To hide an empire you must pretend it doesn’t exist. Call it a democracy, a freedom-loving country, an exceptional nation or even a superpower, but the word empire most not be used, it’s off-limits, verboten. You can say that it makes mistakes and has imperfections, and talk as much as you like about faults of the system, but never ever claim that the injustices, hypocrisies, extreme inequality, corruption, lies, crimes, poverty, homelessness, murders, imprisonments, rapes, tortures, military adventures and wars are part of the nature of the empire itself. Wrong doings are described as unfortunate or unavoidable accidents. Transgressions from rules and laws are explained as exceptions.
The voice of a modern empire comes across as a free press. The empire’s corporate controlled media, although an open secret, hides behind an army of journalists wearing badges, medals, fancy titles and celebrity status supposedly producing independent news and objective commentaries. Films, TV series, magazines and games never stop pounding home the impression that this is the home of the good guys. Good guys don’t work for an empire.
To strengthen this illusion all enemies of the empire are depicted as evil, bad, dictatorial, terroristic, horrible, goony, whatever. Any country that doesn’t follow the dictates of the empire is said to be ruled by a monster and its people eligible to be bombed into salvation. Countries either submit to the leadership of the empire or suffer the consequences. The aggressions, invasions, occupations, provocations, sanctions, infiltrations and surveillance by the empire are conducted in the name of defense, for security and to promote freedom and democracy, never to take resources and consolidate power.
Besides pretending that the empire doesn’t exist and painting all opposition in dark threatening colors, the citizens must be kept ignorant about the essence of empires. They should, at the most, have a superficial idea about an empire as something large and powerful. Without knowing what constitutes an empire, they could look one squarely in the face and not see it.
How often have you heard the phrase, an evil empire? A redundant concept. There is no such thing as a non-evil empire. Empires are vast political entities obsessed with growing in wealth and power by subjugating everything and anyone it can. Neither people, nature or life itself has any value unless it can add to the treasures of the rulers, enhance their strength and maintain their control.
USA maintains over 700 military bases in 121 countries throughout the world. That alone illustrates indisputably the empirical nature of the USA. Who elected Uncle Sam sheriff of the world? In every single country housing a USA-base crimes have regularly been committed against the local population by the empire goons: assault, theft, rape, manslaughter and murder. Exceptionally, the perpetrator is brought to trial. Exceptionally. Sam’s goons are not subject to local laws.
Sam also regularly bombs and destroys, maims and kills babies, boys, brides, bakers and grannies in sovereign countries, in total disregard of international law, with total immunity. What besides an empire could act in such a despicable manner?
Who but an empire could get away with being the only nation to vote against a United Nations Human Rights Council to establish an inquiry into the war crimes committed in Gaza as the USA did in July last year. Could you conceive of any other country being against 132, 131 or 135 other countries as USA was on three occasions against a UN General Assembly resolution declaring that “education, work, health care, proper nourishment, national development are human rights.” Time and again the USA has shown total disregard for the will of the UN General Assembly and used its veto against the Security Council. Could anything less than an empire pull this off? Of course not.
A thick book, and there are several, could expand on this theme, but on this simple blog it suffices to state the obvious. The USA is an empire and empires are evil. They cannot be influenced with reason or appeals. Voting for a chief administrator among the emperors (the 1%) is ridiculous. Believing any information from the empire is insanity. Turning your back on the empire, as the first raw Christians did, makes a lot of sense. Whatever you do or don’t do, refusing to see the empire will weaken your ability to act rationally. One more thing, the majority of the people of the world is fully aware of the empirical nature of the USA. You won’t be alone.
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“If the Blacks and their White supporters and sympathizers
would stop drinking sodas in favor of water
they would have the Pepsi and Coke corporations
fighting the cops for them.”
Dartwill Aquila
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I wish you the copper light of dusk flowing on a calm river.
I wish you the golden blush of dawn on glorious days.
I wish you motivation to embrace a passion for accomplishment.
I wish you nourishing knowledge and rewards of discovery.
I wish you advice from the depth of your possibilities.
I wish you visions of splendor in pieces of daily life.
I wish you rhythms of harmony dancing in your soul.
I wish you humility in the face of the beauty you will encounter.
I wish you hear the songs of your heart praising who you are.
I wish you a path of smiles leading to who you can be.
I wish you security knowing you’re part of the family of humanity.
I wish you health, prosperity, joy, love and friendship,
my friend.
My last post until the beginning of 2015.
This is the darkest period of the year in the northern hemisphere. More light is on the way. I wish I could say the same for the state of humanity. It is therefore of supreme importance that we spread the light we can.
This is the season of hope, the season of festivities. The season to thank life and honor love. A time to charge our batteries for the struggle of love and life, for justice, freedom and beauty.
