“What Huxley teaches is that in the age of advanced technology, spiritual devastation is more likely to come from an enemy with a smiling face than from one whose countenance exudes suspicion and hate. In the Huxleyan prophecy, Big Brother does not watch us, by his choice. We watch him, by ours. There is no need for wardens or gates or Ministries of Truth.
When a population becomes distracted by trivia, when cultural life is redefined as a perpetual round of entertainments, when serious public conversation becomes a form of baby-talk, when, in short, a people become an audience and their public business a vaudeville act, then a nation finds itself at risk; a culture-death is a clear possibility.” ― Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business
Something as mundane as using the restroom at work sometimes ends up triggering deeper thoughts about technology – its benefits, deficiencies and danger to our culture. I’ve been using the same restroom at work for the last twelve years. They remodeled the restroom a few years ago with the latest technology – automatic flushers, automatic soap dispensers, automatic spigots, and automatic towel dispenser. This technology is supposed to make things better, but from my perspective the technology just added complexity, glitches and unnecessary complications.
First off, these technological “improvements” did not eliminate any humans from the equation. The housekeepers responsible for the restrooms continued to be employed. Prior to the remodel they would fill a metal bin with individual paper towels and fill the soap dispenser with liquid soap. Now they have to insert a roll of paper towels in the electronic dispenser and a cartridge of soap in the electronic soap dispenser.
Instead of doing this daily, they wait until they are empty before replacing the towels and soap. That means they run out during the day. It must be dozens off times when I’ve washed my hands and put my hands in front of the automatic towel machine and nothing comes out. Then your choice is going to a stall and using toilet paper or wiping your hands on your pants. When it’s not empty, it jams 20% of the time. The automatic faucets stay on too long or go off by themselves with no one near them.
The bottom line is this bathroom technology was costly, requires ongoing costs for battery replacement, did not eliminate any labor costs, malfunctions at a far greater rate than the previous manual devices, and provides less service and satisfaction than the non-technological methods.
This led me to ponder whether this microcosm of technological dysfunction and dissatisfaction applies to technology on a much larger scale, as technology has been sold to the masses as the solution to all of our ills and a sure sign we are progressing as a civilization and culture. Technological advances have given the masses the false impression their lives have gotten better, when in reality the technology has enslaved and controlled them while providing a never-ending distraction from reality, critical thinking and the truth.
“Americans no longer talk to each other, they entertain each other. They do not exchange ideas, they exchange images. They do not argue with propositions; they argue with good looks, celebrities and commercials.” ― Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business
With virtually everyone in America having access to the internet, smart phones containing more computing power than NASA used to launch rocket ships into outer space, and the proliferation of computers even in the poorest school districts, the masses should be far more intelligent and informed than previous generations. But nothing could be further from the truth.
Technology is wasted on people who haven’t been taught to think critically, have been indoctrinated by government run schools to be subservient cogs in the machine, and believe feelings and emotions are more important than knowledge and understanding. The proliferation of social media (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram) has resulted in the dumbing down of human interactions and replacement of discussing issues with virtue signaling, selfies, faux manufactured outrage, and glorifying shallow celebrities. We’re addicted to technology.
It is incomprehensible our society has embraced technology for amusement, trivialities, and superficial displays of diversion, rather than advancement of knowledge, proliferation of ideas, and cultural progress and enrichment. The works of Aristotle, Socrates, Shakespeare, Dickens, Twain, Tolstoy, Steinbeck, Orwell and Huxley are available with one click of your iGadget, but instead the masses choose to play Angry Birds, Candy Crush, and Madden, while worshipping at the altar of Kardashian. So much knowledge and wisdom at your fingertips, guaranteed to make you smarter and 99.9% choose to amuse themselves into a stupor of ignorance.
Are we just a society of intellectual lightweights, driven by emotions and sensitivities? Or is this infinite infantilism designed and implemented by those controlling the culture through their ownership of all media platforms? It appears to be a purposeful deliberate strategy implemented by the ruling class to dumb down the masses through the public education (indoctrination) system, divert their attention and thoughts through modern day electronic bread and circuses, enslaving them in debt, and pillaging global wealth and power through control of the political, financial, and mass media structures. And now they utilize the technology to spy on you and make sure you are not contradicting the establishment narrative.
“Our politics, religion, news, athletics, education and commerce have been transformed into congenial adjuncts of show business, largely without protest or even much popular notice. The result is that we are a people on the verge of amusing ourselves to death.” ― Neil Postman
If the daily machinations, intrigues, schemes, and plot twists broadcast 24/7 seem like an orchestrated reality TV show, it’s because they are. It’s nothing more than an enhanced Truman Show where we are all Truman. The controllers produce the daily disinformation propaganda; superficial story-lines designed to play upon your emotions; plot twists designed to invoke hope, despair, anger, fear, and desire; and a ceaseless mantra that the government, mega-corporations, Wall Street bankers, and chosen “experts” know what is best for us.
They don’t want a citizenry who understands what is going on, how to think critically and question the establishment, or live within their means. They want obedient consumers who believe what they are told by “authorities” and are just smart enough to follow the rules laid down by their superiors. A nation built on illusions, delusions, disinformation and confusion.
“Television is altering the meaning of ‘being informed’ by creating a species of information that might properly be called disinformation. Disinformation does not mean false information. It means misleading information – misplaced, irrelevant, fragmented or superficial information – information that creates the illusion of knowing something, but which in fact leads one away from knowing.” ― Neil Postman
Television has always been an effective tool in keeping the masses under control. Talking media heads, sold to the public as highly intelligent and educated journalists, mouthed their lines, written by invisible men working on behalf of the wealthy ruling class, to sooth the savage beasts known as the masses. Control the message and you control society.
With the advent of the internet, what should have been a vast awakening and enlightenment of the masses, has just been a degradation to the lowest common denominator. Social media platforms have eliminated thought, conversation, seriousness, knowledge, intelligence, and clarity from the public square and replaced it with narcissism, vitriol, virtue signaling, triviality, attacking anyone with a different viewpoint, and self-promotion.
Now that the Silicon Valley social media behemoth corporations have hundreds of millions addicted to amusing themselves to death, they can decide what is acceptable speech and that which doesn’t conform to their left-wing views. Censorship, public shaming, manufactured outrage and destroying those with an alternative point of view is now in the control of a small cabal of extremely rich men.
They use contrived incidents like the Covington High School kids “threatening” a “noble” Vietnam Vet Native American in a blatant attempt to spin their web of deceit. Their technological control over public discourse is a threat to our freedom of speech and to our society. Anyone who thinks for themselves is in danger of becoming an outcast and/or cyber criminal in our new dystopian existence.
“For in the end, he was trying to tell us what afflicted the people in ‘Brave New World’ was not that they were laughing instead of thinking, but that they did not know what they were laughing about and why they had stopped thinking.” ― Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business
Neil Postman published his book in 1985, one year after the title of Orwell’s chilling view of a dark and brutal dystopian future. Postman’s view at the time was Huxley’s Brave New World dystopia had proven to be the more accurate assessment of the future. And he was probably right thirty-four years ago. He accurately assessed how the masses had been trained like Pavlov’s dogs to follow their emotions rather than their intellects.
