| CyberEnlightenment, "Political Correctness" and Fascism | 3 comments |
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9 Apr 2008 @ 09:25, by John Grieve
CyberEnlightenment, Political Correctness and Fascism
The Enlightenment which issued from the declining feudal society of the mid-18th century and which culminated in the French Revolution and the transformation of Europe is with us again. It has returned in a new different form.
Anything which is partial, incomplete and fragmentary, if it is raised up and made into a totality, a false totality and a false whole, becomes demonic and very dangerous. This is what happened to the Enlightenment. Here, the rational faculty, at the expense of feeling, emotions and intuition, was raised up to the heights and made into Everything; which it of course is not. The result was very predictable. What is thrown out by the front door comes back unannounced through the back door. All the dark, irrational forces of emotion, Unconscious etc. exerted themselves and burst forth in the French Terror, Nazi Germany , Stalinism and all the other horrors of recent times. So much for the past.
But I assert the same thing is happening now. New technological developments in communications and information technology over the past 50 years have created, and still create, a new hyper-rationality, hyper-logicality which I call the Cyber Enlightenment. Evidence of this is all around us. Apart from personal things like obsession with computers and programming and logical ways of doing things, there are disturbing trends at the social and political levels. I am talking about the situation in England but I daresay the same thing is happening in other parts of the world, most notably the USA. The biggest example of what I am referring to is “Political Correctness”. This has gone from a tiny seed of 15 to 20 years ago, flourishing in the last ten years of the present Labour government and threatens to become an ideology as entrenched in our society as Stalinism was in the Soviet Union. A certain amount of “Political Correctness” is fine, conducive to showing respect to minorities and other groups, but it has become an overweening power in the land and threatens to become a major plank of some sort of totalitarian ideology which is a stealthy restraint on our liberty. It is now impossible to mention publicly or in private very many pressing problems and iniquities in our society without being accused of political incorrectness and worse. I repeat, when the truth cannot be expressed in this way, it is a restraint on our liberty.
Other planks of this emerging soft totalitarianism are the “nanny state”, “Health and Safety”, omnipresent bureaucracy and stealth taxes. We are all too familiar with all these things to need any detailed analysis and elaboration. These are all examples of Hyper-Rationality.
I believe that just as the 18th century Enlightenment was followed by great turbulence and a descent into darkness, similarly we are heading on the same trajectory now unless something is done to change course.
When someone criticises a situation they are often asked if they have anything better to offer themselves, with the implication that if they haven’t then they should shut up. Well, I do have something to offer which I believe is superior to this CyberEnlightenment and CyberSavagery which are closing in on us.
The only thing which can be raised up as a totality is a whole; is a totality. A real totality and not a false one, which is really only half of something, as the Reason is only half of us.
God/dess is the only real totality but on the human level a whole person is a real totality. A person who combines Yin and Yang, male and female, good and bad, intellect and feeling, heart and mind, Body and Soul and so on. Such a person blows away the cobwebs of “political correctness” like a whirlwind. That is the only answer to the current ills which threaten us, and such a person will say a lot of things, different aspects of the truth, that are unwelcome to more conventional people. I am talking here about self-realisation or Enlightenment. Real Enlightenment, not just of the intellect. And not just of one person but of the whole of society. That is the solution to all the problems that are facing the world today.
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Category: Articles
3 comments
23 Apr 2008 @ 11:46 by deepwater : Yes, you're Right.
I believe that we are indeed headed for big problem unless we wake up to the reality of our inherent oneness, both within as whole beings and as a whole, all of us together as a race.
Fortunately there are those of us who will speak truth without attachment to the outcome, who will to forge paths for others to follow and set examples of what it is to be whole and to think, speak and act in holistic ways.
Let us recognize and support them, whoever they are and in whatever fields they may be working, and challenge ourselves to also rise to the occasion with courage and tenacity.
It is up to each and every one of us to take responsibility for our own reality, to do the inner work, to become whole and to support the next person to do the same.
In this way we shall change the world, and avert disaster, I have faith in that.
