Rigorous Intuition (v. 2.0): Open Thread

Wednesday, August 09, 2006

Open Thread

I'll be posting later today. In the meantime, if you like, you can continue the conversation here.

37 Comments:

Anonymous said...: I'll use my fortuitous timing to plug Michael Albert (yeh, I know he's a 9/11 gatekeeper) and parecon, or participatory economics:

http://www.zmag.org/parecon/indexnew.htm

Hug an anarchist today!; 8/09/2006 07:17:00 AM
ottershrew said...: Trachys said:

'Hug an anarchist today!'

Absolutely - you know you want to ...

Anarchism, as a social and parapolitical movement, has such an astonishing history - full of real heroism and self-sacrifice.

As such it's not surprising that this history has fallen pretty much completely down the memory-hole.

But for a few words from these old heroes, who recognised evil when they saw it, especially in the actions of states and economies, see here:

http://dwardmac.pitzer.edu/anarchist_archives/index.html; 8/09/2006 09:13:00 AM
Anonymous said...: contradiction preconception and the river of fire; 8/09/2006 09:52:00 AM
Anonymous said...: Excuse me while I talk to myself:

Shrubsy, watched Eyes Wide Shut last night.
2 quick observations before I have to go.
1st, I can see why this movie was panned when it was released. If I remember correctly, the marketing campaign sold this as a typical 'steamy Hollywood thriller.' Imagine the audience disappointment when they were sent down that little cinema rabbithole? Can't have audiences trying to think when they're not expecting it. The 'steamy thriller' aspect is why I avoided this film. I did not expect this to go in the direction that it went.
2nd, as far as the occult elements go, I think you'd be hard pressed to find any review that deals with that aspect of the film. The black mass/orgy excuse/rich people being weirdo fucks was the rotten core of this little fairytale, but it appears that this view is in the minority.
It was a surprisingly mesmerizing film even though watching it requires one to stare at Tom Cruise for 2+ hours. An activity I normally try to avoid.

On a different note, it appears that 60% of America opposes the Iraq War. I suppose i should say 'better late than never' but fuck that. I think 'too little, too late' is probably more appropriate.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060809/ts_nm/iraq_usa_poll_dc

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Sixty percent of Americans oppose the U.S. war in
Iraq and a majority would support a partial withdrawal of troops by year's end, a CNN poll said on Wednesday.
ADVERTISEMENT

It was the CNN poll's highest number opposing the war since fighting began in March 2003, a figure that has risen steadily since then, according to the Opinion Research Corp. survey conducted last week on behalf of the cable network.

The poll showed 36 percent of respondents said they were in favor of the war -- half the peak 72 percent who supported the war as it began, said the poll of 1,047 Americans.

The telephone survey, which had an error margin of 3 percentage points, showed 61 percent believed at least some U.S. troops should be withdrawn from Iraq by the end of 2006.

Voter anger over the Iraq war, plagued by insurgent and sectarian violence with a daily civilian death toll, was cited in the Connecticut Democratic primary defeat Tuesday of U.S. Sen. Joseph Lieberman (news, bio, voting record), who strongly backed
President George W. Bush's war effort.

For a price I'd do about anything
Except pull the trigger
For that I'd need a pretty good cause
Then I heard of Dr. X
The man with the cure
Just watch the television
Yeah, you'll see there's something going on

Got no love for politicians
Or that crazy scene in D.C.
It's just a power mad town
But the time is ripe for changes
There's a growing feeling
That taking a chance on a new kind of vision is due

I used to trust the media
To tell me the truth, tell us the truth
But now I've seen the payoffs
Everywhere I look
Who do you trust when everyone's a crook?

