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It has been made known to us, that the inhabitants of Schilda were in possession of a horse whose vigour for work made them very satisfied, and that they only had only one thing to reproach it: it consumed too much oat, expensive oat

They decided to take away this bad habit of his benevolently, reducing day by day its ration by several stalks until it was habituated to complete abstinence.

For a time, everything went greatly. The horse was accustomed to not eating, except a single daily stalk, and at last the next day it would work without the need of any.

That morning they found the treacherous animal dead; the inhabitants of Schilda could not explain the reason behind its death.

[A BRIEF HISTORY OF MIND CONTROL]

(This version I'm presenting here is nowhere near the quality or lenght of what i will publish eventually, but here it goes)

A BRIEF HISTORY OF MIND CONTROL

From doing a lot of research, I have come to the consideration that there have existed 3 main theoretical/practical lines that have given birth to modern "mind control" (loosely defined ofc):

THE MESMER LINE

One of the most earlier lines relates to Franz Anton Von Mesmer, whom in 1775 cured a case of "demonic possession" thru other means than exorcism, thus opening up a new understanding of the processes behind such incidents (historiographically this event is sometimes designated as the birth of dynamic psychiatry).

This line was further develoved by Abbé Faria and James Braid, speaking of hypnosis and suggestion rather than "animal magnetism".

Even further down the line, this was picked up by Ambroise Lieaubeault which was the founder of the Nancy School of Hypnosis (Hippolyte Bernheim became his student and collaborator)... meanwhile in France, Jean Martin Charcot founded the Salpetriere School of Hypnosis, but more focused on the study of hysteria... and Sigmund Freud was influenced by both of these schools and lines of thought, he actually practiced hypnosis and suggestion before his theorical and practical modifications that later on resulted in psychoanalysis.

And from Sigmund Freud, sprang out Anna Freud and Edward Bernays... Anna Freud developed this thing called "Ego Psychology" which promoted "social adaptation", which would imply that the criterion for mental health would be being "well adjusted to social and moral norms" and influenced a lot of thinkers/authors alongside public policy... meanwhile, Edward Bernays turned the uses of political propaganda from the use against enemies, towards the utilization of the same methods domestically in times of peace - his works were utilized by Goebbels for the orchestration of the campaign against the Jews in Germany, influenced public opinion during elections in favour and against presidential candidates and basically got everyone on board for the invasion of Guatemala and the coup d'etat against Jacobo Arbenz, and helped the CIA with its propaganda operations.

China

"Re-education" and "thought reform" have its origins in China, and it can be traced back to Confucianism (or at least an adaptation of it), principles of purity of thought, sincerity being equated as absolute submission, the forced confessions of prisoners before their trials, etc etc

But the more solid origins can be traced to the time of the communist uprising of Mao, in which they adopted soviet strategies of "agitation and propaganda", but developed some of their own: when they captured low rank enemy soldiers, instead of brutalizing them, they would treat them well and have hours upon hours of conversation with them, inciting them to vent their frustrations with the regime and chain of command they served, and then they were told the Kuomintang's failures and deficiencies, and were given the option to join the cause or to support their efforts as a civilian; with higher ranked officials they talked about their specific place and position in the context of the civil war... and thru these trial and errors they developed an intricate methodology that got refined over time.

When the war was over and they were victorious, these techniques took a turn from friendly persuasion into pure violence and torture, which was utilized over foreign prisoners, domestic intellectuals and any trouble-maker they deemed as deviating from the glorious revolution. They were imprisoned, forced to confess to false crimes, criticized until they were a broken shell of a person and started to believe in anything they were fed... on average, prisoners that went thru "re-education"/"thought reform", graduated after 3 years on average... of course some never made it out.

And even though these camps allegedly stopped functioning a long time ago, there's an entire book dedicated to interviews of victims of this process that is documented in Robert Lifton's book "Thought reform and the psychology of totalism: a study of brainwashing in China", which although published in 1961, it details interviews from 1953 that he did with some 40 different people that suffered thru the process.

Perhaps after the 60's they toned it down, but how can we even know? As of today, in Xinjiang the practice of "re-education" camps still prevails, althought it is mainly directed against chinese Uighurs, as documented by the BBC:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/resources/idt-sh/China_hidden_camps

https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-asia-china-48667221/inside-china-s-thought-transformation-camps

The Soviets

There's a line of thought that is attributed to Stalin called "transformism" which may or may not predate him, but there's also Lysenkoism, Minchurism, and Neo-Pavlovism

Transformism is the idea that all objects (which includes humans) have no inner drives or motivations, and that their form or behaviour or even ideas, are the consequences of the external forces of reality that act upon them... which has parallels to Lysenkoism/Minchurism in the realm of genetics, which minimizes the importance or relevance of genetics, while overemphazising the "environment".

