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Viruses of the Mind
By: Surly1 Date: May 16, 2019, 7:07 am
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If you've searched much for root causes s to why we are the way
we are, you may have come across the term, [i]"wetiko."[/I] Paul
Levy and other writers have explored the subject of "wetiko" as
a descriptor of our culture's soul-sickness. Wetiko is an
Algonquin word for a cannibalistic spirit driven by greed,
excess, and selfish consumption. Wetiko is a sickness of soul
and spirit. the native peoples in North America were stunned by
contact with western colonizers:
[quote]"We did not think of the great open plains, the beautiful
rolling hills, and the winding streams with tangled growth as
“wild.” Only to the White man was nature a “wilderness” and only
to him was the land infested by “wild” animals and “savage”
people. To us it was tame. Earth was bountiful and we were
surrounded with the blessings of the Great Mystery. Not until
the hairy man from the east came and with brutal frenzy heaped
injustices upon us and the families we loved was it “wild” for
us."[/quote]
~ Luther Standing Bear, Land of the Spotted Eagle
Good article from Cosmos Journal:
[html]<div class="post-title-wrapper"> <h1
class="post-title">Seeing Wetiko: On Capitalism, Mind Viruses,
and Antidotes for a World in Transition</h1> </div> <div
class="article-meta"> <div class="article-author">By <a
href="
HTML https://www.kosmosjournal.org/contributor/alnoor-ladha/">Alnoor<br
/>Ladha</a>, <a
href="
HTML https://www.kosmosjournal.org/contributor/martin-kirk/">Martin<br
/>Kirk</a></div> <div class="published">Published in <a
href="
HTML https://www.kosmosjournal.org/journal_issue/spring-summer-2016/">Spring<br
/>| Summer 2016</a></div> <div class="comment">Comments <a
href="
HTML https://www.kosmosjournal.org/article/seeing-wetiko-on-capitalism-mind-viruses-and-antidotes-for-a-world-in-transition/#comments"><i<br
/>class="icon-comments-alt"></i>37</a> <span
class="print-page"><a><i class="fa fa-print"
aria-hidden="true"></i></a></span></div> </div> <blockqu
ote> <p><em>It’s
delicate confronting these priests of the golden bull</em>
<em>They preach from the pulpit of the bottom line</em>
<em>Their minds rustle with million dollar bills</em>
<em>You say Silver burns a hole in your pocket</em>
<em>And Gold burns a hole in your soul</em>
<em>Well, uranium burns a hole in forever</em>
<em>It just gets out of control.</em>
– Buffy Sainte-Marie, “The Priests of the Golden
Bull”1</p> </blockquote> <p>What if we told you
that humanity is being driven to the brink of extinction by an
illness? That all the poverty, the climate devastation, the
perpetual war, and consumption fetishism we see all around us
have roots in a mass psychological infection? What if we went on
to say that this infection is not just highly communicable but
also self-replicating, according to the laws of cultural
evolution, and that it remains so clandestine in our psyches
that most hosts will, as a condition of their infected state,
vehemently deny that they are infected? What if we then told you
that this ‘mind virus’ can be described as a form of
cannibalism. Yes, cannibalism. Not necessarily in the literal
flesh-eating sense but rather the idea of consuming
others—human and non-human—as a means of securing
personal wealth and supremacy.</p> <p>You may dismiss this
line of thinking as New Age woo-woo or, worse, a lefty
conspiracy theory. But this approach of viewing the transmission
of ideas as a key determinant of the emergent reality is
increasingly validated by various branches of science, including
evolutionary theory, quantum physics, cognitive linguistics, and
epigenetics.</p> <p>The history of this infection is long,
strange, and dark. But it leads to hope.</p> <h2>Viruses of
the Mind</h2> <blockquote> <p><em>The New World fell not
to a sword but to a meme.</em>
~ Daniel Quinn<sup>2</sup></p> </blockquote> <p>One of
the most well-accepted scientific theories that helps explain
the power of idea-spreading is memetics.</p> <p>Memes are to
culture what genes are to biology: the base unit of evolution.
The term was originally coined by the evolutionary biologist
Richard Dawkins in his 1976 book, <em>The Selfish Gene.</em>
Dawkins writes, “I think that a new kind of replicator has
recently emerged . . . It is still drifting clumsily about in
its primeval soup, but already it is achieving evolutionary
change at a rate which leaves the old gene panting far
behind.” He goes on, “Examples of
memes are tunes, ideas, catch-phrases, clothes fashions, ways of
making pots or of building arches. Just as genes propagate
themselves in the gene pool by leaping from body to body via
sperms or eggs, so memes propagate themselves in the meme pool
by leaping from brain to brain, via a process which, in the
broad sense, can be called
imitation.”<sup>3</sup></p> <p>One of the high priests
of rationalism, the scientific method, and atheism, is also the
father of the meme of ‘memes.’ However, like all
memes or ideas, there can be no ownership in a traditional
sense, only the entanglement that quantum physics reminds us
characterizes our intra-actions.<sup>4</sup></p> <p>Of
course, similar notions of how ideas move between us have been
around in Western traditions for centuries. Plato was the first
to fully articulate this through his Theory of Forms, which
argues that non-physical forms—i.e., Ideas—represent
the perfect reality from which material reality is
derived.</p> <p>Modern articulations of the Theory of Forms
can be seen in Pierre Teilhard de Chardin’s idea of the
Noosphere (the sphere of human thought) and Carl Jung’s
Collective Unconscious, where structures of the unconscious are
shared among beings of the same species. For Jung, the idea of
the marauding cannibal would first be an archetype that
manifests in the material world through the actions of those who
channel or embody it.</p> <p>For those who prefer their
science more empirical, the growing field of epigenetics
provides some intellectual concrete. Epigenetics studies changes
in organisms caused by modification of gene expression rather
than any physical alteration of the gene itself. In other words,
how traits vary from generation to generation is not solely a
question of material biology but is partly determined by
environmental and contextual factors that affected our
ancestors.<sup>5</sup></p> <h2>The <em>Wetiko</em>
Virus</h2> <blockquote> <p><em>We did not think of the
great open plains, the beautiful rolling hills, and the winding
streams with tangled growth as “wild.” Only to the
White man was nature a “wilderness” and only to him
was the land infested by “wild” animals and
“savage” people. To us it was tame. Earth was
bountiful and we were surrounded with the blessings of the Great
Mystery. Not until the hairy man from the east came and with
brutal frenzy heaped injustices upon us and the families we
loved was it “wild” for us.</em>
~ Luther Standing Bear, Land of the Spotted
Eagle<sup>6</sup></p> </blockquote> <p>Many spiritual
traditions, including Buddhism, Sufism (the mystical branch of
Islam), Taoism, Gnosticism, as well as many Indigenous cultures,
have long understood the mind-based nature of creation. These
worldviews have at their core a recognition of the power of
thought-forms to determine the course of physical
events.</p> <p>Various First Nations traditions of North
America have specific and long established lore relating to
cannibalism and a term for the thought-form that causes it:
<em>wetiko</em>. We believe understanding this offers a powerful
way of understanding the deepest roots of our current global
polycrisis.</p> <p><em>Wetiko</em> is an Algonquin word for
a cannibalistic spirit that is driven by greed, excess, and
selfish consumption (in Ojibwa it is <em>windigo, wintiko</em>in
Powhatan). It deludes its host into believing that cannibalizing
the life-force of others (others in the broad sense, including
animals and other forms of Gaian life) is a logical and morally
upright way to live.</p> <p><em>Wetiko</em> short-circuits
the individual’s ability to see itself as an enmeshed and
interdependent part of a balanced environment and raises the
self-serving ego to supremacy. It is this false separation of
self from nature that makes this cannibalism, rather than simple
murder. It allows—indeed commands—the infected
entity to consume far more than it needs in a blind, murderous
daze of self-aggrandizement. Author Paul Levy, in an attempt to
find language accessible for Western audiences, describes it as
‘malignant egophrenia’—the ego unchained from
reason and limits, acting with the malevolent logic of the
cancer cell. We will use the term <em>wetiko</em> as it is the
original, and reminds us of the wisdom to be found in Indigenous
cultures, for those who have the ears to
hear.</p> <p><em>Wetiko</em> can describe both the infection
and the body infected; a person can be infected by
<em>wetiko</em> or, in cases where the infection is very
advanced, can personify the disease: ‘<em>a
wetiko</em>.’ This holds true for cultures and systems;
all can be described as being <em>wetiko</em> if they routinely
manifest these traits.</p> <p>In his now classic book
<em>Columbus and Other Cannibals</em>, Native American historian
Jack D. Forbes describes how there was a commonly-held belief
among many Indigenous communities that the European colonialists
were so chronically and uniformly infected with <em>wetiko</em>
that it must be a defining characteristic of the culture from
which they came. Examining the history of these cultures, Forbes
laments, “Tragically, the history of the world for the
past 2,000 years is, in great part, the story of the
epidemiology of the <em>wetiko</em>
disease.”<sup>7</sup></p> <p>We would presumably all
agree that behavior of the European colonialists in North
America can be described as cannibalistic. Their drive for
conquest and material accumulation was a violent act of
consumption. The engine of the invading culture suckedin lives
and resources of millions of others and turned them into wealth
and power for themselves. The figures are still disputed, but it
is safe to place the numbers killed in the tens of millions,
certainly one of the most brutal genocides in history. And the
impact on non-human life was equally vast. Moreover, it was all
done with a moral certainty that all destruction was justified
in the name of ‘progress’ and
‘civilization.’</p> <p>This framing belies the
extent of the <em>wetiko</em> infection in the invader culture.
