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Control the Language and You Control the Mind

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Control the Language and You Control the Mind

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Cognitive Dissonance

 

You will always find original articles by Cognitive Dissonance and other authors first on www.TwoIceFloes.com before they are posted here on ZH. If you wish to subscribe to ‘Dispatches’, a periodic newsletter from Cognitive Dissonance and TwoIceFloes Creations, please click here.

 

As is pretty common these days, the genesis for this article was a conversation between Mrs. Cog and me regarding word and phrase definitions within a larger discussion about perception and understanding. In essence the question was this; how do you think outside the box when your language and belief system have you trapped within? While I am most definitely sympathetic when someone protests “It simply never occurred to me……” ultimately only slaves are not responsible for the language they use and the thought boxes they keep.

Precisely what is it you think you ‘know’ for certain? Exactly what ‘knowledge’ do you possess which is of such certainty and veracity that it need never be seriously questioned or examined? Ultimately if something never occurred to me it is simply because I decided the softer easier way forward was to participate in groupthink and not question my ‘reality’.  I alone am responsible for my curiosity quotient or lack thereof.

Since better answers do not come without asking better or different questions, there is no one else to blame for our ignorance but us. Just because I have been trained and conditioned to ‘believe’, rather than to think, doesn’t mean I am incapable of thinking. What it does mean is I simply do not wish to be curious beyond the comforting confines of my own thought walls. Ultimately I am mentally sated and lazy when I accept not only these externally imposed cognitive limitations as mine, but then convince myself I am essentially content and need do no more when the lie, and my inner voice, says otherwise.

Knowledge, information, propaganda and belief, while all distinctly different words with dissimilar meanings, are often conflated to mean nearly the same thing. Or more accurately, the meanings and definitions are blurred, combined and contrived in order to create a controlling thought meme that is skillfully separated from reality and ‘truth’. Herein is the problem as I see it, or at least a major issue that greatly contributes to groupthink, the hive mind and ultimately the sacrifice of the ‘self’.

Let me start by rendering my opinion regarding the definitions of these words, most of which agree somewhat with common definitions, but not necessarily with common usage. I suspect centuries ago, even millennium, our ‘known’ world, that which we had ‘knowledge’ of and knew about, encompassed pretty much all we surveyed and little else.

In my opinion, and contrary to popular belief, the term ‘knowledge’ includes only what I ‘know’ or the entirety of my ‘knowing’ either through personal experience, direct observation or personal self examination……and nothing else. Anything other than this direct ‘knowing’ is simply hearsay and little more. This is contrary to the widely accepted definition of knowledge being the sum total of what we have been ‘taught’ or have ‘learned’, including all knowledge, information, propaganda and belief we acquired through education or other sources aka hearsay.

Of paramount importance here is to imply no judgmental assessment of this definition of ‘knowing’, such as right or wrong, correct or incorrect, good or bad. For example, I might find some wild berries in the woods and decide to eat them. Almost immediately I become violently ill and remain in that state for hours or even days. One might say from that point on that I know those berries to be poisonous and to be avoided. But do I really ‘know’ this to be true and correct based simply upon my experience? The answer is unequivocally NO!

The berries might easily have been quite edible while ripe, only to turn nasty after passing their peak in the same manner cow’s milk is fine for a period of time, but can then make you very sick if ingested after it has turned. We don’t declare spoiled milk poison, so why wouldn’t the same thinking apply to the berries? Or maybe the berries were contaminated by something else in the woods, such as a truly poisonous plant overhead or bird/animal droppings. There are easily half a dozen alternative explanations for getting sick from the berries.

All I truly ‘know’ about those berries is I became very sick after eating them. In reality I ‘know’ very little else based upon my personal experience and observation. In other words my ‘knowing’ does not always imply correctness or truth, nor does it mean my knowledge is necessarily false or not factual.

In our rush to judge in order to satisfy our often imagined need for certainty, sometimes we jump to conclusions and make assumption that don’t really apply. We don’t need to declare with absolutely certainty those berries are poisonous in order for us or others to avoid them. But in a paternal/authoritarian world where to be believed is to be powerful, one must speak with certainty and conviction regardless of information or knowledge to the contrary. This applies directly to our inner dialogue as well. Oftentimes we muster a false sense of certainty in order to bolster personal courage or to push something uncomfortable deep down the denial hole. 

 

Our Thought Boxes

Our Thought Boxes - Image by Rob Woodcox

Image by Rob Woodcox

 

On the other hand ‘information’ is usually purported to consist mostly of ‘facts’ and ‘truth’ and is compiled, sorted, categorized and publicized by others (who it is presumed gathered it themselves, but often do not) as possessing these qualities. Thus many claim to pass on their own ‘true’ knowledge or body of knowing to others for the benefit of mankind and perhaps their personal profit. Because of prior conditioning and cultural norms we/they actually ‘believe’ this information is part of our/their knowing or knowledge. Essentially what we ‘know’ has been twisted to mean what we have been taught.

If someone else ate those berries, got sick and then told you to avoid them, this would be considered information not of your own personal knowing. Regardless of the person’s motive who is informing you of the berries, to those who have not experienced or observed this ‘knowledge’ personally it is just hearsay, though not necessarily true or false. Consider how in the US legal system information deemed hearsay is not admissible as ‘evidence’ because its veracity is questionable and not of speakers own personal knowing. Yet we never consider applying these same rules of evidence to our own personal lives to screen what we believe we know or what we are told or taught.

