A Foreboding, FEAR – Part 1

If you want to control someone, all you have to do is to make them feel afraid.

Whether a categorical phobia or not, fear is a contagion and, thus, an effective tool for controlling.... In his book, Fate is the Hunter, Ernest K. Gann elaborates:

Fear is a contagious disease, spreading from its first victim to others in the vicinity until it is powerful enough to take charge of a group, in which event it becomes panic. Fear is the afterbirth of reason and calculation. It takes time to recuperate from fear.But it is more…. 

Fear makes money—it sells—as Daniel Gardner writes in The Science of Fear: "The countless companies and consultants in the business of protecting the fearful from whatever they may fear know it only too well. The more fear, the better the sales."

Security is really the aim, the desire, and is why fear works.   Who wants to be insecure, at risks or in danger?  Jiddu Krishnamurti, On Fear, writes:

Fear begins and ends with the desire to be secure…the desire to be certain, to have permanency.  [] To find security and be secure is the everlasting cry. It is this insistent demand that breeds fear.

CONSPIRANT COLONIES – Part 1

An allegory about ants, CONSPIRANT COLONIES features the one possible sole survivor of a once expansive colony, an ant empire.   Going by the name Anton, the character explains to a human youth what happened; an account that begins at the end and passes back and forth—how the upstart, Anteca, passed from a fledgling frontier to a complex and corrupt society.

The original, natural cast of the queen and her court is gradually overtaken by a rising unnatural cast that eventual eviscerate the natural through a process of extraction of essence—the life-blood of the worker ant.  Ever weakening the next generation, the unnatural become every powerful though not without the depletion of that which all colonies depend for continued existence.  

Still, Antecazation becomes the theme of empire; continuous conflict and conquest of bordering colonies. 

More to come…

To End an Eagle – In the Days of Daddy-Dumb - Part 2

Life is a journey. Can we affirm our beginning or our end, here and hereafter? 

Can we know why we do what we do, other than when the condition is without choice, options--by force? 

In this book, now under editing, the story carries the reader into a life, a journey, to the underworld, The Low and beyond, beneath.  This time and place, called “the unnatural”, is radically different than the natural habitat of the primary character, the eagle Eli. 

What becomes of an eagle in The Low? 

How can anyone survive The Low except those who made it—and even thrive in it, with it?

Those that thrive are characterized largely by a vulture, Vile, the only predator of the eagle, second only to humans.     

Will the eagle survive...succeed?  Will the eagle, no matter the depth of its will, not…? 

Propaganda and other Poppycock – Part 1

Where did it begin, propaganda? 

The “father of propaganda” is Edward Bernays.  Again, from Wikipedia:

Bernays pioneered the public relations industry's use of psychology and other social sciences to design its public persuasion campaigns:

"If we understand the mechanism and motives of the group mind, is it not possible to control and regiment the masses according to our will without their knowing about it? The recent practice of propaganda has proved that it is possible, at least up to a certain point and within certain limits"

He later called this scientific technique of opinion-molding the engineering of consent.

Another statement by Edward: 

"The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country."

"Vast numbers of human beings must cooperate in this manner if they are to live together as a smoothly functioning society. ...In almost every act of our daily lives, whether in the sphere of politics or business, in our social conduct or our ethical thinking, we are dominated by the relatively small number of persons..."

Propaganda and other Poppycock – Part 2

It’s everywhere and anywhere.  Call it viral or looped but such information is idiomatic in this age of incessant information; the continuous distribution of bad, erroneous and deceptive words, orated or published. 

George Orwell foretold of such times:  “But if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought.”  Yes, feed them crap and sooner or later they’ll like it, eat it and say, “Umm, that’s good!”

In his works, Media Control: The Spectacular Achievements of Propaganda, Noam Chomsky explains:

Propaganda is to a democracy what the bludgeon is to a totalitarian state.

Who controls the present, controls the past and future too, Orwell described in 1984.   Control is really about fear; the fear that without controls, life would bel less, much less, if as you accept that such crimes as terrorism and hate (crimes) depend on who is supposedly doing it and not, objectively, what is being done, the supposed act(s).

How to determine Imperialism

First, an often a resource, Wikipedia:

The word imperialism originated from the Latin word imperium, which means supreme power. It first became common with its current sense in Great Britain, during the 1870's and was used with a negative connotation.

When did it begin, “The Age of Imperialism”?

A time period beginning around 1760, saw (generally European) industrializing nations, engaging in the process of colonizing, influencing, and annexing other parts of the world in order to gain political power. Although imperialist practices have existed for thousands of years, the term "Age of Imperialism" generally refers

to the activities of European powers from the early 18th century through to the middle of the 20th century.

