“Come, let us build Smart Cities with Fifth Generation towers in the sky to make a name for ourselves!” Now everyone speaks the same language of coding and ‘ideolatry.’
Thanks both for the essay, and for letting me know it was ready. I have a few remarks, which I intend to be short, but shall probably not succeed...
"Today, the realisation is dawning that we too may have to jettison some of our modern conveniences if we are to be truly free."
Perhaps... I am mindful of the fact that Illich's rebellion - the most grounded resistance to technological slavery attempted - failed. Your iconography of 'dawning' suggests something beginning - but nothing can be beginning that already began. There is a problem here that lies just out of reach...
"A close reading of the text suggests something interesting in the sequencing. The call to make bricks comes before any plan is formed. Surely ‘bricks’ should come after the decision to build the tower as Nahum Sarna points out. This suggests that the technology required is up and running before the idea even forms for the tower."
This is such a great point, and also a brilliant metaphor for our contemporary situation. Wonderful!
"Furthermore, it is as though the idea springs from the technology itself, rather than any need for a tower driving the creation of bricks."
This is perpetually the order of technological invention. The story we tell of a research endeavour seeking a goal is misleading. A troubling example is 'Cancer research', which tries to sell the story of eliminating a disease as a cover for what it is actually doing: raising money to pay researchers to develop medicines that will ultimately be monetised. It is taken for granted that we wish to eliminate cancer... certainly, these are horrible diseases. I lost my mother to cancer. But this idealised vision of what 'cancer research' is doing utterly clouds what it is doing. And this is only one example.
"So, in place of a natural mountain, we have a man-made imitation of a mountain borne of human hard labour and suffering."
I had not spotted this point before: the axis mundi for every tribe is the mountain, the tallest point in your land. The skyscraper is precisely this intention continued in concrete.
"Another brick in the wall."
I laughed, but I will resist the tangent here.
"But like the illusion of authentic worship conducted within the ziggurat, the WEF project is about power. Raw, uncompromising power."
I feel this is somewhat misleading. What does it mean for a project to be 'about' something...? Nobody involved with the WEF has this view, and I believe them, even while acknowledging that this is a self-deception. You are attempting to unmask them as 'being about power'... but to the commercial elites attracted to the WEF, this is 'about' affiliation, community, even 'good deeds' (done dirt expensive). Certainly there is massive self-deception here, but I don't think it is meaningful to accuse the WEF of being 'about' power. They move within power. Its affiliates don't know what it would be to lack power. What we have here is the culmination of Alasdair McIntyre's mythology of management. It is never 'about' power, in any official sense. It is always 'about' obfuscating power, and almost always this is in order to avoid admitting that power is what you are seeking. In that respect, the Babylonian rulers were arguably more honest.
"The isolation of socialist distancing, a trope many in power are still keen for us to maintain, is not good for humans."
Is 'socialist distancing' a slip-of-the-mind or an intentional dig? I don't see anything socialist in anti-social distancing, personally. I agree, this is terrible for humans, or indeed for any social animal. But I wouldn't link this up with socialism, personally... It was just another artefact of spin for a policy that was decided in advance on an utter absence of evidence.
"A kind of ideolatry."
Throw another idolatry onto the pile... we have so much these days, we are forced to categorise them.
"Contrary to many assumptions, the Bible frequently alludes to the importance of diversity, of language, nation and of religion. There is no singular worldview presented in the Bible. It really is an ‘artful compendium of ideas,’ to quote one Biblical scholar."
Aye, but only when you are open to reading it this way. The reason the Bible is associated with monoculture is that the Christian empires of Europe successfully deployed this technology this way. And perhaps again, the technology came first, and only later was a use found for it...
An excellent analysis. My hope springs eternal whence it always has. Humans are fractious creatures who may be prone to short-term hypnosis but long-term, are very hard to control and predict. Whatever this moron Klaus's intentions, all the folks who love to stroke each other's egos in Davos - I know many of them - are not waking up in the morning to make people eat begs and own nothing. It's one more networking gathering that many self-interesed people use for their own self-interest. As for the WEF "having its people in many governments," so what? The same can be said more thoroughly for the global university system. More graduates of the Sorbonne, Harvard, INSEAD and the like are in positions of management than the WEF has "planted" around the place. So what?
