Christopher Markowski's Blog, page 5

The Rise of Fascism

An interesting read.

The Most Dangerous Philosopher in the World

 

What’s also interesting is the will of the fascist who wish to disseminate beliefs, conspiracy theories, religious beliefs and nationalistic beliefs in favor over knowledge, science, philosophy, and real education.

Also how our universities are viewed as liberal here in the U.S. Interesting is how truth and knowledge is an enemy of fascism. Even more interesting is the rise of fascist minded thought in the United States and Europe which really has always been present, but is becoming more so year over year.

The death throes of religion? But religion is taking a backseat in importance it seems towards the myopia of nationalism and racism. Is the allegiance of Russia now more due to a global movement of white supremacy as well? Perhaps all these factors play a role.

The right goes further right when the left goes further left, but which one is making more of an advance to radicalism?

It’s also worthy to note the feverish rise of the fascist Muslims as well. They too hate fact, freedom, truth. They too believe in conspiracy theories. The difference? They are too culturally different from the primarily Christian / white fascists.

It all smells of turmoil, and a greater turmoil to come, a turmoil based in ignorance.

The Fascism of Trump

Lets examine the “Fourteen Defining Characteristics Of Fascism” By Dr. Lawrence Britt and compare to Trump.

1. Powerful and Continuing Nationalism – Fascist regimes tend to make constant use of patriotic mottos, slogans, symbols, songs, and other paraphernalia. Flags are seen everywhere, as are flag symbols on clothing and in public displays.

– Check mark for Trump. Make America Great Again is not just a patriotic motto, its nearing religious fervor in its repetition.

2. Disdain for the Recognition of Human Rights – Because of fear of enemies and the need for security, the people in fascist regimes are persuaded that human rights can be ignored in certain cases because of “need.” The people tend to look the other way or even approve of torture, summary executions, assassinations, long incarcerations of prisoners, etc.

– Check mark for Trump, agenda is to bring torture back and ban refugees.

3. Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause – The people are rallied into a unifying patriotic frenzy over the need to eliminate a perceived common threat or foe: racial , ethnic or religious minorities; liberals; communists; socialists, terrorists, etc.

-Check mark for Trump. Muslims, liberals, Mexicans, the mainstream media and political opponents themselves were all rallied against in a unifying patriotic frenzy to eliminate a threat.

4. Supremacy of the Military – Even when there are widespread

domestic problems, the military is given a disproportionate amount of government funding, and the domestic agenda is neglected. Soldiers and military service are glamorized.

– Check mark for trump, who wants to increase military spending, in a country that already obliterates every other nation on earth in military spending.

5. Rampant Sexism – The governments of fascist nations tend to be almost exclusively male-dominated. Under fascist regimes, traditional gender roles are made more rigid. Divorce, abortion and homosexuality are suppressed and the state is represented as the ultimate guardian of the family institution.

– Check mark for Trump on Rampant sexism. Gamer gate, rape culture, and promoting masculinity on a level this country hasn’t seen is all on the agenda for Trump and his base. The only thing here Trump ignores is divorce. Probably because he’s been divorced so many times, but I don’t really think that suppressing divorce is a part of sexism.

6. Controlled Mass Media – Sometimes to media is directly controlled by the government, but in other cases, the media is indirectly controlled by government regulation, or sympathetic media spokespeople and executives. Censorship, especially in war time, is very common.

– Check mark for Trump. While not even in power, reporters are scared and have been threatened not only by Trump himself, but his foaming at the mouth feverish base. The calls that “CNN Sucks” while lashing out in violent rhetoric towards media members at their rallies. Intimidation tactics are used, some supporters are harassing them on their personal time. The goal, to show hate. The outcome, suppression, unless the reporter is brave enough to wade through the poo being slung at them.

7. Obsession with National Security – Fear is used as a motivational tool by the government over the masses.

-Check for Trump. Extreme vetting, the unconstitutional stop and frisk, While you are more likely to be shot by a cop than a Muslim terrorist, the people are paranoid and fear Muslim terrorists. Right wing extremists in the U.S. nearly paralleled the deaths caused by Muslim terrorists. You just don’t hear about them as often.

http://www.newsweek.com/…/right-wing-extremists…

8. Religion and Government are Intertwined

Governments in fascist nations tend to use the most common religion in the nation as a tool to manipulate public opinion. Religious rhetoric and terminology is common from government leaders, even when the major tenets of the religion are diametrically opposed to the government’s policies or actions.

