The Language of Power II
Posted Apr 27, 2009 30 comments
When I wrote "Plain and Simple: Fuck 9/11," the title wasn't an afterthought or even a joke. Words were chosen carefully for maximum effect and sure enough, I still get an email a week about an article I wrote a year ago. It was in the context of asking 9/11 Truth activists what they expected that I raised a question I've been chewing on ever since:
Be honest with yourself: who are you asking for justice? Are you expecting the same power structure that has been running the United States of America for the past 50 years to give up because you're right? Because you can prove mathematically that two buildings collapsed faster than they should have? Because you have thousands of pages of evidence to prove every point you're making? Does the truth matter? Seriously. Does the truth matter? Or does power matter?
That's really the central question, and I'm not proposing it as an either-or. Both would be nice, but I'm also proposing it might be too late for that kind of hope. I've had a number of Skilluminati readers email the instant classic quote from an anonymous source, of course, in the Bush administration -- named as "a senior advisor to Bush":
The aide said that guys like me were ''in what we call the reality-based community,'' which he defined as people who ''believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality.'' I nodded and murmured something about enlightenment principles and empiricism. He cut me off. ''That's not the way the world really works anymore,'' he continued. ''We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality -- judiciously, as you will -- we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors...and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.''
This article emerged from some conversations I had after the first installment of The Language of Power. I was only sketching out a few points I would like to state much more clearly here.
Happiness is Slavery
Until about six months ago, I was unable to put my finger on why Barack Obama makes me uneasy.
I was having a (deeply hilarious) conversation with an Obama volunteer who stated it perfectly for me. She told me that Obama was all about how American 20-somethings were transforming -- from the Me generation to the We generation.
Skilluminati Research has nothing to do with the United States or the US military and I personally view all 195 "legitimate" nation-states on Earth as equally damaging to human progress. As Doug Stanhope puts it, nationialism is "baggage from dead people." All governments are founded on violence and maintained by exploitation.
I am very much indebted to the work of Curtis Gale Weeks, John Robb, Mark Safranski, and everyone at Dreaming 5GW and Small Wars Journal, but our language has some differences. I am unlike most 5GW bloggers in that I'm not worried about the future of the US as a global superpower. I'm writing for an audience very much like myself: post-nationalism, post-racism, post-religion human beings with no respect for authority, national borders or even the laws of physics.
Happiness is a Warm Gun
Peter J. Carroll, who is himself a 5GW veteran, operating under a pseudonym and re-wiring tens of thousands of brains around the world, posed this question in terms of religion. On a planet with over 10,000 actively worshipped Gods -- none of which are currently visible, none of which can be proven to exist -- how can you be sure which Divinity to bet upon? Doesn't it make more sense to invest that faith in yourself?
With Skilluminati Research, I'm making the same argument on a political level. Why make appeals to power when you could build your own? You could be learning to weld, working out or reading a book with that valuable time. Why worry about your leaders when they can't actually control you, and don't care what you personally think, want or feel?
5GW is power.
Specifically, 5GW is dedicated individuals exercising their power to achieve their own goals at the expense of everyone who gets in their way. I think this kind of clarity is missing from the discussion because the occult dimension of power has no place in a respectable debate, from military theory to politics to history. For thousands of years, small groups of humans using ritual magick have been controlling nations, waging wars and engaging in economic and psychological warfare. One occult warfare master who does get mentioned in military circles is Hassan i Sabbah, long a muse of William S. Burroughs and Robert Anton Wilson.
I'm open to the argument that I'm only engouraging a plague of lone psychopaths declaring war on the world, but my own 5GW practice is informed and indebted to D.J. Kilcullen, author of the 28 Articles, which you should probably read right now if you haven't already. Article 26 states: "Build your own solution -- only attack the enemy when he gets in the way."
As I said at the outset of this project, "my interest in 5GW (5th Generation Warfare) is rooted in it's potential for positive social and cultural change." I am investigating warfare for the same reasons I investigated psychology and marketing -- beacuse the tools of social control will be less damaging when they're widely distributed. Executives who have power over millions of other humans are inherently dangerous -- millions of humans with executive control over themselves is where we're headed this century.
The dinosaurs of governments and corporations and media conglomerates and think tanks and universities -- the old legitimate White Control System -- will not let go quietly and politely. So I think every future mutunt has a common-sense obligation to learn how to disable and disarm them as effectively as possible. This is going to be a very bumpy ride and we can all help minimize the bloodshed.
