So good also to see you taking on the old knee-jerk (common to a shocking number of people, even supposedly thinking ones) that says being an individual is automatically the same as being egotistical and selfish, and being collectivist is automatically being a 'good citizen'. I too have taken this up before, and argued that making the effort to think for oneself is the best way there is to make a contribution to society, while the laziness of falling into collectivism, because the thinking is too much effort, is the real selfishness.
I think we've got a long battle with that one - the assumption, and the lack on critical thinking about it, seems incredibly deep-rooted. Stay on the case!
I don't know whether you might already have heard this talk recently given by Paul Kingsnorth in London, but it is a really wonderful contribution exposing the madness, and well worth spreading:
This is really informative. Great references on the 'new-think propagandists' who are driving their agenda with the usual disregard for the real questions and the usual lack of evidence for their claims (which seem to be driven by a mix of profit-motive and deep-rooted hatred of humanity).
It is so encouraging to see your well-researched work on the difficulties they are getting into, with brain waves that change after they've been mapped, lack of evidence for claims about 'mind reading', results only slightly better than random, etc.
You brought to mind something Michael Ventura said. It was part of wonderful rap between himself and James Hillman, published as 'We've had 100 Years of Psychotherapy and the World is Getting Worse', in 1993:
HILLMAN: "Whether it's DNA or a hormone, it's the angel, the ancient angel, the tiny little thing that can dance on the head of a pin".
VENTURA: "Yeah, yeah, DNA or the angels, there ain't no difference. Or maybe the difference is they think they can fuck around with the DNA. They'll splice this, combine that, they'll think they're controlling it. But all they'll do is take some angels of the pin - and expect them to behave and do as they're told. But angels don't do as they're told. They'll be as unpredictable as ever - it'll just be a new unpredictability. On the one hand I feel this paranoia of 'Oh my god, they're messing with the DNA , they're gonna ruin everything'. And on the other hand I feel, "OK fellas, you wanna break the windows of heaven, you wanna open the doors of night, you wanna invite the Gods in - let's party. You're not gonna change the basic situation: that life is unfathomable, unpredictable, uncontrollable. You're gonna get messed around, fucked around. It's gonna be with DNA [or brain chips!] the way it was with electricity or plutonium. There is no escaping the fundamental wildness of the universe'.See what a state I get into when I talk about love?"
Apr 29, 2023·edited Apr 29, 2023Liked by V. N. Alexander
Thank you. I am continuing to gather sources for an article regarding the impact of technology on education and this provides some additional excellent sources. Any societal/governmental movement toward control of the growth of the human mind has a lasting effect far beyond the individual.
So good also to see you taking on the old knee-jerk (common to a shocking number of people, even supposedly thinking ones) that says being an individual is automatically the same as being egotistical and selfish, and being collectivist is automatically being a 'good citizen'. I too have taken this up before, and argued that making the effort to think for oneself is the best way there is to make a contribution to society, while the laziness of falling into collectivism, because the thinking is too much effort, is the real selfishness.
I think we've got a long battle with that one - the assumption, and the lack on critical thinking about it, seems incredibly deep-rooted. Stay on the case!
In case it's of interest, I wrote about it here:
https://michaelwarden.substack.com/p/the-whole-and-the-part
I don't know whether you might already have heard this talk recently given by Paul Kingsnorth in London, but it is a really wonderful contribution exposing the madness, and well worth spreading:
https://paulkingsnorth.substack.com/p/intermission-digging-down
This is really informative. Great references on the 'new-think propagandists' who are driving their agenda with the usual disregard for the real questions and the usual lack of evidence for their claims (which seem to be driven by a mix of profit-motive and deep-rooted hatred of humanity).
It is so encouraging to see your well-researched work on the difficulties they are getting into, with brain waves that change after they've been mapped, lack of evidence for claims about 'mind reading', results only slightly better than random, etc.
You brought to mind something Michael Ventura said. It was part of wonderful rap between himself and James Hillman, published as 'We've had 100 Years of Psychotherapy and the World is Getting Worse', in 1993:
HILLMAN: "Whether it's DNA or a hormone, it's the angel, the ancient angel, the tiny little thing that can dance on the head of a pin".
VENTURA: "Yeah, yeah, DNA or the angels, there ain't no difference. Or maybe the difference is they think they can fuck around with the DNA. They'll splice this, combine that, they'll think they're controlling it. But all they'll do is take some angels of the pin - and expect them to behave and do as they're told. But angels don't do as they're told. They'll be as unpredictable as ever - it'll just be a new unpredictability. On the one hand I feel this paranoia of 'Oh my god, they're messing with the DNA , they're gonna ruin everything'. And on the other hand I feel, "OK fellas, you wanna break the windows of heaven, you wanna open the doors of night, you wanna invite the Gods in - let's party. You're not gonna change the basic situation: that life is unfathomable, unpredictable, uncontrollable. You're gonna get messed around, fucked around. It's gonna be with DNA [or brain chips!] the way it was with electricity or plutonium. There is no escaping the fundamental wildness of the universe'.See what a state I get into when I talk about love?"
Thank you. I am continuing to gather sources for an article regarding the impact of technology on education and this provides some additional excellent sources. Any societal/governmental movement toward control of the growth of the human mind has a lasting effect far beyond the individual.