The true conflation begins when we are given, and accept, information gained from outside our direct experience and observation as both ‘knowledge’, or something we now ‘know’, and as ‘correct’ and ‘true’, a state often referred to as ‘fact’ by those who are promoting their ‘truth’. If that person who ate the berries informed you they became sick and you should be careful around the berries, the information is being passed on to you with no direct bias other than that derived from their personal experience. But if that person tells you the berries are poisonous and you should stay far away from them they are claiming as ‘fact’ something they may or may not actually ‘know’.

Much of what we ‘know’ in this indirect manner (more information than you might think) is often just as suspect as our own body of knowing if not more so. But since the source of the information is often an ‘author-ity’ (someone who authors or creates his or her own veracity, genuineness or authenticity) or the information is ‘taught’ to us by another authority such as a teacher or ‘profess-or’ (someone who orally or in writing professes their ‘knowledge’ as correct and truthful) we accept their information as genuine knowledge of our own knowing rather than information that is, or at least might be, suspect or tainted.

As I discussed in my article The Science Delusion – Reexamining Our Worldview Mindset the fantastic success of materials science and its total infiltration into our daily lives has helped convince us our world is mostly ‘known’, understood and for the most part static and constant. The high degree of confidence the so-called ‘experts’ have in themselves, and we in them, along with the tremendous success basic materials science has achieved in delivering magical consumer devices and products to an adoring public, all combined with the ever greater need for specialization in our work, thought and leisure activities, have conspired to turn modern day fallible humans into demi-gods of ‘true’ fact and knowledge.

Yes, I mention specialization because in a world where on a daily basis the generalists of acquired knowledge through experience and deed are a dying species, we are forced to narrow our focus onto smaller and smaller portions of the global machine. No longer can we be a computer programmer or a machine operator. Instead we must focus our talents as a Windows “Start” button programmer or machine “Start” button pusher.

I am of course being sarcastic, but only barely so for as our world becomes ever more complex we mere humans can no longer be a jack of all trades, master of none, but rather master of one small part of one trade and jack of absolutely none. The effect this has upon our worldview is not readily apparent, but quite obvious once we recognize the forest from the trees. Our directly perceived experience base rapidly shrinks, or is never expanded for those who are conditioned directly into this brave new world from mother’s womb. Thus we ‘know’ very little other than possibly our very narrow range of ‘expert’ experience gained first hand.

This is both good and bad for those who are caught in the web because our narrow experience base requires us to depend upon others to fill in the huge gaps left over as we navigate through life. The good news is since everyone else is also a narrowly trained ‘expert’, each of us can help others navigate past every bump and pot hole in our assigned section of the road, thus no one ever has a ‘bad’ life experience. Or at least that’s the theory anyway. In practice we might experience a slightly different reality on a case by case basis. Thankfully if all else fails we can rely on the experts in government, academia and industry to smooth the way forward when life gets a bit difficult.

Now that last paragraph was a heaping helping of sarcasm, and deservedly so I might add since the above mind meme is constantly being promoted by all those who stand to benefit as the individual cedes more and more sovereignty to the group collective and the hive mind. An extremely complex organism designed to operate within a carefully controlled environment which requires narrowly trained specialists to operate and repair it is inherently unstable and prone to collapse. When this organism collapses both its beneficiary and servant (better described as its master and slave) aka the individual, collapses with it.

This doesn’t mean we can’t or shouldn’t use other people’s information and professed knowledge as we travel our own path. Instead what we must do is treat everything as potentially suspect and fallible, especially our own knowing, because at this point it is extremely difficult (if not impossible) to separate what we ‘know’ from what we have been taught. It is not just computers that suffer from the “garbage in, garbage out” syndrome, yet so many refuse to even consider many of our thoughts and conclusions are the result of corrupted programming, conditioning and ego manipulation, thus we remain swayed and controlled despite our protestations we are awakening.

 

Plugged In as a Control Device

Plugged In - Image by Rob Woodcox

Image by Rob Woodcox

 

There are those who will claim sans a sense of sound psychological ground under our feet, thus always on edge and continuously charged with a fight or flight impulse, we will be wracked with indecision and lacking in purpose and drive. And for the most part they are correct……when describing those who are not mentally and spiritually centered and have repudiated their personal sovereignty. Automatons most definitely are lost when their programming is wiped or corrupted, but a critical thinking sovereign individual is self empowered and not exclusively dependent upon external affirmation, validation and direction.

This brings us to the subject of propaganda, or the deliberate conflation and distortion of information and knowledge to control and direct thought while confirming prior conditioning. Unlike the purveyors of ‘information’, who most often are themselves unaware of their own corruption and, absent critical introspection and self examination, will impart this existing corruption upon any information they produce or acquire, thereby spreading the corrupting virus far and wide, the propagandist consciously, deliberately and with malicious intent preys upon the inattentive and indoctrinated to manipulate and feed upon their fears, prejudices and predilections.

