The Mass Psychology Of Fascism -- By Wilhelm Reich

[Tace]

This is a profoundly insightful book published in 1933 by a student of Sigmung Freud.

"As a physician, I have to treat diseases, as a researcher I have to disclose unknown facts in nature. If, now, a political wind-bag were to try to force me to leave my patients and my microscope, I would not let myself be disturbed but would, if necessary, throw him out. Whether or not I have to use force in order to protect my work on the living function against intruders does not depend on me or my work but on the intruders' degree of impertinence. Let us assume that all those who do work on the living function were able to recognize the political wind-bag in time. They would act in the same way. Perhaps this over-simplified example gives a partial answer to the question as to how the living function, sooner or later, will defend itself against its intruders and destroyers."

http://www.freedomfiles.org/articles/Reich_-_The_Mass_Psychology_Of_Fascism.pdf

[cap]

1. This isnt just about Powerpoint. It's about corporate fascism

Imagine a widely used and expensive prescription drug that promised to make us beautiful but didn't. Instead the drug had frequent, serious side effects: It induced stupidity, turned everyone into bores, wasted time, and degraded the quality and credibility of communication. These side effects would rightly lead to a worldwide product recall.

Yet slideware -computer programs for presentations -is everywhere: in corporate America, in government bureaucracies, even in our schools. Several hundred million copies of Microsoft PowerPoint are churning out trillions of slides each year. Slideware may help speakers outline their talks, but convenience for the speaker can be punishing to both content and audience. The standard PowerPoint presentation elevates format over content, betraying an attitude of commercialism that turns everything into a sales pitch.

Of course, data-driven meetings are nothing new. Years before today's slideware, presentations at companies such as IBM and in the military used bullet lists shown by overhead projectors. But the format has become ubiquitous under PowerPoint, which was created in 1984 and later acquired by Microsoft. PowerPoint's pushy style seeks to set up a speaker's dominance over the audience. The speaker, after all, is making power points with bullets to followers. Could any metaphor be worse? Voicemail menu systems? Billboards? Television? Stalin?

(the photo wouldnt post but go to the article for a very powerful picture)
Tufte satirizes the totalitarian impact of presentation slideware.

Particularly disturbing is the adoption of the PowerPoint cognitive style in our schools. Rather than learning to write a report using sentences, children are being taught how to formulate client pitches and infomercials. Elementary school PowerPoint exercises (as seen in teacher guides and in student work posted on the Internet) typically consist of 10 to 20 words and a piece of clip art on each slide in a presentation of three to six slides -a total of perhaps 80 words (15 seconds of silent reading) for a week of work. Students would be better off if the schools simply closed down on those days and everyone went to the Exploratorium or wrote an illustrated essay explaining something.

In a business setting, a PowerPoint slide typically shows 40 words, which is about eight seconds' worth of silent reading material. With so little information per slide, many, many slides are needed. Audiences consequently endure a relentless sequentiality, one damn slide after another. When information is stacked in time, it is difficult to understand context and evaluate relationships. Visual reasoning usually works more effectively when relevant information is shown side by side. Often, the more intense the detail, the greater the clarity and understanding. This is especially so for statistical data, where the fundamental analytical act is to make comparisons.

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.09/ppt2.html

[omega minimo]

4. This imagery echoes a discussion we had on Powerpoint-ish newscasts

OP: CBS News: Hurricane strength "Only 1 MPH is due to Global Warming"

"This is how it's done folks. Little choppy soundbites, throw in some movin' pitchers, an expert or two and a newsbot to deliver the punchline."

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=4865771

"Audiences consequently endure a relentless sequentiality, one damn slide after another. When information is stacked in time, it is difficult to understand context and evaluate relationships. Visual reasoning usually works more effectively when relevant information is shown side by side. Often, the more intense the detail, the greater the clarity and understanding. This is especially so for statistical data, where the fundamental analytical act is to make comparisons."

This statement is so well-meaning and sensible, that I almost want to poke a little fun at it ("what, you mean CONTEXT?") because it is the complete opposite of how the public is continuously, and intentionally, indoctrinated into those infamous short attention, dumbed down, zombified states that make this possible:

[Kenneth ken]

8. funny

I read the first paragraph of your post and thought you were describing television.

[htuttle]

2. Excellent book -- one of many of his burned by the US government...

...In the late fifties. They then threw him in jail in 1957 for 'quackery' or some such thing, where he eventually died. What really happened is that he stepped onto one of the many 'third rails' of US culture -- human sexuality.

His life and work rank right up there with Nikola Tesla on the 'fascinating mad scientist' list.

[Monkey see Monkey Do]

3. Totally -- fascinating man

I first encountered him when I became obsessed with William Burroughs who was, I'm sure you know, hugely taken with Reich's concept of "orgone" energy & experimented with an "Orgone Box" for most of his life.

"Say, why don't you fellows try my orgone accumulator? Put some juice in your bones. I always rush up and take off ninety miles an hour for the nearest whorehouse, hor-hor-hor!" - Old Bull Lee in "On the Road"

[Tace]

7. The Orgone Box Is An Interesting Device

I like how Einstein took the time to test the device -- with inconclusive results.

William Burroughs, what a diabolical genius! Not for the faint of heart. : )

[Bernardo de La Paz]

9. Orgone IS quackery. Not interesting. After test improved, orgone failed.

[Tace]

10. I'm Certainly Not An Orgone Box Proponant

If anything, perhaps the orgone box could have a placibo effect.

[Tace]

6. Nikola Tesla -- Another Facinating Guy

Thanks for the reminder. Cheers

[alcibiades_mystery]

5. I prefer Elias Canetti's "Crowds and Power"

but that's just me...