Is there something supernatural going on in America?

[Philosoraptor]

supernatural:
1 : of or relating to an order of existence beyond the visible observable universe; especially : of or relating to God or a god, demigod, spirit, or devil
2 a : departing from what is usual or normal especially so as to appear to transcend the laws of nature b : attributed to an invisible agent (as a ghost or spirit)

I'm referring to description #2 here, American society seems to be departing from what is usual or normal, a loss of logic and common horse sense. Our idiot president for example, everyone knows he's an idiot, yet millions adore him and would follow him to hell and drag us all with them. What's keeping him there, some evil, malevolent force that we can't see?

Is it t.v. induced mass hypnosis? Seriously, are we under some spell or mind control trick? The neo cons have fucked us over royally, everyone knows it, they are preparing to kick off multiple world wars, they are totally insane, yet no one is stepping up to stop them in any real way, there's something happening here, what it is ain't exactly clear.

What is wrong with our collective consciousness, our zeitgeist? Why are there so many idiots and maniacs in charge? Did nine eleven make us all into pitiful zombies, or were we that already? How did things get THIS fucked up?

Where is this negative force coming from? This feeling of powerlessness and futility? How exactly does this all work? How can a few thousand maniacs have gained this much power under our noses and get away with it? How have the neo cons transcended the laws of nature, and departed so drastically from what is usual or normal?

If you could put America on the psychiatrist's couch, what exactly is the source of our collective depression? Or maybe we should all go to a witch doctor and get our mojos back, maybe someone put a hoo doo curse on us, or God has punished us, or Satan is damning us, I can't find a secular explanation.

I suppose the power of propaganda is absolute, and the television machine is without a doubt the most powerful and hypnotic tool ever created, followed by radio and print then all other mass media.

It's there, it's real, yet I just can't quite put my finger on it, there's something really weird going on here, and it just ain't natural.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

1. It's magic ...

Look at all the stuff that was trotted out on stage in early November: peace, universal health care, maybe even ITMFA as a bonus.

We vote a new majority into both houses.

Then, with a flash of light and a puff of smoke from Pelosi's big new airplane .... Presto Incognito! There is no peace, no universal health care, and impeachment has vanished from the table before our eyes. How did they do that!?!?

We can elect all the donkeys we want, we still can't seem to make the elephant disappear.

Maybe in 2008, if you believe in magic.

[Philosoraptor]

3. "Hey Rocky, watch me pull a rabbit outta my hat", "Again"?

The elephant in the room, watch him vanish before your unbelieving eyes, nothin' up my sleeve.....

[bluerum]

2. I don't believe in the supernatural in this regard - but I never underestimate the human

capacity for stupidity and evil.

[Philosoraptor]

5. & millions are stoned, drunk, medicated & entertained into a stupor.

[Donnachaidh]

44. don't leave out the religious stations and their particular brand of brainwashing

"I know you need a new roof for your house, but you CAN'T stop sending your tithes to CBN! The DEVIL will invade that new roof and cause it to fall in on your entire family if you stop tithing! Go to walmart, buy a few plastic pails -- but send US our money!"

The original world class fear mongering and stupidity in RW christians is stunning beyond belief.

[Philosoraptor]

45. The supernatural power of the supernatural.

The supernatural played a VERY REAL part in our current political situation, jerry fallwell now fries in hell because of it.

[donsu]

55. kick

pharma induced

[cobalt1999]

23. exactly!

I'd think something supernatural was going on if any large group started behaving intelligently. This is "normal" and has been for centuries.

[zanne]

34. Or could it simply be a cultural issue?

Us vs. Them thinking?

[annabanana]

4. What television brought together, television has rent asunder.

In the beginning there were The Big Three; NBC, ABC, CBS. They fed all the nascent boomers the same food, the same images and gave us a common language. When we entered our wilding years, we met each other at College and on the Corners and spoke to each other in Music on the FM band.

Now there are a thousand voices, each speaking to fewer and fewer of us. We no long speak the same language and we do not recognize each other, at work, or on the Corners.

