Thursday, April 13, 2017

When You Are Governed By Psychopaths - 7

"And that's the way it is." - W. Cronkite
I. The Way "It" Is

As the excesses of current civilization break more and more records, to then set new records, some of those records are disturbing and uncanny.

For example: "Carbon dioxide levels measured at NOAA’s Mauna Loa Baseline Atmospheric Observatory rose by 3 parts per million to 405.1 parts per million (ppm) in 2016, an increase that matched the record jump observed in 2015" (NOAA).

This, among other things, is causing what is becoming irreparable damage to our world's oceans: "Ocean acidification is occurring because the ocean is absorbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. When seawater absorbs carbon dioxide, its acidity is increased" (NOAA).

And "it" is causing other increasing dangers to civilization's ability to continue as we have known it (Civilization Is Now On Suicide Watch, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9).

II. How "It" Got This Way

The governed are governed by a group or groups who have "the say", whether that group, or those groups, are large or are small:
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. We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of. This is a logical result of the way in which our democratic society is organized. Vast numbers of human beings must cooperate in this manner if they are to live together as a smoothly functioning society.
Edward L. Bernays

Our invisible governors are, in many cases, unaware of the identity of their fellow members in the inner cabinet.

They govern us by their qualities of natural leadership, their ability to supply needed ideas and by their key position in the social structure. Whatever attitude one chooses to take toward this condition, it remains a fact that 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 — a trifling fraction of our hundred and twenty [now 320] million — who understand the mental processes and social patterns of the masses. It is they who pull the wires which control the public mind, who harness old social forces and contrive new ways to bind and guide the world.
...
It is the purpose of this book to explain the structure of the mechanism which controls the public mind, and to tell how it is manipulated by the special pleader who seeks to create public acceptance for a particular idea or commodity. It will attempt at the same time to find the due place in the modern democratic scheme for this new propaganda and to suggest its gradually evolving code of ethics and practice.
(Propaganda, by Edward L. Bernays, emphasis added). In the end, this group dynamic and concept has not worked out well historically, according to the, at one time, most quoted historian:
In other words, a society does not ever die 'from natural causes', but always dies from suicide or murder --- and nearly always from the former, as this chapter has shown."
(A Study of History, by Arnold J. Toynbee). Further, according to some observers, this group dynamic we call "governing" is one of the main sources of insanity:
Insanity in individuals is something rare – but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule.” - Friedrich Nietzsche


"If the evolution of civilization has such a far reaching similarity with the development of an individual, and if the same methods are employed in both, would not the diagnosis be justified that many systems of civilization——or epochs of it——possibly even the whole of humanity——have become neurotic under the pressure of the civilizing trends? To analytic dissection of these neuroses, therapeutic recommendations might follow which could claim a great practical interest. I would not say that such an attempt to apply psychoanalysis to civilized society would be fanciful or doomed to fruitlessness. But it behooves us to be very careful, not to forget that after all we are dealing only with analogies, and that it is dangerous, not only with men but also with concepts, to drag them out of the region where they originated and have matured. The diagnosis of collective neuroses, moreover, will be confronted by a special difficulty. In the neurosis of an individual we can use as a starting point the contrast presented to us between the patient and his environment which we assume to be normal. No such background as this would be available for any society similarly affected; it would have to be supplied in some other way. And with regard to any therapeutic application of our knowledge, what would be the use of the most acute analysis of social neuroses, since no one possesses power to compel the community to adopt the therapy? In spite of all these difficulties, we may expect that one day someone will venture upon this research into the pathology of civilized communities. [p. 39]
...
Men have brought their powers of subduing the forces of nature to such a pitch that by using them they could now very easily exterminate one another to the last man. They know this——hence arises a great part of their current unrest, their dejection, their mood of apprehension. [p. 40]" - Sigmund Freud, Civilization and Its Discontents, S. Freud, 1929
(emphasis added). Destructive government by the elite few is a very ancient dynamic that is somehow perpetuated down through time as we know it.

III. Perpetuation 

Individuals eventually die, but group ideas can be, and are, often perpetuated.

To understand how, one tool which social and cultural scientists have conceptualized as a learning aid, is the notion of a meme complex:
A set of mutually-assisting memes which have co-evolved a symbiotic relationship. Religious and political dogmas, social movements, artistic styles, traditions and customs, chain letters, paradigms, languages, etc. are meme-complexes.
(Memetic Lexicon, "Meme Complex"). This type of perpetuation is not totally unlike the concept of a "virus" in one computer that can be spontaneously passed on to other computers.

The basic concept, though strange, is that non-organic, non-living (abiotic) entities can be, and are, sometimes perpetuated (The Uncertain Gene, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11; Putting A Face On Machine Mutation, 2, 3, 4; On the Origin of the Genes of Viruses, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13).

IV. Don't Get Me Wrong

This is not to say that either a group or an individual is bad or crazy by the mere fact of existing, no not at all, it is to say that groups are more likely to go psychotic than individuals are.