I really appreciate the tying of modern evil to bíblica text. I guess there really is nothing new under the Sun. Certainly seems to suggest that a turning away from God & ancient prophesy & commandments is the root of all eviil in our current predicament. Where will the turning back point be or will there even be one? The whole of society in the West seems to be either completely submerged in everything bad or complicit to it w/ apathy or fear of pushing back. Christianity is being persecuted even in formerly Christian nations, founded on Judeo-Christian principles. Israel is faring no better. Fewer attend church or say they’re Christian. Of course, the behavior of virtually all denominations in going along w/ the government narrative & lunacy, esp closures when people needed comfort, community, faith & God’s guidance was literally one of the most shocking things to me in the whole of the scamdemic.
The tower of digital control will fail for the same reasons.
They're trying to get all nations to follow the same "language" of economics, politics, medicine, etc based on their "texts" of these topics based on "science".
The varied interests of each partner nation and it's citizens create miscommunication and confusion.
Thank you for your insights . Yes, we must fight for truth, whenever and wherever we can, but my Bible tells me that things are going to get worse and culminate in the reign of the Antichrist , that Man of Sin, who will force everyone to give him their allegiance and worship ( see Revelation 13) . By then of course , everyone , except those who believe in and love God , will have bought into the Lie!
I wouldn't worry too much about the rantings of a pack of mushroom eaters later grouped into one identity, John of Patmos, whose book escaped being labeled Apocryphal because the early Catholic Church Fathers thought it instructive to tell the deeply persecuted early Christians that much like their current plagued state under the Romans, that future Christians would likewise need to hold fast to their faith in the face of vicious persecution. By all means, hold fast to your beliefs in the face of those who would demand you abandon it. Personally I'm not so concerned about some vague future Antichrist when I see thousands of him all around us every day.
If you’re not concerned, O wise one, then you are ripe for deception ! There were many antichrists around in the Apostle Paul’s day too - so what? God’s truth will out.
Thanks both for the essay, and for letting me know it was ready. I have a few remarks, which I intend to be short, but shall probably not succeed...
"Today, the realisation is dawning that we too may have to jettison some of our modern conveniences if we are to be truly free."
Perhaps... I am mindful of the fact that Illich's rebellion - the most grounded resistance to technological slavery attempted - failed. Your iconography of 'dawning' suggests something beginning - but nothing can be beginning that already began. There is a problem here that lies just out of reach...
"A close reading of the text suggests something interesting in the sequencing. The call to make bricks comes before any plan is formed. Surely ‘bricks’ should come after the decision to build the tower as Nahum Sarna points out. This suggests that the technology required is up and running before the idea even forms for the tower."
This is such a great point, and also a brilliant metaphor for our contemporary situation. Wonderful!
"Furthermore, it is as though the idea springs from the technology itself, rather than any need for a tower driving the creation of bricks."
This is perpetually the order of technological invention. The story we tell of a research endeavour seeking a goal is misleading. A troubling example is 'Cancer research', which tries to sell the story of eliminating a disease as a cover for what it is actually doing: raising money to pay researchers to develop medicines that will ultimately be monetised. It is taken for granted that we wish to eliminate cancer... certainly, these are horrible diseases. I lost my mother to cancer. But this idealised vision of what 'cancer research' is doing utterly clouds what it is doing. And this is only one example.
"So, in place of a natural mountain, we have a man-made imitation of a mountain borne of human hard labour and suffering."
I had not spotted this point before: the axis mundi for every tribe is the mountain, the tallest point in your land. The skyscraper is precisely this intention continued in concrete.
"Another brick in the wall."
I laughed, but I will resist the tangent here.
"But like the illusion of authentic worship conducted within the ziggurat, the WEF project is about power. Raw, uncompromising power."
