"But that's just your life becoming a video game, baby."

Gil Scott-Heron on media manipulation and disinformation:


Salon.com: I take it, then, you don't watch Fox News.

Gil Scott-Heron: I cannot afford to watch Fox News.

 
S: We shouldn't be waiting for a Gil Scott-Heron song about Fox?

GSH: I've got nothing to say about nothing.
 
S: As someone who was singing about TV addiction 40 years ago, I wonder what you make of the current technology, the way people are interacting more with screens than with other people?

GSH: What it does is it keeps people from reading, and therefore from learning. Screen life is very shallow, and it speaks to the fact that most people don't want to know themselves, especially the dark parts. So they learn how to push these buttons in a certain order. 

But that's just your life becoming a video game, baby. 

Everything that's bad for you catches on too quickly in America, because that's the easiest thing to get people to invest in, the pursuits that are easy and destructive, the ones that bring out the least positive aspects of people. 

A Brief Historical Interlude, To Clear The Palate

BUSH: "American and coalition forces are in the early stages of military operations to disarm Iraq, to free it's people and to defend the world from grave danger." March 19, 2003 [1]

[Ferretous says: lol, in Hicks' day when you win the presidency "you go into this smokey room with the twelve industrialist capitalist scum fucks who got you in there ... and this little film screen comes down ... and its a shot of the Kennedy assassination from an angle you've never seen before" ... in our time you meet the "twelve industrliaist capitalist scum fucks" prior to getting elected and then once in someone takes Air Force One for a low altitude spin over Ground Zero in New York]

OBAMA: "Today we are part of a broad coalition. We are answering the calls of a threatened people. And we are acting in the interests of the United States and the world." March 19, 2011 [2]

[WhiteyRound Eye says: I noticed with interest the date they launched this. The Pentagon loves their symbology in the use of dates. Why did they not wait one extra day to begin the air strikes?? They had waited so long as it was. It really would not have altered materially what has since transpired on the ground. But no they chose to launch the strike dead on the same day as the Iraq mess began. Bastards. Also on Bill Hicks' note on the fact we are getting fucked in the ass it brings to mind some classic scenes we saw in Brussels the other day as Belgium was also rocked by massive anti Austerity riots in the recent days:]

References:

[1] President George W. Bush's Address Announcing Operations To Disarm Iraq: http://www.johnstonsarchive.net/terrorism/bushiraq3.html

[2] U.S., Allies Launch Air Attacks On Libya: http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2011/03/19/libya-bombing.html

[3] Complete List Of Which Countries Sold Weapons To Libya: http://www.zerohedge.com/article/complete-list-which-countries-sold-weapons-libya

Is Former Kingfisher County Judge Susie Pritchett Of Tulsa, Oklahoma, A Goatsucking Whorebot?

DISCLAIMER FOR NEW READERS:

Apparently Allegedly Ferretous has taken to referring to certain players in the current geopolitical theatre as being the children of mothers who are "goatsucking whores." I would like to take this opportunity to disagree with Ferretous and to state, in this highly public forum, that certain players in the current geopolitical theatre are not the children of mothers who are "goatsucking whores" but are themselves, in fact, "goatsucking whorebots" and I trust we can all see the important difference here. I would further like to take this opportunity to say: come on, whores are people too, you know? So let's not pick on whores, OK? And finally, if you are reading this article now because you googled "goatsucking whores" or "goatsucking whorebots" or "former Kingfisher County Judge Susie Pritchett Of Tulsa, Oklahoma" I would like to take this opportunity to say: welcome to Total Disinformation Awareness, you filthy disgusting pervert you. Of course I'm kidding, y'all bitches can google whatever you fucking want and there's nothing I can ever do to change that. That's what democracy means, dig it?

[Ferretous says: the drunken monkey lawyers have told me to point out that I was not in fact calling anyone a goat sucking whore but merely pointed out that it could well be the case and that no-one here has any evidence that it is not the case]

[SockRatEz says: so calling someone a whore is offensive to whores but calling someone a whorebot is not offensive to our sex robot sisters?]

