Chance:

Thanks for this moving testimony . . . !!

Yes -- we're at the beginning of what is likely to be some very rough  
times.  Paradigm shifts of this magnitude -- from Fantasy to Memory in  
our lifetimes -- are going to be difficult for everyone involved.  No  
one will be spared.

Jeff and I predicted Trump's election before a single primary vote was  
cast.  On election-eve, we threw a party that ended around 9:30PM when  
it became clear that we were correct.  This was not what either of us  
wanted to happen but, given the Cultural forces at work, practically  
inevitable.

My further prediction was that "chaos" would envelop our lives and  
that anyone's ability to honestly assess the situation would  
drastically diminish.  I wanted to delay this for another few years.  
Alas, that seems to be exactly where we've wound up.  So much for  
pushing a rock up a hill.

A part of the problem -- in mental health terms -- is that we have all  
been trained to pretend that we are personally *responsible* for the  
situation.  We aren't.  Instead, it is being done to us.  In McLuhan's  
terms, we are being "run over" by these technologies.  And he believed  
that "understanding media" might help.  So do I.

In 1969 he wrote this in a letter to Jacques Maritain, "There is  
deep-seated repugnance in the human breast against understanding the  
processes in which we are involved.  Such understanding implies far to  
much responsibility for our actions."  Sounds like the "Justification  
Hypothesis" to me.  Explaining to people how they are *not*  
responsible for the world in which we live has now become an urgent  
task.  Mentally speaking.

My Facebook feed is filled with people demanding the "resignation" of  
Pope Francis over his allowing Ex-Cardinal McCarrick to not "go to  
jail" for his homosexual activities.  This is like the "lock her up"  
that still surrounds the 2016 election.  None of those involved have  
*any* responsibility for dealing with any of these events.  But they  
have been "shaped" by their media environment to falsely think that  
they need to scream in public as-if they were.

Aristotle's "Politics" is instructive.  As any historian will certify  
Athens invented "democracy."  But Aristotle wasn't Athenian (while  
Plato was, as was his mentor Socrates, who was voted to death by  
democracy.)  In fact, Aristotle was likely forced out multiple times  
and his Lyceum was officially banned for *not* being "from Athens"  
shortly after he died (leading to the disappearance of perhaps 50%+ of  
his work.)  Not surprisingly, he considered "democracy" to be a  
*degenerate* form of government.

The American Constitution is not "democratic."  Presidents are not  
elected by the people.  The Senate was originally not a popular vote  
either and it has the final say on most important legislation  
(including Presidential impeachment.)  That was by design.  Careful  
design.  PRINT design.

Under RADIO conditions, Walter Lippmann famously argued that  
"democracy" can't possibly work -- an observation that was based on  
his direct experience with psychological warfare in WW I.  Then, after  
WW II, it only got worse.  Much worse.

Under TELEVISION conditions, as a cornerstone of the Cold War (called  
"cold" because it was a psychological war on everyone), the US became  
the bastion of "spreading democracy."  This even led the CIA to fund  
"Abstract Expressionism" and to send it on a world-tour of embassies,  
as a reflection of our "open-mindedness," compared to "Socialism  
Realism."  There are now books on all this.  What a mess.

The net effect of this *television* distortion of our lives has been  
to put people in what Joseph Heller called a "Catch-22." akin to what  
Gregory Bateson called a "double bind."  Since we are, in fact, not  
responsible for the wider world, but are told every day that we are,  
there is no psychological escape.  We are all being "run over" by the  
technologies we use and which have *formed* (or rather distorted) our  
psychological habits . . . !!

I strongly suspect that the *therapy* of the future -- hopefully  
derived from Gregg &al's work -- will help people to understand that  
their "place in the world" is radically different from what they were  
previously compelled to believe.  No, it is not our responsibility to  
"Save the cheerleader, save the world" (as we were instructed in the  
TV-show "Heroes.")  That was a fantasy.  Even an attractive one.

"World Peace" is probably the *mother* of all this.  As a matter of  
fact, nuclear weapons were specifically invented by Leo Szilard &al as  
a protege of H.G. Wells in order to force an end to warfare.  As a  
matter of fact, LSD became widespread in the population in an attempt  
to provoke an outbreak of "peace in our times."  As he details in his  
autobiography (and as he furthered explained in my conversation with  
him), Aldous Huxley recruited him to "dose the elites" for just this  
purpose.

We have lived our lives in a techno-psychological war-zone.  All of  
this has overwhelmed our lives in the past 50+ years.  Now, it all has  
to stop for the sake of our sanity . . . !!