The average person actually thinks they are informed, when they have been programmed by disinformation peddled by the corporate media at the behest of their oligarch masters. Ignorance is not strength. War is not peace. Freedom is not slavery.
The misleading information – superficial, irrelevant, fake news – is designed to create the illusion of knowledge when, in reality, it leads you away from knowledge. Postman didn’t think the dumbing down of Americans was deliberate. He attributed it to TV entertaining rather than informing.
I believe those in control of the levers of society have made a calculated effort to convince the masses their willful ignorance is actually knowledge. The ignorant are much easier to manipulate and lead down any path necessary to benefit those in charge. Accumulating wealth and power is much easier when the masses can’t think, understand basic mathematical truths, or comprehend reality.
Postman compared the two dystopian visions at the outset of his brilliant tome:
“We were keeping our eye on 1984. When the year came and the prophecy didn’t, thoughtful Americans sang softly in praise of themselves. The roots of liberal democracy had held. Wherever else the terror had happened, we, at least, had not been visited by Orwellian nightmares.
But we had forgotten that alongside Orwell’s dark vision, there was another – slightly older, slightly less well known, equally chilling: Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World. Contrary to common belief even among the educated, Huxley and Orwell did not prophesy the same thing. Orwell warns that we will be overcome by an externally imposed oppression. But in Huxley’s vision, no Big Brother is required to deprive people of their autonomy, maturity and history. As he saw it, people will come to love their oppression, to adore the technologies that undo their capacities to think.
What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one. Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egoism. Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance. Orwell feared we would become a captive culture. Huxley feared we would become a trivial culture, preoccupied with some equivalent of the feelies, the orgy porgy, and the centrifugal bumblepuppy.
As Huxley remarked in Brave New World Revisited, the civil libertarians and rationalists who are ever on the alert to oppose tyranny “failed to take into account man’s almost infinite appetite for distractions.” In 1984, Orwell added, people are controlled by inflicting pain. In Brave New World, they are controlled by inflicting pleasure. In short, Orwell feared that what we fear will ruin us. Huxley feared that what we desire will ruin us.
This book is about the possibility that Huxley, not Orwell, was right.” ― Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business
Postman was most certainly correct in his assessment of our society in 1985. TV was still the overwhelming method of information and entertainment for the average person. People still had newspapers and magazines delivered to their homes. Cable news had just launched. The internet was not in widespread use. Home computers were in their infancy. Cell phones for every person was a distant dream.
Orwell’s dark future had not materialized, YET. Huxley’s subtler dystopia required far fewer authoritarian measures. The unseen psychological manipulation of the masses, as described and practiced by Edward Bernays and his sycophants, was far more effective in molding minds, designing the culture, and forming the ideas of the masses without them realizing they were nothing but lab rats in a grand experiment. Propaganda works.
Since 1985 the technological control over the masses has deepened and overwhelmed any resistance to its creeping governance of our daily lives. The proliferation of computers, 24-hour cable TV and “smart” phones for the masses has given the unseen manipulators of the public mind, known as the invisible government, the ultimate tools for engineering our minds and deciding what will be perceived as the central beliefs guiding our daily lives.
We have come to love our oppression and learned ignorance, adoring the very technologies enslaving us in trivialities, disinformation, shallow displays of virtue signaling, and eliminating our capacity to think. The masses have passively acquiesced to their oppressors by allowing technology to completely control their lives and form their opinions.
The corporate mass media, through social media platforms, the internet, and TV overwhelm the masses with useless information designed to distract and divert our attention from the subversive actions of the wealthy oligarchs pulling the strings behind the technological curtain. The truth has been and continues to be hidden behind an avalanche of irrelevant minutiae and nonsense, spewing from our Screens.
The purposeful purveyors of this garbage into the minds of the masses play to the lowest common denominator by producing disinformation designed to amuse, provoke fear, confuse, inflame desires, and kindle emotions. They most certainly don’t want citizens thinking critically, questioning the status quo, ignoring their dictates, discussing the real issues and problem confronting the country, or generating ideas which could undermine their control and potentially reduce their vast riches.
I think Postman was being somewhat naïve in thinking the dumbing down of society through technological means and government-controlled indoctrination public schools was an accident. As seen in both novels, the controllers knew exactly what they were doing and why they were doing it. The Brave New World method of control has worked for decades, but the propagation of websites appealing to critical thinkers and those questioning the approved narrative has endangered this command and control structure of the Deep State.
That is why our society is now devolving towards Orwell’s vision of the future. Battle lines began to be drawn when Snowden, Assange and other selfless patriots of freedom revealed the level of deception, disinformation, and criminality of the state and those supporting the state. Technology is now becoming the boot stomping on our faces forever.
The tyranny being inflicted upon the masses by the likes of Google, Twitter, Facebook, Amazon, and other tech behemoths on behalf of their Deep State benefactors is chilling in its depth and depravity. The oppression from the current day Big Brothers through censorship, banning of truth tellers, demonetization of those who don’t conform, and public shaming of dissenters has replaced the soft tyranny of mental manipulation.
The establishment now openly suppresses the truth through their control of all mainstream media channels and outlets. The alternate media is scorned and ridiculed as conspiracy theorists, nutjobs, and Russian collaborators. The level of fake news vomited by Deep State propagandists has reached a new level of hysteria. Dissenting viewpoints are crushed through economic penalties inflicted upon those who dare go against the approved doctrine of the state.
The use of technology to control the minds of the masses has produced unintended consequences which threatens the power of the Party. A true Surveillance State, more comprehensive than Orwell ever conceived, is operating in full view. Trying to lock down the internet has proven to be difficult for the ruling class as more and more critical thinking, pissed off citizens congregate on truth telling websites and stir discontent among the awakening masses.
The election of Trump seems to have been a lightning rod for the discontent to bubble to the surface. There is an all-out technological war being waged between the corporate oppressors and those they are trying to control. The current escalation will surely lead to all out violent war in the foreseeable future.
Huxley’s soft tyranny, where we have been conditioned to obey and never consider revolution, is being replaced by Orwell’s vicious tyranny where persecution, torture and power will be on full display as this revolution begins in earnest. Portman was just early in his conclusion. Huxley and Orwell were both right. The Party doesn’t care about us. They just use us to attain their own felonious needs. We need to break free from the chains enslaving our minds and take back our country by force. Time is growing short. Will we meekly accept the fate of Winston Smith and John the Savage inflicted by the State or will we rise up against the technological tyranny oppressing our freedoms and liberties? The answer will decide our fate.
“Now I will tell you the answer to my question. It is this. The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake. We are not interested in the good of others; we are interested solely in power, pure power.