[sparx says: well, that's a damn good call, SockRatEz, and it's so sensitive and enlightened of you to think about the fuckbots and their simulated feelings. So how about this, if any fuckbots are reading this AND feel offended AND leave a comment saying why they feel offended, I'll start issuing official apologies on a case by case basis. In fact, I suspect that issuing official apologies is about to become an ongoing theme on this blog. [#whatpoliticallycorrectcesspoolhaveiwadedintohere...?]]

[Tony Abbot (allegedly) says: Tony's Rule#1 - NEVER apologise ...]

[SockRatEz says: funnily enough Tony ... for once I agree!]

INTRODUCTION: A Moment Of Realisation [Or: Is Former Kingfisher County Judge Susie Pritchett Of Tulsa, Oklahoma, A Goatsucking Whorebot?]

Have you ever wondered if maybe former Kingfisher County Judge Susie Pritchett of Tulsa, Oklahoma is a goatsucking whorebot? I often have. Which is not to say that while writing this article I wasn't drawn into many long, awkward and painful debates with myself about democracy and the rule of law. I was. Specifically, I was drawn into many long, awkward and painful debates with myself about democracy and the rule of law and how it is applied in Kingfisher County, Tulsa, Oklahoma, by the United States government, via it's not inconsiderable manipulation of language. I would now like to engage in a long, awkward and painful debate about democracy and the rule of law and how it is applied in Kingfisher County, Tulsa, Oklahoma, by the United States government, via it's not inconsiderable manipulation of language, with reference to the writings of Walter Benjamin's Critique Of Violence and Robert Anton Wilson and Robert Shea's The Illuminatus! Trilogy and I would like to state for the record that yes, former Kingfisher County Judge Susie Pritchett of Tulsa, Oklahoma is a goatsucking whorebot.

PART I: Democracy [Or: An Unfolding OF Miscalculations]

I would like to share some thoughts on democracy and the rule of law and the manipulation of language, with reference to Walter Benjamin's Critique of Violence. But first, in what I'm sure you will recognise as a shocking insight into the minds of our readers, it has recently occurred to me that many of you may be disinclined to share my thoughts on democracy and the rule of law and the manipulation of language [and, in fact, may not even read my thoughts on democracy and the rule of law and the manipulation of language at all and just skip to the bits about goatsucking whores] merely because you not have read Walter Benjamin's Critique of Violence.

And yet pish posh to that, I say. PISH POSH! Look what I've done for you:

Walter Benjamin's Critique of Violence In 26 Words:

"Do we want to buy into democracy and the rule of law?"

"No, we do not want to buy into democracy and the rule of law."

- sparx [2010]

And now that we are all up to speed, here are some common assumptions about democracy and the rule of law:

1] justice is blind

2] the law applies to everyone equally

3] everyone is responsible for enforcing the rule of law

So, as I am not the first to point out, "democracy" is the internalisation of the rule of law, as can be seen by the paranoia about individuals who are thought to be breaking the law, such as individuals who use cannabis.

Basic Marxism states that the ideology of the ruling class becomes the ideology of the people, whereby the ruling class establish a law against the use of cannabis and the people obey the law against the use of cannabis. And people like Noam Chompsky and [far less boringly] Robert Anton Wilson take it further and say that the ideology of the ruling class becomes the reality of the people. RA Wilson uses cannabis as an example:

His words came through muffled. "It isn't only political power that grows out of the barrel of a gun. So does a whole particular definition of reality. A set and the action that has to happen on that particular set and on no other."

"Don't be so bloody patronising," I objected, looking around a corner in time and realising this was the night I would be maced. "That's just Marx: the ideology of the ruling class becomes the ideology of the whole society."

"Not just the ideology, the reality." He lowered his handkerchief. "This was a public park until they changed the definition. Now the guns have changed the reality: it isn't a public park. There is more than one kind of magic."

"Just like the enclosure acts," I said hollowly. "One day the land belonged to the people, the next day it belonged to the landlords."

"And like the narcotics act," he added. "A hundred thousand harmless junkies became criminals overnight by act of congress in 1927. Ten years later, in 1937, all the potheads in the country became criminals overnight by act of congress. And they really were criminals when the papers were signed. The guns proved it. Walk away from those guns waving a joint and refuse to halt when they tell you to, their imagination will become your reality in a second."