Mark

P.S. In 2016, I was invited to give a local Jersey City TedX talk.   
When the organizers saw that I was going to suggest that our mental  
health was at stake, they cancelled my talk on the eve of the dress  
rehearsal.  They had gone "insane" as a result of the Trump election.   
Needless to say, suggesting in public that you actually don't have to  
vote and, indeed, that "politics" is bad for your health will be met  
with fierce opposition.  Just try it some day.

P.P.S. Yesterday Doug Rushkoff emailed me from the offices of the  
"think-and-do-tank" Data & Society to ask if I once lived in that  
building -- 36 W. 20th St.  Yes, I was the 4th floor (from 1996-2010)  
and he visited me there -- reminding him of the layout.  D&S is a very  
well-funded outfit that is now focused on how Facebook &al have  
"hijacked our minds."  Doug is about to go on tour for his soon-to-be  
published "Team Human."  This is *very* bad from a mental health  
standpoint.  Perhaps tellingly in terms of his own experiences, he  
uses the term "repress" on the cover.  As we all know, that's  
Freud-speak.  Down that road, does not lie our freedom.  That's how we  
got into this "Catch-22" in the first place.

Quoting Chance McDermott <[log in to unmask]>:

> Mark, thank you for your reply (!)
>
> The observations and challenges outlined by the research agendas on the
> your Digital Life Center are the same challenges I have experienced in
> attempting clinical psychological conceptualization of college student
> mental health distress.  Without a shared understanding of history, and
> without a clear, orienting direction we are moving towards, it is a greater
> challenge to offer treatment with intellectual integrity.  What is
> "causing" an individual's distress is deceptively complex given wide
> variances in the multiplying, interacting, levels of analysis.
>
> However, Gregg's Unified Theory allows us to take an ethological
> perspective (which is vastly preferable to a purely laboratory perspective)
> to make determinations about how human beings operate in general
> (architecture of the human mind), and what they need to experience
> well-being (e.g., nourishment, security, love and support, relational
> value).  Thus there is a great amount of detail at the psychological level
> in the Unified Theory that has felt necessary in divorcing "need versus
> want" at the cultural level when offering interventions to clients.  Said
> another way, the Unified Theory/Unified Approach is an operating system
> that allows a clinician to quickly assess well-being considering a
> phylogenetically understood hierarchy of needs, and then prioritization of
> intervention based upon awareness of an individual's unique presentation in
> socio-cultural, idiographic space-time.
>
> It is one method by which the "humanness" can be authentically bridged
> between two people from differing positions in the socio-cultural matrix.
> This alliance is an essential part of effective therapeutic work.  If a
> client is lost in a personal reality and trying to find their way back to
> balance, it is invaluable that the trusted clinician can "be there" with
> the client as accurately as possible in surveying the terrain to be
> traveled to an ideal state (the ideal state is principle-based, with the
> details filled in by the client's own history).
>
> I have experienced significant, objective success using the Unified
> Approach in my graduate training and internship with clients from many
> different political perspectives and countries.  I am not a "global man" by
> any stretch, and so I was indeed relying much on the Unified Theory.
>
> *So what is the problem? *
>
> Primarily, it has been the bi-directional shaping between culture and
> technology.  My private search for help with this led me to McLuhan during
> the 2016 year.  His lectures validated the importance I placed on these
> questions, and yet it opened my eyes to a situation that was alarming in
> its scope and its invisibility to many around me.  I myself felt exposed,
> as if the ride I was on had stopped moving forward (and I suddenly realized
> I was on a ride in the first place   (!))
>
> So I could indeed help people repair at immediate and personal relational
> levels of chaos, but anxiety caused by the uncertainty of existing in a
> society moving in all different, non-linear direction was becoming, to me,