So blinded were they by self-referential ambition that they
could not see other life as being as important as their own.
They could not see past ideological blinders to the intrinsic
value of life or the interdependent nature of all things,
despite this being the dominant perspective of the Indigenous
populations they encountered. Their ability to see and know in
ways different from their own was, it seems,
amputated.</p> <p>This is not an anti-European rant. This is
the description of a disease whose vector was determined by deep
patterns of history, including those that empowered Europeans to
drive ‘global exploration’ as certain technologies
emerged.</p> <figure id="attachment_12169"
aria-describedby="caption-attachment-12169" class="wp-caption
alignleft"><a
href="
HTML http://www.kosmosjournal.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/p24-foundingfathers.png"<br
/>rel="attachment wp-att-12169"><img class="size-medium
wp-image-12169"
src="
HTML http://www.kosmosjournal.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/p24-foundingfathers-300x230.png"<br
/>alt="Founding Fathers. illustration | Native Americans"
width="300" height="230"
srcset="
HTML https://www.kosmosjournal.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/p24-foundingfathers-300x230.png<br
/>300w,
HTML https://www.kosmosjournal.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/p24-foundingfathers-768x588.png<br
/>768w,
HTML https://www.kosmosjournal.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/p24-foundingfathers-1024x784.png<br
/>1024w,
HTML https://www.kosmosjournal.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/p24-foundingfathers-229x175.png<br
/>229w,
HTML https://www.kosmosjournal.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/p24-foundingfathers-815x624.png<br
/>815w,
HTML https://www.kosmosjournal.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/p24-foundingfathers-95x73.png<br
/>95w,
HTML https://www.kosmosjournal.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/p24-foundingfathers.png<br
/>1170w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px"
/></a> <figcaption id="caption-attachment-12169"
class="wp-caption-text">Founding Fathers. illustration | Native
Americans</figcaption> </figure> <p>The <em>wetiko</em>
meme has almost certainly existed in individuals since the dawn
of humanity. It is, after all, a sickness that lives through and
is born from the human psyche. But the origin of
<em>wetiko</em><em>cultures</em> is more
identifiable.</p> <p>Memes can spread at the speed of
thought but they usually require generations to change the core
characteristics of cultures. What we can say is that the
fingerprints of <em>wetiko-like</em> beliefs can be traced at
least as far back as the Neolithic revolution, when humans in
the Fertile Crescent first learned to dominate their environment
by what author Daniel Quinn calls ‘totalitarian
agriculture’ — i.e., settled agricultural practices
that produce more food than is strictly needed for the
population, and that see the destruction of any living entity
that gets in the way of that (over-)production—be it other
humans, ‘pests’ or landscaping—as not only
legitimate but moral.</p> <p>This early form of
<em>wetiko-logic</em> received an amplifying power of
indescribable magnitude with the arrival of Christianity.
“Let us make mankind . . . rule over the fish in the sea
and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild
animals, and over all the creatures that move along the
ground,” said an authority no less than God in Genesis
1:26. After 8,000 years of totalitarian agriculture spreading
slowly across the region, it is perhaps not surprising that the
logic finds voice in the holy texts that emerged there.
Regardless, it was driven across Europe at the point of Roman
swords in the two hundred years after Christ’s death. It
is no coincidence that, in order for Christianity to become
dominant, the existing pagan belief-system, with its
understanding of humanity’s place within rather than above
nature, had to be all but
annihilated.<sup>8</sup></p> <p>The point is that the
epidemiology of <em>wetiko</em> has left clear indicators of its
lineage. And although it cannot be pathologized along geographic
or racial lines, the cultural strain we know today certainly has
many of its deepest roots in Europe. It was, after all, European
projects—from the Enlightenment to the Industrial
Revolution, to colonialism, imperialism, and slavery—that
developed the technology that opened up the channels that
facilitated the spread of <em>wetiko</em> culture all around the
world. In this way, we are all heirs and inheritors of
<em>wetiko</em>colonialism.</p> <p>We are all host carriers
of <em>wetiko</em> now.</p> <h2><em>Wetiko</em> Capitalism:
Removing the Veils of Context</h2> <blockquote> <p><em>I
don’t know who discovered water, but I can tell you it
wasn’t a fish.</em>
~ Attributed to Marshall
McCluhan</p> </blockquote> <p>When Western
anthropologists first started to study <em>wetiko</em>, they
believed it to be only a disease of the individual and a literal
form of flesh-eating cannibalism.<sup>9</sup> On both counts, as
discussed, their understanding was, if not wrong, certainly
limited. They did, however, accurately isolate two traits that
are relevant for thinking about cultures: (1) the initial act,
even when driven by necessity, creates a residual, unnatural
desire for <em>more</em>; and (2) the host carrier, which they
called the ‘victim,’ ended up with an ‘icy
heart’— i.e., their ability for empathy and
compassion was amputated.</p> <p>The reader can probably
already sense from the two traits mentioned above the
<em>wetiko</em> nature of modern capitalism. Its insatiable
hunger for finite resources; its disregard for the pain of
groups and cultures it consumes; its belief in consumption as
savior; its overriding obsession with its own material growth;
and its viral spread across the surface of the planet. It is
wholly accurate to describe neoliberal capitalism as
cannibalizing life on this planet. It is not the only
truth—capitalism has also facilitated an explosion of
human life and ingenuity—but when taken as a whole,
capitalism is certainly eating through the life-force of this
planet in service of its own growth.</p> <p>Of course,
capitalism is a human conception and so we can also say that we
are phenomenal hosts of the <em>wetiko</em> mind virus. To
understand what makes us such, it is useful to consider a couple
of the traits that guide the evolution of human
cultures.</p> <p>We have decades of evidence from social
science describing just what highly contextual beings we are.
