Well done, great article. Thank you. Whenever someone uses the term ‘conspiracy’ I immediately turn off. It usually indicates the user has not looked into opposing information and doesn’t fully understand the subject at hand. Attacking another for their views in such a personal and cavalier manner is a way to skirt around this ignorance. They are actually embarrassing themselves but either don’t know or don’t care. Keep up the good work!
You're spot on. The use of thought-terminating cliches like "conspiracy" and "conspiracy theorist" is a strong indicator that a person has not investigated a topic and hence does not understand it. The discourse of politicians, media figures and even academics is littered with thought-terminating cliches like "conspiracy theory", "antivaxxer", "climate denier", "far-right", "white supremacist" and so on. And as Orwell saw so clearly, if you control and limit speech, you control and limit thought. Thus you see the infiltration of thought-terminating cliches into the speech of regular people and with it, the compression of the range of topics that they'll allow themselves to think seriously about.
Given that my work revolves around a documentary I wrote and produced that opens with "The great enemy of clear language is insincerity.” — George Orwell: There is no measure for how ludicrous your myopic reply to my comment's relevance is (in light of your empty commentary below) . . .
"Thus you see the infiltration of thought-terminating cliches into the speech of regular people and with it, the compression of the range of topics that they'll allow themselves to think seriously about."
Without an inkling of intellectual curiosity or modicum of courtesy, you shut down the possibility of discussion on something because you didn't INSTANTLY understand its relevance. And yet you have the nerve to sit here acting like you're a bastion of virtue when it comes to the "compression of the range of topics that they'll allow themselves to think seriously about." Utterly ridiculous! Which is why I wrote this piece about people just like you . . .
Substack Is a Scam in the Same Way That All Media Is” — a.k.a. The Substack Sector
As stated in that piece: In your rush for #winning:
At no point does anyone even bother to ask, “Is any of this working?” (as in making a measurable impact on the atmosphere of America). Anyone who dares to ask such questions — will be met with apathy, contempt, or the kind of half-ass effort that prompted this post. I borrowed the title from an article offering some great points I hadn’t thought of in my original version called The Substack Sector: Where I argue that the “scam” element goes well beyond monetary motives. The far more dangerous and destructive scam is how it’s yet another tool for deceiving yourselves.
If you want to have your work taken seriously, it's up to you, when making comments on other people's posts, to explain how that work is relevant. If you simply post rants such as "Dear Mr. Musk: I wouldn't care if you built the Starship Enterprise by yourself — it wouldn't change the slop in your support, your program, and your words" on a post that did not even mention Musk, and then include a link to one of your own posts, I am naturally going to assume that you are engaging in shameless self-promotion rather than making a good-faith effort to contribute to the discussion.
If you had any idea what it was like taking on the entire country by yourself -- you'd know how absurd your assertion about "self-promotion" is. I don't give a f#ck about followers. I don't even read replies to my posts on Twitter--and thanks to you reminding me of how this sh*thole is the same as that one, I'm not gonna read replies here anymore either.
I'm looking for a certain caliber of thinker who looks beyond what they don't instantly see. The curious who see something unique and look around to discover what more they can find. The kind who don't sling assumptions about "self-promotion" simply because of appearances.
If you had a million followers eating up your writing every day -- it's going nowhere (as in actually solving some problems). Same goes for everyone else. Except me -- as I just need one person! The right one!
How many "self-promoters" do you think would have "I'm not looking for followers, I'm looking for leaders" as their X bio? Did it even cross your mind to wonder why I don't read replies? Because they didn't follow my contact instructions (which means they're not qualified for what I have in mind). Same reason you were a waste of time (as with 99.99% of the people on here and everywhere else).
I'll let you get back to "contributing to the discussion" (which amounts to nothing but entertainment). Alas, no one seems to know the difference anymore (if they ever knew at all).
"Indeed, nowadays, we tend to take in and repeat whatever the values and beliefs of those around us have rather than forming our own independent thought and stopping to organize and evaluate the information we are receiving."
— Ann Baker, Critical Thinking: A fading skill in the age of information overload
Perfectly put — except for the “fading” part. In our Age of Unenlightenment — “fading” is an understatement for the ages. What does it say to you that across communities where claims of critical thinking are everywhere — I haven’t found it anywhere?
And what part of "Right-o then" qualifies as "stopping to organize and evaluate the information we are receiving"? Everything you assumed about me is wrong, and a critical thinker would know that by now (and should have known it from the start).
Why did you even bother to respond in the first place? Why not just ignore it entirely if you're not interested? The answer is because you wanted to respond -- and entire industries are engineering that "need." I can see you've got some good stuff to say (and it seems you know more about theories around critical thinking than I do). The problem is that it's all conventional thinking (as with everyone else trying to plow through problems when you should be going around them).
It's one thing that you don't have any ideas on how to do that (or have ever given it a thought, for that matter). It's something else entirely when you blow off someone who does. Why do I only need one person to turn the tide when no one else could do with it even with millions? In what parallel universe does a critical thinker not wanna know the answer to that question?
