What you think about, what you crave, what you value, what you believe, no matter what it is ... is your religion. Whether you live for God, your country, science, "technocracy", Zionism, Hip Hop, college, sex, money, or "real" estate - in whatever you have faith, in whatever you have confidence ... is your religion.Whatever you get up and go do tomorrow ... is your God.
Everything else is talk.
The State Of . . . said...
Not only is shopping a form of religion in America, it's also a patriotic duty. I watched the news about "Black Friday" and the reporters seemed to be cheerleaders pumping up "Americans" do insure that the sales numbers beat forecasts and showed the rest of the world that America's economy is healthy despite subprime. They must have used the word "Americans" 20x.
Exodus Mentality said...
I got up today and read a book, "Come On People" by Cosby and Pouissant. I am now wondering if I should pray to Cosby, or Pouissant, or maybe just books in general? Later today I plan to try to make a little money so I can feed and clothe the family. Is money my God? Since we all have to try to earn it, is money everybody's God? - Or maybe I'm taking this post to literally?
Dwight, in order to be effective, your religion must be more materialistic than materialism. Otherwise, you run the risk of succumbing to neurobiological sickness of faith.- Money is one of the key sacraments - whose efficacy has been demonstrated across millenia, though only recently has it begun to be understood in any careful or systematic way. [intellectually aggressive jewel of the week]
CNulan Translation: We are machines. Consciousness is chemical. Human experience can be engineered by manipulating binary code and applying mathematical theorems. Notice the anti-God meme casually inserted in the above post by my dear brother CNu “you run the risk of succumbing to neurobiological sickness of faith.”
This most recent Secular Intifada seeks to further separate people from God. The religion of Science suggests the religion of God is insanity. (reference any post by Skip Sievert)
They say we should have faith in “neurotransmitters”, research and Freud. We should not have faith in communion, scripture, meditation, prayer and the Prophets.
Under the guise of removing the God myth, they scientific secularists seek to replace one God for another. “Don’t worship your God, worship our experts.” “Worship this guy who wrote a book.” “Worship this Nobel Laureate, who says we can download our consciousness into an iPod.” “We can extend your life. You can live forever.” “Tummy tuck, boob job, erections for octogenarians.” “We can inhibit your neuro-allowances and downgrade your uptake-transmitters.”
"So, what's it gonna be? Him or me?
We can cruise the world with pearls, gator boots for girls" - Biggie Smalls
We can cruise the world with pearls, gator boots for girls" - Biggie Smalls
Will it be the God of universal love, represented by a Christ or a Mohammed or a Moses?
Or will it be God of self, represented by Alan Greenspan, Warren Buffet, Rupert Murdoch, Bill Clinton, Wilhelm Wundt, FOX, GLAAD, or AIPAC?
Will ministers, monks, mullahs, and yogis, be replaced by genome splicing scientists, bankers, lobbyists and psychologists?
44 comments:
Sad.
A country of people in debt, lining up at some unGodly hour to accumulate more debt.
Then having to work longer hours to pay off that debt.
Debt is slavery and what we see here are people volunteering for their own enslavement.
I feel you Insurgent, but I wouldn't be so quick to believe that these people are choosing consciously. Since the post-World War II era, corporations have used advanced tools of psychology to socially engineer people with the goal of enhancing consumer demand which in turn drives the market. I was recently amused to hear that even my friend, Craig Nulan, had to combat this trend in his daughter. It lets me know how vulnerable we all are to manipulation and addiction. Americans just happen to be subject to the most potent form of the consumption virus but citizens of UAE and China are not far behind.
d.o.p.a.m.i.n.e.
D.O.P.A.M.I.N.E.
hegemony.....,
Not only is shopping a form of religion in America, it's also a patriotic duty. I watched the news about "Black Friday" and the reporters seemed to be cheerleaders pumping up "Americans" do insure that the sales numbers beat forecasts and showed the rest of the world that America's economy is healthy despite subprime. They must have used the word "Americans" 20x.
