3 1/2 years later

Well, I see nothing has changed except all my worst fears came to fruition.

• The cessation of the Fairness Doctrine under Reagan has allowed right wing media to pretty much take over
• The abandonment of Net Neutrality should finish the job
• The Authoritarians have their figurehead, a know-nothing misogynist and almost got a child predator as well
• Vote fraud turned out not to be the machines but the Russians
• The Nazis are back, they're just called the alt-right
• "Alternative facts" is a thing

Pink Floyd is demonic

I was raised in an authoritarian (see definition in earlier blog entries) household.  Authoritarianism is a closed system that forbids outside influences and is especially fearful of music.

The only radio station we routinely listened to was the local "pop" station where "pop" was music 20 years out of date.  Andy Williams was considered avant-garde. 

However, I was allowed to listen to the classical FM station and eventually begged for and got a set of stereo headphones so I could hear it properly.  One fateful day I decided to break all the rules and change the frequency on the dial.

Now bear in mind that this classical station played all sorts of kewl stuff, not just your Bach and Beethoven, but Stravinsky, Stockhausen, Xenakis, Crumb, blues, jazz and lots of experimental stuff using synthesizers and tape loops and multiple time signatures.

So when I changed the frequency, I stumbled across another station playing a tape loop and I thought I'd found another classical channel.  The loop was jingling coins, cash registers and other money sounds.  Then the bass guitar came in playing a riff in 7/4 time so I figured this must be some jazz thing.  Then the drums came in and I realized I was listening to this forbidden "rock" thing and it was wonderful.  It was, of course, Pink Floyd's "Money" and my life was ruined forever.

I thought it was just because it started my obsession with progressive rock - Yes, King Crimson, Rush, the Nice, Emerson Lake and Palmer.  Little did I know it opened the door to demonic forces.

Pink Floyd is DEMONIC

Near is I can follow,

• "Satan is the god of this evil world" (I seem to remember it being YHWH)
• Blue-Ray technology is the tool of the Antichrist. (I thought Pink Floyd pre-dated Blue-Ray)
• Meditation is the tool of the New World Order because it does not address sin. (huh?)
• The Great Pyramid (unfinished) is the tower of Babel (I thought they were in different cities)
• Helen Blavatsky worshiped Satan (relationship to NWO or PF????)
• musicians sell their soul to the devil for fame and fortune (dammit nobody's approached me)

Therefore Pink Floyd led a generation of youth into rebellion against God.

Last I heard, Pink Floyd's crowning achievement - The Wall - was an appeal to open yourself to outside influences, such as the glory of Christ.

But who am I to talk, I'm just the AntiChrist.

Thoughtstoppers

Mentats Wanted, Will Train | John Michael Greer 

 Back in the day I read everything I could about Transactional Analysis as it seemed to model the real world and the way people spoke to each other.  Briefly, it stated people had three modal states: parent, adult, child.  Two people talking would have a transaction between modal states.  A "parent" might scold a sobbing "child".  A "child" might have fun with another "child".  An adult might have a logical discussion with another "adult".  But the real fun started with two "parent" types would go at it, trading aphorisms, urban myths, slogans and what the author above calls "thoughtstoppers".

I would notice this in my own household.  We'd be talking away about some problem, trying to find a workable solution and somebody would trot out "well, everybody knows a stitch in time saves nine".  Everybody would stop talking and stare at each other.  The freethinkers were gobsmacked because the statement made absolutely no sense in context.  The authoritarians knew they'd been trumped - somebody had let loose a "thoughtstopper".  Whoever gets out one first, wins.

In the article above, the author complains that people discussing natural gas shipments to Europe have absolutely no idea how to logically discuss the issue.

"That is to say, a remarkably large number of Americans, including the leaders of our country and the movers and shakers of our public opinion, are so inept at the elementary skills of thinking that they can’t tell the difference between mouthing a platitude and having a clue.

I suppose this shouldn’t surprise me as much as it does. For decades now, American public life has been dominated by thoughtstoppers of this kind -- short, emotionally charged declarative sentences, some of them trivial, some of them incoherent, none of them relevant and all of them offered up as sound bites by politicians, pundits, and ordinary Americans alike, as though they meant something and proved something. The redoubtable H.L. Mencken, writing at a time when such things were not quite as universal in the American mass mind than they have become since then, called them “credos.”  It was an inspired borrowing from the Latin credo, “I believe,” but its relevance extends far beyond the religious sphere.

Just as plenty of believing Americans in Mencken’s time liked to affirm their fervent faith in the doctrines of whatever church they attended without having the vaguest idea of what those doctrines actually meant, a far vaster number of Americans these days -- religious, irreligious, antireligious, or concerned with nothing more supernatural than the apparent capacity of Lady Gaga’s endowments to defy the laws of gravity -- gladly affirm any number of catchphrases about which they seem never to have entertained a single original thought. Those of my readers who have tried to talk about the future with their family and friends will be particularly familiar with the way this works; I’ve thought more than once of providing my readers with Bingo cards marked with the credos most commonly used to silence discussions of our future -- “they’ll think of something,” “technology can solve any problem,” “the world’s going to end soon anyway,” “it’s different this time,” and so on -- with some kind of prize for whoever fills theirs up first."

The other goes on to propose the training of "mentats" (borrowed from Herbert's "Dune") - people skilled in the art of thinking.  I propose something even simpler.  Just as it is possible to call out people for logical fallacies, it is also easy to call them out on thoughtstoppers.  I've certainly heard it in other contexts - systems analysts playing "buzzword bingo" during business analysts presentations, people calling out "bumper sticker" in a mental health context.

Then maybe we could go back to being adults.

Excellent definition of fundamentalism

"Religious fundamentalism is dangerous because it cannot accept ambiguity and diversity and is therefore inherently intolerant. Such intolerance, in the name of virtue, is ruthless and uses political power to destroy what it cannot convert."
--Peter J. Gomes

An inside look at Home Schooling, also the Quiverfull movement

http://www.alternet.org/belief/escape-christian-fundamentalism-kids-who-flee-abusive-isolated-christian-homes?paging=off&current_page=1#bookmark

Conservatism and authoritarianism

Very busy so two quick links.  The first is an essay on conservatism that does a fine job of defining it.

http://polaris.gseis.ucla.edu/pagre/conservatism.html

The second is an old favourite of mine, defining authoritarianism.  There's a lot of overlap.

The Authoritarians

Excellent blog entry on the clobber passages

http://www.thegodarticle.com/7/post/2011/10/clobbering-biblical-gay-bashing.html