The Century of the Self

[Fitz Note: Links for each episode on Google Video have been included]

THE CENTURY OF THE SELF

Adam Curtis' acclaimed series examines the rise of the all-consuming
self against the backdrop of the Freud dynasty.

To many in both politics and business, the triumph of the self is the
ultimate expression of democracy, where power has finally moved to
the people. Certainly the people may feel they are in charge, but are
they really? The Century of the Self tells the untold and sometimes
controversial story of the growth of the mass-consumer society in
Britain and the United States. How was the all-consuming self
created, by whom, and in whose interests?

The Freud dynasty is at the heart of this compelling social history.
Sigmund Freud, founder of psychoanalysis; Edward Bernays, who
invented public relations; Anna Freud, Sigmund's devoted daughter;
and present-day PR guru and Sigmund's great grandson, Matthew Freud.

Sigmund Freud's work into the bubbling and murky world of the
subconscious changed the world. By introducing a technique to probe
the unconscious mind, Freud provided useful tools for understanding
the secret desires of the masses. Unwittingly, his work served as the
precursor to a world full of political spin doctors, marketing
moguls, and society's belief that the pursuit of satisfaction and
happiness is man's ultimate goal.

..
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8953172273825999151
One: Happiness Machines
Monday 29 April 7pm-8pm

The story of the relationship between Sigmund Freud and his American
nephew, Edward Bernays. Bernays invented the public relations
profession in the 1920s and was the first person to take Freud's
ideas to manipulate the masses. He showed American corporations how
they could make people want things they didn't need by systematically
linking mass-produced goods to their unconscious desires.

Bernays was one of the main architects of the modern techniques of
mass-consumer persuasion, using every trick in the book, from
celebrity endorsement and outrageous PR stunts, to eroticising the
motorcar.

His most notorious coup was breaking the taboo on women smoking by
persuading them that cigarettes were a symbol of independence and
freedom. But Bernays was convinced that this was more than just a way
of selling consumer goods. It was a new political idea of how to
control the masses. By satisfying the inner irrational desires that
his uncle had identified, people could be made happy and thus docile.

It was the start of the all-consuming self which has come to dominate
today's world.

..
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-678466363224520614
Two: The Engineering of Consent
Tuesday 30 April 7pm-8pm

The programme explores how those in power in post-war America used
Freud's ideas about the unconscious mind to try and control the
masses.

Politicians and planners came to believe Freud's underlying premise -
that deep within all human beings were dangerous and irrational
desires and fears. They were convinced that it was the unleashing of
these instincts that had led to the barbarism of Nazi Germany. To
stop it ever happening again they set out to find ways to control
this hidden enemy within the human mind.

Sigmund Freud's daughter, Anna, and his nephew, Edward Bernays,
provided the centrepiece philosophy. The US government, big business,
and the CIA used their ideas to develop techniques to manage and
control the minds of the American people. But this was not a cynical
exercise in manipulation. Those in power believed that the only way
to make democracy work and create a stable society was to repress the
savage barbarism that lurked just under the surface of normal
American life.

..
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6111922724894802811
Three: There is a Policeman Inside All Our Heads: He Must Be Destroyed
Wednesday 1 May 7pm-8pm

In the 1960s, a radical group of psychotherapists challenged the
influence of Freudian ideas in America. They were inspired by the
ideas of Wilhelm Reich, a pupil of Freud's, who had turned against
him and was hated by the Freud family. He believed that the inner
self did not need to be repressed and controlled. It should be
encouraged to express itself.

Out of this came a political movement that sought to create new
beings free of the psychological conformity that had been implanted
in people's minds by business and politics.

This programme shows how this rapidly developed in America through
self-help movements like Werber Erhard's Erhard Seminar Training -
into the irresistible rise of the expressive self: the Me Generation.

But the American corporations soon realised that this new self was
not a threat but their greatest opportunity. It was in their interest
to encourage people to feel they were unique individuals and then
sell them ways to express that individuality. To do this they turned
to techniques developed by Freudian psychoanalysts to read the inner
desires of the new self.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1122532358497501036
Four: Eight People Sipping Wine in Kettering
Thursday 2 May 7pm-8pm

This episode explains how politicians on the left, in both Britain
and America, turned to the techniques developed by business to read
and fulfil the inner desires of the self.

