Wednesday, December 30, 2009

The Rise of the Politics of Fear -

This is a fantastic documentary on how much of our lives have been shaped in the last three decades by two competitive mythologies, . Its a wonderful look at how myth on both sides of the fence played such an important role in reshaping the world in the last 3 decades

From the wikipedia and google video
The Power of Nightmares, subtitled The Rise of the Politics of Fear, is a BBC documentary film series, written and produced by Adam Curtis. Its three one-hour parts consist mostly of a montage of archive footage with Curtis’s narration. The series was first broadcast in the United Kingdom in late 2004 and has subsequently been broadcast in multiple countries and shown in several film festivals, including the 2005 Cannes Film Festival.
The films compare the rise of the Neo-Conservative movement in the United States and the radical Islamist movement, making comparisons on their origins and claiming similarities between the two. More controversially, it argues that the threat of radical Islamism as a massive, sinister organised force of destruction, specifically in the form of al-Qaeda, is a myth perpetrated by politicians in many countries—and particularly American Neo-Conservatives—in an attempt to unite and inspire their people following the failure of earlier, more utopian ideologies.

Part 1: “Baby It’s Cold Outside”
The first part of the series explains the origin of Islamism and Neo-Conservatism. It shows Egyptian civil servant Sayyid Qutb, depicted as the founder of modern Islamist thought, visiting the U.S. to learn about the education system, but becoming disgusted with what he saw as a corruption of morals and virtues in western society through individualism. When he returns to Egypt, he is disturbed by westernisation under Gamal Abdel Nasser and becomes convinced that in order to save society it must be completely restructured along the lines of Islamic law while still using western technology. He also becomes convinced that this can only be accomplished through the use of an elite “vanguard” to lead a revolution against the established order. Qutb becomes a leader of the Muslim Brotherhood and, after being tortured in one of Nasser’s jails, comes to believe that western-influenced leaders can justly be killed for the sake of removing their corruption. Qutb is executed in 1966, but he inspires the future mentor of Osama bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahiri, to start his own secret Islamist group. Inspired by the 1979 Iranian revolution, Zawahiri and his allies assassinate Egyptian president Anwar Al Sadat, in 1981, in hopes of starting their own revolution. The revolution does not materialise, and Zawahiri comes to believe that the majority of Muslims have been corrupted by their western-inspired leaders and thus may be legitimate targets of violence if they do not join him.
At the same time in the United States, a group of disillusioned liberals, including Irving Kristol and Paul Wolfowitz, look to the political thinking of Leo Strauss after the perceived failure of President Johnson’s “Great Society”. They come to the conclusion that the emphasis on individual liberty was the undoing of the plan. They envisioned restructuring America by uniting the American people against a common evil, and set about creating a mythical enemy. These factions, the Neo-Conservatives, came to power under the Reagan administration, with their allies Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld, and work to unite the United States in fear of the Soviet Union. The Neo-Conservatives allege the Soviet Union is not following the terms of disarmament between the two countries, and, with the investigation of “Team B”, they accumulate a case to prove this with dubious evidence and methods. President Reagan is convinced nonetheless.

Part 2: “The Phantom Victory”
In the second episode, Islamist factions, rapidly falling under the more radical influence of Zawahiri and his rich Saudi acolyte Osama bin Laden, join the Neo-Conservative-influenced Reagan Administration to combat the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan. When the Soviets eventually pull out and when the Eastern Bloc begins to collapse in the late 1980s, both groups believe they are the primary architects of the “Evil Empire’s” defeat. Curtis argues that the Soviets were on their last legs anyway, and were doomed to collapse without intervention.
However, the Islamists see it quite differently, and in their triumph believe that they had the power to create ‘pure’ Islamic states in Egypt and Algeria. However, attempts to create perpetual Islamic states are blocked by force. The Islamists then try to create revolutions in Egypt and Algeria by the use of terrorism to scare the people into rising up. However, the people are terrified by the violence and the Algerian government uses their fear as a way to maintain power. In the end, the Islamists declare the entire populations of the countries as inherently contaminated by western values, and finally in Algeria turn on each other, each believing that other terrorist groups are not pure enough Muslims either.
In America, the Neo-Conservatives’ aspirations to use the United States military power for further destruction of evil are thrown off track by the ascent of George HW Bush to the presidency, followed by the 1992 election of Bill Clinton leaving them out of power. The Neo-Conservatives, with their conservative Christian allies, attempt to demonise Clinton throughout his presidency with various real and fabricated stories of corruption and immorality. To their disappointment, however, the American people do not turn against Clinton. The Islamist attempts at revolution end in massive bloodshed, leaving the Islamists without popular support. Zawahiri and bin Laden flee to the sufficiently safe Afghanistan and declare a new strategy; to fight Western-inspired moral decay they must deal a blow to its source: the United States