I wish you health, strength and knowledge because I need you.
Or, as the great Lord Richard Buckley used to say to his audiences, ”Would it embarrass you very much if I told you that I love you?”
Yours in solidarity,
Fantelius
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“We’ve all got a ticket to the future,
but the seats aren’t numbered
and they keep moving the stage.”
Dartwill Aquila
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Word-triggered insanity (WTI) occurs when a person reacts psychotically to a specific word. This is about the Jewish variety because it’s easily demonstrated and currently significant.
Mention the word anti-semitism to a typical Jew and witness the insanity. The word throws a switch and Jekyll transforms into Hyde in an instant. The word can be dropped neutrally and calmly, ”What do you know about anti-semitism?” Even a slip of paper with the word anti-semitism on it will catalyze the crazy. The seemingly normal person, who may have a prestigious education and high position, becomes a ranting idiot. They speak of increasing anti-semitism as though it were a force of nature, something that rises mysteriously from nowhere and effects people everywhere. The ranting WTI-affected Jew will mention incidence of attacks or violence against Jews that have actually occurred or that they’ve heard about in such an way as to give the impression that bodies of mutilated Jews clutter the streets.
The other day, Danny Cohen, Chief of BBC TV, performed in the typical WTI dance. ”I’ve never felt so uncomfortable being a Jew in the UK /—/ the number of attacks rise … murders in France … murders in Belgium /—/ never felt as I do now about anti-semitism in Europe.”
The most obvious sign of idiocy radiates from the total lack of connection to Israel in general and the vicious treatment of the Palestinians in particular. Even Jewish research professors fail to factor Israel into the formula. Jews are murdering Palestinians en masse, confiscating their land, bulldozing down their homes and preventing them from receiving basic materials of survival. The Israelis are committing Nazi-grade atrocities. The growing anti-semitism is surprising?! It’s surprising that it’s not much greater than it is.
Let’s deal with the elephant in the room. Hundreds of millions of people in the world house an instinctive aversion to Judaism because it implicitly insults the foundation of their spirituality. These people embrace the conviction that God is for everyone and that everyone is equal in the eyes of God. Judaism denies this. No, it says, we are God’s chosen people. History has demonstrated time and again that this instinctive aversion can explode in violent antagonism when violent conditions prevail. You can pretend not to see the elephant, not to know about history and not to be aware of the impending violent conditions. The elephant, history and coming conditions don’t care. If however you happen to be Jewish, I’d suggest you get your act together and go to the front of the struggle against Israeli aggression. Just a suggestion.
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“If we can’t join together in humanity
we will perish together in vanity.”
Dartwill Aquila
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“One of the strengths that makes America exceptional is our willingness to openly confront our past, face our imperfections, make changes and do better.”
Barack Obama (from official statement about the torture report)
If the word exceptional continues to be used as a standard element in the top talkers talks, I suspect we will soon be seeing it on dollar bills: In exceptionality we trust. BO now tells us that this exceptional nation has had imperfections in the past.
The devastation of Vietnam and the three million plus murders was an imperfection?
The devastation of Iraq and the one million plus murders was an imperfection?
The murders in Panama, Indonesia, Detroit, Cambodia, Laos, Nicaragua, Panama, Afghanistan, Philippines, Libya, Syria, etc. were imperfections?
The drone-killed women and children in Pakistan, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen were imperfections?
Mass torture for decades, an imperfection?
Cops shooting unarmed kids, an imperfection?
Taking from the struggling multitudes to give to a handful of obnoxiously wealthy, an imperfection?
… and so on…
I’m beginning to understand what is meant by American exceptionality.
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“Reality pours over the mind
powering the generator of thought
producing the electricity to enlighten the soul.”
Dartwill Aquila
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Dear dancy dellows and dantastic ducks,
we’re used to swimming in an ocean of viewpoints from the USA. Evgeny Fedorov has another perspective from a different body of water. Although this English subtitled video is nearly two-hours long, the first 5 or 6 minutes will explain more than years of ”explanations” by empire experts. Give your brain a treat! Listen to Evgeny.
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“If all truths are allowed except one
then that forbidden one is the only truth.”
Dartwill Aquila
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OK, OK, I get it. Now it’s torture weeks. Racism and police brutality weeks are over.
We’re going to do our torture project, boys and girls. Prepare a presentation to show that torture is bad. Be careful to make it look like it is something new, something we started doing recently. People will get upset if you point out that we’ve been torturing all over the world for decades. No need to mention that our many and overfilled prisons are basically torture institutes with leniency for the most obedient. Anyone bringing up Nick Turse’s book Kill Anything That Moves, illustrating our ability to torture, maim and kill on an industrial scale in the 1960s, will not receive a passing grade. And don’t forget to say that other countries torture worse than we do even though we train, supervise and pay them and deliver the victims to them.