Revolution calling
Revolution calling
Revolution calling you
(There's a) Revolution calling
Revolution calling
Gotta make a change
Gotta push, gotta push it on through

I'm tired of all this bullshit
They keep selling me on T.V.
About the communist (terrorist) plan
And all the shady preachers
Begging for my cash
Swiss bank accounts while giving their
Secretaries the slam

They're all in Penthouse now
Or Playboy magazine, million dollar stories to tell
I guess Warhol wasn't wrong
Fame fifteen minutes long
Everyone's using everybody, making the sale

I used to think
That only America's way, way was right
But now the holy dollar rules everybody's lives
Gotta make a million doesn't matter who dies

Revolution calling
Revolution calling
Revolution calling you
(There's a) Revolution calling
Revolution calling
Gotta make a change
Gotta push, gotta push it on through

I used to trust the media
To tell me the truth, tell us the truth
But now I've seen the payoffs
Everywhere I look
Who do you trust when everyone's a crook?; 8/09/2006 10:55:00 AM
ottershrew said...: On the subject of macrosocial evil, there's a good new flash movie that's just come out:

http://www.pentagonstrike.co.uk/psychopaths.htm

Worth checking out, imho ...; 8/09/2006 11:00:00 AM
Anonymous said...: Mulberry/plum eater sez...

See also

http://www.thomhartmann.com/hawken.shtml

for Paul Hawken's account of the successful anti-WTO protests in Seattle in late 1999. Included is a long passage about the actions of a particular "flavor" of contemporary anarchist.

Too bad real anarchism (as opposed to a caricature) doesn't get the atttention that, say, libertarianism does.; 8/09/2006 11:06:00 AM
Anonymous said...: Especially since libertarians stole that name from the anarchists, or Libertarian Socialists.; 8/09/2006 11:12:00 AM
Anonymous said...: Interesting insights on Eyes Wide Shut.

http://kentroversypapers.blogspot.com/2006/03/eyes-wide-shut-occult-symbolism.html; 8/09/2006 11:18:00 AM
Anonymous said...: I see anarchism as the theoretical ideal to which we are all gradually evolving to a point where everybody can tell the truth to everybody else and nobody can get punished for it. That can only happen without hierarchy and without people having the authority to punish other people.

I tend to shy away from the word anarchist, --labels in general--because most people think it means bomb throwing. And a lot of people who consider themselves anarchists seem to think that too. But I can’t use libertarian, because the people who got their grip on that word are even less rational by my standards. I guess "decentralist" is the word I’d have to pick out for myself. Decentralist grassroots Jeffersonian something or other. No logo's is my moto.

Rawlsian in thought.

I'm not as obtuse as to think we can ever abolish hierarchy entirely, but we can make it temporary and rotating, a symphony orchestra needs a conductor, but that doesn’t mean he is going to take over the lives of the musicians, telling them what to eat and what to smoke and what to drink and so on--where they can travel and where they can’t travel, who they can fuck, what they can ingest, what to think. Nor does one want to see the same orchestra or conductor over and over again. Which is what we have with our American political system. The same dull conductor's over and over again. Which becomes a cacophony that get in our heads and becomes a torcher chamber mentally torchering the masses like at at Abu Ghraib.

The same players (read: wardens) that were there 20, 30, even 40 years ago are playing the same notes, all be it, with different keys as yesteryear. Bush, his ilk, the Cheney's, Rummy's, all the same dinks as when we were playing tag and spin the bottle and kickball and swiming and, and...

I have long given up on hoping/thinking our "leaders" are there to do the peoples biz niz, and the system that is in place now is as stagnate as the dead sea. They are not there to lead, they are there to control.

It is futile to work for political solutions to humanities problems. Because humanities problems are not political. Political problems do exist all right, but they are secondary. The primary problems are philosophical and until the philosophical problems are solvoed political problems will have to be solved over and over and over again. Like Sisyphus. The curse/gift of Sisyphus is the vicious circle we forever find ourselves in , without learning from it. The 'groundhog day'that never stops to look , listen and see. There is a difference in looking and really seeing as there is in listening and really hearing. Human behavior can be compaired to the analogy of walking a labyrinth year after year in all seasons. Often we learn something we already knew. Suddenly one day you notice your shadow, and the lesson becomes the shadow.

w/ a tip o the hat to RAW, and John Rawls.; 8/09/2006 11:23:00 AM
Anonymous said...: Speaking of RAW, anyone have news on how he fares? A few weeks back there were reports that he was on a thin thread.; 8/09/2006 11:33:00 AM
Anonymous said...: hey jeff
this is the best blog on the net. i never miss an articles. yesterday's was one of the best. since the past few years have completely turned my world and my head upside down, it is good to know others understand and are willing to fight for the truth.
GIMME SOME TRUTH
if lennon were alive today. what on earth would he say about the bushmonster and all his truly diabolical, despicable murdering henchmen/ he would fight to stop them.
that is the only truth i know for sure now.
keep up the good work jeff. we need you now more than ever1; 8/09/2006 01:07:00 PM
iridescent cuttlefish said...: RAW fans:
Most recent “news” I could find was this small but hopeful post by Paul Krassner over at Huffington, from back in June:

Robert Anton Wilson (21 comments )
My friend Bob Wilson--the prolific writer who has been balancing for decades on the cusp of cult following and mainstream awareness--has recently been on his deathbead, surrounded by family and hospice workers in what were his final days, but he suddenly seemed to be changing his mind.
On June 19, he sent this haiku with one syllable missing:

Well what do you know?
Another day had passed
and I'm still not not.

And then, on June 21, he e-mailed this message:

Surprise!
I'm still alive
and doing business on ebay.

Even if you're not a fan of Wilson's work, it's worth checking this out -- if only to be delighted by (to quote from a Forest Lawn Cemetery billboard) the way he's NOT "going out in style."

From the comments under Krassner's post, this one projects some measured optimism:

As George Carlin might say, "he's not dead yet"...

From an email message I got from R.U. Sirius...
"Basically, it's just his recurrent polio syndrome getting so bad that he can't do anything with his body. He falls over and that causes big problems. But he doesn't actually have a terminal disease, so he may remain a talking head for years to come... His mind is still pretty sharp..."
By: SevereTireDamage on June 24, 2006 at 03:09pm

Leave it to Wilson to be maybe dead, maybe not...(maybe that's how he's going to achieve the immortality he was always telling us was just around the bend...aside from all those funny seeds he planted in so many of us.); 8/09/2006 01:24:00 PM
Anonymous said...: Homosexuals in Iraq are paying the price, not just for homophobia, but for a reaction to paedophilia that mimics classical anti-Semitic broad brushing (all Jews in an area punished by mobs for the crimes of a few deviants). The paedophilia in question, taking child slaves, just happens to sound a great deal like practices described in accounts of United States military interrogations, in which children are raped in front to of their parents. But in other news, there are no specifically designated facilities for this, so we are better than Saddam in not having rape rooms.
pollard, franklin & feith | 08.09.06 - 1:38 pm |; 8/09/2006 01:42:00 PM
iridescent cuttlefish said...: Don't know if everyone's already seen the strangely open interview that Gorgeous George was granted recently on Murdoch's SkyNews, but he upbraids the silly trollope spewing pre-spun spin in that ggreaat Scots brogue of his quite admirably. But why was he allowed to do it? To confirm the already sold in their opinion that he's a champion of terrorists, and that any enemy of his (Bush & Blair, most notably) must be a friend of theirs?

George Galloway - Hizbollah Is Not A Terrorist Organization

Vastly more amusing (since the ME is anything but funny) is the classic "Mr. Galloway Goes to Washington," where he hoists the malignant by their malodorous petards:

Video: Galloway v The US Senate; 8/09/2006 01:51:00 PM
foist lastus said...: Lindsay Lohan Wants To Go And Shoot Iraqis

"I'm not afraid of going. My security guard is going to take me to a gun range when I get back to L.A., and I'm going to start taking shooting lessons. He says if I'm going to go there I should really know how to shoot. Yeah, I have a dark side."

http://www.hecklerspray.com/lindsay-lohan-wants-to-go-and-shoot-iraqis/20064340.php; 8/09/2006 02:43:00 PM
Anonymous said...: Hey Richard:

Mezmerizing is an apt description. There are other apt descriptions, as well.

I know it sounds crazy, and, of course, it should since I'm a Psychopath, but I found it titillating and....get this....enticing.

I was attracted by the raw, unadulterated, unhindered power. I think it is crucial for me to recognize that and admit it, because if I delude myself into thinking I'm not, I can easily be ensnared by it.

Plus, the chicks were smokin hot.....you must admit.

I have the password to the next skin dig.

Don't tell anyone.

It's.....

BOSCO

I personally think he was set-up. In otherwords, it was meant for him to attend by all of them. They expected him. He was the entertainment for the evening. There's nothing like rocking a nubile muggle's world.....and rock his world they did.