– Check mark for Trump. Trump stated “We will restore faith to its proper mantle in our society. That’s what we have to do. And we have to do that soon. (Applause) We will respect and defend Christian Americans. Christian Americans. We will give parents control over their schools. So important. We’ll uphold the values our founders gave us, which we’re not doing now.”)

9. Corporate Power is Protected – The industrial and business aristocracy of a fascist nation often are the ones who put the government leaders into power, creating a mutually beneficial business/government relationship and power elite

-Check mark for Trump, tax cuts to the wealthiest “people” of all time, in a world where the rich have exponentially increased wealth over everyone else while not trickling down the gains to the people in jobs and salary.

10. Labor Power is Suppressed – Because the organizing power of labor is the only real threat to a fascist government, labor unions are either eliminated entirely, or are severely suppressed.

– Trump does not get #10. Not a crucial aspect of fascism

11. Disdain for Intellectuals and the Arts – Fascist nations tend to promote and tolerate open hostility to higher education, and academia. It is not uncommon for professors and other academics to be censored or even arrested. Free expression in the arts and letters is openly attacked.

-Checkmark for Trump. Academia is the liberal enemy, the well educated well read media is the enemy. Trump’s dialogue reeks of lies, conspiracy theories and anti intellectualism. “I have the best words”. “No puppet, you’re the puppet!” “I know more about ISIS than the generals”. All big red flags.

12. Obsession with Crime and Punishment – Under fascist regimes, the police are given almost limitless power to enforce laws. The people are often willing to overlook police abuses and even forego civil liberties in the name of patriotism. There is often a national police force with virtually unlimited power in fascist nations.

Check mark for Trump – “I am the law and order candidate”. Stop and Frisk. A vengeful intolerance towards anyone opposing him. Essentially, clamoring fervently to jail their political opponent before they are found to be guilty of any crime, even by a pro Trump FBI, is a crucial essence of fascism.

13. Rampant Cronyism and Corruption – Fascist regimes almost always are governed by groups of friends and associates who appoint each other to government positions and use governmental power and authority to protect their friends from accountability. It is not uncommon in fascist regimes for national resources and even treasures to be appropriated or even outright stolen by government leaders.

-Check mark for Trump so far. Only those loyal to Trump are getting in the administration.

14. Fraudulent Elections – Sometimes elections in fascist nations are a complete sham. Other times elections are manipulated by smear campaigns against or even assassination of opposition candidates, use of legislation to control voting numbers or political district boundaries, and manipulation of the media. Fascist nations also typically use their judiciaries to manipulate or control elections.

-Not a check mark for Trump, but ironically the call that the elections were essentially is fraudulent if he loses, makes this one pretty damn close.

An Ancient Rite

The masks of the Sardinian carnival in Barbagia, a mountainous region of inner Sardinia, which is one of the the islands off the West Coast of Italy. These masks in particular have unique characteristics, they date back to the mists of time,  and are tied to double thread with the most archaic and ancestral rites of the land.

These are masks originate in the Dionysian rites performed in Sardinia agricultural areas over 2,000 years ago. The rituals are related to death and rebirth of nature. Sacrifices occur during the festival for the first harvest of the people of this land and for obtaining the Fires of St. Anthony, which recall the much more ancient myth of Prometheus, who stole fire from the gods and gave it to men.