We know that no one ever seizes power with the intention of relinquishing it. Power is not a means; it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship. The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now you begin to understand me.” – George Orwell, 1984
“One believes things because one has been conditioned to believe them. Most men and women will grow up to love their servitude and will never dream of revolution.” – Aldous Huxley, Brave New World
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I have run many companies, and have heavily invested in tech at times. People – engineers and managers – come to me with ideas, saying “ this tech will eliminate 160 man hours per week, or somesuch, at a cost of $100k!”
My response, always the same, was “ give me the names of the 4 employees we will fire out of your department the minute this comes online, and I will sign off on it now!” Guess what happens then, almost 100% of the time? The engineer/manager in question would slink away, tail between legs, as the fact is that the proposed tech would do no such thing as proposed. If you cannot name the employees to be eliminated, then the capital expenditure proposal is bullshit.
Often, if not mostly, tech is put in when it need not be, and it often makes things worse, not better. That is not to say that selective use of tech is not extremely valuable. It simply cannot be left to idiots to decide when to use it. And most people are idiots when it comes to financial decisions.
Llpoh –
Yeah, I have often been that guy selling new tech and I have to agree completely with your sum-up though I have unwittingly followed your rule in my past life. In what I have done (ag and raw crop processing), I have never been in in a situation where ‘new tech’ actually eliminated personnel in order to accomplish a 50% ROI which was my baseline criteria for success. Yes, I know that CFO’s are often excited by half that. So?
Rather, the successful proposition always turned upon elimination of “expert cost” (lawyers), “nuisance cost” (ship, rail, or truck demurrage cost), and/or elimination of overtime hours of existing personnel.
And, yes, people are generally idiots when it comes to financial decisions. A much-admired CEO of a Fortune 50 once told me “Perfessor, next time you come back make sure the presentation is in crayon font because all my Wharton grad execs cannot handle much more than that.”
Admin –
This stepped out of your normal econ/accounting/humor genre. And you still hit it out of the park! This is superb and, yes, tastes are subjective but I think this is one of your best yet.
DaP
I agree with your summary of this article.
Yet for a business, the most bang for the buck technology is Galaxy smartphones. I can count the man hours and the money they save me, they pay for themselves the first week. No other tech even comes close.
“Never saw no miracle of science…that didn’t go from a blessing to a curse, never saw no military solution, that didn’t always end up as something worse…”
-Sting
“If I Ever…”
Llpoh,
Besides following Peter Drucker’s writings one of the most impactful business books I read and followed throughout my business career was Good to Great. I know most are familar with it. Here is the timeless chapter summary on Technology.
TECHNOLOGY ACCELERATORS
(page 162 & 163)
KEY POINTS
* Good-to-great organizations think differently about technology and technological change than mediocre ones.
* Good-to-great organizations avoid technology fads and bandwagons, yet they become pioneers in the application of carefully selected technologies.
* The key question about any technology is, Does the technology fit directly with your Hedgehog Concept? If yes, then you need to become a pioneer in the application of that technology. If no, then you can settle for parity or ignore it entirely.
* The good-to-great companies used technology as an accelerator of momentum, not a creator of it. None of the good-to-great companies began their transformations with pioneering technology, yet they all became pioneers in the application of technology once they grasped how it fit with their three circles and after they hit breakthrough.
* You could have taken the exact same leading-edge technologies pioneered at the good-to-great companies and handed them to their direct comparisons for free, and the comparisons still would have failed to produce anywhere near the same results.
* How a company reacts to technological change is a good indicator of its inner drive for greatness versus mediocrity. Great companies respond with thoughtfulness and creativity, driven by a compulsion to turn unrealized potential into results; mediocre companies react and lurch about, motivated by fear of being left behind.
UNEXPECTED FINDINGS
* The idea that technological change is the principal cause in the decline of once-great companies (or the perpetual mediocrity of others) is not supported by the evidence. Certainly, a company can’t remain a laggard and hope to be great, but technology by itself is never a primary root cause of either greatness or decline.
* Across eighty-four interviews with good-to-great executives, fully 80 percent didn’t even mention technology as one of the top five factors in the transformation. This is true even in companies famous for their pioneering application of technology, such as Nucor.
* “Crawl, walk, run” can be a very effective approach, even during times of rapid and radical technological change.
I worked as a Loss Prevention Consultant in over 70 companies in 27 states but almost always bled into Operations and found “business technology” as described above to be the best bullet point OVERVIEW of it I ever read anywhere.
Mark, I’ve always liked Jim Collins’ stuff, even though we have some disagreements on things. He’s a genius. A lot of Technology ended up being just expense. Something else to endlessly maintain. I agree with you, when it’s good it’s great. Crawl, walk, run, I’ve never heard that, but I understand it, and I endorse that approach. I’ve always liked the old Goldman Sachs quip. First one through the door catches the bullet. Same thing.
starfcker,
Yea man, I saw him as a genius as well. I read Built to Last but GOOD TO GREAT became my business Bible.
That book was my road map as an outside consultant and to be honest it made my career. Being a Loss Prevention hired gun my specialty was “getting the wrong people off the business bus,” and anyone who hired me was always bleeding so there was always plenty of thieves, slugs, bullies, disruptive types, change blockers etc. to go after. One of my specialties was dealing with “Protected Classes” who hid behind it and providing “clean endings” to show them the door with no libility.
But with many clients I delved into wider and deeper management disciplines. I was TQ trained and got into Lean Six Sigma as after the bad employees were unceremoniously kicked off the bus I used his principles to get the COGs down and net profit up.
What I did was type up the GOOD TO GREAT chapter summaries and read it over and over until I had it memorized. I even kept a copy in my bathroom (TMI) took a copy on the road and applied the wisdom whenever appropriate. I’ve had three owners thank me for saving them from Bankruptcy (one was crying) but there were many more that never said it out loud but we both knew it was true.
This is the essence of the greatest business book I have ever read or used.
LEVEL 5 LEADERSHIP
FIRST WHO . . . THEN WHAT
CONFRONT THE BRUTAL FACTS
(YET NEVER LOSE FAITH)
THREE CIRCLES OF THE HEDGEHOG CONCEPT
A CULTURE OF DISCIPLINE
TECHNOLOGY ACCELERATORS
THE FLYWHEEL AND THE DOOM LOOP
Great comment. Great article. It’s always trimming the fat when it’s the other guy.
I have never thought of the public school system as some kind of conspired system to control people, rather, it is a basic foundation of the bare minimum that society can afford to spend. How kids fare is up to their parents and the motivation of the child. If some kid wants to major in hanging out doing sweet eff all, he/she will soon figure out they better get the lead out or they will face a life of “poor me” poverty. If parents put up with lazy self-entitled kids then they better start remodeling the basement.
regards
But…but…but….ROBOTS!
I believe this essay would serve us all very well to be at the top of the front page of this blog for a long time; maybe permanently.
I agree.
Does anyone get the feeling that if our overlords decreed that everyone must have their thumbs amputated, Americans would agree that the law makes sense and must be obeyed?
Check your thumb privilege!