Both New Labour, under Tony Blair, and the Democrats, led by Bill
Clinton, used the focus group, which had been invented by
psychoanalysts, in order to regain power. They set out to mould their
policies to people's inner desires and feelings, just as capitalism
had learnt to do with products.

Out of this grew a new culture of public relations and marketing in
politics, business and journalism. One of its stars in Britain was
Matthew Freud who followed in the footsteps of his relation, Edward
Bernays, the inventor of public relations in the 1920s.

The politicians believed they were creating a new and better form of
democracy, one that truly responded to the inner feelings of
individual. But what they didn't realise was that the aim of those
who had originally created these techniques had not been to liberate
the people but to develop a new way of controlling them.

Um...about those cookies...

Wrote the following for an associate looking to better understand a bit about contemporary Gnosticism. Feel free to critique and correct.
__________
In the late 1880s a revival of Pseudo-Cathar Gnosticism lead to the creation of several Churches claiming Apostolic Succession from the Ancient Gnostics. They seem to have been a rather varied bunch, but it helped create an overall revival in the idea of Gnosticism and added some fuel to the magical-speculative ideas put forth by Theosophy and the early Traditionalists such as Rene Guenon.

One of the Gnostic lines eventually consecrated Theodore Reuss, onetime head of the Ordo Templi Oreintis, as a Gnostic Bishop. Other lineages unrelated to Reuss also continue to exist though most consider themselves to be Christian rather then Hermetic Gnostics. When Aleister Crowley was made a IX* in the O.T.O. Reuss also made him a de facto Gnositic Bishop though Crowley seemed to have little interest in that particular function.

Within the massively complex re-design of the O.T.O. system by Crowley a religious subgroup, the Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica was organized to deal with this particular notion of Apostolic succession. Aside from writing a Gnostic Mass which combined elements of Liber AL symbolism and Reussian sex magic the E.G.C. was largely left untouched by Crowley. The Gnostic Mass however played an important role in the California O.T.O.'s Agape Lodge and when Grady McMurtry reactivated the O.T.O. he did so through a celebration of the Gnostic Mass.? Since then the E.G.C. has had a considerable amount of influence over the Caliphate.O.T.O. with the Gnostic Mass acting as their major public event/recruitment tool.

The E.G.C.'s titles are partially cross-referenced with the O.T.O.'s Degree system, making certain O.T.O. Degrees de factor religious degrees as well. This has been softened in the last few years by the Caliphate O.T.O. in an attempt to solidify and insure the uniformity of the E.G.C. Similarly the E.G.C. has been consolidating its power within the O.T.O, increasing the overall "churchy" tone to the group and driving off members who either are unimpressed with its pseudo-Catholicism or who have Gnostic Church lineages which do not fit with the current administrations ideals.

The lineages of the E.G.C. are an endless topic of debate for those who are looking to trace an Apostolic succession from Aleister Crowley and also into antiquity. Much of it is painful to listen or read through, like you would expect. Each line tends to claim they are the "True" True-succession. Getting into it is probably not worth doing unless you really enjoy Charter tracing and occultnick soap operas.

There is a good overview dealing specifically with the E.G.C.'s lineage and how the Gnostic Church movement of the 1880s has been an influence upon it at

http://www.hermetic.com/sabazius/history_egc.htm

Stephen A. Hoeller, one of the lineage holders in the Christian Gnostic line wrote a wonderful piece regarding how the Thelemic Gnostics Churches are essentially operating outside of the Gnosic Churches proper and shouldn't be seen as being a real part of the original movement.

http://user.cyberlink.ch/~koenig/hoeller.htm

If you are interested in hearing from someone deeply connected to the various lineages from a practitioner's standpoint the interview with Tau Allen Greenfield at

http://www.occultofpersonality.com/2008/03/01/podcast-43-gnosticism/

is worth a listen.

