Thanks for the review and commentary. Much appreciated! I’ve read them both at least twice and seen the movies likewise. The ending of The Odyssey was rather surprising involving the maids that flirted with the suitors. Serious stuff.
You’re right Elina: fair to say that Odysseus and Penelope didn’t mess around – total bloodbath. Abrupt ending for the maids all right – “employee severance” apparently meant something else back in the day.
Thought Provoking Work Here!
I’ll be working on your article for some time, Truman, as well as the fascinating comments following it. All much appreciated!
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You’re very welcome, PB; my pleasure for sure.
Brilliant Work
I probably ought to know this…
How do we follow folks within PP
AND is there a list or would folks like a list of X (formerly Twitter) monikers?
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Gad Saad has long encouraged individuals to make the effort to speak up despite the discomfort they may feel. I think that many her the exhortation and think “someone else, not me”… sadly things are past the point when any of us has that luxury.
Perhaps, and this may already exist, PP can create a place where well-conceived, responses to ‘every day evil’ can be curated/cultivated and made readily accessible so that we can 1.) talk through a set of topics 2.) work through logical steps of rational, moral positions 3.) curate/cultivate clear concise positions and 4.) steel-man responses.
This isn’t intended as a substitute for thinking on one’s feet, rather it’s an intentional mechanism to collaborate and perhaps explore topics more deeply. These would not be official PP positions, merely a means to sharpen our focus.
I realize realize that there is already a mechanism to create and comment on topics… I was thinking of a concerted effort to shore up insights on topics that seem to recur on a regular basis.
It may be the case that this is simply an exercise where we identify the top 25 (pick a number) topics and then for each topic reference (index) relevant content.
Just a thought,
-Scott
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Great references! I’m enjoying the Rolf Hefti piece.
It’s indisputable that there are many evil people in places of power perpetuating what amounts to pure evil. If we define the term to mean those with money, social influence, & power, then it seems laying the lion’s share of the blame for social atrocities at their feet.
The question remains, why do so many follow the perilous path established by the elites? My initial response to this is based on observed human behaviors. These broad characterizations reflect substantial subsets of the population:
1.) people are lazy & don’t want to be bothered with involvement emotionally or intellectually
2.) people are unable to understand the manipulation or the consequences or both
3.) people see things as too complex (Expert Syndrome). This seems quite popular since the 1980’s. Sadly, policy is based on conceptual understanding/knowledge. Conceptual understanding is accessible to MOST who TRY… the elite’s push the complexity of an issue “Uber Alles”. In many cases the veil of knowledge is shredded with the simple request for evidence… assuming people understand that computer models are NOT proof
3.) delegation/abdication - they’ve picked my side and they’re willfully blind or do not see any atrocities committed by elites
4.) People see the atrocities, but accept them because they are second hand beneficiaries
5.) People who see the wickedness, but are afraid to engage for many reasons. Most likely is perceived or actual loss of position, money, rights etc
It seems mass formation is a mechanism to explain that people as a whole are not evil, but given the right conditions they will go along with horrible things. I’ve listed my off-the-cuff list in lieu of labeling conformance mass formation. Regardless of the label or characterization, how does it end? It ended for the Axis Powers when they lost the war. In 21st century America, so many forces are aligned big tech, big pharma, military industrial, government agencies, & worst of all politicians… is there anything short of a total collapse of the nation that can stop the insanity.
From where I sit, it would take a spiritual renewal of epic proportions to provide the impetus for individuals throughout society, regardless of position, to “do the right thing”. Otherwise, we may be relegated to the model of collecting, isolating, & bunkering when the poo hits the fan.
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Hi Scott,
Agreed that Gad Saad is great: brilliant, hilarious, and audacious; excellent book and podcasts–his skewering satiric humor is one of his sharpest weapons.
When people hear others speaking up it gives them courage that they are not alone and not crazy; when the public space is silent, or uniform in its shouts, we are in the Orwellian realm, which is not a good place to be. (To a large extent, we are already there in the gov’t, MSM, universities, etc.)
Regarding the curated silos you mention, that’s an attractive idea and perhaps Chris or someone else can shed light on how it might already exist or come into a sharper focus as you suggest.
Hi Scott, all your points (1-5) seem on the money to me. The instinct to conform is deeply wired into the species bc we are after all, social animals. Evolutionary biology tells us a whole lot.
What’s struck me most about the last few years has been how remarkably similar “adult society” is to junior high school. When I look around, I feel I am right back in the 8th grade.
As you suggest, spiritual renewal is a large part of the solution–starting with the individual, who is the atom in the molecule in the mass.
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https://www.americaoutloud.news/mattias-desmet-demoralizes-the-freedom-movement-mass-hypnosis-expert-or-trojan-horse/
https://www.americaoutloud.news/mattias-desmet-mass-hypnosis-expert-or-trojan-horse-the-full-story/
By Ulrike Granögger
Is it all a big con?
