In his 1998 book The Common Good, Noam Chomsky describes the key role that managed disagreements play in modern politics…
"The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum — even encourage the more critical and dissident views. That gives people the sense that there’s free thinking going on, while all the time the presuppositions of the system are being reinforced by the limits put on the range of the debate…”
Chomsky should know, as he is part of that theatre.
Figured this out as a teen listening to cold war propaganda radio stations. The truth is kept way off stage.
Yes! 😆 It was even in the article: "This remains true despite the increasingly obvious fact that Chomsky himself is part of that function."
This is all very new to me, and I'm trying to figure it all out. I published a previous post Reality vs. Illusion. People have been Robbed of their Ability to “Decipher between Fact and Fiction” and have been ruminating on how this strategy works and how to decipher it. It's a bit of a labyrinth at times!
If you haven't read it, really worth reading Political Ponerology by Lobaczewski.
Since his death, his site and free pdfs have been scrubbed, so either give Amazon some money or remains free on z-lib.org. Even Wankipedia keeps rewriting their entry - and have already scrubbed the author. Soon, it will no longer exist - ergo it is the truth of how this psychopathic system works. Download and save.
I have written on this many times, tho prob as @rycharde. I think it is all deeply depressing, and at the species level. The human brain is just not designed to be a "truth seeker", it is just designed to avoid death - it is an expedient-engine. A world-view need not have any contacts with external reality, so long as it is not immediately self-harming (even then, suicide cults are a counter example). It just takes way too much energy to constantly monitor reality - very few people seem able to do that as their normality - very few, and not enough. Put another way, the belief-engine is more efficient than a truth-engine - it just happens to be wrong and dangerous.
I've come to this from a mixture of philosophy and physics, but there is research to back this up. Making decisions is energy-expensive, so best avoided - most decisions are "precog", meaning the person has not made a conscious rational decision, but the decision has been taken and the reasons are post hoc - or nothing more than rationalised excuses. Only when there is no obvious choice does consciousness seem to step in - and even then, it is better to fit in with one's existing paradigm than to really think clearly and deeply about a choice.
As said above, in really condensed form, the belief-engine is more energy efficient than the truth-engine, therefore it usually wins by default. I cannot shake the feeling that this is deeply pathetic and extinction-level or tyranny-inducing stupidity.
Perhaps because it is for the most part on auto-pilot. It reminds me of Bruce Lipton's work on the Biology of Belief. Control belief and you control perception, and hence action, reaction or inaction.
Maybe I should read that.
Not sure if "control" is the right word though - as in "to control belief" - it strikes me as easier to be in perpetual disbelief (the good scientist) than to feel as if one is in constant battle against encroaching fideism.
However, that chain from belief to perceptions to actions is true.
I would highly, highly recommend it! Bruce Lipton is a real pioneer; the kind that got kicked out of his field for asking too many uncomfortable questions, and worse, scientifically demonstrating new answer concerning cellular biology! I'll try to send you a copy here:
THE BIOLOGY OF BELIEF
If that doesn't work, maybe you can suggest an alternative way to send it to you.
That's a very fascinating insight! I'll have to reflect on that, thanks!
I listen to a program called Mind Matters every once in a while. It's a bit heady, so I only check in every now and then. Yesterday, I posted Race Marxism: The Truth About Critical Race Theory and Praxis as I am trying to get a grip on this WOKE madness, and they talked a little about ponerology. I also listened to this, by the same team, in which the book you mentioned was talked about:
I'll see if I can download the book and add it to the many others on my "to-read" list! 🤦♂️
Got tired after 10 mins - rarely watch videos, sometimes in background - can read a transcript in a 10th of the time.
Even after 10 mins, he misses the point - what has been going on is "agency-capture". This is how they get away with it, and few notice until it is too late. Every agency now does the opposite of what it was designed to do. The theatre of 911 created new agencies that were already captured.
When you pretend to protect people's health but are actually slowly killing them, that's a captured agency.
This also goes back centuries, as royalty has been replaced by merchants. The royal families that survive are beholden to merchants. Who still believes in divine kingship?
The Webster Tarpley book on 911 is very good - coz much of it is not about 911, was just marketing - as it's focus is Synthetic Terror. Much of the book is about discovering the synthetic nature of the Aldo Moro case - Tarpley was one of the journalistic investigators, so has insights in this, and his discovery that it wasn't the Brigate Rosse.
I was a kid living in Rome during some of the Anni di Piombo - kinda similar to current lockdowns, plus drive-by shootings and bombs. Synthetic commie/fascist gangland warfare.
Wow! I'd say you've seen your fair share of interesting moments in your life! Anni di Piombo... you're really starting to reveal your age with that one! 😂 I was born (1972) in Sicily during that era, but my mother and grandmother got us to the States by '76.
