As Jacques Lacan argued in the 1960s, capitalist power works by vanishing, by making itself secret and invisible, thereby dissimulating not only its authority but also its impotence. Everything seems to function spontaneously in capitalism, as if no-one was giving or obeying orders, but just following their spontaneous desires: "What is striking, and what no one seems to see, is that by virtue of the fact that the clouds of impotence have been aired, the master signifier only appears even more unassailable […] Where is it? How can it be named? How can it be located - other than through its murderous effects, of course."
While the traditional master relies on symbolic authority, the capitalist master delegates authority to the intangible objectivity of its modus operandi. As made abundantly clear by neoliberalism, mastery is officially relinquished but simultaneously reasserted in its relinquished form, for example as 'leadership' And Lacan’s point is that this stratagem opens the space for deeper, more insidious forms of manipulation.
Just like corporate-owned mainstream media, today many Lacanians love to ridicule 'conspiracy theorists'. They do so by citing Lacan’s motto that "there is no such thing as a big Other". So, ultimately, no-one can possibly be plotting behind the curtains.
How power functions? - precisely by occupying the ontological inconsistency of the big Other, manipulating it in its favour. If there is an unconscious, conspiracy and manipulation are inevitable. The success of any power-structure depends on its ability to weaponise the self-contradictory status of its universe of sense against the neurotic masses.
The elementary speculative ruse of power is that it turns ontological inconsistency into condition of possibility. This is clearly visible in the 'authoritarian turn' of contemporary capitalism as predicated upon the ideological use of emergencies.
In the context of Lacan’s discourse theory, successful paranoia (borrowed from Freud) aligns with a hyper-efficient belief-system secured by the "curious copulation between capitalism and science". The power of what today is unilaterally promoted as 'real science' (so real that it bans doubt, prohibits debate, and promotes censorship) is akin to the power of a new religion, as Lacan said (1974): "Science is in the process of substituting itself for religion, and it is even more despotic, obtuse and obscurantist". And capitalism banks on science and technology just as it capitalises on health, one of the most profitable businesses in the world.
In 1971 Lacan gave a talk at the University of Milan where he addressed the Analyst's discourse within the context of capitalism. Lacan' noted the risk that the work of the analyst might too easily end up being the agent of capitalist jouissance - i.e., positioning the patient to more comfortably take their place within the logic of consumption as the dominant mode of enjoyment. That paper is available and worth a read. Lacan posits - though does not fully explore - the notion of a Capitalist discourse, in addition to those he identifies in his "Four Discourses of Psychoanalysis" lecture, then suggests that the analyst might need to consciously adopt the position of the saint or ascetic - i.e., one who speaks for the abstention from enjoyment within the clinical discourse.
Let me add that I don't know any Lacanians who "dismiss" conspiracy theories as dependency on a false belief in the existence of a "Big Other". On the contrary, conspiracy theories arise precisely as a defense against the fear that the Big Other doesn't exist, falling into the field of paranoiac and psychotic formations. In other words, more terrifying than the belief that there are hidden forces pulling the strings behind the chaos before them is the belief that there is nobody pulling the strings and that the chaos before them is, indeed, chaos with nobody in control.
So the arrogant hubris of the Eurocrats (left hanging by the Trump administration, now featuring a radically different type of hubris) comes from…
…unconsciously sublimated desire not to repeat the missteps of their forebears?
That might be the key to the propaganda they wield. It works on the PMC and the masses struggling to make ends meet.
But the arrogant hubris has roots in a very real superiority complex—sublimated as well, but acting quite consciously.
And it's not like the Heartland Empire hasn't been a thorn in the side of the Maritime Empire for, oh, a quarter of the millennium, at least.
Russian and British people have no beef with each other, but the British elite are incapable of anything but that smug, sublimated hatred toward anything Russian.
And as for the people who followed up on Freud's work, I'll stick to Jung and Campbell, thanks. Never did care for those obfuscating (and therefore misunderstood by design) French postwar philosophers.
Iain McGilchrist, author of THE MASTER AND HIS EMISSARY, and of THE MATTER WITH THINGS, has forced me to reconsider many of my previous perspectives on the Unconscious. Would you find his work applicable to questions of Unconscious influence in political life? (McGilchrist would, unnervingly so.)
As a student of Lacan for more than 30 years, and someone who is still engaged with his work and its ramifications in the era of AI therapy bots, let me applaud you for having the courage and insight to bring up the role of the Unconscious in the grand scheme of things, then going all in by bringing Lacan into the conversation. For those who lack the patience or don't derive masochistic enjoyment from working through Lacan's seemingly impenetrable discourse (I confess, I have thoroughly enjoyed it from the beginning), there are numerous secondary sources from which one can derive a working understanding, not least of which are both the one you mentioned,Todd McGowan, and Bruce Fink.
