Pillars of Our Society

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Pillar 1:  Authority figure.  The authortity figure is considered beyond question or reproach.  The authority figure is usually an individual person, but sometimes is instead a concept.  "The Troops", "Freedom", etc.  The rules do not apply to the authority figure.

Pillar 2.  Exhaustion.  Exhausted people are more pliable.

Pillar 3.  Social control.  Restricted sex and/or diet, for example.  Or whom you may marry.

Pillar 4.  Isolation from outsiders.  Foreigners and their opinions, for example.

Pillar 5.  Physical control.  Either the actual restraint of someone leaving, or the threat of not being able to return.  For example, requiring a passport to come back after visiting Canada.

[Nephew Twiddleton]

In order to counteract the pillars, do we attempt to smash them or set up new pillars along side the old?

[Juana]

Pillar 6. Distraction. Keep people focused on issues that are secondary or tertiary to real issues.

Pillar 7. Emotional furor. Keep people constantly whipped up about irrelevant things.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

In order to counteract the pillars, do we attempt to smash them or set up new pillars along side the old?

Well, I had basically written down the cult checklist, and applied it to American culture.

[P3nT4gR4m]

Pillar 8. Drugs. Alcohol, Tobacco, Prozac, MTV, Cocaine. A drugged populace is a docile populace

[Nephew Twiddleton]

In order to counteract the pillars, do we attempt to smash them or set up new pillars along side the old?

Well, I had basically written down the cult checklist, and applied it to American culture.

Fair enough, but it's an interesting take. My brain's starting to come back around to this type of stuff again. I sit in Sociology class and feel that it's a very Discordian science, and I'm wondering how I can apply the one to the other and vice versa.

[Nephew Twiddleton]

Pillar 9. False hope. Someday you'll get your slice of the pie too.

[Elder Iptuous]

In order to counteract the pillars, do we attempt to smash them or set up new pillars along side the old?

Well, I had basically written down the cult checklist, and applied it to American culture.

aaahh..
it gels now.  it appeared to me at first as a random group of qualities in our society that picked out and called 'pillars'.  it didn't have any PUNCH for me.  then you mention cult checklist, and i go back and look at the list, and it really raises the eyebrows!
nice.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

In order to counteract the pillars, do we attempt to smash them or set up new pillars along side the old?

Well, I had basically written down the cult checklist, and applied it to American culture.

aaahh..
it gels now.  it appeared to me at first as a random group of qualities in our society that picked out and called 'pillars'.  it didn't have any PUNCH for me.  then you mention cult checklist, and i go back and look at the list, and it really raises the eyebrows!
nice.

It's all about mind control.  I don't mean the CT bullshit with chemtrails and all that other shit mixed in, I mean good, old-fashioned MK/ULTRA, Jonestown, Moonies sort of shit.

It's become a standard practice, marketed via the 8 circuit model, and fed to an increasingly welcoming audience.

But there's even more to it.  The interval between commercials on mass media shrinks every year.  Social media is geared to allow shorter and shorter posts with which to exchange information (good thing WE'D never fall for THAT, right?  Right right right?), and all of this is verifiable fact.

You don't NEED Conspiracy Theory anymore.  It's becoming redundant...and also a tool to get the loudmouths to SHUT UP...Or at least not be heard, because they've rendered themselves ENTIRELY UNBELIEVABLE.

[Nephew Twiddleton]

In order to counteract the pillars, do we attempt to smash them or set up new pillars along side the old?

Well, I had basically written down the cult checklist, and applied it to American culture.

aaahh..
it gels now.  it appeared to me at first as a random group of qualities in our society that picked out and called 'pillars'.  it didn't have any PUNCH for me.  then you mention cult checklist, and i go back and look at the list, and it really raises the eyebrows!
nice.

It's all about mind control.  I don't mean the CT bullshit with chemtrails and all that other shit mixed in, I mean good, old-fashioned MK/ULTRA, Jonestown, Moonies sort of shit.

It's become a standard practice, marketed via the 8 circuit model, and fed to an increasingly welcoming audience.

But there's even more to it.  The interval between commercials on mass media shrinks every year.  Social media is geared to allow shorter and shorter posts with which to exchange information (good thing WE'D never fall for THAT, right?  Right right right?), and all of this is verifiable fact.

You don't NEED Conspiracy Theory anymore.  It's becoming redundant...and also a tool to get the loudmouths to SHUT UP...Or at least not be heard, because they've rendered themselves ENTIRELY UNBELIEVABLE.

Simplify everything, flood people with meaningless information in order to keep them from focusing on anything too long.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Yep, that's part of it.

Twitter and Facebook aren't social networking software, they're social engineering software.

And everyone - including us - just lines right up for it.

[Elder Iptuous]

you believe that?  i've heard about the zuckerburg/cia link. are you referring to that?

[The Good Reverend Roger]

What makes these two pieces of software so Goddamn effective is that it appeals to the attention whore in everyone.  How many followers do you have?  How many friends do you have?  Wow, that's a lot of LIKES and SHARES.

And all that time, your ABILITY to express complex thoughts atrophies.  You can't be bothered, because you're in the HABIT of writing some short thing or short response or just clicking LIKE.

And it fits RIGHT in with the other means used to limit your attention span...TV, radio, or just good old fashioned drugs & alcohol.  Why express yourself when you can just smoke or drink yourself into a colossal depression?

[The Good Reverend Roger]

you believe that?  i've heard about the zuckerburg/cia link. are you referring to that?

No, I don't particularly believe that, on account of Occam's Razor and Hanlon's Razor.  I don't think the government is smart enough or agile enough to be that Goddamn creative.  Is Zuckerberg handing information over?  Most likely.  Was Facebook a CIA invention, to deliberately dumb people down?  I don't think so.  Multiple methods of social interaction have appeared on the internet, and they have been selected for, in an evolutionary sense, for the lowest common denominator.

Remember how inconvenient Usenet was?

Then there were the .coms (PD, for example).

Then chatrooms.

Then Facebook.

Then Twitter.

[Nephew Twiddleton]

Yep, that's part of it.

Twitter and Facebook aren't social networking software, they're social engineering software.

And everyone - including us - just lines right up for it.

I suppose on the bright side though, it has the potential to be used as a point in the gears where you can throw a wrench. Not really a good analogy I suppose, but if it's social engineering, it could allow the user to be an engineer. It's hard to cut through all the noise though.