Thank you for reading The Truth About Addiction, and taking the time to comment, Jess. Please feel free to email me directly at jeff@qolrm.com with any first, second, or third-hand accounts of your encounters with addiction, regardless of the narcotic(s). Or post your accounts here as comments, if you prefer. Would love to hear your story, what you think works and doesn't work. Hope to hear from you, and many thanks once again...
Peace to you, Isma'il, and thank you for your continued contribution. Absolutely: book-bound idealism is a gateway drug. Yes, once we crossed the threshold of idealism embodied in mass print media, ancestry and home were lost -- along with the compelled memory of oral tradition.
I once talked with a descendent of Black Elk who claimed to "remember" twenty generations of his family. Once we crossed the threshold of electronic media in the 20th century, however, idealism became a tool of the powerful and turned into something else: propaganda.
The idealism-to-propaganda cycle as a tool of the state has been repeated over and over again ever since. Consider the 1960s liberation movement radicals now ensconced in bloated institutes of higher education as illiberal war mongers and avid defenders of the deep-state status quo. And yes, the designers likewise fall prey to their own addictions. Consider the MBA-driven Young Turks of the brief Dot Com Era of the late 1990s: Not since the Chinese Red Guards of the 1960s had we witnessed a more reactionary movement of young people convinced of their God-given right to upend society and destroy cultural memory -- like all pop cultures -- in their own image.
Of course, the current generation of social justice warriors shames them all -- perhaps what happens as a natural consequence of imbuing idealism turned propaganda with obscene power and wealth, all powered by trillions of microchips and thousands of server farms. Naturally, the subjugation of idealism to ascetic disciplines -- like oral tradition -- is a tough sell in the Great Age of Addiction. This at a time when our leaders all live and thrive in the densest media bubbles on the planet, and are -- by definition -- the biggest addicts with the least desire for discipline of any sort that doesn't directly enhance their power and wealth. Turns out that a right brain is a terrible thing to waste. Check out my call to action at the end of When All That Remains is Power… (https://qolrm.substack.com/p/when-all-that-remains-is-power?r=7hc45&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web). You stretch my mind and soul, Isma'il, and I'm grateful. Peace.
Saalam, Isma'il. Whereas the oral traditions of our forefathers once prepared us to deal with the world and its institutions, large and small, the art and craft Mr. Bernays fathered prepared our institutions, large and small, to deal with us. The oral traditions of our ancestors originated in love and care as sacred ritual and obligation. The institutional traditions of Mr. Bernays originated in the 20th-century need for power and control in the absence of the sacred.
Deconstruction of the institutional mind -- especially by other institutional minds -- will only lead to chaos and mayhem unless, as you suggest, a remembering of past solidarities (eg. faith, family, and community) ensues. This remembering of past solidarities is precisely the remedy proposed by yours truly with the Quality of Life Resistance Movement.
Yes, story telling in the oral tradition is a particularly powerful spiritual medium, precisely why I concluded my essay When All That Remains is Power with “So when life imitates bad art and all that remains is power, do one thing: tell your story. Tell it to the ones you love. Tell it to your kids. Tell it to your friends. Tell it to your neighbors. Tell your story and the story of your family and the story of your town to anyone who listens. When all that remains is power, your story is the greatest story ever told.”
.
I suspect your story is properly right-brained, Isma'il. Saalam again.
Thank you for reading The Truth About Addiction, and taking the time to comment, Jess. Please feel free to email me directly at jeff@qolrm.com with any first, second, or third-hand accounts of your encounters with addiction, regardless of the narcotic(s). Or post your accounts here as comments, if you prefer. Would love to hear your story, what you think works and doesn't work. Hope to hear from you, and many thanks once again...
Peace to you, Isma'il, and thank you for your continued contribution. Absolutely: book-bound idealism is a gateway drug. Yes, once we crossed the threshold of idealism embodied in mass print media, ancestry and home were lost -- along with the compelled memory of oral tradition.
I once talked with a descendent of Black Elk who claimed to "remember" twenty generations of his family. Once we crossed the threshold of electronic media in the 20th century, however, idealism became a tool of the powerful and turned into something else: propaganda.
The idealism-to-propaganda cycle as a tool of the state has been repeated over and over again ever since. Consider the 1960s liberation movement radicals now ensconced in bloated institutes of higher education as illiberal war mongers and avid defenders of the deep-state status quo. And yes, the designers likewise fall prey to their own addictions. Consider the MBA-driven Young Turks of the brief Dot Com Era of the late 1990s: Not since the Chinese Red Guards of the 1960s had we witnessed a more reactionary movement of young people convinced of their God-given right to upend society and destroy cultural memory -- like all pop cultures -- in their own image.
Of course, the current generation of social justice warriors shames them all -- perhaps what happens as a natural consequence of imbuing idealism turned propaganda with obscene power and wealth, all powered by trillions of microchips and thousands of server farms. Naturally, the subjugation of idealism to ascetic disciplines -- like oral tradition -- is a tough sell in the Great Age of Addiction. This at a time when our leaders all live and thrive in the densest media bubbles on the planet, and are -- by definition -- the biggest addicts with the least desire for discipline of any sort that doesn't directly enhance their power and wealth. Turns out that a right brain is a terrible thing to waste. Check out my call to action at the end of When All That Remains is Power… (https://qolrm.substack.com/p/when-all-that-remains-is-power?r=7hc45&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web). You stretch my mind and soul, Isma'il, and I'm grateful. Peace.
Saalam, Isma'il. Whereas the oral traditions of our forefathers once prepared us to deal with the world and its institutions, large and small, the art and craft Mr. Bernays fathered prepared our institutions, large and small, to deal with us. The oral traditions of our ancestors originated in love and care as sacred ritual and obligation. The institutional traditions of Mr. Bernays originated in the 20th-century need for power and control in the absence of the sacred.
Deconstruction of the institutional mind -- especially by other institutional minds -- will only lead to chaos and mayhem unless, as you suggest, a remembering of past solidarities (eg. faith, family, and community) ensues. This remembering of past solidarities is precisely the remedy proposed by yours truly with the Quality of Life Resistance Movement.
Yes, story telling in the oral tradition is a particularly powerful spiritual medium, precisely why I concluded my essay When All That Remains is Power with “So when life imitates bad art and all that remains is power, do one thing: tell your story. Tell it to the ones you love. Tell it to your kids. Tell it to your friends. Tell it to your neighbors. Tell your story and the story of your family and the story of your town to anyone who listens. When all that remains is power, your story is the greatest story ever told.”
.
I suspect your story is properly right-brained, Isma'il. Saalam again.