- Robert Anton Wilson and Robert Shea; The Illuminatus! Trilogy; Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing 1975 [1998 reprint.]

So, I'm sure your asking yourself, what's this got to do with that goatsucking whorebot former Kingfisher County Judge Susie Pritchett Of Tulsa, Oklahoma and me? Let's see what this reputable, mainstream news source has to say about it.

Disinformation Sensitivity Workshop #2: Chains We All Can Believe In

I dare you, I fucking dare you [from this extremely safe distance] to imagine three people are imprisoned in a prison.

Wait, what? "Imprisoned in a prison?" Who's editing this shit? OK, let's make it a bar. With, like, all your favourite kinds of beer, and the good tequila, oh, and you know those wasabi pea things that are about 20% MSG? I love those things.

Right. As I was saying: I dare you, I fucking dare you [from this extremely safe distance] to imagine three people are imprisoned in a bar.

And imagine the interesting and poignant thing about this bar is that the door is wide open.

Now: imagine that one of these three people realises the door to this bar is wide open and tries to escape, but as soon as this happens, all kinds of alarms go off and all three people are gassed until they lose consciousness.

When they wake up one of these three people realises [again] that the door to this bar is wide open and tries [again] to escape. But as soon as this happens the other two people become afraid and argue with the first person, saying, basically: the last time someone tried to escape all kinds of alarms went off and all three of us were gassed until we lost consciousness and it was really socially awkward and got in the way of drinking.

And when the first person again tries to escape, the other two people beat this person up until they lose consciousness, and when this person wakes up they don't try to escape again, even though the door is still wide open.

Furthermore: imagine that one of these three people is then taken away and replaced with a new person. This new person realises that the door is wide open and tries to escape. No alarms go off and no one is gassed, but the original two people remember what happened the last time and become afraid. So they beat up this new person until they lose consciousness, and when this new person wakes up they don't try to escape again, even though the door is still wide open.

Imagine that one of these three people is then taken away and replaced with a new person, who realises the door is wide open and tries to escape, but the other two people, one of whom has never experienced the alarms or the gas, become afraid and prevent this attempted escape by beating up this new person until they lose consciousness.

Now: imagine that one of these three people is then taken away and replaced with a new person, who realises the door is wide open and tries to escape, but the other two people, neither of whom has ever experienced the alarms or the gas, become afraid and prevent this attempted escape by beating up this new person until they lose consciousness.

So here's where I'm going with this: none of these three people have ever had the experience of being gassed but each person will now try to prevent the others from escaping out that wide open door. 

Finally, imagine that one of these people is me and another one of these people is you.

And this, I contend [and still maintain], is predictive programming. 

DISINFORMATION SENSITIVITY WORKSHOP #1: WORDS ARE PICTURES

PART I: THE SOCIAL CONTRACT

 

In the following dramatisation, the words "we" and [paradoxically!] "they" refer to the media-military-industrial-complex, the word "I" refers to me, the word "you" refers to you and the word "us" refers to us, dig?

PART II: ONE WORD TO RULE US ALL

See, this is how it's gonna play out:

 

And this is how they [who?] are gonna try to make you feel:

   

PART III: WINNING HEARTS AND MINDS 

And in the coming weeks and months of what will, at times, seem like brutal, senseless chaos, you're not gonna fall for that shit any more, coz you're gonna remember these words: 

I know, but you are.

 

No Anagram For Avatar: Predictive Programing In Pop Culture [With Reference To Plato's Allegory Of The Cave]

DISCLAIMER:

I would like to begin this article with an explanation of why a discussion of James Cameron's movie Avatar [2009] is relevant to a blog that is devoted to total disinformation awareness. I intend to use this movie as an analogy to explore some of the issues surrounding predictive programming and cultural conditioning. Astute readers will note that these are two different labels for the same phenomena. I might equally call it behaviour modification or mind control, except that in the case of Avatar it happens on a mass scale. Recent estimates indicate that almost 27 million people have seen the film at a cinema with the full 3D immersion effect. For the sake of brevity I shall avoid any extended discussion of the technology behind Avatar, as I don't think the special effects are the most important factor here, although the experience of being totally immersed in someone else's vision is an issue that should be considered in depth.  Equally, I am omitting any discussion of the plot or storyline of the film as, for the sake of full disclosure I feel it is only right to admit that I haven't actually seen it on account of how the whole thing really fucking creeps me out.  

