“ ‘Science?’….’Yes,’ Mustapha Mond was saying, ‘that’s another item in the cost of stability. It isn’t only art that’s incompatible with happiness; it’s also science. Science is dangerous; we have to keep it most carefully chained and muzzled…I’m interested in truth, I like science. But truth’s a menace, science is a public danger. As dangerous as it’s been beneficent. It has given us the stablest equilibrium in history…But we can’t allow science to undo its own good work. That’s why we so carefully limit the scope of its researchers…We don’t allow it to deal with any but the most immediate problems of the moment. All other enquiries are most sedulously discouraged…Our Ford himself did a great deal to shift the emphasis from truth and beauty to comfort and happiness…
It might be a Herculean task, but I am wondering if it would be worth exploring and/or connecting the work from Who Paid The Piper to this work you have been doing(?) The time period (1950/60s) of that work coincides nicely.
Could it be that the methods used by Cultural Congress to engage the non communist left were also to used to promote the ideas and spiritual perspective (if there is such a thing) that you are discussing? Could it be the 1960s counter culture was engineered in some respect? A kinda Great Reset gen 1? Which in turn, in a kinda bait and switch, segued into the hyper-consumerism of recent decades? If that is true, how do we segue way out of hyperconsumerism, with social economic consequences, etc.? Do we use the same methods for different ends? Like maybe a hyper exaggeration of a very minor crisis that can be used to control....
Okay, I am going off the rails here...nuff said...
Ironically I was looking for a film version of Brave New World today when your email article post arrived. I'm looking forward to the rest of the series. Fascinating territory indeed.
Cynthia - This is fabulous! I wish I could take a pill to quickly digest all the books and articles you referenced, ha ha. Three main thoughts. First, the mind-altering drugs issue. LSD gave people such a wild ride that it took a lot of time to supervise and to recover from. Some experimenters started using music to give some general direction to the experience. Then Helen Bonny started using music alone, without any drugs, and found that she could guide people through meaningful and useful inner mind exploration that could be easily integrated into the person's ordinary waking consciousness. I trained in this technique years ago at the Canadian Institute of Psychosynthesis in Montreal (where you and Matt live I believe.) Beginning with a question to oneself like "May I have an experience that is meaningful to me" it is always astounding how much inner wisdom pours forth. And it is not hypnotism, the person can get up and walk of their own free will at any point. I have started guiding people through this even while on the telephone, calling this work "psychonaut explorations."
Two - on religion. The Abrahamic faiths (Judaism, Christianity, Islam) contain a clear Jubilee Justice tradition in order to maintain a fair economic system. Basically, against usury, for debt cancellation, against land monopoly, for fair land access. This was lost when Christianity became the religion of the Roman empire and instead of "thou shalt not kill" we got "just war theory" known today as "humanitarian intervention". and attitudes like "kill a commie for Christ." I presented a paper years ago on this at a conference at Sanford Theological Seminary. Charles Avila's book Ownership: Early Christian Teachings is a classic. BTW, Charles is a good friend and he is now in New York if you would like to talk with him let me know.
Third, the whole Malthus thing. Henry George, who Charles and others of us view as being in line with the early Christian (Patristic period) teachings on economics, and who is the great American political economist whose ideas and populist movement became a threat to the elite rule system (and why they invented neoliberal two-factor economics of labor and capital, conveniently placing the factor Land (the Earth!) as a mere subset of capital) wrote and lectured strongly AGAINST Malthus who he viewed as an apologist for the status quo elite rule system. George saw that the issue was JUSTICE and POWER not overpopulation.
If anyone wants to go further along the lines of Henry George (movement growing again today) I can refer you to a lot of resources (including the Henry George School of Social Science) and also a free pdf of my award-winning book The Earth Belongs to Everyone.
An amazing composition! Looking forward to part two
Hi Cynthia, Nicely written, as always.
It might be a Herculean task, but I am wondering if it would be worth exploring and/or connecting the work from Who Paid The Piper to this work you have been doing(?) The time period (1950/60s) of that work coincides nicely.
Could it be that the methods used by Cultural Congress to engage the non communist left were also to used to promote the ideas and spiritual perspective (if there is such a thing) that you are discussing? Could it be the 1960s counter culture was engineered in some respect? A kinda Great Reset gen 1? Which in turn, in a kinda bait and switch, segued into the hyper-consumerism of recent decades? If that is true, how do we segue way out of hyperconsumerism, with social economic consequences, etc.? Do we use the same methods for different ends? Like maybe a hyper exaggeration of a very minor crisis that can be used to control....
Okay, I am going off the rails here...nuff said...
Ironically I was looking for a film version of Brave New World today when your email article post arrived. I'm looking forward to the rest of the series. Fascinating territory indeed.
Brilliant
Cynthia - This is fabulous! I wish I could take a pill to quickly digest all the books and articles you referenced, ha ha. Three main thoughts. First, the mind-altering drugs issue. LSD gave people such a wild ride that it took a lot of time to supervise and to recover from. Some experimenters started using music to give some general direction to the experience. Then Helen Bonny started using music alone, without any drugs, and found that she could guide people through meaningful and useful inner mind exploration that could be easily integrated into the person's ordinary waking consciousness. I trained in this technique years ago at the Canadian Institute of Psychosynthesis in Montreal (where you and Matt live I believe.) Beginning with a question to oneself like "May I have an experience that is meaningful to me" it is always astounding how much inner wisdom pours forth. And it is not hypnotism, the person can get up and walk of their own free will at any point. I have started guiding people through this even while on the telephone, calling this work "psychonaut explorations."
Two - on religion. The Abrahamic faiths (Judaism, Christianity, Islam) contain a clear Jubilee Justice tradition in order to maintain a fair economic system. Basically, against usury, for debt cancellation, against land monopoly, for fair land access. This was lost when Christianity became the religion of the Roman empire and instead of "thou shalt not kill" we got "just war theory" known today as "humanitarian intervention". and attitudes like "kill a commie for Christ." I presented a paper years ago on this at a conference at Sanford Theological Seminary. Charles Avila's book Ownership: Early Christian Teachings is a classic. BTW, Charles is a good friend and he is now in New York if you would like to talk with him let me know.
Third, the whole Malthus thing. Henry George, who Charles and others of us view as being in line with the early Christian (Patristic period) teachings on economics, and who is the great American political economist whose ideas and populist movement became a threat to the elite rule system (and why they invented neoliberal two-factor economics of labor and capital, conveniently placing the factor Land (the Earth!) as a mere subset of capital) wrote and lectured strongly AGAINST Malthus who he viewed as an apologist for the status quo elite rule system. George saw that the issue was JUSTICE and POWER not overpopulation.
If anyone wants to go further along the lines of Henry George (movement growing again today) I can refer you to a lot of resources (including the Henry George School of Social Science) and also a free pdf of my award-winning book The Earth Belongs to Everyone.
Thanks again Cynthia for your brilliant essay!
Thanks for this. Look forward to reading the next parts