But the long and short is that Lacan is a superb antidote to numerous mainstream assumptions about human subjectivity and how subjects function in relation to the world and to each other. And I appreciate you for your willingness to engage with his thought and its implications for the current reality we inhabit.
My most recent articles related to Lacan and clinical psychotherapeutic practice can be found on my own Substack channel, for anyone interested.
I don't understand why calling every assertive spokesman for South interests "a new Hitler" must be blamed on something unconscious. If there are no serious arguments, they must use unserious ones.
Of course they may get some panic when they see their unfair power positions threatened. Particularly now, when the threats look serious. But I can't see anything unconscious in it.
"Lacan inherits from Saussure the idea that there is no link between words themselves (signifiers) and the objects to which they supposedly refer (the signified)." I remembered that famous line from William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, spoken by Juliet. "What's in a name? That which we call a rose / By any other name would smell as sweet".
Comments, opinions and decisions which rely on words such as “always” and “never” tend to expose the unconscious mind’s workings better than most others.
Good article, but this unnecessary part was (yes, I am irritated) snide, haughty, dismissive, snooty and intellectually barren, to wit:
"Paul McCartney died in a car crash in 1966 and was replaced by a lookalike, [and] the Nazis escaped to Antarctica in 1945 by flying saucer."
.
Where do you get off ignoring the hard evidence for these things?
.
Where do you get off ignoring the hard evidence for these things?
Photos and sketches were released by the KGB after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. They showed evidence which the NKVD, its predecessor organization, had recovered in conquered Berlin in 1945, showing amazing, advanced German technology. Why would the Soviet KGB release documents and photos which made NS Germany look so impressive in its achievements unless they were simple true?:
Why should we still believe the MSM about anything? What is going on in YOUR subconscious? As Marine colonel Nathan Jessup says immortally in "A Few Good Men" (and, btw, I am a fmr Marine as was my father, who fought at Iwo Jima): "You can't handle the truth!"
.
If there were no Nazis in Antarctica, why did the US Navy send an aircraft carrier, destroyers and submarines under Medal of Honor winner Admiral Richard Byrd?
.
To defeat the heavily armed PENGUINS?
***
.
Task Force 68
Rear Admiral Richard H. Cruzen, USN, Commanding
Eastern Group (Task Group 68.3)[1]
Capt. George J. Dufek, USN, Commanding
Seaplane Tender USS Pine Island. Capt. Henry H. Caldwell, USN, Commanding
Destroyer USS Brownson. Cdr. H.M.S. Gimber, USN, Commanding
Tanker USS Canisteo. Capt. Edward K. Walker, USN, Commanding
Western Group (Task Group 68.1)
Capt. Charles A. Bond, USN, Commanding
Seaplane Tender USS Currituck. Capt. John E. Clark, USN, Commanding
Destroyer USS Henderson. Capt. C.F. Bailey, USN, Commanding
Tanker USS Cacapon. Capt. R.A. Mitchell, USN, Commanding
Central Group (Task Group 68.2)
Rear Admiral Richard H. Cruzen, USN, Commanding Officer
Communications and Flagship USS Mount Olympus. Capt. R. R. Moore, USN, Commanding
Supplyship USS Yancey. Capt. J.E. Cohn, USN, Commanding
Supplyship USS Merrick. Capt. John J. Hourihan, USN, Commanding
Submarine USS Sennet. Cdr. Joseph B. Icenhower, USN, Commanding
Icebreaker USS Burton Island. CDR Gerald L. Ketchum, USN, Commanding
Icebreaker USCGC Northwind. Capt. Charles W. Thomas, USCG, Commanding
Carrier Group (Task Group 68.4)
Rear Adm. Richard E. Byrd, Jr. USN, (Ret), Officer in Charge
Aircraft carrier and flagship USS Philippine Sea. Capt. Delbert S. Cornwell, USN, Commanding
Base Group (Task Group 68.5)
Capt. Clifford M. Campbell, USN, Commanding, Base Little America IV
***
.
And are you still seriously denying "flying saucers" (or disks) eight years after even the mendacious and Deep-Statey NY Times first ran an article NOT ridiculing the UFO topic, with US Navy officers from the carrier USS Nimitz testifying under oath about what they saw? Do you have an ego need to look down on "the peasants"?
.
My grandfather's generation marched off to kill Germans in the Great War, ahem, "the war to end all wars."
.
They believed the Establishment press and the lying (and also sexually blackmailed) President Woodrow Wilson that Germans were "raping Belgian nuns, spearing babies on bayonets, and cutting children's hands off."
All of it was stinking, vicious, slanderous, concocted LIES.
.
116,516 Americans died in that war, believing these deliberate LIES. 67,000 veterans received disability pensions for permanent impairments (e.g., loss of limbs, blindness, severe PTSD/shell shock, or chronic conditions like gas poisoning). An additional 20,000–30,000 suffered long-term psychological or neurological disabilities (then called "shell shock"), though many were not formally pensioned.
.
