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OK, I will take the bait. What do you think the greater machine is? Here is my take: You do not need to posit an organized Illuminati-like conspiracy to have
by w_t_payne 13y ago
OK, I will take the bait. What do you think the greater machine is?
Here is my take:
You do not need to posit an organized Illuminati-like conspiracy to have cause for concern. We can find plenty to worry about even if we limit ourselves to properties of the system that are either emergent or driven by natural human behavioural traits.
For example, a lot of people in positions of authority got there because they have authoritarian instincts, and seek self-validation not only by dominating and controlling others, but by ensuring that their position of authority and dominance is recognized by others.
This is very human, and very instinctive, and operates at an unconscious, almost sexual level. The alpha male will seek to dominate the pack and to remind competing males of his superior status. You do not have to consciously be aware that you are seeking power, money and sex, but you are, nonetheless.
This instinct can operate both consciously and unconsciously. Those who make decisions to concentrate power and authority, to separate and elevate themselves from the general population - they do not have to be consciously aware of what they are doing. They can and will rationalize their beliefs and actions to make it fit in with the dominant culture of their peers. This process is called confabulation (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confabulation http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confabulation) and everybody does it all the time - it is the only way that we can make sense of our lives and live in a human body without going insane with the sheer irrationality of it all.
These instincts manifest themselves in lots of small, individually inconsequential decisions. Normally, this is OK, because our social and bureaucratic technologies are (were) too ineffective for too much harm to be done. The ongoing march of modern information technology, however, looks likely to change that, meaning that the unconsciously malicious instincts of humans in positions of authority can become amplified and magnified.
I would be particularly worried if this resulted in a feedback loop - so that increased power and increased power-seeking behaviour mutually reinforce one another in a runaway process. I cannot readily identify such a loop in operation though -- can anybody else?
- arca_vorago 13y agoI hope I am not responding to too many people and seeming spammy, but here goes. I agree completely that we do not necessarily need to posit and organized "Illuminati-like conspiracy" to have cause for concern. There are plenty of studies showing increasing likely-hood of sociopaths rising to the top of power structures, and is often just due to how to system as an autonomous entity functions. What I do posit though, is that, in fact, there is, borrowing your own term for lack of a better one, an "illuminati-like conspiracy". I have been considering an attempt at scholarly paper on the matter for some time now, but let me try to be terse and possibly just point you in the right direction, because I don't think I'm quite prepared to defend the full assertion in public yet. I will start with your question about power feedback loops. Here is a paper regarding the global network of corporate control that anyone interested in the global power structure should read. http://arxiv.org/pdf/1107.5728v2.pdf http://arxiv.org/pdf/1107.5728v2.pdf I even contacted one of the researchers (Glattfelder) during the Libor scandal, wondering if we could use some of the new information to analyze the scandal better. He said it would be extremely difficult due to how good the companies are at obfuscating their dealings. Now, as far as the conspiracy, I would like to point out one thing. I do not claim that there is but a single conspiracy (a trap assertion many fall into making), and instead would say there there are but a small number of very powerful ones operating at any one time, sometimes in competition and sometimes cooperatively. Regarding the "illuminati-like conspiracy" itself, I have one primary reading source for you, if you are genuinely interested in the subject. It should be enough to get you started on the more serious analysis of what I am talking about. http://www.amazon.com/Anglo-American-Establishment-Quigley-Carroll/dp/0945001010/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1375287143&sr=1-3&keywords=tragedy+and+hope http://www.amazon.com/Anglo-American-Establishment-Quigley-C...
- w_t_payne 13y agoThis seems relevant: http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-04-26/illuminati-were-amateurs-matt-taibbi-explains-how-everything-rigged http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-04-26/illuminati-were-ama...