I am, as of this post, committed to writing a novel. It is fiction. Indeed, it is a genre fiction novel in the Speculative Fiction realm (Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror) because that genre area is one I am very familiar with and know well. That does not mean that I seek only to find a way to finance further operations; I am, as so many before me, using the creation of literature to communicate vitally important truths in a manner I cannot achieve in any other way. I am on my third draft, and I finished Chapter 5 on Thursday of last week. I start Chapter 6 tomorrow.
As this is a novel written as fiction, and intended to be sold as a commercial product, my first duty as a writer is to entertain. Nothing else I have to say means a damn thing if the reader is not willing to listen, and readers that enjoy what they read are more willing to do just that. So, no, I won't be following Ayn Rand's example; I'm aiming more for Tolkien, in that I too want to create a myth in order to demonstrate the power and importance of narrative as well as demonstrate how and why someone would want to use such power- i.e. why Empire wants such fundamental dominance of the individual.
I am not new at writing fiction. I've maintained an original fiction blog for five years now, and I've used that time to not only hone my craft as a writer but develop the discipline necessary to finish a project and make it readable. I have the benefit of knowing successful professionals, and I do read regularly. In other words, I have the bare minimum needed to seriously consider and attempt this project. I have Beta readers lined up to read the drafts as I finish them, and I expect that I will have something to offer sometime in 2015.
The consequence for my shift is that I will reduce this blog in priority. While a weekly schedule isn't that hard to keep up, and I've paced myself so far to handle this and the novel writing, I repeat what I said previously: should there be a schedule conflict, or some other pressing need, do count on this blog getting the chop first.
Sunday, September 28, 2014
Sunday, September 21, 2014
A Free Man Tells His Own Story
So, what's your story?
Such a simple question, right? No, it's not, and you know it because it's not the right question.
The right question is "So, who's telling your story?" If you truly are a free man, then the only proper response is "I am, and I alone."
In history, journalism, and political science we use the word "narrative" to mean "the story that a party tells to explain their perspective with regard to a given matter". Political campaigns are, for all intents and purposes, struggles over which narrative is more compelling to those who decide upon what to do or whom to elect with regards to those matters. Control over that narrative, therefore, means control of what story gets told and how it's presented. This is why politics is about illusion and perception, not reality.
Empire, as a toxic meme--or, as John Lash puts it, the "archonic infection"--requires the manipulation of one's paradigm in order to operate; as a fundamental, existential requirement it comprehends the need (as one comprehends the need to breathe to stay alive) to subvert, seize, and thereby control the narrative. Empire needs to tell the story of your life--of Mankind's life--in order to lay the foundation necessary for latter-order levels of dominance and control.
In more plain speech, we're talking about myth. No, not myth as a synonym for "lie" or "false", but the way that Joseph Campbell revived the term: "the narrative that a nation tells itself to explain how it relates to the environment wherein it exists". Those that control the mythology of the nation control the nation's narrative, and thereby exert control over the individual narrative of that nation's people. By shaping the very ground wherein battle is joined, those who control the narrative control the very language used--the symbols employed, and the meanings they convey--by all parties, constraining what is even conceived of in the minds of the combatants long before any conflict ensues. This is, in a very real sense, what ancients such as Sun Tzu meant by defeating an enemy first, and then joining battle to expand a victory.
If someone else tells your story, then they are dictating to you what you are to yourself. They tell you what your world is, and how you relate to it, and they exert real power over you by doing this because they con you into accepting their claims and thus subordinate your beliefs against you for their benefit. Belief is a very powerful thing; that which is not permitted within one's mind due to belief cannot ever be considered, let alone acted upon, so if you believe that you are weak and powerless then you shall conform to that belief- and that belief always stems from a myth that someone else foisted upon you when you were too weak in fact to resist it.