Almost all aspects of our behavior, including our moral
judgments and limits, are significantly shaped in response to
the cultural signifiers that surround us. The Good Samaritan
studies, for example, show that even when people are primed with
the idea of altruism, they will walk by others in need when they
are in a rush or some other contextual variable
changes.<sup>10</sup> And the infamous Stanley Milgram
experiments show how a large majority of people are capable of
shocking another human to a point they know can cause death
simply because an authority figure in a white lab coat insists
they do so.<sup>11</sup></p> <p>We really are products of
our environment, and so it should be taken as inevitable that
those who live in a <em>wetiko</em> culture will manifest, to
one degree or other, <em>wetiko</em> beliefs and
behaviors.</p> <p>Looking through the broader contextual
lens, we must also account for the self-perpetuating nature of
complex systems. Any living network that becomes sufficiently
complex will become self-organizing, and from that point on will
demonstrate an instinct to survive. In practical terms, this
means that it will distribute its resources to support behavior
that best mimics its own logic and ensures its
survival.<sup>12</sup></p> <p>In other words, any system
that is sufficiently infected by <em>wetiko</em> logic will
reward cannibalistic behavior. Or, in Jack Forbes’
evocative language, “Those who squirm upwards [in a
<em>wetiko</em> system] are, or become, <em>wetiko</em>, and
they only perpetuate the system of corruption or oppression.
Thus the communist leaders in the Soviet Union under Stalin were
at least as vicious, deceitful and exploitative as their czarist
predecessors. They obtained ‘power’ without changing
their <em>wetiko</em>
culture.”<sup>13</sup></p> <p>This ensures that the
essential logic of cultures spreads down through generations as
well as across them. And it explains why they self-organize
resources to maintain a high degree of continuity in
distributions of power, when those distributions efficiently
serve their survival and growth. When this continuity is
interrupted or broken, revolutions occur and the system is put
under threat.</p> <p>However, as the above quote suggests,
the disruption must happen at the right level. Merely trading
one <em>wetiko</em> for another at the top of an otherwise
unchanged <em>wetiko</em> infrastructure (as in the case of
Stalin replacing the czars or, more contemporarily, Obama
replacing Bush) is largely pointless. At best, it might result
in the softening of the cruelest edges of a <em>wetiko</em>
machine. At worse, it does nothing except distract us from
seeing the true infection.</p> <p>The question, then, for
anyone interested in excising the <em>wetiko</em> infection from
a culture is, where is it? In one respect, because it is a
psychic phenomenon that lives in <em>potential</em> in all of
us, it is non-local. But this, though ultimately important to
understand, is not the whole truth. It is also true that there
is a conceptual place where the most powerful <em>wetiko</em>
logic is held, and that, at least in theory, makes it
vulnerable.</p> <p>In the same way that a colony of bees
will instinctively house its queen in the deepest chambers of
the hive, so a complex adaptive system buries its most important
operating logic furthest from the forces that can challenge
them. This means two things: first, it means siting the logic in
the deep rules that govern the whole. Not just this national
economy or that, this government or that, but the mother
system—the global operating system. And second, it means
making these rules feel as intractable and inevitable as
possible.</p> <p>So what is this deep logic of the global
operating system?</p> <p>It comes in two parts. First, there
is the ultimate purpose, which we might call the Prime
Directive, which is to <em>increase capital.</em></p> <p>We
often dress this up in a narrative that says capital generation
is not the end but the means, the engine of progress. This makes
the idea of dethroning it feel dangerous and even contrary to
common sense. But the truth is, we have created a system that
artificially treats money as sacred. At this point in
capitalism’s history, life is controlled by, more than it
controls, the forces of capital. The clue is really in the name.
But if you need further proof, look no further than how we
define and measure progress: GDP. More on that
below.</p> <p>Then, there is the logic for how we, the
living components of this system, should behave, which we would
summarize with the following epithet:</p> <p><em>Selfishness
is rational and rationality is everything; therefore selfishness
is everything.<sup>14</sup></em></p> <p>This dictates that
if we all prioritize ourselves and maximize our own material
wealth, an <em>invisible hand</em> (ah, what a seductive meme!)
will create an equilibrium state and life everywhere will be
made better. We are pitted against each other in a form of
<em>distributed fascism</em> where we cocoon ourselves in the
immediate problems of our own circumstances and consume what we
can. We then couch this behavior in the benign language of
family matters, national interests, job creation, GDP growth,
and other upstanding endeavors.</p> <p>Put these two parts
of the puzzle together and it’s easy to see why the banker
who generates excess capital receives vast rewards and is
labelled ‘productive’ and ‘successful,’
almost regardless of the damage s/he causes. Those who are less
‘successful’ at producing excess capital, meanwhile,
are rewarded far less, regardless of the life-affirming good
they may be doing. Nurses, mothers, teachers, journalists,
activists, scientists—all receive far less reward because
they are less efficient at obeying the Prime Directive and may
even be countermanding the ‘self-interest’ operating
principle. And as for those who are actually poor—well,
they are effortlessly labelled not just as practical but also
moral failures.</p> <figure id="attachment_12170"
aria-describedby="caption-attachment-12170" class="wp-caption
alignright"><a
href="
HTML http://www.kosmosjournal.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/p26-wetiko.jpg"<br
/>rel="attachment wp-att-12170"><img class="size-medium
wp-image-12170"
src="
HTML http://www.kosmosjournal.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/p26-wetiko-200x300.jpg"<br
/>alt="book cover | Paul Levy" width="200" height="300"
srcset="
HTML https://www.kosmosjournal.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/p26-wetiko-200x300.jpg<br
/>200w,
HTML https://www.kosmosjournal.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/p26-wetiko-768x1152.jpg<br
/>768w,
HTML https://www.kosmosjournal.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/p26-wetiko-683x1024.jpg<br
/>683w,
HTML https://www.kosmosjournal.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/p26-wetiko-815x1223.jpg<br
/>815w,
HTML https://www.kosmosjournal.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/p26-wetiko-95x143.jpg<br
/>95w,
HTML https://www.kosmosjournal.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/p26-wetiko.jpg<br
/>900w" sizes="(max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px"
/></a> <figcaption id="caption-attachment-12170"
class="wp-caption-text">book cover | Paul
Levy</figcaption> </figure> <p>This infection is so far
advanced that the system now requires exponential capital
growth. The World Bank tells us that we have to grow the global
economy by at least 3 percent per year to avoid
recession.<sup>15</sup> Let’s think about what this means.