Here we are online, seeking out our childhood friends, whispering in the basement, while the yelling owners pontificate up there in the parlor.

[Philosoraptor]

6. I believe we are the most unnatural society that ever lived.

I also believe that we are a society in captivity, like animals in a zoo, a lion in a cage is no longer really a lion at all.

[annabanana]

8. It IS a national psychosis, Raptor

Some of us see the bars, most don't.

[lynnertic]

16. My husband's 80s pop band was named

'Invisible Zoo' after that very idea.

(And they're about to release more music, some 20 years after having broken up because of a record deal gone bad)

Yes, we're in a zoo, the bars are invisible. But, on the bright side, we're not enslaved and building pyramids.

Unless of course you consider that the guys building the pyramids actually have something to show for their efforts at the end of the... day... millenia... and so far as what I know, the lasting memorials we've got to show from this age is a dead coral reef and a phonograph record flying around in outer space (the voyager. Hope i got that right)

Now, to take this "great memorial" thing to the extreme, it would be difficult to outdo the guys on Saturn, and their hexagon at the North Pole:

from http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/multimedia/pia09185.html

This nighttime view of Saturn's north pole by the visual and infrared mapping spectrometer on NASA's Cassini orbiter reveals a dynamic, active planet at least 75 kilometers (47 miles) below the normal cloud tops seen in visible light. Clearly revealed is the bizarre six-sided hexagon feature present at the north pole.

Cassini Images Bizarre Hexagon on Saturn
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/media/cassini-20070327.html

NASA's Voyager 1 and 2 spacecraft imaged the feature over two decades ago. The fact that it has appeared in Cassini images indicates that it is a long-lived feature. A second hexagon, significantly darker than the brighter historical feature, is also visible in the Cassini pictures. The spacecraft's visual and infrared mapping spectrometer is the first instrument to capture the entire hexagon feature in one image.

[fasttense]

12. There is a way out of this supernatural world and it is the I word.

Impeachment. Here is the scenario:

Closing in on the 2008 election, Impeachment proceedings are started. Every illegal thing the crazy king george or his crazy accomplice (bush or cheney, take your pick or both) has done is trotted out in the house. Elaborate details of each signing statement that has controverted law are put on display. Each detail of cheney's accumulation of ill-gotten wealth are explained.

The house will pass it on to the Senate. Again each elaborate detail is explained and brought out of the shadows. No detail of their crimes is left unenumerated. The Senate votes. Every repuke Senator who is protecting the bush crime family will have to raise their hand and explain their support for breaking the law. Each repuke Senator who sides with bush will have to go on record. Their names will be known to everyone. The repukes will side with bush and with bush's current poll numbers, that wont look good.

Then we have the 2008 elections with every American citizens knowing the detailed crimes of their leaders. At least then we will know exactly what and who we are voting for.

Yes, it is using Impeachment as a political tool. But that is what the repukes have turned it into. We might as well use it to detail the truth of what has been going in in the White House.

[marions ghost]

60. there is truth to that image...

..."here we are online, seeking out our childhood friends, whispering in the basement, while the yelling owners pontificate up there in the parlor."

Yes we are socially fragmented, which is why we can't seem to harness our power.

[ixion]

7. there is something weird going on, but I wouldn't call it supernatural

I would call it collective dementia, however.

tv is a powerful medium, to be sure. But, historically speaking, our species has always -- always -- had the fatal flaw of succumbing cathartic displays over cognitive ones. This is the source of the problem, that and our inherent collective apathy, which has kept us, overall, pretty stupid over the past few thousand years. While there are individuals who see through the thin veil of this dementia, by and large, most people simply do not. The lack the mental acumen to make the leap, if you will. And while a certain percentage of those people have the hardware to make this leap, they are, at the core, simply too frightened or too lazy to make the effort.

In my opinion, what we're seeing now is the result of choices that were made in our name starting to come back to haunt us. It is only the beginning, because we've made some very bad choices. It's not the first time. All dominant cultures have ultimately made pretty much the same bad choices we've made at one time or another in history. These bad choices have ultimately been the downfall of their culture. It will most certainly be the downfall of ours.


