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 Posted: Thu Mar 06, 2008 2:55 pm |
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Etienne de la Boetie – excerpt from The Discourse of Voluntary Servitude (1550’s) -
“…when the point is reached, through big favors or little ones, that large profits or small are obtained under a tyrant, there are found almost as many people to whom tyranny seems advantageous as those to whom liberty would seem desirable…. whenever a ruler makes himself a dictator, all the wicked dregs of the nation --- I do not mean the pack of petty thieves and earless ruffians who, in a republic, are unimportant in evil or good --- but all those who are corrupted by burning ambition or extraordinary avarice, these gather around him and support him in order to have a share in the booty and to constitute themselves petty chiefs under the big tyrant.”
(for the complete work see http://tmh.floonet.net/articles/laboetie.html )
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Paddy Chayefsky – excerpts from the screenplay of ‘Network’ (1976) :
Howard Beale (TV news announcer speaking on air): You people are beginning to believe the illusions we’re spinning here, you’re beginning to believe that the tube is reality and your own lives are unreal. You do. Why, whatever the tube tells you: you dress like the tube, you eat like the tube, you raise your children like the tube, you even think like the tube. This is mass madness, you maniacs. In God’s name, you people are the real thing, WE are the illusion.
Later in the film, a meeting takes place between Arthur Jensen ,a corporate executive, and Howard Beale in response to Beale’s efforts to mobilize the American public to block the takeover of an American television corporation by Arab interests…
Jensen: You have meddled with the primal forces of nature, Mr. Beale, and I won’t have it, is that clear?! You think you have merely stopped a business deal – that is not the case! The Arabs have taken billions of dollars out of this country and now they must put it back. It is ebb and flow, tidal gravity, it is ecological balance! You are an old man who thinks in terms of nations and peoples. There are no nations! There are no peoples! There are no Russians. There are no Arabs! There are no third worlds! There is no West! There is only one holistic system of systems, one vast and immane, interwoven, interacting, muti-variate, multinational dominion of dollars! petro-dollars, electro-dollars, multi-dollars!, Reichmarks, rubles, rin, pounds, and schekels! It is the international system of currency that determines the totality of life on this planet! That is the natural order of things today! And you have meddled with the primal forces of nature, and you will atone! Am I getting through to you, Mr. Beale?
You get up on your little twenty-one inch screen, and howl about America and democracy. There is no America. There is no democracy. There is only IBM and ITT and A T and T and Dupont, Dow, Union Carbide and Exxon. Those are the nations of the world today. What do you think the Russians talk about in their councils of state -- Karl Marx? They pull out their linear programming charts, statistical decision theories and minimax solutions and compute the price-cost probabilities of their transactions and investments just as we do. We no longer live in a world of nations and ideologies, Mr. Beale. The world is a college of corporations, inexorably determined by the immutable by-laws of business. The world is a business, Mr. Beale! It has been since man crawled out of the slime, and our children, Mr. Beale, will live to see that perfect world in which there is no war and famine, oppression and brutality – one vast and ecumenical holding company, for whom all men will work to serve a common profit, in which all men will hold a share of stock, all necessities provided, all anxieties tranquilized, all boredom amused. And I have chosen you to preach this evangel, Mr. Beale.
Howard: Why me?
Jensen: Because you’re on television, dummy. Sixty million people watch you every night of the week, Monday through Friday.
Howard: I have seen the face of God!
Jensen: You just might be right, Mr. Beale!
Narrator: That evening, Howard Beale went on the air to preach the corporate cosmology of Arthur Jensen.
Howard (on television): Last night, I got up here and asked you people to stand up and fight for your heritage, and you did and it was beautiful. Six million telegrams were received at the White House. The Arab takeover of C. C. and A. has been stopped. The people spoke, the people won. It was a radiant eruption of democracy. But I think that was it, fellers. That sort of thing isn’t likely to happen again. Because, in the bottom of all our terrified souls, we all know that democracy is a dying giant, a sick, sick dying, decaying political concept, writhing in its final pain. I don’t mean the United States is finished as a world power. The United States is the most powerful, the richest, the most advanced country in the world, light-years ahead of any other country. And I don’t mean the Communists are going to take over the world. The Communists are deader than we are. What’s finished is the idea that this great country is dedicated to the freedom and flourishing of every individual in it. It’s the individual that’s finished. It’s the single, solitary human being who’s finished. It’s every single one of you out there who’s finished. Because this is no longer a nation of independent individuals. This is a nation of two hundred odd million transistorized, deodorized, whiter-than-white, steel-belted bodies, totally unnecessary as human beings and as replaceable as piston rods –
Later again speaking on the air -
Howard: Well the time has come to say: is dehumanization such a bad word? Because good or bad, that’s what’s so. The whole world is becoming humanoid, creatures that look human but aren’t. The whole world, not just us. We’re just the most advanced country, so we’re getting there first -- The whole world’s people are becoming mass-produced, programmed, wired, insensate things useful only to produce and consume other mass-produced things, all of them as unnecessary and useless as we are -- that’s the simple truth you have to grasp, that human existence is an utterly futile and purposeless thing -- because once you’ve grasped that, the whole universe becomes orderly and comprehensible – We are living right now in what has to be called a corporate society, a corporate world, a corporate universe. This world quite simply is a vast cosmology of small corporations orbiting around larger corporations who, in turn, revolve around giant corporations – and this whole, endless, ultimate cosmology is expressly designed for the production and consumption of useless things --
(for the full script see http://corky.net/scripts/network.html , for video see
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-HjHwrIuqHs&NR=1 , http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_AI8mC8XucY)
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Dear Untamed Newsletter Subscriber,
Once again the zoo-keepers present their domesticated human animals residing in the politically-defined region of the planet referred to as The United States of America their quadrennial opportunity to vote for their zoo manager/President.