This is where Neo-Pavlovism comes in, as a mindset of what should be done to the population at large, which is conditioning them and creating an environment that would determine their configuration... either thru education, psychological treatment, propaganda or public policy. Overall with the motto of "Adapt or die".

CIA and MKULTRA

The newly formed CIA learned from all of these experiences and events... the russian Show Trials had high profile officials confessing and admitting their (alleged) crimes shamefully and with regret...american pows that came back from the Korean War presented this ideological change, apparently having become communists themselves even after being liberated and coming back to their homeland... the Guatemalan operation was a resounding success...

So the CIA formed their own program in 1953, MKULTRA, allegedly to experiment with advanced interrogation techniques, but their scope was much broader, they wanted to develop techniques of "brain-washing" and how to control someone beyond their conscious will.

The new invention of LSD was a godsend, so they setup dozens of safehouses to experiment with the homeless, prostitutes and drug addicts... then they moved on to experiment with their own, with members of the army, and funded research programs in universities.

They also funded Dr. Donald Ewen Cameron in Canada, in his Allan Memorial Institute, where he drugged patients to sleep for up to 2 consequtive months, while playing tape recorders in an infinite loop, and doing electro-convulsive therapy... all with the supposed purpose of curing peoples mental disorders, thru what he called "depatterning" and "psychic driving".

Conclusions

Manipulating people has always existed, and perhaps religion has historically been the greatest offender... but mostly they play a game of abusing people's illussions, hopes, desires and fears, etc.

What changed from Mesmer onwards in the late XVIIIth century, lead to what happened between 1860 and 1973... the calculated and scientific technification of manipulation of human thoughts and the mind.

I really do wonder what kind of bullshit has happened from 1970's onwards that we don't even know about.

And you shouldnt care about if they care or not either.

Is expression intrinsecally an act of communication? I propose that it is not.

This repugnant person named Anna Freud once said, that when we express ourselves we are trascending our "autistic tendencies" towards a social "communication directed towards others", to be recognized and praised by others... but she was wrong in this as she was wrong in so many other things.

If the only thing that differentiates an "autistic activity" which is gratifying but without form, from an elaborate  polished product, is the search from self gratification to a gratification by others, then they cant be technically called too different from one another. Its the same godamn thing, its all the ultimate search for gratification, be it in a masturbatory manner in the first sense or a voyeuristic masturbatory manner in the second sense. Not only one would be jacking off for pleasure, but demanding that those observing like it! How unreasonably demanding!

Perhaps the real mark of craftmanship is about transforming this formless idea that you have in your mind, and making it tangible, polishing, correcting and perfecting it in the process... its like diving for jewels from a wrecked ship in the ocean that is our mind, which we retrieve and then restore them to their former glory.

Thinking about an audience in the creative process and seeking for them to accept or even worse, to praise your work is just pure corrupting madness... its the perspective of a salesman or a seducer, that implies stooping low to the stylistics, themes and fantasies of the lowest common denominator.

At what point, does thinking about your potential or current audience, degrades your entire work into a glorified type of "fanservice"?

I felt nostalgic about all of us playing "Spiders" and "Wererwolf Village" years ago, so i came back 

Jokes aside, wanted to know hows everyone doing, and that im here for all your south-of-The-Wall^tm and psychological needs

http://www.bbc.com/mundo/noticias/2015/07/150712_mexico_chapo_guzman_fuga_detalles_wbm.shtml

One year ago, after recapturing Joaquín Guzmán Loera, "El Chapo", mexican authorities assured there didnt exist the possibility that the druglord would escape again.

But it wasnt as they said.

A year and a half later, a mile of quality tunnels 30ft under the ground, leading directly to the showers and hes gone again.

http://rt.com/usa/228003-texas-bill-kill-students/

In the future, not turning in homework and failing an exam might mean YOUR DEATH.

[But in the 1970s, a professor of Psychology in Vancouver called Bruce Alexander noticed something odd about this experiment. The rat is put in the cage all alone. It has nothing to do but take the drugs. What would happen, he wondered, if we tried this differently? So Professor Alexander built Rat Park. It is a lush cage where the rats would have colored balls and the best rat-food and tunnels to scamper down and plenty of friends: everything a rat about town could want. What, Alexander wanted to know, will happen then?]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/johann-hari/the-real-cause-of-addicti_b_6506936.html

It is now one hundred years since drugs were first banned -- and all through this long century of waging war on drugs, we have been told a story about addiction by our teachers and by our governments. This story is so deeply ingrained in our minds that we take it for granted. It seems obvious. It seems manifestly true. Until I set off three and a half years ago on a 30,000-mile journey for my new book, Chasing The Scream: The First And Last Days of the War on Drugs, to figure out what is really driving the drug war, I believed it too. But what I learned on the road is that almost everything we have been told about addiction is wrong -- and there is a very different story waiting for us, if only we are ready to hear it.

....

