Эпизоды
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Twentieth-century European fascism boasted of a strong State run by a right-wing Fuher or demagogue, i.e., dictator. Both in Italy and Nazi Germany, the nuclear family was central to the enthusiasm for patriotic nationalism and militarism. The fascist parties ran on anti-democratic and anti-capitalist platforms; this was their con. The parties were pro-corporatism or in other words demanded a “corporative state.” A racialized social Darwinism was present, which led to the embrace of expansionary militarism and imperialism.
Fascism has been a global phenomenon for the last 4,000 to 6,000 years. It is in the massed. It materialized during an economic crisis (Great Depression). There is a history of terror and violence inflicted on the Other, e.g., Jews, Communists, socialists, homosexuals, Indians, Negroes, immigrants, which maintains the status quo. With twentieth-century fascism there was a total unification with the State. The unity was based on an enforced symbiosis, whereby the “mobilized passions” were utilized to destroy unions and any forms of opposition to the State. Spectacle, commemorations, and state-run youth organizations dominated space and time, so private self was eliminated. One of a body of the State. The self was merged with the public self, e.g., being Catholic and being Italian, based on this collectivization of all spheres of life.
Twenty-first century fascism in the U.S. requires Reich’s application of “functional thinking.” Twentieth and twenty-first century fascism are simultaneously identical and antithetical (in opposition). For example, body and mind are not two not one: a functional unity whereby psyche and soma are two sides of the same coin. The function of fascism is to physically and ideologically enclose citizens in the pursuit of maintaining the status quo by any means necessary, e.g., war, propaganda, etc.
This naïve application allows us to consider how twentieth-century fascism is a continuously functional process of maintaining the status quo. Therefore, twenty-first century American fascism relies on the projection of a weak state and ineffectual leader, e.g., Bush II, Biden. The centrality of the nuclear family (sex-negating, compulsive monogamy) remains with room for cultural differences: same-sex, bi-racial, etc.
For fifty years, the slogan “government is the problem” prevails. The “corporative state” of twentieth-century fascism is actualized in the complete corporate takeover of the State in the U.S. Instead of antiparliamentarianism, the emphasis of both parties is to “save democracy” and “save the Republic.” This saving is about maintaining class divisions for the global power elite to reap benefits from. In short, to return to a restorative period (status quo) or Make America Great Again. Social Darwinism is still the norm, but instead of a racist ideology, a purely self-interested model is all-pervasive: neoliberal ideology, i.e., run everything like a business, including oneself.
Militarism and imperialism remain in U.S. but based on invisible enemies abroad. The U.S. empire has shifted into a predominantly Connection role (armaments), so other nations can fight. The racism of slavery and Jim Crow remains in areas of the country and certainly on the Indigenous “reservations” (enclosures). However, fascism is more personalized: each individual participates in the hateful Othering online, e.g., LGBTQ+, immigrants, Republicans, Democrats, in unity with the Nation.
Twentieth-century fascism required the mobilization of emotion and passion, which is in contrast with twenty-first century fascism. Jean Baudrillard recognized that the new system is one of universalized deterrence. Deterrence is a strange form of activity: “it is what causes something not to take place.” Politics and the media have erected a social (digital) system to pacify the citizenry. The compulsion to communicate and cancel manifests as a digital panopticon whereby the State, -
On the surface, the War game version of Kick Me is two-handed. During World War II, 120,000 Japanese were in American detention camps after the Pearl Harbor attack. The U.S. dropped two atomic bombs on Japan as retaliation for the attack despite World War II being effectively over. This was an act of “asserting America’s military supremacy.” Therefore, arrogance and supremacy drive these fanatical War games, e.g., Israel’s game with the Palestinian people, that are meant to get rid of Others. A “final solution”.
The two-sided perception in the conflict finds one in the Persecutor role (e.g., Hamas), which is a concealed motivation for White (e.g., Israel) as they play the Victim role. For example, in February of 2022, Western media proclaimed that Russia (bad) was Persecuting Ukraine (good) for the illegal invasion, i.e., Ukraine is in the Victim role. This dichotomy was presented repeatedly instead of questioning when the conflict actually started (U.S.-backed coup in 2014) or who was benefitting from the war, i.e., the various military-industrial complexes, e.g., Russia, U.S. The push for green energy was interrupted because the war became “a profit center for the hydrocarbon and arms industries.” Coal plants and the modernization of old weapons systems were prioritized over the food supply, education, health care, etc.
