Ron Unz has done an analysis of the Miles Mathis phenomenon, which I considered in a previous post.
Unz concludes that MM is not a man but a front organization, whose purpose is to discredit "conspiracy theorists" by making absurd claims, and that this organization was probably created, and is run by, the CHOAM secret services.
I disagree with Unz's conclusions in several respects, which is why I felt stimulated to write this.
While I completely agree that MM is wrong about most things, and (in particular) very slapdash and inaccurate in both facts and reasoning when it comes to supposed genealogies -
I will stick my neck out concerning something of which I have no direct knowledge; and suggest that Mathis is not an agency but a real person, and a single person, and is pursuing his own agenda.
This seems clear to me from the internal evidence of the writing, which has - throughout the vast volume - a very distinct and consistent personality.
Furthermore; Mathis does say some important, interesting and original things; and demonstrates in the writing itself evidence of a creative and independent thinker - albeit with the kind of "self-absorbed" personality that often goes-with (and indeed generates) such motivated creativity.
Mathis's basic perspective could be regarded as motivated by the true conviction that most of what we think we know, comes (very much) second-hand and via extremely corrupt (and indeed purposively evil) institutions and media.
Therefore most of what we think we know (even at a very basic level of "facts") is either completely false and fabricated, or else so profoundly (and calculatingly) distorted by selectivity and suppression to be grossly misleading.
This message is not just true, but extremely important yet very widely neglected. It amounts to the advocacy by Mathis of a far more autonomous and self-responsible way of relating to the world than nearly-always happens.
To put forward such a perspective is indeed far more important than even multiple specific inaccuracies of factual assertion - which errors are in any case inevitable when dealing with events remote in time and place.
One more thing.
If it is true (and I expect it is true, but not of MM) that in some respects the intelligence organizations of the West are engaged in a strategy of trying to "discredit" conspiracy theories in-general by subsidizing and promoting "far out", false and/or absurd theories (Unz's example is "flat earth") -- then the intelligence services are (I am pleased to say!) making a Big Mistake!
Once somebody has learned Not to trust official and mainstream sources, and think for himself, he has learned something vital; and it does not much matter whether he "goes too far" and makes specific statements that most people regard as (or know to be) wrong.
In other words, the important thing is Not to avoid being discredited by silly mistakes, but instead Not To Care about whether "other people" regard you as having been discredited*.
After all, it is by its control of public prestige that The System controls so much of intellectual discourse - we absolutely must escape this control, and that can only be done by ceasing to care about what They think of Us.
There is a primary need for as many people as possible to escape the toils of The System and think things through for our-selves, taking personal responsibility for our understanding - on the basis of what we evaluate to be the most reliable sources of knowledge (and especially on the basis of personal experience from engaging with the world).
This can be learned from Miles Mathis's example, if we choose to focus on this fundamental aspect of his work; rather than getting distracted by his many, and often wrong and bizarre, conclusions - only perhaps a few of which are genuinely correct.
It is what he does in general, more than what he says in particular, that makes MM a potentially valuable writer.
*By "not to care" I mean in your innermost self. The important thing nowadays is to be clear in one's own mind, and to inwardly take responsibility, about important matters. This does Not mean that we ought to be trying to enter the public domain, nor advertise our personal conclusions, nor argue "other people" into agreement with our conclusions. Maybe we should do this sometimes, for particular reasons, but surely not always.
It's not just MM in general, the "everything you know is wrong" type conspiracy theory has become quite popular in recent years. My view is that while they can lead people away from the Establishment consensus, their theories don't provide much in the way of a positive replacement.
ReplyDeleteOne reason I'm skeptical is because there's this attitude of "everything you know is wrong, except what I'm trying to tell you now, that's 100% true." Also, people's standard beliefs about history for example are an aggregation of many independent sources. It's false to say that standard history is part of the establishment consensus. In fact, most of it is just currently unchallenged, but it could be at any time if it was deemed useful.
But at the most basic level, one's own memories and experience of how things have changed (including the way old books were compared to modern books) are one of the most fundamental reasons to doubt the establishment consensus. People know that things were much less fake before the turn of the millennium not because someone told us, but because we were there.
And those memories are a much better guidebook than elaborate reasonings based on secondhand sources saying that it was as fake then as it is now and always has been.
Well, that's my view anyway.
@NLR - I'm assuming anyone interested will read my previous post about MM, where I covered that kind of issue. All I was focusing on here was related to RU's conclusions about the origin, nature, motivations and effect of MM's productions.
ReplyDeleteIf one bothers to make the point, it is very easy to show very young children the unreliability of media. You can check out three books from the children’s library on any topic (komodo dragons is a good one) and guaranteed you will find at least one contradiction between them (Komodo dragons were believed to be poisonous, then “science” dismissed that, then a few years ago “science” found the venom after all).
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately few Christian homeschoolers seem to get that Creation is the primary thing. Personally I am highly skeptical of dinosaurs ever existing (having been a totally dinosaur-obsessed child who eventually came to hate all museums for their absurdly dishonest presentation of basically everything), but the Bible-is-primary types just need assurance that dinosaurs would fit on the ark and that’s good enough for them. Imagine rejiggering your theology every time “the science” promulgates some new idea! Exhausting.
