THE AGE OF ICONS

Can we devise a system of cultural and social change that applies in all times and all circumstances? An interesting proposition. Let’s give it a go.
Before social advancement comes knowledge. Once knowledge has arisen of what society wants to be, then the role of social change passes down to an icon. In our religions, the philosopher and icon of social change were usually remembered as the same person, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, Buddha and Mohammad being obvious examples.
In such cases, the whole of society pivots around the figure, creating a new religious and social paradigm. In a later, more secular, world, the two roles are split, with philosophers such as Nietzsche and Hegel inadvertently setting the knowledge structure for the icon, Hitler, to manipulate in Germany; or Marx creating communism to be set in society by iconic figures such as Lenin and Mao.

ROLE OF THE ICON

The role of the icon can best be identified by looking to many lesser, non political, but certainly popular icons of our age. Monroe, Presley and Diana come immediately to mind. Each became the focus for a form of social change; Monroe liberated women sexually; Presley was the powerhouse of youth culture; Diana expressed the new touchy-feeliness and emotional openness. But whilst these three icons were very different people, they amazingly shared an exact social ideosyncracy of the greatest icon, Christ.
They died young. They died tragically. They died sensationally. Or at least, we think they did. In reality, Monroe died of an overdose, Presley of high living, Diana in a drunken traffic accident. Nothing spectacular about any of them. But through sensationalism and conspiracy theory, this became inefficient. The lasting iconic image must transcend death. Factors within their death must be fantastic; so Monroe was murdered in a lasting conspiracy; Presley didn’t die at all; Diana, also, had to die through conspiracy.

A HISTORIC PATTERN

The similarity, here, from history is illuminating. The greatest icon of all, Jesus, also died young and tragically, through conspiracy, and was Resurrected. Britain has its own mini-Christ in King Arthur, who was again killed through conspiracy, and it is said he will come again when the time is right. There may seem a great cultural gulf between Jesus and Presley, but take away the culture and look at the social mechanics, and we see the exact same process at work.
Monroe left us her films; Presley his music; and we remember them and what they stood for after their death through these symbols. Jesus left a similar iconic image - the cross. Arthur became enshrined with the Holy Grail, a lasting iconic symbol of Christian purity. In this process, the social mover moves from the human to the symbol everlasting, previously known as the Divine.

SOCIOLOGY OF SYMBOL

Sociology is beginning to understand this process through Semiotics, where a symbol, or ’sign’, seems to condition us. For instance, if we’re hungry, a picture on a tin of soup can cause us to salivate, just like Pavlov’s dogs. The impulse is emotional rather than logical. But the point is, it is not the smell or the taste, or even the sight of a real bowl of soup that has caused the response. It is a picture - a symbol.
The ancient Greeks understood this unique conditioning power of the symbol when they incorporated moral and social requirements into drama. In a play, the people were shown, symbolically, what was expected of them, the drama offering moral dilemma and then showing what was good and bad.
Early Christianity realised the power of drama as symbol too. In their mystery plays they re-enacted symbolic expressions of Christ’s life, and in doing so, conditioned the people to be good Christians. Going on to make the entire year a symbolic procession of festivals based around Christ’s life, social conditioning became complete. And if the same social forms of conditioning through symbol still apply today - as modern icons seem to suggest - then it is a sobering thought to realise that TV Soaps may be our new daily dose of symbolic morality and conditioning.
Is there any wonder we are in moral decline?

(c) Anthony North, April 2007

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PARANORMAL - WHERE IS IT?

A major skeptical point concerning the paranormal is that it does not seem to be needed. We have senses to offer impressions of the world, and a mind to analyse those senses. No paranormality is required.
Within this system, a skeptical question would be: if paranormal powers exist, where are they? This is a valid point. Maybe the answer is that they used to be there, but are now somewhere else. Let me explain.