While the ultimate goal of propaganda may be to control and direct the herd, the actual technique used is to divide and conquer the population while promoting illusionary goals and aspirations to keep the wage slave crew rowing while they bicker amongst themselves. The carrot and stick approach is particularly effective when we are conditioned to use it upon ourselves and others like us. The only condition more profitable to the corporate masters and the powerful elite than a kept slave is a slave who keeps him or herself under the auspices of freedom, liberty and justice for all.

The one common denominator among all types of slaves past, present and future is the slave mentality, ultimately defined and expressed as self limiting thought, beliefs and actions. Propagandized information serves to promote and inflame that very condition which, when combined with an underlying economic system that keeps the population striving forward while perpetually underwater, holds the slave firmly in the past or future and never settled in the present. One short leg on a four legged table is always unsettled and an enormous distraction, forever unbalanced and rarely stable other than for extremely short periods of time.

Belief, on the other hand, is a very complex subject in and of itself even without examining any specific belief. While the word ‘belief’ implies a singular conviction or principal (i.e. “I believe in God/Democracy/Capitalism/Money”) in all the cases I have examined this is far from the case. If we are discussing one specific conviction, for example a religion, it is almost always the case that while the faith might have a set of written principals or doctrine, those doctrine are rarely followed to the letter.

Instead, the ‘faith’ as practiced at the individual level often incorporates various other superstitions, traditions, beliefs and ‘truths’. Because of this condition few feel compelled to ‘follow the letter of the law’ and many afford themselves wide latitude in their ‘belief’ while still claiming to be devout, faithful or at a minimum a ‘believer’.  This applies to religion, politics, education, society, career etc.

And while the faith’s ‘authorities’ will protest otherwise in order to maintain the illusion, in practice they would prefer the flock continue to corral themselves under the umbrella of a unifying belief, thus maintaining the power of the authorities of that belief (remember, to be believed is to be powerful) even at the expense of strict devotion to, and the practice of, doctrine fundamentals. Affording the faithful flock some wiggle room by not insisting otherwise is to the advantage of all parties involved.

It really doesn’t matter what psychological method(s) we use to afford ourselves the wiggle room we desire since there are at least seven billion unique variations and counting on Earth. All that matters is for the wiggle room to be created and then occupied. The various psychological techniques to do so are taught to us as children and the skills further refined as young adults. By the time we graduate from high school we are accomplished self deceivers and ready to enter the matrix as productive liars.

While that assessment might sound harsh, it is so close to reality as to be indistinguishable from the truth. Though we claim moral high ground and declare there is either truth or not, our flexible worldview fantasy demands generous quantities of wiggle room in order to function between a rock and the hard place of reality. If we were ever to actually write down our beliefs on a piece of paper, thus exposing them to the light of day, I suspect we would be quite embarrassed by all the leaps of faith, dead ends, contradictions, cognitive dissonances and dangling reasoning we eagerly maintain when hidden within the dark reaches of our mind.

 

Mental Wiggle Room

Mental Wiggle Room

 

This is precisely why we rarely expose our ‘soft’ truths for inspection, especially to ourselves, since to do so would require us to address all of the issues above and several more which would be the product of the cognitive unraveling. One of the reasons I write, as opposed to just think, is to force myself to sort through all my cognitive conflations. When maintained strictly within the ample wiggle room provided by my mind, my ‘truths’ must only meet my low and flexible logic and reasoning standards. Simply put I lie to myself on a regular basis in order to maintain my belief system.

But when my beliefs are placed upon paper and carefully examined by others, if I am to be honest I must at the very least make a concerted effort to root out the inner deception, corruption and conditioning. Or I may maintain and increase my self-deception by finding other like minded individuals who share my cognitive distortions and preach to the choir a la Paul Krugman and tens of thousands of others.

It is the effective manipulation of our belief systems (there are dozens if not hundreds of minor variations we seamlessly switch between as circumstances and needs dictate) that enslaves us to the present day insanity. And by far the number one manipulator is our ‘self’. While everyone claims they desire the truth, in reality we want only what can be absorbed into our existing worldview framework as smoothly as possible. The ultimate propagandist and manipulator we encounter during our lifetime is our ‘self’ (inflamed by our ego) an ugly self truth we carefully avoid ever personally ‘knowing’, let along examining.

It never ceases to amaze me how outraged we become when presented with propaganda/information/knowledge/belief that clashes with our own personal belief systems, yet we accept with little question or examination similarly distorted information that confirms, conforms with or is easily folded into our beliefs. Hypocrisy begins at home and we are all hypocrites in every sense of the word.

I often say we are only as sick as our deepest darkest secrets, and many take this to mean secrets of a sexual, family or financial nature. In fact what I am really discussing is the self subterfuge, hypocrisy and self propagandizing we all engage in on a daily basis, yet keep secret from our ‘self’, our life partners and the world. While many believe what we don’t (allow ourselves to) ‘know’ can’t hurt us, the ultimate self deception, it does inflame such dissonance and discord deep within our own psyche and inner spirit that we are undeniably insane and growing crazier by the day.