My late wife Margaret's grandfather was one of them, mentally a wreck for the rest of his foreshortened life, dying in North Carolina in his forties. And my own great-uncle Herbert Dodge of my native Rhode Island was another. His voice shocked me as a little boy: a ghastly croaking from being gassed.
.
So now you go and tell me WHY I should believe ANY of the scoffing, sneering and supercilious tut-tutting of the MSM and this warmongering MIC (military-industrial complex) regime?
.
Oh, and did Saddam have those fearsome Weapons of Mass Destruction? All the "experts" said yes. I bet YOU did too, and sneered at the "naysayers." I remember the "Freedom Fries" and "Freedom Toast" hysteria because the French refused to back the unjustified US invasion of Iraq, which ignored the UN Charter. This Charter declares aggressive war to be a crime against peace. The UN Security Council MUST approve ALL WARS, and may do so only if they are defensive. Had Saddam ATTACKED America? N-O.
.
Finally, what scares you about Antarctica, subconsciously, is the implication. And that implication is that "the Nazis" (a slur term, btw, an incorrect term, like "commie" or "pinko," or the "n-word," or calling gays "f--ots") are still in their lairs in the South Pole area, awaiting WWIII -- just serenely biding their time while Russia and the US prepare to nuke and destroy each other, and maybe add a thermonuclear China to the mêlée if Trump keeps it up. Thereupon "the Nazis" (the Third Reich) will re-emerge unscathed, being "the last man standing," and rule all that is left alive.
.
.
.....Wikipedia's new "limited hangout" on Operation Highjump
This is a classic of obfuscation. Under pressure, the article was expanded to three times ionger than it used to be, and adds tons of nifty facts to seem all scholarly and credible, though the facts may be lies and the conclusions nonsense.
But it totally ignored the NS German Reich element. And it starts off highly misleading. They claim the expedition began in August of 1946 and ended in early 1947 due to harsh winter conditions, so then it supposedly WAS a six-month expedition as Admiral Byrd said at a New York City press conference. But look closely and the actual activity in Antarctica only began in late December of 1946 and it ended in late February of 1947. Two months! NOT six.
The warmish months in Antarctica when planes can fly around are November to March. Why did they not start their activities in early November? Why in late December?
Did they not know about the long Antarctic winter? Of course they did! There had been decades of Antarctic exploration! Why did the US Navy not arrive (if this was about "peaceful exploration") at the beginning of the Antarctic summer, early November? Late December was, however, when it began. Were the Americans doing a rush job to try to crush something before it got bigger and badder?
Antarctic expeditions
International agreements
1932–1933: International Polar Year
1957–1958: International Geophysical Year
1959–present: Antarctic Treaty System
Belgium
1897–1899: Belgian Antarctic Expedition
British Empire / Commonwealth
1898–1900: Southern Cross Expedition
1901–1904: Scott's first expedition
1902–1904: Scottish National Antarctic Expedition
1907–1909: Shackleton's first expedition
1910–1913: Scott's second expedition
1911–1914: Mawson's first expedition
1914–1917: Shackleton's second expedition
1921–1922: Shackleton's third expedition
1929–1931: Mawson's second expedition
1934–1937: Graham Land expedition
1943–1945: Operation Tabarin
1955–1958: Trans-Antarctic Expedition
Germany
1901–1903: Drygalski (Gauss) expedition
1911–1912: Filchner expedition
1938–1939: New Swabia expedition
Sweden
1901–1904: Swedish Antarctic Expedition
France
1903–1905: Charcot's first expedition
1908–1910: Charcot's second expedition
Japan
1910–1912: Japanese Antarctic Expedition
Norway
1910–1912: Amundsen expedition
1956–1960: 6th Norwegian Antarctic Expedition
1957–1958: Luncke expedition
United States
1928–1930: Byrd's first expedition
1934: Byrd's second expedition
1939–1941: United States Antarctic Service Expedition
1946–1947: Operation Highjump
1947–1948: Operation Windmill
1947–1948: Ronne expedition
1955–1956: Operation Deep Freeze I
1955–Present: Operation Deep Freeze
Soviet Union
1955–1957: 1st Soviet Antarctic Expedition
1956–1958: 2nd Soviet Antarctic Expedition
International
1949–1952: NBSX (Maudheim Expedition)
This 2006 Russian documentary, featuring a Russian Air force general and a colonel in Russian Air Force uniforms, says it WAS about the Germans.
Look at this testimony by Russian air force generals in uniform. Does this general look like he’s “kidding”? Or that “Nazis” with super-weapons were a laughing matter to him?
Aurelien, what you name Unconscious here seem to be what Stuart Sutherland call "Irrationality" in his book. If you haven't read it I recommend it. I found it interesting and even fun at places. Anyway, thanks for your articles that I always find interesting, even though I don't accept everything. Best Regards
You could argue that an understanding of the unconscious, at a reductionist level, is very much mainstream given that its study has been rewarded by that Swedish economics prize. Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman is about the difference between logical/symbolic thinking and intuitive thinking. He characterises the first as slow (and therefore more effortful) and the second as extremely fast but easily fooled. Intuitive thought is triggered by pattern matching the current context. Fooling intuitive thought is achieved by presenting a pattern that is similar enough to another context to trigger thoughts for that context, and different enough from that context that those thoughts are unhelpful.