Slaves are chained, first and foremost, by the myths told to them about them by others. Empire is a slaver; it wants you to believe the myths told to you about you by it--it wants to control your narrative--and it cannot rely upon the physical, objective reality wherein facts exist and can be independently and universally verified to support its toxic mythologies. If you, on the other hand, build your own mythology upon that very same reality--the one with gravity, chemistry, physics, etc.--then your mythology will be stronger than anything that does not rely on that same foundation. A free man's mythology is self-made, builds upon the real world, and is told by no one but himself. He alone controls his narrative.
So, will you tell the myth of how you made Empire fall? No one else can. No one else will.
Such a simple question, right? No, it's not, and you know it because it's not the right question.
The right question is "So, who's telling your story?" If you truly are a free man, then the only proper response is "I am, and I alone."
In history, journalism, and political science we use the word "narrative" to mean "the story that a party tells to explain their perspective with regard to a given matter". Political campaigns are, for all intents and purposes, struggles over which narrative is more compelling to those who decide upon what to do or whom to elect with regards to those matters. Control over that narrative, therefore, means control of what story gets told and how it's presented. This is why politics is about illusion and perception, not reality.
Empire, as a toxic meme--or, as John Lash puts it, the "archonic infection"--requires the manipulation of one's paradigm in order to operate; as a fundamental, existential requirement it comprehends the need (as one comprehends the need to breathe to stay alive) to subvert, seize, and thereby control the narrative. Empire needs to tell the story of your life--of Mankind's life--in order to lay the foundation necessary for latter-order levels of dominance and control.
In more plain speech, we're talking about myth. No, not myth as a synonym for "lie" or "false", but the way that Joseph Campbell revived the term: "the narrative that a nation tells itself to explain how it relates to the environment wherein it exists". Those that control the mythology of the nation control the nation's narrative, and thereby exert control over the individual narrative of that nation's people. By shaping the very ground wherein battle is joined, those who control the narrative control the very language used--the symbols employed, and the meanings they convey--by all parties, constraining what is even conceived of in the minds of the combatants long before any conflict ensues. This is, in a very real sense, what ancients such as Sun Tzu meant by defeating an enemy first, and then joining battle to expand a victory.
If someone else tells your story, then they are dictating to you what you are to yourself. They tell you what your world is, and how you relate to it, and they exert real power over you by doing this because they con you into accepting their claims and thus subordinate your beliefs against you for their benefit. Belief is a very powerful thing; that which is not permitted within one's mind due to belief cannot ever be considered, let alone acted upon, so if you believe that you are weak and powerless then you shall conform to that belief- and that belief always stems from a myth that someone else foisted upon you when you were too weak in fact to resist it.
Slaves are chained, first and foremost, by the myths told to them about them by others. Empire is a slaver; it wants you to believe the myths told to you about you by it--it wants to control your narrative--and it cannot rely upon the physical, objective reality wherein facts exist and can be independently and universally verified to support its toxic mythologies. If you, on the other hand, build your own mythology upon that very same reality--the one with gravity, chemistry, physics, etc.--then your mythology will be stronger than anything that does not rely on that same foundation. A free man's mythology is self-made, builds upon the real world, and is told by no one but himself. He alone controls his narrative.
So, will you tell the myth of how you made Empire fall? No one else can. No one else will.
Sunday, September 14, 2014
The Gnostic Media Podcast #212: 9/11 & Cyclical, Fear-Based Mind Control in the Media w/ Lenon Honor
Recorded on the 10th of this past week, I am embedding this interview because it does a great deal of good about explaining what is going on with the psychology behind the inside job that was 9/11 and how this technique for mind control (especially via opinion control) works in practice. Do watch, and sub to both Lenon and Jan's respective YouTube channels.
Sunday, September 7, 2014
The Critical Literacy is Narrative Literacy
(Admin: Due to a death in the family, and therefore a funeral today, I am posting this entry early.)
I find it interesting that the emerging necessity in literacy is not, as is so often said, the literacy of programming- not in the form of writing and compiling applications to use in computer systems of various sorts. Instead, the necessary literacy is something that computer programming is only tangentially related to mastering: the literacy of narrative.