Brother I feel your pain when it comes to restroom technology .You wouldn’t believe the shit they put in the toilets to make our lives better and save themselves money until you have been a truck driver. Soon they’ll probably put in TVs .
I think they were both right. If the elites can’t make all of us zombies with more entertainment they will declare Martial law and enslave is the old fashion way. The elites are planning some evil , wicked shit for us. It’s in their Occult writings . The problem is most people won’t realize the trap until it is to late. We have begin to see the hate coming towards traditional Americans. Once they get their leftist lock on power through immigration of Third world bottom feeders then all hell is going to break loose. It reminds me of this Bible verse ” an hour is coming for everyone who kills you to think he is offering a service to God ” John 16:2. Let that sink in . These evil bastards just might be able to convince a large part of the population that killing us old white Traditional type Americans is good for the nation. I just hope and pray white people don’t let themselves be trick into giving up our 2nd amendment rights. That is probably going to be our last line of defense.
We took the rare journey from our log home in the Ozarks to see a friend in St. Louis. It is less than a two hour drive, if you know where you are going, and, of course, one always can have one’s device speak aloud the directions to where you are going. We usually do not do this, but did to find our old friend’s new home, recently purchased and renovated. It is a tasteful downsize, much like my oak log home was for us, but in her retirement, it is all she feels she needs. It is enough.
A nice little brick home in a nice suburb of a nicer area close to St. Louis. With a large thoroughfare about a hundred feet away, downhill. It was fairly quiet while we were there, but we left ahead of rush hour.
Thankfully, we were south of the city already, so had no problems getting down to Perryville and scooting out into the backroads where I feel a lot more comfortable.
I don’t like being around all that technology all the time any more, but I will tell you this honestly. I like having access to the things I like to use. I don’t mind heating the house with a wood stove, but I like having gas heat and electric fans to circulate that heat. I have a hand pump for the well, but hope like hell I never have to use one again. I like having a nice hot water tank ready to dispense water for my every whim. Even the inconvenience of having the pressure tank inside the barn, where it freezes and sometimes requires a heating blanket be placed around it as it is now. But, I am thankful for the ability to just turn on a heat strip and prevent the tank from freezing.
I grew up on a real farm with cows, a couple of pigs, chickens, turkeys, goats and one wood stove heating a farmhouse built in 1921, expanded in 1950. Many winters we would lose electricity for days and since we barely had heat, I have a good grasp on the difference in wearing layers of clothing to stay warm and wearing layers to get from the office to the car in the parking lot.
Now, that is NOT a poor me I am a victim tale. I considered myself quite lucky to grow up on an old-fashioned farm. I know how to do without.
However, I also really appreciate having access to the tools to which I’ve grown accustomed. Please do not take away my dishwasher.
I do not want some enemy to set off an EMP and force me to live like I lived in that treehouse when we first started hiring builders. I laughed about having to haul water up that ladder into that house until we had the well put in and brought a line almost a quarter mile to gravity feed a garden hose I could take up into that house with me.
Running water is the first priority.
My neighbor here (she is about seven miles away, but she’s my neighbor here) asked if I worried that the Horde from St. Louis might make their way to our area after TEOTWAWKI. I told her that the pack of lazy asses were not going to haul their butts down to these parts where living is a lot of work, even with technology. I can’t imagine living here without it… or backing up fifty years.
But, there is overkill in the world, with a mad dash toward automation of everything.
I hate those bathrooms. I am never quite sure where to wave or swipe my hand for soap or towels and now, for air to blow my hands dry. I did so much travelling I got in the habit of carrying a couple of paper towels into public restrooms on the road. Just in case.
I still carry them in a small plastic bag folded in my purse. It is just a good thing to have ready to use. Like a loaded Beretta. I do not always have that in my purse, but usually it is available, nearby.
I don’t carry a purse but I always have my own paper towel and wipes when travelling.
I was in a bathroom at a restaurant one time when a People of Walmart type walked out and headed for the door. She noticed I was looking at her (I heard what she did in that stall… she needed to wash her hands!) and said “Oh, I have my own sterile hand wipes at the table.”
She lied. I watched her return to her table and sit down and start eating.
Now, having shared that story about my adult attention to Germs on People (GOP) I wonder where I learned it. I would have scrubbed my own hands clean on leaves and grass and rinsed them in a nearby pond or ditch when I was a kid. Then I might have picked a few berries along the way and ate them.
And I NEVER got sick.
What taught me on the road to adulthood not only better personal hygiene, but also to watch and see if other people wash their hands?
Could it be Technology and Television? Could it be Satan? Or Seinfeld?
Thanks, platypus and other duck-billed monkeys for reminding me of a time when I didn’t worry about germs nonstop.
Good stuff from the village idiot. Common sense cutting through the BS.
I think it would be worse to have your hands flayed like Father Sandoz in
The Sparrow, but either way, you’d be dependent on others.
gruesome book that Sparrow…
Yes
Speak for yourself!
not my thumbs but definitely yours & everyone else’s–
It is truly amazing to see how prescient Orwell, Huxley, Ray Bradbury (Fahrenheit 451) and Neil Postman have been in their description of the contemporary, fucking-incredible, hi-tech God-damned, panopticon prison “we” (The Evil Fuckers and their minions) have almost completed building for ourselves and much of the world.
The combination of these dystopian visions is actually what is dawning, with the worst aspects of each of them being implemented synergistically or already in place.
You may have heard about a technological watershed event named “The Singularity” as Ray Kurzweil termed it. It is just over the horizon – this next decade coming up – and the implications of Artifical General Intelligence coupled with robotics frankly scares the daylights out of me.
Thank you for this critically important, approachable essay that distils a host of recent articles from here at TPB into a concentrated truth that is impossible to ignore.
Now raise your hand if you want that nice RFID chip in your hand or forehead. Plus you will get a month of Netflix free, or an Amazon.com gift card for $10 if you are among the first 100 volunteers.
We had a neighbour come around asking us to sign a petition to lobby for cell phone coverage. When I said no, she could not believe it. Many many of my neighbours say the same thing….No Cell Phones. I use a map and practice good old fashion ed trip panning and navigation.
I still don’t have a cell phone. I use a land line. I have a compact desk-top computer that I use for work, reading articles and YouTube watching. I have no other technology besides my fridge, stove, heat/air system and indoor plumbing. That’s all I need.
A sublime piece, Jim. Beyond excellent.
This site and others are definitely a process because I have also arrived at the same conclusions as yours above.
The other day on another blog, a 2010 article was reposted regarding the 1927 film “Metropolis” and why the elite love that film. In the article is cites a quote at the end of the film which spoke to the “head” (elites) and the “hands” (plebes) as follows:
“THE MEDIATOR BETWEEN HEAD AND HANDS MUST BE THE HEART”
The author of the piece identified the “heart” as media.
Just as your article claims above:
This line of thinking is what also caused me to comment last night on another thread:
And, this morning, I wrote about 25% of a forthcoming piece with a similar gist as your first class essay above – except – rather than George Orwell, Aldous Huxley and Neil Postman, I am going back to Edward Bernays and Marshall McLuhan with a Trumpian twist.
