We Control The Horizontal And The Vertical

I'm going to tell you something, and I'm going to try and be delicate.  I don't want to bruise delicate psyches or shock anyone unduly.

But first, think about this...in fact, check yourself regularly as you go about your business every day.  When you walk into a room with a TeeVee, do you automatically look at it?  When you are talking with someone and there is a TeeVee in the room, do you find your eyes wandering over to the screen...usually when the transition graphics are running?

I want you to think about this long and hard, and concentrate on it for at least a week.  The reason is that you are mind controlled.

I told you it wasn't going to be easy.  No one wants to admit they are mind controlled.  Perhaps a kinder, gentler term would help...hypnotized.  Maybe that will help you feel like you can snap out of it if you really try.  And try you must.  Now that I have implanted the thought in your mind, you will at least think about it on occasion, perhaps catch yourself being drawn to the TeeVee.

Not to discourage you, but it took me many years to snap out of it.  Many of those years were spent studying and creating media content that helped hypnotize people.  I was pretty good at it.  I got paid well and won awards for it.  Even though I was trained and conscious of what was happening, I was still a victim, because the power of the medium is almost overwhelming.

TeeVee, and movies too, rely on a physiological phenomenon that has been burned into our brains over millennia of development as a species.  Our eyes/brain automatically react to movement and flashing light.  It's an automatic response.  Things that move and flash might be food, or water, or perhaps a predator.  Whatever the reason for it, it is very hard to control

TeeVee specifically uses lots of colorful rotating graphics and loud, splashy music that usually begin with a strong beat to make us look.  Once our gaze is locked by spinning logos and swooshing meaningless elements and blaring music, we are primed to have suggestions pumped into our minds.

Notice that the swooshing stuff is immediately followed by a single strong statement, called a "lead".  The lead has been chosen as the message of the moment that will kick off every segment and fill the lower-third title crawl.  Whenever you get bored by the pictures, your eyes are automatically drawn to the words incessantly scrolling across the screen, when the message is pounded into your brain over and over again.

Suppose you and I meet at our favorite cafe (where a TeeVee or two are streaming messages at us) and I say, "Trump."

Two years ago, you would probably think of Bridge, Hearts or Spades, or at least the expression "trump card."  Now, your head is full of images of a fat, grey-haired loudmouth, and your mind is full of one of two narratives, depending on whether you watch "left" or "right" media.

The fact that there are only two narratives to choose from, left or right, and not three, ten or a hundred, is that the information you are fed is pre-arranged in diametrically opposed packages.

Depending on which one your are conditioned to subscribe to, your reaction to "Trump" will be pleasurable or painful.  Both of us are probably unable to create a third narrative, since we have not thought that way and don't have the vocabulary ready to express it.  If we stick to the two controlled narratives, we most likely have an hour or more of conversation ahead parroting all the messages we have heard.

I do not watch TeeVee, nor listen to the radio.  Haven't for more than a decade.  I subscribe to a very narrow selection of YouTube channels that I believe are free thinkers, or just purely mind candy for times when I want to relax.  For that reason, I am forced to formulate my own narratives, which regular readers here know do not conform to most "mainstream" ideologies.

I also read a lot.  And write a lot.  I teach English and have been paid to write on many occasions, sometimes winning awards for it.  The books I read generally went out of print a century ago or more, though my collection of over 3,000 books (last time I bothered to count) spans the last 3,000 years.

I only listen to recorded music and use an ad blocker on all my browsers.  I avoid every possible contact with advertising.  When I accidentally see one, it usually makes me laugh because they are so wildly manipulative, appealing to our basest emotions and desires.  In fact, I spend a lot of time on my Twitter feed ridiculing and satirizing the media, because it is an effective way to break the spell.

The reason I mention all this is to demonstrate the amount of effort necessary to break the habit and get out of the conditioning.  The mind is like a muscle - it must be exercised regularly or it will atrophy.  Trust me, TeeVee and the other media depend on us being lazy and unwilling to exercise our minds.

Here's another little experiment.  Next time you get together with friends and actually talk (as opposed to using devices or absorbing media), be aware of what is being discussed.  Chances are, nearly all of the conversation will revolve around the media - what someone saw, heard or read.  Very little will have to do with personal experiences and anecdotes.

If you feel particularly daring, go prepared with a story or topic that is far from the beaten path (say medieval architecture or unusual political view) and notice how everyone reacts.  I will bet dimes to donuts the conversation shuts down for a few seconds before going back to the media.