Americans just happen to be subject to the most potent form of the consumption virus but citizens of UAE and China are not far behind.
Sub,
You ain't lying. I was in China in '05 and in the UAE in May of this year and was blown away by the religion of consumerism that is being programmed in both places.
Especially UAE. Most of the stops on our tour were malls and that's all everyone there does - consume, consume, consume.
How do you account for the dopamine hegemony's proven ability to supplant and erase every alternative cultural configuration that it has encountered to date?
I got up today and read a book, "Come On People" by Cosby and Pouissant. I am now wondering if I should pray to Cosby, or Pouissant, or maybe just books in general? Later today I plan to try to make a little money so I can feed and clothe the family. Is money my God? Since we all have to try to earn it, is money everybody's God?
Or maybe I'm taking this post to literally?
CNu,
I thought about responding to your question, but I realize I need a little more education on the concept of dopamine hegemony. You've used the phrase a few times, but I'm not sure I fully get it. Do you mind elucidating for me?
Dwight, in order to be effective, your religion must be more materialistic than materialism. Otherwise, you run the risk of succumbing to neurobiological sickness of faith.
Money is one of the key sacraments - whose efficacy has been demonstrated across millenia, though only recently has it begun to be understood in any careful or systematic way.
Dina,
This rabbit hole is very, very deep - and I haven't worked it out to my complete satisfaction. So let me offer something preliminary for your consideration.
As you are probably aware, there are quite a few key neurotransmitters involved in our ordinary waking state. However, none are as abundant as the king and queen - dopamine and serotonin.
Now, with the exception of certain alkali poisons, most well known psychedelic compounds work via the mechanism of serotonin re-uptake inhibition, as also the leading anti-depressant drugs like prozac.
Are you familiar with the subjective effects of substances conducing to serotonin reuptake inhibition? If so, would you be inclined to think that these may be intimately involved with the human experience of qualia and states that we associate with religiosity?
Could the doors of our spiritual perception be serotoninergic?
(which begs then the question - what precisely are these substance doing/revealing to those who've experienced elevated levels of them in their nervous systems?)
and a related question before I hit the door...,
Why are the tightly regulated reuptake inhibitors permitted and sold to millions and millions of unhappy, meaning deprived folks, while the more extravagantly powerful and non-addicting versions (like LSD) are very, very strictly prohibited?
You know there's quite a history here....,
Are you familiar with the subjective effects of substances conducing to serotonin reuptake inhibition? If so, would you be inclined to think that these may be intimately involved with the human experience of qualia and states that we associate with religiosity?
Could the doors of our spiritual perception be serotoninergic?
I am somewhat familiar with the effects of the reuptake inhibitors, having a few friends who have taken medications for depression and anxiety. They are different people when they pop those little pills.
And yes, it is not a stretch to believe that substances that produce such an effect would impact religiosity and the overall "experience" of life.
Interesting, I started reading the book "Conversations With God" over the weekend and one of the lines in the book echoed something Joseph Campbell says about the need for mythology - religion reflects the individual's need to "experience" life.
Serotonin and dopamine necessarily affect our "experience" of life, which perhaps explains why civilizations throughout history have used substances in their rites, whether it be paote, marijuana or a recent one I read about in a Central African tribe (but the name of the drug escapes me now). With the African tribe, the substance is used as part of the initiation of a young boy into manhood.
Is your suggestion that control of or, rather, over such substances determines the hegemons of society?
Iboga is likely the african substance you have in mind.
Is your suggestion that control of or, rather, over such substances determines the hegemons of society?
No. My assertion is that control over access to what is called the "subconscious" is what determines hegemony. Accordingly, the dopamine hegemon SEVERELY restricts direct access to the contents and qualia of the subconscious - or what I like to euphemistically like to call "the rabbit-hole".
Strong reuptake inhibitors are prohibited because they offer easy access to the subconscious which can otherwise only be acquired through rather strenuous mental and physical disciplines and privations.
