You give a very insightful take on this disturbing phenomenon. Another feature is the abandonment of publishing physical copies of old key science fiction and fantasy books that go against the narrative. I was shocked to see that there simply are not any new copies of Jack Finney’s classic science-fiction novel “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” available on Amazon or Barnes & Nobles (at the present time). Perhaps the pod people takeover hit too close to home as they replace all our beloved series and characters with this drivel. Another feature is the corruption of any sci fi or fantasy novels for teenagers. So many creative people speak of connecting with books in their formative teenage years that opened new and adventurous possibilities. Now, schools either never suggest these books or give out YA slop that simply transport their Woke social agenda to a space setting. Lastly, they make stories confusing and muddled by not having a proper five-act structure as described in John Yorke’s “Into the Woods: The Five-Act Journey into Story.” As a result, we can’t connect with the development and use it as inspiration for our own difficulties in life.
This is a vast topic, something I've been studying as Media Ecology since Marshal McLuhan first alerted me to the concept over 30 year ago. McLuhan evolved a set of rubrics which he called the Laws of Media, one of which applies here: If you push something hard enough, it will flip into its opposite.
I believe we've reached that point with the motion picture industry's promotion of 'woke' ideology. These films are losing money because they've become a sad parody of themselves. The attempt to influence the audience is now so obvious that even the dullest minds see through it. It can be funny up to a point, but once you've caught on it's not something you need to be constantly reminded of. We get enough of that in real life without having to pay to hear it.
If you're looking for insidious influences that haven't yet reached their sell by date, I suggest you take a look at the music industry. It's much cheaper to construct negative stereotypes in that medium than in motion pictures, which are expensive to produce and have a shrinking audience.
Recently we saw the sad spectacle of "hip-hop" celebrating its 50th anniversary. I don't know who put that marker down (Grand Master Flash?) but the genre has definitely persisted and penetrated all forms of expression, especially the rap elements. McLuhan would probably call it the 'tribal drum' and point to the accompanying doggerel as a modern example of a Maori war chant, which again is a case of flipping into its opposite. Back when rap started no one wanted to put a 'cap in yo ass' - the intent was exactly the opposite, to draw ghetto youth away from negative influences. Unfortunately, basketball and break dancing aren't viable career choices, and it's hard to write a hit song about pursuing a degree in science and engineering. So what started as genuine insight, such as Public Enemy's 'Burn Hollywood Burn' has since morphed into a celebration of internecine violence and degradation of women. Flipped into its opposite.
McLuhan also advised us to look for the 'hidden ground' or in this case the 'hidden hand' which is the same influence that controls Hollywood and the porn industry. That said, its authors are subject to the same Laws of Media as everyone else, which is why they're losing their audience, the only response to which has been to double down into an unwitting parody.
You see the same effect in TV advertising. If you were an alien watching American TV from Alpha Centauri, you'd assume half the population was black, and the other half gay. You'd also assume that racial differences had been put aside, going by the number of interracial marriages portrayed. The most hilarious example of this was a recent laundry detergent commercial where the white lesbian couple was praising the ability of the product to remove even the toughest of stains imposed by their two hyperactive adopted black kids. Pure comedy, and totally lost in the unwitting parody was the name of the detergent.... was it Tide? I don't remember, I was so enchanted by the absurdity of it all. Of course everyone remembers Bud Light. No escaping that own goal. Even the NFL is feeling the effects, and as the last bastion of the truly stupid white male, that has to be a sign.
Hollywood wants to tear down the cultural archetypes of “Rome,” so they can replace them with Detroit-style anarcho-tyranny and corruption. Cui bono? What kind of people prefer post-apocalyptic Detroit to Pax Romana? And what group of people has so much control over Hollywood’s major studios, that they can force those studios to sacrifice their profitability and reputations merely to promote an ideology that is burning Rome to the ground in order to build Detroit on the ashes? I feel like a Venn Diagram of various interested parties could help us see something important here …🤔🤔🤔
Yes Daniel D. I struggle with the notion that it’s meaningfully coordinated or orchestrated. I think it functions more like a contagion; a belief system that selects for adherence; Decentralized, no one‘s in control.
I’m a huge Star Trek fan, from the first series on, but hope I have avoided the programming, I recall one scene, I think in Next Generation, when one of the characters was describing earth and said “over 130 different species of humanoid live there now” and it made me shudder, because it wouldn’t be Earth anymore but some sort of smorsgabord. As if it was something to be proud of, destroying what makes us unique as a culture, and I would apply this to any culture on earth, from Inuit to Māori, not just “white Christianity”.
I doubt any of these fuckers are losing money. One suspects the State will be subsidising this shit in one form or another as a loss leader - synonymous in many forms as they insidiously try to push it around the globe. The US govt. just prints more money as they are controlled by these ghouls.