But in the 1970s, a professor of Psychology in Vancouver called Bruce Alexander noticed something odd about this experiment. The rat is put in the cage all alone. It has nothing to do but take the drugs. What would happen, he wondered, if we tried this differently? So Professor Alexander built Rat Park. It is a lush cage where the rats would have colored balls and the best rat-food and tunnels to scamper down and plenty of friends: everything a rat about town could want. What, Alexander wanted to know, will happen then?

Yes yes i know, drugs, and yes yes, double-crossed for making a point by citing a behaviourist, BUT, its such a short and well constructed argument as to how drugs in themselves are not the devil's seed, but rather the fertile soil which is alienation is what can make addiction flourish instead of it merely being a recreational activity.

I could possibly make it an interesting sob story as to why it caught my eye but i bore myself... some solid points as to why criminalization is a doomed and ignorant approach and that it serves nefarious purposes rather than "the children", etc.

I usually like to keep my problems to myself, because usually its very clear to me what needs to be done, but it is not the case now... specially since i havent dated in ages out of lack of interest or time, im a bit out of touch not only in the general but also the specific sense, and ive seen a lot of you are experienced in multitude of dating scenarios.

I dont know where to start. Its about a specific girl named F.

I met F around 2006,  when i lived with my alcoholic bandmates when i was a bit of a druggie. She split from her home and cqme to live in the house, and we hit it off from day one, and we shared my room from day one... 4 months later she split to Cancun ot live with her ex gf from her teenage years, but she was not well received... came back to me, spent 2 more months together... then i got fucking done with life itself, took my things one night, left the band, quit drugs, lived in seclusion in the middle of nowhere, amd shortly after leaving for the cqpitol and started university.

Over the years she intermittently reached out to me thru email, and we sporadically went out, something like once a year, no bad blood, just myself having no interest other than school itself.

In january 2014 we had a chance encounter in the streets of her city, where my family lives, in vacations. Since then weve been in contact thru messages and since July, i think it was, weve gone out around 10 times. 3 times when i came to do some business inthe city. The rest of the times since i left the capitol to return to live to this city.

Idk, shes told me she dropped out of university after two years to watch over her mother which sometimes passes out, has a crappy job but with flexible schedules, and around 3 months ago she quit drugs, so im sure that feels pretty bad too.

And well, last tuesday when i asked her out she told me she felt bad, that she didnt feel like doing anything, and that she was going absentee for an (undetermined) while.

And i dont know how i should take it, i mean, i really enjoy her company, we have a lot of fun together and we have no trouble spending half a day togther justdoing whatever, were both not fond of large groups of people or peple in general and a lot of stuff regarding biography amd interests. Some days she has told me she feels bad and doesnt want to go out, but every time i go unnanounced im always well received.

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-30703082

I really thought BBC was renowed for its quality content but omg

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-30735673

Among others... this aint April Fools nor dia de los inocentes, wtf? Ruskia jump the shark.

http://womenslife.today/love/the-shocking-but-surprising-trick-thatll-make-men-thirsty-for-you

http://www.hercampus.com/love/dating-hooking/7-scientifically-proven-ways-make-him-fall-you

http://www.havetherelationshipyouwant.com/love/secret_psych_fall.html

I dont even know where to start with this can of worms; 1st observation is that its love oriented rather than one night stands... what would be the proper term?

I would vote for him, wouldn't you?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SsCe2LIYkNo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLiS1n2GqU4

As others may or may not have noticed, what recently makes my toes curl is not great arguments that give one the feeling of "wow, such amaze, very impress" or some FOX caliber conservative radical... no, rather i live for the arguments that catch you like a bass in spring - and then the discourse takes a sharp turn, making you cringe and clench your teeth in loathing...

This person starts analysing in a matter worthy of Bruno Bettelheim in his "The uses of enchantment: the meaning and importance of fairy tales" - but at some point, his interpretations stop making sense as they lose a basis to support them, starts talking about real people, then groups of people and goes off the deep end...

To be honest, I couldnt care less about comics, I bring this up rather for the amusement of the arguments that arose around the given issue... Its like Rhetorics 101 if you ask me!

The important points is how this person brings up important facts that debunk general opposition stance which is hypocritical and uninformed, but then proceeds to make some very strange argumentative square dancing which will leave nobody satisfied.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CB6TiRJNI-Q

Like, have you people ever used qualitative analysis programs (NVivo, MAXQDA) that you could recommend?

I personally think NVivo is utter garbage, but MAXQDA seems very user friendly, ofc thats only from experience from using their Demos for like 5 days and im gonna be working with material of over 1000 pages, so any suggestion is welcome.