With access to the subconscious effectively stifled, the hegemon is free to wield various methods and tools to fill in the "meaning gap" - and in the process - consolidate control of the one route through which it is possible to become free.
CNulan Translation: We are machines. Consciousness is chemical. Human experience can be engineered by manipulating binary code and applying mathematical theorems.
Notice the anti-God meme casually inserted in the above post by my dear brother CNu “you run the risk of succumbing to neurobiological sickness of faith.”
You unloaded a tad early there DV..., don't worry, I hear that that happens even to the very best of you humans.
ROTFLMBAO!!!!!
But you may want to reconsider your theory of concerning the supremacy of what's below your belt buckle.
I give you Fr. John Romanides on the neurobiological sickness...., and remember, humility is the beginning of wisdom brah.
When I get back to this with a little more time, and assuming that Dina or others wish to continue, we can correspond a little further about the what, why, and wherefore leading me to propose that access to the subconscious equals access to what you vague new-agey handwaivers and poseurs like to refer to as "spiritual" - and why such great efforts are made at access denial.
CNu,
You've had my head spinning with this topic. The synapses are firing at full speed.
Immediate thoughts have to do with chemically processed food and the addictive approach to it that is being developed; sex and how it is being perverted and divorced from its most human aspects; movies and tv and how they are used to create the "rush".
Prohibit access to the natural stuff and, in its place, things that mimic the "experience" of life without actually providing it.
A friend of mine dated a guy who was diagnosed as bipolar. His Big Pharma engineered meds never did it for him, but he found calm and stability when he smoked weed.
Fascinating...
CNu,
The dopamine hegemony has been studying the effects of their propaganda for thousands of years. They know that in order to control a population, you must first control the communication that population receives. Once you control the population, you control the culture. Once you control the culture, you control the mind and the body.
I just read in the paper that the Univ. of Calif. did a study on the effects of horror films on people. The stated purpose of this study was to help film producers create more effective horror films. Now, if they are doing studies for such trivial purposes as this - at a university, no less - imagine what the military and media are doing.
Immediate thoughts have to do with chemically processed food and the addictive approach to it that is being developed; sex and how it is being perverted and divorced from its most human aspects; movies and tv and how they are used to create the "rush".
All of that and much much more Dina...., the hegemon is truly the prince of lies because even from his earliest experimental approaches to the prohibition;
1937-50: “Negro entertainers with their jazz and swing music are declared an outgrowth of marihuana use which possesses white women to tap their feet.” —statements to Congress by Anslinger, FBN
the American hegemon has built fear of altered states of consciousness on the pre-existing foundation of racism - which is itself a very specific form of subconscious manipulation - now don't get me wrong here - I don't believe these tricks were designed by evil genius, but that instead, evil genius realized their power and the power of their conjugation - and used it with increasingly ruthless abandon as a primary instrumentality of collective governance.
J,
Do you think that doing a study on making "effective" horror films really is trivial? One must wonder, "effective for what?"
CNu,
Isn't fear itself a dopamine/serotonin high (which would explain why people watch horror films and ride roller coasters)? So, not just racism, but anything that can effectively elicit fear from the populace can be used as an instrument of control?
People who are scared lose all capacity for spiritual Godly understanding. God is the opposite of fear, which perhaps explains the infiltration of religion centuries ago to use it as an instrument of fear rather than a philosophy of understanding, i.e. dopamine/serotonin hegemony.
The dopamine hegemony has been studying the effects of their propaganda for thousands of years.
No.
I'd put it at closer to 500 years. It is imperative that you take into consideration the profound breaks in the historical cycles. There really was a Dark Age in western europe during which the break between Byzantine and Catholic worlds became complete and permanent. It was into this breach that al-Islam entered as the light and source of much that is now considered "western" civilization.
There was a mortal struggle for the direction, governance, and control of western europe. It is on the nearer side of that struggle, with the expulsion of the Moors and jews from Spain, that you find the beginnings in earnest of the present cycle of dopamine hegemony.