ALTERED STATES

There is an inter-religious discipline known as mysticism. A mystic puts himself into a trance to achieve what is collectively known as an altered state. In such a state the mystic speaks of being removed from the normal world.
What form of world does he enter? It is often described as a world of esoteric ‘information’; a state of ‘wholeness’ where everything is appreciated and understood. Once out of the state, this understanding is usually lost.
Is this ‘state’ related to the paranormal? It is well known that much paranormal activity occurs when trance, or near-trance states such as tiredness, is achieved. Could it be that paranormality is best achieved in trance, when we withdraw from outside information?

MIND BEFORE THIS ONE

The ancients seem to have lived in a different mind-state to our own. Early literature offers hints of a lack of subjectivity or individuality in the writer. It is as if a wider, more communal, mind was appreciated.
Early myths tell us that this earlier mind state could have been filled with super-beings holding paranormal powers. Were these symbols of mind-power and the reality of the paranormal in an early state of man?
Jung offers a description of what kind of mind these ancients could have had in his theory of ‘archetypes’ and the ‘collective unconscious.’ Minds were inter-related at a communal level, thus offering a more integrated way of thinking.

TOWARDS A THEORY

The purpose of this essay is not to prove paranormal powers, but to offer an understanding of why they are not necessarily with us today. And the obvious starting point is to say that the mind which allows such powers has evolved.
Intelligent man is said to have evolved due to a unique pelvis which allowed erect walking, freeing our hands for manual dexterity. However, is this incomplete? In order to become the technologist, he would surely have required a technologist’s mind.
Other species seem to be controlled by an all-encompassing instinct. Instinct is, of course, a response communal to all. And it seems to work on the level of inner-conditioning, rather than abstract understanding of ‘outside’ information.

AN EVOLVED MIND

In order to be a technologist, man would have to be able to think in the abstract. Hence, he would have had to analyse ‘outside’ information ABOVE instinct, and apply that information to the task in hand.
This would have required the ability to ‘concentrate’ on one thing at a time. In other words, a repository would have been required for ‘thoughts’ and impressions not needed at a particular time.
I would argue that the human mind was ‘whole’ prior to technology, but as man’s new way of thinking increased, the mind split into the conscious and unconscious, the former needed for concentration, the latter for storing unrequired thoughts.

AN ELASTIC MIND

We are devising a model for an evolved mind-state, incorporating conscious and unconscious mind. But this process can be extended. For instance, what would be the effect of ‘outside’ information increasing due to our technology?
Seeing that the split was required to analyse information, we can argue that as ‘outside’ information increased, the conscious mind expanded to process the data, and the unconscious repository became more and more inaccessible.
However, this is not the whole story. In dream-states and other states when outside information is reduced, we can argue that the two areas of mind move closer together, possibly even merge.

PARANORMAL MIND

This is a possible answer to the skeptics question concerning where is the paranormal? In normal technological/information mind-states, it is banished to the back of the mind. But in near-trance states, a merging of the mind brings such powers into use.
The above theory holds another possibility. Today, we live in an ‘information age,’ where the conscious mind would be enormous. Does this explain our present biases towards individuality, the material world and suspicion of the spiritual?
I pose this question for an important reason. Studies of the paranormal are said to be of no concern to normal life. The above theory suggests otherwise. Indeed, it shows that understanding the paranormal could be essential to who we are.

© Anthony North, April 2007

Paranormal UFO Occult

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ROBIN HOOD

Did Robin Hood exist, or is he simply a story?
Robbing the rich to give to the poor, Robin Hood is a great socialist agitator, living in Nottingham Forest with his Merry Men. Many tales exist of his exploits, such as when his archers surrounded the Bishop of Hereford on his way to York. Taking him prisoner, he is ransomed and forced to dance a jig to entertain Robin’s men.
In another tale the king and his knights go into the forest dressed as monks to catch him. Surrounded by the outlaws, the king offers them all they have. Robin says he will take just a small part of it. Invited to eat with them, the king identifies himself and Robin kneels. He is them pardoned and goes to serve the king in court.
Robin is eventually killed about 1346, when, ill, he is taken to Kirklees Priory where the prioress murders him. Before he dies, he fires an arrow, and Little John buries him where the arrow falls. But did Robin Hood really exist?