Finally, and I know this doesn't apply to readers here because they would be basket cases before finishing one column, if a loved one is "triggered" by certain topics, words or ideas, then they are most certainly mind-controlled.

"Triggering" is a concept from the Bernays school of public relations and propaganda.  It was developed out of Freudian and Jungian hierarchies and archetypes.  The triggers are basically weaponized fears and desires that are used to control our behavior.

There are fears of being excluded from the group, or desires to lead the group.  They are herd instincts that have been deeply researched and particular sounds and pictures have been associated with them.  They can be triggered without us knowing it, and our responses have been programmed into us so that we react in predictable and controllable ways.

One example that is very powerful is "for the children".  We will do anything, buy any product, try any technique, and rally the troops "for the children".  This is one of our most basic instincts and it is one of the most weaponized.

Any number of crimes have been perpetrated by nothing more than saying "for the children".  Just look at vaccines.  Politicians, social workers and advertisers use "for the children" all the time.  "Amber Alerts" and "No Child Left Behind" are all examples of "for the children".  Child 'protective' Services justifies all the horrors they wreak in the name of "for the children".  You can completely shut down someone's defensive reactions by sayiing, "It's for the children."

Yes, sadly, we are all mind controlled.  The media is so pervasive now that we can hardly extract ourselves from it.  We feel embarrassed if we can't discuss last night's game or the lastest episode of Game of Thrones or Orange Is The New Black.

Have you ever felt ashamed or left out because you don't watch or missed an episode of the current craze?  You are mind-controlled.  Are you angry that Tim Allen's Last Man Standing got cancelled?  You are controlled by the "right" narrative.  Are you ecstatic that it got cancelled?  You are controlled by the "left" narrative.

The proper response from a clear-thinking mind is, "Who gives a shit?"

As an aside, I usually return FOLLOWS on Twitter as a courtesy.  I often get very nice messages thanking me for the follow, though I admit I am sadly lacking in that department.  The other day I got a response that read, "Hi! Thanks for following us. How do you use social media? For Business or Pleasure?"

I responded, "I use social media to ridicule and satirize the enemies of Truth, though just as often I point out the absurdities of using social media."

I have yet to get a reply.  They may even have UNFOLLOWed me.  Que sera!

You can follow the fun @RadioFarSide.  I'll most likely FOLLOW you back, if you stick around long enough.

Blood Rituals And Other Sports

One of the Big Oil (US flavor) has offices a couple of floors beneath mine.  Because of that, an armed soldier (Indo flavor) is occasionally posted at the entrances to the building when someone feels nervous.  Since the Three Minutes' Hate was this past weekend, maybe someone wanted a hand-holder around.

The folks who work for this Big Oiler are virtual prisoners.  They come over on 6-month and one-year contracts.  They are put up at a plush hotel for the duration.  They may not leave the hotel at any time, except to get into the mini-bus that whisks them off to the office.  If they dare to go it alone in the Big City, they are summarily packed up and shipped home.

For the length of their contracts, they live in a pretty prison.  Sure, they have all the room service and hotel bar they can stand.  Their meal ticket is pretty much bottomless.  The caveat is that the only taste of Indonesia they will get is looking out their windows.

Poor, dumb Americans.  Even their perceptions of Indonesia are skewed.  They only know what they've been told, and when I listen to them, my jaw drops, both in horror and humor.  Everything is a threat, which is news to me, since I've lived here four years and have had zero problems.

Another example:

Guang Xi airport, southern China.  Exit the taxi and no apparent security.  Inside, spot two cops talking to a gaggle of vacationing pentioners.  Go to ticket counter and hand over passport and ticket.  Agent briefly scans the passport for name and processes boarding pass.  Places ticket and pass in the passport and returns them, smiling.  Amble over to immigration.  Agent looks at the name on the ticket and in the passport.  Checks the visa, then stamps.  Never makes eye contact.  Wander through the terminal until boarding time.  Go to the gate, where airline agent checks passport and boarding pass, tears the pass and hands everything back and smiles.  Walk through the waiting area to the door, out onto the tarmac and up the stairs to the plane. 

Not one single metal detector, frisking, X-ray machine, or bomb-sniffing dog in sight.  Quiet and uneventful flight.

How does this compare with your last experience in any US travel hub?  Did you feel like employees of a Big Oil company, or a Chinese citizen?

Building 7

This past weekend, I watched with mouth agape as numerous photos and videos came across the wire of the 'celebrations' in honor of the 10th anniversay of 911.  I couldn't believe it!  The terrorists had won.  What was worse is that the average person looked directly at the terrorists and didn't see them.  In fact, they quietly complied with everything they were told to do by the terrorists.