Why does it always happen? Well, because in any culture there are always -- always -- small-minded, reptilian-brained folks who don't want us to move forward. They like the status quo, and would just as soon keep it that way.

Unfortunately, they've been extremely successful. Thousands of years of 'civilization' (so to speak) later, and most people are still one step out of the cave, intellectually speaking.

There is always hope, although I must say that I've kind of given up on humanity ever transcending to a higher intellectual plane.

[JTFrog]

9. I still call it

cognitive dissonance. I read an article on a friends blog that made me start reading more about it.

Example:

"Inconsistency among related beliefs . . .produces motivation to do whatever is easiest in order to regain cognitive consistency or consonance among beliefs."

Festinger's seminal example of the effect of cognitive dissonance, and in fact the episode that inspired his exploration of the theory, revolved around an observation study of the members of a cult who believed that the earth was going to be destroyed by a flood. Festinger particularly focused on the effect of this belief on the members of the cult, especially the extremely dedicated ones who had given up their entire worldly possessions to follow their belief, when the flood failed to materialize. A rational person would expect that the members would recognize the fallacy of their belief, and indeed Festinger found that the "fringe" members of the cult dealt with the failure of prophecy by essentially "chalking it up to experience." However, the committed members of the cult were much more likely to rationalize and re-interpret events in the context of their belief, for example by believing it was the faithfulness of the cult members which spared the earth from flood.

One can easily extend these observations to the present-day situation in this country, where we find ourselves facing a stark dichotomy between reason and faith. A large majority of Bush supporters support him because they believe that his faith is the same as their faith. Further, a majority of Americans desperately want to believe in the rightness of their government to lead and protect them. When faced with information that directly negates these needs and beliefs, Bush supporters have no choice but to follow a path of least resistance in re-interpreting the new information to fit their world view. To do otherwise would invite a deep questioning of core values upon which they depend in order to manage their lives in a frightening and ever-changing world. Indeed, if that path were followed to its extreme end, they could well end up as Existentialists, concluding that there is no point in life but to die and neither faith nor reason matter.

Such are the days in which we find ourselves.

[lazer47]

11. How true it is, Once you let yourself

forget that the responsibility of your own destination is yours , and let the governing body become your overseer, you are destined to be ruled by any faction that falsely promises you the most protection.

[Jim Warren]

22. That's good

and better is that most cults are short lived........as it will be with bush.

[conscious evolution]

10. Have you noticed

all the purple lately?
Just curious.

[Locrian]

13. Mass Psychology of Fascism

http://www.notbored.org/reich.html

[stellanoir]

14. Many in the spiritual community feel as though

the planet and humanity are purging themselves of crapola from the past several millennia.

Despite appearances to the contrary, some fervently believe that we are in the midst of an evolutionary leap which will eventually resonate with enough individuals through an enormous "surge" in the collective consciousness. This may herald an unprecedented augmentation of human potential. Who knows. . .?

I always felt as though things would get worse before they improved markedly but I never thought things would deteriorate so rapidly and on so many levels as they have in recent years or that blatant bigotry or sadism would have a resurgence in my lifetime.

Still, sensitives have been feeling a palpable shift in the not so illusive restorative energies now available. According to some, it's been hovering for about 8 months now. The light is perceivably different to many.

It is estimated if a million people can hold an image of healing and unification for the planet once daily, then this pending transition will be mollified and expediated.

Alas though, all too many progressives tend to lack such focus.

Still I remain hopeful.

To those who don't ascribe to such theories, that's fine and whatever floats your boat. Yet, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that what we are up against cannot be remedied through linear or traditional or political means exclusively.

And yes. They are using low level magic in the form of mind control through repetition through talking points and punditry. I've called it "oligarchical hypnogoguery" for years.

I just feel progressives are challenged to use both sides of their brains is all.

On another thread someone from Southern California posted that they had seen a simple sign posted on a tree. It read "You are living in a different world."

How cool is that. . .?