The title of my next piece will be: “The Most Interesting Man in the World, His Two Faces & the Same Coin”
It is my hope both new readers and regulars alike keep checking back here often in the year ahead. Cuz it’s about to get serious up in here.
Thanks again for the great piece, your eloquent perspective, honesty, and Brobdingnagian balls. You, and TBP, are inspirations
What if Trump versus Muleface, mass- shootings, Q-anon, border wall battle, Sessions, Spygate, Kavanaugh, FISA-abuse – all of it every last damn narrative – were ALL chapters of one gigantic psyop?
It’s ALL a psyop.
Partial list-
Earth is flat
There are no atomic bombs
We never wen to the moon
There are no satellites
ok BB
Thank you. I’ve been hoping you would give McLuhan a nod.
“I am going back to Edward Bernays and Marshall McLuhan with a Trumpian twist.”
Given a paucity of spare time this week, barring any unforeseen major news developments, and assuming the piece continues to come together adequately – I’m shooting for a Friday morning post. Could be sooner, but most likely Friday
May Odin send muses. Or beer.
Indeed, one of your best, and you have had many. There will be much to say about these things as they unfold further. And more importantly, there will be much to do. Indeed it is darkest before the dawn. And the dawn is fast approaching. There is a solution. There is a way out, and it does not involve violence unless there is attack. What an exciting time to be alive! God has put you here at this time for a reason. You will grow, you will be better for this. At least some will.
I have thought for quite some time we are immersed in Huxley and in the process of realizing Orwell. Those not caught in the Huxley net will be caught in the Orwell net. At least that is their plan.
“I think Portman was being somewhat naïve in thinking the dumbing down of society through technological means and government-controlled indoctrination public schools was an accident.”
Number ten of the Ten Planks of Communism:
10. Free education for all children in government schools. Abolition of children’s factory labor in its present form. Combination of education with industrial production, etc. etc.
http://laissez-fairerepublic.com/tenplanks.html
Published in 1848, the manifexto (sic/sarc) predates television by nearly a hundred years,and after the billions and billions and billions and billions that these United States have dumped into the black-hole that is the public education system . . . how can anyone truly believe that miseducation is anything BUT the goal? Just sayin’.
Brilliant article!
niebo,
there have obviously been communists who have worked themselves into positions of influence both in education & other areas but one of the primary reasons it is taking hold is the lack of social/economic mobility now present in america–
karl marx was asked about communism in america & he did not think it was necessary or that it would take root because of the economic mobility here in which people could relatively easily change their economic circumstances–
Brilliant Admin – I just wish there were people I could forward it to who would actually read it.
Bingo.
Admin,
Great article!
I think your assessment of where we are headed in the Huxley Orwell nightmare is spot on!
Truly terrifying the amount of power and knowledge technology and data mining tactics can provide to those capable of accessing the Cloud.
I think I’m gonna try and put something together about that Bernays quote from “Propaganda ” and what consists of this invisible government…
When I first came across this speech by Edward R. MURROW I was speechless.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=RHaV59RB8A8&time_continue=155
https://rtdna.org/content/edward_r_murrow_s_1958_wires_lights_in_a_box_speech
A very worthwhile listen, in my opinion. Murrow saw the potential of advertising executives to breed with political strategists, early. He was just a bit more optimistic about the ability of “news” to rise above “show business.”
Optimistic for sure, naive possibly , idealistic perhaps but spot on assessment. He had a way with words most certainly .
Truly entertaining speech.
After spending the last week running around the Sands in LV I gotta tell you that I am actually pretty grateful for bathroom implements that I don’t have to touch.
Above and beyond that, yeah, most of the shit we have is more of a distraction (and not the good kind) than a help.
the sands in lv,i thought you went hunting,not gambling in vegas?
Hunting season is over. It’s buying season now. As for gambling, I’m a winner every time I walk by the table. 🙂
“I am actually pretty grateful for bathroom implements that I don’t have to touch.” I second that
My mother has been gone 10 years. 5 or so years prior she started bringing a bottle of disinfectant to clean her hands before eating or for bathroom. All I could think of was that she had succumbed to the tele programing. My brother does it now, uses the bathroom and washes then opens the door with his elbow. I am living in crazy land. My ole Italian grandma was always concerned with germs…..illiterate……but agerma agerma agerms. I run into many germaphobes now. I keep thinkin about the end product, Howard Hughes.
I have been on the road for the past week. In most cases the automatic faucets did not work. Lowes recently went back to the old push faucets.
It freaks me out if I have to use the restroom in restaurant and the faucets do not work. Ewe..
Simple solution….just don’t lick ALL your fingers
For twenty years my husband and I made the journey from OKC to either Missouri and/or Ohio a couple times each year. We played a game called “Mom rates the pots” from our place to my parents home. I got to know which of these backwoods pit stops had decent restrooms and which ones would never get my business again.
When they finally invent Woody Allen’s orgasmatron, they’ll be set. Great article, Jim, I’ll post it.
I know smart people who will argue with me to the death that this is happening, right now, in the U.S.A. Dumbasses!
You write like Tyson used to box. It’s brutal and efficient and it always ends in a knockout.
My heart rate was spiking by the time I got to the end of it.
What a reed. I rarely make donations but after reading this piece I just might
Great article. Really hits home.
If you ever want to see the pinnacle of technological bullshit, try going camping sometime. What should be an experience with nature and to “get away”, ends up being trying to see who can cart along the most electrical “conveniences” with them so they don’t have to experience the solitude or be bored!
We got so sick of staying at typical campgrounds, with all the noise and huge behemoth rv’s with outdoor big screen tv’s and satellite dishes, that we now make it a point to camp in places that offer “dispersed” camping. No electricity and very few people. Makes it much more enjoyable.
Tell me about it. Last night, I built a fire in the fireplace, as my son and his girlfriend were with us for one last night before returning to college. They pulled out a laptop and put on some streaming show and never even looked at the fire. After 30 minutes of that, I went to bed.
Keep up the good work. I wish I had the funds to support you. Knowledge without wisdom is no better than ignorance.
I’m working in a shop, selling and installing home cinema tech. Most customers want it because they want it, and don’t buy it for the content. They ask how many loudspeakers they “need” (more than 10 for Atmos), and if they need 4k. Most are overwhelmed by the technology itself, before even starting watching the Hollywood stuff. When we make presentations, I recognize they are completely blind to the occult themes in the movies. As Germans, they are even blind to the Germans bashing in these movies. Owner got a satanic Last Supper painting in the shop, showing all the Hollywood guys with their weapons, people photograph it without even knowing it’s biblical.
wrong spelling. should be kardASSians. and all that bathroom tech is supposed to keep other people’s germs away from you as they dont touch and neither do you.
The PTWere make the machines to NOT work so that we are all standing there in dirty bathrooms with germs and no real good way to clean ourselves.
