The intellectual history of our time has yet to be written. When it is, it could go by the title: Figures Lie. Liars Figure. Instead of “rationalism” we get “rationalization.” We can’t hide from lies forever. Every lie requires more lies to back it up. And in a digital age nothing is hidden.
Agreed the truth will eventually come out. I think that the digital age is currently using information overload to hide the truth, but now even the truth of that is coming out.
Your speculation on "a hidden shadow of trauma" that has pervaded university sciences I would extend to all areas of study, in fact I would extend it to all humans on the planet. I think we've been born into a poorly-concealed slave-system - which is itself traumatizing - called 'reality' which we accept as reality and then do our best to adjust to. There's so many underlying assumptions we've agreed to (usually unknowingly) about the nature of life, that are likely wrong, or at the very least, highly distorted.
Do we know what it is to be free as humans? Maybe there was a time on the planet (think so, assuming a much larger history) where we did experience life as free, genuinely free.
I can't prove any of it - but my feeling is we are in a massive transformation, which will require everything hidden coming to light, with the eventual result being, a freed humanity. What does that look like? We don't know.
As for what happened during the Covid PSYOP, details aside, the hidden hand (behind everything, not just academia) behind this propped up version of the Reality-Show-World, started to be seen. For some of us, it's obvious, for others, there's only an inkling. Doesn't matter, this version of the world is giving way, crumbling, being seen through, etc.
Which makes it a challenging and fascinating time to be alive. Thanks, Gary!
I agree that trauma pervades our human world, and indeed is probably at the heart of whoever is behind the PSYOP doing what they do and why they act out this way. Whatever being free look like, it has to be better than the alternatives!
BTW, just saw a SS notification that you had recommended my stack - thank you, again. I recommended back, and not because I felt compelled. I truly value it. Thanks, Gary.
The Unenlightenment began when the light of discovery was focused on ever narrower targets, when experts began wielding lasers to illumine their extremely narrow fields of expertise, and all else around became dark. The experts lost contact with the real world and thus so did science itself.
I think the selection of certain personality types by the system is one of the system's most concerning features. If we could isolate a single phenomenon responsible for the rise of pathocracy, I think this would be it. You make it all the way through The Matter with Things?
Yes, I see all our institutions doing this, but different institutions self-selecting different subsets of the personality types. No,, I have not made it all the way through! I am relying on the videos on his youtube channel, which goes through the book one chapter at a time!
I immediately wonder about myself: I have never been able to focus on any one narrow subject (or even on any one wide subject). Most recently I started an interview series on "hare-brained people" (like myself) who do not graze in a tiny pasture. This is nothing new. I could not specialize as an undergrad, but took courses in everything from genetics to ethics to Shakespeare to philosophy (that got a big ugh!! from me, though I have gone on to teach ethics my way) to comparative religion to anthropology. I did find a place for myself in the ivory tower - very multi-disciplinary, natch!! But I see everything you say. Anyway, welcome to the person who pushed you to start your very interesting Substack blog.
Where I was I found generalists or knowledge synthizers - which we are in desperate need of - were not prized or rewarded, and while lip service was given to encouraging inter- or multi-disciplinary centres, the system made it very hard to engage in that mode. Institutionalized "stay in your lane-ism"
You point out an interesting psychological origin for over-specialization that I hadn't thought about. There is also the philosophical side (which probably comes into being simultaneously with, and supports, the psychological): Western philosophy has become increasingly obsessed with analysis and categorizing and subdividing and labeling, going back some centuries now, probably to Kant, or earlier. You don't find this in Eastern philosophy, which strives, I think, to understand the whole.
Often we humans make the mistake of thinking "if we have categorized it, we have understood it". And, of course, reality could give a flying flip about our categories, and is much messier, complex, and nuanced. Which leads to obsessive attempts to sub-categorize in order to "save the system" when it clashes with reality. And naturally, this has practice has spilled over into science and social sciences, and now manifests in society and politics with us obsessively labeling one another, as though the label represents "understanding", which of course, it does not. The obsession over analysis, rather than synthesis, has led us here.