Jonathan Haidt has argued (although I can't remember what if any evidence he has for this) that logical/symbolic thought evolved as a means of justifying intuitive decisions. (I assume that verbal conflict replacing some physical conflict within a group is beneficial to that group.)
I'll admit that the use of the term "the unconscious" put me off because it feels very much wedded to a psychoanalytic way of viewing the human brain, which includes abstractions such as the id, ego, and superego. There are several hundred talking therapies now, each of which has their own theory of mind or well-being or similar, none of which are falsifiable, which allows them all to coexist.
I'm a trainee of Gestalt psychotherapy, where the concepts of Top Dog (c.f. Big Other or Alternative Other) and Underdog are part of the culture. Integrating those two points of view is seen as a desirable goal, turning a polarity into a continuum, allowing someone to choose where to position themselves on that continuum at any given time. (Surrounded by aggressive zealots? Maybe it's time to align with Top Dog.)
"And indeed, any fair-minded observer would have to conclude that the runaway Ukraine crisis is being desperately and inexpertly steered from the western side by a group of leaders of strictly moderate abilities who frankly now have absolutely no idea what they are doing."
The rulers of the West think that they are channeling Churchill (BoJo in particular is quite openly trying to play the role of St. Winston).
In fact, they are channeling Herbert Asquith (if one is being charitable) and Konrad von Hotzendorf (if one is not).
Even a comparison with von Hotzendorf is far too kind. Maybe the Good Soldier Schweik, (although he, of course had some native intelligence/animal cunning which the current creatures lack). Maybe A. Hitler is really the closest comparison, even if that ends the conversation?
Out of context, but relevant, ---there is also the additional issue of distortion into bringing the collective mind into the private(individual) realm. Then there is the time preference modal, which seems to gyre back and forth between the spoken and unspoken.
When the Consciousness in each of us re-cognises that we are each simply one ''character'' in the Divine Play of One Divine Mind, the ''unconscious'' becomes understandable. With earnest focus, we begin to understand the infinite possibilities within the 99.999999% that appears to our 5 senses as ''space''. As real awe and gratitude begin to dawn, so the delusions of ''unconsciousness' can fall away as Real Love of Life re-connects.
In this process of Real Education, we realise that we mistake 0.0000001% of the energy wherein we appear as ''reality''. A 'nano-illusion'' in the Self exploration-investigation-discovery (E-I-D) of That Divine Mind. We re-member our soul as a slice of the ''infinite pi''; a practitioner-witness of the possibilities of one character in the Divine Play. We re-call the opportunity to re-connect with Education in its actual role ''to bring out from within''. Thus, we can open the portal to Oneness in That Divine Mind
Thankfully we see the delusions of ego-minds developing in the fear of the ''nano-illusion''; the ''wicked'' as those most separated from the Truth of One Loving Reality. We begin to witness fear unfolding unconsciously as a search for false omnipotence due to the hell of total separation from the Truth of Beauty and Goodness. The opportunity dawns for re-connection to the Divine Mind wherein every thing manifests in motion; guided by ''characters'' with ever-greater levels of Awareness (dimensions).
Likewise, we re-cognise the unconscious desire for omnipresence unfolding as evermore ''spectacular'' forms of transport; and false omniscience as science attempting to replicate the Divine Manifestation. Thus, we see the urgency to dismiss the deceptions of ego-minds that employ fraudulent currency to steal our Divine Life-Force; we learn to counter the umbrellas of legal fraud compounded as education is twisted into indoctrination.
Similarly, the ''intelligence'' and ''religious'' services of ''men-in-black'' become sadly clear as hellish delusions of unconscious fear. ''Secret societies'' and ''global institutions'' are revealed as dens of terrified psycho-narcissists who believe their ''wisdom'' holds the right to control and replicate the illusory 0.0000001%.
Essentially, we can realise that we-the-people have always been the source of all supply and demand through our skills, time and knowledge; all freely-available within the Divine Space of manifestation. Understanding the Divine Irony at play, we can learn to laugh at our own delusions; grateful to begin our journey from delusion back to Oneness.
If in doubt, just ask yourself, ''How else can One Divine Mind explore-investigate-discover ITs endless possibilities?''
I used to be a structuralist, but now I'm not Saussure.
As Jacques Lacan argued in the 1960s, capitalist power works by vanishing, by making itself secret and invisible, thereby dissimulating not only its authority but also its impotence. Everything seems to function spontaneously in capitalism, as if no-one was giving or obeying orders, but just following their spontaneous desires: "What is striking, and what no one seems to see, is that by virtue of the fact that the clouds of impotence have been aired, the master signifier only appears even more unassailable […] Where is it? How can it be named? How can it be located - other than through its murderous effects, of course."
