THE PRIMITOLOGY OF ELITISM - Jersey Flight

The question is, do you know what's really going on?

The question is, can one know what's really going on?

What do we mean by this question, by this phrase, 'really going on?' Does this not imply that one can be deceived about reality? How does one know that one is not deceived?

Is it a matter of formal systems; is it a matter of procedure? Are we merely talking about epistemology?

We must get to the point.

We are floating on a spherical, isolated rock. We are all the subjects of systems of power; we are all subjects of control. The question is whether or not we understand the relations in which we fine ourselves; the question of power is a question of relations. Do we have the ability to evaluate the nature of the relations in which we find ourselves?

Whoever owns the resources of the earth owns life. Whoever owns the earth controls the direction of life. Is not ownership itself a kind of relation, in vast magnitude, a kind of tyranny?

The resources of the earth are vital to life, why then, would the people of life, allow these resources to be monopolized against the quality and stability of life?

What then, is really going on?
Are we free or is mankind a herd?

The man who argues the right of individuals, to own large portions of the earth, restricts the freedom of its citizens. These men do not realize that they are affirming a system which will enslave their children.

One of the problems is that we let people tell us they are better than us; we let people tell us they have things figured out, when in reality, they have only figured out how to manipulate people in order to make things work for themselves. These people solve the problems of life by disenfranchising other people of life.

The question of reality is vital. The supernaturalists rave about an invisible world, but what does this have to do with the materiality of our existence? What does this have to do with the suffering and needs of the body?

To wake up to reality means one realizes they are being fooled.

What is freedom? Is it the freedom to serve corporations, mechanical and heartless institutions? "You are free to obey," is the silent precept of our time, but this is not freedom.

The genocide of our time is economic, it has to do with material deprivation and the control of resources; it has to do with the leverage of those resources against those who need them.

I purposely restrain from the language and style of academics, they insinuate that their formal procedures are essential, required for any authoritative conclusion. I reject this authoritarianism. Time is very limited, he that would be a philosopher of the people must learn to communicate swiftly! We do not have the luxury of assimilating the literature of Western Culture, urgency is upon us, the present system has sabotaged freedom. The future of the species hangs in the balance.

We must ask the question as to the nature of social relations. Poverty is not something that drops from the sky, it is like wealth, it is inherited. A man is the outcome of all that came before him, this includes his ideas and his material status in the world.

If we are wise we will probe the relations that control us, we will inquire into the nature of these relations; we will examine them to see if they correspond to our existential reality. (that is to say) do they make sense (are they intelligent) given the fragile nature of our existence?

This is the vital question; salvation has always been a matter of intelligence, it has nothing to do with the false hope of supernatural deliverance. We must save ourselves from our own stupidity, from our own tyranny.

Who does not want to make a better world for their children? The question then is one of the intelligence of our procedure; the intelligence of our methods; the intelligence of our logic; the intelligence of our relations.

Why must we do things the way we do (as though these channels  were unalterable laws of the universe)? Who does the present system benefit? Who sets the rules of the game?

All the ants marched in single file, until one ant decided to break formation; he had enough courage to question the intelligence of the procedure.

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DECLARATION OF THE PEOPLE - Jersey Flight

WE, THE PEOPLE OF THE EARTH, sharing the same lot, and having great need of each other, for the quality and stability of our survival, do take it upon ourselves to declare that tyrants and despots should find no place among our species. 

We, the people of the earth, have a right to the earth insofar as life itself depends on the earth. We reject the false philosophy which says some men have a greater right to the earth than others. We reject all systems which create classes of privilege, knowing full well that the outcome of such systems leads to the destruction of freedom and the chaos of war. No species can thrive in chaos, and all those who are against the thriving of the species, are against the species itself.

There is a duty before us, it is the duty to protect freedom from the claims of tyranny. One man does not constitute a nation, a nation is made up of many people. One body does not constitute the species, the species is made up of many bodies. One man on his own is nothing, and would come to naught without the mutual aid of his fellow, but all men are what they are because of the help of other men.