I mark the beginning with the invention of corporations by the Elizabethan sorcerer John Dee and the subsequent treaty of Westphalia and beginning of nation states.
But that's too much time for present purposes on comparatively ancient history. If we want to be serious about how this current hegemon operates, while the backstory has some bearing, it's little things like the conventionally inexplicable 15-20 year gap between the invention of television and its commercial proliferation.
There is much to be gleaned - I suspect - from understanding who the wealthy individuals were who had televisions from the late 1920's when Philo Farnsworth invented his Image Dissector up until ~1940 when the decision was taken to make these newfangled instruments of propaganda (oops I mean information interchange) available to the general public.
About teevee Farnsworth had the following to say;
"There's nothing on it worthwhile, and we're not going to watch it in this household, and I don't want it in your intellectual diet." - Philo Farnsworth's feelings about watching television.
Isn't fear itself a dopamine/serotonin high (which would explain why people watch horror films and ride roller coasters)? So, not just racism, but anything that can effectively elicit fear from the populace can be used as an instrument of control?
People who are scared lose all capacity for spiritual Godly understanding.
When did the catholic church partner with the western feudal elites in earnest to begin their jointly operated program of systematic fear mongering?
Who chiefly was demonized during this pogrom? (still somewhat in the nature of ancient history, however, it's history that has been codified deep into the legal system and so deep into the language that it's almost become unrecognizable - the term that I chiefly prefer to use for it is "malificium" or when the church and the feudal elites waged a centuries long war on "clever women" and their allies)
DV - that little image you used next to the premature translation you offered up front for what I'd written put me in mind of Joey's cockpit tour in the movie Airplane. Far from being schooled, that's just you in profile leaning over and asking me,
"Joey, have you ever seen a grown man naked?"
ROTFLMBAO!!!!
"Will it be the God of universal love, represented by a Christ or a Mohammed or a Moses?"
Exodus Mentality is ROTFLMBAO right about now.
Universal Love. eh? Doesn't the myth of Moses climax with the divine genocide of the first born of Egypt? Didn't Mohammed teach that plenty good sex awaited those who "smite the infidels"? As for Christ, the watered down King James version might have been a kinder gentler diety, but the earlier stories were about a revolutionary, with no love for those who offended his Father. Is this the "universal" love of which thou dost speaketh?
And before you lump me into category #2, I categorically reject both of the choices as currently offered. Greenspam, Buffet, et al can kiss my... well, you know.
"Will ministers, monks, mullahs, and yogis, be replaced by genome splicing scientists, bankers, lobbyists and psychologists?"
I don't like playing end sum games, but doesn't the above question presuppose the legitimacy of one or the other? Perhaps both are fundamentally flawed concepts as currently understood. (I won't even challenge lumping lobbyists and bankers in with scientists, simply becasue I will grant that there is a "science" to almost anything done at higher levels of thought and motivation.)
@ CNu, materialistic vs materialism.... you lost me brah.
"The dopamine hegemony has been studying the effects of their propaganda for thousands of years.
No. I'd put it at closer to 500 years."
Clear this up for me, are we referring to how long people have been experimenting with mind altering drugs? If so, I'd have to agree with the Thousands estimate. If you are referring to how long people have actually had a fundamental understanding of the chemical and biological functions of the human brain, I'd have to guess it's been less than 50 years of useful knowledge. As always, I stand ready to be corrected.
When did the catholic church partner with the western feudal elites in earnest to begin their jointly operated program of systematic fear mongering?
It's been at least 500 years, although I'm sure it's been going on far longer, but on a less centralized, sophisticated scale. Machiavelli's The Prince is still read by leaders to this day because of its understanding of access to the subconscious.
Ex,
If I understand CNu, the dopamine hegemony we're talking about is control over human emotion/subconscious. Use of and prohibition of drugs is only one piece of that discourse.
Fear and guilt are similar weapons used against the masses with great efficacy.