While the traditional master relies on symbolic authority, the capitalist master delegates authority to the intangible objectivity of its modus operandi. As made abundantly clear by neoliberalism, mastery is officially relinquished but simultaneously reasserted in its relinquished form, for example as 'leadership' And Lacan’s point is that this stratagem opens the space for deeper, more insidious forms of manipulation.
Just like corporate-owned mainstream media, today many Lacanians love to ridicule 'conspiracy theorists'. They do so by citing Lacan’s motto that "there is no such thing as a big Other". So, ultimately, no-one can possibly be plotting behind the curtains.
How power functions? - precisely by occupying the ontological inconsistency of the big Other, manipulating it in its favour. If there is an unconscious, conspiracy and manipulation are inevitable. The success of any power-structure depends on its ability to weaponise the self-contradictory status of its universe of sense against the neurotic masses.
The elementary speculative ruse of power is that it turns ontological inconsistency into condition of possibility. This is clearly visible in the 'authoritarian turn' of contemporary capitalism as predicated upon the ideological use of emergencies.
In the context of Lacan’s discourse theory, successful paranoia (borrowed from Freud) aligns with a hyper-efficient belief-system secured by the "curious copulation between capitalism and science". The power of what today is unilaterally promoted as 'real science' (so real that it bans doubt, prohibits debate, and promotes censorship) is akin to the power of a new religion, as Lacan said (1974): "Science is in the process of substituting itself for religion, and it is even more despotic, obtuse and obscurantist". And capitalism banks on science and technology just as it capitalises on health, one of the most profitable businesses in the world.
In 1971 Lacan gave a talk at the University of Milan where he addressed the Analyst's discourse within the context of capitalism. Lacan' noted the risk that the work of the analyst might too easily end up being the agent of capitalist jouissance - i.e., positioning the patient to more comfortably take their place within the logic of consumption as the dominant mode of enjoyment. That paper is available and worth a read. Lacan posits - though does not fully explore - the notion of a Capitalist discourse, in addition to those he identifies in his "Four Discourses of Psychoanalysis" lecture, then suggests that the analyst might need to consciously adopt the position of the saint or ascetic - i.e., one who speaks for the abstention from enjoyment within the clinical discourse.
Let me add that I don't know any Lacanians who "dismiss" conspiracy theories as dependency on a false belief in the existence of a "Big Other". On the contrary, conspiracy theories arise precisely as a defense against the fear that the Big Other doesn't exist, falling into the field of paranoiac and psychotic formations. In other words, more terrifying than the belief that there are hidden forces pulling the strings behind the chaos before them is the belief that there is nobody pulling the strings and that the chaos before them is, indeed, chaos with nobody in control.
Very to the point, densely processed, -- and my thought process led me fifteen years earlier to the same view-points.
So the arrogant hubris of the Eurocrats (left hanging by the Trump administration, now featuring a radically different type of hubris) comes from…
…unconsciously sublimated desire not to repeat the missteps of their forebears?
That might be the key to the propaganda they wield. It works on the PMC and the masses struggling to make ends meet.
But the arrogant hubris has roots in a very real superiority complex—sublimated as well, but acting quite consciously.
And it's not like the Heartland Empire hasn't been a thorn in the side of the Maritime Empire for, oh, a quarter of the millennium, at least.
Russian and British people have no beef with each other, but the British elite are incapable of anything but that smug, sublimated hatred toward anything Russian.
And as for the people who followed up on Freud's work, I'll stick to Jung and Campbell, thanks. Never did care for those obfuscating (and therefore misunderstood by design) French postwar philosophers.
How unconscious is the Unconscious?
Iain McGilchrist, author of THE MASTER AND HIS EMISSARY, and of THE MATTER WITH THINGS, has forced me to reconsider many of my previous perspectives on the Unconscious. Would you find his work applicable to questions of Unconscious influence in political life? (McGilchrist would, unnervingly so.)
As a student of Lacan for more than 30 years, and someone who is still engaged with his work and its ramifications in the era of AI therapy bots, let me applaud you for having the courage and insight to bring up the role of the Unconscious in the grand scheme of things, then going all in by bringing Lacan into the conversation. For those who lack the patience or don't derive masochistic enjoyment from working through Lacan's seemingly impenetrable discourse (I confess, I have thoroughly enjoyed it from the beginning), there are numerous secondary sources from which one can derive a working understanding, not least of which are both the one you mentioned,Todd McGowan, and Bruce Fink.
But the long and short is that Lacan is a superb antidote to numerous mainstream assumptions about human subjectivity and how subjects function in relation to the world and to each other. And I appreciate you for your willingness to engage with his thought and its implications for the current reality we inhabit.