Since no man can escape the fact that he has need of other men, Intelligence demands that we strive for peace. Progress demands peace, without peace there can be no progress, and without progress, the species cannot transcend its suffering. This tragic fact cripples the quality of life, and if life loses its quality, then it loses not only its power, but also its incentive. 

When greedy men lay claim to the earth it is the duty of the people, for the good of their children, for the future of the species, to nullify these claims in the name of Intelligence. Elitism is not the friend, but the enemy of man. Elitism is a form of tyranny, wherein individuals seek to lord over other men, and this they do by claiming a greater right to the earth. But the earth does not belong to one man, the earth belongs to all men. It is the right of those who are born on the earth to lay equal claim to the earth; it is the duty of the people to see that their rightful claim is not thwarted by the tyranny of tyrants. To assist in this endeavor it is vital for the people to affirm their common humanity. Man cannot live without access to the earth; man cannot thrive without the assistance of his fellow man. These facts of reality, though they cannot be refuted, have been suppressed by tyrants. There are those who claim a right to unequal property; they use property in order to restrict freedom. But we, the people of the earth, lay equal claim to the earth, insofar as we are born on the earth, insofar as we are creatures of the earth, insofar as we cannot survive without it. We have no other resource from which to nourish life. If man is banished from the earth, if he is held at a distance through legislative violence, then he will suffer, and as one suffers, so the species suffers. Man's life consists only in his relation to the earth and other men. To remove these axioms is to destroy the life of man.
 
In order to protect freedom and ensure the quality of life, which is the same as protecting the future of the species, governments must be instituted by men. The power of these bodies best serves the species only when they protect the axioms which are vital to the species. For this reason the power of government should always be set against the power of tyranny (most of all this means the potential tyranny of government itself). The point of government should always be the security of liberty for the largest possible amount of people. When the power of government is set to protect the interests of the Elite, then such a government has become a tyranny to life. It is the duty of the people, for the good of the species, for their own vitality and that of their children, to overthrow this government, and establish one that is consistent with the axioms of life. A failure to do this, will not only result in the stagnation of the species, but also an unnecessary prolongation of its suffering.       

It is time for the people of the earth to come together and understand that they are children of the earth. To give one man a larger privileged than all the rest is to rob the rest of life and freedom. Because tyrants will not share what they claim as their right, even though they cannot justify this claim in reality, it is forced on the people to resist the tyranny of tyrants. But this must be done with Intelligence, it is the way of primitive men to resolve conflict by violence. Violence is only necessary when tyrants leave no other way for the people to emancipate themselves from tyranny, and this they do by suppressing the right to speak, by enacting legislation, which pretends to act righteously in the name of life, but in reality, is nothing more than a cloak for tyranny. As long as free speech is protected by law the people have all the power they need to liberate themselves from a tyrant.  

In order to live a quality life man needs resources, and the only place he can draw these resources, is from the earth. Those who claim an unequal right to these resources rob life of its vitality. Such men, having no concern for the species, stand as a threat to the species. These men are left over from another time; from a time when it was superstitiously believed that war was good for the progress of life; "that competition is the guarantee of survival." But we have grown beyond this groundless superstition, these empty, authoritarian platitudes. It is clear, by every precept of our strongest methods of inquiry, that cooperation is the great surety of life. It alone is the driving force of progress; it is the precondition of life and happiness.

If our species would blossom into the future then we must be able to see the clear truth that Elitism is the enemy of life, insofar as it is the enemy of the species, insofar as it stands and speaks only for its own quality and freedom. In the grand context of existence, it is evident that Elitism is a form of social confusion and tyranny, it is a recipe for social disaster.  

When the goods of the earth are restricted and controlled by those who seek to leverage these goods as a threat against life, then all of life suffers. Such control only serves to thwart and cripple the progress, stability and quality of the species. These men, who stand among us, claiming themselves to be leaders, examples for us and our children, are no such thing, they would drag all of humanity to extinction merely to keep their unwarranted privilege of power, a power they wield over other men in suppression of freedom.