In closing I realize that I have used the word "I" far, far too often in this post. That trend shall not continue -- it's all technique from here on out.
Thank you for listening.
Spread the Research:
Filed in: 5GW Project
Next entry: "Changing Images of Man" in PDF Format
Previous Entry: The Language of Power
Comments
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1. Thirtyseven on Apr 28, 2008 at 8:17 PM permalink
I also want to give a big “thank you” to Subtopia, one of the very best websites I’ve found this year:
http://subtopia.blogspot.com/
2. Garrett from Wishtank on Apr 28, 2008 at 10:52 PM permalink
Good work here, you hit on the surface of a lot of questions I have been pondering for our interview. I’ll be in touch soon with these.
namaste.
Garrett from Wishtank
e:
3. Harflimon on Apr 29, 2008 at 12:24 AM permalink
Happiness is building the hive mind.
It’s okay I still love you.
4. zenpundit on Apr 29, 2008 at 1:43 PM permalink
Hi!
Glad that you have enjoyed my occasional forays into 5GW and thank you for the links. Thought I’d stop by and mention that the Boyd 2008 seminar in September is going to have a 5GW theme this year ( that and “Resilient Communities” ) and if you or your readers are interested, here is a link:
http://www.d-n-i.net/dni/2008/04/28/rfi-2008-boyd5gwrc/
5. Mr. Nowhere on Apr 29, 2008 at 4:33 PM permalink
Excellent article, you really know how to get to the core of the issues facing us in these turbulent, weird, but potentially fun times. I do see an awakening starting to happen though, people are beginning to get wise to what govt really is, in ways large and small. In the end it seems to be all about distributed (horizontal) power vs. top-down centralized power. A million undergrounds are blooming, spore-like, whether because of or in spite of all the bs.
6. Bruce Scanlon on Apr 29, 2008 at 9:32 PM permalink
>I’m writing for an audience very much like myself: post-nationalism,
>post-racism, post-religion human beings with no respect for >authority, national borders or even the laws of physics.
Amen to that! I love it.
On the other hand, while I am mostly happy with the rest of what you have written here, for me the metaphor is slightly off. I agree with you completely about encouraging people to seek empowerment in the occult sense, but I disagree with language like:
>exercising their power to achieve their own goals at the expense of everyone who gets in their way.
My experience of going distributed/horizontal with my power (as one of the other commenters wrote) is that notions like people being in my way and “warfare” (as in 5GW) are outmoded. They are more emblematic of the old way of doing things. Perhaps this is why you find yourself in disagreement with most 5GW folks?
You write that the old order
>will not let go quietly and politely
These are the metaphors of the old order. Putting up a fight, holding on to what they have.
Why keep using their language and concepts? That just empowers them.
If power becomes sufficiently distributed in a horizontal rather than vertical fashion, the old order could dissolve, rather than fight, lose, and die. Perhaps this idea sounds simplistic and pollyana-ish, but I honestly see, and have experienced, that the power of love (for lack of a better all encompassing label, it is sort of opposite to warfare, isn’t it?) will more quickly usher in a different order, rather than the same order with different people.
And that this power comes not at the expense of everyone in the way, but by a combination of external and internal work to route the way around them, and to no longer see them as in the way.
Like Charles Tart said, the highest level of aikido is to leave the room before the fight starts.
7. Thirtyseven on Apr 29, 2008 at 11:13 PM permalink
Yes, I agree with you on Aikido. Aikido is a profound philosophy and a way of life—and it’s also a system of hand-to-hand self defense.
I’m still advocating that power weirdos should teach themselves warfare, though, because there’s an increasing chance that the fights we get involved in will involve firearms and trained opponents. I don’t mean to be blunt or pessimistic, but the power of love didn’t do much good at Ruby Ridge or Waco, you know?
Be prepared. I’ll do the optimism over at Brainsturbator.
8. Thirtyseven on Apr 29, 2008 at 11:20 PM permalink
I also agree on the tone being too strident at several points here. Shaking off bad language is a long process, but I do insist on the value of people empowering themselves beyond just an occult or spiritual or intellectual sense. Knowledge and potential are valuable but they aren’t power.
