Matrix & Menticide

INTRODUCTION
Mystery looms over our common interests. We don’t know where we are going, or why we are going there. Jaques Ellul has suggested that we have been caught up in a whirlwind of technology, and that the individual will be unable to disengage himself from “huge machines in motion in order to arrive nowhere.” The process itself has become the goal. (Ellul, 1964) Engaged in this process we accept what should be considered unacceptable, as we continue blindly on a trek toward dire consequences. Technology has bred a society of hypnoids starving for guidance, and ever eager to assimilate new commands. Advertising directs our next move, and the news tells us what to think about. We resign to our shallow engagements and take whatever slight gratification we receive as a signal that everything is as it should be. The things that we claim give us more freedom actually imposes limitations that serve to enslave us. We fail to see outside the effects that technology has had on us any more than we can imagine what life was like before man acquired the skill to produce and control fire. Think of the dramatic effect of the invention of the clock, a technological device that rules many of our lives in a manner that could not have been imagined prior to its invention. Or consider the change in society that the development of handguns brought: A courageous and skillful man could for the first time, (Defying all of Nature) be defeated by an inept coward. These things establish principals. Principals that establish a motif will resonate through thought and action. The manner in which the mind works within a techno-linguistic environment lays potent barriers that defy decoding. We sometimes can dissect the ideas surrounding the development of a principal paradigm, but it can be like digging through an invisible mountain of constructs: Interpretations and attitudes of an initial principal will gravitate toward simplicity. The more easily duplicated concepts will become organized in sets. The cognitive development will seek out patterns to follow, and the sets and patterns will dictate thought even after the components that made them have been forgotten. A Matrix with numerous hidden archetypes will establish a foundation upon which we proceed, and serve as a shroud, which skews our analysis. Ellul says: “Every technique makes a fundamental appeal to the unconscious…nothing human is exempt from the influence…” (Ellul, 1964, p.403). In modern times we find many who dare claim that the tremendous advances don’t affect us except as tools and we are unchanged by them. Charles Osgood has said: “ Images that cannot be articulated, cannot be screened-Network concepts can make an impression, but we fail to dissect the web. ( Larson, Referring to Osgood, 1992, p.166). Utmost is the effect that communication technology has given language for unprecedented power within the totalitarian mechanism of modern life. Ellul suggests no aim, but there is always a principal that will resonate an influence, and language is the most powerful courier. Whatever impact a technology may have-language has the added faculty of declaring artifice as Truth, and leading the masses toward emancipation from Reality.

After making great effort to illuminate the inherent harms of technocracy Ellul declared: “I dramatize much less than thirty years ago because the adults of this age and, even more so the young people, are without hope.”[Sic] (Ellul, 1982) Ellul resigned to advocating awareness. No doubt the most effective approach to solving a problem is to first clearly identify what the problem really is. We might first ask how the current status quo came to be? Nothing comes out of nowhere. The continuum of language and technology both have lineage. It is important to become aware of this continuum in order to analyze how we got to where we are, where it will lead, and upon which Matrix we stand. To take perspective you are invited to imagine the origins of the process that began with prehistoric man.

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*MATRIX & MENTICIDE*
By ALARIC

"HOW WE GOT TO WHERE WE'RE GOING" ...The Influences of Language and Technology

Flames tickled the sky. The sweet sounds of the Magician's voice echoed. The fire seemed to dance with the rhythmic incantations. A luminous mist reached out, grabbing objects from the darkened shadows -- thrusting them into full view. The flickering God; Revealer of Truth; able to enhance life, or destroy all; the earthbound link to the fiery gods in the heavens, was attended with great reverence. For those sitting around the campfire in the prehistoric wilderness -- this was prime time T.V.

For the primitive man who mastered the technology of producing fire, power was at his fingertips -- the power to call up the Gods at will.