It is worth noting that the rulers often succeed in directing the fear of the populace and their hatred toward things from which the populace might actually benefit. Anything that liberates individuals is a threat to the State.
This is the lesson of Jesus' crucifiction - no matter how great, giving, loving, etc., the rulers can convince the people to hate who they should love.
Lawdy, lawdy. Even if there were such a thing as a "dopamine hegemony", the question is who are these folks and what type system of rule have they implemented?
As to God.
The definition of God is "that which can not be defined by anything else". That is, God is the only concept/thing/person which is self-defining.
Find what else there is that can not be defined by anything else than itself, and you will have found God.
Michael Fisher
Find what else there is that can not be defined by anything else than itself, and you will have found Denmark Vesey.
@ CNu, materialistic vs materialism.... you lost me brah.
Figure of speech. If your religion (re-ligare) doesn't tangibly put you in touch with God, then you've been sold an ersatz product and need to "press-on" until you find something that will tangibly and materially serve the purpose. Cause everything else is merely conversation....,
Clear this up for me, are we referring to how long people have been experimenting with mind altering drugs?
Why ever would I refer (or anyone else for that matter) to such a thing as human experimentation with altered states of awarness a "dopamine HEGEMONY"? No, you have to read the links mane, or it's a completely lost cause.
If you are referring to how long people have actually had a fundamental understanding of the chemical and biological functions of the human brain, I'd have to guess it's been less than 50 years of useful knowledge.
Guess you don't put much stock by Taoist or Ayurvedic medicine to name a pair for which there exists a comprehensive and ancient literature and pharmacopia. (and you know the Chinese still use acupuncture as a general anesthetic for major surgeries?)
What I was referring to as relatively recent, i.e., about 500 years, was the systematic use of addictions and addictive behaviors as a intentional mechanism of governance. THAT'S what the dopamine hegemony is all about.
I don't know if you were around in September when DV posted about the addictiveness of refined sugar..., but that's when consideration of addictions in governance got kicked off in earnest.
DV, you actually are right about that one.
You are nothing but a sum of myriad probability waves. That which collapses the sum of waves and locates you where you are is...what?
Exodus Mentality said :
"Universal Love. eh? Doesn't the myth of Moses climax with the divine genocide of the first born of Egypt? Didn't Mohammed teach that plenty good sex awaited those who "smite the infidels"? As for Christ, the watered down King James version might have been a kinder gentler diety, but the earlier stories were about a revolutionary, with no love for those who offended his Father. Is this the "universal" love of which thou dost speaketh?"
Good comment man and a nice breath of reality into this oddly phrased non choice.
D.V. you really ought to get out more.
You sound like Rev. John Hagee or maybe Rev. Mr. Dollar, or maybe Hal Linsey.
Are you a religious crackpot or what ?
I agree Skip sheesh I like you man but you gotta get outta this religion thing. All wars are based on religion. Yall brothers are deep what kind of education do u have and where do you live? Religion is merely apart of man's evolution. His realization of himself his look inward, Negro you are God! But I believe in Goodness and the force of good. I also believe in Gravity.
Agreeing with Skip and anon. What kind of loving god orders you to go into a land where the LEGAL occupants are and 'leave not one alive, man, woman nor child?' where the occupants aren't aggressors, aren't doing anything but minding their own business?
Zech
14:2 For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city.
Luke
19:27 But those mine enemies, which would not that I should reign over them, bring hither, and slay [them] before me. (jesus)
Koran
27:4 Lo! as for those who believe not in the Hereafter, We have made their works fairseeming unto them so that they are all astray.
27:5 Those are they for whom is the worst of punishment, and in the Hereafter they will be the greatest losers.
You are nothing but a sum of myriad probability waves. That which collapses the sum of waves and locates you where you are is...what?
An orchestrated objective reduction or Orch OR event.
I'm at least a little curious to know, considering the source of this dissociated fragment of quantum mechanical jargon, was this just bullshyte contra bullshyte in response to DV's joke cracking, or, if this is something you actually purport to believe?