So I always take my homemade cleaning formula wipes in a zippy bag to help clean my hands. and to wipe off the door handles on the way out of the stall or the bathroom.
and to offer them to folks who look like they need a good cleaning wipe. most will take one…
I have downloaded several pieces over the years ( actually cut and paste to WORD and then printed the copies) including Uncola’s great piece—
This one will be added to my archive. Hopefully some future people, after the reset, will find these pieces and make a compilation for posterity.
This piece has already been added–superb writing and insight. Thanks Jim.
No one might do that.
How long before SCOTUS hears People vs Deep State wherein the battle over sole right of personal profile info , including accuracy in use, particularly as pertains to finance and employment is waged ?
Your digital identity has three layers, and you can only protect one of them
https://qz.com/1525661/your-digital-identity-has-three-layers-and-you-can-only-protect-one-of-them/
The third layer is composed of interpretations of the first and second. Your data are analyzed by various algorithms and compared with other users’ data for meaningful statistical correlations. This layer infers conclusions about not just what we do but who we are based on our behavior and metadata. It is much more difficult to control this layer, as although you can control the inputs (posting photos of your newborn), you don’t know the algorithm that is spitting the output (that you might need to order nappies).
The troubling thing is that we as users might not like or recognize ourselves in the profiles that are created for us. How would it feel if you discovered your “data double” is sick or emotionally unstable, not credit worthy, or not simply not cool enough, all because of the way you type, your search queries, or any “strange” relationships you may have?
We seem to be getting more of the authoritarian blend of corporations and government making for an Orwellian world as monetary policy from the fed has inflated us to the brink of financial annihilation. The rulers were always content to let us be crabs in a bucket pulling each other down, but you can be damned sure that they’re more than content putting a boot on your face if it looks like you might be close to climbing out of the bucket. Lots of us remember those golden days of the internet 10-12 years ago. I know that for me, there were just so many “a ha!” moments back then that each day seemed to bring me a better amount of knowledge and philosophy. I discovered people like Lew Rockwell, sites like mises.org, and the campaigns of Ron Paul. I got active trying to win delegates for the Paul campaign and got a very inside look at how the political sausage is made, but I also connected with people all over the world on platforms like Facebook where you used to be able to share ideas with equally-or-better informed lovers of liberty before your liberal, no-nothing Aunt or neighbor “friended” you on there and proceeded to show everyone how they deserved to butt in to your conversation, wear their ignorance like a badge of honor, and then insist that their “feelings” were not only valid, but more important than facts. Get off social media–that’s a change you can make today. It’s always been a Honeypot, but in 2019 it’s a soul-crushing diversion that kills normal, REAL relationships.
Great post Jim, spot on. A welcome addition to your previous themes. I’ll bet your recent banning had something to do with you selecting this topic… Chip
2019 Collapse Survey Politics & Economics Overview now UP on the Doomstead Diner! TBP now with 99 Respondents, Total of 636 Respondents from all websites. Survey is still OPEN if you haven’t registered your opinions yet on the Collapse of Industrial Civilization!
http://www.doomsteaddiner.net/blog/2019/01/27/2019-collapse-survey-the-500-politics-economics/
RE
Nice rant, but sadly makes the all too common mistake of confusing mediocrity for enemy action.
Yes, there definitely are forces pushing media consolidation: more media control equals more monopsony market power. Adhering to the elite (not government, exactly) lines does help this – but more on the deregulation and flattery front than conspiracy.
The true power of the internet isn’t Kardashian/cute kitten/social media style entertainment – it is the enablement of every sub-segment of society to create the content and marshal its own manpower to isolate itself.
The powers that be certainly would love the type of control posited by the conspiracy theorists, but the reality is much more like a 10,000 person serial chain of plastic cups and string passing messages back and forth than shadowy cabal.
And the 2 most effective messages are identitarianism on the left and libertarianism on the right. Both alienate large segments of the population into ever smaller and more isolated groups, in turn allowing the more organized and coherent segments (AIPAC is a great example) to be able to dominate the conversation.
The audience of burning platform is an excellent example: a group of 100 vocal people, perhaps a few thousand regular readers, but otherwise nothing more than an internet-enabled sewing circle of rabid libertarianism.
I can’t speak for anyone on TBP but myself. I believe the state should interfere minimally in the lives of individuals. That seems to be a problem for a lot of anti-liberty Brown Shirts.
I am pressed for time as I prepare to go do hurricane rehab on a family beach house hit by the outer bands and surge of H. Michael. So I write while I can before I use a hammer, shovel and broom to occupy my idle hands. My main duty will be clean up and cook. I have a 12 pound brisket to go low and slow for 12 hours or more while visiting the Forgotten Coast. Where only one traffic light disrupts traffic in the whole county.
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http://carrabelle.org/things-to-do/worlds-smallest-police-station/
A bit of thought on technology. I found tech better suited, not for eliminating personnel, rather a reason to add employees to actively deploy said tech to improve public health. Da public appreciated the superior tech I employed and the outcomes derived from it. With the benefit of better diagnosis came more clients and the need for more employees. I pegged my employee cost at 26% of collections. Anything that made them more productive, efficient and effective, increased my net, as a rule. If adding one employee allowed me to see three additional clients in a day, it was money in the bank. An easy ROI of 50% or so.
Take x-rays. I doubt many would see radiographic imaging as a vehicle to delete employees and would likewise not chose a provider who did not employ it. In the 60’s dentists used silver type film exposed with a projected dose of high frequency electromagnetic waves. Which in higher doses is not without negative sequelae. When digital radiographic imagine came on the market it was buggy and expensive. But it soon became much better at giving better images. Yes it does take an economy of scale to finance it.
And with the added benefit of less radiation needed to acquire an image. And the bulky chemicals, developing tanks, and automated machines to develop the film became unnecessary not to mention the person who has to do the actual processing. Instant images, better diagnostic quality, easy reproduction for referral, and storage for mandated record retention. It allowed employees do other things to be productive.
And to have a digital system for patient records and financial records did make a portal for government snooping. It was after 9 11 that to file insurance claims with the gov’t one had to use a certain computer language to file and collect. I had no illusions they would not snoop and use dental x ray images to identify individuals of suspicion and retain for future forensic use.
I set aside the inclination of abusive predilection for over utilization and monetary gain. That holds true for any tech and is a separate consequential issue.
And being involved with computers in dentistry since the 70’s the benefits greatly outweigh the decades of beta programs and dysfunctions. Scheduling, filing insurance, automated pay programs. Who remembers Pegboard accounting systems?
And thank Bob and God for the medical tech advances. Sure beats witch doctors, garlic and leeches. Give me arthroscopic surgery for my coronary artery stent and my abdominal aortic stent.
But/And what a keen post! A keeper from online to warn us about the nether regions of our future. Clear, concise and convincing.
And about that thumb loss deal down thread from here… My left thumb is now almost unusable as arthritis sets in on my snow skiing injury. It was horribly dislocated on a North Carolina ski resort in 1973. It opposes nothing more than a feather without painful reminder of the past abuses suffered.