Global GDP in 2014 (the last full year of data) was roughly USD
$78 trillion.<sup>16</sup> We grew that pie by 2.4% in 2015,
which resulted in the commodification and subsequent consumption
of roughly another $2 trillion in human labor and natural
resources. That’s roughly the size of the entire global
economy in 1970. It took us from the dawn of civilization to
1970 to reach $2 trillion in global GDP, and now we need that
just in the differential so the entire house of cards
doesn’t crumble. In order to achieve this rate of growth
year-on-year, we are destroying our planet, ensuring mass
species extinction, and displacing millions of our brothers and
sisters (who we commonly refer to as ‘poor people’)
from around the world.</p> <p>So when people tell us that
the market knows best, or technology will save us, or
philanthrocapitalism will redistribute opportunities (pace Bill
Gates), we have to understand that all of these seemingly common
sense truisms are embedded in a broader operating system, a
<em>wetikonomy</em>, with all that that means. And the more they
are presented as ‘unchangeable,’ the more often
we’re told, ‘there is no alternative,’ the
more we should question. There is actually a beautiful irony in
the fact that, when we know what we’re up against, such
statements are our signposts for where to look.</p> <p>It is
not that we are against markets, technology, or philanthropy
— they can all be wonderful, in the right
context—but we are against how they are being used as
alibis to excuse the insanity of the <em>wetiko</em> paradigm
that they are inseparable from. We are reminded of Jack
Forbes’ heavy words; “It is not logical to allow the
<em>wetiko</em>s to carry out their evil acts and then to accept
their assessment of the nature of human life. For after all, the
<em>wetiko</em> possess a bias created by their own evil lives,
by their own amoral or immoral behavior. And too, if I am
correct, they were, and are, also
insane.”<sup>17</sup></p> <h2>Seeing <em>Wetiko</em>:
Antidote Logic</h2> <blockquote> <p><em>Launch your meme
boldly and see if it will replicate—just like genes
replicate, and infect, and move into the organism of society.
And, believing as I do, that society operates on a kind of
biological economy, then I believe these memes are the key to
societal evolution. But unless the memes are released to play
the game, there is no progress.</em>
~ Terrence McKenna, Memes, Drugs and
Community<sup>18</sup></p> </blockquote> <blockquote>
3;<p><em>You
might just be a black Bill Gates in the making.</em>
~ Beyoncé,
Formation<sup>19</sup></p> </blockquote> <p>A key lesson
of meme theory is that when we are conscious of the memetic
viruses we are less likely to adhere to them blindly. Conscious
awareness is like sunlight through the cracks of a
window.</p> <p>Thus, one of the starting points for healing
is the simple act of ‘seeing <em>wetiko</em>’ in
ourselves, in others, and in our cultural infrastructure. And
once we see, we can name, which is critical because words and
language are a central battleground. To quote McKenna
again:</p> <blockquote> <p><em>The world is not made of
quarks, electromagnetic wave packets, or the thoughts of God.
The world is made of language.. Earth is a place where language
has literally become alive. Language has invested matter; it is
replicating and defining and building itself. And it is in
us.<sup>20</sup></em></p> </blockquote> <p>His last line
is critical for exploring our own agency in the replication of
<em>wetiko</em>. We are all entangled in the unfolding of
reality that is happening both to and through us. In place of
traditional certainties and linear cause-and-effect logic, we
can recast ourselves “as spontaneously responsive, moving,
embodied living beings—within a reality of continuously
intermingling, flowing lines or strands of unfolding, agential
activity, in which nothing (no thing) exists in separation from
anything else, a reality within which we are immersed both as
participant agencies and to which we also owe significant
aspects of our own natures.”<sup>21</sup></p> <p>If
<em>wetiko</em> exists, it is because it exists within us. It is
also entangled with the broader superstructure, relationships,
and choice architecture that we are confronted with within a
neoliberal system on the brink of collapse.</p> <p>Forbes
reminds us that we cannot ‘fight’ <em>wetiko</em> in
any traditional sense: “One of the tragic characteristics
of the <em>wetiko</em> psychosis is that it <em>spreads partly
by resistance to it.</em> That is, those who try to fight
<em>wetiko</em> sometimes, in order to survive, adopt
<em>wetiko</em> values.</p> <p>Thus, when they
‘win,’ they lose.”<sup>22</sup> A lot of
reform-based initiatives, from the sharing economy to
micro-lending have succumbed to the co-optation and retaliation
of <em>wetiko</em> capitalism.</p> <p>However, once we are
in the mode of <em>seeing</em> <em>wetiko</em>, we can hack the
cultural systems that perpetuate its logic. It is not difficult
to figure out where to start. Following the money usually leads
us to the core pillars of <em>wetiko</em> machinery. Those of us
that are within these structures, from the corporate media to
philanthropy to banking to the UN, have access to the heart of
the <em>wetiko</em> monster.</p> <p>For those of us on the
outside, we can organize our lives in radically new ways to
undermine <em>wetiko</em> structures. The simple act of gifting
undermines the neoliberal logic of commodification and
extraction. Using alternative currencies undermines the
debt–based money system. De-schooling and alternative
education models can help decolonize and <em>de-wetikoize</em>
the mind. Helping to create alternative communities outside the
capitalist system supports the infrastructure for transition.
And direct activism such as debt resistance can weaken the
<em>wetiko</em> virus, if done with the right intention and
state of consciousness.</p> <p>By contracting new
relationships with others, with Nature, and with ourselves, we
can build a new complex of entanglements and thought-forms that
are fused with <em>post-wetiko</em>, <em>post-capitalist</em>
values.</p> <p>We have to simultaneously go within ourselves
and the deep recesses of our own psyches while changing the
structure of the system around us. Holding a structural
perspective and an unapologetic critique of modern
capitalism—i.e., holding a constellational worldview that
sees all oppression as connected—serves our ability to see
the alternatives, and indeed, all of us, as intricately
connected.</p> <p>Plato believed that ideas are the
‘eyes of the soul.’ Now that the veils obscuring
<em>wetiko</em> are starting to be lifted, let us give birth to,
and become, living antigens, embracing the polyculture of ideas
that are challenging the monoculture of <em>wetiko</em>
<em>capitalism</em>. Let us be pollinators of new memetic hives
built on altruism, empathy, inter-connectedness, reverence,
communality, and solidarity, defying the subject-object
dualities of Cartesian/Newtonian/Enlightenment logic. Let us
reclaim our birth right as sovereign entities, free of deluded
beliefs in market systems, invisible hands, righteous greed,
chosen ones, branded paraphernalia, techno utopianism and even
the self-salvation of the New Age. Let us dance with
thought-forms through a deeper understanding of ethics, knowing,
and being,<sup>23</sup> and the intimate awareness that our
individual minds and bodies are a part of the collective
battleground for the soul of humanity, and indeed, life on this
planet. And let us re-embrace the ancient futures of our
Indigenous ancestors that represent the only continuous line of
living in symbiosis with Mother Nature. The dissolution of
<em>wetiko</em> will be as much about remembering as it will be
about creation.</p> <p>Endnotes</p> <p>1 These are
lyrics from a song entitled “The Priests of the Golden
Bull” by the Na-
tive Canadian singer/songwriter Buffy Sainte-Marie from her 1992
album entitled <em>Coincidence and Likely Stories.</em> The
authors believe this was their first encounter
with the memetic mind virus of wendigo (a version of wetiko).
This will all make sense at the end of this article.
2 Quinn, D. <em>Beyond civilization: Humanity’s next great
adventure.</em> Broadway Books (2008), p. 50.
3 Dawkins, R. <em>The selfish gene</em>. Oxford University Press
(1990).
4 ‘Intra-action’ is a neologism created by Karan
Barad and described in her book, <em>Meeting the Universe
Halfway</em> (2007). Barad writes about intra-action, rather
than interaction, to illustrate how entanglement precedes
thingness. In other words, there are no things as such, just
relationships—and these ongoing relational dynamics are
co-responsible for how things emerge.
5 Recent research, for example, has shown how the grandchildren
of Holocaust survivors have different stress hormone profiles
than those from otherwise very similar circumstances but whose
grandparents did not suffer through the Holocaust. Rodriguez, T.
“Descendants of Holocaust survivors have altered stress
hormones,” <em>Scientific American</em> (March 2015),
accessed at:
HTML http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/descendants-of-holocaust-survivors-have-altered-stress-hormones/
6 Luther Standing Bear. <em>Land of the spotted eagle.</em>
Bison Books (2006).