This Media game narrative, Good vs. Evil, is what manufactures consent for the U.S.-led NATO proxy war against Russia (“Bye bye Nordstream 2 pipeline!”). The Media deception and ulterior motive is understood based on what is left out: the chapter on the 2014 U.S. coup of Ukraine and the NATO encroachment of Russia. From the perspective of Russia (in the Victim role), the Special Military Operation was a means and ends to denazification and a push-back to U.S.-led NATO encroachment (Persecutor role).
Left out is that the Russia-Ukraine war is at least a three-handed game: the U.S. is a proxy operating in the Connection role, i.e., the source of supply, with the military-industrial-complex. In Berne’s “Alcoholic” game, the Connection supplies the liquor or elicit substance to the Alcoholic or Addict role. The Connection does this without chastisement of the “Alcoholic.” As the Connection role in a three-handed game, the U.S. militarily arms White or Black with bombs and propaganda to ensure White and Black battle. In the original “Alcoholic” game, the Connection—as liquor store clerk or bartender—knows when to stop serving White: "The difference between the Connection and the other players is the difference between professionals and amateurs in any game: the professional knows when to stop. At a certain point a good bartender refuses to serve the Alcoholic, who is then left without any supplies unless he can locate a more indulgent Connection."
In contrast, the U.S. military is unprofessional in its role of indulgence for warmaking. They do not know when to stop serving White (Israel) or Black (Ukraine). Provocation and accusation are the moves in the War game that allow for indulgence in the sweet nectar of violence and profits.
At the nation-state level, this “justified” retaliation is used to authorize permanent wars, overturning democratically elected governments, and the promotion of regime change (War games). For example, the Israeli government and security forces provoke attacks by Hamas. Recall, Hamas is the political group Israel funded to split the vote with the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). Israel needs Hamas to Kick them back to justify the NIGYSOB! response. Israel wears a T-shirt that reads, “Please Do Kick Me.” The Kick from Black appears to be an act of “terrorism” if one does not understand that White maintains the initiative by occupying Black. This authorizes Israel to play NIGYSOB! in the name of “self-defense” based on a security or “intelligence failure.” The Media game is to rhetorically ask about subjectivity; “What is a ‘proportional’ response?” -
Пропущенные эпизоды?
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The set up to Mass Shooter is “I will destroy the world and then kill myself.” In simple terms, the War game version of Now I’ve Got You, You SOB! is the climax of Mass Shooter. Both games involve the Othering of a certain person, group, or ethnicity, which creates an obstruction between oneself and the Other. The same can be said for competing nation-states. This Othering justifies violent retaliation.Mass Shooter involves White (“it”) surveilling Black (weakness for the game) in order to find injustices to enact revenge. The relatively minor infraction is weaponized by White to unleash their fury. Black then retaliates against the fury. When Black’s inevitable retaliation occurs, it authorizes a claim of “self-defense” even though White was in an offensive position. White was looking for provocations to license a game of Now I’ve Got You, You Son of a Bitch! (NIGYSOB!)For example, the U.S. militarily occupies the Middle East, which provokes the 9/11 attacks. Two decades later, under the guise of the illusory “war on terror,” (see Hide & Seek) the U.S. enacts revenge on one of the “masterminds” who allegedly planned the attack. Israel occupies the Palestinians to provoke attacks by Hamas in order to seek revenge and domination: NIGYSOB!The Mass Shooter combines NIGYSOB! with the supremacist version of Kick Me. Mass Shooter is driven by White’s need to be perceived by Others (Black), i.e., social recognition. White’s perception is that Black will regret how they treated White, e.g., for the bullying, criticism, lack of sexual interest. White makes themselves agitated (bound up sexual energy), which leads to violence. The exhibitionism of the murders, which is often livestreamed, is the destructive version of the Influencer game. Consider Columbine. One of the masterminds was Eric Harris who imagined the massacre would one day be made into a Hollywood movie:“For Eric, Columbine was a performance. Homicidal art. He actually referred to his audience in his journal: “the majority of the audience wont even understand my motives,” he complained. He scripted Columbine as made-for-TV murder, and his chief concern was that we would be too stupid to see the point. Fear was Eric’s ultimate weapon. He wanted to maximize the terror. He didn’t want kids to fear isolated events like a sporting event or a dance; he wanted them to fear their daily lives. It worked. Parents across the country were afraid to send their kids to school.” (p. 277)His existential life position was I'm OK, You're not-OK (arrogant and paranoid). Therefore, Harris felt a sense of superiority over Others and plotted revenge. In the book, “Columbine”, it is noted that “Eric equated “unique” with “superior.” For example, Harris obtains injustices and gets revenge: he would attack his peers’ houses “to retaliate for perceived slights, but most often for the offense of inferiority.” (NIGYSOB!). The armaments give White situational power to inflict the most damage: I’ll Show Them. White is more interested in the effects the shooting has on their enemies or friends (carnage) than they do in the rewards itself.Contrary to popular understanding, the Columbine massacre was not a nod to 4/20 or Hitler’s birthday, but a replication of Timothy McVeigh’s work four years (to the day) prior. McVeigh’s devastating Oklahoma City bombing of 168 innocent people was revenge, i.e., NIGYSOB!, for the federal government’s actions against the Branch Davidian compound in the 1993 Waco siege. According to Michael Parenti in his book The Terrorism Trap, McVeigh was associated with the “Christian Identity” group. So, in addition to attacking the federal government, he was also fascistically attacking “the Jews, liberals, and other secularists who have dislodged white Christian America from its spiritual moorings.”McVeigh is therefore one of the Original Mass-shooter Gangsters (see OMG, e.g., Unabomber). The initial commencement date for the Columbine attack was Apri...