9. Alex N on Apr 30, 2008 at 1:11 AM permalink
Hey,
In your “Virus of Language” article, you mention that a virus feeds off its host system and ultimately hurts or destroys it.
Quick question: Because we, as people, live off nature’s system, Earth, are we a Virus?
Does this explain Native Americans and their reverence for Mother Earth and Jim Morrison’s love of Indians?
By the way, I love all the Burroughs .pdf work that you’ve posted.
WHY I POSTED THIS:
HOLY CHRIST! I cant find your email on this website! I cant even see it on NetworkSolutions WHOIS domain reg. search! The original article won’t let me post anything! For the love of all that is truth please make somekind of email for questions!
10. Thirtyseven on Apr 30, 2008 at 2:15 PM permalink
I have a lot of other websites, too...maybe that will help.
11. Mr. Nowhere on Apr 30, 2008 at 3:17 PM permalink
Firearms & trained opponents? Maybe. But never underestimate the power of a good prank. Power of love? No. Power of perception? Yes.
12. AlexN on Apr 30, 2008 at 9:55 PM permalink
Is there an article explaining the purpose or goal of the 5GW collective?
Why 5th Generation ? Is that anybody between 17-35 today ?
13. Thirtyseven on Apr 30, 2008 at 9:59 PM permalink
Here’s a good quick summary:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth_generation_warfare#History
14. AlexN on Apr 30, 2008 at 10:18 PM permalink
Brilliant. That explains very much in terms of IRAQ’s “invisible insurgents.”
Now my main question is about the alleged Henry Okah. He used his home grown skill as a well educated Engineer/Small-time-Arms-Dealer to single handedly orchestrate his own war and 2-years of profit loss for shell oil totaling in $29billion of damage… WITH ONLY A CELLPHONE AND EMAIL!!!!!!!
Question: Although he abides by 4th gen. goals “to disorganize and delegitimize the state"(wiki) could his remote tactics (via email and cellphone/txt) be the frontier known as 5th gen. warfare ?
15. AlexN on Apr 30, 2008 at 11:53 PM permalink
Bruce Scanlon, nit-picky old guy, is concerned with “the language” used in this article. His critique doesn’t make sense because 5GW is building on the shoulders of giants requiring this article to move through “older ways,” so people can relate to it!
“The old order” so-to-speak is the basis for the “new order” or would Bruce prefer the term “a new way.”
Does it matter? At 43 year’s old, Bruce understand’s 5GW enough to talk shit about “common metaphores” like “will not let go quietly...”
Bruce! Its used to reach out to large audiences! Readers need to understand what the article means, Bruce commentary be damned!
No sense buying into more retardation… so on to the point:
5GW needs to be practiced. Starting with William S. Burroughs Electronic Revolution...Burroughs makes use of his reserch to influence various targets… His examples include using tape and video recordings to induce feelings that effect target subjects like business’s or politicians or the General Public. He said it requires basic knowledge of a tape recorder or video camera.
If you want to skip through the bullshit cause there’s no time then refer to:
*last paragraph pg. 11
*ELECTRONIC REVOLUTION paragraph pg. 12 - 13
*2nd to last paragraph pg. 14
available for download at the bottom of this article: http://www.skilluminati.com/research/entry/william_s_burroughs_on_the_virus_of_language/
16. Bruce on May 01, 2008 at 6:09 AM permalink
>Power of love? No. Power of perception? Yes.
I thought I might provoke some reaction by using the “L” word
Yes. One changes the perceptual state of oneself and others in part by altering one’s emotional state.
Human beings are constantly engaged in infowar to decipher the intents of others, and emotions are a big cue.
And isn’t the point of all this to maintain or improve your own happiness? Cultivating the ability to be in a positive emotional state is quite useful in achieving this goal.
17. Eric Patton on May 01, 2008 at 2:57 PM permalink
Special Operations Forces Truths:
Humans are more important than hardware.
Quality is better than quantity.
SOF cannot be mass produced.
SOF cannot be created after a crisis occurs.
18. Mr. Nowhere on May 01, 2008 at 3:35 PM permalink
A postive emotional state is vital of course to success in any endeavor.
But more to the point: Its not about just altering one’s emotional state, its also about being able to alter one’s consciousness and that of others, period. This ties into magick & pranking as well. They can tap into and reinforce each other, iteration & feedback style. For what is magick but the ability to self-consciously direct altered states of consciousness? And thru them to achieve one’s will? The best pranks do alter consciousness. Why not combine them to better effect?