Had people listened to me a long time ago, that abomination of a human being would never have become president in 2016 (or ever). And since everyone continued to ignore me -- I say you got what you deserved. Trump is a symptom of the cancer that America has become -- and "Right-o then" is part of that cancer.
"Dr. Berns’s career, “reflects the classical view that democracy depends on the character of the citizens, so their opinions and beliefs, their personal habits and degree of self-discipline — in a word, their virtues — will matter to the prospects of democratic government.”
Dr. Berns argued against unbounded individual rights and for restrictions on pornography, which he believed eroded self-restraint.
“Those who are without shame,” he remarked, “will be unruly and unrulable; having lost the ability to restrain themselves by obeying the rules they collectively give themselves, they will have to be ruled by others.”"
FF - Would almost make one think western culture has been intentionally been debased for ulterior motives.
I'm also inspired to share this pre-WWII piece as it relates to today's "Science." A fascinating read...that will make you think of a lot of parallels to our world today.
Science in the Totalitarian State
Foreign Affairs, January, 1941 (the magazine of the Council on Foreign Relations)
"Democracy depends on the character of the citizens, so their opinions and beliefs, their personal habits and degree of self-discipline — in a word, their virtues — will matter to the prospects of democratic government." Whew. Take a few deep breaths and contemplate that, folks, in the light of our current predicament. It reminds me of the words John Adams wrote to the Massachusetts Militia: "Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious People. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other." (https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/99-02-02-3102). I'm with you on the intentional debasement of Western culture BTW; plenty of books have been written on the role that the likes of the Tavistock Institute and the CIA played in fomenting the 1960s sex, drugs and rock'n'roll culture, modern 'art', pornography and the normalisation of bizarre sexual kinks via the Kinsey Report, just for starters.
That's a fascinating piece from Foreign Affairs. Here's what I think is the most depressing sentence in the entire article: "In considering the relation of science to the dictators we must bear in mind that the human mind is intrinsically no better than it was 10,000 years ago. It simply has acquired new interests under social tension."
So much from that Foriegn Affairs piece, I'm glad you took time to take it in. Is a dry read, but so full of what we see around us today. These slogans from our time fit right in with the author's portrayal of science under Stalin, Hitler and Mussolini that follows:
"In this house we believe science is real"
"Follow the science."
"Trust the experts"
"Don't do your own research"
"The climate debate is over, case closed"
"The totalitarian conception of the relation of science to the state is remarkably elastic. When political expediency so determines, the whole concept is modified."
...
"Yet if the dictators are to be overthrown, if democracy is to be preserved, the part that science and technology played in the rise of democracy cannot be ignored. Research produces not only change within science itself but social change. The democratic method is to adapt social change to technological change. The dictators are trying to do the contrary."
...
"new social forms must be devised if we are to forestall the economic crises that are brought about by what is called the "impact of science" on society. Communism and Fascism are social inventions, intended among other things to solve the economic problems created by technological change under the influence of capitalism."
...
"The totalitarians say that a capitalistic democratic government cannot control the experts, the inventors, the creators of this evolving mechanical culture. They therefore have decided to take control of thinking, above all scientific thinking, out of which flow the manufacturing processes and the machines which change life."
...
"An essential to this progress has been that the scientist has not demanded that his theory be considered "true." He does not profess to know what the truth is. A theory must work. It is an expedient. When it ceases to work it is thrown overboard or modified. This method of merciless self-examination cannot be followed in a society where the result of each investigation is predetermined for extraneous reasons. Democracy flounders before it arrives at satisfactory solutions of its social problems. But it is better to flounder and progress than to follow the philosophy of a dictator and to remain socially and scientifically static."
FF - Freedom is always discounted, viewed as trivial to those in power, discarded as inefficient and unnecessary, even more cruel to let the masses destroy themselves without proper stewardship by their betters.
A short news snippet from the archive vault speaks to that:
‘Damned Efficient Slavery’ vs. ‘Inefficient Freedom’
That article on Aztec human sacrifice is a rough read. I have heard some scholars claim that the genocidal behaviour of the Conquistadors was motivated by their horror and disgust at this element of Aztec culture; they believed God had tasked them with eradicating the perpetrators of these heinous acts from the earth. Of course, this is countered by the response that their cultures had killed off large numbers of people in the witch trials. I'm not going to defend the latter, but I guess the difference is that people burned as witches were accused of serious wrongdoing, whereas the Aztecs sacrificed completely innocent children, and adults who hadn't been accused of any kind of crime or sin.
With the common thread between both killoffs being the same human mind was taught to believe what was being done to other humans was normal, customary and necessary for the common good. Same as happened in Nazi Germany. Same as happened in 2020. Without precedence, nothing government said to do had ever been done in the entire history of man, all prior knowledge and ethos that contradicted completely discarded and cruelty exacted on fellow man. Because the same human brain that's existed for 10,000 years was similarly instructed it all was necessary for the common good.