In other words, put down the C++ manual and go pick up Propaganda.
At this time, what we have is a very mature mastery of what narrative is and how to seize control over and manipulate the narratives of others. It is this literacy that I find, as a historian, to be both the issue and the solution to the problem in all sorts of societies and communities. This literacy is how systems of objective inquiry into how the physical world works can be, has been, and continues to be subborned to serve the ends of Empire. Far beyond such aphorisms as "Follow the Money", narrative literacy is the means by which resilient illusions and phantasms--built by way of application of discoveries regarding the brain, the mind, and how they work--can be made and maintained over generations, even centuries.
It is not merely the control over the flow of information. It is control over the presentation of information--who gets it, what do they get, when do they get it, where do they get it, how, and why--and control over the development of the skillset necessary to properly process information and produce true, faithful, and accurate conclusions that one can act upon. In other words, this is the shit that the Spook Sector has been about since intrigue began. Between 1984 and Brave New World, the multiple layers of this form of control become easier to see and thus to detect. If you can't conceive of a thing, then you can't comprehend it and thus act upon it, and Empire can prey upon you with ease; to quote Charles Baudelaire, "The finest trick of the devil is to persuade you that he does not exist". Narrative illiteracy, first and foremost, is the means by which said trick is made possible.
It is not enough to blithely accept some expert--no matter how esteemed--even if they speak within their known expertise. You must know who that expert is, whom they are tied to (and, if so, how), and if they have any history of questionable actions that would cast suspicion on the current claims. If you hear things by a third party, such as a news outlet, then you need to know them also- both the individuals doing the talking as well as the institutional relations of that outlet. (This is why even the appearance of impropriety is enough, in honest operations, to cause fallout up and including the liquidation of the offender(s) depending upon the severity of the offense.) Narrative literacy allows the individual to operate, as President Reagan is famous for saying, under the policy of "Trust, but Verify" because it takes the foundation of the Trivium and specializes it to permit the inquiry into such things in an efficient and effective manner: you know who to approach, what to say, when to say it, where to do it, how to do it, and through that process answer the vital question of "Why did they do or say what they said/did when/where/and how they did."
Why is this necessary? Because control over the narrative is very much a real and effective form of mind control, in that it is control over what is considered accepted and acceptable to think--it is opinion control, social control--because once a taste-maker decides what is or is not okay the forces of social conformity spin up and go into action. People are not hired, promoted, associated with, etc. for fear of themselves being ostracized in turn; real effects manifest over the opinion of another's opinion, effects that can lead to someone's death by means of deprivation because his access to resources is cut off by those with power over that access. Compare the careers of those who expose corruption within a given law enforcement agency or intelligence agency vs. those who contribute to covering them up; it is not just the whistleblowers who feel the blacklash, or their families, but everyone who makes any significant attempt to contravene the preferred opinion--the narrative--about that institution in the population at-large.
So, when you see someone post (or, more likely, repost) a claim that "it's over because we've got the pics/video/etc." you would be wise to not take that claim at face value. Thanks to the combination of nigh-ubiquitous Internet access in the First World (and increasing access worldwide), plenty of cheap communications technologies decentralizing the ability to communicate effectively and efficiently, and the increasing savvy of a young adult generation as to the technical aspect regarding information manipulation (which is the gateway to mastering the other sorts), what seems like an honest claim today can--and, increasingly, will if it's bullshit--be exposed as a false claim intended to shape the narrative in someone's preferred direction. (e.g. the analysis of the two recent ISIS beheadings by independent individuals)
"What's the story here?" is a good question to keep on hand now. Questioning the narrative imparted by a piece aids greatly in avoiding errors, and it is liberating your own narrative from those who would wield it against you that you become able to free yourself from Empire- and thus be your own savior, making Empire fall.