7 Forbes, Jack D. <em>Columbus and other cannibals: The wetiko
disease of exploitation, imperialism and terrorism.</em> Seven
Stories Press (2008), p.46.
8 See <em>Not in His Image</em> (2006) by John Lamb Lash for a
comprehensive account of the systematic annihilation of paganism
by the new Christian religion.
9 Cooper, J.M. “The Cree Witiko Psychosis” in
<em>Primitive Man,</em> Vol. 6, No. 1 (Jan., 1933), pp. 20-24:
The George Washington University Institute for Ethnographic
Research.
10 Darley, J. M., and Batson, C.D. “From Jerusalem to
Jericho: A study of situational and dispositional variables in
Helping Behavior.” <em>Journal of Personality and Social
Psychology</em> (1973), Vol. 27, Number 1, pp. 100-108.
11 See
HTML https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milgram_experiment.
12 Capra F, Luisi P, <em>A systems view of life: A unifying
vision</em>. Cambridge (2014), Chapter 8.
13 Forbes, Jack D. <em>Columbus and other cannibals: The wetiko
disease of exploitation, imperialism and terrorism</em>. Seven
Stories Press (2008), p.46.
14 A version of this argument was originally published on
Occupy.com by the authors in a two-part essay entitled
“Capitalism is Just a Story and Other Dangerous
Thoughts.” See more at:
HTML http://www.occupy.com/article/capitalism-just-story-and-other-dangerous-thoughts-part-i#sthash.INKCFdNs.dpuf.
15 For example, see this forecast report by the World Bank:
HTML http://www.worldbank.org/content/dam/Worldbank/GEP/GEP2016a/Global-Economic-Prospects-January-2016-Global-Outlook.pdf
16 See
HTML http://databank.worldbank.org/data/download/GDP.pdf
17 Forbes, Jack D. <em>Columbus and other cannibals: The wetiko
disease of exploitation, imperialism and terrorism.</em> Seven
Stories Press (2008), p.37.
18
HTML https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NO6-1sqQme0.
19 These lyrics are from Beyoncé’s song
“Formation,” which was originally debuted at the
2015 Super Bowl. For a critical analysis, see <a
href="
HTML http://www.deathandtaxesmag.com/280129/beyonce-capitalism-black-activism/">Dianca<br
/>London’s article entitled Beyoncé’s
capitalism, masquerading as radical change</a>.
20 McKenna, T. <em>The archaic revival: Speculations on
psychedelic mushrooms, the Amazon, virtual reality, UFOs,
evolution, shamanism, the rebirth of the goddess, and the end of
history</em>. Harper Collins (1992).
21 John Shotter, “Agential realism, social
constructionism, and our living relations to our surroundings:
Sensing similarities rather than seeing patterns’’
<em>Theory and Psychology,</em> 2014.
22 Forbes, Jack D. <em>Columbus and other cannibals: The wetiko
disease of exploitation, imperialism and terrorism.</em> Seven
Stories Press (2008), p.61.
23 Karan Barad talks about the confluence of ethics, knowing,
and being as an ‘onto-ethico-politico-epistemology.’
Ontology refers to what is in the world. Epistemology is about
how we know what is in the world. And ethics is how we should
engage in the world. These are not separate, but emerge
materially in an ongoing dynamic. The nature of reality and the
nature of knowledge are entangled—not fixed or final or
determinate— and thus cannot be divorced from power and
what we find valuable or just.</p> <p><a
href="
HTML http://www.kosmosjournal.org/subscribe-to-kosmos-journal/"<br
/>target="_blank" rel="noopener">For more stories like this one,
please Subscribe to Kosmos Quarterly</a></p>[/html]
#Post#: 12413--------------------------------------------------
Re: Viruses of the Mind
By: AGelbert Date: May 17, 2019, 10:02 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
HTML http://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/general-discussion/viruses-of-the-mind/msg12409/#msg12409
Excellent article. 👍 Greed is, not only functionally
stupid, it is evil=destructive.
[center] [img width=640
height=330]
HTML http://www.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/3-080814213147.png[/img][/center]
#Post#: 13883--------------------------------------------------
The Las Vegas Shooter, Two Years Later
By: AGelbert Date: October 6, 2019, 5:27 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
[quote]Sun Valley is not really a city. It is the anus of Los
Angeles. Literally. It’s where the sewage plant is. And the
garbage dump. It’s in a trench below the Hollywood Hills, where
the smog settles into a kind of puke-yellow soup. [/quote]
[center][img
width=600]
HTML https://ci5.googleusercontent.com/proxy/_h-Pb0_TYATesqkasCAVkK-vGq5T459yA8etKoapp2966RCuLkzrNfqpi1l2k6Ux4Vp_6ZDg5r5ixJ6n3deio2enwGXpBZsX9VOu2SEniBqx6CZs1FwfEg=s0-d-e1-ft#https://www.truthdig.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/paddockpalast.jpg[/img][/center]
[center]Greg Palast, left, at 11 years old, and Steve Paddock in
elementary school in 1964. (Photos courtesy of Greg
Palast)[/center]
[center]The Las Vegas Shooter, Two Years Later[/center]
SNIPPET:
By Greg Palast — Why Steve Paddock killed dozens of innocent Las
Vegas revelers two years ago isn’t as much of a mystery when you
consider his roots.
Paddock. Palast. We sat next to each other at Fernangeles
Elementary School, and later at Poly High in Sun Valley, Calif.
Steve was a chess prodigy and a math whiz.
He finally got to use his extraordinary gift to do complex
ballistics calculations that allowed him to murder 58 people in
Las Vegas in just minutes from a distant hotel window. That was
two years ago this week.
Steve should have gone to MIT, to Stanford. He didn’t. For that,
he needed Advanced Placement calculus.
If you went to “Bevvie”—Beverly Hills High—you could take AP
calculus. Or AP French. We didn’t have AP calculus. We didn’t
have AP French. We weren’t Placed, and we didn’t Advance.
According to a state investigation led by Tom Hayden, our high
school was situated on top of a toxic dump site. No surprise
there.
In Sun Valley, Steve and I were required to take classes called
“electrical shop” and “metal shop” so we would be trained to man
the drill presses at the local General Motors plant. Or do
tool-and-dye cutting to make refrigerator handles at GM, where
they assembled Frigidaire refrigerators and Chevys.
And we were required to take drafting. Drafting, as in
“blueprint drawing.” We sat at those drafting tables with our
triangular rulers and No. 2 pencils so we could get jobs at
Lockheed Martin Corp. as draftsmen and draw blueprints for
fighter jets.
But we weren’t going to fly the fighter jets. Somewhere at
Phillips Academy Andover, a dumbbell named Bush with an oil well
for a daddy was going to go to Yale and then fly our fighter
jets over Texas. We weren’t going to go to Yale. We were going
to go to Vietnam. Then, when we came back, if we still had two
hands, we were supposed to go to GM or Lockheed.
And any pretty girl at our high school could always make decent
money in Sun Valley, then the po rn film capital of America.
Those were the choices we were given. As long as they lasted:
After NAFTA, GM shut down and shifted to Mexico.