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This episode includes a discussion of the history of the swastika as well as a discussion of War (e.g., assassination of al-Zawari) and Media games (Ain’t It Awful). The U.S. war machine influences the mainstream media to manufacture consent for war. In the book, “The Gulf War Did Not Take Place,” Jean Baudrillard describes how totalizing media coverage of an event, e.g., war, is an invitation into a game (con). The aim is to create consensus and illusions in the mind of the citizen: “Information has a profound function of deception. It matters little what it “informs” us about, its “coverage” of events matters little since it is precisely no more than a cover: its purpose is to produce consensus by flat encephalogram.”The sexual life of children and adolescents (e.g., Columbine killers) as well as the dominant socialization process are described in this episode. This is in the context of constructing a manuscript titled “Games Fascists Play: The Psychology of Supremacy” and solutions to games. Additionally, the 2020 U.S. presidential election is discussed; not from the perspective of “stop the steal,” and instead, Google’s role in the manipulation of potential voters.In 2020, ultra-monopoly Google, encouraged Democrats or Democrat-leaning voters to show up to vote. Voting badges were placed at the top of their social media newsfeeds, but these were specifically and intentionally absent from news feeds for Republicans. The way Google’s search engine functions also has a liberal bias. Additionally, Google’s ability to use “ephemeral impressions” to make lasting impressions on undecided voters swayed millions of votes away from Trump. This manipulation and behavioral modification led to a Biden White House (let’s all just forget about Hunter’s laptop). Despite Trump’s decry of “election interference” and that the election was “stolen,” a state-corporate symbiosis by one of the most powerful corporations (Google) on the planet heavily influenced the vote totals.Recorded on 9/20/2023Referencesp. 68, Baudrillard, J., & Patton, P. (1995). The gulf war did not take place. Indianapolis: Indiana University Press.Visit MankatoTherapist.com for more information and to contact Andrew Archer.
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The psychotherapy patient is trained to walk into the therapy room to sit or lie down on the couch. Immediately they begin to describe their life by speaking in longform. This is a pastime: a semi-ritualistic and socially programmed activity of updating the therapist with their status as a self. When the patient sits down, they launch their Status Update: the patient assists the therapist in helping them “catch up” on what has been “going on lately”. It concludes when they say, “that’s what has been going on” or “that’s what is new with me.” This is a stereotyped and repetitive form of being that is structured by fill-in-the-blank answers. A pastime is composed of descriptions and discussion without emotional affect.
Therefore, the Monologue is the driver for the pastime Status Update, i.e., the generation of content by and about oneself. In digital form, Status Update is a reflection on current news events including news about oneself, e.g., a tweet or Facebook post. A measurement of one’s worth and social standing are calculated based on this computer-network connection: the number of Likes, views, shares, subscriptions, etc.
Like in psychotherapy, Status Update is a socially programmed pastime by Big Tech. In both cases, the repetitive nature of the activity—and the lack of intimacy—makes Status Update grow boring. The platform controls the framing for the update, e.g., Instagram Story or SnapChat Snaps, and the programming, e.g., selection of emojis, like button, etc. The pastime of Status Update often turns into a game on social media. For example, Trump supporters play a digital Kick Me game to “own the libs” by sharing a meme that says, “Fuck Your Feelings.”
In the Mass Shooter game, there is online “leakage” of future crimes in nearly half of the incidents. If the mass shooter leaks, they are much more likely to engage in a performative (costume or live stream) massacre. The digital trails (posts, texts) and leaks reference the desire to exterminate people. For example, Columbine killer Dylan Harris made his private, internal experience public. He had a website that among other things included bomb making ingredients and a “Shit List” of despicable people.