Let’s get to work, children. If your reports are not finished before the torture weeks are over I’ll be forced to interrogate you about your negligence. Enhancedly, of course.
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“If you were my prisoner of love
I’d place you in a cell of sensuality.
With moist tenderness
hot and solid instruments
I’d torture
your every inhibition of pleasure
until my name
came moaning from your throat,
confessing
the liberator of your ecstasy.”
Dartwill Aquila
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Animals can think, but they have no language so they don’t know about it.
A lion wakes up hungry and wants to find food. She thinks, ”Which way is the wind blowing?” If she walks downwind other animals will detect her before she sees them. She then thinks about the landscape to decide on a suitable direction. When she spots a herd of gnus she thinks about how to approach unseen. She creeps low and cautiously while her thoughts race at the speed of a chase. Which young, weak or isolated gnu could she attack?
The lion is thinking constantly, but as she has no language she’s unaware of her thoughts. No language, no awareness. The lion obviously thinks or would starve to death in a short time. Walking or attacking randomly (thoughtlessly) will not lead to food. Like all animals confronted with alternatives, she must be able to think to make a choice. But without language, she’s unaware of her thoughts. They are inaccessible.
Language brings our thoughts into the light. It is conscious thinking, an interface that allows us to examine our unconscious thoughts and manipulate them. Language is like a picture of thoughts on the screen of our minds. Actual thought flows constantly through the circuits of the brain.
Thinking generates language.
Language allows us to trace backwards and see, be aware of, our thoughts. Language is to thought what writing is to language. Thinking generates language, language produces writing.
This is a difficult concept to grasp, but we’ve all experienced seemingly thoughtless periods of consciousness. We travel to work or go around the house with zero recollection of what we’ve done. On more than one occasion I’ve frightened myself by not being able to recall the last 20 minutes of driving before stopping at my destination. My thoughts weren’t somewhere else, but my language thinking, my consciousness was. I must have been thinking about driving, unconsciously (without language), or I would have left a trail of accidents worthy of a Hollywood action movie.
Perhaps it’s easier to understand language thinking if we equate it with what Freud called the ego, our consciousness, in contrast to the id, our subconscious, the emotions, desires, needs, thoughts and instincts below our awareness. Here in the subconscious—off limits to our language/consciousness—lies the soul, the essence of our being, the home of our humanity and the throne of the force of life.
We should be thankful for this arrangement because the rulers support and promote a great deal of research to understand how we think so that they can control us. They are forced to work through the medium of language. But our true thoughts that flow from the subconscious wells of our being are beyond their reach. Our humanity and the needs and desires of our souls follow the light of the force of life and cannot be captured by their dark greed.
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“A lock that can’t open is broken.”
Dartwill Aquila
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Technology + language = writing
Writing began from a need to keep records. At first pebbles or seeds stood for chickens or sheep. 10 white pebbles equaled 10 sheep, 6 flat stones equaled 6 cows, and so on. When people started creating graphic symbols to represent things and numbers the union of language and technology was conceived.
The first writings entailed scraping on stone, scratching on wood or indenting clay, 3 dots, a triangle, 2 diagonal lines, etc. Technologically simple, culturally sublime. These first markings grew into hieroglyphics, cuneiform and other primitive writings. It took 5000 years for the seeds of the scratchings to bear fruit in an alphabet first devised by Palestinians 3000 years ago.
Note that despite the advantages of an alphabet, oriental cultures have made great technological, philosophical and literary achievements using icon representation, often far in advance of the alphabet cultures. If anything, this shows us that language is an aid for thinking. It doesn’t determine thought. More about this later.
The written form of communication consists of two intellectual disciplines. We can speak of two separate languages or a compound of two languages. Writing combines the literary form of communication with the mathematical form. Literature is emotional, holistic, abstract and chaotic whereas mathematics is logical, measurable, specific and scientific. Without writing and its ability to handle numerical notation there can be neither mathematics or science. Repeat with emphasis: without writing, no math or science.
Science is a function of technological (written) language.
A tangle of confusion
Writing can also be described as information technology. That which is called information technology today, IT, is factually DIGITAL information technology. Language technology can be found on 3 levels or stages: Basic (manual) IT, Printed (mechanical) IT and Digital (electronic) IT, or BIT, PIT and DIT if you so will.
The reason that digital information technology, DIT, is referred to merely as IT stems from the magnificent ignorance about the nature of technology. See Magnificent Ignorance 1 – Technology and Magnificent Ignorance 2 – Technology 2
The confusion deepens or should I say, the magnificent ignorance thickens, because the word information is misleading. Clarity would require the word communication instead. The difference between communication and information is decisive. Calling communication technology for information technology hides an essential aspect of language technology, confuses rather than clarifies, and fuels the engines of propaganda. I’ll discuss communication contra information, as well as BIT, PIT and DIT, in a coming blog, Now, I’ll conclude this one with an essential aspect of written (technological) language.