I think the Naval Officer was part of the Cabal. That would certainly explain the hypnotic control he had over Alice. Same goes for the Hungarian Szandor.

Shoot, where am I going with this? There are so many facets of that movie to discuss and digest that I can lost in it for hours.; 8/09/2006 03:33:00 PM
Anonymous said...: i thought she had at one time been a victim of a mind-control program and was having flashbacks--hence her unquestioning surrender to someone in uniform (ONI, maybe?), even if she can't quite explain why she would have given up everything for a night with the officer. she had obviously given herself to the man in the mask that has sex with her while the good doctor is away...was she in a trance that manifested itself as a dream?

are they tapping the doctor for entry into their group?--to later dispose of him whenever convenient, of course, as he isn't a true insider...to be an Oswald they could use and loose, so to speak. after all, they don't know why ziegler (sp?) invites them every year to their parties; cruise's character is 'tested' by the whore's overdose to see if he's realiable and discreet; some old-europe ex-fascist (he *so* reminds someone of a de morenshieldt character) tests the wife while he's upstairs to see if she's still pliable; they hire his old pianist-cum-college-friend setting them both up to run into each other...

sex is used to program, reboot, and reprogram mind-control victims, hence her final statement in the movie: she *knows* what must be done in order to get their lives back on track: fuck. not make love, not simply have sex, but *fuck*.; 8/09/2006 04:28:00 PM
Anonymous said...: Check out:

youreyeswideshut.com

The guy who runs the site is an anti-semite and though his conclusions are generally wrong, most of his observations are spot on. He has an uncanny knack for spotting the fnords.; 8/09/2006 04:43:00 PM
Anonymous said...: And what about the weirdness with the costume shop owner and his daughter, and the marked difference between the way their relationship is portrayed to the Dr. before and then after the party?; 8/09/2006 04:44:00 PM
Anonymous said...: jon said...
i thought she had at one time been a victim of a mind-control program and was having flashback

One of the articles analyzing the movie deals specifically with the Mind Control Angle, as you discuss.

The odd thing is....it wasn't Alice who was having the flashbacks, but rather, Bill. So, perhaps they were both unwittingly ensnared and mind-controlled through sex....and what Bill was imagining in his mind about Alice and the Naval Officer wasn't his imagination at all, but rather a flashback to when he was forced to watch his wife have sex with the Naval Officer.

Wow!!

Where's the next party? Hopefully, not in Lebanon..........but, couldn't you see them doing something as grotesque as that? Conducting a Sex Ritual in the midst of a country under siege with children passing away left and right at the wave of their hand....or should we say, Sepulcher.; 8/09/2006 04:44:00 PM
Anonymous said...: Here, here is proof that this blog is nothing but anti-semitic pornography!

What do you people think you know of the middle east and Israel?

You know nothing!

Soon you and your children will all be living in camps!; 8/09/2006 04:48:00 PM
Anonymous said...: Shrub,

Check the site out now, if you have a moment. I've been going through since I saw Eyes Wide Shut in 2003 and still, going through it just now, some new stuff just clicked for me. The site's kind of a journey.; 8/09/2006 04:50:00 PM
Anonymous said...: about the phil schneider character, shrub: he overarching message seems to be: "be afraid. be very afraid." i.e., there's nothing you can do, the NWO-alien aliance is already a done deal, expect the end of freedom to be soon. he never offers any real advice on what can be done, except "get the word out." he asked everyone to tell their neighbors and they'll tell *their* neighbors and so on..not a real solution, phil, when we're facing 9 races of aliens at once.

he claims he cut up his IDs and sent them back to the military, without photocopying them for verification purposes later;

he never *names* names--superiors, co-workers, business/building contacts, etc. for independant verification purposes;

is generally quite vague on where these 130 bases are at: "everywhere, mostly...but of i showed you all maps they'd kill me"..aren't they trying to already?;

the only photo he shows anyone is one of him next to a stealth bomber/fighter;

as far as i know, never showed any military records of any kind to prove he *ever* worked for the gov't (now, i could be wrong and just haven't been looking in the right places)--military physicals/training/medals (he was the lone survivor, after all, in an alien-human battle)/pics of him next to other men in uniforms with 'fruit salads' on their chests/etc;

where is his death certificate/news clips of his death/investigative docs surrounding his murder and/or the numerous attempts on his life?;

he doesn't seem to 'talk' ex-military to me--no acronyms, for example--that he has to break down for the layfolk...