I admit that I fell for the Bush administration that "played on our fears" as it launched wars of aggression in the Middle East while they stole our constitutional rights and freedoms passing the Patriot Act...that targets Patriots today. Fear that medical tyranny has played on to steal even more of our constitutional rights and freedoms. Had my "Team" called out the Bush administration at the time we'd never be in this predicament:
And I now admit that Obama was right when he forewarned us about the Citizens United SCOTUS decision in his 2010 State of the Union address. Many on my "Team" believed corporations were the good guys, conservative, united to oppose Marxist authoritarian D's Big Labor. Never imagining corporations were actually useful for both Fascist authoritarian R's and Marxist authoritarian D's. Big mistake. Obama's 2010 SOTU speech gave a preview of the 2020 (and since) election process in our nation:
Foes told truths. Friends told lies. Moral of the story is Rene Descartes' Age of Enlightenment advice: Question everything.
Even friends. Especially friends. Always.
We must think. Do the hard work of thinking for ourselves, never "trusting experts," nor trusting our "team" or reflexively distrusting "theirs." Being free is hard mental work for many. Which is why slavery and submission to authority has characterized most of human history. Freedom is always just one generation from disappearing from the human experience. And ever-so hard to reclaim once it is lost.
How much we value it as a society is the eternal question. Many in power don't think we value it enough to keep it. Many of us do our best to prove them wrong. By thinking. And questioning everything.
I've changed my thinking about so many politicians and the policies they implemented. In every case, my former view arose from limited understanding of the issue. I've reached the conclusion that there's a limited number of things that I can know with absolute certainty, and the remainder have to be held lightly rather than clung to tightly, so that I can consider new information as I become aware of it. And that does require hard mental work, as you wrote, which is why the majority of people shy away from it. How do we solve this problem? Obviously, we need to rethink the apparatus of state control that is laughably dubbed the 'education system', for starters. That, of course, requires major cultural change as parents and teachers who were (mis)educated under the old system, need to learn how to learn so they can facilitate children's learning. I may be oversimplifying this, but I can't help but think that children whose natural curiosity about the world is facilitated with freedom-oriented methods of instruction (or perhaps more to the point, self-directed learning) cannot help but grow up to be adults who instinctively resist the yoke of tyrants.
Go back to your memories of grade school, sitting in the classroom. Remember the kid in the class that always asked questions? Rest of the class trying to make the time pass faster, no questions to slow up the day. That one or two kids who always raised their hands usually provoked the ire of their classmates. Especially if it was just before the bell rang for the next class. That friend we wanted to meet in the hallway between classes might be late for. "Quit asking questions." Or the know-it-all who would actually correct the teacher if there was a wrong answer on the board. "Jerk, nobody cares." Not a search for knowledge. "Just shut up and we'll all get through this more quickly and then get back to doing what we really want to do, play, meet friends."
Reflecting on my student life, most of the time I was like the kid who just wanted the day to go faster, no questions. But sometimes I was the kid who asked questions, or if I spotted what I thought was the wrong answer by the teacher on the board I wanted to know why it was so, what I may have missed. And earned the ire of my classmates. Been on both sides.
It's just so easy to keep going back to what we watched happen around us in 2020 to see the same dynamic played out in the world around us as what played out in the classroom. "Just shut up, do what you're told and we'll all get through this more quickly and then be able to get back to doing what we really want to do, play, meet friends."
Grade school is a perfect predictor for how freedom instincts are being engineered out the population. Hard learning isn't the goal. Easy obedience is. The premeditated, well-considered education system design isn't for children to grow up to be adults who resist the yoke of tyrants. Freedom is too inefficient.
"Freedom is too inefficient" - for tyrants. And yet it produces the greatest flowering of art, culture, science and technology. Without freedom, there can be no real human flourishing. Does the predator class know this? Or are they so arrogant that they believe they have already reached the zenith of human development?
Yep. Which that pre-WWII 1941 Foregn Affairs Science in Totalitarian piece said. And the Cold War 1958 Damned Efficient Slavery piece lamented.
The predator class surely knows this - they were features of both pieces. CFR is the predator class, they used that knowledge to distinguish between US ideas of freedom as virtuous and Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin ideas as dystopian. The AP piece quoting the predator class - that had just defeated Hitler and Mussolini and was opposing the USSR - desirous of efficient slavery...that damned VP Nixon obstructing their goal with all his freedom talk. They believe they have reached the zenith of *their* human development. Their arrogance. They know human development will surpass their own personal zenith of power. And fear us. So they seek to enslave us and secure their status before we overtake them.
