At one point years ago I was forced to study linguistics, which should be interesting, but which was so wound up with academic-speak and circular thought that it was downright painful. At that time - the mid 80's - Noam Chompsky was the undisputed intellectual giant of this field, waving his god-like hand from the ivory tower of the social science dpt. of MIT. No one was more obscure than he, but he did have a cool objective - to find the root language of all humans in the organic brain (a linguistic approach to structuralism, for you anthro wonks out there). I admit that I could never fully understand him, but I did have an experience where I think I found that language. I had just gotten back from Mexico and was suffering from severe stomach troubles, so much so that I would wake up groaning in the middle of the night. At one point, I recall talking in a dream with perfect clarity; as the pain brought me to, I continued speaking, but the language I was using gradually became gibberish to my waking consciousness. Yet it had been fluent and coherent at unconscious level. Could I have found that hidden universal language out of bad stomach pains?
Putting that aside, I have since continued to read Chompsky whenever he comes up in the news, and recently read an interview with him from some international media source. It was about his theory of a neo-liberal conspiracy to control all the moneys of the world by a cabal of wealthy elites in cahoots with politicians, and it lumped Obama right there with Thatcher and Reagan. It all was presented with such certainty, with Israel as the brain and the (genocidal) US as the brawn, collaborated by a hodgepodge of historical facts put together just-so to make it all seem tangible.
Really, it was no more tangible than his works on linguistics had been to me decades before, and even less believable. And it certainly wasn't new - there have been conspiracy theories about world-wide cabals since at least the mid 19th century. But, as with linguistics, Chompsky made me think. Given a look at the world at present, it certainly seems that we have a united direction, one that is aiming at greater and greater integration both on the monetary and the cultural levels. And certainly, big multinationals are pulling a lot of strings for profit, and a lot of strings for politicians who are dependent on their campaign contributions, and maybe a bit more. However, I cannot believe that this big money forms a solid cartel, for the simple reason that each leader or group from these companies is looking out for its own self interests. Even OPEC, a self-proclaimed cartel, often can't get its act together because one or more nations will split from the others the minute they think their specific interests are compromised. And so I have to say to Chompsky - no, I don't think so.
But I also have to add that Chompsky, in his study of linguistics, hit upon the right idea for his "neo-liberal cartel." The holy sages of the past understood it well - that we are all connected, both as an entire cosmos, but more specifically as a species. That is, what once made that primordial language that Chompsky was looking for (whether through biology or archetypes or a combination of the two) also has made human thought in general. And while we once played out our cultural struggles in apparent isolation from many other cultures, we now simply cannot. However group- thought worked in the past, those times of subtlety are over. We now, for better or worse, have an informed world-wide group mind. But it is not a cartel. It is not run by worldly logic or wholly selfish design. It is rather something akin to the salmon migration: while out at sea, each fish seems to live separately; but when the time comes, they all seek their place of birth to breed and die, in unison. The group mind for them, and I think for us, has been at work all along, and for us, it is only now becoming apparent.
But what it is is much deeper, much more profound than Chompsky's materialistic explanation of the neo- liberal conspiracy. We are, I think, coming home like the salmon. I can and often do speculate as to the reason and the results, but of course I do not really know at a discursive level. And yet, all of us know what is happening at the deeper level, just as we understand the universal language that under girds all others. I do think it is knowable to some degree on the superficial level, and it is worth the search to find that translation from the unconscious to the conscious, to help tweak the better part of it along its way and subdue the worst, if there is one or the other.
Many have grasped this movement in their unconscious and have attempted to translate it already: from the Age of Aquarius gurus to Doomsday sayers, many know that something really, really big is happening. Many know that there is order beneath our separate ways, but no one really knows where it will lead. Maybe it is contingent to some extent on our conscious efforts; that good will and spirituality will tilt it in the direction that we would like (for we all know that bad will and technology will not lead to any good). It seems we have the freewill that the salmon were not given because they do not need it. With our gifts as humans, apparently we do - and with it, should not accord with Chompsky's dark vision, but rather should will for one and all on a far brighter one. FK
Putting that aside, I have since continued to read Chompsky whenever he comes up in the news, and recently read an interview with him from some international media source. It was about his theory of a neo-liberal conspiracy to control all the moneys of the world by a cabal of wealthy elites in cahoots with politicians, and it lumped Obama right there with Thatcher and Reagan. It all was presented with such certainty, with Israel as the brain and the (genocidal) US as the brawn, collaborated by a hodgepodge of historical facts put together just-so to make it all seem tangible.
Really, it was no more tangible than his works on linguistics had been to me decades before, and even less believable. And it certainly wasn't new - there have been conspiracy theories about world-wide cabals since at least the mid 19th century. But, as with linguistics, Chompsky made me think. Given a look at the world at present, it certainly seems that we have a united direction, one that is aiming at greater and greater integration both on the monetary and the cultural levels. And certainly, big multinationals are pulling a lot of strings for profit, and a lot of strings for politicians who are dependent on their campaign contributions, and maybe a bit more. However, I cannot believe that this big money forms a solid cartel, for the simple reason that each leader or group from these companies is looking out for its own self interests. Even OPEC, a self-proclaimed cartel, often can't get its act together because one or more nations will split from the others the minute they think their specific interests are compromised. And so I have to say to Chompsky - no, I don't think so.
But I also have to add that Chompsky, in his study of linguistics, hit upon the right idea for his "neo-liberal cartel." The holy sages of the past understood it well - that we are all connected, both as an entire cosmos, but more specifically as a species. That is, what once made that primordial language that Chompsky was looking for (whether through biology or archetypes or a combination of the two) also has made human thought in general. And while we once played out our cultural struggles in apparent isolation from many other cultures, we now simply cannot. However group- thought worked in the past, those times of subtlety are over. We now, for better or worse, have an informed world-wide group mind. But it is not a cartel. It is not run by worldly logic or wholly selfish design. It is rather something akin to the salmon migration: while out at sea, each fish seems to live separately; but when the time comes, they all seek their place of birth to breed and die, in unison. The group mind for them, and I think for us, has been at work all along, and for us, it is only now becoming apparent.
But what it is is much deeper, much more profound than Chompsky's materialistic explanation of the neo- liberal conspiracy. We are, I think, coming home like the salmon. I can and often do speculate as to the reason and the results, but of course I do not really know at a discursive level. And yet, all of us know what is happening at the deeper level, just as we understand the universal language that under girds all others. I do think it is knowable to some degree on the superficial level, and it is worth the search to find that translation from the unconscious to the conscious, to help tweak the better part of it along its way and subdue the worst, if there is one or the other.
Many have grasped this movement in their unconscious and have attempted to translate it already: from the Age of Aquarius gurus to Doomsday sayers, many know that something really, really big is happening. Many know that there is order beneath our separate ways, but no one really knows where it will lead. Maybe it is contingent to some extent on our conscious efforts; that good will and spirituality will tilt it in the direction that we would like (for we all know that bad will and technology will not lead to any good). It seems we have the freewill that the salmon were not given because they do not need it. With our gifts as humans, apparently we do - and with it, should not accord with Chompsky's dark vision, but rather should will for one and all on a far brighter one. FK
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