One of the oldest, if not the most ancient literary compositions on earth, the Rig Veda, begins with incantations addressed to Agni: "Agni, the son of strength, whose chariot is lightning, whose hair is fire, manifest his glory on earth." (Translated from the original Sanskrit by H. H. Wilson, 1857). The central focus of many ancient religious practices was fire. Ancient peoples worshipped fire as well as all other animated natural phenomena as Gods: The Letts and Lithuanians each had a fiery goddess; The Prussians also had a place for fire in their worship; The Slavic people held as chief deity a God of Thunder who was often connected to a Sacred Fire; The Russians and Romanian added vampires and Werewolves to the fire ritual; and the Semites made human sacrifices a popular part of their rituals to the Fire God. (Schoeps, 1966) The term "Magician" initially defined a priest, or "Magi," who conducted the ceremony and was in control of the Fire. The technology gave them great power as they dispensed the "Knowledge" around the campfire, but it was not the skills to produce fire that proved to be the greatest influence, it was the technology of language itself that would have the greatest impact on society.

Words have tremendous power -- language is the framework of thought. Linguist Benjamin Whorf elaborated: "Every language and every well knit sub language incorporates certain points of view and certain patterned resistances to widely divergent points of view." (Whorf, 247). Some linguistics researchers have questioned Whorfs hypothesis: an example is provided by Lawrence Campbell's question: "If there was no thought before language, how did language arise in the first place?" [Sic] (Whorf, College Park website, 2000). "Chicken-or-Egg" nitpicking misses the issue of how language affects us. Once an idea is assimilated it becomes part of the machinery that screens other ideas that follow. However thoughts were referenced before language, once language was introduced, thinking became confined by a new master. A process comes into play that can eventually lead to what might be referred to as: "A departure from Truth". As John Harland so aptly put it: "Words can be used to tell others what an individual perceives; they can also be used to override perception." (Harland, 1981).

Language and technology work hand in hand to shape a new world. Advancements in technology would be impossible without language. Technology in turn influences language. The marriage of language and technology has existed since fire was met with words. The cycles inherent between language and technology create a world that excludes all else, and progressively drives mankind deeper and deeper into the domain of artifice.

The powerful Magician, or Magi, sang to the fire with phrases almost identical to those in the more ancient Rig Veda. A curious difference is that the names of the gods had their ranks reversed in priority: in the Rig Veda "Asura" is a demon, and Indra, the Thunder God, is chief. The Magi, on other hand, called the chief God the equivalent of "Asura", and Indra was a demon. The ancient literature of the magi was passed from generation to generation by memory. (Comparable with the Druids who refused to allow their Sacred beliefs to be committed to writing.) So when Alexander the Great stormed Persia in 326 B.C., and the powerful Magi were hot targets for genocide. With the demise of the Magi the religion virtually faded away. Because of the near extermination of the Magi we can only speculate on what the visit by the "three wise men" (King James translation of "Magi") really signified. The only clue is in the archaic articulations of the Rig Veda, as its 10,000 stanzas of Sacred song have continued to be passed down by the oral tradition of the ancients. To this day a small group in India continue the practice of reciting the Rig Veda by memory. In A History of Sanskrit Literature, McDowell says that, "The Rig Veda has come down to us with a high degree of fixity and remarkable care for verbal integrity, preserved from very remote antiquity with marvelous accuracy even in the smallest details." (McDowell, 1914).

The Vedic literature, which had all but been forgotten, was clearly in a language of a very different type of thinker. Some scholars have even expressed doubt that anyone could have ever actually spoke to one another in this ancient language because of its technical complexity, and scientific nature. According to the librarian, (and Sanskrit scholar), at the old Mechanics Library of San Francisco: "One could more clearly express ideas with Sanskrit than with any other known language. The oldest of the Vedic literature was composed with a mathematical precision -- by minds incomprehensible to modern man." Whorf point out that Panini, several centuries before Christ, used algebraic formulas in a very sophisticated way for expressing patterns of Sanskrit. (Whorf, 1956, p.232). "The discovery of ancient Sanskrit grammar by Western scholars in the 19th-century impressed those scholars chiefly by its formal perfection." (Whorf, 1956, p.73). We can only wonder about the true meaning of the words that have emanated from prehistoric times and continue to resonate in a multitude of distorted forms.