Paranormal Activity

Hello i have decided to Talk about Paranormal Activity i have recently got into it

The Damage is Done

 

Even if Trump loses, as it seems he likely will, the candidate for presidency has normalized Sexual Predatory behavior for a lot of people in a manner that this country has never before seen, essentially nearly reversing the past century of progress we have made on the matter. I am thinking about my daughter and rape culture and envision an uptick in this behavior. I mean, children, teenagers, see a guy who talks like this and acts like this, and it is all validated already. He was, after all, someone who became the nominee for president for one of our 2 major political parties. The only thing worse of course for this validation of his behavior if he were to actually lead the nation as president. Expect four more years of validating his behavior and demeaning women who accuse him of

He has normalized conspiracy theories. Believing what you want to make yourself feel better has been normalized, to suit your confirmation bias. Confirmation bias has been on the uptick, exponentially increasing since the advent of the internet and this so called “information age”. Yes, information is out there, but so is nearly an equal amount of disinformation. The internet has created a virtual safety bubble where you can go into your echo chamber and affirm your preconceived notions, beliefs, and assumptions that suit your bias. Not only that you can communicate with people just like you, who don’t look at what they are reading with a critical eye, questioning everything even if it is something you prefer to be true.

This is the difference between the scientific knowledge based mind and the belief based mind. We, as humanity, are still attempting to come out of the age of ignorance. Where beliefs reigned prevalent over knowledge for the masses. Because knowledge is just too hard to get to. Truth is difficult, no matter what era. It is difficult to actually know things, other than the obvious, such as “we exist” or the things we directly experience and affirm through empirical testing of our own. Believing something to be true, is much easier. You can believe anything you want! Belief often takes the place of knowledge in someone’s mind. They believe they actually know. This makes you think they are smarter and knowledgeable on matters. Being that most people are like this, they can affirm their beliefs as knowledge through their friends, family, every day people.

The real hard work, the knowledge and advances we as a civilization have gained and experienced, have been built on the backs of the minds of a small few. Does anyone understand how radio waves work? Nope, not really. But we have them. How does video and all the information of the internet travel through the air to be seen on your monitor? Not much know. Not many really figured it out. But the masses reap its benefits. What do the masses really know?

So how do all these people back claims that people couldn’t possibly know? When Trump says “global warming is a Chinese Hoax” they might believe him, then they might consider it knowledge. Or if he said he didn’t say that, and they didn’t know better, they’d believe that too and consider it knowledge. The problem is, it takes research, critical thinking. Something that a conspiracy theorist ultimately fails on, but something that is becoming rampant in this information, or rather misinformation age.

The problem is, the conspiracy theorist doesn’t know they are a conspiracy theorist, they think they have the truth. They believe they have knowledge. They inherently think because other people say it, who seem credible to them, that it must be right. This is not the way to think to get progress, to gain knowledge. Believing other people, other journalists, what your biased news source wants to convey, is what the masses typically do. Its too hard to know. Its easier to believe. I call it being lazy. Some might call it being stupid. But there is a problem in the United States and it begins with not admitting your own ignorance.

Language, the key to everything

Linguistics is “the scientific study of language and its structure, including the study of morphology, syntax, phonetics, and semantics. ” – Google The one thing that gets in the …

Source: Language, the key to everything

Something I’m feeling today

Here’s the weight of the world on my shoulders

Here’s the weight of the world on my shoulders

On my shoulders

All alone I pierce the chain

And on and on the sting remains

And dying eyes consume me now

The voice inside screams out loud

I am focused on what I am after

The key to the next open chapter

Cause I found a way to steal the sun from the sky

Long live that day that I decided to fly from the inside

Every day a new deception

Pick your scene and take direction

And on and on I search to connect

But I don’t wear a mask and I have no regrets

I am focused on what I am after

The key to the next open chapter…

“We are the explorers, the builders, the architects of change. The builders of a better tomorrow. We strive, we dream, we aspire always to something greater. All the odds, we defy. The risks we take, the challenges we endure only make us stronger. There’s no end to our imagination.”

 

Embrace your inner Savage

Civility is a mere facade, indoctrinated within us from birth. Social conditioning has directed people to civility that we have today, but could we as a species taken a different route? Perhaps, but would it have been “better”? The imagination is a powerful thing and I suspect that a rather successful implementation of imagination – in the ideological push of civility – has many wonderful aspirations to offer. However, it does have its extremes. We can often end up forgetting who or what we are, animals. We, human beings, are classified as animals under Kingdom Animalia, yet many of us have chosen to subjectively distance ourselves from every other animal, by definition even, as provided by Merriam Webster.