Thank you so much for this Robyn. I'm continually in awe of the amount of effort and rigorous analysis/referencing you put into everything you do and this is spot on. I knew you before the Covid19 scam and you're one of the few people I know (from that time), who came through that extraordinary debacle with their critical reasoning skills intact (hubby did too, evidence of my innate good taste all those years ago). Those lobbing insults would greatly benefit from your wise and informed words, though I doubt they're open to them right now. From the very first day of the Covid19 scam, I watched on with increasing horror and utter disbelief. I didn't buy any of it for a second. I was then amazed to see everyone around me, even those I'd know for years, falling into line without question. What was I? Some creature from another Planet? After that, I did another double take when the very first rebels were from the RIGHT! Adam Creighton and Peter Hitchens come to mind, both sharp, informed and articulate. Where was my tribe, the Left? Seemed like they'd had a collective lobotomy. However, parts of the Right (which had earned a new degree of respect from me), now insist on telling me Trump (or Christ), is our saviour, the Earth is only 6,000 years old (and/or flat) and what's happening in Palestine isn't a genocidal crime against humanity. I also don't buy some of the more extreme theories, mainly because I think the parasite class are bumbling humans like the rest of us, divided by jealousies/rivalries, who would struggle to organise the proverbial p*ss up up in a brewery (a terminal failure of any bureaucracy). Though I'm sure they aspire to total control of every corner of our lives, it ain't ever happening because the Universe (and the beautiful chaos it contains), is not amenable to their hubris.
Thank you so much for your kind words. I know that both you and your darling hubby paid the price for sticking to your gums, and your respective professions are the poorer for having lost you.
Just like you, I was taken aback by the complicity of the 'left' with the entire convid scam. Where was the pro-free-speech, anti-censorship, anti-authoritarian Left of my youth? They were wearing face-nappies, shunning the unjabbed and cheering on like depraved spectators at a bear-baiting match as the police violently attacked peaceful protesters!!! WTF????
I too remember reading Adam Creighton's and Peter Hitchens' columns and feeling both vindicated and bemused. 'Right wingers' were talking sense, while lefties, vegans and permaculturists were all obeying government edicts and lining up for experimental shots from serially criminal corporations. 🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯
But then the Ukraine operation began, and a chunk of the 'medical freedom movement' bought into the Putin-is-literally Hitler BS. And then came October 7, and another chunk peeled off and began labelling concern for civilian casualties as antisemitism. And then the US election soap opera, in which if you don't buy into the Trump is Orange Jesus narrative, you're no longer welcome in the MFM inner circle.
So I've decided I just don't fit into any 'tribe', unless it's the Tribe of Misfits 🤣. I'd invite you to join me, except that I guess it doesn't really lend itself to joining!
This is a superb article, linking to some interesting books as well. I agreed with every single word. It was beautifully written and argued. Will be saving this one
Thank you for your kind words. I'm so grateful for the Internet Archive, which is our digital Library of Alexandria. There's such a wealth of knowledge that is at our fingertips... yet most people's online time is spent mostly on porn, cat videos, and the ramblings of celebritards 🤣.
Dear Mr. Musk: I wouldn't care if you built the Starship Enterprise by yourself — it wouldn't change the slop in your support, your program, and your words. Not to mention how this sh*thole is evolving in reverse — as the behavior on here is an embarrassment to the entire history of human achievement. Left & Right!
I’ve always hated Twitter and every long-form version of it (Reddit, Substack, and anything and everything claiming to be something it’s not). When I’m done doing what I gotta do — I’m never goin’ back. Until then, I’m sending out a certain set of messages looking for intelligent life (fiercely independent thinkers who want to solve problems — not endlessly talk about them).
Think of my signals as a poor man’s SETI: I’ve got an idea — and it’s got teeth. There’s a way we can harness folly from the past for the benefit of the future. a.k.a. learning!
"You've Proven You're a Human"—Now You Are Free to Act Like an Animal:
Dear Mr. Musk: I wouldn't care if you built the Starship Enterprise by yourself — it wouldn't change the slop in your support, your program, and your words. Not to mention how this sh*thole is evolving in reverse — as the behavior on here is an embarrassment to the entire history of human achievement. Left & Right
Well done, great article. Thank you. Whenever someone uses the term ‘conspiracy’ I immediately turn off. It usually indicates the user has not looked into opposing information and doesn’t fully understand the subject at hand. Attacking another for their views in such a personal and cavalier manner is a way to skirt around this ignorance. They are actually embarrassing themselves but either don’t know or don’t care. Keep up the good work!
You're spot on. The use of thought-terminating cliches like "conspiracy" and "conspiracy theorist" is a strong indicator that a person has not investigated a topic and hence does not understand it. The discourse of politicians, media figures and even academics is littered with thought-terminating cliches like "conspiracy theory", "antivaxxer", "climate denier", "far-right", "white supremacist" and so on. And as Orwell saw so clearly, if you control and limit speech, you control and limit thought. Thus you see the infiltration of thought-terminating cliches into the speech of regular people and with it, the compression of the range of topics that they'll allow themselves to think seriously about.
Given that my work revolves around a documentary I wrote and produced that opens with "The great enemy of clear language is insincerity.” — George Orwell: There is no measure for how ludicrous your myopic reply to my comment's relevance is (in light of your empty commentary below) . . .
