6 replies to this topic

[FLASHINGROOSTER]

Well the title says it all

 

Forgive me I am on a wee bit of a totalitarian kick with my browsing these days. I was trying to remember if we read the book or watched this movie back in junior high, after watching it I am leaning towards the movie

 

[August West]

To me, Orwell's most profound insight is that the path to control is through taking the language. Controlling the language is control. This is present everywhere at the moment.

 

[Direct Link]

 

I know, I know. It's not Animal Farm.

 

Btw, no study of totalitarianism is complete (imo) without a reading of Alexsandr Solzhenitsyn's, Gulag Archipeligo

Edited by August West, 15 August 2021 - 01:37 AM.

[Cuboid]

"Alexsandr Solzhenitsyn's, Gulag Archipeligo" - this has been on my reading list for a few years, I can't face it though - distinct risk I'd dissapear into a depressive black hole ...

[FLASHINGROOSTER]

While I have not read that book I have heard some discussion about it. I think it was Jordan Peterson describing it along the lines of the book that brought down communism. Circulating in the west for years before finally making its way into the soviet underground.

 

 

There is a nice internet archive of the book one can read for free

 

https://archive.org/...age/n6/mode/1up

Edited by FLASHINGROOSTER, 15 August 2021 - 05:20 PM.

[shiftingshadows]

Inside the most controlled country

 

[Direct Link]

 

His video on Venezuela is also worth watching

 

https://www.youtube....PeopleEN/videos

[FLASHINGROOSTER]

In case your interested likely any of the Yeonmi Park interviews are quite chilling ( I only watched a couple). Its one thing to hear from a person who goes on a goverment ran tour of North Korea. Quite another to hear from escaped refugees. You could be almost certain that intelligence agents have been following him since he stepped foot off the plane

 

She talks about some really insane stuff, like rescuing the pictures of the great leaders over your cat during a fire, a decision made punishable by a prison sentence.

 

Listening to her is what prompted me to post animal farm. She was saying that it took years after she had left the country and was receiving western education to realize what happened there. Only after watching animal farm did it click in her mind. "Oh that was us"

Edited by FLASHINGROOSTER, 16 August 2021 - 04:02 PM.

[shiftingshadows]

.   There are as we already know, many forms of mind control. Some we may have forgotten include, what can be found using these search terms: identifying with the abuser, Patricia Hearst, Stockholm syndrome, and cults. Then there are environments and fates that are so horrible, as to be almost unimaginable. I'm not sure what the value is in contemplating such stuff. Unless one works for amnesty international, or is in some sort of position to actually make a difference.

 

.   If one wants to be philosophical one could say that the same malleability that makes humans great learners, also makes us susceptible, to harm ranging from simple superstitions to violent fanaticism, & other unsavory quirks.

 

.   In the animal world perhaps, one of the more amazing examples is the jewel wasp and cockroach, of which there are very interesting videos on Youtube.

.   There are many such examples of mind control by parasites, even including fungi & ants, So fungi can control the nervous system of an animal.

.   Among diseases both rabies and toxoplasma gondii affect animals, and rabies also effects people and there is some evidence that toxoplasma  may have some effects on some human's nervous systems. Rabies creates the sensation of thirst, which causes biting, by which it spreads. Again tiny organisms without brains, controlling large ones with brains.

.   Again on Youtube one can learn, and see examples, of the strange and interesting, life cycles and adaptations, of many different parasites, ( & often mind control) and their unwilling hosts.

 

.   And, If one wants to be philosophical one could say that the evidence shows the universe to be totally amoral, simply from some detailed knowledge of parasites, which amount to about 50% of animal species. I do not know the percentage among plants. But the fig tree and mistletoe are two well known examples.

 

.   Also philosophically speaking, the position could perhaps be defended, that there is no such thing as a free mind, as so called "feral children", never recover, and everyone else's mind is shaped by family, culture, language, and historical period and events.

But this is not meant as a defense of totalitarianism, but as a caution against putting ideals on a pedestal, which, it seems to me, often takes the fun out of life, although of course in some areas dedication to excellence has its place.

Edited by shiftingshadows, 16 August 2021 - 07:35 PM.