Quad
13th February 2011, 10:21 AM
From Gornahoor: http://www.gornahoor.net/?p=1707
Conspiracies and the Gas Laws
How to manipulate modern society through containment, temperature and pressure.
If Descartes had written “I am, therefore I think,” instead of its perverse reverse, it is conceivable that is might not have been necessary for M. Gleizes to write this book [Life and Death of the Christian West]. Out of the void appeared Descartes’ theory equating “intellect” exclusively with the organ of discursive thought and it is hardly too much to say that man’s thought has operated in the void ever since. Thus detached from the First Cause, as well as from the organism and the sensibilities, this presumptuous mind, this Lucifer marooned in space, occupied, itself with abstractions to such an extent that in the long run downhill of modern civilization it has cease to be aware of reality at all. Its analyses have in the end picked everything to pieces and out of these dismemberments it has manufactured what Mr. Lewis Mumford calls “the behaviourist man, with his slot-machine mind” operating (not living) “as a distracted atom in a growing chaos.” It is only logical that the Cartesian mind, aware of nothing but the atomic whirl out of which it appears to have been spontaneously generated, should have bequeathed to us that typical offshoot of the modern intellectualism, the professional planner carving the atomic mass, deprived of soul, nature, the senses and any purpose in life other than that of quantitative production, into whatever shape he pleases.
~ H. J. Massingham, Foreword to Life and Death of the Christian West by Albert Gleizes
Albert Gleizes was a French Cubist, very much influenced by Rene Guenon, and the author of several books on topics of interest to Tradition. This introduction to one of his books touches on many themes now familiar readers of Guenon and Evola. Of immediate interest is the characterization of modern man “as a distracted atom in a growing chaos.”
If we may develop this analogy, in a Traditional society an atom (or individual man) is one element in a molecule, and molecules are arranged in stable crystalline structures. That is, men are organically related to each other on the one hand, and participate in a higher order, on the other.
A gas, in contrast, consists of molecules unrelated to each other that move about independently, the analogical situation of modern man. In other words, modern man, in liberating himself from the ordered structure of Tradition, has simply created chaos. This he regards as “freedom” and “individuality”, although from a higher perspective, his freedom is nothing more than random movements, and despite his alleged individuality, he is indistinguishable from all the other molecules around him.
The interesting thing about gases is that, while the movements of an individual molecule is unpredictable, the behavior as a whole is entirely predictable according to some very precise chemical and physical gas laws.
For example, if you connect two containers, each with a different gas, with a tiny aperture connecting them, then eventually the two containers will each consist of a balanced mixture of the two gases. This will happen with certainty despite the intention of any of the gas molecules. The other factors affecting the behavior of gases are temperature and pressure. Now the interesting thing about these factors is that they apply only to the aggregate, not the individual. For example, it makes no sense to speak of the temperature of an individual gas molecule, but it does make sense when speaking of the container of gas as a whole.
So there are three factors that can control the behavior of the mass: shape, temperature and pressure. Yet, the individual molecule maintains his sense of freedom and independence, walking his random walk, oblivious to the outside forces that are in actuality constraining his movements. Thus a gas, despite its apparent disorganization, is desirable to those outside forces.
Obviously, a crystalline structure cannot be manipulated in the same way, since it resists such changes as a whole. To destroy it, it is first necessary to undercut its unifying principle, or in other words, its spiritual unity.
So called conspiracies are portrayed as intricate, and evil, movements controlled by one man or else a small cabal. This portrayal is deliberate in order to discredit any such notion. But con-spiracy, means ‘breathing together’, or more precisely, ‘those who share the same spirit’. Those who are spiritually unified do not necessarily have to operate as a conspiracy with cells and a central command. Quite to the contrary, as the Proverbs tell us: “the locusts have no king, yet they attack in formation”.
The shape of discourse is always under the manipulation of spirits. Pressure is applied to control discourse. Heat is applied to bring certain issues to the forefront of the daily news. This is effective because the Ahrimanic and Luciferian spirits of our age convince us:
You are already free, so you do not have to achieve it
You are already the master of your own mind, so you need not strive to master it
You are not organized into a higher order, so neither is anyone else
Conspiracies are insane, so you need not seek the true sources of ideologies and events
Thus modern man will believe on Tuesday the opposite of what he believed on Monday, all the while he claims to be progressive.