I dont have much experience using this kind of software, everything ive done "by hand" so to speak (Word, copy paste much) and with materials of 200ish pages at most.

http://indiauncut.com/iublog/article/38-ways-to-win-an-argument-arthur-schopenhauer/

For all of you who have ever been involved in an online debate in any way, Arthur Schopenhauer's "38 Ways To Win An Argument" is indispensable. Most of these techniques will seem familiar to you, right from questioning the motive of a person making the argument instead of the argument itself (No. 35), exaggerating the propositions stated by the other person (No. 1) , misrepresenting the other person's words (No. 2) and attacking a straw man instead (No. 3). It's a full handbook of intellectual dishonesty there. Indeed, I generally avoid online debates because they inevitably degenerate to No. 38.

The full text is below the fold. Many thanks to my friend Nitin Pai for reintroducing me to it.

im sure most of us know this, but, in case anyone missed it, its a digested version of Schopenhauer's propositions

http://www.twitch.tv/twitchplayspokemon

I feel like this is the way our minds/psyches work... tens of thousands of unconscious desires, impulses and wills, fighting for supremacy over the body... 

... will be impossible because gasoline will be too expensive to waste on Molotovs.

Mani, Mullainathan, Shafir & Zhao (2013), Poverty Impedes Cognitive Function, Science.
Several people nominated the graphs in this paper, the central hypothesis of which is that poverty directly worsens cognitive performance. The authors ran an experiment with 101 shoppers in a New Jersey mall. Before collecting demographic data that allowed the authors to categorize the shoppers as rich or poor, the shoppers were presented with a hypothetical scenario describing a financial problem: e.g. "Your car is having some trouble and requires $X to be fixed. You can pay in full, take a loan, or take a chance and forego the service at the moment... How would you go about making this decision?" Some shoppers were randomly assigned to the "easy" problem where the amount of money required was $150, others got the "hard" problem where they had to pay $1,500. The rationale is that poor and rich alike could probably manage to dig up $150 relatively easily, but figuring out how to find $1,500 at short notice would evoke more monetary concerns for the poor. The cognitive juggling this might necessitate, or the scarcity mindset it might engender, is what the authors argue impedes cognitive performance.

So, rich and poor alike got the 'easy' or 'hard' financial-problem prime. While mulling over how they'd solve this problem, they then had to complete Raven's matrices and cognitive control intelligence tasks. The graph describes the results: the rich and poor performed similarly on these intelligence tasks when mulling the 'easy' financial problem, but the poor performed much worse when both groups were digesting the 'hard' problem. Note also the elegant way significance levels are shown between and within groups.

i cant by fuck find the relevant thread, but there you go, the link also references other interesting 14 graphs of '10-'13

Source: http://9gag.com/gag/aM1bp4P



How can people believe this? 



(I know why people believe this, its just a rhetorical bash-your-face-into-wall question)

https://www.change.org/petitions/walt-disney-company-stop-trademark-of-dia-de-los-muertos

I haven't done verification of the veracity of the process, but, lol what?

    Have you ever witnessed the anger of the good shopkeeper, James Goodfellow, when his careless son has happened to break a pane of glass? If you have been present at such a scene, you will most assuredly bear witness to the fact that every one of the spectators, were there even thirty of them, by common consent apparently, offered the unfortunate owner this invariable consolation – "It is an ill wind that blows nobody good. Everybody must live, and what would become of the glaziers if panes of glass were never broken?"

    Now, this form of condolence contains an entire theory, which it will be well to show up in this simple case, seeing that it is precisely the same as that which, unhappily, regulates the greater part of our economical institutions.

    Suppose it cost six francs to repair the damage, and you say that the accident brings six francs to the glazier's trade – that it encourages that trade to the amount of six francs – I grant it; I have not a word to say against it; you reason justly. The glazier comes, performs his task, receives his six francs, rubs his hands, and, in his heart, blesses the careless child. All this is that which is seen.

    But if, on the other hand, you come to the conclusion, as is too often the case, that it is a good thing to break windows, that it causes money to circulate, and that the encouragement of industry in general will be the result of it, you will oblige me to call out, "Stop there! Your theory is confined to that which is seen; it takes no account of that which is not seen."

    It is not seen that as our shopkeeper has spent six francs upon one thing, he cannot spend them upon another. It is not seen that if he had not had a window to replace, he would, perhaps, have replaced his old shoes, or added another book to his library. In short, he would have employed his six francs in some way, which this accident has prevented.[1][2]

"It is never an advantage to have one's plants destroyed by shells or bombs unless those plants have already become valueless or acquired a negative value by depreciation and obsolescence. ... Plants and equipment cannot be replaced by an individual (or a socialist government) unless he or it has acquired or can acquire the savings, the capital accumulation, to make the replacement. But war destroys accumulated capital. ... Complications should not divert us from recognizing the basic truth that the wanton destruction of anything of real value is always a net loss, a misfortune, or a disaster, and whatever the offsetting considerations in a particular instance, can never be, on net balance, a boon or a blessing."[7]

Cost of opportunity should be the sort of thing that government officials lose sleep over (or pretty much anyone, when it comes down to it), because any use of resources is in detriment of a use in another area, because, you know, there is scarcity of resources and all that.