> the salient issue we were all experiencing but could not talk about
> effectively.  While the internet and social media have now offered us vast
> narratives from which we try to determine "what's going down," the quaking
> tectonics of this paradigm shift are primary in my awareness.
>
> One of the hopes here, I believe, is that if we could begin to discuss
> these issues coherently at the process level, we could orient others
> towards an adaptive, pro-social frame of reality.  We are perhaps hoping to
> advocate a perspective which we can override as many brown-eyes/blue-eyes
> triggers as possible so that we can get our feet under us to clearly face
> global issues that we seem to be behind on, and which we cannot focus on if
> we are ever suspicious of our own neighbors and family.  Or, simply as a
> means of understanding what paradigm we are currently living in so we can
> adjust as quickly as possible.
>
> Therefore, I am hopeful about the continued compatibility between the
> Unified Theory and Marshal McLuhan, because there seems to be an
> opportunity to model the human-environment interaction in a way that may
> help protect our Western identities as we proceed forward with our internal
> and global conflicts...
>
> -Chance
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On Wed, Aug 29, 2018 at 1:34 PM Mark Stahlman <[log in to unmask]>
> wrote:
>
>> Chance:
>>
>> Yes -- this is not the world we were told (by *television*) that we
>> would be inheriting . . . !!
>>
>> I am in complete agreement with Gregg that what is happening today
>> amounts to a "Fifth Joint Point" in our "evolution" -- *caused* by
>> digital technology.  However, that transition is *not* the one that
>> most have thought would take place -- which is why a fresh look at all
>> this, as ToK provides, is very important.  Even mind-blowing.
>>
>> As a McLuhan scholar, it is my view that new *paradigms*, such as the
>> one we are already occupying, mean new "mentalities."  Btw, this is
>> also the view of Merlin Donald, whose work Gregg has carefully
>> studied.  But this is not simply a sequence or progression.  Instead,
>> there is an enormous amount of "retrieval" of our past that is also
>> involved.  That is where McLuhan's Tetrad comes in (about which I run
>> the Facebook group), as described in his "Laws of Media" (1988,
>> posthumous.)
>>
>> The most recent -- but now obsolete -- ELECTRIC paradigm (say from c.
>> 1850-2000) *retrieved* a period in human evolution that we would call
>> "archaic" or, more specifically, "pre-literate."  Today it is common
>> to call this "post-literate" by those who can only think in terms of
>> "progress" but, as we should be able to observe, losing our capacity
>> for literate thinking is not really "progress."  Among other things,
>> it makes us more easily manipulated.  Thus "fake news."  And totally
>> undermines "intellectual integrity."  Thus Trump.
>>
>> The new paradigm -- based on DIGITAL technology -- is different.  In
>> particular, it "biases" us towards Memory (not Fantasy) and, as a
>> result, my Center has the motto "Digital retrieves the Medieval."  We
>> are convinced that means a "come-back" for Aristotle (who as also
>> retrieved in the 13th-century), so we have been researching all this
>> for a while -- leading to Jeff Martineau's LADS seminar this summer in
>> which he taught 30+ people Aristotle's "On the Soul" (or, as it is
>> more commonly called from the Latin, "De Anima.")
>>
>> If you go to Amazon and enter "neo-Aristotelian" in the search, you
>> will find 20+ titles with that phrase.  Many more will come.  We think
>> that this is a sign-of-the-times . . . <g>
>>
>> Mark
>>
>> Quoting Chance McDermott <[log in to unmask]>:
>>
>> > Chilling assessment, Mark.  It is painful to imagine a world that
>> > re-commits to brown-eye/blue-eye, us/them cynicism.  Of course we are
>> stuck
>> > with that othering mechanism as human beings (for example, there are
>> people
>> > who understand that mechanism, and people who don't), and yet if we
>> abandon
>> > "family of man" as the stated goal, then we find ourselves in a
>> significant
>> > identity crisis.
>> >
>> > Do I understand correctly that this is part of the urgency in advocating
>> a
>> > Western identity based upon on Aristotle?
>> >
>> > -Chance
>> >
>> > On Wed, Aug 29, 2018 at 8:12 AM Mark Stahlman <[log in to unmask]>
>> > wrote:
>> >
>> >> Tokers:
>> >>