You are basically describing Dr Iain McGilchrist's Divided Brain hypothesis of what happens when the left brain hemisphere's way of attending to the world becomes too dominant. It usually precedes falls of civilizations! My summary notes on this:
The concept that one hemisphere (the left) does reason, the other (the right) does emotion is false, in fact, both are involved: anger is particularly left brained emotion, for example.
Ideas that language is only in the left, visual imagery in the right, are also false.
But brain functionality is divided, and the bit in the middle which is physically connected has actually got smaller over human evolution, even though the brain has got bigger.
The brain is also highly asymmetric, as if someone has twisted it clockwise.
Left brain: narrow focus attention, things all ready known, attention to detail.
Right brain: broad focus, vigilant for novelty, making connections with the world, sustained, open alertness.
Frontal lobes allow us to stand back from the moment, to manipulate and overcome adversaries or empathize, to be creative.
Left brain: manipulation of environment, using shorthands and abstractions - maps and patterns and categories, not reality, disposition for the mechanical, yields clarity and deals with the known, static, isolated, decontextualized, disembodied, lifeless.
Right brain: devils advocate, sees in context, big picture, understands individuals not just categories, empathy, social connection and bonding, disposition for the living, embodied, deals with the evolving, changing, interconnected, unknown.
Imagination and reason need both hemispheres: together they give knowledge of the parts and wisdom about the whole.
Western culture has become more and more unbalanced, more orientated to the left brain point of view, prioritizing the virtual and technical over the real. Left hemisphere controls the "media" of our internal voice, left talk very convincing, very vocal, right hemisphere doesn't have a competing internal voice and can't make same arguments. This imbalance is causing health and societal issues, more fragmentation, more emphasis on the represented rather than what is present, more emphasis on rhythm in music, compared to melody.
An amazing summary, Gary, worthy of a post in it's own right.
"Western culture has become more and more unbalanced, more orientated to the left brain point of view, prioritizing the virtual and technical over the real."
Yes, that does seem to be it exactly. We've become highly technically proficient and detail-obsessed, and we've utterly lost connection and big picture understanding. To the point that people seem to be in denial of blatant, basic truths even when staring them in the face.
I feel like much of what we are doing here on substack is reminding people: "Hey, none of this is normal. You didn't believe this five years ago. You've lost sight of the big picture."
Somehow or other I have been so focussed on what interests me that I believe I basically did not notice. Also, while I got my BA at a very traditional university - McGill - I got both my MA and PhD at Concordia, a pioneer in interdisciplinary studies. My program - Special Individual Program - was wide open. I was able to do a PhD in an area miles from my undergraduate studies. I gather you were in a much more traditional environment.
Yes, very traditional applied math, engineering. I know McGill and Concordia, and used to collaborate [in my highly specialized field[, with folks there.
A side note on me. I'm a math wiz. Anyway I came 3rd - or maybe it was 5th - in the province on the math SATs - during which I had to prove a theorum, as I hadn't gotten to it yet in my geometry class. But math did not grip me. It was play. On the other hand, I think my love of logic, and my being naturally logical (which does not mean being unemotional!!!) may link to that math ability.
“Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men”. At the risk of being called a ‘Bible thumper’, when mankind does not have the backstop of an all knowing, all powerful, and all loving God to fall back on, he is likely to make foolish decisions that when he reflects back on, can only exclaim, WHAT WERE WE THINKING🫢🙃😲☹️? Truth IS a stubborn adversary indeed.
I think it may be worse than that - I watch a video by Chris Martenson yesterday talking about all the satanic symbolism that is cropping up in the elite circles.
The intellectual history of our time has yet to be written. When it is, it could go by the title: Figures Lie. Liars Figure. Instead of “rationalism” we get “rationalization.” We can’t hide from lies forever. Every lie requires more lies to back it up. And in a digital age nothing is hidden.
Agreed the truth will eventually come out. I think that the digital age is currently using information overload to hide the truth, but now even the truth of that is coming out.
