Brave Noö World - Part 4
Find below the concluding segment of the introduction to my new book... Brave Noö World - A Guerilla Ethnography of High Strangeness. As you recall from the previous section... and central to this study... is the impact that science fiction as a speculative medium has had in shaping our brave noö world. In its critical function as cautionary tale, science fiction has had far more impact on our evolving realities, than is generally understood. The awareness that today’s fiction shapes tomorrow’s fact… that today’s imagination shapes tomorrow’s reality… is an essential, formative factor in understanding what influences contrive and control our present day.
Speaking of grim reality, the science fiction sub-genre: Cyberpunk makes recurring appearances throughout this work. Cyberpunk’s dystopian themes of gritty cityscapes, climate collapse, unbridled corporatocracy and unleashed AI, have proven especially prophetic in today’s dystopian reality.
Equally crucial to understanding our collective situation, is the examination of cultural and political chicanery, as knowingly deployed by those powerful few, the 1% who envision themselves as masters of the world. Less reliant on strong-man autocrats (although there are plenty of those to go round), these worldly masters wield the persuasive power of mass media. They shape a narrative so complete, that any other option as to how worldly affairs could be imagined and/or managed, is deemed… unrealistic.
Make no mistake, these powerful few, these masters of the airwaves… have long utilized magical thinking in their gambit for worldly dominion. They have understood the power of magical practice, and have utilized magical techniques, for centuries. Likewise, those who rule the world have for centuries suppressed this essential understanding, deceiving the masses, while wielding this secret power to maintain their grip on global dominance.
Modern magical applications have been labeled by such innocuous terminology as psychological operations in its political form… and public relations in its private-sector form. That the wizards of Madison Avenue wield magical powers, might seem counterintuitive, but advertising is how magic works… the wielding of influence through emotional means.
This omnipresent mindset of control has been called the dominator culture by those who examine socio-political theory. Historically, this predominant paradigm has pursued extractive economies as a means of economic growth. Extracted resources such as coal, fossil fuel, precious metals and timber are the raw materials of Empire. This exploitation of mother nature has brought us to the brink of climate collapse. All of the above components, converge and coalesce to form our brave noö world.
In the final chapters of this work, the ways and means of countering the pervasive, predator/dominator paradigm will be examined in detail. With an eye on past consequences, Tactics and Countermeasures of resistance shall be explored as a means of achieving social equilibrium… for as we know, any path forward must address the inequities of the past.
Before diving into the deep end of this ethnography, it is important to recognize that, once in… even the most nimble, intrepid reader may struggle to touch bottom on the theories and philosophies, herein. For what we have experienced, and continue to experience, is a quickening continuum of cultural evolution. We are adrift, mid-stream, in a river of strangeness whose currents and eddies remain unfathomable.
So it is… that our brave noö world ebbs and flows in a great, ambiguous maelstrom of improbability. We now find ourselves carried upon the unplausible currents of the tumultuous times in which we live. As for what is to come, all the signs and portents indicate chaotic disruption, moving forward.
But what occluded undercurrents have been at play, undercutting consensual reality, to bring us to this sorry state? In light of all the bizarre happenings that we have witnessed over the last few decades, it is useful for us to think of all that has occurred, in new and novel ways...
For the high and the strange have been with us for a good long time. It is only in the last decade or two, that the mainstream has even been made aware of such strangeness. As such, and against all odds, the high and the strange have ascended to become the dominant paradigm. So here we are, amidst an improbable present, where strange days have found us… no need to seek them out.
So… brace yourself, intrepid reader, for the weird and wondrous narrative that is about to unfold. Should you persevere, your curiosity will be well rewarded. For a deeper understanding of the Gnostic times in which we live, affords us a deeper perspective, a broader array of socio-political-emotional options from which to choose. A noö Gnostic perspective allows us more choices of response when encountering the high and the strange.
Once we familiarize ourselves with the situation, the craziness will begin to subside. The weird waters of the upside-down world will seem a little less turbulent. So equipped with a wider understanding of the high and the strange, perhaps we will, once again, find our way. Perhaps… if the fates allow, our Brave Noö World, will turn out to be a better noö world. After all… stranger things have happened…
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