People assume the culture of Earth is normal and understandable. Even critics harbor this opinion.
"Well, even though massive conformity isn't desirable, we can see why people embrace it..."
Really?
Examine the annals of science fiction; even there, the majority of ET
cultures in the literature exhibit conformity to norms. That's how far
the assumption goes.
Culturally speaking, what is conformity? It's the passing of an idea
through many hands and minds, rendering it lifeless and limp, drained of
vitality. What these minds are accepting becomes a dead habit, a
series of empty gestures.
That's the fundamental of Earth Culture. Everywhere on the planet.
If, somewhere in the galaxy, a civilization existed in which Individual
Difference and Independence were universal virtues, and if scouts
traveled to Earth and took a cursory look, they would report back:
"Slave Culture."
Of course, conformity can operate under a variety of names: "Unity." "Common goals." "Shared values."
These are euphemisms and covers. They point to a kind of mind
control---illusions people foster in themselves to explain and celebrate
their own slavery.
Those who claim externally imposed propaganda and other methods account
for slave mentality are only telling half the story. People form
themselves in groups of various kinds, and resonant behavior is expected
in those groups. People willingly and even eagerly enlist. They
program themselves. Ignoring this factor is actually another familiar
feature of Earth Culture.
"I am the way I am because of other people...they made me do it."
Another excuse given for Earth Culture: people must pull together to
survive. However, this doesn't require group conformity to an extreme
degree, spilling over into every aspect of behavior and thought.
Concerning my definition of conformity, notice that a machine-like
quality pervades human communication. Certain subjects are pleasing;
others are taboo. Conversations which probe below the surface, in order
to reveal hidden factors in events, are considered "strange," in social
settings. They aren't "normal." They provoke anxiety.
Rather than solely explain the taboo by citing the fear of "standing out
from the crowd," look at the other side of the coin: people want to
behave like machines. They enjoy the sensation. They embrace shallow
predictability.
Recent reports out of China describe a new system, in which citizens
receive scores based on their obedience to government. This is a kind
of game. It encompasses, at the very least, online behavior.
Apparently, people are taking to it like ducks to water. They're proud
to announce their high scores for acting like good machines. They like
it.
(note: search for
"China Just Launched the Most Frightening Game Ever - and Soon It Will Be Mandatory").
Do you think all those college students, who are trying to outlaw
certain words that "might be offensive to someone, somehow," are merely
motivated by a strange brand of idealism? They like the idea of carving
down the language and using sanitized terms. They, too, see it as a
kind of game. Humans acting like programmed machines---wonderful.
And the preposterous idea that someday, soon, human brains will be
linked up to a super-computer that will pass down "the very best"
answers to all questions? The advocates of the "breakthrough" are
delighted by the prospect. Some of them even believe it will signal the
visible emergence of God. Again, humans behaving like machines.
All problems dismissed. All confusions banished. All debates settled.
Conformity at all levels---to be wished for most fervently. Not simply the result of fear.
Look below the images of ads in which great athletes are presented as
superior humans. Their dedication to practice is highly admired, even
worshiped. What are we talking about here? Repetition of exercises.
Numbers of reps. Familiar actions, done over and over and over. Humans
as machines. Isn't it beautiful.
More and more, Earth Culture is coming to be machine culture, and those
who support this notion are finding pleasure in it. They see it in a
very positive light.
Let's take this one step further. Machine Culture is the eradication of
consciousness. Well, consciousness was always a thorny problem. It
never yielded up simple answers. There was something in the nature of a
struggle about it. How fine a thing to be able to discard it
entirely. Maybe it never existed. Maybe it was always an illusion.
Don't worry, be happy. Learn to pursue lowest common denominator
pleasures in a single-minded fashion. No distractions. Be a cop decked
out in black military gear standing in a phalanx of other such cops.
No visible faces. No identities. Machines ready for action. Beat down
the mind. Subdue it. Offload it.
The body is a machine. The mind is irrelevant. Maybe it, too, never existed.
And if the possibility of automatic and reliable genetic alteration
presents itself, to make the body even stronger and more resilient---and
if the mind can be redirected and rebuilt to become pure automatic
talents...why, that is perfect. That is supreme Earth Culture.
Yes, Earth Culture has an aesthetic, and it is the aesthetic of the highly efficient machine.
Consider the age-old prescription: order from chaos. This is the basic
principle of control ops. Introduce chaos, then come in behind that to
impose order. In terms of this culture, the order is the machine. The
closed system.
It sounds horrible? Well, for many, many people, it's utopia.
Gone are the days of confusing choices. Here are the days of
effectively directed action. And it all happens outside the space of
freedom. It happens by design.
"If there is a question that takes longer than three seconds to provoke a
correct answer, the question was meaningless in the first place." That
becomes the new basis of IQ.
In the long run, culture is based on pleasure, not pain. People sign on willingly. They yearn for a preferred outcome.
In this case, on Earth, they love the idea of becoming machines.
The preconditions for establishing Machine Culture? People must sour on
the idea of freedom. They must sour on the idea of learning how to
think rationally, by choice. They must sour on the idea of deploying
their imaginations. They must sour on the idea of building up their own
individual power and using it to create their own deeply desired
futures in the world. Or any world.
Then they will look at all these realities as forgeries and empty promises.
Then they will forget these realities ever existed even as concepts.
But you don't have to forget these things.
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