"Thus you see the infiltration of thought-terminating cliches into the speech of regular people and with it, the compression of the range of topics that they'll allow themselves to think seriously about."
Without an inkling of intellectual curiosity or modicum of courtesy, you shut down the possibility of discussion on something because you didn't INSTANTLY understand its relevance. And yet you have the nerve to sit here acting like you're a bastion of virtue when it comes to the "compression of the range of topics that they'll allow themselves to think seriously about." Utterly ridiculous! Which is why I wrote this piece about people just like you . . .
Substack Is a Scam in the Same Way That All Media Is” — a.k.a. The Substack Sector
https://centurionoftheseed.substack.com/p/substack-is-a-scam-in-the-same-way
As stated in that piece: In your rush for #winning:
At no point does anyone even bother to ask, “Is any of this working?” (as in making a measurable impact on the atmosphere of America). Anyone who dares to ask such questions — will be met with apathy, contempt, or the kind of half-ass effort that prompted this post. I borrowed the title from an article offering some great points I hadn’t thought of in my original version called The Substack Sector: Where I argue that the “scam” element goes well beyond monetary motives. The far more dangerous and destructive scam is how it’s yet another tool for deceiving yourselves.
It’s not the tool’s fault — it’s yours!
If you want to have your work taken seriously, it's up to you, when making comments on other people's posts, to explain how that work is relevant. If you simply post rants such as "Dear Mr. Musk: I wouldn't care if you built the Starship Enterprise by yourself — it wouldn't change the slop in your support, your program, and your words" on a post that did not even mention Musk, and then include a link to one of your own posts, I am naturally going to assume that you are engaging in shameless self-promotion rather than making a good-faith effort to contribute to the discussion.
If you had any idea what it was like taking on the entire country by yourself -- you'd know how absurd your assertion about "self-promotion" is. I don't give a f#ck about followers. I don't even read replies to my posts on Twitter--and thanks to you reminding me of how this sh*thole is the same as that one, I'm not gonna read replies here anymore either.
I'm looking for a certain caliber of thinker who looks beyond what they don't instantly see. The curious who see something unique and look around to discover what more they can find. The kind who don't sling assumptions about "self-promotion" simply because of appearances.
If you had a million followers eating up your writing every day -- it's going nowhere (as in actually solving some problems). Same goes for everyone else. Except me -- as I just need one person! The right one!
How many "self-promoters" do you think would have "I'm not looking for followers, I'm looking for leaders" as their X bio? Did it even cross your mind to wonder why I don't read replies? Because they didn't follow my contact instructions (which means they're not qualified for what I have in mind). Same reason you were a waste of time (as with 99.99% of the people on here and everywhere else).
I'll let you get back to "contributing to the discussion" (which amounts to nothing but entertainment). Alas, no one seems to know the difference anymore (if they ever knew at all).
Right-o then.
"Indeed, nowadays, we tend to take in and repeat whatever the values and beliefs of those around us have rather than forming our own independent thought and stopping to organize and evaluate the information we are receiving."
— Ann Baker, Critical Thinking: A fading skill in the age of information overload
Perfectly put — except for the “fading” part. In our Age of Unenlightenment — “fading” is an understatement for the ages. What does it say to you that across communities where claims of critical thinking are everywhere — I haven’t found it anywhere?
And what part of "Right-o then" qualifies as "stopping to organize and evaluate the information we are receiving"? Everything you assumed about me is wrong, and a critical thinker would know that by now (and should have known it from the start).
Why did you even bother to respond in the first place? Why not just ignore it entirely if you're not interested? The answer is because you wanted to respond -- and entire industries are engineering that "need." I can see you've got some good stuff to say (and it seems you know more about theories around critical thinking than I do). The problem is that it's all conventional thinking (as with everyone else trying to plow through problems when you should be going around them).
It's one thing that you don't have any ideas on how to do that (or have ever given it a thought, for that matter). It's something else entirely when you blow off someone who does. Why do I only need one person to turn the tide when no one else could do with it even with millions? In what parallel universe does a critical thinker not wanna know the answer to that question?
Had people listened to me a long time ago, that abomination of a human being would never have become president in 2016 (or ever). And since everyone continued to ignore me -- I say you got what you deserved. Trump is a symptom of the cancer that America has become -- and "Right-o then" is part of that cancer.
Good luck to you!
Much appreciate the kind words from a writer I respect and look forward to your Stacks!
Just to follow up on who Walter Berns was, here's his obituary with an interesting excerpt:
Walter Berns, political scientist and philosopher, dies at 95
Washington Post, January 14, 2015
https://archive.ph/5lgZM#selection-395.0-1371.206
"Dr. Berns’s career, “reflects the classical view that democracy depends on the character of the citizens, so their opinions and beliefs, their personal habits and degree of self-discipline — in a word, their virtues — will matter to the prospects of democratic government.”