and so on. his over-riding message, as i said, seems to be one of fear and dispair: exactly what one *would* expect of 1.) crackpots and 2.) disinformationists.

show us the BEEF, anonymous--not halfbaked tales of an intergalactic RISK game going on under our noses (literally) that *everyone* in the military is in the know on but *no one* ever slips up about...not.even.once. enough said.; 8/09/2006 04:52:00 PM
Anonymous said...: Luposapien said...
And what about the weirdness with the costume shop owner and his daughter, and the marked difference between the way their relationship is portrayed to the Dr. before and then after the party?

Yeah, that was bizarre. That whole scene, both before, and after, in the Costume Shop was freaky. Milage was an interesting character. It seemed to me that Milage knew, both before and after. It's as though Bill's entire journey that evening was preordained.

The dead giveaway, to me, that Bill was intended to be there was Nick giving him the Password. Didn't Nick say that they picked him up and took him to the location, and that he was blind-folded? If so, why would Nick need the Password? Why would they run that risk unnecessarily......unless, of course, they wanted someone to have the Password.

Also, what do you think they were going to do to Bill if the woman didn't sacrifice herself in his place? They told him to remove his clothes.......but then what?

Can anyone say ouch?; 8/09/2006 04:54:00 PM
Anonymous said...: sorry--should be: "HIS overarching message seems to be..."; 8/09/2006 04:55:00 PM
Anonymous said...: Raul said...
Shrub,

Check the site out now, if you have a moment. I've been going through since I saw Eyes Wide Shut in 2003 and still, going through it just now, some new stuff just clicked for me. The site's kind of a journey.

I'll check it out this evening, Raul. Thanks for the link.

And Anony 11:18, thank you for your link, as well. I looked at it earlier, and it was both interesting and informative.

For those of you who haven't looked at it, it basically asserts that the Occultist Activities in the movie are that of The Illuminati.qyvcrc; 8/09/2006 05:03:00 PM
Anonymous said...: you're right--it was *bill* that experienced the flashbacks! fascinating...

not to mention (as someone has already, i think) that the costume shop was "over the rainbow"...another weird reference to Oz...; 8/09/2006 05:06:00 PM
Anonymous said...: Two questions, not necessarily that related, but it's easier than posting twice.

1) With all this talk of a highly complex and highly secret evil conspiracy, has anyone considered the possibility of an even more secret "good" conspiracy? I guess it would presuppose the genuine possibility of conscious evolution, the existence of a genuine spiritual training that produced free and evolved people dedicated to truth. I'm thinking of books like Among the Dervishes and People of the Secret, as well as books by J.G. Bennett and hints dropped by Gurdjieff.

Why can't they simply "zap" all the perpetrators of the "evil conspiracy"? Because they can't murder, they aren't infinite in their abilities, and they have to allow others to exercise free will in order to evolve properly.

What's the whole spectacle for? One likely possibility is in a remark by George Spencer-Brown about the universe being constructed in such a way as to be able to see itself. We humans are a big part of that, with our faculty of self-awareness.

2) Have any of you run into the "Real Prophecy" series of books by "Joseph J. Adamson"? I find them intriguing and sincere, even if the writer is not necessarily the prophet he claims he is pretty sure he is. He reently published the 5th(?) book in the series, which is much more autobiographical.

3) For a lagniappe, I'll mention one of my favorite films, the original version of To Be or Not To Be, directed by Ernst Lubitsch. It seems appropriate to mention it here, as a side-splitting comic tribute to the human spirit. (Maybe it's even part of the "positive conspiracy"?)

If you haven't discovered Lubitsch yet, you are in for a treat...

This just reminded me of the tremendous importance of a sense of humor.

One dream (not in the sleep sense) I've had was to be able to work out some way to laugh Bush right out of the presidency. Maybe replace him with another Texan, Kinky Friedman... Too bad a third Texan, Townes van Zandt, didn't grow up into what his family thought he would become; we would have had a much better guitar-playing president. (And maybe that's what happens in the parallel USA a la Philip K. Dick's Man in the High Castle? Trade in W and LBJ for Kinky and Townes?)