If the latter, further questions to follow - because it seems the type of thing that would militate profoundly against your dogged deductivism (reductionism per Bro. Makheru) around the GSWS.
1. Classical physics assumes that reality is made of material objects
2. Larger objects can be reduced to smaller ones
3. Objects behave deterministically
4. Objects exist and can be known independently of the subjects who study them.
5. These assumptions and descriptive methods have proven useful in the natural sciences, but they have had considerable difficulty generating an explanation for subjectivity or consciousness.
6. Operating from a classical model, students of the mind have developed increasingly elaborate theories of those aspects of consciousness that are shared by machines, like the functional organization and operations of mental activities that can be imitated in "software" and their relationship to the supposed physical "hardware" of the brain.
6.(a).(and of life and the genome structures and processes fundamental to life)
7. Little progress has been made in explaining the most fundamental aspects of subjectivity or consciousness
a. The non-computability of certain mental capabilities
b. The fact of subjective experience
8. With this failure has come little insight into central features of the human condition associated with experiences, like free will, creativity, purpose, and meaning.
9. The "hard problem" of consciousness is rooted in the materialism of classical physics, namely how could material objects (neurons) generate something non-material like subjectivity or consciousness?
Cnulan I assume that you wandered in to this topic from wikipedia and actually have lots of other things on your mind that are unrelated and you are sublimating those thoughts here.
Either that or maybe you just like being an obscure, very obscure, contrary preacher on remote and basically meaningless phrases.
You know what they say about "assumptions" skippy? That thought aside, if I was genuinely interested in your opinion, I'd stick a gun in my mouth...,
Skip and cnulan give me some books Negros suggest a brotha some books!!!!!!!!!....... Please.
Well god forbid that C.notenulan. Ha ha.
Well as is said, 'opinions are like assholes, everyone has one, some are perfect, and others have hemorrhoids.
So be prepared, with mental prep H.
Ha. You apparently 'love' abstract concepts or sociological drivel.
Anon. I suggest 'The Ancient Near East. volume one, edited by Pritchard.
Also Egypt, Canaan, and Israel in Ancient Times, by Donald Redford.
Also most anything by Michael Grant, such as The Classical Greeks.
Those are all books written by great intellectuals and are secular (objective accounts) concerning our history and the history of religion and myth.
Most any of those would be available in a good used book store or on the NET somewhere as a torrent.
Nothing like a real book in the hand though. Especially when you have a few keepers.
II,
Oh, trust me, when I read the "study," I immediately realized that this "study" was probably something some neocon concocted to use in some plot.
anon.., have a copy of this little pamphlet.
Browse it, let me know if you find its pov novel, interesting, or useful, and if so, there are a number of others related to it that can placed at your disposal.
cnulan...
"If the latter, further questions to follow - because it seems the type of thing that would militate profoundly against your dogged deductivism (reductionism per Bro. Makheru) around the GSWS."
Let the questions flow, bro.
Mr. Ouspensky: ?
Here is a person asking for some basic ideas and you refer them to an older dog that liked to chase its tail ?
Wow. You are an idiot.
While said information is no doubt interesting and entertaining sociological ranting, it has little to nothing to do with any kind of present reality in the system we are in and what alternatives to that system are.
Follow me ?
Why point someone to look down a deep well for information where the bottom can not really be made out.
While the given information may be very interesting to bored and spoiled 'intellectuals' it is no doubt a waste of time for any other unless they may have a hobby of wondering how to control people with sociological concepts.
Even control themselves with sociological concepts.
Besides if you are going to suggest that type of book why not go to the source and read Gurdjieff, why settle for Ouspensky.
Meetings with Remarkable Men or Beelzebub is more interesting and informative for those issues.
Wow, I have stumbled into a pack of 4th way seekers Ha ha ha ha ha.
Ya`ll ain`t on drugs are ya ? Ha ha.
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