CHRONICLES OF ROBIN

Thought by some to be a survival of pagan mythology, he is first mentioned in William Langland’s ‘Piers Plowman’ around 1377. Born from oral tradition, the stories are brought together in Wynkyn de Worde’s ‘A Lytell Geste of Robyn Hood’ around 1510. Finally, the Robin Hood we know and love appeared in Sir Walter Scott’s ‘Ivanhoe’ in the 19th century.
A parallel tradition says he was the Earl of Huntington, cheated out of his estate and forced to become an outlaw; another identifies him as Sir Robin of Locksley, born in Yorkshire about 1160.

A YORKSHIRE ROBIN?

Sherwood Forest stretched into Yorkshire at the time and there is a strong tradition of the outlaw in the county. There is even a record of a Robert Hode born in Wakefield in 1290. His father is a forester, and in January 1316 Robin and his wife bought a piece of land to build a house. The Manor Court Roll for 1357 details the house, formerly the property of Robert Hode.
In 1322 his landlord, the Earl of Lancaster, called his tenants to arms in a rebellion against the king. It failed and his followers were outlawed. Robert Hode would no doubt be one of them, especially as records exist of those who refused service. He is not among them.
In May 1323 the king is known to have hunted in the forest near Wakefield. Did he meet up with Robin Hood as the ballads say, and invite him to court? The Royal Household accounts for April 1324 record a payment of wages to one Robyn Hod.
So perhaps Robin Hood really did exist. But not as a criminal per se. More as an early people’s rebel - a fighter for justice and fairness in a system that was corrupt.

(c) Anthony North, April 2007

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HOW TO GET TO THE STARS

We are told we cannot get to the stars. Relativity theory holds a barrier to travel. Even if we could approach the speed of light, faster-than-light travel is not permitted – we would, in effect, go out of the universe.
This puts star travel into the realms of the near impossible – our present propulsion systems would, for instance, take 80,000 years to get to Alpha Centauri, our nearest stellar neighbour.
There are theoretical ways out of this problem. One idea is that space bends upon itself. There only appears to be ‘distance’ in the dimensions we understand. If we could access these other dimensions, then we could simply hop from one part of the universe to another.
Then we have ‘wormholes,’ tiny theoretical tubes forming a lattice-work in space. Travelling down a wormhole would theoretically get us from one place to another instantaneously.
Unfortunately, wormholes are many times smaller than a subatomic particle, so they are physically too small for us. However, it is believed instantaneous information could be passed down the wormhole. Does this allow us a ‘short-cut’ to the stars?
Imagine the ability to send tiny probes down a wormhole, transmitting data, in real time, of a far off world. Back on Earth, this data is transferred to a holographic representation of that world, in which we can explore what is actually out there.
Okay, this is not star travel as such, but we would still have the ability for instantaneous exploration of the stars. And if the information was two-way, we could project what we are doing onto that very world itself. A kind of star travel by proxy.

© Anthony North, April 2007

Lift-Off

A LITTLE EXTRA

Consumer – Furniture used to be bought made up. Shop assistants used to serve you. Garage attendants used to put the petrol in for you. Today we’re consumer conscious – obviously another term for sucker.

(c) Anthony North, Apr 07 - find more little extras on pages of North’s Review

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TONY ON BORIS, DIANA, NEW EARTH …

THOUGHTS FROM A COMMON MAN
News and comment LATEST: UK gun controls different to US; remembering Yeltsin; all change at the Diana Inquest, and much more …
A REAL VOICE OF BRITAIN

A VERY CLOSE NEIGHBOUR

The discovery of an Earth-like planet orbiting the Red Dwarf, Gliese 581 will have come as a shock to astronomers. Some 12,000 miles across, it has a mass five times that of Earth, and takes just 13 days to orbit its sun, itself a third the size of our Sun.
Existing in the ‘Goldilocks Zone – not so close to the sun to be too hot and not so far as to be too cold – the most interesting thing about Gliese 581c is its closeness to Earth. At just 20 light years, it is far closer than predictions said such a planet could be.
If Earth-like planets are this close together throughout the universe, chances of life ‘out there’ increase significantly.