We, the people of the earth, declare that the resources of the earth belong freely to the agents of life, to all those who are born onto the earth and have need of the earth. We declare that no man has the lawful right, given the actual material facts of existence, to hoard the resources of the earth against the people. The only reason the people have permitted this injustice thus far, is because they have been deceived by the empty claims of ambitious men. It has been ignorance, fostered by deceit, and not compliance, which has led to the proliferation of this tyranny.

We, the people of the earth, demand that those who claim an unequal right to the earth, justify the claim they make. For here there is a Reality of Intelligence that stands above the authoritarian claims of greedy men. It is not a matter of divine law, which consists in mindless obedience to groundless assertion and myth, but a matter of Intelligent Procedure. Common sense doth dictate, that the unbalanced and gross gluttony of private property in the hands of a ruling Elite, only leads to the inevitable downfall and regression of the species. In order for life to thrive it must have abundant conditions. No life can flourish in the absence of nourishing conditions. So important is this fact that all life must have access to the earth. Any man or system, which restricts this essential necessity, is, as a matter of fact, an enemy of the species.

In the darkness of this vast and mysterious universe, let us stand together against indifferent nature, knowing full well that this is our best and only recourse of action if we would create abundant conditions, in order to cultivate abundant life. 

Signed, 
A Citizen of the Earth.




 

JERSEY FLIGHT IN CONVERSATION WITH THEODORE ADORNO

Adorno: The sociological theory that the loss of the support of objectively established religion, the dissolution of the last remnants of pre-capitalism, together with technological and social differentiation or specialization, have led to cultural chaos is disproved every day; for culture now impresses the same stamp on everything.*

Flight: That is to say, culture does not die in the absence of primitive narratives. Those who are attached to these narratives argue for their necessity. They say the world would implode without them, but you are correct, my friend, this has not been the empirical reality. Nihilism is all bark and no bite. 

Adorno: Under monopoly all mass culture is identical, and the lines of its artificial framework begin to show through. The people at the top are no longer so interested in concealing monopoly: as its violence becomes more open, so its power grows. Movies and radio need no longer pretend to be art. The truth that they are just business is made into an ideology in order to justify the rubbish they deliberately produce. They call themselves industries; and when their directors’ incomes are published, any doubt about the social utility of the finished products is removed.

Flight: Monopoly, as you speak of it, means economic control of the cultural industry. This is an important point, because the culture industry is the apparatus which instills individual values. Those who control the culture industry do not have to worry about reality, insofar as they have the power to shape it! This boldness is proof that they have succeeded at instilling their values. But here there is a paradox: they strive to shape reality, precisely because it stands against them, there is nothing they have to worry about more than reality! 

Adorno: The technical contrast between the few production centers and the large number of widely dispersed consumption points is said to demand organization and planning by management. Furthermore, it is claimed that standards were based in the first place on consumers’ needs, and for that reason were accepted with so little resistance. The result is the circle of manipulation and retroactive need in which the unity of the system grows ever stronger. No mention is made of the fact that the basis on which technology acquires power over society is the power of those whose economic hold over society is greatest. A technological rationale is the rationale of domination itself. It is the coercive nature of society alienated from itself.

Flight: It is interesting, no matter how corrosive to the fabric of society, the capitalist always defends the idea that his choices are socially responsible and moral. And yet this is backward. The idea that production functions in order to meet social demand is a truthful lie.+ The reality is that desire is instilled by the producers! The point is not to meet the criteria of human need, but to exploit humans for profit. In order to do this institutions administer ideology through the channels of authority, emotion is exploited for the sake of profit; propaganda propagates itself through the use of authoritarian declarations (as well as irrational rationalism).

+This is the swiftest definition of ideology.
 
Adorno: The step from the telephone to the radio has clearly distinguished the roles. The former still allowed the subscriber to play the role of subject, and was liberal. The latter is democratic: it turns all participants into listeners and authoritatively subjects them to broadcast programs which are all exactly the same. No machinery of rejoinder has been devised, and private broadcasters are denied any freedom. They are confined to the apocryphal field of the “amateur,” and also have to accept organization from above.