Full article: [img
width=60]
HTML http://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/3-130418200416.png[/img]<br
/>
HTML https://www.truthdig.com/articles/the-las-vegas-shooter-two-years-later/
#Post#: 14555--------------------------------------------------
Those Who Support Trump Fear Losing Their Privilege
By: Surly1 Date: November 26, 2019, 4:51 am
---------------------------------------------------------
Those Who Support Trump Fear Losing Their Privilege
HTML https://mavenroundtable.io/theintellectualist/news/study-supports-theory-those-who-support-trump-fear-losing-their-privilege-Bo01SB5kIEKk0yL2fXD4ow/?fbclid=IwAR1r18Jigi6jRuBepZ7wGLJoFdwY4uMhJohFb0qcpv3bqEOGeDl9hstcQAk
[img
width=750]
HTML https://imageproxy.themaven.net/https%3A%2F%2Fs3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com%2Fmaven-user-photos%2Ftheintellectualist%2Fnews%2FmYU3wDD7m0KJ6-CkkxRXfQ%2FjWGbatS60ESnDsf0R5IywQ?w=1368&q=20&h=913&auto=format&fit=crop&crop=focalpoint&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&fp-z=1&fp-debug=false[/img]
[html]<h1>Study Supports Theory: Those Who Support Trump Fear
Losing Their Privilege</h1> <p>A study from the
University of Pennsylvania shows that support for Trump is
linked to fear of losing social dominance.</p> <p
tmlembeds="[object Object]" users="[object
Object]" index="1">The popular narrative surrounding the
wave of support that ushered Donald Trump into the White House
focuses largely on the supposed economic anxiety of
middle-America, particularly among white voters.</p> <p
tmlembeds="[object Object]" users="[object
Object]" index="2">However, a new study investigating the
veracity of this theory has found that it was not economic
anxiety but fear of losing personal social and global dominance
that drove many toward Trump over Hillary Clinton.</p> <p
tmlembeds="[object Object]" users="[object
Object]" index="3"><a tmlembeds="[object Object]"
users="[object Object]" index="4"
href="
HTML https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/24/us/politics/trump-economic-anxiety.html?smid=fb-nytimes&smtyp=cur"><strong<br
/>tmlembeds="[object Object]" users="[object
Object]" index="5"><strong tmlembeds="[object
Object]" users="[object Object]" index="6">From The
New York Times</strong></strong></a>:</p> <blockquote
tmlembeds="[object Object]" users="[object
Object]" index="7"> <p tmlembeds="[object
Object]" users="[object Object]" index="8">A study
published on Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy
of Sciences questions that explanation, the latest to suggest
that Trump voters weren’t driven by anger over the past,
but rather fear of what may come. White, Christian and male
voters, the study suggests, turned to Mr. Trump because they
felt their status was at risk.</p> <p tmlembeds="[object
Object]" users="[object Object]"
index="9">“It’s much more of a symbolic threat that
people feel,’’ said Diana C. Mutz, the author of the
study and a political science and communications professor at
the University of Pennsylvania, where she directs the Institute
for the Study of Citizens and Politics. “It’s not a
threat to their own economic well-being; it’s a threat to
their group’s dominance in our country over
all.”</p> </blockquote> <p tmlembeds="[object
Object]" users="[object Object]"
index="10">Mutz’s findings were not the first to
contradict the economic anxiety theory:</p> <blockquote
tmlembeds="[object Object]" users="[object
Object]" index="11"> <p tmlembeds="[object
Object]" users="[object Object]" index="12">Last
year, a Public Religion Research Institute survey of more than
3,000 people also found that Mr. Trump’s appeal could
better be explained by a fear of cultural
displacement.</p> </blockquote> <p
tmlembeds="[object Object]" users="[object
Object]" index="13">Analyzing data from a nationally
representative group of about 1,200 voters who were surveyed in
2012 and 2016, Mutz found several indicators that economic
anxiety was not the driving force of support for
Trump.</p> <blockquote tmlembeds="[object Object]"
users="[object Object]" index="14"> <p
tmlembeds="[object Object]" users="[object
Object]" index="15">Losing a job or income between 2012 and
2016 did not make a person any more likely to support Mr. Trump,
Dr. Mutz found. Neither did the mere perception that one’s
financial situation had worsened. A person’s opinion on
how trade affected personal finances had little bearing on
political preferences. Neither did unemployment or the density
of manufacturing jobs in one’s area.</p> <p
tmlembeds="[object Object]" users="[object
Object]" index="16">“It wasn’t people in those
areas that were switching, those folks were already voting
Republican,” Dr. Mutz said.</p> </blockquote> <p
tmlembeds="[object Object]" users="[object
Object]" index="17">Analyzing another survey, one from 2016
by the National Opinion Research Center at the University of
Chicago, Mutz also found that concerns about retirement,
education and medical bills did not predict support Trump.What
concerns did characterize the future president’s
supporters? Fear of change -- and more specifically, fear of
losing cultural dominance.</p> <blockquote
tmlembeds="[object Object]" users="[object
Object]" index="18"> <p tmlembeds="[object
Object]" users="[object Object]" index="19">While
economic anxiety did not explain Mr. Trump’s appeal, Dr.
Mutz found reason instead to credit those whose thinking changed
in ways that reflected a growing sense of racial or global
threat. …</p> <p tmlembeds="[object Object]"
users="[object Object]" index="20">“The shift
toward an antitrade stance was a particularly effective strategy
for capitalizing on a public experiencing status threat due to
race as well as globalization,” Dr. Mutz wrote in the
study.</p> </blockquote> <p tmlembeds="[object
Object]" users="[object Object]" index="21">She also
noted that while being a “white, Christian male in
American” used to confer status in and of itself,
“things have changed” and “they do feel
threatened”.</p> <blockquote tmlembeds="[object
Object]" users="[object Object]" index="22"> <p
tmlembeds="[object Object]" users="[object
Object]" index="23">The other surveys supported the cultural
anxiety explanation, too.</p> <p tmlembeds="[object
Object]" users="[object Object]" index="24">For
example, Trump support was linked to a belief that high-status
groups, such as whites, Christians or men, faced more
discrimination than low-status groups, like minorities, Muslims
or women, according to Dr. Mutz’s analysis of the
University of Chicago study.</p> </blockquote> <p
tmlembeds="[object Object]" users="[object
Object]" index="25"><a tmlembeds="[object Object]"
users="[object Object]" index="26"
href="
HTML https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/24/us/politics/trump-economic-anxiety.html?smid=fb-nytimes&smtyp=cur"><strong<br
/>tmlembeds="[object Object]" users="[object
Object]" index="27"><strong tmlembeds="[object
Object]" users="[object Object]" index="28">Click
here to read more</strong></strong></a>.</p>[/html]
#Post#: 14558--------------------------------------------------
using fear, cleverly based on lies and exaggerations, to justify
terrorising and murdering
By: AGelbert Date: November 26, 2019, 2:33 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
[quote author=Surly1 link=topic=289.msg14555#msg14555
date=1574765512]
Those Who Support Trump Fear Losing Their Privilege
HTML https://mavenroundtable.io/theintellectualist/news/study-supports-theory-those-who-support-trump-fear-losing-their-privilege-Bo01SB5kIEKk0yL2fXD4ow/?fbclid=IwAR1r18Jigi6jRuBepZ7wGLJoFdwY4uMhJohFb0qcpv3bqEOGeDl9hstcQAk
[img
width=750]
HTML https://imageproxy.themaven.net/https%3A%2F%2Fs3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com%2Fmaven-user-photos%2Ftheintellectualist%2Fnews%2FmYU3wDD7m0KJ6-CkkxRXfQ%2FjWGbatS60ESnDsf0R5IywQ?w=1368&q=20&h=913&auto=format&fit=crop&crop=focalpoint&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&fp-z=1&fp-debug=false[/img]
[html]<h1>Study Supports Theory: Those Who Support Trump Fear