The ultimate personal and group blackmail occurs not when someone discovers our secrets and then extorts us using that information, but when we keep secrets from our ‘self’, thereby exposing ourselves to outside manipulation and control precisely because we are never settled and stabilized into a state of self ‘knowing’ and acceptance. This underlying psychological and spiritual tension also contributes greatly to our poor physical health and is the root cause of much of our chronic illness, disorder and dis-ease. Incredibly not only do we often willingly accept the blackmail, but frequently we embrace it as our own rather than travel down the ultimate rabbit hole, the one we find within.

 

Inner Tension

Inner Tension

 

I am fairly certain quite a few of my readers have grown weary of my relentless and unchanging beating of the ‘look within’ drum. I suspect many feel this is a negative and unproductive view of life, that a more ‘positive’ outlook would work wonders and go far towards enabling and engaging others in self discovery and self enlightenment. My only response is the following. How can we ever possibly know what we need in order to grow and progress if we have never truly and thoroughly looked within and aired our dirty laundry?

Receiving an artificially induced feel good experience from an external source to help paper over an ugly dissonance and the emotional trauma that results can only be considered ‘positive’ in an insane asylum and truly mirrors the method society in general uses to refrain from engaging in the truly hard work of self examination.

This is not to say there is no joy in Mudville, that there is no respite from the self imposed hard work of personal growth and rejuvenation. But only in a society obsessed with distractions, entertainment and pleasure seeking behavior would more of the same be considered conducive to breaking our addiction to what ails us. In this case a little hair of the dog is not the correct prescription.

While we all seek external affirmation to validate our ‘self’, sadly a glaring symptom of our repudiated personal sovereignty and the inner insanity, true affirmation and satisfaction for successful (incremental) self examination occurs naturally and is a healing product of the hard work of self discovery.

There is nothing wrong with basking in the glow received from a job well done……as long as we recognize there is much work left to be done and this is simply a rest stop along the road of life and our journey of self discovery. One is never ‘cured’ of our insanity, at least not at this stage in the cycle, because every interaction with an insane society tends to re-infect and reassert the seductive desire to let go and be (re)absorbed into the wonderful embrace of the collective insanity.

Some good friends of ours who teach English to recent Chinese emigrants to America were visiting mutual friends this summer, affording Mrs. Cog and I the opportunity to visit with them several times. Something said during one of our visits remains ever present in my mind. While discussing the different culture in China, ‘Jim’ said not only did he ask his students to speak in English, but to think in English as well. When they successfully did so the most remarkable questions sprang from their minds, questions he had never heard before let along personally considered. It was more than cultural though because those questions were rarely expressed in English when the speaker was thinking in Chinese.

For me nothing could better illustrate how our language controls our thinking, and thus our mind, more than this simple observation. Temporarily, though imperfectly, freed from their own native language constraints, Jim’s students were free to explore the world, and their own minds, using another language they were not indoctrinated into. The results were clear and compelling and well worth remembering when we complain about ‘them’ controlling us. The act of controlling our language, and thus our minds, begins with and is aided from within. We are the ultimate propagandist extraordinaire.

 

08-17-2014

Cognitive Dissonance

 

Mind Control

 

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Mon, 08/18/2014 - 17:17 | 5110760 Cognitive Dissonance
Cognitive Dissonance's picture

....or in back of the truck with the dog. :-)

Tue, 08/19/2014 - 10:21 | 5114195 Bemused Observer
Bemused Observer's picture

Or strapped to the roof...:-)

Sun, 08/17/2014 - 22:50 | 5107014 juangrande
juangrande's picture

Wisdom is the process of experience confirming or contradicting what one thinks one knows. Of course, acquiring wisdom is entirely dependent upon one's ability/willingness to learn.

Sun, 08/17/2014 - 20:12 | 5106571 Reaper
Reaper's picture

Socrates said, "I know nothing." Doubt is the beginning of thinking. The problem with words is that their meaning will be changed either to deceive or by usage. Life is a continuous experiment with ideas, information and reality. Deceivers expect to use words with changed meanings to control thought by emotion. I.E.-terrorist.
Belief is trust. Trust is a vice of the lazy. Words are boxes in which things, real and conceived, are placed. The word boxes limit placement of their contents into new relationships. We can allow the boxes and trusts to limit our world.

I know nothing and will experiment endlessly with your ideas and mine.

Mon, 08/18/2014 - 08:22 | 5108017 Raging Debate
Raging Debate's picture

Reaper - Nice Socrates quote. In my journal one of the entries I return to is "assume nothing." Someone, somewhere has something to teach me. Someone, somewhere has something to learn.

The article seems to sum up what are narratives and looking in the mirror to look past them.

Government is a tool, the narrative is collective security. What happens when the tool pretends to be the designer and ruler of such? That is a false narrative. The consequences are negative for the society until the society wakes up from the false narrative. From there it then makes it easier to decide what part of that society to support and what part to withdraw from or protect myself from.

What if the best reward IS the evolutionary learning and feeling of success in overcoming obstacles? No pain no gain.

Mon, 08/18/2014 - 10:49 | 5107759 Comte d'herblay
Comte d'herblay's picture

How naive.  

 

You know for certain 110% for sure, that the Jewish mafia on Wall Street is at the root of biggest heist the universe, the entire galaxy has ever known.

You know that Greenspan, Bernanke, and now J Yell are jewish, and so are Larry Summers, Tim Geithner, Pete Orszag, Robert Rubin, Jack Lew, Rahm Emmanuel, Gary Gensler, Larry Fink, Dick Fuld, Lord Blankfein are too and none of them have been investigated, indicted or arrested.