What is evident is that words were a prominent implement of power. During the time of the earliest hymns of the Rig Veda, the warriors were at the top of the social hierarchy. In the final mandalas, or books, near the end of the massive text, it is clear that the priests themselves had become kings. As words progressively became a tool for power, some of the meaning may have been lost. With changes in the applications of language, the functions of the mind were also altered.

Once written language was developed, the literature no longer required careful coaching in order to pass on the sacred knowledge. The development of writing gave new power to anyone who could read (and arbitrarily interpret) the text. The world’s literature that had maintained itself with little distortion suddenly reached for uncountable variations. Brahmanism, Hinduism, Buddhism, and numerous other religions can be traced directly back to the Rig Veda. A former Peruvian statesman even claims that many of the hymns and prayers of the Incas can be found in the Rig Veda. (Poindexter, 1930, vol 2, p. 25). Nearly all of the eastern religions, as well as all of the Western languages (Latin, Greek, Italian, German, English, French, Spanish, Persian, etc.) Can be traced back to the same ancient literary source. The art of writing helped to fragment language and thought. The magnitude of the impact of writing on the ancients can be compared with the invention of firearms--Suddenly a coward could overpower a brave man. By the same token, with the development of writing, a fool could profess to know the Truth. Diversification of languages, and the information that they carried went wild in very ancient times. The oldest known specimen of written text was found in Persia, glorifying the conquests of Darius 2500 years ago. It is etched in stone in three languages, which suggests a reliance on the power of words, and divergence of thought well under way by even the earliest records. The power of the written word reached its apex when Emperor Constantine sought a unified church in support of his rule, and the first edition of the holy Bible took its form in 405 A.D. Thereafter, "The Book" became the focal point of power, and a tool for conquest for more than a millennia.

Words pass knowledge, which can lead us to a greater victory over nature as language and technology join hands. Ironically, much of the text of the Rig Veda appears to express intense concern for the necessity of aligning with the spiritual forces of nature, and the serious threat (even to the gods themselves) posed by people who place their reverence elsewhere (In monuments, jewelry, makeup, and the written word). It was knowledge (errant use of words) that caused Adam and Eve to depart from Paradise. Words can lead us to believe illusions, or to pursue insatiable desires. As our mind drifts in a fantasia of words, our lifestyle can wander far away from the perfect harmony inherent in nature. Man's devices and the parade of technology continue to add new thrills to life, but with this advance something is also taken away. We can see the tools, and experience the systems. We can touch the marvelous objects, but we don't see the things we lost. Our brains have been re-wired by language to suit the needs of hierarchy, manipulation, and control. The complex electro-chemical factory called our brain has been altered so drastically in the course of time, that collectively racing towards dire consequences, we no longer have the ability to perceive the course of our fate. If the biosphere were viewed as an independent organism, the human species to that organism might be considered to be nothing more than a type of cancer, or excrement that must be disposed of. There are things we don't know, that we should know, but perhaps that part of our brains that we would need to know it, has long ago been corrupted beyond repair through the abuse of words, and the reliance upon technology.

TELEVISON TAKES THE PLACE OF THE PRIEST --- MONEY BECOMES GOD.

The "Word of God" held the reigns of society for more than a millennium. For centuries, under the threat of death, interpretation of the Bible was prohibited by all but the authorized priests. Underground translation, and trafficking of the Bible was practiced for centuries. After the development of the printing press the power of words was expanded, with a greater ability for distribution to the masses. Rising public pressure compelled King James to authorize an English translation, and make the Bible available to the public. Numerous different sects emerged as people took the words into their own hands. With the founding of America, the natural desire for individual sovereignty eventually lead to the divisions of church and state. It was believed that the natural abilities of individuals should secure a persons position within society. Some of the founding fathers were not optimistic about the experiment with liberty because people had been subjected for so long to collective conditioning. Whatever oppression was dispensed with, it would certainly return with greater force than ever before.