Part 3: “The Shadows in the Cave”

The Neo-Conservatives use the September 11th attacks, with al-Fadl’s description of al-Qaeda,[citation needed] to launch the War on Terror.
The final episode addresses the actual rise of al-Qaeda. Curtis argues that, after their failed revolutions, bin Laden and Zawahiri had little or no popular support, let alone a serious complex organisation of terrorists, and were dependent upon independent operatives to carry out their new call for jihad. The film instead argues that in order to prosecute bin Laden in absentia for the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings, US prosecutors had to prove he was the head of a criminal organisation responsible for the bombings. They find a former associate of bin Laden, Jamal al-Fadl, and pay him to testify that bin Laden was the head of a massive terrorist organisation called “al-Qaeda”. With the September 11th attacks, Neo-Conservatives in the new Republican government of George W. Bush use this created concept of an organisation to justify another crusade against a new evil enemy, leading to the launch of the War on Terrorism.
After the American invasion of Afghanistan fails to uproot the alleged terrorist network, the Neo-Conservatives focus inwards, searching unsuccessfully for terrorist sleeper cells in America. They then extend the war on “terror” to a war against general perceived evils with the invasion of Iraq in 2003. The ideas and tactics also spread to the United Kingdom where Tony Blair uses the threat of terrorism to give him a new moral authority. The repercussions of the Neo-Conservative strategy are also explored with an investigation of indefinitely-detained terrorist suspects in Guantanamo Bay, many allegedly taken on the word of the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance without actual investigation on the part of the United States military, and other forms of “preemption” against non-existent and unlikely threats made simply on the grounds that the parties involved could later become a threat. Curtis also makes a specific attempt to allay fears of a dirty bomb attack, and concludes by reassuring viewers that politicians will eventually have to concede that some threats are exaggerated and others altogether devoid of reality

Monday, December 28, 2009

Humor - A Systems View Of Religion

http://cdn.holytaco.com/www/sites/default/files/images/2009/10/Religion-Flowchart_1.jpgWhat Religion To Follow

Sunday, December 27, 2009

R D Laing - A look into the Mind of the Man who brought Game Theory Into The Study of Mind

Ronald David Laing (7 October 1927 – 23 August 1989), was a Scottish psychiatrist who wrote extensively on mental illness – in particular, the experience of psychosis. Laing’s views on the causes and treatment of serious mental dysfunction, greatly influenced by existential philosophy, ran counter to the psychiatric orthodoxy of the day by taking the expressed feelings of the individual patient or client as valid descriptions of lived experience rather than simply as symptoms of some separate or underlying disorder. Often associated with the anti-psychiatry movement, he himself rejected the label as such, as did certain others critical of conventional psychiatry at the time.

Saturday, December 26, 2009

Century Of The Self - The Impact of Freudian Ideas on 20th Century

A powerful documentary

From The Wikipedia
“This series is about how those in power have used Freud’s theories to try and control the dangerous crowd in an age of mass democracy.” – Adam Curtis’ introduction to the first episode.

Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis, changed the perception of the human mind and its workings. His influence on the twentieth century is generally considered profound. The series describes the ways public relations and politicians have utilized Freud’s theories during the last 100 years for the “engineering of consent”.
Freud himself and his nephew Edward Bernays, who was the first to use psychological techniques in public relations, are discussed. Freud’s daughter Anna Freud, a pioneer of child psychology, is mentioned in the second part, as is one of the main opponents of Freud’s theories, Wilhelm Reich, in the third part.
Along these general themes, The Century of the Self asks deeper questions about the roots and methods of modern consumerism, representative democracy and its implications. It also questions the modern way we see ourselves, the attitude to fashion and superficiality.
The business and, increasingly, the political world uses psychological techniques to read and fulfill our desires, to make their products or speeches as pleasing as possible to us. Curtis raises the question of the intentions and roots of this fact. Where once the political process was about engaging people’s rational, conscious minds, as well as facilitating their needs as a society, the documentary shows how by employing the tactics of psychoanalysis, politicians appeal to irrational, primitive impulses that have little apparent bearing on issues outside of the narrow self-interest of a consumer population. He cites Paul Mazer, a Wall Street banker working for Lehman Brothers in the 1930s: “We must shift America from a needs- to a desires-culture. People must be trained to desire, to want new things, even before the old have been entirely consumed. […] Man’s desires must overshadow his needs.”
In Episode 4 the main subjects are Philip Gould and Matthew Freud, the great grandson of Sigmund, a PR consultant. They were part of the efforts during the nineties to bring the Democrats in the US and New Labour in the United Kingdom back into power. Adam Curtis explores the psychological methods they now massively introduced into politics. He also argues that the eventual outcome strongly resembles Edward Bernays vision for the “Democracity” during the 1939 New York World’s Fair.
According to BBC publicity:
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?

Episode 1

Episode 2

Episode 3

Episode 4

Friday, December 25, 2009

Timothy Leary and Robert Anton Wilson

Two genius’ of our time in conversation about everything from Politics to Quantum Mechanics

Rare historical film that we ran into and are sharing it here for people to watch if it interests them

The American Dream - Ayn Rand and George Carlin

An interesting video, it will be interesting to hear your views on this?

Ayn Rand represents to a large degree level 5/Orange intelligence, however we are curious what you think of this piece, as many of the things esp Big Oil she is talking about is still relevant in todays world.

And then we have another view point, this time from George Carlin, and he seems to speak about another level of intelligence, spoken from a very different world view.

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Quest for Life - Discovering Your Human Potential

A wonderful collection of quotes on what human potential is

– Stephen Covey, best-selling author 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
– His Holiness The Dalai Lama, Spiritual & Political Leader of The Tibetan People
– Sir Richard Branson, Virgin Brand, Entrepreneur, 245th richest person in the world
– Archbishop Desmond Tutu, South African Activist, opposed to apartheid
– Jack Canfield, co-creator, Chicken Soup for the Soul
– T. Harv Eker, creator, Secrets of The Millionaire Mind
– John Assaraf, star in The Secret, best-selling author and entrepreneur
– Russell Simmons, Entrepreneur & Philanthropist
– Byron Katie, Author, Speaker
– Wayne Muller, best-selling author, Legacy of the Heart
– Marci Shimoff, star in The Secret, best-selling author, Happy for No Reason
– Sir John Templeton, Billionaire, Investor & Philanthropist
– Hari Nam Singh Khalsa, Spiritual Leader & Corporate Mentor
– Gabrielle Roth, Musician, Dancer & Philosopher
– Hale Dwoskin, The Sedona Method
– Richard Carlson, best-selling author, Dont Sweat the Small Stuff
– Janet Attwood, best-selling author, The Passion Test
– Sam Keen, Author, Professor, Philosopher

Learning From History -The Secret Government: The Constitution in Crisis, by Bill Moyers