Knowing this leads to the question:  If all these people in the above list were Chinese, Italian, German, Irish, Black, Native American, Japanese, Spanish, or Belgian that the entire world media would be asking,  "What the flying fuck is going on"?????  and demanding an investigation by non-chinese, spanish, Italian, etc. into the conspiracy that is right in our faces??

We also know for certain that most men would love nothing more than a romp in the hay with Katie Upton.

You are either being disingenuous, or posturing.

 

 

Mon, 08/18/2014 - 13:40 | 5109563 goneYonder
goneYonder's picture

So, you're certain on that percentage? When you play with numbers, your ideas seem childish. Leave the meat for men, and go back to your milk.

Sun, 08/17/2014 - 19:53 | 5106536 Hohum
Hohum's picture

If only more people had CD's perspective...

 

By the way, how's Jamie Dimon?  I hear he's a great man.

Sun, 08/17/2014 - 19:49 | 5106532 The Phallic Crusader
The Phallic Crusader's picture

I've read this twice.

I don't think it makes a lick of sense, or contains an argument for anything having to do with the title.

 

Disagree?  

That's cool...

 

But why?

Sun, 08/17/2014 - 20:09 | 5106562 Radical Marijuana
Radical Marijuana's picture

I disagree with you, The Phallic Crusader, because what you are saying is like saying that "fish take the water for granted."

It is essential to human nature that we tell stories. However, in order to tell stories there has to be some language. The degree with that language controls the stories told in that language is like the "fish taking for granted the water in which they swim."

What is the basic ways that we think about time and space, and most other similar commons sense ideas, are profoundly WRONG. How can we sensibly discuss that, when the language we use is based on a host of philosophical presumptions, many of which may well be profoundly wrong.

In my view, most of the progress in science has been destroying what we used to regard as common sense, and take for granted. However, the language that we use tends to continue to take that for granted. In the realms of social control, that manifests the worst. Human beings are living in societies that have been dominated by lies backed by violence so much, for so long, that the ways that we behave are almost totally based on attitudes of evil deliberate ignorance. It is profoundly important that the language controls the mind.

The article above makes an effort towards elucidating that problem, although only on a relatively superficial level, in my view. If human beings were still merely apes tearing up the jungle, then our common sense view of the world would not matter. However, the great paradoxes we face are due to profound paradigm shifts in things like mathematical physics, enabling there to be apes with atomic bombs!

The common sense, and related language, that most people automatically use, and which controls their minds, and therefore, guides the ways that behave, are profoundly wrong, especially when it comes to anything related to politics. However, attempting to speak to other people about that is like one fish attempting to talk to other fish about the water that they are swimming in. Paradoxically, the most important thing is that which people most take for granted, and are most clueless about!

The article above struck me as a worthwhile effort made by one of fish, to ask some of the other fish, questions about the water that they were all swimming in. At the present time, for most other people (or other fish), that does not seem to make a "lick of sense."

My long comment above was about how energy is distributed through time and space, which attempts to point out our common sense ideas about time and space are thoroughly wrong or understood almost totally backwards. At the present time, it is almost impossible to discuss political science with most people, because the established language that they use to try to do that is profoundly wrong, but nevertheless they continue to take that kind of language for granted. The minds of people are controlled by the language that they use, while they mostly do not even have the slightest clue about how that is happening, because they are like fish swimming in the water, which they never were aware of, because they always took that completely for granted.

Mon, 08/18/2014 - 06:00 | 5107765 Comte d'herblay
Comte d'herblay's picture

Excessively long comments are a mark of sloppy language construction.  Brevity, vicious editing, and other marks of the beast are necessary to get the thoughts across in far less time.

I usually agree with CD but I wish to Kalki that he would find a way to take a red pen to his obviously very long and well thought out premises, principles and opinions. 

As the Duke said to Mozart:  "Too many notes.  Take some out".

Mon, 08/18/2014 - 11:23 | 5108808 Bemused Observer
Bemused Observer's picture

The long-winded comment (a specialty of mine..) can also be a reaction to the Twitterfication of language today. I tried 'tweeting', and got the 'too many characters-you'll have to be more clever' message once too often. My final tweet was "OK, fuck you! Clever enough?"

So, we have to use fewer words to get our points across? Reminds me of Newspeak, where Syme speaks of the beauty of the destruction of words, and boasts that Newspeak is the only language that gets SMALLER every year. Why eventually, he says, it will be impossible to discuss an unorthodox thought, because there will simply be no words to express it...

Thoughts are meaningless unless we can communicate them to others. Words are the vehicles used to transport those thoughts to those others. Over time, it becomes impossible to even have such a thought yourself, since we also use words to THINK inside our own heads.

Mon, 08/18/2014 - 15:01 | 5110065 Radical Marijuana
Radical Marijuana's picture

I agree with that, Bemused Observer!

Mon, 08/18/2014 - 16:33 | 5107924 blindman
blindman's picture

to which he relied "which one"?
or was that "replied"?