Individuals die out, so they cease to exist as it were, but the memes or ideology that inhabited their cognitive circuitry can be transferred to others in various ways, such as political party dogma, religious dogma, associations, (etc.).

This is done through what is called "infection":
infection
1. Successful encoding of a meme in the memory of a human being. A memetic infection can be either active or inactive. It is inactive if the host does not feel inclined to transmit the meme to other people. An active infection causes the host to want to infect others. Fanatically active hosts are often membots or memeoids. A person who is exposed to a meme but who does not remember it (consciously or otherwise) is not infected. (A host can indeed be unconsciously infected, and even transmit a meme without conscious awareness of the fact. Many societal norms are transmitted this way.) (GMG)

2. Some memeticists have used `infection' as a synonym for `belief' (i.e. only believers are infected, non-believers are not). However, this usage ignores the fact that people often transmit memes they do not "believe in." Songs, jokes, and fantasies are memes which do not rely on "belief" as an infection strategy.

infection strategy
Any memetic strategy which encourages infection of a host. Jokes encourage infection by being humorous, tunes by evoking various emotions, slogans and catch-phrases by being terse and continuously repeated. Common infection strategies are "Villain vs. victim", "Fear of Death", and "Sense of Community". In a meme-complex, the bait co-meme is often central to the infection strategy. (See replication strategy; mimicry.) (GMG)
(Memetic Lexicon). This dynamic was well understood by our forefathers and foremothers, but less so today IMO.

V. The Warnings Against Cultural Infections

Being aware of the possibility of catching a disease is not a guarantee that we won't become infected, but it is like a vaccination, in the sense that it can help ward off disease:
"Of all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded, because it comprises and develops the germ of every other [enemy to public liberty].

War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes; and armies, and debts, and taxes are the known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few. In war, too, the discretionary power of the Executive is extended; its influence in dealing out offices, honors, and emoluments is multiplied: and all the means of seducing the minds, are added to those of subduing the force, of the people.

The same malignant aspect in republicanism may be traced in the inequality of fortunes, and the opportunities of fraud, growing out of a state of war, and in the degeneracy of manners and of morals, engendered by both.

No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare.


Those truths are well established."
(Letters and other writings of James Madison, pp. 491-492, emphasis added). Notice that "war" spreads ideological germs even though war is not a biological entity.

War is non-living (abiotic), yet it is an enemy of public liberty, and "it comprises and develops the germ of every other" enemy of public liberty.

War is a "parent," and war assists "all the means of seducing the minds" and "subduing the force of the people."

VI. More Vaccimes

Yes, that abiotic entity ("war") is on the lips of our news sources incessantly, yesterday, today, and tomorrow.

Which means that we need to pay careful heed to two more "vaccimes" that we were given by the founders:
"If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy." - James Madison

Experience has shown that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny.” – Thomas Jefferson

VII. Conclusion

The psychopaths in the days of our forefathers and foremothers infected others.

Those infections are still spreading, and are trying to morph into an epidemic, "even as we speak."

As it turns out, one great failing of our current civilization is that it did not take Freud's or Nietzsche's advice.

Civilization did not form a branch of psychology / psychiatry that diagnoses and treats meme complexes (group dynamics) gone awry.

Study up on the issue and become, or stay, immune (Psychology Today, Medical Daily). 

The next post in this series is here, the previous post in this series is here.



Wednesday, April 12, 2017

Pole Dancing In The Lab

Fig. 1 Antarctic sea-ice extent, 2017
I. Forward

We should care about sea-ice for several reasons (NSIDC).

Melt season is approaching the northern hemisphere where Arctic sea-ice extent continues to be diminished by global warming.

Meanwhile, ice-growth season is approaching the Antarctic sea-ice extent which also continues to be diminished.

Fig. 2 Arctic sea-ice extent, 2017
It wasn't that way back when the Earth was flat, before librul scientists messed things up (Once Upon A Time In The West - 2).

II. Pornographic 
Gyrating Graphs

Fig. 3 Porn Graphs
So, now I have to use multiple graphs that are all curvy and stuff, rather than being upward inclines like the BS meter graphs (The Shapeshifters of Bullshitistan, 2, 3, 4, 5).

Global warming science deniers call depictions of scientific reality "porn" for some lack of reason.

Evidently, the Alabama governor who just resigned and was arrested was looking at Dredd Blog sea-ice graphs with an assistant.

He and his top assistant suddenly lost all control to the point that he and she irresistibly pulled off their clothes and porned out while viewing those porny Dredd Blog sea-ice graphs, which his wife had warned him about (Wife Revenge).

Fig. 4  Kama Sutra sea-ice
The Alabama legislature is said to be hurrying a bill to protect their next governor from such titillating science porn found on Dredd Blog.

Yep, the 'Bama Holy Rollers are banishing any and all such science porn from their kingdom like N. Carolina did (Will This Float Your Boat - 3).

It is nice of them to want to protect those who are so sensitive to scientific graphs that are all curvy and stuff (Climate Change Porn, Global Warming Porn).