This year's remaining options are a somewhat interesting trio - a woman, a black man, and a fiesty ex-POW. For those who even bother to pay attention, a great deal of media focus is being directed towards this election. It is being presented on the news networks in the style of a horserace/football bowl game/boxing match/talent show - a manner which heightens its appeal to the sports/war/reality TV-addicted American public.
While seeking to keep the public entertained and distracted for another eight months with this spectacle, the media are also dutifully working hard to create the illusion that the system can be believed in, that these candidates represent real choices, and that by voting for one of them an individual is empowered.
For my American readers....
You will only be offered candidates who are completely acceptable to the zoo-keepers and who will absolutely obey them in their relentless quest for wealth and power.
Any individual who has run the political gauntlet long enough to even be considered a possible candidate for the position of zoo manager has had to betray itself and positive human values so many times and for so long that s/he should not be believed or trusted.
While the candidates inevitably have stylistic differences, in reality at most they represent a good cop/ bad cop scenario with essentially the same final outcome in store for the zoo animals no matter who is allowed to 'win'.
Having a zoo manager that the herd likes/accepts/trusts is useful, given the zoo-keepers' continuous need to steer it in one direction or another. However, the shared greed among domesticated humans (as described over 400 years ago in de la Boetie's passage above), and especially among those in America, virtually guarantees their obedience.
That being said, if the time should ever come that the carrot approach does not work (increasingly less likely with the heightened infantilization of domesticated humanity), the zoo manager will be fully capable of taking off the gloves and bringing out the whip to get the masses back in line (this does, in fact, happen already regularly to those few who annoy the system enough). However, due to their very dependent state of being, a subtle and simple restriction of comfort of some type should be more than sufficient to have them respond in the manner required.
The same zoo manager who made a point while campaigning of repeatedly kissing babies to display its love of innocent life will, without hesitation, kill, torture, and mutilate the powerless, babies included, in order to enrich those whom s/he obeys. S/he will, of course, have the domesticated servants do the dirty work and literally get the blood on their hands - and they will!
While these comments are with respect to the US elections, they apply for the all the rest of the countries on the planet. After all, to repeat what Jensen said (above) - "There are no nations!...There is only one holistic system of systems, one vast and immane, interwoven, interacting, muti-variate, multinational dominion of dollars! petro-dollars, electro-dollars, multi-dollars!, Reichmarks, rubles, rin, pounds, and schekels! It is the international system of currency that determines the totality of life on this planet!"
Furthermore, while I have referred above to domesticated humans in the third person, this should be corrected. I am not talking about 'them'. I am talking about 'us'. To some degree or another, I am confident that all of us are residing within our cages at this point, internal and external.
As the insanity goes on around and within you and me, we have the opportunity to begin the long process of reclaiming ownership of our lives. An important part of that is to start seeing things for what they really are. When the fictional character, Howard Beale, did so in the film 'Network' he became agitated, and encouraged his to viewers to publicly shout 'I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this any more!' (video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dib2-HBsF08 - caged human animals! )
Things have devolved since the movie's release thirty-two years ago, revealing Chayefsky's insight and anticipation of what lay ahead to have been remarkable. While, like Howard Beale, I am not optimistic about the direction our species is heading towards generally, I do know that individuals can create real change within their own lives. I have seen it and have experienced it myself.
My suggestion is to not waste time or energy on the zoo manager selection process. Instead, start a revolution within yourself and on your tiny corner of the planet. Become your own leader of your own life. Untame yourself as much as you can. You will be surprised at what you can achieve when you invest your resources wisely in yourself and in what really matters.
Regards,
Peter Hercules |
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