Ghost in the Machine - The Forced Chemical Evolution of Man

I worte this article yesterday and thought people here may be interested. Always looking for feedback. Enjoy.

The Ghost in the Machine
The Forced Chemical Evolution of Man

Brent Jessop - Knowledge Driven Revolution.com
December 04, 2006

Below are a couple of passages quoted by Arthur Koestler in The Ghost in the Machine published in 1967:

“Here at our disposal, to be used wisely or unwisely, is an increasing array of agents that manipulate human beings… It is now possible to act directly on the individual to modify his behaviour instead of, as in the past, indirectly through modification of the environment.” – Dean Saunders, of the San Francisco Medical School, at the Control of the Mind symposium (1961).*

The next quote was preceded by a discussion about the potential use of tricyano-aminopropene to cause an “increased suggestibility in man”.

“The author is [referring] to any substance inducing changes of biologically important molecules in the neurons and the glia and affecting the mental state in a negative direction. It is not difficult to imagine the possible uses to which a government in a police-controlled state could put this substance. For a time they would subject the population to hard conditions. Suddenly the hardship would be removed, and at the same time, the substance would be added to the tap water and the mass-communications media turned on. This method would be much cheaper, and would create more intriguing possibilities then [voluntary introduction methods]” – Hyden at the Control of the Mind symposium (1961).**

Where did all of this come from and why was a celebrated (he was made a Commander in the Order of the British Empire in the 1970s) author, journalist and polymath like Arthur Koestler writing positively about such disturbing ideas?

Read the rest of the article Here.

That is truly odious and elitist. Belies the self-importance with which some people who find themselves in positions of power or intellectually advantageous positions regard themselves. I find it very obnoxious and sounds like it links closely with the social engineering/eugenics dreams of the late 19th, early 20th century. Hitler's eugenics programs were widely embraced by many as the direction of future social engineering.

The genocide of the Jews began with the disposal of the mentally handicapped and developmentally delayed and progressed on to the eradication of a popular scapegoat of that time. We all can see the pernicious logic of the argument as it translates to the holocaust. Still the idea that socially 'undesirable' persons can be eliminated persists, moreso than the idea that social structures fail to embrace and nurture all of its participants.

I find this particularly ridiculous:

Every aspect of man and the society that he lives in are also hierarchy based according to Koestler. But man has been unable to act as an integrated part of a larger hierarchy and has only been able to identify with that hierarchy.

I agree that every aspect of man and society is hierarchial, in that we are basically a tribal being that uses categorical organization. But to extend that to all of man being unable to act as an integrated part of the whole and only identify with it is a gross generalization and blithely overlooks so many variables as to be laughable. Especially since the top of the hierarchy is the one at full advantage.

A good belly full of laughable when he says this:

He blames the quick evolutionary development of the upper cortex on top of the older primitive portions of the brain as the cause of this "schizophrenic" state of man. That is, a struggle between the emotional primitive sections of the brain and the newer intellectual portions.

Note the inherent sexism in the definition of the primitive parts of the brain as dealing with 'emotional' states. The primitive brain deals with instinct and automatic states. Emotional states are closely tied to intellectual development and obviously reliant on the quality of nurturing and environment.

Diagnosing schizophrenia as a result of the poor integration of the primitive parts of the brain to the more intellectual parts is about as accurate as the original psychiatric summation that this biochemical imbalance is the result of "refrigerator mothers", which is the name they gave mothers of these children in the fifties at the inception of the psychiatric evolution. There is still a bias in science to pick an easy scapegoat; that article certainly reeks of the same lazy thinking as well as the same sexism in addition to self-righteous classism.

To extend the language to his metaphor is faulty, he is referring to a schizoid state of social being, which probably is a result of primitive forms of governance. We are very shortly out of monarchal reigns, when just saying one wrong word could result in instant execution. That's enough to make any creative individual shut down and it is still part of the phenomena of social control. Especially now again, since we see the right of free speech eroding and discourse replaced with the exchange of insults.

Looks to me like a poor example of mental gymnastics used to avoid and divert from the pathological nature of man's power structures. It's long been a struggle over resources and the rights to them, with all manner murder and mayhem justified and rationalized in the name of God, or racial superiority.

A glaring example of pseudo-science born of an inherent inability for self-evaluation and the social enabling of that habit among the power holders, as well as the desire to control others at any cost.






[edit on 5-12-2006 by clearwater]