Dr. Berns argued against unbounded individual rights and for restrictions on pornography, which he believed eroded self-restraint.
“Those who are without shame,” he remarked, “will be unruly and unrulable; having lost the ability to restrain themselves by obeying the rules they collectively give themselves, they will have to be ruled by others.”"
FF - Would almost make one think western culture has been intentionally been debased for ulterior motives.
I'm also inspired to share this pre-WWII piece as it relates to today's "Science." A fascinating read...that will make you think of a lot of parallels to our world today.
Science in the Totalitarian State
Foreign Affairs, January, 1941 (the magazine of the Council on Foreign Relations)
https://web.archive.org/web/20181125112623/https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/1941-01-01/science-totalitarian-state
"Democracy depends on the character of the citizens, so their opinions and beliefs, their personal habits and degree of self-discipline — in a word, their virtues — will matter to the prospects of democratic government." Whew. Take a few deep breaths and contemplate that, folks, in the light of our current predicament. It reminds me of the words John Adams wrote to the Massachusetts Militia: "Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious People. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other." (https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/99-02-02-3102). I'm with you on the intentional debasement of Western culture BTW; plenty of books have been written on the role that the likes of the Tavistock Institute and the CIA played in fomenting the 1960s sex, drugs and rock'n'roll culture, modern 'art', pornography and the normalisation of bizarre sexual kinks via the Kinsey Report, just for starters.
That's a fascinating piece from Foreign Affairs. Here's what I think is the most depressing sentence in the entire article: "In considering the relation of science to the dictators we must bear in mind that the human mind is intrinsically no better than it was 10,000 years ago. It simply has acquired new interests under social tension."
Same. Mind. Was taught to believe this was normal, customary and necessary, for the common good. Same. Exact. Mind. No better today:
Brutal Aztec Human Sacrifices Were Believed to Serve the Aztec People for This Unbelievable Reason
History Collection, January 28, 2018
https://cdn.historycollection.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/aztec-human-sacrifice-codex-photo-researchers-1.jpg
https://historycollection.com/brutal-aztec-human-sacrifices-believed-serve-aztec-people-unbelievable-reason/2/
So much from that Foriegn Affairs piece, I'm glad you took time to take it in. Is a dry read, but so full of what we see around us today. These slogans from our time fit right in with the author's portrayal of science under Stalin, Hitler and Mussolini that follows:
"In this house we believe science is real"
"Follow the science."
"Trust the experts"
"Don't do your own research"
"The climate debate is over, case closed"
"The totalitarian conception of the relation of science to the state is remarkably elastic. When political expediency so determines, the whole concept is modified."
...
"Yet if the dictators are to be overthrown, if democracy is to be preserved, the part that science and technology played in the rise of democracy cannot be ignored. Research produces not only change within science itself but social change. The democratic method is to adapt social change to technological change. The dictators are trying to do the contrary."
...
"new social forms must be devised if we are to forestall the economic crises that are brought about by what is called the "impact of science" on society. Communism and Fascism are social inventions, intended among other things to solve the economic problems created by technological change under the influence of capitalism."
...
"The totalitarians say that a capitalistic democratic government cannot control the experts, the inventors, the creators of this evolving mechanical culture. They therefore have decided to take control of thinking, above all scientific thinking, out of which flow the manufacturing processes and the machines which change life."
...
"An essential to this progress has been that the scientist has not demanded that his theory be considered "true." He does not profess to know what the truth is. A theory must work. It is an expedient. When it ceases to work it is thrown overboard or modified. This method of merciless self-examination cannot be followed in a society where the result of each investigation is predetermined for extraneous reasons. Democracy flounders before it arrives at satisfactory solutions of its social problems. But it is better to flounder and progress than to follow the philosophy of a dictator and to remain socially and scientifically static."
FF - Freedom is always discounted, viewed as trivial to those in power, discarded as inefficient and unnecessary, even more cruel to let the masses destroy themselves without proper stewardship by their betters.
A short news snippet from the archive vault speaks to that:
‘Damned Efficient Slavery’ vs. ‘Inefficient Freedom’
The Daily Colonist
Victoria Island's Leading Newspaper Since 1858
January 4th, 1958
https://archive.org/details/dailycolonist0158uvic_1/mode/2up?view=theater
“Vice-President Nixon called the Russian system slavery. All right, slavery it is. But damned efficient slavery."
“We cherish our freedom. All right, freedom it is, but sadly inefficient freedom.”
Their "scientific" government cannot countenance freedom. Sadly, it's too "inefficient."
That article on Aztec human sacrifice is a rough read. I have heard some scholars claim that the genocidal behaviour of the Conquistadors was motivated by their horror and disgust at this element of Aztec culture; they believed God had tasked them with eradicating the perpetrators of these heinous acts from the earth. Of course, this is countered by the response that their cultures had killed off large numbers of people in the witch trials. I'm not going to defend the latter, but I guess the difference is that people burned as witches were accused of serious wrongdoing, whereas the Aztecs sacrificed completely innocent children, and adults who hadn't been accused of any kind of crime or sin.