Flight: I can see this being the case in a more crude society, but in the present system the control is more subtle. In other words, Elites will allow the “amateur” to broadcast his opinion, they simply use their wealth to bury what he said. He is a solitary voice, easily marked out and painted as a “fanatic,” this is what they call those who expose their truthful untruth+. The ideology of fanaticism is precisely to use this term against those who expose the controllers! Everything is referenced back to the calm atmosphere which insinuates that backwardness is normality. People are taught to respond indifferently to objective suffering; they are conditioned to normalize the tyranny of capitalism. Homelessness, for example, is always framed as a defect of the person, it is never the outcome of a tyrannical system. 

+ Another phrase for ideology. 

Adorno: We are closer to the facts if we explain these phenomena as inherent in the technical and personnel apparatus which, down to its last cog, itself forms part of the economic mechanism of selection. In addition there is the agreement – or at least the determination – of all executive authorities not to produce or sanction anything that in any way differs from their own rules, their own ideas about consumers, or above all themselves.

Flight: People are taught to protect and guard a moral ideology. They are taught that any challenge to this authority will result in absolute tyranny (unspeakable suffering for them and their children). The starting premise is always the same: the masses require the assistance of Elites in order to practice civility, and yet the irony, is that the Elite order, is an order of chaos. It has not been able to peacefully resolve tension between bodies. Institutions, capitalist nations, are always starting wars over resources. War is literally part of the ontology of capitalism. The reason these “executive authorities” cannot permit dissidence is because it would undermine their ideological control of the people. And what would this nullify? Their profit. 

Adorno: In our age the objective social tendency is incarnate in the hidden subjective purposes of company directors…

Flight: This act of concealing the profit motive behind a barrage of justificatory language (pseudo-rationalism) largely summarizes the character of the capitalist world. People are taught to have two faces: one is the “hidden subjective purpose” (to maximize profit through means of exploitation), while the other is the friendly salesman who plays the part of a humanitarian for the sake of profit. When caring about people brings profit, the capitalist pretends to care about people. The capitalist always claims he is engaged in the process of making the world a better place, of “lifting people out of poverty.” This is his own special form of cognitive dissonance (just like the Nazis did not see themselves as immoral, they had many justifications for their actions, and even after they were defeated, excuses were still abundant). Capitalism teaches a man, the better he is at deceiving, the more successful he will be in business.

Adorno: Kant said that there was a secret mechanism in the soul which prepared direct intuitions in such a way that they could be fitted into the system of pure reason. But today that secret has been deciphered. While the mechanism is to all appearances planned by those who serve up the data of experience, that is, by the culture industry, it is in fact forced upon the latter by the power of society, which remains irrational, however we may try to rationalise it; and this inescapable force is processed by commercial agencies so that they give an artificial impression of being in command.

Flight: This was not hard to figure out. Psychology established the supremacy of emotion as the strongest medium of control. Capitalism is all about the manipulation of consumer emotion. The secret to control is to conceal the mechanism of control. In other words, you are correct, emotional manipulation does not constitute real control, but is in fact, a manifestation of how hard one has to work to retain control. There is much hope in this, because it implies that humans have to be manipulated in order to be integrated into capitalism. If this manipulation does remain constant, the whole system is in danger of breaking apart. The tactic is to Keep people so busy they never get the chance to stop and analyze the system which holds them captive.     

Adorno: There is nothing left for the consumer to classify. Producers have done it for him.

Flight: This is the equivalent of constructing the world through an architecture of authority. In all truth, this is only possible because people are conditioned to obey authority. How many people know how to deconstruct and qualify classifications? We must begin to teach people how to detect and refute authority, which is to say, we must teach them how to discern legitimate authority,  justified authority.