Sun, 08/17/2014 - 22:57 | 5107040 juangrande
juangrande's picture

Well stated! This is why, in my personal experience, to free my mind of it's programming, I need to spend time in the non-conceptual aspect of it ( ie. where there is no dialogue, internal or external).

Sun, 08/17/2014 - 20:11 | 5106566 The Phallic Crusader
The Phallic Crusader's picture

interesting - and I appreciate the thoughtful reply!

Sun, 08/17/2014 - 20:06 | 5106559 Cognitive Dissonance
Cognitive Dissonance's picture

The title was just click bait and the article just fattening fillers with no substance or nutrition. Gotcha!  :-)

Sun, 08/17/2014 - 19:41 | 5106509 AdvancingTime
AdvancingTime's picture

Great article, it made me think about how much twisting and spin we face each day. All of it creates far to much noise.

When we look at the definition of propaganda we find it is a form of communication that is aimed towards influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position by presenting only one side of an argument. Propaganda is usually repeated and dispersed over a wide variety of media in order to create the chosen result in audience attitudes.

Government excells at this, today a program at the White House creates a message by spinning, scrubbing, molding, and shaping it, they then send it out to the public. They often go as far as to make a, "call to action", where those listening are encouraged to push forward their agenda. This is one of the ugly realities of modern communication, the ability to send out millions of messages directly and unfiltered, More on this subject in the article below.

http://brucewilds.blogspot.com/2013/04/white-house-propaganda-machine.ht...

 

Sun, 08/17/2014 - 19:37 | 5106501 jharry
jharry's picture

"Controlling our language" is a bit misleading.  "CONTROLLING OUR PROGRAMMING" IS MORE PRECISE. From a Zen pov, we live in thought bottles imposed by the "others,"and we see only what such containers allow.  We must "break out to the other side,"as Jim Morrinson saw.

Sun, 08/17/2014 - 18:52 | 5106400 q99x2
q99x2's picture

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqBuUD0f2HU&list=UUTiL1q9YbrVam5nP2xzFTWQ

The above link is a great discussion between Ben Davidson and geologist Dr. Robert Schoch about how sciences are corrupted by false consensus.It is about the age of the Sphinz, Gobekli Tepi and I think about what happened after the last ice age. I haven't finished listening to it yet. 

Sun, 08/17/2014 - 19:51 | 5106529 Radical Marijuana
Radical Marijuana's picture

At the present time, the main dialectical debate in my mind is the bigger picture about climate change, which I could currently summarize as my attempts to guess which one of the following views will turn out to be more correct:

Guy McPherson versus Ben Davidson

http://guymcpherson.com/2013/01/climate-change-summary-and-update/

versus

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_PDC5s3VD7I&list=PLHSoxioQtwZcqdt3LK6d66t...

Basically, are changes in the combined Sun/Earth magnetic systems going to give us a temporary break from the otherwise apparently runaway feedbacks of greenhouse gas mechanisms? (At the present time, I feel I am clutching at the straws of some reasonable hope for the former, to postpone the latter.)

The issues around climate change are extremely difficult because not only is there the standard level of most of the people involved having an agenda which motivates them to distort and lie about that, but also, I believe, no human beings actually understand the basic things, such as how the Sun works, and therefore, NOBODY knows what is going to happen, despite that predicting the future climate probably trumps every other consideration!

Sun, 08/17/2014 - 20:32 | 5106622 radiobomb
radiobomb's picture

ok RM,  a little info;

climate change occurs not just on this planet, but all planets in this, and other, solar systems. The term is co-opted to sound important but is meaningless unless the word anthropomorphic is first used.

so, a few Q's;

i] why have global temps & peak CO2 not always correlated ( pre-humans and also during the dark ages -[fossil & ice-core records]) ?

ii] why do other planets in the solar system and beyond show temp fluctuation ?

   if your answer is solar activity, why does this not apply to our planet ?

iii] do you agree that big business would rather consumers shouldered the responsability for environmental impact rather than they [multinationals] were fined for pollution, or ecological destruction ?

iv] Do you agree that the enviromental agenda enforced by TPTB is not actually altering this eco-destruction ?

    Please be aware that grants for research can influence research results. [think tobacco in the 50's etc]

    most people have a consience and want to do the right thing. Mis-direction and propaganda has hijacked the  collective response, see iii] .

hope this helps.....

Mon, 08/18/2014 - 01:40 | 5107564 MASTER OF UNIVERSE
MASTER OF UNIVERSE's picture

Climate evolves in an expanding universe. Climate does not change as it evolves from ice age to ice age. You seem to think that Darwinian Evolution does not apply to biology or the biological world Earth happens to be evolving in an ever expanding universe.

Mon, 08/18/2014 - 03:45 | 5107690 radiobomb
radiobomb's picture

@MoU, ...errr..... 'evolve'='change' by definition [i.e. not static], & i never mentioned darwin/evolution either....... 'nuff said, re-read your own post.

Sun, 08/17/2014 - 23:29 | 5107177 Radical Marijuana
Radical Marijuana's picture

radiobomb, those are all good points you made. I will not attempt to provide detailed answers to those questions, but you will find that Ben Davidson addresses all those issues in his series about climate. I believe you would enjoy taking considerable time to look at the material, since you seem already going in those directions.

