Thor Q. Mada

I guess most of you know Fred. He writes very well, is a very logical person, and although sometimes a bit obnoxious, has a very clear understanding and views on most things.
http://fredoneverything.net/ColMenu.html

Please look at the article :"The uses of patriotism". Pretty good. He got me two times.
Enjoy!!

Zar

Good read.

The writer states:

And then says:

But what he is describing are the hallmarks of civilization, not the behaviors of uncivilized animals with merely a "thin veneer" of reason. Quite the opposite, we drown in the secretions of the modern "rational" mind. It is the effects of reason, civilization, ritual, religion and the technological society (as Jacques Ellul puts it) that create the conditions for, and bring us to the chopping block. Often, the only difference between a gang and many nations is the scale of these civilizing and crystalizing structures. It is these very ties of myth and regimentation that bind people to action. Without them, how and why would anyone group together for massive slaughter?

Without the "education" and agitprop to prepare and then awaken the mass collective consciousness by use of language and symbol, we go about our business unmolested.


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A recent example from my life as a Chicago resident:

I was on the #4 bus going north from the University of Chicago where I just finished watching "The Trials of Henry Kissinger" presented by U of C Doc Films. I went to the back of the bus where several south side black youths were loudy interacting to the point of discomfort for the other customers -- all of them also black, as am I.

There was a leader and three "lesser" cadres. The leader spent nearly all his time dispensing vicious and hurtful cultural criticisms of the other three, and the other three scrambled to copy him by beating down each other and taking turns siding with the leader.

What shirt they wore. Whether their hairline was properly maintained. Whether their shoes had a blemish. Whether they showed any sign of multiculturalism. One kid had a shirt with a pattern of chinese writing on it. The other kids teased him relentlessly for it, even though it didn't look any more foolish than what the others were wearing.

Now almost everything they forced each other to "toe the line" over was some capitalist symbol -- consumer possessions -- or some manufactured cultural symbol. It was a nauseating display of how trapped in normalizing concepts they were. They seemed to take these things as primary instinctual givens, no matter how superficial they were. These things provided them with endless points of comparison and/or domination.

When the nasty "leader" finally got off the bus, the other three fell almost silent. Just moments ago they were practically screaming. Quite interesting.

Thor Q. Mada

Zar,

I didn'y say that whatever he writes is correct. But it is good interesting reading most of the time.

Zar

Oh, he doesn't have to always be correct to be interesting. Who is? But in point of fact, I've visited his website several times before this and found him worth reading before. So, I knew who he was before I read the opinion of his you posted.

I'm just engaging the thread by examining his ideas. Hey, if he's wrong, I could be just as wrong, too.

No worries.

Thor Q. Mada

Yes, and you have to remember his back ground. By the way, I like the articls you write.