Adorno: The whole world is made to pass through the filter of the culture industry. The old experience of the movie-goer, who sees the world outside as an extension of the film he has just left (because the latter is intent upon reproducing the world of everyday perceptions), is now the producer’s guideline. The more intensely and flawlessly his techniques duplicate empirical objects, the easier it is today for the illusion to prevail that the outside world is the straightforward continuation of that presented on the screen.

Flight: This is a device for total control. A young person is taught to mimic what they see on the screen. When we ask the question, for example, “how does love work,” the answer for those who have been filtered through the cultural industry, is always the same: “love is what is portrayed by the image.” If reality fails to match the ideology of the theater, then one feels cheated. But this feeling is the result of normalization, which is to say, the result of moral conditioning through the medium of film. The individual, inoculated into the cultural industry, does not know how to penetrate the veil of ideology which stands before him. He is powerless against insinuation, because he does not know how to identify and challenge that which is presented as normal. He is taught to go along with the status quo. If one can laugh at a holocaust, then a holocaust is normal. I'm afraid things really are this bad.

Adorno: Real life is becoming indistinguishable from the movies. The sound film, far surpassing the theatre of illusion, leaves no room for imagination or reflection on the part of the audience, who is unable to respond within the structure of the film, yet deviate from its precise detail without losing the thread of the story; hence the film forces its victims to equate it directly with reality. The stunting of the mass-media consumer’s powers of imagination and spontaneity does not have to be traced back to any psychological mechanisms; he must ascribe the loss of those attributes to the objective nature of the products themselves, especially to the most characteristic of them, the sound film. They are so designed that quickness, powers of observation, and experience are undeniably needed to apprehend them at all; yet sustained thought is out of the question if the spectator is not to miss the relentless rush of facts.
 
Even though the effort required for his response is semi-automatic, no scope is left for the imagination. Those who are so absorbed by the world of the movie – by its images, gestures, and words – that they are unable to supply what really makes it a world, do not have to dwell on particular points of its mechanics during a screening. All the other films and products of the entertainment industry which they have seen have taught them what to expect; they react automatically.

Flight: What this tells me is that film is a powerful medium for the emancipation and expansion of consciousness. One cannot reject all philosophy simply because there is bad philosophy. These aesthetic devices should be used to bring about a greater liberation in society, but instead, they are used to pacify intelligence, and bring about a mindless submission. Perhaps the most tragic point is when the producer is not aware of what he is producing. This is because he is only able to produce in light of his consciousness, and if his consciousness is shaped by ideology, then he will reproduce ideology.

Adorno: Whereas today in material production the mechanism of supply and demand is disintegrating, in the superstructure it still operates as a check in the rulers’ favour. The consumers are the workers and employees, the farmers and lower middle class. Capitalist production so confines them, body and soul, that they fall helpless victims to what is offered them. As naturally as the ruled always took the morality imposed upon them more seriously than did the rulers themselves, the deceived masses are today captivated by the myth of success even more than the successful are. Immovably, they insist on the very ideology which enslaves them.

Flight: This is a complete ideological circle. Never is ideology more successful than when it instills the desire for itself! 


* All Adorno quotes are taken from the "Dialectic of Enlightenment," section, "The Cultural Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception," pg.94-136, Stanford University Press 2002
  

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WHAT THE FUCK IS IDEOLOGY? - Jersey Flight

Ideology is not simply fancy words, it is a series of intellectual components which work together to produce a false perception of reality. In its strongest manifestation ideology presents itself as a form of rationalism, but in truth, it is a psychological architecture of control. Understanding ideology is vital to freedom. It is the nature of ideology to proliferate itself without detection; it is the nature of ideology to condition and direct the actions of the individual (without the individual knowing). We do not need to be confused about what ideology is: it is simply a form of intellectual deception. Ideology offers an appearance of rationality, it speaks in the name of rationality! But when we contrast the clams of ideology with reality, we learn that ideology is nothing more than abstraction. Ideology is an abstract superstructure that one tries to force over reality, even as one tries to force reality to conform to this superstructure; it is an attempt to re-frame the narrative of existence in light of primitive, moral precepts. If these precepts were not hidden within the framework of ideology, they would be immediately rejected, but the whole point of ideology is to subtly instill these precepts, without detection. Ideology is an architecture of control.