Some interesting reflections here.
Your speculation on "a hidden shadow of trauma" that has pervaded university sciences I would extend to all areas of study, in fact I would extend it to all humans on the planet. I think we've been born into a poorly-concealed slave-system - which is itself traumatizing - called 'reality' which we accept as reality and then do our best to adjust to. There's so many underlying assumptions we've agreed to (usually unknowingly) about the nature of life, that are likely wrong, or at the very least, highly distorted.
Do we know what it is to be free as humans? Maybe there was a time on the planet (think so, assuming a much larger history) where we did experience life as free, genuinely free.
I can't prove any of it - but my feeling is we are in a massive transformation, which will require everything hidden coming to light, with the eventual result being, a freed humanity. What does that look like? We don't know.
As for what happened during the Covid PSYOP, details aside, the hidden hand (behind everything, not just academia) behind this propped up version of the Reality-Show-World, started to be seen. For some of us, it's obvious, for others, there's only an inkling. Doesn't matter, this version of the world is giving way, crumbling, being seen through, etc.
Which makes it a challenging and fascinating time to be alive. Thanks, Gary!
I agree that trauma pervades our human world, and indeed is probably at the heart of whoever is behind the PSYOP doing what they do and why they act out this way. Whatever being free look like, it has to be better than the alternatives!
I agree! I hope we find out soon.
BTW, just saw a SS notification that you had recommended my stack - thank you, again. I recommended back, and not because I felt compelled. I truly value it. Thanks, Gary.
You have a great substack, glad I subscribed
High praise indeed, and what an honour! You are my number one favorite substacker!
The Unenlightenment began when the light of discovery was focused on ever narrower targets, when experts began wielding lasers to illumine their extremely narrow fields of expertise, and all else around became dark. The experts lost contact with the real world and thus so did science itself.
Yes, this is my observation of the effects of ultra-specialism too.
Some great references here I have to chase up. Cheers mate!
I keep meaning to extract the foreword from Prof. Pollack's book, and making a post about it. As I recall, it is an excellent expose.
they want to stand ON the numbers , but not look AT the numbers . The Ebony Tower .
Keep going Gary . I feel that you need to locate the MEDIUM of your MAGIC . You need to
discover the environment that echoes your truth . I feel that your medium is freedom .
Inside of freedom your story resonates .
I think the selection of certain personality types by the system is one of the system's most concerning features. If we could isolate a single phenomenon responsible for the rise of pathocracy, I think this would be it. You make it all the way through The Matter with Things?
Yes, I see all our institutions doing this, but different institutions self-selecting different subsets of the personality types. No,, I have not made it all the way through! I am relying on the videos on his youtube channel, which goes through the book one chapter at a time!
I immediately wonder about myself: I have never been able to focus on any one narrow subject (or even on any one wide subject). Most recently I started an interview series on "hare-brained people" (like myself) who do not graze in a tiny pasture. This is nothing new. I could not specialize as an undergrad, but took courses in everything from genetics to ethics to Shakespeare to philosophy (that got a big ugh!! from me, though I have gone on to teach ethics my way) to comparative religion to anthropology. I did find a place for myself in the ivory tower - very multi-disciplinary, natch!! But I see everything you say. Anyway, welcome to the person who pushed you to start your very interesting Substack blog.
Where I was I found generalists or knowledge synthizers - which we are in desperate need of - were not prized or rewarded, and while lip service was given to encouraging inter- or multi-disciplinary centres, the system made it very hard to engage in that mode. Institutionalized "stay in your lane-ism"
Too bad that we have lost the goal of a Classical Education replacing it with the new system of WOKISM.
You point out an interesting psychological origin for over-specialization that I hadn't thought about. There is also the philosophical side (which probably comes into being simultaneously with, and supports, the psychological): Western philosophy has become increasingly obsessed with analysis and categorizing and subdividing and labeling, going back some centuries now, probably to Kant, or earlier. You don't find this in Eastern philosophy, which strives, I think, to understand the whole.