And this frame of thought can be applied from the most menial to the most important of decisions:

*Do i eat junk food and live life being overweight? How will i have to compensate for it? Does eating junk food cost me too much to buy other things or actual healthy food?

*If i went to university instead of working, how long until i make a profit from the hypothetical money i could be making at work?

*If i spend overtime on a hobby that makes me have less hours of sleep, is it worth it for overall health?

*What are the costs of enforcing a law that punishes poor people instead of devoting it to social programs?

And ultimately:

*What are the human costs when only monetary efficiency are taken into account?

(Im out of steam here, see if someone else can connect the dots better that I)

Historically speaking, I recall some examples of people trying to help people in the following manners:

-"We're going to teach these poor savages about God so that they may be saved"
-"We're going to teach liberty and democracy to these poor victims of a dictatorship"
-"We are going to get a court mandate to send this poor addict to rehab"
-"We should castrate poor people because they don't know any better"
-"We should deny Black people rights until they know how to use them"

(feel free to add new ones or correct the inaccurate ones, I'm no historian)

There is an inherent sense of superiority within all these statements, and it reminds me of a saying known to Spanish speakers "El camino al infierno esta pavimentado de buenas intenciones" (The road to hell is paved by good intentions). It's basicly saying "I am smarter than you, poor half-sentient creature, I know what is best for you".

Is that actually helping? Or is it just a way of justifying actions that are violent and self-serving?

Helping in its truest sense is about advising and providing support when somebody is in a vulnerable position... the International Monetary Fund gives out loans in exchange for following its dictates on policies, policies that will weaken that given country's political power in the long run... is that helping? Or is that being a vulture?

Politicians do "what is best for the population" all of the time, the problem is that, what they think is best for the population is tainted by their own agenda and class perspective (when they sincerely want to help, rather than just pillaging everything in their path).

In any variant of psycho-therapy, the therapist should only ever help the patient make its thoughts clearer, not ever to "advise" or tell them what to do... this is a basic principle to preserve the person's autonomy and the way to avoid being violent towards them.

There is a fine line between helping or violently propagating one's own agenda and will, and that line is "I know what is best for you".

[What is a social representation?]

What is a social representation?

"[...] every social representation is the representation of something and someone. It is not the duplicate of what is real, nor the duplicate of the ideal, nor the subjective or objective part of the object." (Jodelet)

"[...] a functional vision of the world that permits the individual or group to assign meaning to its own conducts, and to understand reality through its own system of reference, and in this manner, adapt and define itself a place in the world. [...] it works as a system of interpretation of reality that rules the relations of individuals with its physical and social environment, because it will determine its behaviuor or practices. Its a guide for action, it orients actions and social relationships. Its a system of pre-codification of reality, given that it determines a set of anticipations and expectations." (Moscovici)

"Ideology" is similar in the sense that theres elements (ideas or representations) that guide decisions and behaviours of individuals and groups, as well as being systems of interpretation of reality.

   

I cross-posted so that if anyone is interested they can join in the discussion:

http://thepostmodernprince.com/index.php?topic=124.0

Ive briefly discussed the presidential candidates in another thread, but anyway, the moment of truth (or rather say, the moment of fraud) is soon to come.

Shall the Old Regime come back into power through dubious methods such as the 3,000,000 votes that were found to be marked weeks before the election?

Or maybe the very ironic female candidate of the ultra-conservative party that started the War on Drugs?

Maybe the people will vote for the doppelganger of Obama that promises change and a thousand cornucopias?

Possibly vote for the hand puppet of Elba Esther Gordillo (commandress in chief of the Teacher's Syndicate) that stresses a hipster image, and basicly takes ridiculous postures appealing to the youth so its party can maintain 4% votes and still remain existing as a party?

Im just utterly ashamed and disgusted of the whole situation, and no matter how many "RADICAL" movements such as the supposedly non-partisan #yosoy132 or the IFE's tv spots tell me "YOUR VOTE IS YOUR POWER, YOU HAZ TO EXERSICES IT" id rather fuckoff at my house.

It is very sad how on one of the IFE's tv spots, the actress playing the role of "enthusiast voter" said a key phrase "Votar es mi ilusión" which roughly translates to either "Voting is my dream", "Voting is my hope" or the last, but not least, of the possible meanings "Voting is my illusion"...

And, oh boy, indeed it is, its the illusion of power over an event that has already been manipulated by fraudulent measures; voting is just an illusion, so we dont have to feel like victims or drones.

But that's basicly what we really amount to in this system.

http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/notas/854785.html

    For their digital mapping projects, the companies of Silicon Valley have drones that can capture aerial images of objects as small as 10cm; they are alerted for violations to privacy

So the monopoly of privacy infringement is supposed to be held by the government? k.

This came about on a reflection based on linking some recent (and not so recent) threads with common practice in the social sciences.