21 Jun 2008 @ 04:56 by anandavala : Beautifully said
What you describe as CyberEnlightenment is what I describe as the evolution of a collective ego. Communications technology has formed the basis of a complex nervous system throughout the 'body' of society and the hegemonic idealism is forming into a collective ego. It is not just located in government or corporatism, it is a subtle authoritarianism that permeates the entire culture and forces the society to conform to its agenda. You rightly identify "political correctness" as a major factor but so is nationalism, corporatism, consumerism, materialism, empiricism, positivism, naive realism, egoism and many other forms of subtle or not so subtle conditioning both imposed upon us and internalised, often from birth.
The suffering that we are increasingly experiencing in society is directly analogous to the suffering of cells within a typical ego-oriented person. The decay of society is like the decay of an organism that is oppressed by an ego. The body may be fit, just as a society may be productive, but they cannot be 'healthy' whilst enslaved within a narrow agenda.
Hence the Tao te Ching says: “The reason why heaven and earth are enduring is that they do not give themselves life. Hence they are able to be long lived.”
Overcoming the oppression of the ego returns one to ones natural state, which is often called enlightenment. I agree that "That is the solution to all the problems that are facing the world today."
But we must be wary to identify the problem accurately and not place the blame on the technology, it is neutral. It is the delusion within our minds, the memetic infestation that permeates the culture, that is the root of the issue. If these delusions are overcome the same technology could be used to liberate and secure our freedom rather than to exploit us and create a factory farm for humanity.
For example, in situations like ebay, identity verification and total 'surveillance' or "information collection" makes it possible to transact billions of dollars without any imposed laws. So long as all people have equal access to the information. If someone rips someone else off, others will know about this and simply refuse to deal with them in future. It is conceivable that once the surveillance technology is no longer under hegemonic control it could allow for the abolition of most if not all laws. This is just a thought, but there may be some potential in it. What do you think?
My own work sheds a different light on the term CyberEnlightenment. Where a virtual reality analogy can serve as a powerful mind opener to awaken people to the deeper mysteries that dwell just behind the façade of naive realist delusion.
I personally believe that naive realism is the root of all of our delusions. It can be clearly proven to be false but it remains as an unquestioned assumption within most of our minds. If this can be uprooted the entire tree of evil (self-perpetuating delusion) will whither away without the need for any kind of a struggle.
"Cut the root of a tree and the leaves will wither; cut the root of your mind [naive, habitual interpretation] and samsara [world illusion] falls. The light of any lamp dispels in a moment the darkness of long kalpas [aeons]; the strong light of the [higher] Mind in but a flash will burn the veil of ignorance.
Whoever clings to mind sees not the truth of what's beyond the mind. Whoever strives to practice dharma [spiritual path] finds not the truth beyond-practice.
To know what is beyond both mind and practice one should cut cleanly through the root of mind and stare naked. One should thus break away from all distinctions and remain at ease." (Tilopa's Song of Mahamudra)
13 Aug 2008 @ 08:18 by erlefrayne : Voila! Real Totality!
This piece highlighted the Totality of the Law of One, of Yin-Yang wholeness, of God/dess Oneness. Let us continue to contrapose this real totality to the illusory totality of the fascistic mad elites. Yes indeed, not only in England but everywhere else including the Philippines we observe this cult for the false totality, for tatalizing the partial, for 'cyber-rationality'. So we must exert our version of real totality, we being seekers of Higher Light.
Other entries in Articles
2 Sep 2008 @ 11:30: Sexual Identity is Basic on the Material Plane
31 Aug 2008 @ 09:19: HomoRacism
27 Aug 2008 @ 08:32: Theology of the Other
24 Aug 2008 @ 15:14: Grieve''s Twin Prime Conjecture
12 Aug 2008 @ 09:13: Truth, Denial and Fascism
4 Aug 2008 @ 09:07: Why is Dialectic Important
1 Aug 2008 @ 09:10: Dual Nature as applied to Personality
14 Jul 2008 @ 09:06: My Philosophy in a Nutshell ---- Part 1
3 Jun 2008 @ 09:12: Phi, the Pentagon and Self-Similarity
23 Apr 2008 @ 09:25: Pascal's Triangle, Self-similarity and Phi
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