In psychotherapy, the transparency of the self creates emotional resonance and intimacy. The transparency of the self via Capitalism’s Status Update ensures a form of self-promotion, self-branding, and self-incorporation (bye bye privacy and hello telehealth!). With the virtual world, the subject (user) is now able to give a Status Update across multiple tech platforms. This information is recombined and shared across channels, profiles, podcasts, etc. Once upon a time (and still to some extent) a person went to a financial officer and updated them on their financial status, credit score, assets, etc. Now, wearables and smartphones—with the ubiquity of online access—symbiotically tie the private self to public markets. The status of the user is seamlessly updated in real time. Instead of twentieth century informants and listening devices for a secret police force, Big Tech is Happy To Help! the user manage themselves for free!
The Status Update is often a reflection of how Awful life is. The Black Mirror episode titled “Joan Is Awful” reveals the Media game version of Ain’t It Awful (AIA). The CEO of the fictional streaming monopoly “Streamberry”—itself a parody of Netflix—is asked about the creation of personalized content: “Why awful? Why is it all so negative?” The CEO replies that the corporation attempted more positive content, but the test subjects didn’t buy it:
It didn’t chime with their neurotic view of themselves. What we found instead was when we focused on their more weak or selfish or craven moments, it confirmed their innermost fears and it put them in a state of mesmerized horror. Which really drives engagement. They literally can’t look away.
Recorded on 8/02/2023
References
p. 79, Peterson, J. & Densley J. (2021). -
In the book, “The Recovery of the True Self,” psychiatrist Robert Phillips states that “all of the animals other than the human animal have an uncomplicated family-life. “Child-rearing” among those animals looks rather simple and straightforward. The offspring are born, they are faithfully fed and fiercely protected for a while, then they are sent out into the world, apparently without sentiment or strings attached.”
We are all in a stage of development and it is important for us to take responsibility for our own power and actions, because we are constantly moving toward or away from healthy behaviors in every moment. Phillips adds that we attempt to naturally be who we are, and we are often conflicted about this: “The answer is to feel and deal.” For example, many of us received contradictory messages such as Don’t Be a Child and Don’t Grow Up at the same time. The appropriate message, which a bird conveys to a baby bird, is, “move out of the nest when you are ready.”
Children are now being increasingly scripted by the virtual world. Susan Linn’s book, “Who’s Raising the Kids?”, outlines the problems of being fed animated information: “More direction from outside means less access to the inner life of imagination and emotion.” Linn (2022) continues: “…a culture that immerses children in consumerism is doing a lousy job of teaching them to value what matters most: meaningful human relationships, love and kindness, awe and wonder, creativity, a connection with nature, and a deep appreciation for that which can’t be packaged, bought, or sold.”
Wilhelm Reich, MD emphasized the mystical and mechanistic aspects of authoritarian society that are transposed from the culture to the parent figures who inculcate the children with: “Human needs are formed, altered, and, in particular, suppressed by society; this process establishes the psychic structure of man.” We are not born with a character structure; it is imposed, and we make adaptive decisions and strategies based on that imposition. We are not born a “human being,” we become one, which in effect destroys our naturalness: “…small children who do not have any sense of shame or disgrace in connection with excretory functions also have no basis in later life on which to develop such genital disturbances.” (Reich, 1934; p. 257)
The infant is not “armored”, which means they do not have an ego or character structure. This formation obstructs and reduces the flow of emotional life energy (blocked). For Reich ,“Man is born free, yet he goes through life as slave.” He adds, “The Kingdom of God [grace, goodness, inner freedom, unitedness] is within you. It was born with you.” Therefore, emotion is the basic energy of life for the human animal (i.e., qi). We must relationally meet fear with reassurance (soothing) and meet sadness with human comfort (holding): “When a child (or adult) is fearful about something in the future (five minutes from now, or Judgment Day, or the possibility of a hurricane) he needs reassurance from accurate statistical information and instructions about safety and recovery.” (Phillips, 1995; p. 157)
Instead of reassurance and embodied experience, corporate culture sells appearance and consumption (buying) as means and ends: “Platforms popular with teens and preteens, like Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube, teach kids to sell themselves—if not for money, then for virtual approval in the form of “likes,” “shares,” “friends,” and “followers.” (Linn, 2022; p. 72) Materialism, individualism, and competition are instantiated in the culture. This is what Linn calls the “hyper-commercialization” of children. The mythical idea that possessions equal happiness. Additionally, Big Tech is hooking both children and their parents via “ed-tech.” However, “excessive screen time is harmful to children’s health and development.” (e.g., diminished language development).