The industrial revolution thrust the world ahead with increased detachment from nature -- language found new methods of delivery, with no thought of the consequences. Destructive forces loomed with the potential for oppression beyond anything previously imagined. Within 200 years the character of society changed more dramatically, and rapidly than in the last two thousand years. By the end of World War II it became obvious that we had entered a strange new era, with confusing problems to deal with. Faulkner, In American Political and Social History explains that the postwar years were an age of industrialism and science. Americans concern was with the extension and operation of the economic process. The economic motive became all-pervasive. It is not surprising that in such an age sports became largely professionalized, and the important new art form, the motion picture, was largely prostituted to the search for profits. It had been believed that science would save the world from chaos. The science that was supposed to save civilization was being driven fast by bitter competition for economic profits. (Faulkner, 1949, p.19). Former Sen. Albert Hawkes of New Jersey said, "In regard to an America of the past: Taxes were relatively low. We only had a token national debt. There was little or no witch hunting and few of the symptoms and operations of the police state which have been developing so rapidly here during the last decade." (Garrett, 1952, p.41) For the government to maintain a perpetual boom without mishap was a fallacy that many people wanted to believe, and accepted the idea of more government -- Big government was born. Leading up to the '50s we saw the thorough indoctrination of the American people into the economic mind, and rapid expansion of corporate power. We saw the development of the most powerful weapon in history unleashed against the people. It was not the Atomic Bomb, but the new mass media, and Americans were rapidly plugging in. Economist John Kenneth Galbraith, wrote "Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding, (it afforded the luxury of fantasy). Many people interpreted the world according to conditions of the past that were no longer relevant. Conventional wisdom was influenced by the test of audience approval more than the test of truth. So great had been the change that many of the desires of the individual were no longer even evident to him. They became so only as they are synthesized, elaborated, and nurtured by advertising and salesmanship." (Galbraith,1958, p.58). By 1952 television was already in 15 million homes and was rapidly increasing. Questions were raised in regard to the effect this would have on society. In a Rape of the Mind Dr. Meerloo stated that our leisure time is occupied increasing by all activities in which we take no part. "Television hampers thought processes and prepares the mind more easily for collectivism and cliché thinking. It persuades onlookers to think in mass values." (Meerloo, 1956, p.211). Dr. Meerloo warned that if man did not learn to be mentally independent of technology he would be overwhelmed and swept away by it. Great concern had been expressed about a need to address social issues in modern society for some time. S. I. Hayakawa stated that "Animals struggle with each other for food or leadership, but they do not, like human beings, struggle with each other for things that 'stand for' food or leadership: such things as paper symbols of wealth, badges of rank..."[sic] (Hayakawa, 1939, p.23). Many people understood that there were big changes taking place which merit concern. Francis Parker Yockey, a lecturer who mysteriously died while in the hands of the FBI, wrote in Imperium : "Every American has been made to dress alike, and think alike. The principal of uniformity regards personality as a danger and also as a burden. This great principal has been applied to every sphere of life. Advertising of a kind and on a scale unknown to Europe is part of the method of stamping out individualism." (Yockey,1962, p.502). There was a lot of talk in the 50's, but those who talked too much were likely to meet with a fate like Yockey, or as John A. Stormer suggested: "The final and ultimate weapon of collectivists against dissent is to declare the opponents insane." Stormer describes the development of mental health law, which allowed for arrest, and compulsory treatment for three days before even getting a hearing. The treatment could include electroshock, chemotherapy, or even psychosurgery, like the lobotomies that were so popular in the 50's. (Stormer, 1964, p.155).