>> >> While I can't vouch for all the details in this item, I can state from
>> >> direct experience that two years ago the Chinese were rounding up
>> Uighurs
>> >> in Shanghai and "deporting" them to Xinjaing.  I actually saw it in
>> action
>> >> on the streets there.
>> >>
>> >> "Xinjiang is now a totalitarian police state of historic proportions —
>> it
>> >> is widely cited as one of the most heavily policed places in the world
>> >> today. Public security budgets have skyrocketed and futuristic
>> surveillance
>> >> systems have been pioneered in the region. As a result, over 20 percent
>> of
>> >> all criminal arrests in China happens in Xinjiang, despite the fact that
>> >> the region contains only 1.5 percent of the country’s population."
>> >>
>> >> "In the camps, officials seek to brainwash prisoners to disavow Islam
>> and
>> >> pledge loyalty to the Communist Party, and torture those who refuse."
>> >>
>> >> "Arbitrary detentions without charge or trial are the norm for prisoners
>> >> in these camps, and ethnically Kazakh Muslims have been “disappeared” in
>> >> large numbers along with Uyghurs. Common “crimes” are “viewing foreign
>> >> websites, taking phone calls from relatives abroad, praying regularly or
>> >> growing a beard.” The widespread use of arbitrary detention is also
>> being
>> >> used as a tool to force Uyghurs abroad into silence."
>> >>
>> >> <
>> https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__supchina.com_2018_08_22_xinjiang-2Dexplainer-2Dchinas-2Dreeducation-2Dcamps-2Dfor-2Da-2Dmillion-2Dmuslims_&d=DwMBaQ&c=eLbWYnpnzycBCgmb7vCI4uqNEB9RSjOdn_5nBEmmeq0&r=HPo1IXYDhKClogP-UOpybo6Cfxxz-jIYBgjO2gOz4-A&m=X-RdbOknBVQKywj0rdYxyCTA_j7LUmVegoA_I0_HMlw&s=AhHCO_atxpDBQFarQtajUJpMF2fpK3eLp4xh0NrR3Ig&e=
>> >
>> >> About this website
>> >> supchina.com
>> >> China’s re-education camps for a million Muslims: What everyone needs to
>> >> know
>> >> <
>> https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__supchina.com_2018_08_22_xinjiang-2Dexplainer-2Dchinas-2Dreeducation-2Dcamps-2Dfor-2Da-2Dmillion-2Dmuslims_&d=DwMBaQ&c=eLbWYnpnzycBCgmb7vCI4uqNEB9RSjOdn_5nBEmmeq0&r=HPo1IXYDhKClogP-UOpybo6Cfxxz-jIYBgjO2gOz4-A&m=X-RdbOknBVQKywj0rdYxyCTA_j7LUmVegoA_I0_HMlw&s=AhHCO_atxpDBQFarQtajUJpMF2fpK3eLp4xh0NrR3Ig&e=
>> >
>> >>
>> >> Islam is *alphabetic* and, therefore, West, whereas the Chinese are
>> >> *ideo/pictogrpahic* and, therefore, East.  These are two fundamentally
>> >> different Cultures (capital "C") with fundamentally different language
>> >> technologies at the root of their 2000+ year formation. As a result,
>> Islam
>> >> cannot survive in China.  Indeed, nothing "alphabetic" will survive.
>> >>
>> >> As some might have noticed, Marxism is *also* Western.  Accordingly,
>> from
>> >> 2004-2011 the Central Party School in Beijing -- where all CPC senior
>> cadre
>> >> are trained (modelled on the French ecole hierarchy) -- completely
>> scrubbed
>> >> Marxism of its Western traces and "Sinicized" it.  This past May, I was
>> in
>> >> Beijing at the 2nd World Congress on Marxism to personally observe the
>> >> results.  The Western Marxists invited to attend were completely
>> baffled at
>> >> what had been done -- but happy for the free plane tickets.
>> >>
>> >> Now the CPS is teaching Confucius and Laotze to these cadres -- while
>> also
>> >> proclaiming publicly that it will win the "War of the Robots" . . . !!
>> >>
>> >>
>> https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.amazon.com_AI-2DSuperpowers-2DChina-2DSilicon-2DValley_dp_132854639X&d=DwIFaQ&c=eLbWYnpnzycBCgmb7vCI4uqNEB9RSjOdn_5nBEmmeq0&r=HPo1IXYDhKClogP-UOpybo6Cfxxz-jIYBgjO2gOz4-A&m=I7DEa5YxOdkJ7gJgGBvCaLsedEJVAF-yRsXg46rgKqc&s=rxD7nr7K3Ypx3eJyBfBXT4oWZsf5a-214o4fKNqAJDY&e=
>> >>
>> >> I was supposed to be back there a week ago but the CPC stopped my
>> approval
>> >> to discuss the "robot problem" with one of their researchers.  It isn't
>> >> clear if I will be allowed to return.  Stories are circulating that "CIA
>> >> collaborators" are being arrested and killed and I'm in their "system"
>> as a
>> >> "US spy."  Now it is being reported that it was the Chinese (not the
>> >> Russians) who actually hacked the election (or at least Hilary's closet
>> >> servers.)
>> >>
>> >> When Mao took over, many attempted to "simplify" the difficult Chinese
>> >> writing system -- which is still foundational, as reflected in the
>> general