GOODBYE BORIS

Boris Yeltsin is dead. A giant of a man, we all owe him a debt of gratitude. The first democratically-elected president of Russia, his mounting of a tank to rally the Russian people against the Communists was a seminal moment of modern history …
… read more …

KINGDOM

Kingdom (ITV1 UK 22 Apr 07) was a good, gentle drama – perfect for Sunday night viewing. It was pleasing to see Stephen Fry with a more mainstream role, although there was some irony in a solicitor having a sidekick like a detective …
… read more …

PROBLEMS AT DIANA INQUEST

Dame Butler Sloss has resigned as Coroner to the Diana Inquest, citing her inexperience with dealing with juries at such sessions. A new Coroner has been appointed but this is unlikely to change the farce the Inquest is fast becoming.
Mohamad al Fayed has been blamed, thwarting the Coroner at every turn in his insistence on proving a conspiracy behind the death of Diana and his son, Dodi. However, it is the nature of conspiracy theory around such a tragic event that if he wasn’t doing it, someone would.
I feel for Diana’s sons, William and Harry, but I fear the conspiracy theories will outlive them. And the more the British establishment try to impose order and commonsense, the more the theories will proliferate.

GUN CONTROLS IN UK

Following the harrowing events at Virginia Tech many in the US gun lobby cited the UK as evidence that gun controls do not work, with gun crime soaring in recent years. However, the UK experience is not comparable to gun ownership in America …
… read more …

Anthony North, April 2007

Inde-Pol

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THE CULTURAL CATALYST

Marx once pointed out that most great philosophers die in obscurity because their time was not right. This is very true, but we can go further. When their time is not right, they not only die in obscurity, but are known as cranks.
Even many great scientists - Galileo, Darwin and Mendel being cases in point - were considered cranks initially. Hence, we can argue that the difference between being a crank or a genius is one of social acceptance. But what processes are actually involved in being a genius?

WHAT IS A GENIUS?

The traditional view of a genius is of a person who seems to cut themselves off from the normal course of life and gains deep intuition which he then communicates to others to gain acceptance. But of what does he gain intuition?
In order to gain acceptance, a genius must mould with the on-going mood of society. We are often told we cannot see the wood for the trees. In order to see the wood we have to move outside and view from afar. This is analogous to the early actions of a genius, removing himself from society.
So could it be that in moving away from society, what he is doing is viewing it more correctly than others? If we accept this as a possibility, then what the genius intuits is a correct analysis of society’s mood. In other words, intuition can best be summarised as a form of catalyst of how society wants to change.
We can now gain a deeper understanding of Marx’s idea of the mutualistic relationship between philosopher and society. The philosopher, it seems, knows us better than we do. And through his later theorising, we know ourselves, and he thus becomes a guide for our social change.

PATTERNS OF HISTORY

I would argue that this process involving thinker/society is universal and is exact throughout history, thus becoming the main element in social change. Two examples will suffice, here, to show this.
In the Old Testament Moses gained intuition from God, masquerading as a Burning Bush. Over three thousand years later, Einstein realised relativity whilst dreaming he was riding on the end of a beam of light. Both these stories may be allegorical, but both use symbolism from outside the person to highlight the point of intuition.
Yet, if we take away the very different cultures of these two people, and look, instead, at the ‘mechanics’ of the intuitive event, they are identical. The self same process seems to be involved.
We can now identify a universal and historical process of social evolution. A mood arises in the people and a thinker, or mover, intuits this mood and turns it into philosophy, politics, science or religion. Whichever it is is dependent on the historical times. But devoid of culture, it is nonetheless the same process.

FRUSTRATING, ISN’T IT?