III. Today's Graphs

Today's graphs are typical of the polar sea-ice graphs, meaning that they are both roller-coaster type graphs, one being at the top of a peak while the other is at the bottom of a valley (Fig. 1, Fig. 2).

The really porny ones have the two polar regions on the same graph, which makes it impossible for them not to touch (Fig. 3, Fig. 4).

At some point in time, when the sea-ice extent becomes very small, it is likely that these graphs will tend to flatten out.

Perhaps these Dredd Blog graphs will no longer be illegal in Alabama then.

IV. Conclusion

Perhaps when Dredd Blog stops all of its global warming porn, even The Don will not become so porny he wants to grab his assistant between the graphs of Dredd Blog (The Shapeshifters of Bullshitistan, 2, 3, 4, 5).

Tuesday, April 11, 2017

MOMCOM In The Outer Limits Of The Twilight Zone

T-Rex of State
In a recent post I provided a video featuring a presentation at MIT by Prof. Dr. Noam Chomsky.

It covered the reasons behind the doomsday clock having been moved from seven minutes until "midnight" (a.k.a. "lights out for civilization") to 2.5 minutes until midnight.

The subject of that post was the ongoing murder-suicide process by power centers within our current civilization (Civilization Is Now On Suicide Watch - 9).

The actors "in that movie" are official anti-social-behavior power-centers that surprisingly mimic the characteristics of the demise of previous civilizations:
In other words, a society does not ever die 'from natural causes', but always dies from suicide or murder --- and nearly always from the former, as this chapter has shown."
(A Study of History, by Arnold J. Toynbee). Once the most-oft-quoted historian, Dr. Toynbee discovered a pathological behavior often repeated in societies, including the largest society, civilization itself.

That behavior is still with us because it has not been addressed and epigenetically modified (On the Origin of Cultural Epigenetics).

The locus of these suicidal dynamics is harbored in three entities which I have called "MOMCOM."

MOMCOM is an extension of Eisenhower's "military-industrial complex" (MOMCOM: A Mean Welfare Queen).

Those three areas (military, oil, media) are the center of the origin of the current suicidal tendencies, because the military has the nukes, big oil has the other "nuclear option" (climate change), the media have the power of deceit, so, together they comprise the complex MOMCOM.

Their (or its) firstborn offspring is Oil-Qaeda (Oil-Qaeda: The Indictment, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6).

This family of players is not wavering from the mass-murder-suicide path they have been intentionally taking for decades (Humble Oil-Qaeda).

Instead, this deadly family has intensified their suicidal behavior (MOMCOM's Mass Suicide & Murder Pact, 2, 3, 4, 5).

They have financed political criminality to the point it has now openly taken over the U.S.eh? government.

If you want to know what they are doing, simply look at what they accuse sane people of doing (House Science Committee Leader Says Climate Scientists Are Trying to Control People’s Lives).

Next, realize how many years and how much money it has taken them to deceive substantial segments of society (Global Warming Disinformation Database).

Their basic behavior is to double down, even in the light of conclusive evidence against them (The Universal Smedley - 2, Oil Giants Caught Bribing Nigerian Money Launderer In Major Scandal, How World War I ushered in the century of oil).

By using the phrase "double down" I am including the habit of warmongering imperialism (The Peak Of The Oil Wars - 10, cf. The Fleets & Terrorism Follow The Oil - 2).

One of the reasons this suicidal behavior has not been stopped by western societies (by culturally evolving beyond the genetic dispositions of suicidal civilizations past), is primarily the power of propaganda hidden in plain sight:
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. We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of. This is a logical result of the way in which our democratic society is organized. Vast numbers of human beings must cooperate in this manner if they are to live together as a smoothly functioning society.

Our invisible governors are, in many cases, unaware of the identity of their fellow members in the inner cabinet.

They govern us by their qualities of natural leadership, their ability to supply needed ideas and by their key position in the social structure. Whatever attitude one chooses to take toward this condition, it remains a fact that 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 — a trifling fraction of our hundred and twenty [now 320] million — who understand the mental processes and social patterns of the masses. It is they who pull the wires which control the public mind, who harness old social forces and contrive new ways to bind and guide the world.
...
It is the purpose of this book to explain the structure of the mechanism which controls the public mind, and to tell how it is manipulated by the special pleader who seeks to create public acceptance for a particular idea or commodity. It will attempt at the same time to find the due place in the modern democratic scheme for this new propaganda and to suggest its gradually evolving code of ethics and practice.
(A Closer Look At MOMCOM's DNA - 4). That quote is taken from the American book which has the title "Propaganda."

It was written by "The Father of Spin," a.k.a the Father of the American PR Industry (cf. Exceptional American Propaganda Inspired NAZI Goebbels).

He and his wife opened the business now known as "public relations" ... their first customer was then named The War Department.

I guess there is only one question remaining, since today some elections are taking place: (Will Elections Cure The Disease?, 2, 3, 4).





"And now we return you to your regular programming ..."