For several years I have been working on that issue of humans blamed for climate change. For quite a while I felt like a dog twirling around chasing his own tail. I AM STILL NOT SURE! However, my attitude currently is as I expressed above, caught between those two links, that summarize a vast amount of information.

Mon, 08/18/2014 - 11:36 | 5108921 Bemused Observer
Bemused Observer's picture

The whole climate change argument is distraction. Several points...
1) If climate change is or isn't occurring, does it affect the need to take care with our energy resources? Does it affect the need to clean our environment?
So, to me, I think what difference does it make? Either way, we have to use resources wisely, and clean up our messes. So why don't we just forego the intellectual exercises and get down to it?

2) If such climate change is caused by humans or not, the RESULTS would be the same. So, shouldn't we just skip the argument over who or what caused it, and get to mitigating the effects we can?

The idea that you shouldn't even try to fix a problem until you can reach perfect agreement on the cause of the problem is stupid. While it may be important to get to the cause of the floodwaters that are rising rapidly around your house, the most pressing issue for you is getting your family off the roof before you all get washed away. And your options for doing that are the same regardless of who or what is to blame. So get to it! Argue over it later!

Mon, 08/18/2014 - 13:35 | 5109540 goneYonder
goneYonder's picture

Climate Change, or any othe boogyman, is completely irrelevant. Even if it were a fact that human activity caused global changes in temperature, that would in no way change another FACT: Humans are equal in rights. There is no emergency which can change this fact. In case the implication is not clear (it should be), no proposed 'solution' to this 'emergency problem' may involve the use of violence and coercion. 

Mon, 08/18/2014 - 18:19 | 5111091 Cognitive Dissonance
Cognitive Dissonance's picture

"We the People" are all equal, some more than others.

/snarc

<And to prove my point I shall now remove you from your land at gunpoint. See how easy that was?>

Sun, 08/17/2014 - 20:42 | 5106640 radiobomb
radiobomb's picture

ps; ...ben davidson - never heard of him before, but like what he has to say... thanks for the link.

Sun, 08/17/2014 - 19:08 | 5106434 Cognitive Dissonance
Cognitive Dissonance's picture

Mrs Cog and I have been listening to Ben Davidson for nearly two years now. While Ben has is own set of blind spots to contend with, he and his wife are pioneers in the field of amateur scientist. More importantly he is willing to push against the boundaries of his own mind. It is refreshing to hear him admit he has been wrong about something or another. Rare, very rare.

I have been following Dr. Schoch much longer than that and own several of his books. He is not well liked among the academic establishment.

Mon, 08/18/2014 - 04:20 | 5107711 medium giraffe
medium giraffe's picture

Cog, you and your good lady wife might appreciate The Primer Fields if you've not already seen it.  Amateur science at it's finest, positing compelling theories and demonstrations re. the electric universe. 

Link to part 1, I'm sure you can find the rest of the episodes on sidebar links:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9EPlyiW-xGI

Mon, 08/18/2014 - 09:20 | 5108232 Cognitive Dissonance
Cognitive Dissonance's picture

I watched part 1 a while back and never went beyond when my life got busy. I will revisit it now. Thanks.

Mon, 08/18/2014 - 10:07 | 5108441 fel.temp.reparatio
fel.temp.reparatio's picture

...the Thunderbolts Project is worth a look too when you have time, especially their Guide to the Electric Universe

Mon, 08/18/2014 - 10:15 | 5108498 Mrs. Cog
Mrs. Cog's picture

Yes Agreed. We have examined the electric universe in depth and enjoy keeping up with the current works of Thornhill and Talbot. Their YouTube channel is very informative as well. :-)

Sun, 08/17/2014 - 18:49 | 5106383 OldPhart
OldPhart's picture

Every time I look within I see some dumb asshole trying to make his way in life as best he can with minimum harm to others.

Mon, 08/18/2014 - 10:58 | 5108698 besnook
besnook's picture

lol! i just told my son the other day, "when you realize you are stupid you have grown up."

Mon, 08/18/2014 - 17:17 | 5110756 juangrande
juangrande's picture

To me, generally speaking, a person spends their late teens and twenties thinking he knows everything about life. He spends his thirties learning he doesn't know diddly. When entering his forties, he begins to figure out how life works,

Mon, 08/18/2014 - 18:16 | 5111068 Cognitive Dissonance
Cognitive Dissonance's picture

Unless s/he is (willingly) kept in a perpetual state of an infantile perspective by the nanny state. Then all bets are off.

Mon, 08/18/2014 - 22:10 | 5112440 juangrande
juangrande's picture

True dat! But at some point the universe usually steps in with the emphatic "2 x 4" upside the head. There is beauty in that, although it involves suffering for some...

Sun, 08/17/2014 - 19:00 | 5106420 Cognitive Dissonance
Cognitive Dissonance's picture

My very first laugh of the day is when I look in the mirror. Nothing I view for the rest of the day looks quite that bad, a sobering and strangely positive point of view. :-)

Mon, 08/18/2014 - 06:25 | 5107782 BeetleBailey
BeetleBailey's picture

As always Cog....excellent.

Sun, 08/17/2014 - 18:25 | 5106319 Homer E. Rectus
Homer E. Rectus's picture

Smart people on this blog, and interesting articles. Yes, we should examine our beliefs...especially where it relates to what TPTB tell us we should think. You can't go back and re-examine everything, though. My dad told me not to eat unknown berries when I was a kid, and you know what? It was good enough advice that I told my kids the same thing!