1an·i·mal

[b]: a living thing that is not a human being or plant[/b]

: any living thing that is not a plant

: a person who behaves in a wild, aggressive, or unpleasant way

I like the third sense of the word, a person who behaves in a wild, aggressive, or unpleasant way. When push comes to shove, we may all just go back to being this type of animal. After all, most of us have the innate will to survive, as is common in animals. If aggressiveness is required for us to survive or at least protect our conception of life, our values, our way of life, we do have the capability to lift the shroud of civility that camouflage us, to revert back to our more animal roots.

We react based upon our biological make up and environmental conditioning, just as all animals do. Sure, we have some major advantages over the rest of Kingdom Animalia but are we to distance ourselves so much to consider ourselves so special that we are beyond animals now?

I credit the extreme notions of this ideology of civility to have its roots in various forms of political correctness, cultural constructs, the conceptions of people. It is often that any of us can be disillusioned about anything and I’ve noticed in some various politically correct stances that we can weave a web of twisted logic that pushes the envelope of our perception to a disillusioned frame of reference. The simple categorization that places us as not animals, for instance. It seems this occurred, well, just because “we” can. Perhaps because we were believed to be “made in God’s image”. Because we are an apex predator and our transcendence over the rest of kingdom animalia is prevalent. We have essentially “terraformed” if you will, the very planet that gave birth to us, which has led to our further distancing from our animal roots. We humans have constructed a world that seems [i]unnatural[/i], perhaps it makes us seem unnatural in ourselves. We have constructed laws, conceptions, rules, order, regulation, laws that may seem [i]unnatural[/i]. Of course, “we” is being applied here very liberally. A lot of this is of what we are born into is the result of some people, probably a minority, that have shaped the social constructs, influencing humanity through their power, which through charisma, reason, logic, people agree to, submit to, or just apathetically conform to.

Today we see extremes in various forms of political activism; political correctness in all its forms; Everyone should be seen as “equal”, everyone should be able to sexually identify how they wish, certain clothing is required for certain occasions, some of these are practical, some are pipe dreams; superfluous goals that will never be obtained. There is the paradoxical push for racial equality, or even the dissemination of race altogether, which ends up segregating the races in turn and hurts its own cause. Pointing out that “black people” are well black, and white people are white, in order to achieve equality, such as “another white cop killed a black 18 year old man”, seems self defeating in this push. Sure there may be injustices here and yes may be the root cause, but doesn’t that just sharpen the schism with a polarizing effect? Trading some small victory while creating a larger war in the end.

Censorship, for example, while having it has its practicality and legitimate uses, can be troublesome. There is a fine line that we must not damage, our freedom to express ourselves. These all seems methods of control to subvert the natural ways some people are of course. To deny some aspects our “savagery” on these levels can lead to systematic corruption of power, authority, resulting in a slippery slope of self defeat.

Authority will always need a reminder that the unjust facade of civility ought to be transparent to the people and governmental savagery should be apparent to those that must obey their will, regardless of the efforts of propaganda. We should not necessarily expect more from the epitome of human civility; systems, governments, corporations, cultures. Understand that these systems, these constructs that we have created ourselves, operate with savagery and animalistic tendencies. Without doing so, we may only set us up for failure. When we lose track of what we are and who we are, we fool only ourselves. We should be vigilant in our ideologies to understand what we can do and maybe more importantly, what we cannot do. We cannot get ahead of ourselves, we cannot get ahead of our animal selves. This somewhat ties in with going with what we know, and more importantly knowing at times that we do not know. But if we are disillusioned as civilized human beings, are we in this world, the structures of authority really operating as civilized human beings, or are we really operating as the apex predator, or animal that we are? Remember, when push comes to shove, civility will crumble. Can we push the authorities to crumble? Of course, we can. Expose the inner animal, the animal drives, that might be masked with logic and reason, but underneath it all, might be something else.

To be prepared let us embrace our inner savage, or our inner animal. See it in ourselves as to forget our inner savage is to forget what we are, so we can see it in others, as to not forget who “they” are. Society is yet to work out its kinks and may never; We are very flawed humans. Civility certainly has its place and is particularly useful in how we treat others, so of course, lets not go overboard and start eating each other.