The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends 0 minutes of screen time for babies up to 18 months... -
In his book, The Sexual Revolution, Wilhelm Reich, MD writes that the transition from matriarchy (sex-affirming) to patriarchy (sex-suppressing) changed the individual from a free clan member to a subjugated member of the family (p. 165). Reich argues that a cultural and economic revolution requires a “sexual revolution.” Reich writes, “The goal of a cultural revolution is to create human character structures capable of self-regulation.” (p. 25). His work-democracy and sex-economy understood the internalization of the patriarchal family structure—centered on compulsive monogamy or sex-negation—creates a rigid character structure. Necessary to this development is the suppression of sexual drives (pleasure principle). This is what Reich referred to as “armoring” and it is central to neuroses (i.e., the blocking of sexual/emotional life energy). Bringing it to a practical level, women for example (and increasingly parents in general) do not have financial independence because they are forced to raise children without the support of the community/state (i.e., collectivization). One is on their own. Women and children are still materially dependent on the economics of the family unit (e.g., property rights, marriage, health insurance, etc.).
In Western culture, children go through puberty and reach sexual maturity at age 14 or 15. Yet, their only source for private sexual experiences with others is virtual and disconnected. The long road of hope for intimate satisfaction must wait until college and/or via the institution of marriage. The imposition of abstinence is unhealthy as it sets the stage for neurosis. In fact, humans are more “animalistic” than animals because of increased sexual intensity. Humans are in a state of “constant readiness for sexual intercourse.” According to Reich, the suppression of love life in children and adolescents creates obedient economic slaves in the capitalist system: “…the child must suppress his instinctual drives so that he can become capable of adapting to culture; on the other hand, this suppression of instinctual gratification usually leads to a neurosis, which in turn restricts his capacity for cultural adaptation, sooner or later makes it completely impossible, and again turns him into an asocial person.” (p. 11-12)
Therefore, it is the moralistic demands of authoritarian society and not natural self-regulation (gratification/pleasure) that creates asocial behavior. Compulsive monogamy whereby marriage is primarily about making babies and keeping the family together produces sex-negation and neurotic behaviors. Simply put, sex is perceived as bad and chastity is good: “…small children who do not have any sense of shame or disgrace in connection with excretory functions also have no basis in later life on which to develop such genital disturbances.” (p. 257)
Looking at these newest generations of children allows us to pull forward Reich’s thesis. Jean Twenge’s book iGen details the consequences of the continued armoring of children. Those born after 1995—post-Internet commercialization—are more self-focused with an intense race for economic success. Twenge (2017) found that sex and relationships are “distractions” (p. 208) for this generation (while mental illness and suicide are skyrocketing). “We now live in a culture where teens watch more porn than ever and start asking each other for nude pictures at 11—yet they wait longer to have sex. This combination of considerable fantasy experience and little real-world experience may be problematic.” (Twenge, 2017; p. 303). Young people have fewer sexual partners and wait until they are older to have sex compared to previous generations. Additionally, they have less physical contact with one another as they predominantly reside in the virtual world.
Recorded on 7/06/2023
References
Reich, W. (1949). The sexual revolution: Toward a self-regulating character structure. Translated by Therese Pol (4th edition). Farrar, Straus, -
The psychoanalyst Wilhelm Reich, MD understood that a specific form of human socialization has created the fascist character via “armoring.” In his book The Mass Psychology of Fascism, Reich writes that the “mechanistic-mystical character of modern man” has produced “fascist parties, and not vice versa.” The character structure of modern human beings is the universal cause of fascism:
“… “fascism” is only the organized political expression of the structure of the average man’s character, a structure that is confined neither to certain races or nations nor to certain parties, but is general and international. Viewed with respect to man’s character, “fascism” is the basic emotional attitude of the suppressed man of our authoritarian machine civilization and its mechanistic-mystical conception of life.” (xiii)
Therefore, when we see a fascist “puffing himself up and has his chops full of slogans, let him be asked quietly and simply in public”:
“What are you doing in a practical way to feed the nation, without murdering other nations? What are you doing as a physician to combat chronic diseases, what as an educator to intensify the child’s joy of living, what as an economist to erase poverty, what as a social worker to alleviate the weariness of mothers having too many children, what as an architect to promote hygienic conditions in living quarters? Let’s have no more of your chatter. Give us a straightforward, concrete answer or shut up!” (xvi)
Recorded on 6/29/2023.
References
Paxton, R. (2005). The anatomy of fascism. Vintage Books: New York.
Reich, W. (1980). The mass psychology of fascism. Ed. Mary Higgins and Chester M. Raphael (3rd edition). New York: Farrar, Straus, Giroux. (orig. pub. in 1933)
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In the book, The Anatomy of Fascism, Robert Paxton argues that “Fascists need a demonized enemy against which to mobilize followers, but of course the enemy does not have to be Jewish. Each culture specifies the national enemy.” (p. 37) The system is moving more and more to the Right with rage directed at liberalism and individualism. The Gender Identity game places transgender individuals as the new Other as the national enemy. However, this is a Media game and the Media games are meant to pacify us. The system is designed for in-fighting and pacification as opposed to the mobilizing passions of Fascism.