******

First-off, what is "beating a dead horse" in regards to a discussion?

That can supposedly be resolved easily with a definition:

is an idiom that means a particular request or line of conversation is already foreclosed or otherwise resolved, and any attempt to continue it is futile; or that to continue in any endeavour (physical, mental, etc.) is a waste of time as the outcome is already decided.

All in all that is well and simple: perhaps its the same discussion that has been replayed in its standard iterations for the billionth time in a very similar manner... but is that a dead-end? is it futile? has the outcome been decided?

I posit that it is not any of this things, but here is the catch: there needs to be reviewing of past discussions, history of the subject, and a general knowledge of what has been said and done before. And it also requires the participants in the discussion to integrate the new information or knowledge that is discussed even if it runs contrary to their ideology or beliefs (otherwise its just partisan screeching on any given debate).

This is where it relates to the social sciences: it is not forbidden or useless to discuss anything... but the more a topic or subject has been discussed or dissected, the cost to be paid for those that wish to participate in the discussion, the more work they have to do to actually do something useful... one has to review previous positionings or theories, learn about their critiques or downfalls and what came of it.

Say, you want to make a serious statement on what and why "love" is what it is, beyond what you subjectively think it is? Go read up on the history of the positions regarding the subject, the context in which those positions affected the creation of that posture, the critiques, assess the current context in which you create the new concept and then maybe if you arent tired after all that, you can make that serious statement.

Speaking specifically about PD and its drug threads, theres agreement on that its a reiteration of past discussions, so the correct thing to do is for those interested in discussing such topic, to read ALL the drug threads, so they know the context and the arguments, instead of running around in circles.

So give me CONTEXT, give me REVIEW and give me BACKGROUND

or SHUT UP

Im sure you all know this song...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MK6TXMsvgQg

but hear ye! how it is transformed locally!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mkrt67trcSQ

I cant find the fucking thread where we were discusing about how imprisoning illegal immigrants its a win-win situation (sardonically speaking), anyways

http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/notas/849694.html

Benjamin Lopez Patiño was sentenced to 10 years in prison at Arizona, where he was found guilty of illegally reentering the USA after being deported.

Those prisons arent gonna fill up on their own chappy!

http://www.eluniversaltv.com.mx/detalle.php?d=30140

Fianceé of a chef wants to be fattest bride ever at 325 kgs (700ish lb)

You're welcome.

This is pretty much a riff on Zygmunt Bauman's "Wasted lives..." and Loic Wacquant's "The prisons of misery"...


Capitalism creates "human waste" as a byproduct of its "progress"; human waste is -following a metaphor of how industrial waste is created in order to generate profit- that which will not be used, for "recycling" (integrating elements to the productive cycle) is costly and is overlooked.

Human waste is the reserve army of cheap labor, but now there is no way to get rid of them as it was done in past times, such as marginalizing them towards unpopulated regions, or some desert island, now they are left to fare off in political situations of wars and massacres of ethnic cleansing (see Africa); theres also the bio-segregation in "refugee camps" in which they will never be acknowledged as "exilees" for that would imply that they cannot go back to where they came from, but thus remaining in political limbo, not having rights and access to society nor being able to return to their homeland. There is also prisons, where after "paying its debt to society" and tries to return to work and reintegration, runs into how almost nobody wants to hire an ex-inmate, exacerbates its previous condition of exclusion and forces the person to participate in illegal activities to make a living and ends up in prison again.

The neoliberal project and politics fragilize salaried work and worker protection, which creates situations of misery for a great segment of the population... this situation is controlled by measures such as "Tolerance Zero" and "The War on Drugs"(^tm) but how?

Prisons are a way to segregate the "dangerous population" and to put them in a position whereby their labour can be exploited thru the prison work system... there is statistical correlation between the mass unemployment and the raising of the time of court penalties... for example, in France, the inmate population is basicly composed of inmigrants and street drug dealers...

So on Wacquants (translated) own words "the invisible hand of capitalism now wears an iron glove"

http://metatalk.metafilter.com/9429/Warnocks-Dilemma

this is not intented as being snide or whatever, but i was surfing wikipedia on an unrelated interest and ran into warnocks dilemma and an external link

i just find it interesting on how a given past situation has been experienced by other forums

http://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=m-trends&v=mnH7LxqEH84

just ugh, but cant say it does a bad portrayal of present and future of mexican society

http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/notas/840105.html

Buford, the smallest town in the USA, with only one habitant, and situated in the state of Wyoming, was sold today in an auction to two vietnamese for $900,000 -9 times more than its initial price-

I mean, isnt that land ultimately the ownership of the state or the federal government?

Dont you guys have uhhh, a cap on the size a single property can extend to?

Does this mean they can make their own laws and enforcement?

I recall this being done by private prison companies that buy entire towns, so im not sure what this trend means.