Sun, 08/17/2014 - 19:04 | 5106426 MontgomeryScott
MontgomeryScott's picture

You have not contemplated the statement 'It depends on what the definition of 'IS', is'.

Back in '05, I had a girlfriend who wanted to 'better herself' and signed up for 'University Of Phoenix' classes. One of the 'required prerequisites' was some 'humanities' class taught (on-line) by some douche commie symplant 'professor' who stated that the MEANINGS OF WORDS were NOT IMPORTANT (an important part of the first-semester 'lesson plan'). Needless to state, she disagreed with me when I pointed out this obvious problem in real communication, and I am no longer with this woman. I think her 'major' was Business 'Somebullshit' Management, with the promise of a 'BS' degree.

LESSON AT HAND:

Before you eat a girl's berries, you should at least get to know her a little better.

Sun, 08/17/2014 - 17:47 | 5106211 giggler321
giggler321's picture

I ain't reading all that because I'm thinking out of my box - my thoughts R:

People who like and worship the Royal Family are often stuck in their box with no window.

Sun, 08/17/2014 - 17:36 | 5106168 q99x2
q99x2's picture

I resolved that at thirty I would know more about poetry than any man living ... that I would know what was accounted poetry everywhere, what part of poetry was 'indestructible', what part could not be lost by translation and – scarcely less important – what effects were obtainable in one language only and were utterly incapable of being translated.

-- Ezra Pound
Sun, 08/17/2014 - 23:23 | 5107145 Radical Marijuana
Radical Marijuana's picture

Ezra Pound was one of the great pioneers, and sources of inspiration, into the investigation of how the monetary systems really worked, and he paid a great personal price for having the tenacity to continue to do so!

For instance, according to the writings and videos of Eustace Mullins, such as "The Secrets of the Federal Reserve:" In November 1949, Eustace Mullins, 25, was a researcher in Washington DC when friends invited him to visit the famous American poet Ezra Pound, who was confined at St. Elizabeth's Mental Hospital and listed as a "political prisoner." Pound commissioned Mullins to examine the influence of the banking establishment on U.S. policy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ezra_Pound

A leading figure in Modern English literature, Pound was the editor and critic who introduced the world to James Joyce, W.B. Yeats and T.S. Eliot. During the Second World War, he was charged with treason for broadcasts on Rome Radio that questioned the motives behind America's involvement. Outraged by the carnage of World War I, Pound lost faith in England and blamed the war on usury and international capitalism.

Of course, Wikipedia is a propaganda battleground, in which the opinions of mainstream morons tend to prevail. These days, there is less reasonable doubt that Pound was basically right that "all wars were banksters's wars" and that "war is a racket." However, that Wikipedia hit piece on Pound does provide some relevant examples of how control of the language controls minds.

Mon, 08/18/2014 - 07:06 | 5107827 Optimusprime
Optimusprime's picture

Yeats was a famous poet already in the 1890's.  You might be interested to read the book Stone Cottage, which details the three winters of collaborative effort and conversation between the two men.  During WWI.  Yeats was about twenty years older than Pound.  They had a very fruitful friendship.

Totally agree with you about Wikipedia as a control system.

Sun, 08/17/2014 - 17:43 | 5106191 Cognitive Dissonance
Cognitive Dissonance's picture

"....what part of poetry was 'indestructible', what part could not be lost by translation and – scarcely less important – what effects were obtainable in one language only and were utterly incapable of being translated."

Now that is succinct.  :-)

Sun, 08/17/2014 - 17:00 | 5106037 SofaPapa
SofaPapa's picture

I always enjoy your pieces, CD.  They are often longer and more in-depth looks at subjects that I have also thought about at various times during the past couple of years.

Regarding the concept of "knowledge", I have come to the same conclusion as yours that only direct experience can be 100% counted on, and even that only if we trust that our minds store information and memories accurately, which itself is often questionable.

As to second-hand information, that is always a question of trust.  In order to accept second-hand information as true, we have to trust the source.  Two challenges to that: one, we could be wrong about whether the source is trustworthy, and secondly, the source could have been misinformed in the first place and be passing on incorrect information without even knowing it.

That said, the tension that I find most sad in the history of our species is the tension between a) families as a center of trust and b) political/eonomic institutions as a center of trust.  In an ideal world, a child should be able to trust his / her biological family.  Parents and siblings should have the tightest connections based on blood and experience and shared interests.

As we all know, however, families are imperfect.  Many families are in fact very destructive.  As such, the institution which should be most trustworthy is instead in far too many instances that which causes the greatest damage to a developing human life.  What does a person who comes from a background such as this do?  S/he looks for another institution to fill that hole.  Enter [pick your government / religion / philosophy / guru, etc etc here].

This is the tension at the heart of the human condition, because this tension goes to the center of the path each individual takes to becoming a human adult.

Who do we trust?  That varies for each person.  As such, other than direct experience (which provides relatively little material for us to create a reality from), our view of what's true is always some combination of information coming from two or more often wildly varying views of existence.  Is it any wonder we're so confused about what is "true"?

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