From this point a new paradigm is created to advance society - advancement, of course, being for the good or bad. Indeed, usually it is for the bad, with each historical society up to, and including, today’s having difficulties which affect the people. Why is this?
Perhaps because of the madness of the thinker involved. For by taking a close look at most such thinkers, their madness impinges upon their new paradigm, turning it into fanaticism. And in such fanaticism, the seeds of popular frustration are grown, guaranteeing that the paradigm will eventually fall.
Indeed, we could argue that such frustrations are the very driving forces of advancement, the frustrations eventually forming into another great thinker’s head, and beginning the process of social change again.

© Anthony North, April 2007

Find more posts in the same vein on the Philosophy page, above.
If you like debate, try The Daily Grail. I’m hooked.

HISTORY - DON’T YOU BELIEVE IT

Conspiracy theory can thrive because nothing, in life, is certain. Indeed, I’m certain of only one thing. Nothing is certain. You could say I certainly can’t say that because the statement holds a contradiction. But are you certain about that?
Life has always been this uncertain, but if you read most history books, history seems to conflict with this, in that we tend to have a definite record of the past. But is that record true, or have historians conspired to provide the history we believe?
Take the Native Americans. Sixty years ago the general historic record spoke of them as savages. Since then our appreciation has changed. Popular history now denotes them as cultured people who were dealt a severe blow by the white man.
Our present view of Native Americans is no doubt correct, but only so because of the growing New Age with an appreciation of wider aspects of mysticism, and political correctness which takes a more inclusive view of minorities.
This tells us certain ‘truths’ about our historical record. First of all, history is written by the victor. But at any time in the future, history is re-written based upon the contemporary view of the historians revising it.
History therefore has no definite structure. History can so often be a conspiracy in itself.

© Anthony North, April 2007

It’s Under Control

ON THIS DAY

24 April – Maybe this should become ‘Space Day,’ for many things involving space happened today. In 1967 Cosmonaut Komarov became the first known casualty of space exploration. Three years later China launched its first satellite, entering the space race. In 1990 the Hubble Telescope was launched today, and to record it all, The Sky At Night was first broadcast on this day in 1957.

© Anthony North, Apr 07 - Should I be writing this on a post where I say history is a conspiracy?

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AFTER THE LAST STORY

The answer’s obvious. After the last story, the next one - and pretty damned quick. You see, there’s nothing quite like reading the finished piece, knowing you’ve created it – the plot, the characters, the descriptiveness, the dialogue.
Sometimes it will have been written in a methodical kind of way, whilst at other times creation is a fever of activity, your fingers whizzing round the keyboard as if a concert pianist. Perspiration is not just through physical work.
Sometimes a thought enters your head like ‘am I ever going to pack in this storytelling game?’ But the answer is immediate. Not on your life. Even if, at heart, it occasionally becomes tedious – and believe me it does – you know you’ll carry on.
You have to – you know you have to – because it’s an addiction. It’s an addiction worse than any drug, because the need for the next high is immediate, and there’s no hope of therapy to help you break the habit.
If I’d known what it would be like after the last story, would I have begun the first? It’s pointless looking back. But a thought for the future: what comes after my very last story? That’s easy. My funeral.

© Anthony North, April 2007

Writing Blog
My Fiction Page

A LITTLE EXTRA

Novel – We read them. We love them. We descend into the writers’ world. We even believe them. The Novel. Fraud for the law-abiding.

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REALITY - OBJECTIVE OR SUBJECTIVE?

Find links for Paranormal News Sites at bottom of this post

We have various labels for paranormal phenomena – ghosts, premonition, etc – but can we better understand the paranormal by using a new definition? To me the subject can best be seen as the interplay between mind and environment.
The mind is, of course, subjective, whilst the environment about us would seem to be an objective fact. We know this because science says so, but to what extend does the subjective mind impinge upon this objective reality?
It is a subject that has fascinated philosophers for centuries, but it is an area of research so often missed by parapsychologists and psychical researchers. So I ask a question: Is objective reality simply a bare canvas to be filled by our subjective thoughts?