Good call on the Burroughs material BTW, that’s vital info.
19. AlexN on May 01, 2008 at 4:48 PM permalink
Bruce! What are you talking about? “L” word meaning what?
Happiness is empty without cause. I can be happy on heroin all day. I can be happy with enough money to gouge myself on fastfood! “Positive Emotional State” is too vague like everything else you say, bruce.
Why are you using vague terms bruce? “infowar” ?
Do you mean communication of ideas? Part of communication is dialogue! Dialogue is an exchange of ideas! To exchange Ideas is to further a point through means of opposing or competitive views!
And all that means shit unless the communication results in action or agreement about an action.
As for mr. nowhere you need to read some more stuff. Like Nietzsche’s Will To Power or The Gay Science!
“For what is magick but the ability to self-consciously direct altered states of consciousness?” Your quote is a strange watered-down version of:
“all things are subject to interpretation, and whichever
intepretation prevails at a given time is a function of power and not truth.” -Nietzsche
There is more to this quote but I’m trying to say that even real dialogue means nothing without conclusions or action. Which isn’t going to happen here because of Bruce and Mr. Nowhere.
What are you people trying to do? Bruce lives in Kiwi-land across the ocean and is middle-aged and probably couldn’t do more than join groups that talk about stuff way too much… Not to say he doesn’t benefit from all the self-expanding rhetoric. He does in a way that makes him happy with how he is. He won’t change, its too late in life for him. This is a waste of time. Change comes through stress to perform. I am only here to agitate some kind of action. Which is appearing to be futile.
“Pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding...” - Kahlil Gibran
20. Thirtyseven on May 01, 2008 at 4:53 PM permalink
What are you agitating for? Do you want me to ship you some guns or what? For all your frustration, I still can’t get a bead on what you’re even asking us for.
Don’t assume too much about people based on their profile information—after all, that’s cyberwar 101, right? None of us have any way of judging what’s really behind a screen name, so let’s not be too hasty to pass out insults and advice.
Helpful hint: advice is way more effective without insults.
21. AlexN on May 01, 2008 at 5:06 PM permalink
“my interest in 5GW (5th Generation Warfare) is rooted in it’s potential for positive social and cultural change.”
I still have no idea what the hell 5th generation warfare is ! !!!
Ok, I understand 4th Gen. Warfare but nobody answered my post about Henry Okah !! Is he using 4th or 5th Generation Warfare?
The materials you have provided on this site such as H.G. Wells “The New World Order” and William S. Burroughs “Electronic Revolution” could apply action to your interest.
But thats not going to work if the father of Backbrain Media is working 16 hour days to keep an east-coast record label in motion, smoke herbs, and get pussy.
This site is simply an outlet for his personal entertainment.
He can’t take it seriously! I have lost hope in this site.
22. Thirtyseven on May 01, 2008 at 5:20 PM permalink
There is no agreed-upon definition of 5th Generation Warfare. If you took the initiative to research this yourself you’d have realized that in 5 minutes. Hence one of the major theory sites being “Dreaming 5GW”—it’s still a work in progress.
My own definition is solo warfare. It’s slippery because both words are deceptive—“solo” implies that you’d never collaborate with other 5GW operatives, and “warfare” implies overt agression and violence.
The concept of “paraconsistent logic” is going to get invoked a lot in the months to come.
I would propose that what Henry Okah is doing is definitely a working definition of 5GW. (I would propose the same of Ralph Reed in his Christian Coalition days.)
23. Eric Patton on May 01, 2008 at 5:59 PM permalink
Sort of off topic here, but thinking about this as a class war does put it in perspective. In some ways this is just a new form of a territory war; the “Elite” being the aggressors taking control of land from the poor. The land can be exploited for drug trafficking/growing, slave trade/labor, and for it’s natural resources.
Take Columbia for instance (very rich in natural resources), which is wrecked by guerrilla violence in the rural areas. If you’re in the rural area you are forced to pick between the left or right wing, or stay neutral and get attacked by both. The horns of indecision provoke the peasants to flee to the cities and build these slums you are talking about. The key is that lack of opportunities aren’t the reason they fleeing the rural area, it is the violence in the region. In the slums they can organize and help one another. I’m not sure if this holds up for all models, but it’s something to think about.