With the common thread between both killoffs being the same human mind was taught to believe what was being done to other humans was normal, customary and necessary for the common good. Same as happened in Nazi Germany. Same as happened in 2020. Without precedence, nothing government said to do had ever been done in the entire history of man, all prior knowledge and ethos that contradicted completely discarded and cruelty exacted on fellow man. Because the same human brain that's existed for 10,000 years was similarly instructed it all was necessary for the common good.
"The common good" is one of the most pernicious phrases to ever enter the lexicon.
Team thinking. Aka, "homerism."
I admit that I fell for the Bush administration that "played on our fears" as it launched wars of aggression in the Middle East while they stole our constitutional rights and freedoms passing the Patriot Act...that targets Patriots today. Fear that medical tyranny has played on to steal even more of our constitutional rights and freedoms. Had my "Team" called out the Bush administration at the time we'd never be in this predicament:
They played on our fears! - Al Gore 2004
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxGC8JaijI0
And I now admit that Obama was right when he forewarned us about the Citizens United SCOTUS decision in his 2010 State of the Union address. Many on my "Team" believed corporations were the good guys, conservative, united to oppose Marxist authoritarian D's Big Labor. Never imagining corporations were actually useful for both Fascist authoritarian R's and Marxist authoritarian D's. Big mistake. Obama's 2010 SOTU speech gave a preview of the 2020 (and since) election process in our nation:
https://youtu.be/8v-rJb8G15I
Foes told truths. Friends told lies. Moral of the story is Rene Descartes' Age of Enlightenment advice: Question everything.
Even friends. Especially friends. Always.
We must think. Do the hard work of thinking for ourselves, never "trusting experts," nor trusting our "team" or reflexively distrusting "theirs." Being free is hard mental work for many. Which is why slavery and submission to authority has characterized most of human history. Freedom is always just one generation from disappearing from the human experience. And ever-so hard to reclaim once it is lost.
How much we value it as a society is the eternal question. Many in power don't think we value it enough to keep it. Many of us do our best to prove them wrong. By thinking. And questioning everything.
I've changed my thinking about so many politicians and the policies they implemented. In every case, my former view arose from limited understanding of the issue. I've reached the conclusion that there's a limited number of things that I can know with absolute certainty, and the remainder have to be held lightly rather than clung to tightly, so that I can consider new information as I become aware of it. And that does require hard mental work, as you wrote, which is why the majority of people shy away from it. How do we solve this problem? Obviously, we need to rethink the apparatus of state control that is laughably dubbed the 'education system', for starters. That, of course, requires major cultural change as parents and teachers who were (mis)educated under the old system, need to learn how to learn so they can facilitate children's learning. I may be oversimplifying this, but I can't help but think that children whose natural curiosity about the world is facilitated with freedom-oriented methods of instruction (or perhaps more to the point, self-directed learning) cannot help but grow up to be adults who instinctively resist the yoke of tyrants.
No oversimplification. That's spot-on.
Go back to your memories of grade school, sitting in the classroom. Remember the kid in the class that always asked questions? Rest of the class trying to make the time pass faster, no questions to slow up the day. That one or two kids who always raised their hands usually provoked the ire of their classmates. Especially if it was just before the bell rang for the next class. That friend we wanted to meet in the hallway between classes might be late for. "Quit asking questions." Or the know-it-all who would actually correct the teacher if there was a wrong answer on the board. "Jerk, nobody cares." Not a search for knowledge. "Just shut up and we'll all get through this more quickly and then get back to doing what we really want to do, play, meet friends."
Reflecting on my student life, most of the time I was like the kid who just wanted the day to go faster, no questions. But sometimes I was the kid who asked questions, or if I spotted what I thought was the wrong answer by the teacher on the board I wanted to know why it was so, what I may have missed. And earned the ire of my classmates. Been on both sides.
It's just so easy to keep going back to what we watched happen around us in 2020 to see the same dynamic played out in the world around us as what played out in the classroom. "Just shut up, do what you're told and we'll all get through this more quickly and then be able to get back to doing what we really want to do, play, meet friends."
Grade school is a perfect predictor for how freedom instincts are being engineered out the population. Hard learning isn't the goal. Easy obedience is. The premeditated, well-considered education system design isn't for children to grow up to be adults who resist the yoke of tyrants. Freedom is too inefficient.
"Freedom is too inefficient" - for tyrants. And yet it produces the greatest flowering of art, culture, science and technology. Without freedom, there can be no real human flourishing. Does the predator class know this? Or are they so arrogant that they believe they have already reached the zenith of human development?
Yep. Which that pre-WWII 1941 Foregn Affairs Science in Totalitarian piece said. And the Cold War 1958 Damned Efficient Slavery piece lamented.