Writing is an enormously powerful technological invention. One of humanity’s most important. It is to the soul what fire is to the flesh. Not only does it form the foundation of math and science, it allows for any expression or statement to reach any number of people anywhere, and it owns permanency. Independent of time and unlimited to receivers it forms the memory of humanity.
Writing requires energy. Compared to speaking, it is expensive. We don’t think of the costs, because we can afford the cheapest forms, and even these provide delicious intellectual power. Speaking is a biological ability acquired naturally and used effortlessly. Writing is a technological instrument that requires education and materials, both of which come with a price. Because of the power it provides and the costs involved, the rulers at the top of society have always controlled it.
The control of the written word was obvious for thousands of years. Pharaohs, kings and emperors decorated themselves with a string of scribes who managed their correspondence, wrote their decrees and sang their praises. The people, at least 95% of the population, were illiterate up until the most recent period of history.
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“I’m not illiterate.” he shouted back defensively, “I have a mother and a father.”
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Due to the power and costs of technological language it remains in the hands of the rulers today in spite of general literacy and theoretical freedom of speech. Although not as obvious and not as complete as in former times, the control determines the condition of the cultural atmosphere. Freedom of speech sounds lovely, but the freedom for the few who own a media corporation or channels of distribution or can buy megatons of advertisements exceeds the freedom of millions of Jacks and Jills shouting from screens, alleys and hills. Modern pharaohs, kings and emperors command their politicians, lawyers and scribes from the court of boardrooms. The rulers wield enormous technological language power to promote their view of the world. We need merely witness the magnificent ignorance holding down the possibilities of humanity to build a garden of peace in the light of justice.
I can strongly recommend Michael Parenti’s book The Assassination of Julius Caesar for a deeper understanding of cultural control and bias. Enjoyable reading and deep insights; a blast from the past shedding light on the present.
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“Language isn’t pretty complicated, it’s beautifully complicated.”
Dartwill Aquila
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Animals cannot discuss their love life with a friend. They can’t discuss anything. They ain’t got no language. Magnificent ignorance believes otherwise.
Animals can communicate with a signal system, but even the most advanced of these come nowhere near a language. A signal system is limited and closed, communicating from a specific set of messages, whereas a language is unlimited and open and can express anything that can be thought. It can travel to the future, review the past, post a theory, create a fantasy or order a round of beers. Equating a signal system with a language is like equating a butterfly’s nose with an elephant’s trunk.
That’s not a very good comparison, but the image of a trunk leads to another aspect of language. It’s not merely a sounding device but a physical construction of Homo sapiens biology, a defining characteristic of the human anatomy like a hairless body, overhanging nose, break-dancing legs or a long penis. The language “organ” however cannot be seen because it sits in the brain as a complex neurological construction. This construction, like all other human attributes, has evolved and owns a membership in the DNA association. That’s why any human can learn any language as naturally as they learn to walk.
Language has evolved. It has evolved as a unique occurrence in evolution, unique to biology, to life itself. It’s power and abilities go beyond the imagination. This extraordinary creation of life barely receives recognition, its significance is neglected and it often suffers insults of being the equal of a signal system.
Language screams in the penitentiary of magnificent ignorance together with technology and other prisoners of knowledge. Their desperate cries try to tell us about the contamination and injustice in the intellectual atmosphere of humanity.
What happened, for example, when language was first combined with technology? This would be grade school simple in an intellectually health society, but, in an atmosphere of magnificent ignorance, it baffles most people as much as being asked to explain the asymptotic curve of differential geometry.
The next blog, Magnificent Ignorance 4 – Language 2, will deal with the union of language and technology,.
Until then, reflect on the storm in the intellectual atmosphere a few days ago, the 10th of December. The Nobel Prize ceremonies raged through the media in a tempest of prestigious vulgarity where royalty hung like bling-bling on the prodigious banquet. The clothing of the ladies of nobility were discussed extensively. Hour upon hour the level 4 parody of archaic overclass traditions swept across the eyeballs of millions of people, baking minds in mindless fascination and sugared envy. Barely anyone heard a whisper coming from the 66th anniversary of The Universal Declaration of Human Rights. On the one hand, trumpets and drums, pomp and ceremony, signifying nothing. On the other, silence about “all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.” The cost of the dresses alone worn by a handful of the dignitaries at the banquet could provide a meal for the starving multitudes who enjoy neither rights, freedom or dignity.
Welcome to the slum of humanity where magnificent ignorance flourishes in magnificent decadence.
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“In the beginning was the word.
Then we got sentenced.”
Dartwill Aquila
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System Humanity 