INTRODUCTION:  Not Just Imprisoned, The Prison Itself 

[Or: It May Only Be A Movie But It Has The Power To Transport Us All To A Magical Dreamland Where We Will Become So Happy We'll Want To Kill Ourselves]  

Firstly: no responsible, rational blogger would, could or should expect to get away with a line like that.

But I'm not a responsible, rational blogger.

I'm an irresponsible, alarmist blogger.

So that's alright, then.

As I will argue [#withlogic!] in this article, predictive programming is nothing new, and one of the earliest references that I've been able to find is Plato's allegory of the cave. Before we get into that, or  into what some more contemporary thinkers are writing about predictive programming, lets have some background information on all this Avatar shit [and a fucking creepy picture] preferably from a reputable, mainstream source:

James Cameron's completely immersive spectacle "Avatar" may have been a little too real for some fans who say they have experienced depression and suicidal thoughts after seeing the film the beauty of the alien world Pandora. On the fan forum site "Avatar Forums," a topic thread entitled "Ways to cope with the depression of the dream of Pandora being intangible," has received more than 1,000 posts from people experiencing depression and fans trying to help them cope.

A user named Mike wrote on the fan Web site "Naviblue" that he contemplated suicide after seeing the movie. "Ever since I went to see 'Avatar' I have been depressed. Watching the wonderful world of Pandora and all the Na'vi made me want to be one of them. I can't stop thinking about all the things that happened in the film and all of the tears and shivers I got from it," Mike posted. "I even contemplate suicide thinking that if I do it I will be rebirthed in a world similar to Pandora and the everything is the same as in 'Avatar.'"

Creepy, right?

Other fans have expressed feelings of disgust with the human race and disengagement with reality. Cameron's movie, which has pulled in more than $1.4 billion in worldwide box office sales and could be on track to be the highest grossing film of all time, is set in the future when the Earth's resources have been pillaged by the human race. A greedy corporation is trying to mine the rare mineral unobtainium from the planet Pandora, which is inhabited by a peace-loving race of 10-foot tall, blue-skinned natives called the Na'vi.

In their race to mine for Pandora's resources, the humans clash with the Na'vi, leading to casualties on both sides. The world of Pandora is reminiscent of a prehistoric fantasyland, filled with dinosaur-like creatures mixed with the kinds of fauna you may find in the deep reaches of the ocean. Compared with life on Earth, Pandora is a beautiful, glowing utopia.

Cameron's special effects masterpiece is very lifelike, and the 3-D performance capture and CGI effects essentially allow the viewer to enter the alien world of Pandora for the movie's 2½-hour running time, which only lends to the separation anxiety some individuals experience when they depart the movie theater.

"Virtual life is not real life and it never will be, but this is the pinnacle of what we can build in a virtual presentation so far," said Dr. Stephan Quentzel, psychiatrist and Medical Director for the Louis Armstrong Center for Music and Medicine at Beth Israel Medical Center in New York. "It has taken the best of our technology to create this virtual world and real life will never be as utopian as it seems onscreen. It makes real life seem more imperfect." Within the fan community, suggestions for battling feelings of depression after seeing the movie include things like playing "Avatar" video games or downloading the movie soundtrack, in addition to encouraging members to relate to other people outside the virtual realm and to seek out positive and constructive activities.

- Jo Piazza; Audiences experience 'Avatar' blues [cnn.com; Janurary 11, 2010]

So, let's review: Avatar is a "completely immersive spectacle" which has produced in some viewers "feelings of disgust with the human race and disengagement with reality" as well as suicidal ideation and the belief in some kind of supernatural afterlife upon death. Astute readers will immediately notice the similarities between this and the intended results of both military training and religious indoctrination.

And that is why I want to examine it more closely in our awesome new blog.