[lynnertic]

17. "oligarchical hypnogoguery"

hehe. I like the sound of that.

[Philosoraptor]

19. It DOES roll trippingly off the tongue.

[stellanoir]

27. It may sound better than it is in actuality. . .

perhaps we need warning labels on so called news outlets. . .

WARNING: "long term exposure to this litany of misinformation may cause intellects to degenerate nationwide"

'Member when we were once lauded as "the land of the lively disussion". . .?

Now we've been divisively reduced to only two possible points of view.

It's such BS and thoroughly unsustainable.

May the truth be revealed ASAP.

I NEED to know if Paris REALLY found God in prison. Don't you. . .?

(whoops I think another intellect just went "Poof"- should have turned off the tube earlier)

[Pharaoh]

37. Einstein said

our problems cannot be solved by the same consciousness that created them, thus a quantum leap in consciousness is required or we are all screwed. There is an upcoming event of mass meditation upcoming on 7-17-07, check it out at www.firethegrid.com it could be a tipping point ;o)

[stellanoir]

48. oooooooooooooo

thanks for the reminder of that quotation and the cool link.

Given all sorts of influences unmentionable in GD, the next several months look really significant.

Lots of other things like the release of "Sicko," The Live Earth Concert, and droves of weddings on 7/7/07 could all potentially raise a lot of consciousness as well.

[ret5hd]

15. We are the "Paris Hilton" of nations...we are spoiled, soft, rich,

condescending and sheltered. Plus, we feel entitled to all this and more.

[MisterHowdy]

18. The walking zombies that are American citizens

The way that the American people are absolutely ass-raped by its government.
The way bills are passed that completely, transparently harm the well-being of the people, and the people do nothing!?!?!
No riots, no marches, no widespread outrage.
They just take it, like a heard of half-conscience zombies.

If government in places in Europe did what the US government does to its people there would be massive
civil unrest and riots.
Just think about that.

[LiberalEsto]

20. Prozac in our Cokes & Pepsis

and everybody's mellow!

[Philosoraptor]

21. Zac 'n' Jack for me! (Prozac w Jack Daniels)

[Virginia Dare]

28. If it turned out that they put Prozac in Diet Coke and Starbucks

coffee, it would explain everything...

[raccoon]

33. Or Xanax. nt

[rucky]

24. Dude, I was just listening to Bloomberg

then all the sudden, I look up from my computer after reading your post & there's Ryan Seacrest babbling about a catfight between two B-Movie actresses. I didn't change the channel or anything.

Dude.


Duuuuuuuuuuuuude.

[TreasonousBastard]

25. Nothing new at all...

I was born shortly before the McCarthy hysteria and grew up with Communists hiding under my bed, replacing the Boogeyman. (During the Kennedy administration there were serious advocates for nuclear war, thinking it wasn't such a bad thing if the Soviets hurt worse than we did.)

Then there was the insanity of Viet Nam.

And now this.

It's been the same throughout history, with many smaller occurences of this sort of nonsense, and the US is certainly not the only place susceptible to this insanity.

We have always been happy little lemmings finding cliffs to leap off of.

[Jim Warren]

26. It will pass

The pendulum swings and reason returns. Progressives won major battles of the last century: the New Deal, civil rights, equality for women.

bushco's efforts has been obsessed with trying to undo what already is but they are working out of time.

[blueworld]

29. I've pondered this very question for decades

and I've come to the conclusion that it's aliens, not ghosts.

The relatively sane, fairly intelligent, caring (but certainly imperfect) progressive people have been abandoned here on Earth OR we've been sentenced here for some crime we were convicted of on our home planet, which I'm sure has no neo-cons or Tony Blairs. Hopefully, it doesn't have television either.

This is why my memoirs are entitled "Waiting for the Mothership", and my suitcase is packed & waiting for my parole hearing. :tinfoilhat:

[iamahaingttta]

30. Too many people on the planet.

It's not just a national psychosis. It's global. And it's because there are too many people on the planet. It's part of a cycle, and it's been going on forever. Nature has many ways of reducing the number of individuals in a species or multiple species' competing for limited resources. Amongst humans, war has always been a big part of the palate. When things get too tight, we eliminate some of ourselves to get a little breathing room. National psychosis is one result of too many individuals competing for limited resources, and it's a great way (in nature's terms) to get a war going to eliminate some of those individuals.