The solution is Zen. Zen aims to convey the indescribable. Zen does not rely on words or scriptures or beliefs. In fact, this discriminating thinking (this/that) keeps us farther away from Zen. Intuitive knowledge (prajñā) and thought-less-ness (dhyāna) are not two not one. This description of “emptiness” implies everything at once (no obstruction) or direct experience. You have met this type of person: they are friendly and peaceful.
Like a young child we must rely on intuitive knowledge to “be” the world rather than be a separate somebody: “me” and “the world.” In the social sphere, the “emptiness” of intuitive knowledge manifests as relational friendliness. With friendliness we add mercy to create relational peace. We are not two not one. The still point above opposites. This is in contrast with the symbiotic process of Fascism: the citizen is part of an enforced symbiosis with the state and they are void of a private self. Fascism was mass mobilization + violent provocations and manipulation for the cause of imperial war. Zen in practice is intimacy through peace-making. It requires “emptiness” (friendliness) + mercy.
Recorded on 6/22/2023
References
Hedges, C. (2010). Death of the liberal class. New York: Nation Books.
Kaczynski, T. J. (2020). Anti-tech revolution: Why and how. Fitch & Madison: Arizona.
Paxton, R. (2005). The anatomy of fascism. Vintage Books: New York.
Ward, L. (2020). America’s racial karma: An invitation to heal. Parallax Press: Berkely, California.
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The Media game version of Gender Identity presents itself as a dialogic process. The interview--which is actually a debate--starts with the question, "What is a woman?" or "How many genders are there?" This game has similar dynamics as Climate Change because both are derivatives of the Ain't It Awful (AIA) game: "Ain't It Awful the oceans are acidifying?" or "Ain't It Awful puberty blockers for children?" However, the series of transactions is also a derivative of the Kick Me game. The gameplayer (e.g., interviewer) has an ulterior motive: to humiliate the other player (i.e., interviewee) by Kicking them and feeling morally self-righteous. If the interviewee is hooked into the game they feel Kicked, often negating their own provocational behavior.
Additionally, the Gender Identity game is made possible based on the cultural instantiation of ego or self as "reality." This allows for other "real" identities such as gender to be embraced as constant or solid across time. Therefore, "gender" as a concept reinforces and maintains social hierarchies, e.g., patriarchy, which is why we should be talking more about sex than gender. The solution to these types of games is Adult ego state functioning (reality testing), which is what Buddhists refer to as "emptiness" or zen mind. Relationally speaking, the result of manifesting emptiness is friendliness. Instead of "me" and "you", we are not two not one. Pairing relational friendliness with mercy promotes peace and intimacy as opposed to "Kicking" people based on their political beliefs and self-presentations.
Recorded on 6/15/2023
Audio clips from YouTube videos:
“Christine Hamilton questions eco-protester Kai Bartlett over his group's methods” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89w8y5aSCqk
"Your line of questioning is transphobic" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fed5RzXyU20
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The Psychiatry game is introduced on the individual or psychotherapy level as well as how Psychiatry is promoted for the maintenance of the status quo. The Psychiatry game reinforces social hierarchies as reality (e.g., "mentally ill" versus not). Far ahead of his time, Eric Berne, MD understood the concept of “mental health” as a game or pastime. In his words, it is "based on the thesis that if only the right procedure can be found, everything will be alright."
As the patient sits on the couch, inside their heads the question is, “What am I supposed to do here?” Patients, especially novices to psychotherapy, will inevitably comply with their therapist who uses the DSM to define them in order to elaborate their self-presentations and self-understanding. The patient will talk subjectively about what it is like to be them as a solid self. This can be played using Transactional Analysis ("My Critical Parent ego state...), psychoanalysis ("Gee my Id just has a hold of my Superego," or the clinical version, "Nice use of transference!"), cognitive behavioral therapy or CBT ("Those damn negative thought loops!"), etc.
The emphasis is on subjectivity, but this comes at the expense of affect and relational intimacy with the therapist. Colloquially, the patient talks about what is going on inside their head. In the US, as individuals continue to view themselves as brands (Me, Inc) and are enclosed by Big Tech's ability to commodify them and sell them things at the same time, Psychiatry becomes the engine for negating "the world." Identity as reality is instantiated in the culture. Me me me. Self-optimization to become supreme and "win." This is in contrast with the Zen notion of no-self or no-mind (i.e., emptiness).