The predator class surely knows this - they were features of both pieces. CFR is the predator class, they used that knowledge to distinguish between US ideas of freedom as virtuous and Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin ideas as dystopian. The AP piece quoting the predator class - that had just defeated Hitler and Mussolini and was opposing the USSR - desirous of efficient slavery...that damned VP Nixon obstructing their goal with all his freedom talk. They believe they have reached the zenith of *their* human development. Their arrogance. They know human development will surpass their own personal zenith of power. And fear us. So they seek to enslave us and secure their status before we overtake them.
Thank you so much for this Robyn. I'm continually in awe of the amount of effort and rigorous analysis/referencing you put into everything you do and this is spot on. I knew you before the Covid19 scam and you're one of the few people I know (from that time), who came through that extraordinary debacle with their critical reasoning skills intact (hubby did too, evidence of my innate good taste all those years ago). Those lobbing insults would greatly benefit from your wise and informed words, though I doubt they're open to them right now. From the very first day of the Covid19 scam, I watched on with increasing horror and utter disbelief. I didn't buy any of it for a second. I was then amazed to see everyone around me, even those I'd know for years, falling into line without question. What was I? Some creature from another Planet? After that, I did another double take when the very first rebels were from the RIGHT! Adam Creighton and Peter Hitchens come to mind, both sharp, informed and articulate. Where was my tribe, the Left? Seemed like they'd had a collective lobotomy. However, parts of the Right (which had earned a new degree of respect from me), now insist on telling me Trump (or Christ), is our saviour, the Earth is only 6,000 years old (and/or flat) and what's happening in Palestine isn't a genocidal crime against humanity. I also don't buy some of the more extreme theories, mainly because I think the parasite class are bumbling humans like the rest of us, divided by jealousies/rivalries, who would struggle to organise the proverbial p*ss up up in a brewery (a terminal failure of any bureaucracy). Though I'm sure they aspire to total control of every corner of our lives, it ain't ever happening because the Universe (and the beautiful chaos it contains), is not amenable to their hubris.
Thank you so much for your kind words. I know that both you and your darling hubby paid the price for sticking to your gums, and your respective professions are the poorer for having lost you.
Just like you, I was taken aback by the complicity of the 'left' with the entire convid scam. Where was the pro-free-speech, anti-censorship, anti-authoritarian Left of my youth? They were wearing face-nappies, shunning the unjabbed and cheering on like depraved spectators at a bear-baiting match as the police violently attacked peaceful protesters!!! WTF????
I too remember reading Adam Creighton's and Peter Hitchens' columns and feeling both vindicated and bemused. 'Right wingers' were talking sense, while lefties, vegans and permaculturists were all obeying government edicts and lining up for experimental shots from serially criminal corporations. 🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯
But then the Ukraine operation began, and a chunk of the 'medical freedom movement' bought into the Putin-is-literally Hitler BS. And then came October 7, and another chunk peeled off and began labelling concern for civilian casualties as antisemitism. And then the US election soap opera, in which if you don't buy into the Trump is Orange Jesus narrative, you're no longer welcome in the MFM inner circle.
So I've decided I just don't fit into any 'tribe', unless it's the Tribe of Misfits 🤣. I'd invite you to join me, except that I guess it doesn't really lend itself to joining!
This is a superb article, linking to some interesting books as well. I agreed with every single word. It was beautifully written and argued. Will be saving this one
Thank you for your kind words. I'm so grateful for the Internet Archive, which is our digital Library of Alexandria. There's such a wealth of knowledge that is at our fingertips... yet most people's online time is spent mostly on porn, cat videos, and the ramblings of celebritards 🤣.
Dear Mr. Musk: I wouldn't care if you built the Starship Enterprise by yourself — it wouldn't change the slop in your support, your program, and your words. Not to mention how this sh*thole is evolving in reverse — as the behavior on here is an embarrassment to the entire history of human achievement. Left & Right!
I’ve always hated Twitter and every long-form version of it (Reddit, Substack, and anything and everything claiming to be something it’s not). When I’m done doing what I gotta do — I’m never goin’ back. Until then, I’m sending out a certain set of messages looking for intelligent life (fiercely independent thinkers who want to solve problems — not endlessly talk about them).
Think of my signals as a poor man’s SETI: I’ve got an idea — and it’s got teeth. There’s a way we can harness folly from the past for the benefit of the future. a.k.a. learning!
"You've Proven You're a Human"—Now You Are Free to Act Like an Animal:
https://centurionoftheseed.substack.com/p/youve-proven-youre-a-humannow-you
Your comment has no relevance to this post.
Dear Mr. Musk: I wouldn't care if you built the Starship Enterprise by yourself — it wouldn't change the slop in your support, your program, and your words. Not to mention how this sh*thole is evolving in reverse — as the behavior on here is an embarrassment to the entire history of human achievement. Left & Right
https://centurionoftheseed.substack.com/p/youve-proven-youre-a-humannow-you
Your comment has no relevance to this post.
And you just said everything I need to know about you in 8 words. Good day!