The Secret Government: The Constitution in Crisis, by Bill Moyers

This is the full length 90 min. version of Bill Moyer’s 1987 scathing critique of the criminal subterfuge carried out by the Executive Branch of the United States Government to carry out operations which are clearly contrary to the wishes and values of the American people. The ability to exercise this power with impunity is facilitated by the National Security Act of 1947. The thrust of the exposé is the Iran-Contra arms and drug-running operations which flooded the streets of our nation with crack cocaine. The significance of the documentary is probably greater today in 2007 than it was when it was made. We now have a situation in which these same forces have committed the most egregious terrorist attack on US soil and have declared a fraudulent so-called “War on Terror”. The ruling regime in the US who have conducted the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, are now banging the war drum against Iran. We have the PATRIOT act which has stripped us of many of our basic civil rights justified by the terror of 9/11 which is their own doing. This is the full length 90 min. version of Bill Moyer’s 1987 scathing critique of the criminal subterfuge carried out by the Executive Branch of the United States Government to carry out operations which are clearly contrary to the wishes and values of the American people. The ability to exercise this power with impunity is facilitated by the National Security Act of 1947. The thrust of the exposé is the Iran-Contra arms and drug-running operations which flooded the streets of our nation with crack cocaine. The significance of the documentary is probably greater today in 2007 than it was when it was made. We now have a situation in which these same forces have committed the most egregious terrorist attack on US soil and have declared a fraudulent so-called “War on Terror”. The ruling regime in the US who have conducted the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, are now banging the war drum against Iran. We have the PATRIOT act which has stripped us of many of our basic civil rights justified by the terror o…all » This is the full length 90 min. version of Bill Moyer’s 1987 scathing critique of the criminal subterfuge carried out by the Executive Branch of the United States Government to carry out operations which are clearly contrary to the wishes and values of the American people. The ability to exercise this power with impunity is facilitated by the National Security Act of 1947. The thrust of the exposé is the Iran-Contra arms and drug-running operations which flooded the streets of our nation with crack cocaine. The significance of the documentary is probably greater today in 2007 than it was when it was made. We now have a situation in which these same forces have committed the most egregious terrorist attack on US soil and have declared a fraudulent so-called “War on Terror”. The ruling regime in the US who have conducted the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, are now banging the war drum against Iran. We have the PATRIOT act which has stripped us of many of our basic civil rights justified by the terror of 9/11 which is their own doing

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Randy Pausch - The Last Lecture "Making Your Childhood Dreams Come True"

ONE OF THE BEST TALKS WE HAVE HEARD, AND ONE THAT TOUCHES THE DEPTHS OF ONES HEARTS. ENJOY
Randy Pausch Almost all of us have childhood dreams: for example, being an astronaut, or making movies or video games for a living. Sadly, most people don’t achieve theirs, and I think that’s a shame. I had several specific childhood dreams, and I’ve actually achieved most of them. More importantly, I have found ways, in particular the creation (with Don Marinelli), of CMU’s Entertainment Technology Center (etc.cmu.edu), of helping many young people actually *achieve* their childhood dreams. This talk will discuss how I achieved my childhood dreams (being in zero gravity, designing theme park rides for Disney, and a few others), and will contain realistic advice on how *you* can live your life so that you can make your childhood dreams come true, too.

Meetings With Remarkable Men - Gurdjieff

BRILLIANT PRODUCT OF A WONDERFUL THEATRE PERSONALITY PETER BROOK AND A TEACHER PAR EXCELLENCE – GURDJIEFF. ENJOY THE “SYMBOLIC MOVIE”

Gurdjieff – Meetings With Remarkable Men 1:42:52
Peter Brook, one of the pioneers of the experimental theatre movement of the 1950s and 1960s, was the director of Meetings with Remarkable Men. Brook tells the story of Asian mystic G. I. Gurdjieff, here played by Dragan Maksimovic. Gurdjieff devotes his entire existence, from youth to old age, in quest of the meaning of life. He eventually develops a form of meditation incorporating modern dance. Terence Stamp, who in Meetings with Remarkable Men plays Prince Lubovedsky, himself briefly retreated from his career after this picture, in favor of Eastern meditation.

Meetings with Remarkable Men
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Meetings with Remarkable Men is the second volume of the All and Everything trilogy written by the Greek-Armenian mystic G. I. Gurdjieff. A book of autobiography, it was originally published in 1963 and tells the tale of the young Gurdjieff growing up in a world torn between his unexplainable experiences and the developing modern sciences.

The book takes the form of Gurdjieff’s reminiscences about various “remarkable men” that he has met, beginning with his father. They include the Armenian priest Pogossian; his friend Soloviev, Prince Lubovedsky, a Russian prince with metaphysical interests, and a couple of others.

In the course of describing these characters, Gurdjieff weaves their stories into the story of his own travels, and also into an overarching narrative which has them cooperate in locating spiritual texts and/or masters in various lands (mostly Central Asia). Gurdjieff calls this group the “Seekers of Truth”.