My most recent articles related to Lacan and clinical psychotherapeutic practice can be found on my own Substack channel, for anyone interested.
https://substack.com/@mrpelicano
I don't understand why calling every assertive spokesman for South interests "a new Hitler" must be blamed on something unconscious. If there are no serious arguments, they must use unserious ones.
Of course they may get some panic when they see their unfair power positions threatened. Particularly now, when the threats look serious. But I can't see anything unconscious in it.
Psychoanalysis? Lacan? Really? I'm taking my attention elsewhere.
"Lacan inherits from Saussure the idea that there is no link between words themselves (signifiers) and the objects to which they supposedly refer (the signified)." I remembered that famous line from William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, spoken by Juliet. "What's in a name? That which we call a rose / By any other name would smell as sweet".
The entire text is to be read, reread,...
Comments, opinions and decisions which rely on words such as “always” and “never” tend to expose the unconscious mind’s workings better than most others.
Perhaps that’s why adolescents rely upon those words so much?
They tend to see the world in either/or terms, an emotional immaturity.
Then again so do so many adults.
Good article, but this unnecessary part was (yes, I am irritated) snide, haughty, dismissive, snooty and intellectually barren, to wit:
"Paul McCartney died in a car crash in 1966 and was replaced by a lookalike, [and] the Nazis escaped to Antarctica in 1945 by flying saucer."
.
Where do you get off ignoring the hard evidence for these things?
.
Where do you get off ignoring the hard evidence for these things?
Photos and sketches were released by the KGB after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. They showed evidence which the NKVD, its predecessor organization, had recovered in conquered Berlin in 1945, showing amazing, advanced German technology. Why would the Soviet KGB release documents and photos which made NS Germany look so impressive in its achievements unless they were simple true?:
Why should we still believe the MSM about anything? What is going on in YOUR subconscious? As Marine colonel Nathan Jessup says immortally in "A Few Good Men" (and, btw, I am a fmr Marine as was my father, who fought at Iwo Jima): "You can't handle the truth!"
.
If there were no Nazis in Antarctica, why did the US Navy send an aircraft carrier, destroyers and submarines under Medal of Honor winner Admiral Richard Byrd?
.
To defeat the heavily armed PENGUINS?
***
.
Task Force 68
Rear Admiral Richard H. Cruzen, USN, Commanding
Eastern Group (Task Group 68.3)[1]
Capt. George J. Dufek, USN, Commanding
Seaplane Tender USS Pine Island. Capt. Henry H. Caldwell, USN, Commanding
Destroyer USS Brownson. Cdr. H.M.S. Gimber, USN, Commanding
Tanker USS Canisteo. Capt. Edward K. Walker, USN, Commanding
Western Group (Task Group 68.1)
Capt. Charles A. Bond, USN, Commanding
Seaplane Tender USS Currituck. Capt. John E. Clark, USN, Commanding
Destroyer USS Henderson. Capt. C.F. Bailey, USN, Commanding
Tanker USS Cacapon. Capt. R.A. Mitchell, USN, Commanding
Central Group (Task Group 68.2)
Rear Admiral Richard H. Cruzen, USN, Commanding Officer
Communications and Flagship USS Mount Olympus. Capt. R. R. Moore, USN, Commanding
Supplyship USS Yancey. Capt. J.E. Cohn, USN, Commanding
Supplyship USS Merrick. Capt. John J. Hourihan, USN, Commanding
Submarine USS Sennet. Cdr. Joseph B. Icenhower, USN, Commanding
Icebreaker USS Burton Island. CDR Gerald L. Ketchum, USN, Commanding
Icebreaker USCGC Northwind. Capt. Charles W. Thomas, USCG, Commanding
Carrier Group (Task Group 68.4)
Rear Adm. Richard E. Byrd, Jr. USN, (Ret), Officer in Charge
Aircraft carrier and flagship USS Philippine Sea. Capt. Delbert S. Cornwell, USN, Commanding
Base Group (Task Group 68.5)
Capt. Clifford M. Campbell, USN, Commanding, Base Little America IV
***
.
And are you still seriously denying "flying saucers" (or disks) eight years after even the mendacious and Deep-Statey NY Times first ran an article NOT ridiculing the UFO topic, with US Navy officers from the carrier USS Nimitz testifying under oath about what they saw? Do you have an ego need to look down on "the peasants"?
.
My grandfather's generation marched off to kill Germans in the Great War, ahem, "the war to end all wars."
.
They believed the Establishment press and the lying (and also sexually blackmailed) President Woodrow Wilson that Germans were "raping Belgian nuns, spearing babies on bayonets, and cutting children's hands off."
All of it was stinking, vicious, slanderous, concocted LIES.
.
116,516 Americans died in that war, believing these deliberate LIES. 67,000 veterans received disability pensions for permanent impairments (e.g., loss of limbs, blindness, severe PTSD/shell shock, or chronic conditions like gas poisoning). An additional 20,000–30,000 suffered long-term psychological or neurological disabilities (then called "shell shock"), though many were not formally pensioned.