Often we humans make the mistake of thinking "if we have categorized it, we have understood it". And, of course, reality could give a flying flip about our categories, and is much messier, complex, and nuanced. Which leads to obsessive attempts to sub-categorize in order to "save the system" when it clashes with reality. And naturally, this has practice has spilled over into science and social sciences, and now manifests in society and politics with us obsessively labeling one another, as though the label represents "understanding", which of course, it does not. The obsession over analysis, rather than synthesis, has led us here.
You are basically describing Dr Iain McGilchrist's Divided Brain hypothesis of what happens when the left brain hemisphere's way of attending to the world becomes too dominant. It usually precedes falls of civilizations! My summary notes on this:
The concept that one hemisphere (the left) does reason, the other (the right) does emotion is false, in fact, both are involved: anger is particularly left brained emotion, for example.
Ideas that language is only in the left, visual imagery in the right, are also false.
But brain functionality is divided, and the bit in the middle which is physically connected has actually got smaller over human evolution, even though the brain has got bigger.
The brain is also highly asymmetric, as if someone has twisted it clockwise.
Left brain: narrow focus attention, things all ready known, attention to detail.
Right brain: broad focus, vigilant for novelty, making connections with the world, sustained, open alertness.
Frontal lobes allow us to stand back from the moment, to manipulate and overcome adversaries or empathize, to be creative.
Left brain: manipulation of environment, using shorthands and abstractions - maps and patterns and categories, not reality, disposition for the mechanical, yields clarity and deals with the known, static, isolated, decontextualized, disembodied, lifeless.
Right brain: devils advocate, sees in context, big picture, understands individuals not just categories, empathy, social connection and bonding, disposition for the living, embodied, deals with the evolving, changing, interconnected, unknown.
Imagination and reason need both hemispheres: together they give knowledge of the parts and wisdom about the whole.
Western culture has become more and more unbalanced, more orientated to the left brain point of view, prioritizing the virtual and technical over the real. Left hemisphere controls the "media" of our internal voice, left talk very convincing, very vocal, right hemisphere doesn't have a competing internal voice and can't make same arguments. This imbalance is causing health and societal issues, more fragmentation, more emphasis on the represented rather than what is present, more emphasis on rhythm in music, compared to melody.
An amazing summary, Gary, worthy of a post in it's own right.
"Western culture has become more and more unbalanced, more orientated to the left brain point of view, prioritizing the virtual and technical over the real."
Yes, that does seem to be it exactly. We've become highly technically proficient and detail-obsessed, and we've utterly lost connection and big picture understanding. To the point that people seem to be in denial of blatant, basic truths even when staring them in the face.
I feel like much of what we are doing here on substack is reminding people: "Hey, none of this is normal. You didn't believe this five years ago. You've lost sight of the big picture."
Somehow or other I have been so focussed on what interests me that I believe I basically did not notice. Also, while I got my BA at a very traditional university - McGill - I got both my MA and PhD at Concordia, a pioneer in interdisciplinary studies. My program - Special Individual Program - was wide open. I was able to do a PhD in an area miles from my undergraduate studies. I gather you were in a much more traditional environment.
Yes, very traditional applied math, engineering. I know McGill and Concordia, and used to collaborate [in my highly specialized field[, with folks there.
A side note on me. I'm a math wiz. Anyway I came 3rd - or maybe it was 5th - in the province on the math SATs - during which I had to prove a theorum, as I hadn't gotten to it yet in my geometry class. But math did not grip me. It was play. On the other hand, I think my love of logic, and my being naturally logical (which does not mean being unemotional!!!) may link to that math ability.
“Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men”. At the risk of being called a ‘Bible thumper’, when mankind does not have the backstop of an all knowing, all powerful, and all loving God to fall back on, he is likely to make foolish decisions that when he reflects back on, can only exclaim, WHAT WERE WE THINKING🫢🙃😲☹️? Truth IS a stubborn adversary indeed.
I think it may be worse than that - I watch a video by Chris Martenson yesterday talking about all the satanic symbolism that is cropping up in the elite circles.