, THE ‘JUST-SO’ AND, ON OCCASION EVEN ‘THE GIVEN’; CHARACTERIZED BY “PLAYFULNESS, TROUBLESOME MEDDLING, ENLIGHTENED REVELATIONS, CONTRARINESS, AND ALL THE HAPPY INDETERMINABILITY OF THE ABYSS.” THE RIGHT FLY IN THE RIGHT OINTMENT.

(Excellent word discovery made whilst listening to Alan Watts "Out of Your Mind" on my iPod)

A livejournal friend of mine mentioned the term Sheeple in one of her posts. I didn't know what it meant, so I looked it up:

Sheeple is a term of disparagement, a portmanteau created by combining the words "sheep" and "people." It is often used to denote persons who acquiesce to authority, and thus undermine their own human individuality. The implication of sheeple is that as a collective, people believe whatever they are told, especially if told so by authority figures, without processing it to be sure that it is an accurate representation of the real world around them. The term is generally used in a political or religious sense.

Good word.