I feel this is somewhat misleading. What does it mean for a project to be 'about' something...? Nobody involved with the WEF has this view, and I believe them, even while acknowledging that this is a self-deception. You are attempting to unmask them as 'being about power'... but to the commercial elites attracted to the WEF, this is 'about' affiliation, community, even 'good deeds' (done dirt expensive). Certainly there is massive self-deception here, but I don't think it is meaningful to accuse the WEF of being 'about' power. They move within power. Its affiliates don't know what it would be to lack power. What we have here is the culmination of Alasdair McIntyre's mythology of management. It is never 'about' power, in any official sense. It is always 'about' obfuscating power, and almost always this is in order to avoid admitting that power is what you are seeking. In that respect, the Babylonian rulers were arguably more honest.
"The isolation of socialist distancing, a trope many in power are still keen for us to maintain, is not good for humans."
Is 'socialist distancing' a slip-of-the-mind or an intentional dig? I don't see anything socialist in anti-social distancing, personally. I agree, this is terrible for humans, or indeed for any social animal. But I wouldn't link this up with socialism, personally... It was just another artefact of spin for a policy that was decided in advance on an utter absence of evidence.
"A kind of ideolatry."
Throw another idolatry onto the pile... we have so much these days, we are forced to categorise them.
"Contrary to many assumptions, the Bible frequently alludes to the importance of diversity, of language, nation and of religion. There is no singular worldview presented in the Bible. It really is an ‘artful compendium of ideas,’ to quote one Biblical scholar."
Aye, but only when you are open to reading it this way. The reason the Bible is associated with monoculture is that the Christian empires of Europe successfully deployed this technology this way. And perhaps again, the technology came first, and only later was a use found for it...
Many thanks for another stimulating essay.
Chris.,
An excellent analysis. My hope springs eternal whence it always has. Humans are fractious creatures who may be prone to short-term hypnosis but long-term, are very hard to control and predict. Whatever this moron Klaus's intentions, all the folks who love to stroke each other's egos in Davos - I know many of them - are not waking up in the morning to make people eat begs and own nothing. It's one more networking gathering that many self-interesed people use for their own self-interest. As for the WEF "having its people in many governments," so what? The same can be said more thoroughly for the global university system. More graduates of the Sorbonne, Harvard, INSEAD and the like are in positions of management than the WEF has "planted" around the place. So what?
I really appreciate the tying of modern evil to bíblica text. I guess there really is nothing new under the Sun. Certainly seems to suggest that a turning away from God & ancient prophesy & commandments is the root of all eviil in our current predicament. Where will the turning back point be or will there even be one? The whole of society in the West seems to be either completely submerged in everything bad or complicit to it w/ apathy or fear of pushing back. Christianity is being persecuted even in formerly Christian nations, founded on Judeo-Christian principles. Israel is faring no better. Fewer attend church or say they’re Christian. Of course, the behavior of virtually all denominations in going along w/ the government narrative & lunacy, esp closures when people needed comfort, community, faith & God’s guidance was literally one of the most shocking things to me in the whole of the scamdemic.
The tower of digital control will fail for the same reasons.
They're trying to get all nations to follow the same "language" of economics, politics, medicine, etc based on their "texts" of these topics based on "science".
The varied interests of each partner nation and it's citizens create miscommunication and confusion.
https://robc137.substack.com/p/alphabet-vs-the-goddess
Thank you for your insights . Yes, we must fight for truth, whenever and wherever we can, but my Bible tells me that things are going to get worse and culminate in the reign of the Antichrist , that Man of Sin, who will force everyone to give him their allegiance and worship ( see Revelation 13) . By then of course , everyone , except those who believe in and love God , will have bought into the Lie!
And believers have something much different in store!
I wouldn't worry too much about the rantings of a pack of mushroom eaters later grouped into one identity, John of Patmos, whose book escaped being labeled Apocryphal because the early Catholic Church Fathers thought it instructive to tell the deeply persecuted early Christians that much like their current plagued state under the Romans, that future Christians would likewise need to hold fast to their faith in the face of vicious persecution. By all means, hold fast to your beliefs in the face of those who would demand you abandon it. Personally I'm not so concerned about some vague future Antichrist when I see thousands of him all around us every day.
If you’re not concerned, O wise one, then you are ripe for deception ! There were many antichrists around in the Apostle Paul’s day too - so what? God’s truth will out.