.
My late wife Margaret's grandfather was one of them, mentally a wreck for the rest of his foreshortened life, dying in North Carolina in his forties. And my own great-uncle Herbert Dodge of my native Rhode Island was another. His voice shocked me as a little boy: a ghastly croaking from being gassed.
.
So now you go and tell me WHY I should believe ANY of the scoffing, sneering and supercilious tut-tutting of the MSM and this warmongering MIC (military-industrial complex) regime?
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Oh, and did Saddam have those fearsome Weapons of Mass Destruction? All the "experts" said yes. I bet YOU did too, and sneered at the "naysayers." I remember the "Freedom Fries" and "Freedom Toast" hysteria because the French refused to back the unjustified US invasion of Iraq, which ignored the UN Charter. This Charter declares aggressive war to be a crime against peace. The UN Security Council MUST approve ALL WARS, and may do so only if they are defensive. Had Saddam ATTACKED America? N-O.
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Finally, what scares you about Antarctica, subconsciously, is the implication. And that implication is that "the Nazis" (a slur term, btw, an incorrect term, like "commie" or "pinko," or the "n-word," or calling gays "f--ots") are still in their lairs in the South Pole area, awaiting WWIII -- just serenely biding their time while Russia and the US prepare to nuke and destroy each other, and maybe add a thermonuclear China to the mêlée if Trump keeps it up. Thereupon "the Nazis" (the Third Reich) will re-emerge unscathed, being "the last man standing," and rule all that is left alive.
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.....Wikipedia's new "limited hangout" on Operation Highjump
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Highjump
This is a classic of obfuscation. Under pressure, the article was expanded to three times ionger than it used to be, and adds tons of nifty facts to seem all scholarly and credible, though the facts may be lies and the conclusions nonsense.
But it totally ignored the NS German Reich element. And it starts off highly misleading. They claim the expedition began in August of 1946 and ended in early 1947 due to harsh winter conditions, so then it supposedly WAS a six-month expedition as Admiral Byrd said at a New York City press conference. But look closely and the actual activity in Antarctica only began in late December of 1946 and it ended in late February of 1947. Two months! NOT six.
The warmish months in Antarctica when planes can fly around are November to March. Why did they not start their activities in early November? Why in late December?
Did they not know about the long Antarctic winter? Of course they did! There had been decades of Antarctic exploration! Why did the US Navy not arrive (if this was about "peaceful exploration") at the beginning of the Antarctic summer, early November? Late December was, however, when it began. Were the Americans doing a rush job to try to crush something before it got bigger and badder?
Antarctic expeditions
International agreements
1932–1933: International Polar Year
1957–1958: International Geophysical Year
1959–present: Antarctic Treaty System
Belgium
1897–1899: Belgian Antarctic Expedition
British Empire / Commonwealth
1898–1900: Southern Cross Expedition
1901–1904: Scott's first expedition
1902–1904: Scottish National Antarctic Expedition
1907–1909: Shackleton's first expedition
1910–1913: Scott's second expedition
1911–1914: Mawson's first expedition
1914–1917: Shackleton's second expedition
1921–1922: Shackleton's third expedition
1929–1931: Mawson's second expedition
1934–1937: Graham Land expedition
1943–1945: Operation Tabarin
1955–1958: Trans-Antarctic Expedition
Germany
1901–1903: Drygalski (Gauss) expedition
1911–1912: Filchner expedition
1938–1939: New Swabia expedition
Sweden
1901–1904: Swedish Antarctic Expedition
France
1903–1905: Charcot's first expedition
1908–1910: Charcot's second expedition
Japan
1910–1912: Japanese Antarctic Expedition
Norway
1910–1912: Amundsen expedition
1956–1960: 6th Norwegian Antarctic Expedition
1957–1958: Luncke expedition
United States
1928–1930: Byrd's first expedition
1934: Byrd's second expedition
1939–1941: United States Antarctic Service Expedition
1946–1947: Operation Highjump
1947–1948: Operation Windmill
1947–1948: Ronne expedition
1955–1956: Operation Deep Freeze I
1955–Present: Operation Deep Freeze
Soviet Union
1955–1957: 1st Soviet Antarctic Expedition
1956–1958: 2nd Soviet Antarctic Expedition
International
1949–1952: NBSX (Maudheim Expedition)
This 2006 Russian documentary, featuring a Russian Air force general and a colonel in Russian Air Force uniforms, says it WAS about the Germans.
Look at this testimony by Russian air force generals in uniform. Does this general look like he’s “kidding”? Or that “Nazis” with super-weapons were a laughing matter to him?
.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwUpPwyyvLw
An italian translation, as usual, here:
"Per sempre Di nuovo.