It smacks of desperation but these people are a cult of manic believers. They will not stop until enough pushback forces them to.
Three classic writers between them cover their malevolent aims: H.G. Wells, Aldous Huxley, George Orwell.
There's probably some government money or dark money involved. It's also possible that companies are 'expected' to do this to show that they are good citizens of the New World. For example, the failed woke video game 'Concord' took 8 years to develop by a relatively new company, 'Firewalk' owned by a company called 'Probablymonsters.' They got 200 mil investment from various investors to make the game. Then Sony bought Firewalk, released he game and then shut it down because it didn't sell. Did Sony buy the game specifically to bail out the investors? They must have realized this was a hopeless game, so why buy it? Sony is said to have taken a 200 mil hit by the acquisition. This whole process makes no sense at all. Was it Sony's 'duty' to take this hit or were they assured they would be compensated in some way by someone?
There's probably a lot of government money and dark money for propaganda purposes floating around. It's likely that the companies aren't taking the entire hit on these projects and/or there's some arm-twisting going on.
An example of government financing is the game 'Dustborn' - another propaganda game. That one was at least partly financed by the EU, the US and the Norwegian state. That financing was out in the open it seems.
In Star Trek: Picard the federation is infiltrated by the Romulans, and completely corrupt. Doesn't look like propaganda to me. More like an insight of the sorry state of the West right now.
Also: Outside of the US this new archetypal thing isn't working very well. People view it as just another insane and tasteless thing coming from the wrong side of the ocean. Again. Much to be ignored.
You are on the right track but fail to understand what culture is. Namely, culture is what's left over after you forgot what you tried to learn. Therefore, culture (to cultivate, grow) does not occur from passively watching something. You must participate actively in order to move with the gods and heroes. There should be some kind of initiation involving ritual with fellow initiates. This must happen in real life and the process takes years and then is forgotten. You don't consciously think about it because the behavior becomes part of your psyche and is instinctive, like learning how to ride a bike.
Each of these essays is brilliantly insightful and presents novel explanations for serious problems that afflict both our societies and cultures everywhere. In that spirit, please allow me to suggest something that deserves more consideration in this context.
What all of your essays have in common is revelation about how dangerous things are becoming in our modern age due to technological change happening at hyper-speed. Add in a sinister and amorphous entity (plural?) taking advantage of this phenomena in ways harmful to the species, and you have a formula for major upheaval and potential decline or extinction of the species.
Given this, what is the best use of our intelligence? Is endless research and analysis, no matter how insightful and erudite, going to solve the problems we face? Said another way, can diagnosis alone cure anything? At what point do we apply our intelligence to the problem of remedy? Do we even have the tools we need to ascertain and effect a remedy? If not, how do we create them? Can we persuade our way out of the mess were in, or are more tangible methods necessary? Do we have the luxury of endlessly identifying and refining our understanding of the numerous problems we face, or must we act before its too late, even if our knowledge is incomplete?
I submit that the time to reallocate our intelligence toward remedy is fast approaching.
"The normalization pattern is clear: You should expect to be ruled by emotional and incompetent people who will subject you to random and nonsensical decisions, experiments, violence, constant contempt, and death. It seems that the real world is rapidly catching up with these programming operations."
On the flip side, this garbage today is so heavy handed, cliche ridden and basically not at all entertaining that few are buying it. The impressionable, the low IQ, etc might buy it, but that group is unlikely to lead anyone into the future.
The new current Star Treks are so ridiculous they are painful to watch when they are not boring. I think the blinking lights and high quality special effects might attract a certain group of SciFi nerds but they aren't going to be ushering anyone into the future.
But their agenda is clear and we have a solid heads up. Its failing spectacularly.
That's what makes Devon Eriksen's "Theft of Fire" such a good read. Strong archetypes, a lack of government(except a dismissive note of a unified Earth). A tonic for the spew of woke trash being pushed by the publishers.
Owls that live in the wild will bring moles and mice to owls that are in captivity in their enclosure the wild owls will leave the food outside outside the cage enclosure.
You give a very insightful take on this disturbing phenomenon. Another feature is the abandonment of publishing physical copies of old key science fiction and fantasy books that go against the narrative. I was shocked to see that there simply are not any new copies of Jack Finney’s classic science-fiction novel “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” available on Amazon or Barnes & Nobles (at the present time). Perhaps the pod people takeover hit too close to home as they replace all our beloved series and characters with this drivel. Another feature is the corruption of any sci fi or fantasy novels for teenagers. So many creative people speak of connecting with books in their formative teenage years that opened new and adventurous possibilities. Now, schools either never suggest these books or give out YA slop that simply transport their Woke social agenda to a space setting. Lastly, they make stories confusing and muddled by not having a proper five-act structure as described in John Yorke’s “Into the Woods: The Five-Act Journey into Story.” As a result, we can’t connect with the development and use it as inspiration for our own difficulties in life.