24. Bruce on May 01, 2008 at 9:03 PM permalink
RE #19 AlexN
Alex, it is my fondest wish for you that your attitude about aging improves: you, too, may someday be older than you are now.
25. AlexN on May 01, 2008 at 10:41 PM permalink
Dude, seriously, I am already older than I am now. “This is your life and it’s ending one minute at a time.” -Fight Club or Chuck Palahniuk.
But your right, aging is a sensitive subject for me because I have been diagnosed with Secondary Lung Cancer… 5 years of smoking a pack a day since age 15…
Everything I’ve learned has been through pain. And through acting on what I am able to do, while I still have time. I realize that nobody knows and I could get hit by a bus and die tomorrow. But it doesn’t change the fact that we are here to die. NO matter where we go after death. As long as what you do means something to you everybody else can get fucked...pardon the language. Just don’t hold back and act.
26. Bruce on May 02, 2008 at 8:58 AM permalink
>Just dont hold back and act.
Yes, act!
When I talked about the power of love I wasn’t talking about passive love, no sir.
Among other things, I help organize kiwiburn, http://www.kiwiburn.com Feel free to deride it for all of the obvious or inobvious reasons, but it is a non-commercial participant-created festival, an alternative to the dominant culture, and a powerful re-imprinting experience.
27. Mr. Nowhere on May 02, 2008 at 4:46 PM permalink
Nietzche? LOL! You can’t be serious…
I’ll try to be more concise:
Resistance is a moral imperative now, granted. What form that resistance will take is up to each individual, but if you want to go the route of violence, you are well and truly fucked. The military and police infrastructure of this country (US) has been making contingency plans to stop violent revolution in its tracks for well over 40 years. This isn’t Colombia, or Africa or the Middle East. If you take up arms you will give the powers that be EXACTLY what they want.
Be creative. Get off the grid. The hand is quicker than the eye. Now you see us/now you don’t.
28. AlexN on May 02, 2008 at 10:27 PM permalink
When will we reach the breaking point? Our minds have become a virtual dumping ground of pollutants manipulative ads, distorted news, untold violence, spin and hype. We can cope with the media onslaught to a degree. But all signs suggest that the cumulative effects of this toxic culture on our stress levels, our moods, our relationships, our worldviews, even our mental health could become one the most pressing issues of our generation.
This online activist network 25,000-strong is working to rethink our broken media system. We invite you to join by signing the Media Carta manifesto. http://adbusters.org/metas/psycho/mediacarta/
Media activism is still in its infancy and is currently fragmented into dozens of different agendas. Over the coming months and years, we’ll be exploring ways to pull together these disparate threads. We consider Media Democracy, Media Justice and especially Mental Environmentalism to be groundbreaking narratives that could gel our activism into a full-fledged movement—a movement on par with feminism, civil rights and environmentalism.
We hope you’ll join us in changing the way information flows and how meaning is produced in our Information Age.
Btw, someone should stop these spammers!
And another thing, action is not violence. The Taoist way is to avoid all competition. Which I’m still learning.
29. Mr. Nowhere on May 03, 2008 at 2:14 PM permalink
When will we reach the breaking point? Good question. Most likely when the majority of people are outside their comfort zone, whether by choice or chance. As long as just enough people are able to continue with “business as usual” (work/shop/consume/etc) nothing will really change. Those of us on the margins will continue to be marginalized.
Introduce rolling blackouts, food shortages, and rationing into the equation, then its a whole other ballgame. Deprivation is a good teacher.
I’ve nothing against action. But whenever anyone starts with the armed insurrection rhetoric, the battle has already been lost. In Russia they have an old saying, “Whenever four people sit down to plot the revolution, three of them are informers and one of them is a fool.” I’m all for the Yes Men, media pranks, the Tupamaros & Robin Hood. Not armed compounds, militias, starting riots or power growing out of the barrel of a gun. Aikido and capoiera, not kung fu or tae kwon do. Co-ops and voluntary associations, not every person for themselves.
And yes these spammers are annoying.
30. Thirtyseven on May 03, 2008 at 8:21 PM permalink
I don’t live on the computer anymore, there’s only so much I can do...coming soon: registered comments only @ Skilluminati Research.
This is the only article being hit by the spambots and so far I’ve deleted over 50 spam comments, so—comments are closed for now. There’s a new article up anyways.