>> >> use of Chinese subtitles in Chinese movies, since the "accents" of many
>> >> actors cannot be understood everywhere in China.  That simplification
>> then
>> >> led to the teaching of the alphabet to Chinese children, so that they
>> could
>> >> use it for the Pinyin representation of the language.  This is now the
>> >> basis of Chinese use of Western technology, since smart-phones don't
>> have
>> >> "Chinese" keyboards.  Perhaps that will be the next target?
>> >>
>> >> There is no chance that China will allow itself to become a part of the
>> >> "Global System" -- other than, as has now become headlines, to take
>> >> advantage of it.  As anyone involved in science/technology at the
>> >> graduate-level knows, many (if not most) of the accomplished students in
>> >> these fields are Chinese.  In effect, our education system has become
>> >> theirs.  No, that does not mean that China is becoming like us.  It
>> means
>> >> that they are "stealing" our ideas.
>> >>
>> >> This presents many problems, particularly in the field of national
>> >> security.  This past Sunday's "60 Minutes" had a segment on two
>> >> Chinese-Americans whose lives were upended on suspicions of them being
>> >> Chinese spys.  The most recent National Security Strategy (NSS 2018)
>> >> introduced the topic of "National Security Information Base" for the
>> first
>> >> time.  Everyone involved knows that China was the target.  Whatever else
>> >> you might think about Trump, he inherited a front-row seat for a world
>> in
>> >> massive conflict (largely ignored by the press which is, instead,
>> obsessed
>> >> with eliminating him.)
>> >>
>> >>
>> >>
>> https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.whitehouse.gov_wp-2Dcontent_uploads_2017_12_NSS-2DFinal-2D12-2D18-2D2017-2D0905-2D2.pdf&d=DwIFaQ&c=eLbWYnpnzycBCgmb7vCI4uqNEB9RSjOdn_5nBEmmeq0&r=HPo1IXYDhKClogP-UOpybo6Cfxxz-jIYBgjO2gOz4-A&m=I7DEa5YxOdkJ7gJgGBvCaLsedEJVAF-yRsXg46rgKqc&s=wdfc4pHJ60zKw0Yp-8mIL-km9YarrNrdDfyvAUd93uk&e=
>> >>
>> >> At the Center, we have concluded that their are *three* over-lapping
>> >> "global operating systems": East, West and Digital.  The TELEVISION-era
>> >> notion of "One World" is totally defunct.  Nobody takes the United
>> Nations
>> >> (or IMF/World Bank &c) seriously anymore.  We have added DIGITAL because
>> >> that's now the driver for *all* Cultures (capital "C" and plural) --
>> >> including the *new* one that wants to eliminate humanity (by
>> "upgrading" it
>> >> and "colonizing Mars.")
>> >>
>> >> Yes, as the Chinese saying goes, "May you live in interesting times" .
>> . .
>> >> <g>
>> >>
>> >> Mark
>> >>
>> >> P.S. In the late-70s (when I was in my late 20s), I invented what was
>> then
>> >> the world's most accurate (in terms of representing the language) Arabic
>> >> wordprocessor.  It was called "The Diplomat."  I became an expert in
>> Arabic
>> >> calligraphy but never learned to speak or read the language.  NEC in
>> Japan
>> >> hired me to design wheels for their Spinwriter.  The Saudi government
>> >> invited me to help them standarize Arabic for computers (i.e. the
>> >> equivalent of ASCII).  I once spent $10,000 on a hotel bill in Riyadh,
>> >> while drinking $100 Swiss grapejuice.  One Thanksgiving, I was almost
>> >> killed on the highway to Dhahran (leading me to propose over the phone
>> to
>> >> the mother of my children.)
>> >>
>> >> As a result, I know a little about Islam.  What is happening now in
>> China
>> >> is, from their standpoint, the only thing they can do and they will be
>> >> ruthless in carrying it out.  Any notion of there being a "family of
>> man"
>> >> should be re-examined.  It's only going to get worse, as Sam Huntington
>> >> correctly predicted 30 years ago but, alas, since ELECTRICITY *formed*
>> our
>> >> elites, he was ignored.  "Globalism" is dead -- which is why Trump was
>> >> elected.  The "World Order" has already been remade.  And, as they say,
>> >> "Something's strange in the neighborhood! Who are you going to call?"
>> >>
>> >>
>> >>
>> https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.amazon.com_Clash-2DCivilizations-2DRemaking-2DWorld-2DOrder_dp_1451628978&d=DwIFaQ&c=eLbWYnpnzycBCgmb7vCI4uqNEB9RSjOdn_5nBEmmeq0&r=HPo1IXYDhKClogP-UOpybo6Cfxxz-jIYBgjO2gOz4-A&m=I7DEa5YxOdkJ7gJgGBvCaLsedEJVAF-yRsXg46rgKqc&s=xbm8imdcJ9BaurooL0uoSVfKoa0Lsij1mZkh4qrBMho&e=
>> >>
>> >>
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