Now if you have made it this far, perhaps I can welcome you to some aspects of the human condition that portray just what kind of animal we humans are. The capability to produce abstract thoughts that result in the notion of civility, that we all play along, or abide with. (At least most of us). The human condition though is one in which has very animalistic tendencies, which if believe we are civilized human beings made in God’s image, perhaps we will forget the capability of humans. We are for the most part, bottomless pits. Black holes that will always want more. When we have more, we’ll want something else. It’s in our nature, which is not within our control. Our biological make up has caused us to be able to want, to live, to think. Other animals have other drives, dependent upon their biological make up. Some people become killers, they lie, they have all sorts of issues that civility pushes below the depths of our perception, hiding and lurking withe facade of civility to camouflage them. There are murderers, rapists, thieves, walking out there among us, who look just as civilized as everyone else. Civility, perhaps rules, order, laws and governmental authority has masked their savagery. They all play the game, just like everyone else. But in each and every one of us, lurks something else.

Is being an animal always bad? Of course not. Many non human animals are probably capable of loving or caring just as we are. Just don’t let the facade of civility fool you into thinking everything is just fine and dandy with these human beings that walk the earth. So embrace your inner savage, for it will give you insight into the rest of society. Knowing this within may help you know others. Your primal drives, fears, desires. These don’t necessarily come from our environment, it may primarily come from our genetic make up, which remember, is a genetic make up that is the most dominant species of life on this planet that has conquered the food chain and for many if not most, the most desirable conquest is of those of the same species.

Perception and Conceptualization

When we see something, we construct a conceptualization of what that thing is, which is compared and contrasted automatically to things like that thing, that we already know of. When we see a human, we conceptualize the human as perhaps, a man or a woman, depending on the traits that we are focusing on. Sometimes, depending on what we see, that may not be the first thing we can conceptualize and it remains in more of a status that isn’t necessarily what we can consider to be a good conceptualization, or a good probability that the person is a man or a woman. Of course this day and age, we can’t really know if anyone is a man or a woman, but that can be a different subject. When we see a face, we note the things that we have already attributed to being that of a face, is there eyes, eyebrows, nose, lips, the face, those are perceived rather easily. It is rather striking, when one of these things are missing, because that is not the norm. However, missing an eye, missing a nose, doesn’t disqualify us from considering that face to be human. But what if this person is missing both their eyes, their mouth and their nose? Then what? Of course, we would probably have never seen anybody quite like this before. We may think they aren’t a human, perhaps they are an alien. Perhaps, they are a mannequin with no face. Do we consider this to be the same for a person who is missing a nose and an eye? Perhaps not, accidents and birth defects do happen. But I’m not sure if a person is able to live long without a face. That type of birth defect may not be acceptable or conducive to life, if there is one. I’m not sure if there is one like that, of course this is a hypothetical. I would think some of you may be googling that right now, already have, or will be.

It seems that there may be unknown qualifications that we require to consider our perception to be the same as a concept that we already are aware of.

A tree, is a tree, based on certain qualifications that we know of as a tree. Interestingly, a pine tree is very different from a maple tree. However, there still are striking similarities. Yet of course, these words and classification of this pine tree and a maple tree does have has some legitimate ontological basis for both to be considered a tree. But how about bamboo? This is very different from other trees. It is considered a type of grass in wikipedia, but it is also very different from other types of grass as well. So there is some debate on whether bamboo is a tree or a grass. But really, it doesn’t matter to much as to what it is. Neither does a pine tree being labeled a tree matter to what it is. It does only make it easier to communicate such things. Look at that tree! Well, if its a pine tree, we will know what they are referring to. But what if we never saw a pine tree? We can deduce the other person is probably referring to that tree looking thing with these large weird needles all over it, instead of leaves. That’s a tree, we might think? This process of identifying things and concepts is very much tied into our language. Our language is very much a social construct and can even be considered a social contract, if you will. Language ties in to how we perceive and conceptualize things, because through language, we form concepts that are attached to these symbols that we know as words. These symbols are attributed to real word concepts, both physical and abstract things. But these concepts and real world things, don’t always mesh. Sometimes they do, but often, there is a disconnect to the reality of the physical or abstract thing.