Its sort of like the privatization of territories that arent profitable for the government to companies... like a sort of thought process "this territory doesnt have strategic value in natural resources nor taxation, we rather sell it for some money than let it just sit there being worthless"?

The Kathak Mix was remixed by producer Youth and released on the US version of the CD single. This version included spoken samples of Robert Anton Wilson in the introduction.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Acc_j0nVP2w

Why???

The song is about Jayne Mansfield, and is supposedly their biggest hit... the remix is awful compared to the original...

Is there a reason the soundbit at the start of the song, in which RAW rambles about Eris is included in a song that doesnt have anything to do with her??

[There was a time before you entered the dangerous chapel in which you affirm that reality acted as you willed it. How did this start? Why do you think that you started to manifest your will in this manner?]

***I know that i said I would translate this, but this is as far as ill go, because i dont like the self-important auto-interview style, because i really dont think Ratatosk will end up publishing it in Intermittens and because i think you need to go to therapy***

All this story is true and obviously its incomplete, its just a sketch of what really happened to me. I cant remember half of it already, but a lot of impossible things for consensual reality happened to me in the hospital, believe me.

Source: "Laynd in the Dangerous Chapel"

I've been on the edge of mentally dying, losing reason.

I've suffered fear, to the extent of thinking I was gonna die being eaten alive.

Auditory and visual hallucinations, like creating the appropriate script, inventing the reason for my false death. Giving resources to my mind to keep on the tragic-comedy that brought me to the hospital some night of May. Having lost reality, it was only left to interpret every phenomena as a signal, each color as a meaning, each number interpreted and valued, like a supersticious instruction manual towards "true" "reality", the lost reason or map of a previous reality. Each schedule or bar-code told me something, it gave me a meaning that helped me keep on forward.

Now I know nothing is true.

That reality depends on how you focus on things, that its plural and mutable.

And that the mind can twist into almost impossible extremes.

Fortunately, I got out of the Dangerous Chapel, from the psychotic break or however you wish to call it in sanity and without deep consequences. In some months or years ill be totally recovered if I don't have relapses and all goes well. In my case, mental death invented reasons for physical death. And I(it) almos accomplished it.

-Kirot, October 2010

"Once in the Dangerous Chapel, you start to irrationally associate things just so the world makes sense"

Kirot registered himself in the spring of 2010 as a user in Decondicionamiento with the user name of "Laynd". The very thing he did was open a thread about the "Dangerous Chapel" of which Robert Anton Wilson spoke in his "Cosmic Hammer I", giving some hints about his pass thru that fearsome place which some medicalize as "psychosis", which others consider as the confrontation with the Minor Guardian of the Threshold and that many simply call it "Initiation".

Now, Kirot wants to recount things from his personal experience, being the proposition to develop this ideas in an interview format in which he will try to go in depth into the keys of his experiences.

There was a time before you entered the dangerous chapel in which you affirm that reality acted as you willed it. How did this start? Why do you think that you started to manifest your will in this manner?

Reality  was on my side, because i entered a state of Gnosis, a sensation of being "connected to the source" acompannied by slight hallucinations, like seeing nature as divinized and seeing UFOs instead of stars. Also, the heart burned, traspired when it breathed... which gave pleasure and i felt like the guardian of the oracle in "Matrix" when Neo sees the light within him... something similar I felt within me.
That was the control I had over things. Absolute happiness, mystic extasis. All started to twist with time, because then I didn't know what to expect... also, I had the vague sensation that all whispered or stared at me each time I passed by them. For example, one girl with the appearance of being deteriorated (?) negates her evident symptoms to me, to later take it out on me and ends up happily marching away, and i remain with an incredible bad energy in my chest

The first thing I encounter is some girl that is a shitty mess that DENIES her depressing state. I tell her and she pretends as if nothing is wrong. I keep walking and I noticed I have to escape from her whore face if I don't want the bad energy to "return" that others seem to need so much, and it fills me with SHIT. The face of the girl became worse as I spent time with her while I started to feel something fucking shitty and heavy generating itself within me. IM NOT EXXAGERATING SHIT, I couldn't take it off myself, then my friends arrived and my old best friend seemed changed and demanded that I accompany them like I did before. Its like I see it all upside down and viceversa and I don't know how to get back to being happy without the need to "pleasure" or hold the minds of others. After this many of you think that ive become crazy, but my biggest enemies of before, or people that I thought was being very false are now the only people that greet me in the street.

An undercover operation in Texas to arrest a group of traffickers at the moment of delivery of the drugs ended in a shootout ended in the death of a civilian assisting authorities which also left an injured officer

130kg of pot; presumed Zetas, very bold.