Ten years ago, the terrorists had long beards, lived in caves, wore robes, and talked of Holy Wars.  Today, they wear uniforms, are clean shaven, bark orders, and everyone calls them 'authorities'.

It was truly amazing.  Cars being searched, people being sexually assaulted.  Concrete barricades everywhere.  Personal liberty and dignity violated at every turn.

There were ceremonies at Ground Zero, where the terrorist leaders made all sorts of high-sounding speeches, but no one mentioned Building 7, Pennsylvania, and only briefly referred to the Pentagon.  None of the terrorists made reference to bombs or missles or missing plane wreckage or miraculous passports or undamaged buildings collapsing.  Just re-enforced the terrorist storyline.

And people were eating it up.  Bone-headed meat sacks with police uniforms were spouting off about how terrorists are everywhere and they're gonna git 'em!  I suppose they hadn't looked in the mirror for those terrorists, yet.

I did notice now that the 'official' definition of a terrorist includes white, middle-class Americans who say words like, "constitution" and "liberty", and we are required to call DHS immediately if they should say something like "Ron Paul".

It was like watching a giant pep rally.  The coaches got up to make a few tearful speeches about how this season, it's gonna be better.  Everyone huddled and said a prayer to some god that supports this kind of activity.  They all gave a big HOO-rah! and suited up and trotted out on the field.  In the stands, the people made signs of 'Support Our Troops' and 'Gig 'em!' while cheering on the slaughter.

No mention of the drones that blew two families to pieces as they huddled in the bedroom praying for the nightmare to end.  Meanwhile, the operator of the drone in a cave in Colorado went home to his family and enjoyed a weekend in front of the TeeVee.

It's a sickness.  Watching all these people chant and dance and rally in support of terrorists, who are telling everyone that the real terrorists are poor dirt farmers in a land far away who have no interest whatsoever outside of locusts eating their meager home garden.

The important part is that folks never have a chance to see the real thing.  They are kept in shiny hotels and fed endless amounts of bullshit, while being shuttled around surrounded by armed guards, all the while being tolkd they are free.  The one thing that can't possibly be allowed is for any truth to interrupt our regularly scheduled broadcast.

If folks were allowed to empathize with the people they are blowing to bits in the name of justice, they might wake up and realize what they've done.  And that would be bad for business.

The terrorists require ritual sacrifice for their religion.  They need blood and terror for their majick to work.  The gods can only be appeased by the smell of burning flesh and the blood of innocent lives.  And it seems to work, at least for a time.

The problem is that it always ends badly.  Once a civilization has reached the point of blood sacrifice, it is on the verge of collapse.  The carnage and waste is a dead-end and within a certain amount of time, the civilization implodes from its complete lack of moral or civil rules.

What I witnessed over the weekend was much like the final scenes from Mel Gibson's Apocalypto.  The high priests sniggers while carving the hearts out of their victims and rolling the bodies down the blood-soaked steps of the pyramid, while the people chant and enter a kind of hypnotic frenzy, not noticing that the world around them was about to change forever.

It always end badly.

In order to work, hypnotism requires the subject to voluntarily give himself over.  Therefore, those who support the carnage and believe the terrorists have allowed themselves to be duped.  The only hope is that the subject does have the power to snap themselves out of it.  Whether they have the will is another question.

I remember 911 vividly.  At the end of that long day, I remarked to a colleague that the whole day seemed surreal, like walking in a dream.  Fortunately, I am not prone to being hypnotized, but I could certainly feel the effects of the attempt.

To be effective, the subject must be distracted and the mind put into a state of confusion, not sure where to focus.  Then the hypnotist's suggestions can reach a deeper level of the brain, beyond the normal filters or the temporal lobes.

To wake someone from a trance requires and shock of some kind to refocus the brain.  Questioning and studying the truth of 911 is just such a shock.  Learning that it's all a lie and that you have been in a stupor for ten years will shock you out of it.

What you do after that is the Big Question.

I've seen it over and over again with Americans.  They tend to lock themselves into boxes so they don't have to deal with reality.  America's biggest brand names built global reputations on providing repeatable experiences with no surprises: Holiday Inn, McDonald's, etc.  When Americans travel, they go in groups, stay in American hotels, eat American food [sic] and stay in American-friendly places.  They never touch or taste anything outside their cultural shells.

Just like the Big Oil employees who'll work for a year in Indonesia and return, having only the most cursory experience with another land and people.

Until that mentality is broken down, America will never wake up.