Perché il momento è sempre Adesso."
https://trying2understandw.blogspot.com/2025/10/per-sempre-di-nuovo-perche-il-momento-e.html
Aurelien, what you name Unconscious here seem to be what Stuart Sutherland call "Irrationality" in his book. If you haven't read it I recommend it. I found it interesting and even fun at places. Anyway, thanks for your articles that I always find interesting, even though I don't accept everything. Best Regards
You could argue that an understanding of the unconscious, at a reductionist level, is very much mainstream given that its study has been rewarded by that Swedish economics prize. Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman is about the difference between logical/symbolic thinking and intuitive thinking. He characterises the first as slow (and therefore more effortful) and the second as extremely fast but easily fooled. Intuitive thought is triggered by pattern matching the current context. Fooling intuitive thought is achieved by presenting a pattern that is similar enough to another context to trigger thoughts for that context, and different enough from that context that those thoughts are unhelpful.
Jonathan Haidt has argued (although I can't remember what if any evidence he has for this) that logical/symbolic thought evolved as a means of justifying intuitive decisions. (I assume that verbal conflict replacing some physical conflict within a group is beneficial to that group.)
I'll admit that the use of the term "the unconscious" put me off because it feels very much wedded to a psychoanalytic way of viewing the human brain, which includes abstractions such as the id, ego, and superego. There are several hundred talking therapies now, each of which has their own theory of mind or well-being or similar, none of which are falsifiable, which allows them all to coexist.
I'm a trainee of Gestalt psychotherapy, where the concepts of Top Dog (c.f. Big Other or Alternative Other) and Underdog are part of the culture. Integrating those two points of view is seen as a desirable goal, turning a polarity into a continuum, allowing someone to choose where to position themselves on that continuum at any given time. (Surrounded by aggressive zealots? Maybe it's time to align with Top Dog.)
"And indeed, any fair-minded observer would have to conclude that the runaway Ukraine crisis is being desperately and inexpertly steered from the western side by a group of leaders of strictly moderate abilities who frankly now have absolutely no idea what they are doing."
The rulers of the West think that they are channeling Churchill (BoJo in particular is quite openly trying to play the role of St. Winston).
In fact, they are channeling Herbert Asquith (if one is being charitable) and Konrad von Hotzendorf (if one is not).
Even a comparison with von Hotzendorf is far too kind. Maybe the Good Soldier Schweik, (although he, of course had some native intelligence/animal cunning which the current creatures lack). Maybe A. Hitler is really the closest comparison, even if that ends the conversation?
Out of context, but relevant, ---there is also the additional issue of distortion into bringing the collective mind into the private(individual) realm. Then there is the time preference modal, which seems to gyre back and forth between the spoken and unspoken.
When the Consciousness in each of us re-cognises that we are each simply one ''character'' in the Divine Play of One Divine Mind, the ''unconscious'' becomes understandable. With earnest focus, we begin to understand the infinite possibilities within the 99.999999% that appears to our 5 senses as ''space''. As real awe and gratitude begin to dawn, so the delusions of ''unconsciousness' can fall away as Real Love of Life re-connects.
In this process of Real Education, we realise that we mistake 0.0000001% of the energy wherein we appear as ''reality''. A 'nano-illusion'' in the Self exploration-investigation-discovery (E-I-D) of That Divine Mind. We re-member our soul as a slice of the ''infinite pi''; a practitioner-witness of the possibilities of one character in the Divine Play. We re-call the opportunity to re-connect with Education in its actual role ''to bring out from within''. Thus, we can open the portal to Oneness in That Divine Mind
Thankfully we see the delusions of ego-minds developing in the fear of the ''nano-illusion''; the ''wicked'' as those most separated from the Truth of One Loving Reality. We begin to witness fear unfolding unconsciously as a search for false omnipotence due to the hell of total separation from the Truth of Beauty and Goodness. The opportunity dawns for re-connection to the Divine Mind wherein every thing manifests in motion; guided by ''characters'' with ever-greater levels of Awareness (dimensions).
Likewise, we re-cognise the unconscious desire for omnipresence unfolding as evermore ''spectacular'' forms of transport; and false omniscience as science attempting to replicate the Divine Manifestation. Thus, we see the urgency to dismiss the deceptions of ego-minds that employ fraudulent currency to steal our Divine Life-Force; we learn to counter the umbrellas of legal fraud compounded as education is twisted into indoctrination.
Similarly, the ''intelligence'' and ''religious'' services of ''men-in-black'' become sadly clear as hellish delusions of unconscious fear. ''Secret societies'' and ''global institutions'' are revealed as dens of terrified psycho-narcissists who believe their ''wisdom'' holds the right to control and replicate the illusory 0.0000001%.
Essentially, we can realise that we-the-people have always been the source of all supply and demand through our skills, time and knowledge; all freely-available within the Divine Space of manifestation. Understanding the Divine Irony at play, we can learn to laugh at our own delusions; grateful to begin our journey from delusion back to Oneness.
If in doubt, just ask yourself, ''How else can One Divine Mind explore-investigate-discover ITs endless possibilities?''