The United States is the most socially evolved nation in history, so it makes sense that our collective psychosis is also the most evolved. Just look at "our" response to 9/11. It's a whole psycho/sexual drama played out across the globe, with the more reptilian-brained among us acting like, well... I don't know... freaks of nature? And that's just the problem, it's not that freaky. It's pretty normal. It's just that it's being played out on the largest scale ever, with the most dangerous weapons ever. They say history is a study of our wars, I think it's a little deeper than that. History is a study of the cycles of growth and contraction, and war is our most common form of contraction.

I wouldn't apply anything supernatural to our current situation. It is quite natural. Unfortunately! It's nature telling us we can't sustain things as they are, and we need to throw off some weight. Of course, it all usually happens in the most injudicious way possible, and that's why those of us who have evolved past our reptilian brains feel so goddamned bad about it all!

That's my two cents, and that's all it's worth...

[CrispyQ]

50. Pretty good value for 2¢!

;)

[Virginia Dare]

31. Corporate media propaganda...

is the new opiate of the masses..

9/11 should have kicked us all in the ass hard and woken us up, I know it did me, but it appears to have had the opposite effect for the most of the population. As a whole, we're just not ready to believe that our own government would have purposely allowed something like that to happen in this country. For the most part, people still believe that 9/11 came totally out of left field with no warning.

[Mend]

32. Fear. We are supposed to learn how to handle it and the reptiles running

the show are acting like cornered rats. They can't handle fear and are showing us nothing in the way of enlightenment. Earth school was too easy for a while, we were sent challenges, and we are not coping. I am noticing a tendency for people to be less afraid now and less willing to "code red" everything. Then we will advance.

[Odin2005]

35. TV

Gore talks about how TV put Americans into a stupor in The Assault on Reason.

[Annces]

36. We are not taught to think

People who think for themselves are labeled radicals and trouble makers.


Albert Schweitzer - From Out of My Life and Thought - epilogue
"Man today is exposed throughout his life to influences that try to rob him of all confidence in his own thinking. He lives in an atmosphere of intellectual dependence, which surrounds him and manifests itself in everything he hears or reads. It is in the people whom he meets every day; it is in the political parties and associations that have claimed him as their own; it pervades all the circumstances of his life."

[Jim Warren]

40. Schweitzer to the jungle

Perhaps he thought he had a better affecting positive change there than the world at large.

[Annces]

41. I am reading some of his work

He decided in his 20s he would do something to help his fellow man and started medical school at age 30. He tried to volunteer helping poor and unfortunate people in Germany, but there was no real place for him. He read about helping in Africa from a magazine. He wanted to also atone for what Europe had done to Black people.

He writes a lot about Christianity and how it does not use thought and this holds it back.

[Jim Warren]

43. Yes

In my last post I meant to say 'better chance'.

I'm so old I remember the Jack Paar show, but a benefit of that was Paar did a couple of shows from his hospital. I'll never that, Schweitzer on in years of course but still vital and in great humor......miming to Paar on being asked what one should do if one encounters a Gorilla in the forest.....Schweitzer, saying nothing with gaze fixed low, making oh so deliberate rearward steps off camera.

[Annces]

46. Very funny n/t

[Toots]

38. Gore addresses your question at length in his "Assault on Reason"

I just hope enough people read it..

[Triana]

39. The Pathocracy and Ponerology...

http://www.qfgpublishing.com/product_info.php?products_id=54

[dogday]

42. America is sleeping and she needs to wake up.... nt

[jhain]

47. It's Rumfeld's nutra sweet

It really *IS* the kool-aid. ;-)

[havocmom]

49. Lots of mind bending techniques have been in play for some time now.

People have been domesticated to the point of ridiculous. Too few can think critically, come to logical conclusions, and most seem totally helpless. There has been a societal push to squelch any portion of the population which is capable of self sufficiency. They have taken decades to convince most people they are all children, dependent on the corporate teat and craving a 'kind father' figure head who will make their decisions for them.