The full audio of Scott McCloud and Douglas Rushkoff panel from NY Comic Con this past Friday.

Favorite phrases:

"Mining Chaos for Value"

"It's not an illness; it's a feature."

"Disasterbation"

Deception and Delusion

Posted as a comment to

http://www.process.org/discept/2008/03/24/the-empty-safe/

Doug,

When I was enrolled in Coney Island USA’s Sideshow School I had the pleasure of seeing the video of Melvin Burkhardt’s last performance of the Human Blockhead routine he pioneered which was done at Todd Robbins’ wedding. After showing me the tap Todd walked over to his bookcase and took out Melvin’s nail, a huge honking thing that only he could have worked with, along with some other artifacts.

A few years later Todd did a one man show recreating 19th Century Seance methods called “Dark Deceptions.” During the talk up he mentions that it would be a night of Deception and Delusion. He’s bring the Deception, it was up to us to bring the Delusion. That was the night I discovered one of the key formulas to Path of the Order of Ascended Charlatans.

If you should find yourself in Manhattan try stopping by the Center for Conjuring Research. They have a truly remarkable collection of books on stage magic and a small side collection of occult titled. They’re in the process of scanning large portions of their archives to be made available to interested researchers. You can find otu more at

http://www.conjuringarts.org/

I’ve spent a fair number of years dealing with people directly and indirectly connected with occultism. The best of them were people who had used their interest as a means of altering their perceptual frames of reference and brought that skill forward in fields like art, literature, academia and military consulting. I’ve found to a dime that the ones who made being an occultist their primary persona or who more foolishly attempted to make careeers out of it were a sad lot. They reminded me of the kind of overbearing party goers who think others are shying away from them because they cannot handle the depth of their insights while in truth they are being avoided because they smell of something dreadful and their fly is open.

Someone on a forum I subscribe to recently wrote "We are the masters of our own subjective realities."

I'm not so certain.*

A large part of what makes up my perceptual universe is a language I did not create myself (English...or the mutant strain of it I acquired from living where I do), images and stories I did not write from the countless movies, TV shows, books, etc, and the life events that heavily shaped portions of its imprints were utterly out of my hands and which baring serious neuroplasticity inducing circumstances will never be reset.

Over the years I've used a variety of methods and systems to help alter portions of my perceptual universe, temporarily or permanently. I have given it new meta-languages to learn as I was learning them in order to improve intra-subjective communication (learning to see the difference betwem Emic and Etic views and how to enter as much as possible other people's Emic views helped). I took up practices which do increase neuroplasticity to help alter my perceptual parameters slowly (meditation, yoga, movement arts) and some which were designed to overwhelm the whole system temporarily (bungee jumping, facing certain fears, spinning in circles til I fell down...the fun state change stuff). I consciously began choosing more of my media-diet while still including just enough to be able to keep up with changing cultural metaphors so I could maintain my ability to communicate with others. I also made a great deal of use of various Forums and Schools for intersubjective communication and to try and pass one where I could methods, ideas, inspirations that seemed to have been important for my own Work to see if it could be Worked by others.

If anything what I've become from all of this is someone much more aware aware of the rippling edge of my perceptual universe and learned, to greater or lesser extent, how to communicate within it and how to communicate portions of it to others. The job certainly isn't done; I've simply become more comfortable with its unending potentials and have a greater sense of the territory.

* I wholly expect that line, or some variation of it, to be my final words in this lifetime.

I have a short piece about pthalates on a recent episode of "Let's Get Naughty" at

http://www.letsgetnaughtypodcast.com/archives/69

By the way that "Dr." Mr. Eric slapped at the front of my name is strictly Carney/Whorehouse Painist and not a reflection of any actually qualifications.

Dr. Alan Miller, who some of you may know by his pen name Christopher S. Hyatt, passed away three days ago after a long bout with cancer.

For those who have never read his works, here is an excerpt from his Undoing Yourself With Energized Meditations and Other Devices

Miller had been one of Israel Regardie's students, both in magic and in applying Reichian methods for eliminating emotional armoring. A good compliation of Hyatt's approach to this area can be found here