[MD] Hive mind, more fully explicated

[John Carl]

DT,


>
> "Ghosts in the Machine" and "Giants" are mythic creations and they are not
> exclusive to cities. Listen to or read Garrison Keeler spiels about the
> mythic town Lake Wobegon  on "Prairie Home Companion" or in his novels.
> It seems that all cultures have a constant low level of bitching and
> whining
> that their culture is always too or not enough...something. Be it too
> static
> or dynamic.
>
>
I love Garrison.  I'm reading his latest novel again, "Love Me" - about a
writer's relationship with his wife, and New York City.  A competitive love
triangle.



>
>
> I think what you speak of is normally labeled "humanism" in all its many
> shades and tones. "Man is the measure of all thing" to "Hitler's Super
> Volk"
> Check your other gods at the door.
>


I have no other gods before me.  Says so in the bible that I shalt not, eh?

But yes, I think humanism is a good label for what I rail against.
Practically my whole philosophic enterprise started with this one book by
Eherenfeld, the Arrogance of Humanism - a description of SOM before I read
Pirsig.  The deification of human culture and purposes.  Very much a
generator of this hive mind that I'm describing.



Pretty bleak assessment John. If you truly desire a "tabula rasa" for your
> children, and our county or probably the whole world is so terribly awful
> rotten bad though and though, I would think you should be whole heartedly
> embracing the "nuclear option".


Ok, first, I don't "desire" tabula rasa" for each generation.  That's just
the facts, jack.  Babies are born every generation, (congrats to Steve and
his wife) ready to be programmed anew.  It's the most important potential
for good or evil we humans possess.  And how do parents respond?  Plop 'em
in School and in front of the tv.  Thus if there is an intellectual pattern,
trying to take control of the future culture, all it has to do is grasp the
reins of these two institutions.

But despite my seemingly bleak assessment, I think the world is a nifty
place, and I'm glad to be here.  Actually, I feel sorry for you all, more
than I fear for myself.

About the same time we were dissecting Eherenfeld in Philosophy class, we
discussed Buddhism and something Gary Snyder said about embracing the light
in Dharma means ultimately we have no attachment to whether we light up our
nuclear fires or not.

I could see his point, but I didn't find it a very fruitful or practical
one, except its good to live without fear.




> Press the reset button. Blast everyone back
> to the stone age and start over. Sure your kids might not make it through
> but anything is better than all devouring HIVE-MIND. Sounds like a remake
> of the 1938 film "Reefer Madness."
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reefer_Madness
>
>
I don't quite get the logical connection, but it's been a while since I saw
reefer madness.



> You claim to be an advocate for "community" but you pray for ruggedly
> individualistic, isolated, family oriented lifestyle with no external
> influence to corrupt your delicate offspring. Or maybe, more importantly,
> disagree with anything YOU decide is right?


Yeah?  Like I'm ok with the whole hive-minded thing, as long as I get to be
the queen?

But the thing is Dave, I'm bored with people like me.  I like varieties and
comparison.  Music of one note gets monotonous.

Community is the creation of individuals, and individuals are the creation
of the community.  Thus an individual should focus on how to make a good
community, and a community should focus on how to make good and unique
individuals.  When individuals focus on individualism, you end up with a
collective, rather than a community.  A cancer, rather than an organ.

That's my main point.




> All families self sufficient,
> home schooled from curricula developed and approved by the wise
> Patriarch. All marriages arranged. All transgressions washed in blood.
> Maybe if you watched a little TV, the travel brochures from Afghanistan
> would not look so appealing.
>


I do watch a little tv.  It's fascinating, I have to admit.  But I decided
early on, 1983, to be exact, in the offchance that the whole thing was an
alien-brainwashing scheme, that I'd strike out on my own and think for
myself and see if over the years I came to fundamentally different outlooks
than my fellow americans who got all their information and cultural inputs
from this one source of central programming.

So far, I'm content to stay with the experiment.  I'll let you know how it
goes as events unfold.

Oh yeah, and now that my kids have all grown up and can make their own
decisions, they unanimously support that decision and are grateful to me.
Hah!  How many dads of teenage girls can make that claim?

They also express that they are appalled by how vapid and narrow the
thinking of their fellows at school.  I think this experiment, if carried
over generations, is going to bear fruit.


> OK, I agree this is an over the top rant and your heart is mostly in the
> right place. I think, in part, of all the participants here, and the
> popularity of ZaMM in general, is the attraction to, or relating to the
> idea
> (really the myth) of the basic unfairness or waste of an anti-hero being
> chewed up and spit out by "THE SYSTEM." But somehow, coming back and
> triumphing. A great deal, maybe everyone, feels like that from time to
> time.
> To use it as a life's philosophy to me seems to guarantee success in
> fulfilling it. I'm not a big fan of Dr Wayne Dyer but his "You are who you
> think you are" is more true, than false. James's "Will to Believe" in
> self-help business garb. Oh, how distasteful.
>
> This is a timeless traditional point of view. But hewing to and pursuing
> these views to exclusion of all others lead consequences like Waco, Ruby
> Ridge,the World Trade Center, and lone gunmen shooting doctors. IMHO of
> course.
>
> <http://moq.org/md/archives.html>
>

Yes, I do know what you mean.  I completely got the allusion to the "tin
foil hats" - The conspiracy theory wackos who want to wake the world up.
They've got grandiose dreams of being a hero at the back of their minds.

Think of me then, as a conspiracy theory wacko, who just wants to stand back
and watch it all unfold, and witness what I see, report as honestly as I
can, and not actually give a shit if it all does go up in smoke, because I
believe people's freedom to choose their own destruction is more important
than cultural longevity.

The waves come, we can either surf them with style, or get pounded into
sand, depending on our judgement of crests, peaks, troughs and speed.

And how fast we can swim when we need to adjust our position.

J