Saturday 9 May 2020

Mass misdirection: How come - after so many dystopian novels, TV shows and movies - people still can't recognise evil totalitarianism when they are living it?

The thing is: They are clever! Not all-knowing, certainly not all-powerful - and highly fallible; but They are clever. A lot cleverer than most of their pseudo-intellectual critics who will explain-away the biggest, fastest, most universal and comprehensive change in the history of the world as some kind of random coincidence of something or another.


I mean that, just four months ago, the world was qualitatively different; and now almost everybody is living under an extremity of control and restriction that would have been literally incredible, just four months ago. All the talk is that this change will be permanent, in some form.

It happened. And - fundamentally - hardly anybody has noticed; and hardly anybody who has noticed can see the obvious cause; but instead grasps and holds-tight onto the transparently inadequate and incoherent excuse that everything is necessary because of the deadly birdemic plague - and the totalitarian world must continue because of the birdemic plague...


This is all the more surprising since - for the entire last generation - the best-selling, and biggest impact media have been all-about evil totalitarian dystopias; from Harry Potter and the Hunger Games through innumerable other variants of the same idea. And this was building upon the past century of similar products - The Time Machine, 1984, Brave New World etc.

These have been massively disseminated, in multiple media. Now, why would the Global Establishment be so keen on making and sustaining mass media phenomena describing totalitarian dystopias, if that is what they were planning to impose upon us?

The answer, I think, is misdirection.


We have seen many, many evil totalitarian dystopias; but the evil-ness of these societies has always been portrayed as militaristic, violent and murdering. (That is, Luciferic evil.)

This is indeed natural, because in a godless and secular society; directly causing physical suffering seems to be the only kind of evil that people recognise. Thus in these modern dystopias, the baddies are bad because they torment, torture and kill lots of people.

Therefore, when a totalitarian society arises that does not (any more than usual) torment, torture and kill great masses of people - and what is more, was implemented without any uniformed, marching armies and by consent - then it just isn't noticed, and is indeed denied.

Misdirection has worked. 


A godless materialistic society has no belief in any purpose or meaning to life; therefore the idea of evilness as micro-control of behaviour and thought has no reality. It cannot be grasped.

Such a society denies the non-material, the spiritual - indeed it barely acknowledges the autonomous free agency of human beings; who are continually redescribed and modelled in terms of being wholly-determined or statistically-random in their actions. The existence of evil spirits is regarded as being childish, dumb or an insane delusion.

In such a world - and this is mainstream and mandatory in Western discourse - there can be no genuine intent, not even of humans; and everything is explained by the forces acting-upon humans.

One would have supposed that the indescribably vast evidence of humans planning and scheming throughout history and into the present might have had some traction - but no.

The only acceptable view is that stuff just happens, either because it must - or for no reason at all; but at any rate, evil strategies are ruled-out a priori (by assumption) because evil Men are not self-motivated and evil spirits don't exist.


The actually-existing Ahrimanic nature of modern evil is beyond comprehension; hence unrecognised; hence unopposed. The evilness of a society of omni-surveillance and total-control is seen only when this is used to pursue violence; and there is no conception of materialistic reduction being evil in itself.

In sum; when reality is spiritual, but Men are materialistic, then the basic nature and point of life become utterly invisible to consciousness. At an unconscious and inarticulate level; Men retain an awareness of spiritual realities - and it is this that causes the demotivation, fear and despair underlying much of the world today. But unconscious and inarticulate does not suffice.

Therefore, the best and most important thing that we can do is to bring to explicit consciousness these vague feelings and hunches about what has happened and the nature of this current situation. We need to make our-selves aware of that understanding already latent in us.


This is the indispensable first step... But towards what? The answer is: To the salvation of our souls, to life everlasting beyond death.

Those who don't want Heaven can get what they want under totalitarianism - they have no problem with being misdirected.

Those who want Hell or self-annihilation for themselves have no problem with totalitarianism, because it is a demonic mechanism of damnation. They can continue to live under misdirection.

But you may be different. If you want Heaven, if you are a Christian, you need to understand.

8 comments:

Doktor Jeep said...

Your title is the answer. The people are so programmed by media the real dystopia does not look like anything the people expect.
We're is Lord Humungus when you need him?

participant said...

Perhaps, after so many years of viewing mass media mind manipulations, people simply can not separate reality from fantasy.

Bruce Charlton said...

p - Something in that. There's a look in people's eyes that suggests they are thinking: "Just more TV...".

Sonny Rob said...

An evil of blandishments and temptation is definitely more effective than one of torment and punishment. Iron can be forged in fire, but warm rain can be corroding to the already-formed sword. One question I've been asking myself (maybe because I've been reading a lot of Oscar Wilde) is where weakness and the venial end and where true, willful evil begin. Is someone who is trying to just kill their pain with drugs unworthy of sympathy? I know the dealers/Sacklers are damned.

Bruce Charlton said...

@SR "warm rain" - that is a very good metaphor.

"Is someone who is trying to just kill their pain with drugs unworthy of sympathy?" - IMO it all depends on motivation. It is worth remembering that despair is a sin, because it denies faith. But to escape from pain is not in itself a sin - but is a spontaneous action. This is an individual matter. We can, and must, judge for ourselves which is happening in each case; but of course we may get it wrong. One sign may be that if someone preaches despair, tries to persuade others to share in it; this is a clear sin. genuine despair is usually quiet, and repented, even when irresistable.

Michael Dyer said...

I think that many people do know, but unfortunately in this story you’re not one of the brave heroes, you’ve been cast as Oppressed Mass #5. It’s not a speaking part.

Don’t get me wrong of course many even most people don’t recognize it, but I think many do, don’t believe they can change anything, and it gets pushed to the back of the brain where thoughts like the awareness of ones inevitable death usually reside.

Because these movies and tv shows and novels don’t just show what dystopia looks like, they also give us a model of resistance that doesn’t bear much resemblance to anything you as a regular individual can do. Just free styling here, but that may be the bigger problem, because it’s teaching us how to fight the wrong war.

Bruce Charlton said...

@MD. That's the thing with Ahrimanic evil, it's impersonal and dispersed - systemic. Another reason it is so effective.

Andrew said...

I don't remember where, but I remember reading that Satan views humans as animals and far beneath angels & demons. I think mainstream scientific materialism also basically views animals as living machines that are stupid and respond in predictable ways to certain stimulus. To go further, it views humans as just advanced animals. Therefore all human actions should be easily predictable and controlled, and it is obvious that the elites think we *should* be controlled for our own good and "the planet" (and of course, their benefit and profit) - this is publicly stated and pushed - and has been for a long time.

Now the obvious major gap in this system is that people aren't animals, and they are in fact primarily spiritual. So the achilles heel would be, as you stated, in some intuitive purely creative and unpredictable actions.

Further, just as most people (who have given up the spirit) are utterly blind to the spiritual reality surrounding them, we may assume this system will be utterly blind to the free spiritual & creative acts that are its weakness.

Now, are the evil spirits, who are setting up this purely material system, also so blind? Is it some part of their chosen damnation that they are by necessity blind to the good and the godhood which exists in each man?