What is American Imperialism?

The economic, military and cultural philosophy which states that the United States either directly or indirectly affects and controls other countries or their policies.

Can American Imperialism end, be curtailed? 

In The Decline and Fall of the American Empire, Alfred W. McCoy write: 

The demise of the United States as the global superpower could come far more quickly than anyone imagines.  If Washington is dreaming of 2040 or 2050 as the end of the American Century, a more realistic assessment of domestic and global trends suggests that in 2025, just 15 years from now, it could all be over except for the shouting.

 Decline and Fall of the American Empire

AFFLUENZA - Part 1

Previously watched the video(s) but recently checked-out the 1^st edition (2001) from the library; this book is fascinating as a history of how many in our nation are ill from consumption, materialism and by any similar words.

What is it, this illness, from Wikipedia:

…"a painful, contagious, socially transmitted condition of overload, debt, anxiety, and waste resulting from the dogged pursuit of more". The term "affluenza" has also been used to refer to an inability to understand the consequences of one's actions because of financial privilege.

And the book,

…a 2001 anti-consumerist book by John de Graaf, environmental scientist David Wann, and economist Thomas H. Naylor. Viewing consumerism (with its accompanying overwork and dissatisfaction) as a deliberately spread disease, the book consists of three parts—symptoms, origins, and treatment.

The irony of affluenza, the illness, is that—as T.S. Elliot put it:   "We are the hollow men. We are the stuffed men". 

The Mother of All, The Black Swan

A “Black Swan” event might be followed by the simple expression, “I never saw it coming.” 

What is it, Black Swan (event)?  From Wikipedia:

The black swan theory or theory of black swan events is a metaphor that describes an event that comes as a surprise, has a major effect, and is often inappropriately rationalized after the fact with the benefit of hindsight.

This is far bigger the post-game analysis of the less-than-capable Monday Morning Quarterback; it is a crisis of huge proportions, often irrecoverable, such as: 

1. Climatic Environmental 
2. Thermonuclear 
3. Pandemic
4. International, global economic...
5. Astronomical

As to the economic kind, the following from Investopedia: 

The idea of a black swan event was pioneered by the financial professional turned writer Nassim Nicholas Taleb after the results of the 2008 financial crisis. Taleb argued that black swan events are impossible to predict yet have catastrophic ramifications. Therefore, it is important for people to always assume a black swan event is a possibility, whatever it may be, and to plan accordingly.

 https://www.investopedia.com/terms/b/blackswan.asp#ixzz50PTcSn5b 

The Enemy Within

What’s does it mean, “The Enemy Within”?

Could it mean our self, our thoughts and actions; some kind of deep, personal counter agency, an anti-, alter and adverse ego? 

In the spiritual, is the enemy the flesh as Paul described, “the war within”; the cause of internal conflict, struggle?

Beyond our self, is “the enemy within” someone or -body among our closest ties that works intentionally or not to undermine us, even defame us as something or someone we're not?   Can a so-called friend or family tie be our worst enemy? 

A film by the same name is about a plot at the highest ranks, the presidency; a military coup.  Certainly, coups happen but here, in the United States?   It can't happen here, can it? 

In The Dictator’s Handbook, Why Bad Behavior is almost always Good Politics, Bruce Bueno de Mesquita and Alastair Smith assert:  

Leaders do whatever keeps them in power.  

If the case, how far will they go?  Is our “best interest” they’re interest or is our welfare worth anything? 

Lost and perhaps "the dumbest" Generation

Is this “the dumbest generation”? 

From a 2008 book by a similar title, the arrival and adoption of social media is consuming the lives of the young folks, in particular.  Sure, we all are part of this electronic culture, but for the young(-er), the interest and intensity of peer pressure puts socializing as much a life’s ambition, academics and 

mentoring a distant second. 

What is to come of kids that have no daily boundaries on their attention to “the screen”, ambitions of acceptance of and attention to self, gone awry?   

I admit that not having a phone is more than inconvenient but here, in this i-phonic phenomenon, is a hardcore “having; one that might just well be a vital organ; heart, mind and soul. As the author describes in the introduction:  “The autonomy has a cost: the more they attend to themselves, they less they remember about the past (history) and envision a future. “

More than ironic is that the age of information is lost, the young folks “camped in the desert, passing stories, pictures, tunes and text…living off the thrill of peer attention.” 

Dumbest Generation - Reason TV