Re: <nettime> dark days

[Newmedia@aol.com]

Felix:
 
> One is against authoritarian regimes . . .
> Another one is against the subversion 
> of the democratic processes . . . And, 
> one is against the increasing subversion 
> of civil liberties . . .
 
Fascinating how you "frame" all this.  Authoritarian!   Democratic!  
Liberty!  Subversion!
 
As you recall, the juxtapositioning of "democratic" with "authoritarian"  
comes from the psychological warfare community during WW II.  Initially  this 
formulation was aimed at "fascism" and then it became the basis of the Cold 
 War against "communism."  Now, when it isn't being aimed at  
"neo-liberalism," it is being focused on China, via the US State Dept and the  panoply of 
related NGOs, NYTimes etc.
 
Among the early leaders in this effort were Gregory Bateson and Margaret  
Mead, who are the "heroes" of Fred Turner's forthcoming "The Democratic  
Surround," which is positioned as the prequel to his 2006 "From Counterculture  
to Cyberculture," where Californian ideologist Stewart Brand was the  
"hero."   This psy-war sensibility was also at the core of the 1950  
"Authoritarian Personality" by the Frankfurt School's Adorno and the "CIA's"  Nevitt 
Sanford.
 
For those who haven't read them, I'd suggest that Gregory Bateson's  
"Conscious Purpose vs. Nature" speech at the 1967 "Dialectics of Liberation"  
conference in London -- sponsored by the Tavistock Institute and published as  
"To Free a Generation" -- might be useful, along with Mary Catherine 
Bateson's  account of her father's conference on the topic of "terra-forming" 
humanity in  the 1977 "Our Own Metaphor: A Personal Account of a Conference on the 
Effects of  Conscious Purpose on Human Adaptation."
 
As Bateson later revealed, after his years of LSD trips and adventures in  
self-brainwashing (i.e. NLP etc), the basis of his work was Carl Jung's  
*gnostic* religious speculations in his 1916 "Seven Sermons to the Dead," as  
subsequently elaborated in Jung's recently published "Red Book" private  
notebook.  Yes, there is a "religion" behind what you are describing and  
"subversion" is its cardinal sin.
 
To the extent that the "struggles" are as you describe them, they are  at 
the heart of the "Rockefeller" effort to "social engineer" the world through  
"control by choice" for more than 60 years.  And, the "civil liberties" you 
 describe are the result of "rigging the maze" to provide the "illusion of  
free-will."  In this world, the only liberty involved is the liberty to  
consume. without questioning the architecture of the maze itself.
 
You are correct that these efforts have not been successful so far  and, 
based on where digital technology is taking us, aren't likely to be  
successful in the future!
 
If your goal is to "free a generation," then these are indeed very dark  
days . . . 
 
Mark Stahlman
Brooklyn NY

 

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