The process that was taking place was based upon a concept of "Victory Over Nature" which drew much questioning, and eventually exploded into protest in the 60's. Rachel Carson challenged the widely accepted notion that man was destined to control nature, and shocked the world with images of dead puppies, and blind babies in Silent Spring. Because of her concern about toxic substances, she is credited for single handedly launching the environmentalist movement that continues to this day. We can discuss pesticides, and try to avoid their harms--But we don't discuss menticide. By the time protests against brainwashing, and other infringements on liberty gained momentum, the machinery for mass manipulation had grown to be so sophisticated that the public was easily convinced that the protests were about something else. The public became totally engaged by the media, and thoroughly indoctrinated into commercial culture. The television was the new priest that revealed the truth, and money was the new God. As the tentacles of the monster of technology wrap a strangle hold around us -- and mother nature queues up for revenge -- we notice nothing wrong, and just want to go shopping. Postman point out in Amusing Ourselves to Death that; "A person who reads a book or watches television, or glances at his watch is not usually interested in how his mind is organized and controlled by these events." (Postman, 1985, p.11). We can ignore the modern world with its rampant dysfunction, and avoid questioning it. Eventually the inexorable cycles of nature will override mans arrogance. Perhaps someone will be there after some apocalyptic event to ask the questions that we failed to address -- someplace in a new wilderness, while seated around a campfire.

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REFERENCES: Carson, Rachel. (1962). Silent Spring. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co. College Park. Current Interpretations of the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis. … Available: www.geocities.com/CollegePark/4110/whorf.html Ellul, J. (1964). The Technological Society NY: Vintage Books. Ellul, J. (1982). In Season Out Of Season NY: Harper & Row. Faulkner, J. (1949). American Political and Social History. NY: University Press. Galbraith, John Kenneth. (1958). The Affluent Society. NY: Mentor Books Garrett, G. (1952). Ex America Caldwell, Id.: Caxton Printers, Ltd. Harland, John. (1981) Word Controlled Humans. Rochester,Wa.: Sovereign Press Hayakawa, S.I. (1939). Language in Thought and Action. NY: Harcourt, Brace. McDowell, A.A. (1914). The History of Sanskrit Literature. NY: Appleton. Larson, C.U. (1992) Persuasion: Perception and Responsibility. . Belmont,Calif.: Wadsworth Publishing Meerloo, J. (1956). The Rape of the Mind. NY: Grosset & Dunlap. Poindexter, Miles. (1930) The Ayar-Incas. Peru: National Press. Postman, N. (1985). Amusing Ourselves to Death. NY: Penguin Books. Schoeps, Hans. (1966). The Religions of Mankind. NY: Doubleday. Stormer, John. (1964). None Dare Call It Treason. Florissant, Mo.: Liberty Bell Von Boerner, D (2000). Looking Forward: Symptoms of Menticide. Stockton, Ca: Whorf, Benjamin L. (1956). Language Thought and Reality. Cambridge, Ma.: MIT Press. Wilson, H.H. (1857) Rig Veda Sanhita London: Wm. H. Allen & Co. Yockey, Francis P. (1962) Imperium. Torrance, Ca.: The Noontide Press.

RESPONSE TO A COMMENT (Why not more recent references?): Recognize that we operate within the constraints of established patterns that we support; endorse; use as reference, etc.-- and do so blindly for the sake of our current engagement, and because of our detachment from the source. We didn't rise up out of a void. So less modern material is appropriate if we want to decode the source and consequence of the multitude of options that have been selected along the continuum of human societies. We have been caught up in a web that defies scrutiny at the present state--And that had motives that have been obsured in history. This in a sense leaves us without reason. We have to go back in time. The references go from the first literature composed by Western Man up to the present where appropriate literature has little to add. *** I may have neglected proper reference to The Rig Veda, The Upanishads, The Zend-Avesta, The Holy Bible, The Talmud, and other religious texts as sources in this study.

DEFINITIONS: A COGNITIVE CONSTRUCT is like the song that brings back memories--all of the data connected to the 'trigger'; A tool of thought that arranges data in packets; a method by which sterotypes are formed, things are remembered, or teaching is effective--by arranging data in sets. 'Sound Bytes' attempt to be a trigger, and sometimes become part of subsequent constructs. A MATRIX is a web of constructs. MENTICIDE--killing the mind.

TAXIJAZZ: A dog drives a Taxi in San Francisco (www.Taxijazz.com)
How it changed my life: It is part of a formula that has allowed me, Alaric, to accurately predict a series of events over the past 20 years; as well as what will happen within 5 years if people don't recognize the process and take action now.

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