...We know that the invention of Freud of a new configuration of the psyche, assumed the existance of a subject capable of interiorizing prohibitions. Inmersed in the unconscious and torn apart by a guilty conscience, this subject, freed to his pulsions by the death of god, finds itself always at war against himself. From this comes the freudian concept of neurosis, centered around discord, angst, guilt and sexual disorders. Nows, this is the idea of subjectivity, very characteristic of democratic societies, based itself on the permanent conflict between oneself and others, which tends to blur the contemporary mental organization in favour of the psychological notion of depressive personality...

http://www.pincheocio.com/2011/07/nueva-moda-mexicana.html

THE EMO AND CHOLO SYNCHRETISMS

http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/internacional/73750.html

Today, things have changed. Coming September, the 27 heads of State and the governement of the European Union are gonna have a meeting.

Their objective: modify the Schengen Treaty. They have realized that the free circulation of people is not a good idea, specially when theres revolts in the north of Africa and masses of immigrants come to their borders, whom nobody wants to take. And now they are less solidady and want to pull back. Because of this, they are trying to come to an agreement to reintroduce temporarily border controls within the communal territory, in case of the massive influx of immigrants. They argue that the treaty better be modified, than it dissapearing.

Well, i think there's consensus already that if you arent white or rich, they dont want you anywhere in the First World.

This article is a bit biased in some ways, but it cites some lawyer that says that this is a symptom of xenophobic tendencies...

Avatars of users are showing warped, but mine is fine, is that a new trend or my PD gone Zalgo on me?!?

Members of the PAN party became outraged over the event and decided to leave the halls "in protest for the insult to the President of the Republic, to the congressmen and the institutions" said Carlos Perez Cuevas, vice-coordinator

After finalizing the presentation of the news, Carmen Aristegui said "There is no specific information, at least that we have access to it, to know if the president of the Republic has or doesnt have problems with alcoholism. But its a delicate subject, of course we have to view it with all the seriousness that it entails."

She also said that the democracies of the world it is common practice for mandataries to be applied health testings, and that the citizens require to know the situation of their leaders "to know which is the condition of whom is taking the decisions in the name of the general interest".

She got fired from the MVS chain, but she still holds her job at CNN. 

In the context of the celebrations of the National Airforce and Army Day, the Department of National Defense presented a new armored tactical vehicle that the mexican Army will use in operations against organized crime in urban zones.

The new militar unit, which will operate in states such as Tamaulipas, Nuevo Leon, Chihuahua and Sinaloa amongst others in the north of the country, along with the south corridor of the southern border, is equiped with level 5 armor, resistent to grenades, Ak-47 and R-15 rounds, cop killer bullets, and even Barret style weapons and caliber 50. This quality will allow it to penetrate enemy lines in combat, without the occupants (4 to 8 ) being injured while being able to shoot from inside the vehicle.

Created based on the USA prototype, the Sandcat, the armor in this vehicle, which is a chasis of Ford style, was designed with high standards of security to acomplish the optimal level of protection for the soldiers of Special Forces which will operate this vehicles.

The lieutenant coronel Francisco Enriquez Rojas, spokesman for the SEDENA, informed that six of these vehicles are available at this moment, althought it wont be revealed to where they will be sent.....

This only means that instead of just bullets flying around, now we gonna have anti-armor rockets and high grades explosives used.

In urban areas.

The delictive group accuses the president Alvaro Colom of receiving 11.5 million dollars before the close of 2007 elections, and that he will pay for not delivering, with guilty or innocents.

Basicly the Zetas paid him to leave their alleged home base alone, but since he started making "operativos" confiscating weapons, planes and the like, they threatened the media to deliver the message on pain of getting themselves or relatives killed.

I think that when we laugh at the state of the world, deep down we are not fooling ourselves, its just merely a superficial defense towards the anxiety that we feel deep down.

Laughing at a funeral? Jumping in joy that Palin might win in 2012? Funny how unscrupulous and cynical corporations are?

Not really.

Call me a bummer, but id rather not pretend pillaging and misery is funny, lest i start feeling sad about good things.

President Mahmud Ahmadineyad accuses the USA and Israel to be behind the assasination of the most important specialist in nuclear isotope separation.

A couple of bikers purpotedly sticked bombs to the cars transporting said scientist while on the move.

First of all, i dont have a link to the book, its just copies i have in RL and in spanish and i happened to be starting to read it when this discussion got started:

http://www.principiadiscordia.com/forum/index.php?topic=27488.msg971085 .

Im not sure how the dynamic for Book Club works, but, i guess ill just comment as i read along.

This book was written in 1989 by Bryan Wilson Key, whom has been a proffesor in studies of communication and a publicity executive, since 1973 he has been directing Mediaprobe as a non-profit investigation organization which aids consumers.

North Korea today made a series of artillery shots towards a south-korean island locaed in the border zone of the Yellow Sea which caused injuries to at least 14 soldiers, informed the south-korean agency Yonhap.

According to military sources from south-korea consulted by Yonhap, north korea shot about 50 rounds of artillery around 14:24 local time that impacted the island of Yeongpyeong and waters of South Korea.

Supposedly there was a big show with fighters patrolling and whatnot.