THE NIGHT I SAW MY UFO

An anecdote to explain what I mean. One night as I was going to bed a blast of wind rattled the window. I wasn’t in a particularly good mood. I pulled back the curtain to see how bad the wind was and became suddenly transfixed.
In the garden next door, about two feet above the ground, was a cascade of golden lights. I have since called it my angel, or UFO, and it was so beautiful that my mood disappeared. After watching for quite a while, I went to bed and slept peacefully for the first time in ages.
The next morning I investigated. There was a pile of bricks in the garden, and trapped on it was the cause of my vision. An empty packet of crisps with its reflective insides showing had reflected an orange street light as it blew in the wind.

TOWARDS A COLLECTIVE REALITY

I have offered just one very visible example. Yet the interplay between objective reality and the subjective mind can be seen as a continual process. Jung offered his theory of ‘archetypes’ within a collective unconscious. We can now look at this in a new way.
An objective reality would be the same to all people. At the root of sensory experience would be a shared impression – a ‘collective’ experience, as it were. This collective experience would provide objective ‘archetypal’ impressions in the unconscious.
We can see this in action in the discipline of Semiotics, where ‘signs’ and symbols provide collective meaning and direction. A red traffic light, for instance, is a collective instruction to stop. A dark cloud is universally precognitive of rain.

WE LIVE IN TWO WORLDS

Such archetypal imagery would also mix with the ‘collective’ aspects of the mind. Certain mind traits, for instance, are shared, whether through our genes or repetitive behaviour.
This interplay between shared mind and environment offers a credible existence to Jung’s collective unconscious. Indeed, myth itself can be seen as a shared psychology writ large, filled with archetypal personality types and human dilemmas.
This reality of a physical, objective world and a shared psychological world has been expressed in religion throughout human existence. Since earliest times we have lived in two worlds – the physical world and a parallel spirit world. We can now, perhaps, see what this concept means.

INVADING THE OBJECTIVE

If a skeptic had researched my ‘UFO’ he would have worked out what caused the vision, offered a wry smile and declared ‘case closed.’ But this is an error. No matter how mundane the cause was, it had an effect in my mind.
In fact, it transformed my mind. It turned my mood, provided relaxation and disclosed a vital key in my theorizing. And it prompts a vital question: If a subjective interpretation of objective reality changes the person, does it gain a degree of objective reality in itself?
Consider the implications. Imagine lots of people witnessing a similarly mundane thing, and similarly misinterpreting it. They think it is a god, and their actions from then on are as though this god exists. In changing objective reality through their future actions, the ‘god’ invades objective reality by proxy. So in some sense, this ‘god’ must exist.

DESTINY AND THE QUEST

What the above suggests is that, whilst objective reality is a constant, a shared psychology is not. A misinterpretation of a mundane thing can cause a subjective change to the interpretation of reality by the person. And his actions from then on can similarly change others interpretation of objective reality, to the point where objective reality may appear to change itself.
We can add another dimension to this. Objective reality constantly bombards the mind with sensory input. We cannot cope with this so we have a ‘filter’ which presents us with only the sensory input of relevance to our present requirements.
If we can impinge our subjective mind upon objective reality, does this change the nature of our sensory input to only receive those signs and symbols that we want? It is a given of coincidence that thinking of one thing can cause similar things to be perceived. This suggests that objective reality can bend to our personal, or communal, subjective values.

RATIONALISING THE PARANORMAL

The interplay between objective reality and shared, or communal, subjective reality can possibly explain much of the paranormal. Repetition of ‘archetypal’ symbolism could automatically predispose the mind to see ‘ghosts’ at locations steeped in supernatural culture.
Mundane prompters in the environment could become precognitive, or even provide perceived telepathic communication, because they are perceived by others, prompting similar behaviour or shared thoughts.
For instance, a mundane item of news unconsciously reminds two people of a shared experience. One thinks, I must phone him, whilst the other already is – and the phone rings …

IN CONCLUSION

The relationship between objective reality and subjective mind can best be seen at the mundane level that most people do not consciously experience. But nonetheless it provides meaning, and possibly a whole host of phenomena.
The subjective mind can constantly tamper with this mundane objectivity, providing a different imterpretation of the objective to suit the person’s subjectivity. Indeed, at some communal levels, such as a household, I can even see the interplay providing the necessary shared psychodrama for a perceived poltergeist infestation.
Of course, the implications go further than the mere paranormal, for if the subjective invades the objective to this extent this could also be the process of religious experience – even fundamental political stances.
I am becoming convinced that we do not truly understand the human condition because we do not relate paranormality to the mundane. Here, of course, I am offering but a theory. Yet, in light of the above, it prompts the question: if this idea became accepted, would it become a fact?
If so, the world is changed by a packet of crisps.