Losing Their Privilege</h1> <p>A study from the
University of Pennsylvania shows that support for Trump is
linked to fear of losing social dominance.</p> <p
tmlembeds="[object Object]" users="[object
Object]" index="1">The popular narrative surrounding the
wave of support that ushered Donald Trump into the White House
focuses largely on the supposed economic anxiety of
middle-America, particularly among white voters.</p> <p
tmlembeds="[object Object]" users="[object
Object]" index="2">However, a new study investigating the
veracity of this theory has found that it was not economic
anxiety but fear of losing personal social and global dominance
that drove many toward Trump over Hillary Clinton.</p> <p
tmlembeds="[object Object]" users="[object
Object]" index="3"><a tmlembeds="[object Object]"
users="[object Object]" index="4"
href="
HTML https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/24/us/politics/trump-economic-anxiety.html?smid=fb-nytimes&smtyp=cur"><strong<br
/>tmlembeds="[object Object]" users="[object
Object]" index="5"><strong tmlembeds="[object
Object]" users="[object Object]" index="6">From The
New York Times</strong></strong></a>:</p> <blockquote
tmlembeds="[object Object]" users="[object
Object]" index="7"> <p tmlembeds="[object
Object]" users="[object Object]" index="8">A study
published on Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy
of Sciences questions that explanation, the latest to suggest
that Trump voters weren’t driven by anger over the past,
but rather fear of what may come. White, Christian and male
voters, the study suggests, turned to Mr. Trump because they
felt their status was at risk.</p> <p tmlembeds="[object
Object]" users="[object Object]"
index="9">“It’s much more of a symbolic threat that
people feel,’’ said Diana C. Mutz, the author of the
study and a political science and communications professor at
the University of Pennsylvania, where she directs the Institute
for the Study of Citizens and Politics. “It’s not a
threat to their own economic well-being; it’s a threat to
their group’s dominance in our country over
all.”</p> </blockquote> <p tmlembeds="[object
Object]" users="[object Object]"
index="10">Mutz’s findings were not the first to
contradict the economic anxiety theory:</p> <blockquote
tmlembeds="[object Object]" users="[object
Object]" index="11"> <p tmlembeds="[object
Object]" users="[object Object]" index="12">Last
year, a Public Religion Research Institute survey of more than
3,000 people also found that Mr. Trump’s appeal could
better be explained by a fear of cultural
displacement.</p> </blockquote> <p
tmlembeds="[object Object]" users="[object
Object]" index="13">Analyzing data from a nationally
representative group of about 1,200 voters who were surveyed in
2012 and 2016, Mutz found several indicators that economic
anxiety was not the driving force of support for
Trump.</p> <blockquote tmlembeds="[object Object]"
users="[object Object]" index="14"> <p
tmlembeds="[object Object]" users="[object
Object]" index="15">Losing a job or income between 2012 and
2016 did not make a person any more likely to support Mr. Trump,
Dr. Mutz found. Neither did the mere perception that one’s
financial situation had worsened. A person’s opinion on
how trade affected personal finances had little bearing on
political preferences. Neither did unemployment or the density
of manufacturing jobs in one’s area.</p> <p
tmlembeds="[object Object]" users="[object
Object]" index="16">“It wasn’t people in those
areas that were switching, those folks were already voting
Republican,” Dr. Mutz said.</p> </blockquote> <p
tmlembeds="[object Object]" users="[object
Object]" index="17">Analyzing another survey, one from 2016
by the National Opinion Research Center at the University of
Chicago, Mutz also found that concerns about retirement,
education and medical bills did not predict support Trump.What
concerns did characterize the future president’s
supporters? Fear of change -- and more specifically, fear of
losing cultural dominance.</p> <blockquote
tmlembeds="[object Object]" users="[object
Object]" index="18"> <p tmlembeds="[object
Object]" users="[object Object]" index="19">While
economic anxiety did not explain Mr. Trump’s appeal, Dr.
Mutz found reason instead to credit those whose thinking changed
in ways that reflected a growing sense of racial or global
threat. …</p> <p tmlembeds="[object Object]"
users="[object Object]" index="20">“The shift
toward an antitrade stance was a particularly effective strategy
for capitalizing on a public experiencing status threat due to
race as well as globalization,” Dr. Mutz wrote in the
study.</p> </blockquote> <p tmlembeds="[object
Object]" users="[object Object]" index="21">She also
noted that while being a “white, Christian male in
American” used to confer status in and of itself,
“things have changed” and “they do feel
threatened”.</p> <blockquote tmlembeds="[object
Object]" users="[object Object]" index="22"> <p
tmlembeds="[object Object]" users="[object
Object]" index="23">The other surveys supported the cultural
anxiety explanation, too.</p> <p tmlembeds="[object
Object]" users="[object Object]" index="24">For
example, Trump support was linked to a belief that high-status
groups, such as whites, Christians or men, faced more
discrimination than low-status groups, like minorities, Muslims
or women, according to Dr. Mutz’s analysis of the
University of Chicago study.</p> </blockquote> <p
tmlembeds="[object Object]" users="[object
Object]" index="25"><a tmlembeds="[object Object]"
users="[object Object]" index="26"
href="
HTML https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/24/us/politics/trump-economic-anxiety.html?smid=fb-nytimes&smtyp=cur"><strong<br
/>tmlembeds="[object Object]" users="[object
Object]" index="27"><strong tmlembeds="[object
Object]" users="[object Object]" index="28">Click
here to read more</strong></strong></a>.</p>[/html]
[/quote]
[quote]... those whose thinking changed in ways that reflected a
growing sense of racial or global threat.[/quote]
That reminded me of something from early on in the European
settlement of Turtle island. While the Native Americans were
just trying to live their lives as they had for thousands of
years, the newcomers constantly were stirring each other up with
fears of the "savages" doing this, that and the other to them.
Now we know the writers of all this propaganda way back when
were simply using fear, cleverly based on lies and
exaggerations, to justify terrorising and murdering Native
Americans in order to steal their lands and livelihoods with a
"clear consciense".
It was a cheap, totally unjustified bullshit fig leaf then, and
it is a cheap, totally unjustified bullshit fig leaf now. [img
width=40]
HTML http://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/3-130418202709.png[/img]<br
/>
BUT, as Eduardo Galeano, the writer of the book "Open Veins of
Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent"
pointed out, the use of 👹 terrorism ☠️
continued for so many centuries because it works.
[center][img
width=640]
HTML https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/a3/OpenVeinCover.jpg[/img][/center]
[center][size=18pt]Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries
of the Pillage of a Continent[/size]
HTML https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Veins_of_Latin_America[/center]
#Post#: 14575--------------------------------------------------
Re: Viruses of the Mind
By: AGelbert Date: November 27, 2019, 11:04 am
---------------------------------------------------------
[center]How 😈👹💵🎩 Oligarchs Could
Start A Second 🏴‍☠️ Civil
War![/center]
6,712 views•Nov 26, 2019
[center]
HTML https://youtu.be/lPT7Sf0NFRw[/center]
Thom Hartmann Program
194K subscribers
Oligarchs could ignite a second American civil war?
🔴 Subscribe for more clips like this:
HTML https://www.youtube.com/user/thomhart...
What will become of the remains of our democracy if the
oligarchs turn it into a police state?
⭐ Join our Membership and Support the Channel:
HTML https://www.youtube.com/user/thomhart...