Recorded on 6/08/2023
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The supremacist aim of the Protest game is to moralistically denigrate the motives and tactics of the specific social movement, e.g., Just Stop Oil in the UK or Black Lives Matter in the U.S. Adult ego state functioning is rarely utilized if not avoided in the game, e.g., global temperatures in the 21st century, solutions such as nuclear energy and birth control for women, or discussions of over-population. The ulterior motive is the maintenance of the status quo. Specifically, the Climate Change game is a derivative of Kick Me with built-in illusions: a permanent ending of history, imperial domination of Nature, acquisition as reality, etc. Ain’t It Awful is the root game for Climate Change: “We’re all gonna die!” Capitalism games are introduced (e.g., Happy To Help!) while using the story of and teaching of the Buddha as well as the promotion of his methods. Finally, the conversation weaves into the socialization of children, a potential new economic system that transcends the dichotomy of capitalism and communism duality as well as the psychological root of Fascism (“I’m the center of the world.”) that is inherent to human nature.
Recorded on 6/01/2023
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Don and Andrew discuss the concept of symbiosis (not two not one), Eric Berne’s book Games People Play, including the concept of psychological “hunger.” This means we are hungry for stimulation, social recognition, and structured time. Games are played in an attempt to get those psychological hungers met despite the negative payoffs. The game If It Weren’t For You is introduced as a bridge to discussing Fascism as a game process. Examples are given in terms of the Ukraine war as well as other Drama Triangle roles and switches.
Recorded on 5/25/2023
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Don and Andrew describe the Drama Triangle and game theory as it is applied in psychotherapy. The conversation weaves into specific games as well as topics such as Ego consciousness, zen mind, culture, The Little Fascist, Social Darwinism, hyper-individualism.
Recorded on 5/18/2023
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This episode was recorded on April 27th, 2023 just following the conclusion to Series 3. Series 4 is the evolution of the concept “games fascists play.” Andrew and Don’s dialogues were recorded over the course of one year. Through this relational brainstorm, Andrew began to write a manuscript titled Games Fascists Play: The Psychology of Supremacy. The book is meant as a tribute and sequel to Eric Berne’s best seller Games People Play: The Psychology of Human Relationships. The result is Series 4, Games Fascists Play, which illustrates the evolution of the concept, examination of game analysis and specific psychological games, as well as articulations of fascism and the solution to gameplay: zen.
Recorded 4/27/2023.
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This is a wrap-up to Series 3: reflections on, analysis of, and summary on the origin and progression of the StayAtHomeDay movement. To build a social movement requires courage. One must first insert themselves into an institution. After forming a relational position within an organization or institution, the requirement is to subvert (undermine) authority. This is accomplished by speaking one’s Truth. Within this process the task is to create a social network (other relational bodies) with a single and clear target or objective (e.g., ending mass shootings in schools). Relational joy occurs when one moves in the direction of, and through, their own fear. Series 4 will focus on the Games Fascists Play.
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Big Tech steals our attention with the con of convenience, personalization, and persuasive tech design. F*#k that. Big Tech wants us to incorporate, brand, and market the self. The user is compelled to continuously offer status updates of themselves. The imperative of the virtual world is to exhibit and broadcast ourselves for monetization. This creates a paradigm of voluntary self-exploitation that leads to burnout. One wears oneself out via hyperactivity and self-optimization.
In the book The Burnout Society, Byung-Chul Han describes burnout as a form of voluntary self-exploitation. One wears themselves out by being hyper-active and transparent: Liking and Sharing all aspects of one’s life. We are a brand with constant endorsements of others.
Therefore, Western culture is characterized as joylessness: all work and no play. The culture produces burnout for the individual and then sells them back a remedy for the burnout. The remedy is to consume and acquire for yourself (acquisition)as you broadcast yourself: Click and Buy Now. The Westerner is reduced to their head. They are split from the body or Center. They are joyless as they scroll endlessly desiring more of what “I” want.
The answer to our dis-embodied way of being is to return to the body or the Center. Intuitive knowledge is the means for connection. Instead of hitting the cocaine dropper inside our social media cages, we must build Johann Hari’s rat parks to address the loss of connection. As Phillips (1995) notes, “It is a truism that “what we eat we become.” That observation can be extended to other forms of consummation: “what we stare at, listen closely to, inhale, and consort with sensually, we become.” We can choose not to look or listen. The solution is companionship, spontaneity, and full-bodied joy.
References
Han, B.C. (2015). The burnout society. Stanford Briefs: Stanford, CA.
Phillips, R.D. (1995). The recovery of the true self: The human animal in and out of therapy. Medicine Wheel Publications: Chapel Hill, N.C.
Steiner, C. (1974). Scripts people live: Transactional analysis of life scripts. New York: Grove Press.