@Mia - Yes, it is easy to find contradictions. But somehow this doesn't make the difference that might be expected! People are pretty easily manipulated, especially if some human factor gets linked. For example, when an "atrocity" is being pushed, the media (etc) make it so that questioning "the narrative" is regarded as cruel and inhumane - yet these atrocity narratives *always* turn out to be significantly untruthful, perhaps more so than any other kind of media story.
ReplyDeleteI admit that I check out MM's site on a weekly basis, and that I enjoy his style of writing. To me his primary flaw is the idea that 'evil' isn't a thing; it's basically spoilt rich brats running psy-ops to control the populace, hoarding the wealth and making the average joe sick and depressed.
ReplyDeleteAt the same time, this dismissal of evil is probably one of his strengths; he is a 'fear-dispeller' - and there aren't enough of those in the 'truth/alternative' movement.
I do put particular stress on this "discrediting" line of argument - because it reveals an incipiently corruptible desire to be "accepted". It also fails to recognize the extent of evil in the world today.
ReplyDeleteI think even MM himself fails to recognize that there is no existing *scientific* establishment that could - even in principle - accept his work *on scientific grounds*. (He is often lamenting that the scientific establishment take no public notice of his physics researches, although he believes that they all know about it in private.)
If MM's work on sunspots (for example) was "accepted", then this would inevitably be for dishonest and expedient reasons - in other words, aspects of his work might be *used* by the Establishment for their usual evil purposes, but not from love of truth.
@Michael - Fear is a sin, and dispelling it is good... when the fear is dispelled by a virtue such as love, or creativity. But there are also those people who dispel fear by psychopathy, pride or megalomania (for instance - or by distraction, or by not-thinking - such as intoxication). That is just to replace one sin with another (more self-gratifying) sin.
ReplyDeleteThis was characteristic of Nietzsche at his worst (N. has other - good - facts, but that was a besetting sin in his case.) - and is a direction in which Nietzsche's lead has often since been followed.
I decided to avoid MM after reading his Wittgenstein piece, via Vox Day. It was stupid, full of ridiculous assertions, absurd arguments, gave me a very low opinion of MM's integrity and intelligence. But I wondered, if I hadn't read a great deal of Wittgenstein, and several biographies, would I have realised how ignorant and moronic MM's piece was, just from the internal evidence? Given someone as intelligent as Vox believed it, I felt that MM is dangerous, that if you're not well-versed in the topic at hand it would be very easy to fall under whatever spell he casts.
ReplyDelete@DD - "MM is dangerous" - but Everybody is "dangerous" in that sense, including VD who is wildly mistaken about many things (I am speaking as someone who likes and appreciates VD, with whom I have corresponded at times).
ReplyDeletePeople really must get rid of this idea that there are safe and dangerous ways to be a Christian (or safe procedures or formulae for being "right"). Many people who are most importantly right about some particular thing, are wrong about most matters - yet we must read them if we want the important stuff.
(Of course it is Not worth reading people whose motivations are evil and dishonest and personally expedient - i.e. mainstream modern academics and scientists. But that does not apply to Mathis.)
wrt Wittgenstein - everybody is wrong about Wittgenstein, substantially due to W himself and secondarily to his disciples and admirers - there is just no single right answer about W, what he believed, what were his main ideas, where he was right... In such a situation, I don't see why anyone's take on Wittgenstein should be "avoided".
I guess for me the difference between MM and others is that his Wittgenstein piece was the equivalent of a mainstream media hatchet job, it wasn't a case of an interestingly wrong or weird interpretation. I've had personal experience of people believing such lies, so dislike that kind of thing. From what you and Vox have said of MM, it sounds like he has written other good pieces, however.
DeleteIn general, I take things with a pinch of salt!
I can't remember details of MM's Wittgenstein piece, but I do recall that he tripped up quite badly on his understanding of how universities worked 100 years ago - and indeed how British Universities worked until just twenty years ago - which was very differently from the USA.
ReplyDeleteThis repeatedly leads him to suppose something distinctive about the people he studies, when their academic trajectory was normal for the time and place.
Another recurrent error is genealogy - this is much, MUCH more difficult to get right than he supposes, as I know from investigations into my own family history.
Kieran has left a comment (edited):
ReplyDeleteI have been reading Miles' work since 2018, and I agree that the most important thing I have learned from him is radical skepticism towards current events that I cannot personally verify, and by a similar token history as well. I do not buy the committee interpretation, as his work repeatedly evinces the same kinds of flaws and exposes the same lack of understanding of certain topics. His output can be explained by the fact that he is highly intelligent, writes quickly, and does practically no due diligence in his writing (the primary source of his many errors).
However, at this point in time I cannot consider him to be fundamentally honest (if mistaken). I wouldn't go so far as to say he is evil or personally expedient, however his personality and his extreme fragility means he is not capable of actually pursuing truth. Rather he is pursuing the elaboration of an internal world, which, while bearing some relation to reality in certain important and neglected respects, is radically and unjustifiably divergent from it in many others.
...
Denzel Dominique has left a comment (edited):
ReplyDelete...
For years I thought you were related to Bobby Charlton...
@DD - "For years I thought you were related to Bobby Charlton..."
ReplyDeleteSo did our family. There were Many indications that we "must be". But tracing back to before 1750 - we are not related; I'm sorry to say.
Hear, hear! GREAT post, Bruce! I love it.
ReplyDeleteYou are so right that taking that first big step into a new way of thinking is the hugely valuable thing. We don't need "an alternative source of news," we need to free ourselves from having our thinking directed by other people.