Copyright © 2009, 2010 Gornahoor Press
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Conspiracies and the Gas Laws
How to manipulate modern society through containment, temperature and pressure.
If Descartes had written “I am, therefore I think,” instead of its perverse reverse, it is conceivable that is might not have been necessary for M. Gleizes to write this book [Life and Death of the Christian West]. Out of the void appeared Descartes’ theory equating “intellect” exclusively with the organ of discursive thought and it is hardly too much to say that man’s thought has operated in the void ever since. Thus detached from the First Cause, as well as from the organism and the sensibilities, this presumptuous mind, this Lucifer marooned in space, occupied, itself with abstractions to such an extent that in the long run downhill of modern civilization it has cease to be aware of reality at all. Its analyses have in the end picked everything to pieces and out of these dismemberments it has manufactured what Mr. Lewis Mumford calls “the behaviourist man, with his slot-machine mind” operating (not living) “as a distracted atom in a growing chaos.” It is only logical that the Cartesian mind, aware of nothing but the atomic whirl out of which it appears to have been spontaneously generated, should have bequeathed to us that typical offshoot of the modern intellectualism, the professional planner carving the atomic mass, deprived of soul, nature, the senses and any purpose in life other than that of quantitative production, into whatever shape he pleases.
~ H. J. Massingham, Foreword to Life and Death of the Christian West by Albert Gleizes
Albert Gleizes was a French Cubist, very much influenced by Rene Guenon, and the author of several books on topics of interest to Tradition. This introduction to one of his books touches on many themes now familiar readers of Guenon and Evola. Of immediate interest is the characterization of modern man “as a distracted atom in a growing chaos.”
If we may develop this analogy, in a Traditional society an atom (or individual man) is one element in a molecule, and molecules are arranged in stable crystalline structures. That is, men are organically related to each other on the one hand, and participate in a higher order, on the other.
A gas, in contrast, consists of molecules unrelated to each other that move about independently, the analogical situation of modern man. In other words, modern man, in liberating himself from the ordered structure of Tradition, has simply created chaos. This he regards as “freedom” and “individuality”, although from a higher perspective, his freedom is nothing more than random movements, and despite his alleged individuality, he is indistinguishable from all the other molecules around him.
The interesting thing about gases is that, while the movements of an individual molecule is unpredictable, the behavior as a whole is entirely predictable according to some very precise chemical and physical gas laws.
For example, if you connect two containers, each with a different gas, with a tiny aperture connecting them, then eventually the two containers will each consist of a balanced mixture of the two gases. This will happen with certainty despite the intention of any of the gas molecules. The other factors affecting the behavior of gases are temperature and pressure. Now the interesting thing about these factors is that they apply only to the aggregate, not the individual. For example, it makes no sense to speak of the temperature of an individual gas molecule, but it does make sense when speaking of the container of gas as a whole.
So there are three factors that can control the behavior of the mass: shape, temperature and pressure. Yet, the individual molecule maintains his sense of freedom and independence, walking his random walk, oblivious to the outside forces that are in actuality constraining his movements. Thus a gas, despite its apparent disorganization, is desirable to those outside forces.
Obviously, a crystalline structure cannot be manipulated in the same way, since it resists such changes as a whole. To destroy it, it is first necessary to undercut its unifying principle, or in other words, its spiritual unity.
So called conspiracies are portrayed as intricate, and evil, movements controlled by one man or else a small cabal. This portrayal is deliberate in order to discredit any such notion. But con-spiracy, means ‘breathing together’, or more precisely, ‘those who share the same spirit’. Those who are spiritually unified do not necessarily have to operate as a conspiracy with cells and a central command. Quite to the contrary, as the Proverbs tell us: “the locusts have no king, yet they attack in formation”.
The shape of discourse is always under the manipulation of spirits. Pressure is applied to control discourse. Heat is applied to bring certain issues to the forefront of the daily news. This is effective because the Ahrimanic and Luciferian spirits of our age convince us:
You are already free, so you do not have to achieve it
You are already the master of your own mind, so you need not strive to master it
You are not organized into a higher order, so neither is anyone else
Conspiracies are insane, so you need not seek the true sources of ideologies and events
Thus modern man will believe on Tuesday the opposite of what he believed on Monday, all the while he claims to be progressive.
Copyright © 2009, 2010 Gornahoor Press
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