Most of them do in fact find “truth” in the form of some suitable spiritual destiny. The underlying philosophy, especially as articulated in an appendix, amounts to the assertion that people generally live their lives asleep, are unconscious of themselves, and accordingly behave like machines, subject to outside causes and pressures. Also, one of the chief assessments of the novel is that the people of the past epochs lived in more suitable outer conditions and at higher inner levels than the people today. Many additional hidden harmonies are noted or alluded to.

These contradictory towards modern beliefs claims have inspired some to question the book’s “autobiographical” character. For example, Gurdjieff claims to have first heard the Epic of Gilgamesh as an oral epic sung from memory by his father; to have made contact with various ancient brotherhoods including the Sarmoung Brotherhood; to have copied a map of “pre-sand Egypt”, and to have witnessed a number of miracles and esoteric phenomena. There is currently in existence an esoteric group of loosely affiliated individuals who engage in what is called “The Work”, which is the doing part of Gurdjieff’s teachings.

In a way it can be claimed that many of the vignettes in Meetings are meant to be symbolic, or “teaching stories”.

Sunday, December 20, 2009

Happy Holidays - see you back in 2010

As the holiday season approaches here in the United States – as well as in many other parts of the World – we are pausing our regular stream of podcasts for 3 weeks till the 10th of January, 2010.

The year 2009 has been a very productive and insightful year for us. We have released more conversations with wonderful guests such as Gabrielle Roth, Paul Kordis, Antero Alli, Paul Rebillot, and Richard Roberts, as well as our own talks on change, patterns, learning and more.

This year also marked a transition for us at the Radical Change Group from relatively short and independent talks – to creating longer and more in-depth series of podcasts dedicated to broader topics. The first of such series – the “Body of Wisdom” has ended this year with our distillation of generalized principles from body-based disciplines such as martial arts, dance, rituals, and more.

In the coming year 2010 we are going to continue the dive deeper into such series of podcasts, starting with a new series on Positive Deviants. We will also be releasing more talks with our guests, and are planning on expanding our library of online material beyond the single stream of podcasts.

With that, we are wishing you Merry Christmas, a very Happy New Year, and Happy Holidays! See you back in 2010!

Sunday, December 13, 2009

#112 The Body of Wisdom, part 17 - Don't Leave the Body Behind

We are (finally!!) concluding our series of podcasts dedicated to the exploration of the body, the somatic disciplines and the underlying principles. Today, we are exploring the 15th generalized principle called “Don’t Leave the Body Behind”. The complete series can be found on our website at
https://www.radicalchangegroup.com/category/series/body-of-wisdom/

  • Don’t leave the body behind
    • Prime example – the science community
    • Dance
    • Martial arts

Sunday, December 6, 2009

#111 The Body of Wisdom, part 16 - Principle of No Paradoxes in the Body

We are continuing our series of podcasts dedicated to the exploration of the body, the somatic disciplines and the underlying principles. Today, we are exploring the 14th generalized principle called “There Are No Paradoxes in the Body”. The previous episodes from this series can be found on our website at
https://www.radicalchangegroup.com/category/series/body-of-wisdom/

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  • There Are No Paradoxes in the Body
    • Definition of a paradox
    • Martial arts
    • Paratheatre
  • Applications
    • Relationships
    • Organizations, political parties
    • Personal development

Thursday, December 3, 2009

For Everything Else, There's Mastercard

Each week I spend several hours of “porch time” (a la Boston Legal) with my friend Michael Szczepaniak discussing our newest insights into social and political economics. In several of these discussions I’ve related my frustration regarding my next blog contribution to this site. I just didn’t feel that I had a coherent way to craft a short and readable description of the madness we in America are currently experiencing. After venting my disappointment our conversation turned to the movie “The Soloist.” We especially enjoyed discussing the special features included in the DVD that provided all manner of data and rationale for helping the homeless. The next day he e-mailed me a short note that, to me, encapsulates the blog I wished I had written:

$16,000/yr. to house a homeless person and help them build a better life
$100,000/yr. to leave a homeless person on the street
$1,000,000/yr. to send them to Afghanistan

Having your priorities completely skewed – PRICELESS!

For everything else, there’s Mastercard.

Thanks Michael, that says it all.