Social Anaesthesia? The power to remember and forget.
We live in a world of self-imposed amnesia and delusion that bears no relation to reality. It is a mental and perceptual construct, imposed by the whole sociological and educational process, that incorporates within it a denial, both personally and societally, of anything that would contradict or undermine it. We do not wish to be disturbed by countervailing themes, and not only block them out but denigrate and ostracise those with the temerity to propagate them.
The state and institutions are constantly on the warpath, either overtly or more subtly, to counter or even censor them, as anything seen as critical of the construct is seen as destabilizing and dangerous. The last thing governing bodies want, is an independent, free-thinking, aware population, difficult to control, questioning of edicts, non-compliant particularly in matters of finance and taxation.
To this end it is important that people see taxation not as an evil but as good. Thus they are directed towards the social state providing education, health care, policing, and all the other benefits state spending provides, whilst blythly overlooking the endemic waste, corruption and destruction it inevitably entails.
The majority, as was always the case, is kept silent and compliant by 'bread and circuses'. In modern times the Roman Colosseum has been replaced by film and television, latterly disrupted by the medium of the internet and its social platforms, hence the political campaign to control it coming from government or even the platforms themselves.
Government is anxious to portray itself as benign and philanthropic, broad-minded and tolerant, but the test of it is not provided by the unquestioning and compliant but by those who reveal the truth and challenge the prevailing ethos.
It is likely if you do, and particularly if you get a significant following, you will feel the chill winds of a system that is able to conjure up very good reasons for shutting you down.
It is the dark underbelly of the 'Liberal Democratic State', never satisfied with the multitudinous crimes it has established, without demanding more, in which like fish people can be enmeshed. Shoals in the nets of advertising, media and carefully camoflaged propaganda; individuals on the line and hook of civil or criminal prosecution. Anyone who has followed the subject is able to think of the many instances where this has been the case.
However there are signs that the population is becoming increasingly aware of how it has been manipulated, locally, nationally, globally, and is becoming more resistent.
Both in America and Europe, elections have reflected it. Politicians are being made to change their direction of travel. For probably the first time scepticism and distrust have become prevailing sentiments, and the 'bread and circus' seen to be less effective.
The nonsense of 'net zero'; the suggested threat of CO2; the impractibility of electrification of transport; the suggested dangers of Covid; the denial of the dangers of vaccination; the complicity in and damage of, the drug industry - both legal and illegal; the created wars in Ukraine and Palestine and the way they have been portrayed; the way in which the law has been used to abuse and control the masses; all these things and more have contributed to the ill-ease, or should I say 'disease', that now affects the Western democracies and contributed to the rise of populist leaders and parties.
Over the last two nights I have re-watched the four episodes of the 1978 BBC production, 'Law and Order' written by G. F. Newman and directed by Les Blair. It is about how an admitted criminal was framed for a crime he did not commit, the underpinning corruption of the prosecution system and the breaking of a man's will to accept the unjust punishment.
It was shocking in 1978 and it is still shocking now but hopefully less surprising.
On the one hand it carries the notion of rough justice insofar 'he had it coming'; on the other that it cannot be right that a man could be gaoled and mistreated for twenty years for a crime he was not involved in as a result of bribes, threats and false evidence.
We may like to think that post-PACE such a situation would not be possible, yet there are indications nothing has fundamentally changed and in certain respects has got worse. The Times recently reported that 99% of thefts and burglaries in London are not even investigated! Dismissal of police officers for misconduct and crimes has never been higher - a good sign or a bad sign depending on how you see it.
Yet British gaols, despite early release and alternative punishments, have never held more prisoners - over 95.000 at the last count. In parallel reports of suicide and self-harm have never been higher either - 92 of the former and a staggering 64, 348 of the latter, in just England and Wales in the twelve months up to September 2023.
This indeed is the dark underbelly of a civilized society that nobody really wants to think about and which the Government doesn't want you to think about, as you watch your football, cricket, golf, snooker or whatever. It is an indicator of both the nature of society and the prison environment. At base it is how we treat one another.
The situation in the United States, that paragon of the Rights of Man, individual freedom and 'the American Dream', is much worse. Roughly 1.8 million are incarcerated - that's more than in even China with four times the population and greater poverty.
Globally illegal drugs are at the centre of crime, corruption and ruination of lives and communities. In Britain alone a 2020 report estimated the illegal drugs trade to be worth around ten billion pounds and the cost to society twice that. You can be sure four years later it is very much higher.
More than 300,000 are addicted to hard drugs (heroin etc) and deaths from these have never been higher on an increasing trend - twice what it was in 2012 and around five thousand a year. Successful take-down of drug imports represent only a tiny proportion of the trade and the following are undoubtedly just the tip of the iceberg.
People with no hope and no purpose, the unhappy and unfulfilled, take drugs for excitement, fellowship, inclusion, although in most cases they have the opposite effect. Perhaps most of all it is to dull the senses - a form of anaesthesia - to disengage and forget, mirrored in society's attitude to the problem and people.
Billions of pounds have to be turned into legitimate money and this can only happen with the active involvement of banks and other commercial operations, such as real estate but these are seldom if ever targeted. If 'Law and Order' is anything to go by, should we not give closer attention to wealthy law enforcers and practioners and to those that sit at the top of these crime companies?
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/review-of-drugs-phase-one-report/review-of-drugs-summary https://www.nationalcrimeagency.gov.uk/news/1-2m-cash-and-350-000-assets-seized-as-organised-crime-group-dismantled
It was in 1956 that the German philosopher Günther Anders, born on July 12, 1902, wrote this premonitory reflection:
"To quell any revolt in advance, above all, it is not necessary to take it violently. Archaic methods like Hitler are sorely outdated. It is enough to create collective conditioning by drastically reducing the level and quality of education, to bring it back to a form of professional placement.
"An uneducated individual has only a limited thinking horizon, and
the more his thinking is confined to mediocre, material concerns, the less he can revolt." Access to knowledge must be made more and more difficult and elitist... that the gap between the people and science widens, that the information intended for the general public is anesthetized from any subversive content.
Again, persuasion must be used and not direct violence: we will broadcast massively, via television, abusive entertainment, always flattering the emotional, the instinct. »
"We will occupy the minds with what is futile and playful. It's good with incessant chatter and music, to prevent the mind from wondering, thinking, reflecting. »
"We will put sexuality at the forefront of human interests. As a social anesthetist, there is nothing better. Generally, we will make sure to ban the seriousness of existence, to ridicule everything that has high value, to maintain a constant apology of frivolity; so that the euphoria of advertising, consumption become the standard and model of human happiness of freedom "
Günther Anders
“The obsolescence of man. » 1956
When I saw an image of Lammy shaking hands with that killer it made me sick to the stomach. How they engineered a total black out of our part in the Palestinian genocide during the election that is still continuing, unabated unprevented. If the West can do it there, it can do it here. Be afraid. Be very afraid. He recently made a statement in the House of Commons. It purports to demand a ceasefire whilst Israel continues to bomb even 'safe' tented areas. How can we regard it as other than cynical grandstanding and polemic intended to quell discontent in the ranks, when Britain has for the last nine months actively supported the illegal and genocidal Izraili regime with frequent targeting RAF flights, GCHQ intercepts passed to the IDF, allowing the use of Cyprus to listen in and as a base for weapon delivery, allowing American planes to stop over on British soil. And in nine months never a word of condemnation of the brutal, sytematic obliteration of a whole region and population. To anyone with a mind, Britain has been a supporter of this humanitarian outrage from the beginning, confirmed by the smug faces of Netanyahu meeting western leaders and Lammy shaking hands with killers.
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