Without knowing how language and words, definitions can get it wrong, we will get our philosophy wrong as well. To question the definitions of words is to philosophize. Our language, being a social construct, is also a language that has formed, and informed our minds. “Think for yourself, question authority – Throughout human history, as our species has faced the frightening, terrorizing fact that we do not know who we are, or where we are going in this ocean of chaos, it has been the authorities — the political, the religious, the educational authorities — who attempted to comfort us by giving us order, rules, regulations, informing — forming in our minds — their view of reality. To think for yourself you must question authority and learn how to put yourself in a state of vulnerable open-mindedness. (A) chaotic, confused vulnerability to inform yourself.”

When one thinks for our self and questions the authority of words and languages, its usages, its common ways that people express meaning, we can possibly see how that meaning isn’t necessarily cogent to the ontology of the identity of a concept. Just what is an abstraction, what really exists, what is physical, what isn’t? What is a product of our mind and what is actually there?

What is a product of our culture and language and what is actually there?

Language has essentially forced upon us a conceptualization through linguistical standards that can cause something to come about such as a concept that doesn’t actually have any basis in reality, yet we use it as if it might. For example, a religious definition of “Free will”

I would say, people “know better” by now. By know better, I use colloquial rhetoric here. But know, and belief, are often of some sort of problematic nature in colloquial rhetoric, which I have attempted to note more thoroughly here: https://ruminationfactory.wordpress.com/…/knowing-is-not-b…/

Through questioning the ontological implications of language, we can go deeper philosophically and possibly overcome limitations from those that preceded us. Through perceptual conceptualization that is aware of the aforementioned pitfalls of language, one can perceive things in a new clearer light that may be untainted by the norms of our culture, our language, our authorities, and break free from all that may be wrong about how people think. Of course, not everything is wrong, but then again, not everything is right either. There are problems unsolved everywhere in philosophy, there are problems unsolved in science, in math, in perception, in cognition. Did Kant get everything right on synthetic and non synthetic a priori? We should not assume so much. I would argue against Kant and his description of math, as I already have elsewhere in the “think for yourself question authority thread”. To ascribe to the greats and utilize them in comparing what we actually think, as if they are weighted, might very well be considered bias. If we can think from a mind that attempts to gain independence as much as possible from the environment that we are born in, then perhaps we can perceive things in a new light, and maybe even a better light. Humanity has often herded, gone with what works. Sure things work, sure contextualization and words work, but we are not a perfect species. We have not perfected philosophy. We have not perfected our ontology. We are far from understanding the complexities of the mind, our perception processes and conceptualization process. Yes we have dug deeply into these fields, but there is always room for improvement.

Now, with conceptualization and perception being linked very much so with this social construct of language – how can we overcome the norms of our culture and go beyond? Shouldn’t we go beyond? If not a failed attempt, isn’t it worth it to try?

“Homo sum: humani nil a me alienum puto

I am a human being, so nothing human is strange to me”

-Publius Terentius Afer (195/185–159 BC)

A worthy goal, for us all. “Alien” and “weird” are replaceable. Just as evolution branches out in all sorts of “weird ways”, perhaps our minds ought to as well. Fathom the possibilities. Don’t let your perceived probabilities get in the way and seal your perceived probabilities with belief. Embrace your ignorance. Just as a child has whimsical curiosity, whereas the teenager is seen as knowing it all, filled with belief’s instead of the embrace of ignorance, adults too ought to revert back to that whimsical curiosity. Reality is a rabbit hole, our culture may prevent us from going down it.. Don’t be deterred by being labeled, don’t be a stone, a square. Fathom the possibilities, push the envelope. Watch it bend…

Come, lets dance, through the realm of the abstract, the physical, the conceptualizing that takes place with both, re-inform our minds, bring about a schema that may grant one a hopeful purpose.

The state of mind

“The mind is in a constant state of flux. No thought, no feeling, no sensation lasts for more than an instant before it istransformed into the next state, next thought, the next sensation. Note those moments… As they pass through, note such states as confidence, bewilderment, effort, trust, distrust, pleasure, discomfort, boredom, devotion, inquiry, pride, anger, desire, etc.” – Stephen Levine