[center]🔥 WATCH NEXT: Discover more about The American
Oligarchy -
HTML https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5gNz_FycX95_c9RyAHjamAq4PzYJSiPj[/center]
#Post#: 14587--------------------------------------------------
📢 We Can't Afford to Banish Politics From the Thanksgivi
ng Table
By: AGelbert Date: November 27, 2019, 3:55 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
[center]We Can't Afford to Banish Politics From the Thanksgiving
Table [img
width=40]
HTML http://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/3-130418202709.png[/img]<br
/>[/center]
November 27, 2019 MICHAEL I. NIMAN, TRUTHOUT
This Thanksgiving, we should question the concept of etiquette
at the dinner table. White people with privilege and power have
a civic responsibility to counter their racist uncles' rants.
[img
width=70]
HTML http://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/2/3-190419235756.png[/img]<br
/>Ignoring racism -- and tolerating those who excuse racism and
offer up our White House and Congress as tools to enable racism
-- is a privilege that folks affected by racism don't have. So,
I'm calling on all people who occupy positions of privilege to
embrace necessary conflict this Thanksgiving. [img
width=70]
HTML http://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/3-130418202144.gif[/img]<br
/>(IOW: [img
width=70]
HTML http://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/1/3-250718204530.gif[/img]).
Read the Article →
HTML https://default.salsalabs.org/Td7ced926-67b4-4b77-96ae-47daee1945a6/ec4af639-1255-4a4c-9da9-363d3c2c7098
#Post#: 14588--------------------------------------------------
Re: 📢 We Can't Afford to Banish Politics From the Thanks
giving Table
By: Surly1 Date: November 27, 2019, 4:10 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
[quote author=AGelbert link=topic=289.msg14587#msg14587
date=1574891722]
[center]We Can't Afford to Banish Politics From the Thanksgiving
Table [img
width=40]
HTML http://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/3-130418202709.png[/img]<br
/>[/center]
November 27, 2019 MICHAEL I. NIMAN, TRUTHOUT
This Thanksgiving, we should question the concept of etiquette
at the dinner table. White people with privilege and power have
a civic responsibility to counter their racist uncles' rants.
[img
width=70]
HTML http://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/2/3-190419235756.png[/img]<br
/>Ignoring racism -- and tolerating those who excuse racism and
offer up our White House and Congress as tools to enable racism
-- is a privilege that folks affected by racism don't have. So,
I'm calling on all people who occupy positions of privilege to
embrace necessary conflict this Thanksgiving. [img
width=70]
HTML http://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/3-130418202144.gif[/img]<br
/>(IOW: [img
width=70]
HTML http://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/1/3-250718204530.gif[/img]).
Read the Article →
HTML https://default.salsalabs.org/Td7ced926-67b4-4b77-96ae-47daee1945a6/ec4af639-1255-4a4c-9da9-363d3c2c7098
[/quote]
Failure to confront cedes the field.
So as Dave Chappelle might say, "Fuck 'em."
#Post#: 14615--------------------------------------------------
Kids EXPOSE the Narcissistic Virus of the Mind Destroying Humani
ty (i.e. SELFISHNESS)
By: AGelbert Date: November 28, 2019, 6:19 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
[move][font=courier]Kids EXPOSE the Narcissistic Virus of the
Mind Destroying Humanity (i.e. SELFISHNESS) [/font][/move]
[quote]Definition of selfishness: the quality or state of being
selfish : a concern for one's own welfare or advantage at the
expense of or in disregard of others : excessive interest in
oneself
HTML https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/selfishness[/quote]
[center]BLACK BEAR NEWS: The Kids of Planet Earth Are Acting
Like the Adults [img width=70
height=40]
HTML http://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/3-060518153110.png[/img]
[/center]
816 views•Nov 19, 2019
[center]
HTML https://youtu.be/TmG2U-i28eg[/center]
Black Bear News
2.49K subscribers
#FridayGasStrike #ExtinctionRebellion #ClimateStrike
#GretaThunberg #ClimateChange #CompassionateDegrowth
#BlackBearNews
The Kids of Planet Earth Are Acting Like its Adults Because its
Adults are Acting Like Children
HTML https://eand.co/the-kids-of-planet-ea...
Twitter @BlackBearNews1
Support via Paypal:
HTML https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr...
Support via Square:
HTML https://cash.me/$RedLlamaMusic
Red Llama Music
PO Box 132
So Pasadena, CA 91031
Category People & Blogs
[center] [img width=640
height=330]
HTML http://www.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/3-080814213147.png[/img][/center]
#Post#: 16213--------------------------------------------------
🕯️ 🧐 The Evidence against Materialism
By: AGelbert Date: April 5, 2020, 9:02 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
[center]👨‍⚕️ Michael Egnor ✨:
The Evidence against Materialism[/center]
106,292 views•Jun 10, 2019
[center]
HTML https://youtu.be/BqHrpBPdtSI[/center]
Discovery Science
56.3K subscribers
In this bonus interview footage from Science Uprising,
neurosurgeon Michael Egnor discusses the evidence against
materialism and explains how materialism undercuts rather than
supports genuine science. Be sure to visit
HTML https://scienceuprising.com/
to find more videos and explore
related articles and books.
Michael Egnor, MD [img
width=40]
HTML http://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/1/3-120818185037-16412296.gif[/img]<br
/>(from Columbia University), neurosurgeon and professor of
neurological surgery at Stony Brook University. Dr. Egnor is
renowned for his work in pediatric neurosurgery. See
HTML https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/2516312....
[move]Check out these other videos: [img
width=20]
HTML http://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/3-250817121424.gif[/img]<br
/>[/move]
[center] [img
width=350]
HTML http://www.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/3-060914180503.png[/img][img<br
/>width=210]
HTML http://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/3-040817140651.png[/img][/center]
[center]No, You're Not a Robot Made Out of Meat[/center]
[center]
HTML https://youtu.be/rQo6SWjwQIk[/center]
[center]👨‍⚕️ Neurosurgeon Michael
Egnor ✨: Why 🤖 Machines Will [b]Never
Think[/b][/center]
[center]
HTML https://youtu.be/EXOX3RCpEbU[/center]
[center]Unbelievable Myths [img
width=40]
HTML http://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/2/3-080419191019.png[/img]<br
/>Neil deGrasse Tyson and [img
width=120]
HTML http://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/2/3-010519192319-22081169.jpeg[/img]<br
/>Co. Love to Tell [img
width=50]
HTML http://www.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/3-280515145049.png[/img][/center]
[center]
HTML https://youtu.be/aJ_YXRA7uyw[/center]
============================
[font=times new roman]Science Uprising[/font]
HTML http://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/2/3-190119153601.gif
Well-known scientists have been preaching a materialistic
worldview rather than presenting the public with all the
evidence. We are here to change that. The objective scientific
evidence does not prove our universe is blind and purposeless.
It does not show we are simply meat machines. It does not prove
that evolutionary mechanisms can completely account for the
diversity of life on earth. This is what THEY want you to think.
Think for yourself and make an informed decision.
[center][img
width=640]
HTML http://www.pxleyes.com/images/contests/misleading%20names/fullsize/misleading%20names_4afcf5ea8af41.jpg[/img][/center]
[img
width=30]
HTML https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/2/3-241119204318.png[/img]<br
/> Are you ready? The uprising has begun. [img
width=40]
HTML https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/2/3-300919160022-2281531.png[/img]<br
/>[img
width=70]
HTML https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/2/3-300919160019-22712315.png[/img]
Visit the Science Uprising website at
HTML https://scienceuprising.com/
to find more videos and explore
related articles and books. You can also find out more
information about the people interviewed in this episode.
Caption author (Spanish)
Argumentoteca
Category Science & Technology
*****************************************************