Never heard of Tarpley, but am surprised by the conclusion concerning Aldo Moro. Synthetic Terror? Adding that one to the list as well! 😂😉
I think is still tarpley.net - he has one free book - Against Oligarchy, which is also very good, about how Venetian banksters decamped to London ;-)
I'm quite the opposite; I'm an extremely slow reader and have always marveled at people who can read a book in a day, while I snail along at about 5 pages a day, on a good day. But "opposite" because since the internet has provided so much audio content over the years, I have had the fortune of discovering that I learn better by listening. I can spend hours with audiobooks, interviews and lectures, and absorb far more than what I get out of reading books. I do, however, love to read articles!
Well, the first 10 minutes were mostly spent talking about the cycle of Generations, which I am very familiar with the work of Howe and Strauss! What they said about Łobaczewski's work really fascinated me, especially how they wove it into the WOKE phenomenon and the generational theory.
I like these concepts that I am learning from you. I've been thinking a lot about the belief-engine / truth-engine thing. Now you hit me with agency-capture! Nice one! I can certainly think of many examples of this. Especially considering that most of the world's resources are controlled by about 5 investment firms, who then want control over how those resources are distributed, priced and utilized. Yes, the Merchants / Financiers have taken the Throne!
Do you have the rough time where they talk about Ponerology?
I've seen a few people claim they learn more through audio and/or video. I can sit through a lecture, I just find many vloggers don't bother to write a script - it's kinda rambling and I get bored going down their badly thought thoughts! lol. One doesn't have to read a script (although would then be great to post the transcript!) coz that can sound dull, but at least have some notes or flashcards. The best interviewers are prepared - not random ramblings. Anyway, will watch it again to see their thoughts, as very few ever bother quoting that book.
Another thing that made the first 10 minutes smell, was the feeling that these theories are somehow used to justify the tyranny - the "we've been through this before" naivety is IMO very dangerous. The witches were "innocent" after they drowned to death!
I think it may have been about mid-way; and the main presenter of the podcast, Harrison Koehli, is really big into ponerology, and talks about it often.
I actually didn't know this about myself. It just happened when YouTube starting having seminars and lectures posted. And when the P2P torrent phenomenon allowed me to download tons of pirated audiobooks and documentaries. Then online podcasting blew up, and I started listening to a lot of very articulate presenters, on a wide variety of topics. I have not stopped reading, but I eventually noticed that I retained more information from listening rather than reading.
I'm someone who does not prepare notes for my podcasts or public talks, but I do not like rambling. I make it a point to cut to the chase as quickly as I can, and then end it when I feel that I have covered the issue. I used to ramble a bit when I was broadcasting from community radio stations in Ireland, but that was because I had to complete the hour. Online is a different playing field, because I don't have to look at the clock. So sometimes it takes 10 minutes to cover a topic, and other times it may take 40 minutes. I have also learned to just stick to one subject per smartcast. I used to try to do 4 - 5 topics, but then found that it is far wiser to just roll out one issue, and cut it there. It makes things more comfortable for me and the audience, time wise; and retention of the information is greater when you only focus on one subject.
I don't think most people have been robbed of something they never had in the first place. Illusions, or delusions, are normal, what has manifested is the same global illusion, the lockstep, synchronised thinking, that has highlighted the lack of reality-checking in most minds. Oh, of course, they tell themselves it's true - nobody believes in false beliefs! They are always true!
Being a student of human nature, I take a slightly different approach in that I believe a large part of humanity is not designed to rebel, but rather to follow what the alpha leaders dictate. Others of us are designed to question authority, but find ourselves in constant confusion, or disgust, because we can't understand this seeming willingness to just fall into a sheep-like stupor. There are days when I am more optimistic, and others when I am clearly pessimistic, but I do believe that within humanity exists a force that will ultimately bring down the tyrants, only to eventually prop them back up again in an ongoing, perhaps endless, cycle of chaos and order.
All that is true, but still doesn't explain the why.
The cycles have been obvious because the tech has been obvious - someone shooting at you is obvious - someone swamping the atmosphere with pulsed microwaves is less obvious. The inhabitants of Brave New World do not see it as a technocratic prison - they are happy in a constant drug haze.
Where is the enemy? Is there even an enemy? Oh, yes, the dissidents are the enemy - the disobedient creators of dissonance. So say the hollow men.
That's what has driven me, and drives me, to continue studying human nature. I have a primary model for understanding human nature that I have been using for 22 years now, known as the Natural Life Energies by Gary Null, but after all of these years, I still have no answer as to who or what has made humanity the way it is. And the more I push forward, the more I find myself with more questions than answers; and I'm sure I'm not alone!