A curious phenomenon called “mass formation” is said to be responsible for the totalitarian power grab of the ruling classes as well as for the mindless acceptance and spineless submission of the greater part of the world’s population to an ever-changing cascade of rules and health care measures.
The anomaly is explained to us by Professor Mattias Desmet of Ghent University, who is introduced as an expert in understanding mass formation psychosis. As such, Prof. Desmet has been invited to and interviewed by numerous channels of the new media and freedom podcasts—from the Joe Rogan Experience to the Corbett Report and Reiner Füllmich’s Corona-Ausschuss.
I have decided to read and review his recently published book… so you don’t have to.
It is perplexing that so many freedom activists are following this theory. Interviews with Dr. Desmet so far have failed to convince me of the theory’s ascendency in explaining the events of the last two years, and reading the book has certainly not helped. On the contrary.
The book presents a simplistic and abridged view of human society and the historical evolution of the modern mind. According to the theory, today’s alleged mass hypnosis originates from the Enlightenment period and its subsequent rationalization of life which, in turn, led to a scientific and industrial revolution. The ensuing mechanistic worldview produced a psychology of isolation and uncertainty in society that laid the groundwork for a deep-rooted “desire for a master” and the need to focus all this “free-floating anxiety” onto an object of fear. Voilà! That is your breeding ground for the major “mass formations” of the 20thcentury (Hitler, Stalin) and of today (coronavirus).
According to Prof. Desmet, the situation is further aggravated by certain stages of “developmental psychology” such as the need for the guiding voice of the parent, and the experience of deep uncertainty when the child’s “why” questions are not fully answered… with the implication being that our society as a whole is stuck in certain childhood phases of development.
This cannot explain, however, why the governments of other societies around the world (think of Arabic countries, or Thailand and Indonesia) imposed the same totalitarian measures over the past two years, even though they hardly followed European intellectual history from the Enlightenment to its modern fragmentation and isolation of the individual.
More disturbingly, the author seems to believe that we all did this to ourselves. There is no plan of any “elites,” there is no conspiracy; in fact, Prof. Desmet declares, those who do not follow the mainstream narrative and who see certain patterns of planning and coordination at play are also under a form of mass formation hypnosis, only following a different illusion. He writes:
“In this state, the confused spectator typically develops an intense need for a simple frame of reference, which allows him to mentally master the complexity, and in which to place and control the anxiety and other intense emotions that arise. An interpretation in terms of a conspiracy meets that need. It reduces the enormous complexity of the phenomenon to a simple frame of reference: All anxiety is linked to one object (a group of people who intentionally deceives, the supposed “elite”) and thereby becomes mentally manageable. All blame can be placed outside oneself…. As such, in a certain sense, conspiracy thinking—the thinking that reduces all world events to one big conspiracy—fulfills the same function as mass formation.” (pp.127-128; emphasis added)
Hence, everybody is under mass formation hypnosis—those who cluelessly believe the TV news anchor, as well as those who are finding clues for conspiratorial planning. However, according to the theory, all we need to do is change our way of thinking about reality, and we will be free!
“The ultimate master is the ideology, not the elite.” (p. 134) “If anything rules from behind the scenes, it’s not so much secret societies, but ideologies. There is a steering and organizing body, but it does not primarily consist of a conspiracy elite that manages the world in a planned and coordinated way, but rather of a typical way of thinking, an ideology … a myth [and not a conspiracy].” (p. 139)
It is not people, agencies, multinationals, or governments who engage in the manipulation and formation of public opinion and behavior, Prof. Desmet says, but the “impersonal” nature (p.131) of the predominant ideology.
“The totalitarian system doesn’t have to be overcome so much as one must somehow survive until it destroys itself.” (p. 143)
In the meantime, we can sit back and practice the “solution” to the totalitarian tendencies we are experiencing— and, according to Prof. Desmet, are actually creating ourselves—and that is to simply change our minds: Going “beyond the mechanistic worldview” that is based on materialism to one that includes “consciousness,” which for the author is essentially psychology. (Chapters 9–11)
Everything in this book leads the reader away from realizing the very personalized control grid that is working on “one person at a time” and prevents them from seeing the action we as individuals can take.
The author quotes the conformity experiment by Solomon Asch* (pp. 98-99) as “proof” for the effect of mass formation. In my opinion, all that Asch’s experiment proves is that it takes seven lying participants to convince one person of an obvious falsehood. That’s how costly the control grid is.
Curiously, in Dr. Desmet’s impressive list of scientific publications, there is not a single one about “mass formation” psychosis or hypnosis. Why he is regarded as an “expert” in the field is not evident. Furthermore, a Google (and DuckDuckGo) search for the keywords “mass formation” in the time period of 1980 to 2019 does not yield one entry of psychology or social history. Up until 2019, “mass formation” appears only in terms of astronomy and the formation of stellar masses…. Is the term made up?
Is it all a big con?
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The Breggins and C Austin Fitts are going all out on Mattias deSmet. ‘Breggins are wonderful human beings’.