Very good point. This is a trend I failed to mention in the essay.
It started with Disney's cartoon version of "The Little Mermaid", which inverted the moral message of the original story.
This is a vast topic, something I've been studying as Media Ecology since Marshal McLuhan first alerted me to the concept over 30 year ago. McLuhan evolved a set of rubrics which he called the Laws of Media, one of which applies here: If you push something hard enough, it will flip into its opposite.
I believe we've reached that point with the motion picture industry's promotion of 'woke' ideology. These films are losing money because they've become a sad parody of themselves. The attempt to influence the audience is now so obvious that even the dullest minds see through it. It can be funny up to a point, but once you've caught on it's not something you need to be constantly reminded of. We get enough of that in real life without having to pay to hear it.
If you're looking for insidious influences that haven't yet reached their sell by date, I suggest you take a look at the music industry. It's much cheaper to construct negative stereotypes in that medium than in motion pictures, which are expensive to produce and have a shrinking audience.
Recently we saw the sad spectacle of "hip-hop" celebrating its 50th anniversary. I don't know who put that marker down (Grand Master Flash?) but the genre has definitely persisted and penetrated all forms of expression, especially the rap elements. McLuhan would probably call it the 'tribal drum' and point to the accompanying doggerel as a modern example of a Maori war chant, which again is a case of flipping into its opposite. Back when rap started no one wanted to put a 'cap in yo ass' - the intent was exactly the opposite, to draw ghetto youth away from negative influences. Unfortunately, basketball and break dancing aren't viable career choices, and it's hard to write a hit song about pursuing a degree in science and engineering. So what started as genuine insight, such as Public Enemy's 'Burn Hollywood Burn' has since morphed into a celebration of internecine violence and degradation of women. Flipped into its opposite.
McLuhan also advised us to look for the 'hidden ground' or in this case the 'hidden hand' which is the same influence that controls Hollywood and the porn industry. That said, its authors are subject to the same Laws of Media as everyone else, which is why they're losing their audience, the only response to which has been to double down into an unwitting parody.
You see the same effect in TV advertising. If you were an alien watching American TV from Alpha Centauri, you'd assume half the population was black, and the other half gay. You'd also assume that racial differences had been put aside, going by the number of interracial marriages portrayed. The most hilarious example of this was a recent laundry detergent commercial where the white lesbian couple was praising the ability of the product to remove even the toughest of stains imposed by their two hyperactive adopted black kids. Pure comedy, and totally lost in the unwitting parody was the name of the detergent.... was it Tide? I don't remember, I was so enchanted by the absurdity of it all. Of course everyone remembers Bud Light. No escaping that own goal. Even the NFL is feeling the effects, and as the last bastion of the truly stupid white male, that has to be a sign.
"The way of the Tao is reversal."
Hollywood wants to tear down the cultural archetypes of “Rome,” so they can replace them with Detroit-style anarcho-tyranny and corruption. Cui bono? What kind of people prefer post-apocalyptic Detroit to Pax Romana? And what group of people has so much control over Hollywood’s major studios, that they can force those studios to sacrifice their profitability and reputations merely to promote an ideology that is burning Rome to the ground in order to build Detroit on the ashes? I feel like a Venn Diagram of various interested parties could help us see something important here …🤔🤔🤔
Yes Daniel D. I struggle with the notion that it’s meaningfully coordinated or orchestrated. I think it functions more like a contagion; a belief system that selects for adherence; Decentralized, no one‘s in control.
I’m a huge Star Trek fan, from the first series on, but hope I have avoided the programming, I recall one scene, I think in Next Generation, when one of the characters was describing earth and said “over 130 different species of humanoid live there now” and it made me shudder, because it wouldn’t be Earth anymore but some sort of smorsgabord. As if it was something to be proud of, destroying what makes us unique as a culture, and I would apply this to any culture on earth, from Inuit to Māori, not just “white Christianity”.
Good piece. Thanks.
I doubt any of these fuckers are losing money. One suspects the State will be subsidising this shit in one form or another as a loss leader - synonymous in many forms as they insidiously try to push it around the globe. The US govt. just prints more money as they are controlled by these ghouls.
It smacks of desperation but these people are a cult of manic believers. They will not stop until enough pushback forces them to.
Three classic writers between them cover their malevolent aims: H.G. Wells, Aldous Huxley, George Orwell.