Nothing supernatural at all. There is good and bad. Most people have a little of each. There are people who rise to, and keep, power because they hire people to manipulate the forces in each of us. They work hard to appeal to the reptilian part of the brain while putting fancy dresses on their motives and actions to give the appearance they are addressing our higher brains.

There is good and bad. Some of us maintain balance better than others and don't go down as easy. Someday, our 'tribe' will be dominate again. The pendulum of history swings wide and slow, but it does swing.

[MedleyMisty]

51. I don't think it's new

I do think that TV plays a role, but it's not the sole cause. The Nazis didn't use TV, but they did have movies. The nobles back in the day didn't use any sort of media but the peasants were still mostly docile and people still went to fight the Crusades.

I think it's something fundamentally wrong with the species and the revolutions are what's rare and unusual, not the dumb compliance.

Of course back in the day we didn't have the destructive capabilities that we have now. Our tools have surpassed our ability to wield them, and we're beginning to reap the consequences.

I don't feel like I'm a part of the human species. Every time someone generalizes about all humans (and oh how I hate generalizations), the statement doesn't apply to me. And if I say that, I'm told that I'm being a "purist" or am making stuff up or affecting superiority or something.

Honestly, and with no judgement or feeling of superiority, it seems as if only a few humans have made it past the mental age of five. I really think that humanity as a whole is barely a step up from the common ancestor we had with other primates. We are still evolving, and I think that the number of humans able to get past five mentally has been increasing. Just not fast enough.

And no, I'm not judging. People can't help their genes and nurturing. Unless they knowingly and actively choose apathy and ignorance, it's not their fault. They may frustrate me to no end and I may occasionally feel bitter hatred toward the entire species, but those are just surface emotions that skate across the ego.

[Gregorian]

52. Power.

But this is petroleum power. I'm watching it as clearly as day. The dull look on the faces of the idiots as they drive everywhere. And it has given us the ability to live way way outside of the natural equilibrium of nature. We all live with the same result as if we each were to have several hundred slaves. I dearly wish I could find that speech given around 1980 on peak oil where that was described.

That's one facet of it.

There is also the phenomenon of one bad apple spoiling the bunch.

[ToeBot]

53. I think "Subnatural" is more appropriate. nt

[AngryAmish]

54. Robots.

[Orsino]

56. It ain't natural, but neither is it supernatural.

It's money. Money explains everything.

[Babsbrain]

57. It's all about the money

Good question and one I have asked also. What is going on where we are so tremendously divided...with 2/3 of the United States 'getting it' and the other 1/3 acting like "Night of the Living Dead"?

I truly believe (based on friends who are * lovers) that it is about the money. They are well-off financially and believe they are reaping the benefits of the present administration's corruption. They don't care about the corruption...they are getting 'theirs'.

So 1/3 of this country are * supporters because:

1. They are corrupt themselves.
2. They are benefitting financially.
3. They are unconcerned about the future.
4. They are unconcerned about their fellow man.
5. They don't care that this government is now a dictatorship....as long as they get 'theirs'.

[sicksicksick_N_tired]

58. The human mind is an awesome instrument. It can "sense" something wrong,...

,...even though the person can't articulate what is wrong.

Problem is,...there are a lot of forces at work to perpetuate confusion about the what is wrong.

What is wrong? People are being USED by individuals seeking to serve ONLY self-interests. It's called, 'oppression'.

I believe a greater awareness of what is 'wrong' is spreading.

It's not 'super-natural'. It's just the slow but sure capacity of humanity to seek and understand its environment,...including the awefulness of a human-created hell.

[Javaman]

59. Well, when I woke up this morning, I was able to see through walls..

let me tell you, it's not all it's cracked up to be. I really didn't need to see my 300+ pound hairy backed neighbor naked.

[mmonk]

61. Psychosis from a psy op that worked perfectly.