© Anthony North, April 2007

Paranormal UFO Occult

There are a number of Paranormal/Alternative News Sites that post news daily. If you want to keep informed on these issues, try these links. You can access them any time by clicking ‘Useful Sites & Orgs’ on my Mysteries Page above.

http://www.dailygrail.com
http://anomalist.com
http://paranormal.about.com
http://uf0review.net
http://www.unexplained-mysteries.com
http://www.nightwatchmanchronicles.com/Newspage.htm
http://thedebrisfield.blogspot.com

THE ERROR OF THE INDIVIDUAL

When you see a group of teenagers expressing their individuality, all you really see is group identity. Fashion and the way popular media-forms impinge on consciousness guarantee that individuality is a con. This lack of individuality can even be seen in the ‘rights’ we have won for ourselves in recent decades.
Yes, we won rights for women, for gays, for ethnic minorities; we brought in meritocracy and a more open culture - as long as you have a mortgage, wear designer clothes and buy a new car every year. We have gained only the freedoms that do not upset the fundamental order of things. In all other respects, we are chained to the capitalist creed. We are Corporate Man personified.

BIRTH OF INDIVIDUALITY

The crowning glory of the individual came in the defining of the Existentialist. The centre of his own universe, the Existentialist is chained only to his ability to choose. Personal choice becomes the new mantra, and we are free. Yet isn’t it strange that ‘choice’ is also the ethic of capitalism? Could it be that in gaining the illusion of freedom, we simply knuckled under to what capitalism wanted us to be?
Individuality itself was born out of the Non Conformist rebellion against ritualised Christianity. To the Non Conformist, Catholicism and its Anglican puppy maintained a strangle hold on knowledge and culture. Hence, it was inevitable that a new ministry would rise, taking authority away from the Church and placing it in the words of the Bible.
When a preacher picked up a Bible and quoted directly from it, he was speaking with the authority of the very words of God. Yet, if God’s word was so absolute, how is it that so many Non Conformist denominations arose?
The obvious answer is that words are inefficient things and bend to the ideosyncracies of the reader. The new preacher simply picked the words he wanted, and in doing so, created the cult
of the individual and gained disciples to his cause. And the same process of guru worship is with us today, the latest expression being the pop star who expresses his individuality by imposing his group culture on the masses.

ANTI-ESTABLISHMENT UPHOLDS THE ESTABLISHMENT

The Non Conformist preacher and the pop star share another ideosyncracy that, rather than being anti-establishment, is really a force to uphold establishment. For with the preacher we gained spiritual validity to the growing middleclasses who went on to power the Industrial Revolution and the capitalist world of today; and in the pop star, we have an ever changing fashion and music industry which turns into billions spent in order to maintain the capitalist way.
Individuality had to be a con, for we are the product of our genes and community. We exist in a cauldron of actions and thoughts of others. We are shaped by what we see in our community, and how members of that community treat us. We are defined by how our peers interpret us as much as we interpret ourselves.
The human being himself exists in three realities. Look in the mirror and you see the individual. Look into a microscope and the individual becomes a community of cells. Look into the subatomic, and we are nothing but an electrical vibration indistinguishable from the rest of the universe. It seems, therefore, that our very ‘self’ is an illusion.
The purpose of these musings is not to bring down the capitalist system, but just to show that what we think is individuality is not always so. It could just be the natural way society has formed us to be. And that society is formed by the established order we accept, not as individuals, but as a community.

© Anthony North, April 2007

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