deepundergroundpoetry.com
Remaining Blinkered
the hysteria ...
of being frightened by your
own fear mongering ...
of being frightened by your
own fear mongering ...
Published 25th Aug 2019
Author's Note
I can't help but feel that politically something extraordinary is happening ... that the narratives we're currently using are too lame to carry any explanation as to what's happening ... that we're polarising between false dialectics ... that we're retreating into our like minded cults to try and project our view of the world onto others via the technique of post totalitarianism ... (now, if I could put that in a poem).
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I like your author's note: esp "that the narratives we're currently using are too lame to carry any explanation as to what's happening" which strikes me as an astute observation.
To me it looks like the millennia age-old battle for the control of human consciousness is reaching new technology-amplified heights. Things have shifted from "the camera never lies" to "even moving-pictures can now lie".
What's scary is how unaware people are of the extent to which they are being manipulated - and if you try & tell them (don't bother) within seconds one is branded a conspiracy-theorist or blamed for "being negative".
I'll say no more but have a question as what you mean when you say "the technique of post totalitarianism" - which is an intruguing new phrase to me.
I think Orwell's 1984 contains many of the answers, as does I'm guessing (Kathrine) Kressman Taylor's "Address Unknown" (subject of an article in the Guardian last week & new to me - now on my 'must-read' list). Best regards, Josh.
To me it looks like the millennia age-old battle for the control of human consciousness is reaching new technology-amplified heights. Things have shifted from "the camera never lies" to "even moving-pictures can now lie".
What's scary is how unaware people are of the extent to which they are being manipulated - and if you try & tell them (don't bother) within seconds one is branded a conspiracy-theorist or blamed for "being negative".
I'll say no more but have a question as what you mean when you say "the technique of post totalitarianism" - which is an intruguing new phrase to me.
I think Orwell's 1984 contains many of the answers, as does I'm guessing (Kathrine) Kressman Taylor's "Address Unknown" (subject of an article in the Guardian last week & new to me - now on my 'must-read' list). Best regards, Josh.
26th Aug 2019 9:40am
Post-totalitarianism comes from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Power_of_the_Powerless , Vaclav Havel's essay. Further, I see the technique not only being used by governments but by various groups as the method of wielding power.
Thanks for raising Kressman Taylor's book.
As to 1984 ... Julia is too good for Winston, "In some ways she was far more acute than Winston, and far less susceptible to Party propaganda. Once when he happened in some connexion to mention the war against Eurasia, she startled him by saying casually that in her opinion the war was not happening. The rocket bombs which fell daily on London were probably fired by the Government of Oceania itself, 'just to keep people frightened'. This was an idea that had literally never occurred to him."
Thanks for raising Kressman Taylor's book.
As to 1984 ... Julia is too good for Winston, "In some ways she was far more acute than Winston, and far less susceptible to Party propaganda. Once when he happened in some connexion to mention the war against Eurasia, she startled him by saying casually that in her opinion the war was not happening. The rocket bombs which fell daily on London were probably fired by the Government of Oceania itself, 'just to keep people frightened'. This was an idea that had literally never occurred to him."
