[MD] Hive mind, more fully explicated

[John Carl]

Lu was pissed at me last night.  For the weirdest reason.  For something I
wrote in the MoQ.


I mean, she always gives me a pinch, a kick or a sour look when I use bad
language.  But that's the way she's always been.  Her own parents called her
"the blue-nose fairy" , to sorta encapsulate the look Lu has had from birth
almost, hearing an off-color remark or language.  The look of "somebody just
stuck a small turd under my nose."


Life of the party, our Lu.


Kidding honey. :-)


Really.  :-)  :-)  :-)  (how many of these friggin' things do I need,
anyway?;-)


She's gotten a little looser with age, but she still gets mad at me if I say
"fuck" or something near as bad, for which I WILL pay. (ouch)


Just so you know what it costs me, when  I really do have an exclamatory
point that just can't be made rhetorically, any other way.


 dammit.


But this time, she got pissed because I posted something she thought was
really beautiful, and she got to the end of it and found out I didn't write
it, Ed Abbey did.

And she was mad.  Felt let down, I guess.  She said, "I could go read Ed
Abbey, on my own"


Which is true, she could.  But she doesn't, which is part of my point.  I
mean, that yellow book has been next to her bed for at least ten years, and
she'd never really perused a word of it.


But still, her anger took me back a bit.



I told her,  that if Ed Abbey says something exactly as it needs to be said
at the time, I'd almost rather use HIS words than mine, because Ed's, you
know, like a successful and revered and published writer.  And I'm,

well, nothing.


'cept to Lu, of course.


As to the anyone else,  only in metaphysical circles is "nothing"  a value.
So,  while of course, glad to be here, thankyouverymuch, at the same time,
yer well-come.


But even though Lu bought my answer, I slept on it, and gave her another
answer that was a bit deeper, in the morning and fully satisfied her, but it
also helped me think this through more, because  I thought, I really should
explain more carefully what I mean by "hive mind" and exactly how I think it
should be dealt with - ithrough and through.


It does arise from the central conceit, of an intellectual pattern having a
virtual "life" of it's own.  In the same way a city, a cultural pattern
devours and uses people, so does an intellectual pattern devour minds,
through people.


So this.


 I have dealt with this before, on this list. what I mean by this
low-quality, social pattern, that seems to rear its ugly head in human
affairs, every so often, in an earlier post, under the lable "homotheism".
Which nobody really appreciated much, I think because there's a kinda "homo"
connotation that leads to prejudicial attitudes that have NO place in an
intellectual forum.


So in many ways, I really think "hive-mind" is the better term for what I
think is the root of all  problems an intolerance of diversity. An
un-appreciation for the varities of religious experience, the strong need to
suppress and reject deviation.  The automatic exclusion or rejection  of
other-that-is-different that you find in narcissistic minds, for instance.


"machine-brained" is another good term for what I mean, but itself suffers
from such meta-mechanical overtones, that it's not quite rich enough.
Really, "hive-mind" is perfect.


My particular concern is with the instantiation of this hive-mind, in a
techno-programmed and reinforced way, today.  A very individualistic
society, that takes care of everybody.  And it's easy to do, because
everybody is centrally programmed to be the exact same, cool,
independent-minded, individual, existential island.  See the irony?  The
pathetic sadness?


Imagine for a minute, that my point might be true.  Imagine the intellectual
patterns-that-be, running tests to understand the depths of social control.
What if they can get the most individual and cool people, those most outside
the traps  of suburban normality,  to stick metal through their sensitive
parts? All together, in the exact same ways?!


Ok, I'm joking.  But you have to admit, it'd be an amusing to find out how
non-avant the garde really is.    I mean, if you can overcome biological
good sense, metaphysical manipulations should be a breeze.


I mean after all, Just what is a "self" in an age of "everybody's equal" and
we all see the same shows, so we all know the same stuff?  What does
'individual' even mean, in such an age?,


a coming age, an arriving age.  As plain as a wave on the horizon.


Sneer all you fucking want, Dave's of both mb and Thomas, but with or
without a tin foil hat, the cultural pattern I describe is as real as any
historical brown-shirt fascist regime, and it's forming right before our
very eyes. On and through tv.  Group conformity, hive mind is a real
pattern.


It doesn't like being challenged.  It doesn't like being discussed.  It
worms its way into all public discourse, with it's lens of popularity and
celebrity focusing on what feeds it the fastest (money)


Every generation is tabula rasa.  The slate is wiped clean, ready for new
programming.  Never before has mass technologically enhanced programming
been so widely available.


And sure, it could do a lot of good.  But the truth is, it's immense power
is centralized.  There is some decision about what makes "Good" programming,
going on at the highest levels, by the few, for the many.  And then new
generations pop out of their pods, into the world they are offered.


Hive-mind seeks peace.

Hive mind seeks growth and prospertity.

Hive-mind seeks all that seems good, and right, with equality and justice
for all.  And this is achievable, as long as we have One Good Queen, and
perfect communication to her subjects, along paths of electronic and
absolute control.


I think PD Ouspensky was right.  I think the danger of Hive-mind is far
greater than any can imagine.  All the more terrifying because of it's
horrible inevitability.  It holds the threat of nuclear sword, over the head
of humanity on earth. How much more inevitable can you get?


Fuck it.  where do I sign up?  I wanna be a drone.  I'm sorry.  I apologize
for thinking my own thoughts.  From now on, I'll listen to every single
word, sent from the source, and be a busy worker bee. I promise.  Ok?


Right.  That's not gonna happen.



yippy?.  yappy?


yip.


John


PS:


And I'm sorry I had to say "fuck it" lu.


Ouch.


And again.


What am I?


Some kinda masochist or something?