Ah, 1973, road trip from Atlanta in my friend’s Wankel rotary powered Mazda with another son of a SAC pilot, both friends for life, during Christmas vaca. We drove north looking for better snow and ended up in Scranton PA visiting the parents of one of my crew’s gf. Pong was all the new fangled rage in the bar where green Rolling Rock beer bottles stacked up like bowling pins.
Tempus Fugit
and a tempest to fukus is coming from it and at the end of a pike. Prepare to parry.
I gotta tell ya Whosie Susie, you are an engaging writer, as skilled with the keyboard as you are with the dental terms and tools. My son’s one day wham bam 4 wisdom-teeth-removed for the price of two deal turned out to have been a successful and probably wise move. He was completely well and whine-free by the time he moved into his apartment and started his new career.
If I were more interested in dentistry as a metaphor for life, I would read more of your posts. However, I commend you for your efforts to contribute to a community in need of good dentists who can use a hammer AND a drill. Pun intended.
Back in da day before widespread usage of high speed drills it was customary procedure to use a hammer and sharp chisel to split/cleave molars in half, separating dilacerated (going in different directions) roots to allow easy removal. It seemed brutal when I first saw the technique but it was a trauma preventing and surgery facilitating technique when done with finesse. Good to hear of favorable results for your son.
Good God! Not in MY day. I cried like a baby when the dentist came in the room. Imagine if he had a hammer!
The ads that accompany this article are atrocious.
Stick around: Lewd and Lascivious are showing up soon.
Not as atrocious as some of the commentors; wink, wink.
I knew Lewd would show, but where is Lascivious?
If using android, download Brave,
Helps immensely
“Now that the Silicon Valley social media behemoth corporations have hundreds of millions addicted to amusing themselves to death.” ——– article
“A-muse” —- “a” is a negation, it means ‘not’. And “muse” means ‘to carefully think about’.
Amuse literally means “to not think”. And that has been the function of TV from its inception.
=================== =
Admin usually writes about economic issues. Today he wanders in another direction. And does a brilliant job. Does this man have no weaknesses??
He thought OWS was a world-changer. He is over-optimistic.
Long live OWS!!!!!!
Whatever she’s selling, I’m buying.
Tomorrow will be a very very bad day for Admin.
I have it on good authority that his employer will be installing yet another new gadget in his beloved restroom.
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funny stucky–
how are there only 2 upvotes for this?
Because it is a corded drill….not green and not saaaaaafe close to water
Greetings,
Before Orwell, Huxley, Postman & Bradbury there was Revelations in the Bible. The religious among us like to point out how accurate the predictions are but I see things in a different way. After all, were I a gambling man, I’d always put my money down on the notion that people will race one-another to enslave themselves and do so gleefully.
Same as it ever way.
thank you for another great read admin.
“I think Portman was being somewhat naïve …”
Postman, no?
Good catch. I made the change.
This video reminds me of what Admin discusses
I watched it. Very disturbing images in that little film. It kind of reminds me of the goat film a couple years ago.
I hope this one doesn’t trigger anyone like this one did…
NO one,
“In shadow”, to me, was the artists attempt to critique our current mass consumer technologically advanced CULTure…
Some disturbing images surely, but i particularly appreciated the scenes where people are wearing masks and how they attempt to fill up that hole in their hearts with everything except with the AGAPE love showed to us and given freely to us by our creator.
No One,
I watched the I goat II video.
A lot to unpack for me. Saw some bizarre imagery. Freud would have a field day with the numerous phallic symbols and suggestive landscape haha
Whizz … bang! Target destroyed. Devastating critique, Admin.
Technology that might be useful in its place and in a basic form proliferates like cancer cells replacing healthy ones. For Christmas my wife gave me an iPhone, my first-ever “smart” phone. She mentioned that the Apple store offers classes for new users to learn all the magic tricks it can perform. So here I am, of mature years, invited to take classes to learn how to use a telephone.
Very likely those classes are full. Who doesn’t want to get the most out of a handheld electronic major domo? But life has only so many minutes and hours, and the time spent learning and then using apps to control your air conditioning remotely and such can’t be used for reading, conversing, thinking. What once were conveniences are now brain-eating distractions.
AMEN how do you think worthless pieces of shit like Pelosi and the dumb bitch from new York continue to become powers in the Demoncrats party? Its all about media and their constant screaming ABOUT everything ANTI WHITE and Conservative.
Not all young people are brainwashed. We should be encouraged by Isaac Green who at age 22 gets it and sort of summarizes your essay in his 7 1/2 minute youtube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lO9I0oqBXIs
I have thought a great deal about the apparent paradox of “live for the moment” with the obvious truth embedded in the concept of “delayed gratification.”
NOW is the only time that really exists. It is the only time in which we can act, think or feel. It makes sense to “live for the moment” in this context, but without nuance, it leads down the horrific path of hedonism which will invariably ruin that series of new NOWs which comprise the future.
Also, If your particular now is pure shit, you cannot fix it now…you can only make it worse by any attempt to do so. You must imagine some future (a week, a month, five years) that could be made better by some small simple act now and then more and more in all the moments between now and then. In this manner, and only in this manner, can we both live in the NOW (when we do finally catch up to that dreamt-of moment) and for the future.
Life is very fucking complicated and every ostensibly simple wisdom full of nuance.
Interesting.
MC… take a look at the video platypus rex shared above. (not really being snarky, but that is what I think when I see the name) when you have a few minutes. Explain it to me. That is your assignment.
I just watched it the second time and noticed things not seen first time. Third time through to see the prestige.
I watched third time first thing this a.m. Got intrigued enough to find out the name of the Creator…
What’s in a name (word)? Everything (meaning).
Lubomir Arsov… I just might send him an invitation to the Burning Platform for a taste of 7-up, since I believe this video is an old, old story told in a new medium, which may have been the message all along.
Seriously, I really do want to know if he “means” the imagery and tone he projects or if he’s got a stash of mushroom spores he grows to make tea.
For several reasons, to me, his video has some really startling imagery. I tried to freeze an image I remembered from the first viewing, but the image is hard to conceive without context. It is the image of a skull split apart to reveal a the third eye, commonly referred to as the pineal gland.
That was two days ago. I was really surprised this “third” viewing to see a number of different images I’d not noticed the first couple of viewings, so focused I was on hidden meaning. Also,there are no spoken sounds, but it is a far cry from a silent movie. The audio is well thought out, as well. Between 10:50 and 10:52, the image is on the video for literally a split second, a powerful one for me.
Talk about a well-planted subliminal message in the mind’s eye about, well, the mind’s eye.
I’ll try to edit a jpeg of the screen shot into this, but it is almost time to out the chickens and feed goats and bunnies. My animals get food, water and shelter from this vicious cold. They have to figure out how to love themselves, as we all do.
NO one,
I have watched it countless times as well and it always offers something new after months of viewing and life happening to us.