Wsn't there a Zen master whose morning ritual was a good belly laugh?; 8/10/2006 02:32:00 AM
Anonymous said...: I believe purity is incapable of deception. It is so positively brilliant, the essense thereof, that nothing can cloak its magnificence.

Therefore, I do not adhere to the notion that a society that operates in the Secret Shadows can claim to be working for Truth, because it is an inherent contradiction. Perhaps they may believe they are working for Truth, or Good, if you will, but alas, they are only perpetuating anti-truth by perpetuating a charade of secrecy and deception.

A better way to put it is you can't fuck your way to virginity.; 8/10/2006 10:20:00 AM
Anonymous said...: of course, the jews again. everywhere are jewish fascists and paedophiles. nwo is , of course, plot for jewish domination. no matter that every single day the end of israel is nearer, jews are dying and media are not reporting it and israeli government is totally under foreign control. false war led for the masters, hundreds of rockets falling and still you`ll see jews behind every corner in this dark world. israel and jews are again going to pay bill for someone else and your insight is so limited.....i am really disgusted, we really don`t have allies in this world. neo cons are not israeli agents, they are the destroyers of israel. one day you`ll perhaps understand. but this will be too late. explain to me, please, why a jew is visible only when he is in the dirty business, but never when he is an rescue worker, er doctor, why you`ll never notice, that almost in every case of air disaster there are jewish victims. you do love only th self hating variety of jew, who despise israel, jewish faith and everything jewish, like israel shahak, vanunu or traitors like ostrovsky. you read barry chamish, but never accepts what you don`t like - without knowing anything.... i am so sad. give us break, please.; 8/10/2006 02:14:00 PM
Anonymous said...: sorry, i meant that you disinterprett what barry chamish writes, because it doesn`t fit your false picture of the middle eastern reality. barry is unfortunately almost always correct.; 8/10/2006 02:18:00 PM
Anonymous said...: I would like to thank the multitude of Jewish American Farmers out there who help make America the Bread Basket it is. Without their hard toil and labor accross the Fruited Planes, we would not have High Fructose Corn Syrup and Obesity and Type II Diabetes.

So, let's everyone raise their glasses to the Jewish Farmers of America.

PS: If you would like to give to the Jewish Farmers of America relief fund please call 1-555-867-5301 and make a pledge today.; 8/10/2006 03:33:00 PM
Anonymous said...: There's more than one kind of "secret". There's the phrase "the secret protects itself". One meaning is that this kind of secret is hidden from those who are influenced by greed or other serious biases. It relates to the New Testament instruction to be "wise as serpents and gentle as doves".; 8/10/2006 10:20:00 PM
Anonymous said...: I interpret that New Testament quote a bit differently than you. I take it to mean, in a Machiavellian way, to cunningly know evil.......get in its mind, understand what motivates it and isolate its weakness, otherwise, you are both like a sheep and a dove.....and you can't build a house with that kind of mortar.; 8/11/2006 09:26:00 AM
Anonymous said...: I don't think I am disagreeing with your interpretation; I would simply add to it...

It has to do with the idea of innocence. People tend to think of lost innocence as simply a bad thing, that there's either innocence or corruption, but I think this is an over-simplification. Losing one's innocence is a part of leaving childhood for the next stage. The thing is to go beyond cynicism and despair to understand a larger way of being that might be called eyes-open innocence. All this is exemplified by Jesus. Not the sentimentalized or Fundamentalized Jesus, but the real one, the one with a ready sense of humor and great strength and courage.; 8/12/2006 12:25:00 AM
wolfenstein enemy territory said...: The home of the infamous european toxic clan, psycho urban fraggers that pawn the virtual return to castle wolfenstein enemy territory battlefields.; 7/19/2010 10:04:00 PM
justpub said...: Just Pub, a dumb return to castle wolfenstein enemy territory comic strip by feuersturm.; 7/19/2010 10:05:00 PM

Rigorous Intuition (v. 2.0)

Wednesday, August 09, 2006

Open Thread

37 Comments:

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