I find it interesting that the emerging necessity in literacy is not, as is so often said, the literacy of programming- not in the form of writing and compiling applications to use in computer systems of various sorts. Instead, the necessary literacy is something that computer programming is only tangentially related to mastering: the literacy of narrative.
In other words, put down the C++ manual and go pick up Propaganda.
At this time, what we have is a very mature mastery of what narrative is and how to seize control over and manipulate the narratives of others. It is this literacy that I find, as a historian, to be both the issue and the solution to the problem in all sorts of societies and communities. This literacy is how systems of objective inquiry into how the physical world works can be, has been, and continues to be subborned to serve the ends of Empire. Far beyond such aphorisms as "Follow the Money", narrative literacy is the means by which resilient illusions and phantasms--built by way of application of discoveries regarding the brain, the mind, and how they work--can be made and maintained over generations, even centuries.
It is not merely the control over the flow of information. It is control over the presentation of information--who gets it, what do they get, when do they get it, where do they get it, how, and why--and control over the development of the skillset necessary to properly process information and produce true, faithful, and accurate conclusions that one can act upon. In other words, this is the shit that the Spook Sector has been about since intrigue began. Between 1984 and Brave New World, the multiple layers of this form of control become easier to see and thus to detect. If you can't conceive of a thing, then you can't comprehend it and thus act upon it, and Empire can prey upon you with ease; to quote Charles Baudelaire, "The finest trick of the devil is to persuade you that he does not exist". Narrative illiteracy, first and foremost, is the means by which said trick is made possible.
It is not enough to blithely accept some expert--no matter how esteemed--even if they speak within their known expertise. You must know who that expert is, whom they are tied to (and, if so, how), and if they have any history of questionable actions that would cast suspicion on the current claims. If you hear things by a third party, such as a news outlet, then you need to know them also- both the individuals doing the talking as well as the institutional relations of that outlet. (This is why even the appearance of impropriety is enough, in honest operations, to cause fallout up and including the liquidation of the offender(s) depending upon the severity of the offense.) Narrative literacy allows the individual to operate, as President Reagan is famous for saying, under the policy of "Trust, but Verify" because it takes the foundation of the Trivium and specializes it to permit the inquiry into such things in an efficient and effective manner: you know who to approach, what to say, when to say it, where to do it, how to do it, and through that process answer the vital question of "Why did they do or say what they said/did when/where/and how they did."
Why is this necessary? Because control over the narrative is very much a real and effective form of mind control, in that it is control over what is considered accepted and acceptable to think--it is opinion control, social control--because once a taste-maker decides what is or is not okay the forces of social conformity spin up and go into action. People are not hired, promoted, associated with, etc. for fear of themselves being ostracized in turn; real effects manifest over the opinion of another's opinion, effects that can lead to someone's death by means of deprivation because his access to resources is cut off by those with power over that access. Compare the careers of those who expose corruption within a given law enforcement agency or intelligence agency vs. those who contribute to covering them up; it is not just the whistleblowers who feel the blacklash, or their families, but everyone who makes any significant attempt to contravene the preferred opinion--the narrative--about that institution in the population at-large.
So, when you see someone post (or, more likely, repost) a claim that "it's over because we've got the pics/video/etc." you would be wise to not take that claim at face value. Thanks to the combination of nigh-ubiquitous Internet access in the First World (and increasing access worldwide), plenty of cheap communications technologies decentralizing the ability to communicate effectively and efficiently, and the increasing savvy of a young adult generation as to the technical aspect regarding information manipulation (which is the gateway to mastering the other sorts), what seems like an honest claim today can--and, increasingly, will if it's bullshit--be exposed as a false claim intended to shape the narrative in someone's preferred direction. (e.g. the analysis of the two recent ISIS beheadings by independent individuals)
"What's the story here?" is a good question to keep on hand now. Questioning the narrative imparted by a piece aids greatly in avoiding errors, and it is liberating your own narrative from those who would wield it against you that you become able to free yourself from Empire- and thus be your own savior, making Empire fall.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)