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Philosopher Jersey Flight Explains the Meaning of Life

Friendship is predicated on trust and communication. This is a formula for true intimacy, which means, true meaning. He that understands this understands the secret of life! Trust is that which refers to character, it has to do with the quality of one's disposition. Communication has to do with vulnerability, acceptance, understanding.

How does one build intimacy? Learn how to be vulnerable with people you can trust; be the kind of person that other people can trust; learn to keep things in confidence, do not practice wrath, do not seek revenge, do not talk behind people's back, because this only proves that you're not a person who can be trusted, and if you cannot be trusted, then you cannot build intimacy! And if you cannot build intimacy you will remain trapped inside yourself, for one who is conscious, this is a form of existential terror, it makes for a wasted life. Go and learn what this means! Learn to be wise, learn to cultivate a character of trust, learn to share yourself with those you can trust.

He that has intimacy needs nothing else! Intimacy simply means man's greatest chance to connect, to understand and be understood. One who understands the context of this cold and violent universe (a dark and vast world of indifference) understands that no vocation in life can be higher than that of intimacy.      

Understand that we have, right here and now, expounded the deepest meaning of life.

I am a swift philosopher for you! I purposely write the way I do because I am trying to communicate a large amount of information in a small space; because your time has been monopolized by those who cheat you out of your labor. The present organization of society is structured around legislative tyranny. It is set up to reward those who exploit people and resources without conscience. A better world is one where the resources of the earth are shared by the people of the earth. At present they are hoarded by greedy men, so much so that a man cannot even lay his head on the earth without becoming a criminal! This has done catastrophic social damage to the well-being of our species. Suffering is passed down from generation to generation. A mother's psychology affects her children.  

It is not that we have a corrupt human nature, but that we have learned from bad moral examples! And make no mistake, we are the kind of creatures who mimic what we see; we must shake off these immoral actors [and their immoral ideology]; we must expose them for the existential frauds they are. They pretend to show us how to do life --- because they understand it so well! These parasites that feed off the combined efforts of the people; those who make war against mankind in the name of freedom! And these are the men and women our children should mimic? These are the men and women who have the intelligence and character to carry mankind into the future? But we are better than these pretenders my friends!          

The philosophers of our time are confused. But it is not their fault, they were taught to do philosophy a certain way, pretentiously and impractically! They were taught that abstraction is more important than intimacy. They were taught to suspect all other thinkers, and therefore do they live inside themselves. They do not know how to harness or enjoy the power of other minds! They came into life like all of us, isolated and fragile objects in a hostile universe, but they go one step further, they seek to sustain and expand this isolation! This is confusion.

None are more confused than those who reject intimacy. 

Stupid and foolish philosophers have I seen in my time. Stupid and foolish people. I have seen those with intimacy, sabotage intimacy with poor character. I have seen those in desperate need of intimacy, reject intimacy, because they thought the meaning of life lay elsewhere! They had ambitions of the ego, ambitions to seek fame, but fame is not higher than intimacy! Nothing in life is greater than intimacy! But you cannot have it without character! One must be the kind of person that can be trusted; intimacy cannot be built without mutual trust.   

When I lay down a premise I want another good thinker to come along and develop it. This way thinking gets further along in its vocation! It's a matter of joining forces; of combing energy and power to converge on the creation or discovery of something which renders even more power. This is the way of intelligence because it is the way to maximize power!    

Do you want to achieve fame, or do you want to make progress before you die? 

I'm all about the discovery of new worlds and new philosophical ideas. I want real philosophical power, power toward life! Propositional dynamite! The power to be free from authoritarian structures; the power to connect deeply.

My life is short and my power is limited. I cannot read everything, I cannot evaluate everything, but I can converse with other people, and this means (if I am humble) I can proceed beyond my limitations.  

Go and learn what this means. Learn to cultivate a character of trust, learn to share yourself with those you can trust.

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