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One definition of “education” is the process of systematic instruction such as at a school. Another definition for education is “an enlightening experience”. Here, enlightening means to have or show a rational, modern, and well-informed outlook. Zen has a unique position on enlightening experience. The unique position of Zen is declared in four statements. The first is that there is something apart from the historical records and beyond words or letters. Current “education” is sequential, progressive and digital (Closed System). Learning is facilitated via computers and Artificial Intelligence: children are relating more words from machines than from their own mothers. Students mindlessly compute and comprehend with virtual assistants as “teachers”.
The second Zen statement is the direct transmission of the One Mind or heart-mind. There is intuitive knowledge (true Void) transmitted from Mind to Mind that is not graspable. This escapes conceptualization. The “knowledge” is prior to dualistic thinking, e.g., Delusion and Enlightenment or Good and Evil. Dualism is not-Zen. Enlightenment is interpersonal affair rather than something “achieved.” A teacher and a student or transmission of Mind to Mind.
The third Zen statement implies a seal or stamp that is imprinted on Mind. This transmission evades description: a wordless inscription. Tying this to education, when I was a 20-year-old undergraduate at University of Wisconsin-Madison, my literature Teaching Assistant (TA) told the students how the TA’s were walking out and going on strike due to the lack of wage parity between them and University of Minnesota. The University of Wisconsin-Madison caved to the TA’s demands. The TA’s act of subversion (passive withdrawal from the system) shattered my world views: at the time it was unknowable to me. Collective organization was not foreign, it was an unknown unknown; something I didn’t know I didn’t know. I was forever changed by the sudden perception that was not based on conceptual thinking. This actionistic form of education is intangible and lacks attribution. There are no tracks, yet a path is clearly laid.
Zen acknowledges Enlightenment as akin to an indelible mark that forever changes the person. A metaphysical tattoo for consciousness. You have it or you don’t, but Mind is still the same (ordinary). Thus, Enlightenment cannot be described with letters and words, and it stands outside of the scriptures. A teacher enlightens students by waking them up to what was previously unknowable.
The nature of “reality” is one’s own conscious awareness, which is no-thing. Self-nature is an Open System: trust, friendliness to Other, compassion, trial and error, steady-state of energy. The Zen Master Huang Po said, “I have NO THING to offer. I have never had anything to offer others. It is because you allow certain people to lead you astray that you are forever SEEKING intuition and SEARCHING for understanding. Isn’t this a case of disciples and teachers all falling into the same insoluble muddle?” We must think for ourselves as an Open System (detached from Ego).
In comparison, the boundaries of one’s Ego is a Closed System: our cultural conditioning, parental scripting, and childhood commitments. What I have been experiencing with the Mankato school district and the School Board members as well as administrators is a Closed System characterized by secrets, mistrust, surveillance, suppression, conformity, and authoritarianism. For example, my kindergartener handed out StayAtHomeDay magnets for April 20th and he (and I) were told, “this can’t happen,” i.e., a policy that bars distribution of materials that are a “disruption”. We pivoted to tear sheets (like those you would see on a community message board) with the website (www.StayAtHomeDay) listed in small print. We were told these could not be handed out in the school as well. This outside energy was not allowed “inside” the Closed System. -
There was a New York Times article from April 2nd, 2023, titled “It’s Not ‘Deaths of Despair.’ It’s Deaths of Children.” In the richest country in the world—the U.S.—1 out of every 25 Kindergarteners will die before they reach 40 (four times higher than other wealthy nations). The rate increase is largely due to suicide and gun-related-deaths (Covid was minimal). The tough medicine to swallow is that all of us are culpable in the failure to raise and protect the next generation from destruction. Tyler and I do not want our children to get shot.
You can view and listen to the video of me and Tyler Flowers speaking in the link below.
Link to School Board Meeting video (I begin at about 11 minutes into the meeting):
http://mankatoaps.swagit.com/play/04042023-536/#0
Link to KEYC-TV News Now story in this episode titled “The Men Behind the Magnets” by Maddie Paul, published April 12TH 2023: https://www.keyc.com/2023/04/12/men-behind-magnets/
www.StayAtHomeDay.com
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I free associate about StayAtHomeDay, the school’s resistance to it, social movements, raising consciousness, nihilistic nihilism, becoming burnt out with podcasting, and I refer to a recent lecture in Minneapolis (S3, Part 7, Becoming a Real Person) as well as Series 4 ideas (i.e., Games Fascists Play). The climate activist and co-founder of Extinction Rebellion, Roger Hallam, is mentioned as well. Specifically, this speech:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=0Zo2DWW_fhc&t=12s
www.StayAtHomeDay.com
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