I really enjoyed how it ended and think the gift of life creation between a man and woman cannot be over emphasized.
I hope you do reach out to the artist and he takes you up on the offer.
Well said.
I noted the same in 1985 when the hijacking of the entire Canadian marketplace and economy was complete.
It was not completed in the USA until the web actually, officially, launched in 1995.
Today, as yesterday and yesteryear, I use the web to collect knowledge/books of the natural world which will certainly survive our species if anything does. In addition to 20,000+ digital books I have 1,400 physical copies that pertain to botany and perma-culture as well as plant based medicine.
There is no other pursuit I know of which benefits so many for so little investment in time and attention.
Take note; or not!
Best Burning Platform article ever. Comment from a Baby Boomer, no less.
Breath-taking essay! The only truth you need to know is the difference between right and wrong. Everything will flow from that. Revealed definitions of morality must be down-played for the Orwell/Huxley axis to exist. To put it another way, the righteous would never allow this to happen. I will give Orwell extra credit for forecasting the solution. Very few have caught it. At the beginning of Winston’s interrogation, he is told that martyrs are not allowed, because they foster revolution and successful causes. Near the end, Winston passes up a chance to be a martyr. I find it profound that the Christian ethic also speaks of “dying to self”.
Its all so simple: dont blame technology, blame humans and their stupidity. U cant blame a rock thats put in ur way and makes u trip and fall down, blame instead ur carelesness, u could have watched ur way and avoid the accident. In the hands of good people, fire will be and useful; in the hands of idiots, it will destroy everything. The same goes for money, technology and many other things. Stop blaming objects, animals and notions for human stupidity!
Absolutely, like money, fire and government, technology is a wonderful servant and a dreadful master.
But how about this: Stop blaming, period. Fault/blame are very human concepts, powerful emotions and are perfectly within our “rights.” Who fucking cares? They are also ENTIRELY without utility. the problem is that fault/blame has been conflated through connotation with responsibility (like Carlin’s “who’s responsible for this” bit). But fault and responsibility are easy to separate. And what is the dividing line? Same as I posted above: NOW. Right fucking now.
Everything behind that line is fault and blame. Completely without utility. Everything from now on is in the purview of responsibility. Whose responsibility? EVERY SINGLE DAMNED ONE OF US.
The election of Trump is a symptom of a wasting disease of illiteracy. Dick Cheney said that people don’t read books in America. AMLO went to the heart of the matter in Sinaloa, telling folks that they have settled for mere material goods obtained without hard work. He is campaigning for a cultural upgrade, criticizing the base television programming as tv for morons. Nobody is admitting the same situation exists in the vaunted electronic altars of the USA.
Mexicans have heard for so long how backward and ignorant and stupid they are, that they have believed it and believe that the USA is so much better. Television has programmed them to believe that American goods must be obtained with American dollars so they can live a meaningful life of pretend luxury in the middle of misery that’s all around them. Damn, that makes me feel bad for billionaires.
Pity the beautiful woman who is surrounded everywhere by ugly people. – Old Pangloss
Terrific piece, Admin. It is a bit afield from your typical literary milieu and all the better for it…fresh and vital.
It is easy to fall into despair through reading/examining both of these incredible books, because they are remarkably prescient, and both have utterly hopeless endings. But liberty won’t die until the last human being does. It is, I believe, a foundational truth…it cannot therefore be beaten, oppressed, tyrannized or scandalized out of existence. Of course, the elite have immense power, but they must always lie, the truth is anathema to any sort of tyranny, so, despite the power they wield it is insignificant to the Truth, which bears the entire weight of reality behind it.
Technology is, of course, a two-edged sword. It does certainly allow for a “Surveillance State, more comprehensive than Orwell ever conceived,” but it also contains the virus (Truth and a medium for it) that is its own destruction. It’s right here, and on dozens of other blogs, podcasts, etc. The powerful, psychopathic, heartless tyrants have always been with us and it is true that they have exponentially more power than ever before. The dupes have always been with us and it is true that many are lost to the mindless addiction of the screens and the ubiquitous propaganda of our rulers. BUT, we (perhaps we are Samuel Adams “irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brushfires of freedom in the minds of men.) also have infinitely more ability to spread the infectious and deadly truth through the system than ever before.
I was late reading this article, and what a fine article it was.
It was also picked up by Lew Rockwell today.
Quite the masterpiece James!!
Orwell and his “what we hate will destroy us” mantra must have been much more appealing to the masses, even back in his time when people were more skeptical, because DOOM PORN sells!
Orwell’s writing revolves around externalized fears- “Oh no, the police state is coming to get us.” Even 50-80 years ago, I can see why people gravitated towards his writing and the externalized fear of the police state and the idea “They can come for you at any time.”
Huxley and his “what we love will destroy us” mantra is much less appealing (less fear provoking), especially to intellectually lazy folks, on several levels. It’s an internalized fear which would require the reader to question one’s self and potentially “point the finger” at one’s self for the love of comfort and “items we love.”
I feel Huxley was much more on target both THEN and NOW, and it’s no wonder Huxley’s writing got off to a slow start with Orwell’s externalized fear dominating the scene. Orwell may still be the dominant writer, but Huxley sure did close the gap in more modern times.
Excellent !
” appears to be a purposeful deliberate strategy implemented by the ruling class to dumb down the masses through the public education (indoctrination) system”
Charlotte Iserbyt-‘ is an American freelance writer who served as the Senior Policy Advisor in the Office of Educational Research and Improvement (OERI), U.S. Department of Education, during the first term of U.S. President Ronald Reagan ‘.
listen to what this old lady has to say, (her skull-and-bones diamond mine owning grandpa), “The Deliberate Dumbing Down of America”
annuit coeptis novus ordo seclorum- it’s the freemasons that are bringing the chaos !!
Excellent reference to Iserbyt!
I see the results of this Deliberate Dumbing Down everyday!
Looking at my 2nd graders common core math homework it’s easy to see it….instead of teaching them how to add by lining up numbers by place value columns and the co felt of “carrying” they are teaching them to use 10s disks and ones and convert the numbers to these representations than add them up!
What a waste of time!!! And frustrating as a parent. I am teaching him the carrying method anyways!
What a great essay! So much to think about. Have been going back and forth about writing an essay on what happened at a speech I attended about what is the the truth and where it lies.
Anyways I watched this video yesterday and after this thought it belonged here in this conversation. It is a bit long but there are many good ideas buried in it. It explains why the world has become so shallow and devoid of truth…
I always use the analogy of texting to describe how pathetic we’ve become. People will spend twice as much time texting someone back and forth when simply talking to them would achieve twice as much “real” communication in half the time.
Conversation used to be an art form. It’s now been reduced to banging two rocks together to get someone’s attention.
http://thefederalist.com/2019/01/10/screen-time-worse-kids-brains-thought/?utm_source=The+Federalist+List&utm_campaign=7780257a48-RSS_The_Federalist_Daily_Updates_w_Transom&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_cfcb868ceb-7780257a48-83825721