There's probably some government money or dark money involved. It's also possible that companies are 'expected' to do this to show that they are good citizens of the New World. For example, the failed woke video game 'Concord' took 8 years to develop by a relatively new company, 'Firewalk' owned by a company called 'Probablymonsters.' They got 200 mil investment from various investors to make the game. Then Sony bought Firewalk, released he game and then shut it down because it didn't sell. Did Sony buy the game specifically to bail out the investors? They must have realized this was a hopeless game, so why buy it? Sony is said to have taken a 200 mil hit by the acquisition. This whole process makes no sense at all. Was it Sony's 'duty' to take this hit or were they assured they would be compensated in some way by someone?
There's probably a lot of government money and dark money for propaganda purposes floating around. It's likely that the companies aren't taking the entire hit on these projects and/or there's some arm-twisting going on.
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/woke-apocolypse-sony-humiliated-after-200-million-diversity-video-game-disaster
An example of government financing is the game 'Dustborn' - another propaganda game. That one was at least partly financed by the EU, the US and the Norwegian state. That financing was out in the open it seems.
https://thatparkplace.com/following-reports-of-dustborn-receiving-funding-from-the-eu-the-u-s-government-spent-over-a-quarter-million-dollars-on-a-counter-disinformation-game/
In Star Trek: Picard the federation is infiltrated by the Romulans, and completely corrupt. Doesn't look like propaganda to me. More like an insight of the sorry state of the West right now.
Also: Outside of the US this new archetypal thing isn't working very well. People view it as just another insane and tasteless thing coming from the wrong side of the ocean. Again. Much to be ignored.
It is so nice to see another investigation, having read your "WW-3 For Dummies" at The Saker Blog as an introduction to your work: https://gaiusbaltar.substack.com/p/repost-ww3-for-dummies
I recently used it as a point of embarkation to look at the answers to some of the questions you raised about "how".
BOE Needs World War Three https://drjohnsblog.substack.com/p/boe-needs-world-war-three
I'm excerpting this essay to open my next blog post.
That post is here, leading with your essay: "How You Look At It" https://drjohnsblog.substack.com/p/how-you-look-at-it
You are on the right track but fail to understand what culture is. Namely, culture is what's left over after you forgot what you tried to learn. Therefore, culture (to cultivate, grow) does not occur from passively watching something. You must participate actively in order to move with the gods and heroes. There should be some kind of initiation involving ritual with fellow initiates. This must happen in real life and the process takes years and then is forgotten. You don't consciously think about it because the behavior becomes part of your psyche and is instinctive, like learning how to ride a bike.
Each of these essays is brilliantly insightful and presents novel explanations for serious problems that afflict both our societies and cultures everywhere. In that spirit, please allow me to suggest something that deserves more consideration in this context.
What all of your essays have in common is revelation about how dangerous things are becoming in our modern age due to technological change happening at hyper-speed. Add in a sinister and amorphous entity (plural?) taking advantage of this phenomena in ways harmful to the species, and you have a formula for major upheaval and potential decline or extinction of the species.
Given this, what is the best use of our intelligence? Is endless research and analysis, no matter how insightful and erudite, going to solve the problems we face? Said another way, can diagnosis alone cure anything? At what point do we apply our intelligence to the problem of remedy? Do we even have the tools we need to ascertain and effect a remedy? If not, how do we create them? Can we persuade our way out of the mess were in, or are more tangible methods necessary? Do we have the luxury of endlessly identifying and refining our understanding of the numerous problems we face, or must we act before its too late, even if our knowledge is incomplete?
I submit that the time to reallocate our intelligence toward remedy is fast approaching.
"The normalization pattern is clear: You should expect to be ruled by emotional and incompetent people who will subject you to random and nonsensical decisions, experiments, violence, constant contempt, and death. It seems that the real world is rapidly catching up with these programming operations."
On the flip side, this garbage today is so heavy handed, cliche ridden and basically not at all entertaining that few are buying it. The impressionable, the low IQ, etc might buy it, but that group is unlikely to lead anyone into the future.
The new current Star Treks are so ridiculous they are painful to watch when they are not boring. I think the blinking lights and high quality special effects might attract a certain group of SciFi nerds but they aren't going to be ushering anyone into the future.
But their agenda is clear and we have a solid heads up. Its failing spectacularly.
That's what makes Devon Eriksen's "Theft of Fire" such a good read. Strong archetypes, a lack of government(except a dismissive note of a unified Earth). A tonic for the spew of woke trash being pushed by the publishers.
I need to check that out. I'm always looking for new sci-fi to read, but good ones are hard to find.
This article is the best piece of new criticism I have read in quite some time.
Owls that live in the wild will bring moles and mice to owls that are in captivity in their enclosure the wild owls will leave the food outside outside the cage enclosure.
Bravo!
What an insight.
Are you a Toronto boy; the film festival is on; dreck and bloviating nonsense galore.
—A renewed species that "will not know."
—What will it not know?
—It simply will not know.