Thread on the work of Anthony Wilden:

Not many people will know the name of Wilden anymore he wrote on systems theory, film theory, structuralism, cybernetics, psychiatry, anthropological theory, water control projects, urban ecosystems, and communications and social relations. He introduced the West to Lacan and was one of his first translators. What he named 'Context Theory' can be seen as a progenitor to the theory of self-referential systems and general systems theory, alongside the likes of Gregory Bateson et al.

Seeing someone post about getting rid of public (state run) schooling, and every comment is unquestionably jumping to its defence. Most people can't imagine a world without public school, despite the fact it's almost entirely a negative on society. On modern state-run education:

- Lacks coherence, the teaching is just general knowledge, learned by rote, to complete exams

- The process of being-schooled conflates itself with actual knowledge

- Teaches that credentials = actual understanding

God Vs nihilism (short thread):

Just saw a discussion on here about the value of human life, with the nihilist side repeatedly asking the question:

'But why is is human life of any value?'

No answer can ever suffice, because their entire language is relative. If you genuinely believe everything is meaningless, then a human being alive matters no way or the other. In fact, it shouldn't *matter* to these people that anything happens at all - death of loved one, pet, house burning down...shouldn't matter.

One thing that's critically overlooked regarding self-improvement is that *the* moments of realization which urge you to change are rarely uplifting or positive.

In fact, those moments are bleak, a glimpse of your objective self - you can ignore or improve.

Ignoring is easier. Addendum:

The key problem is that people want to eat their cake and have it. That is to say, they want to remain the very-same person, whilst also changing themselves...this is literally impossible.

Impressions:

We digest food. We take in air. But we also digest impressions, that is, we take in what we sense. Be it seeing, hearing, taste or touch, we digest it and it becomes us as much as food or oxygen. We rarely keep check of the impressions we face everyday, considering them just nonchalant fluxing parts of being alive. Yet they are of us and become what we are.

Gurdjieffian tenets which newcomers struggle to accept:

1. Man is machine, free will requires immense effort

2. Our biggest indulgence is our negative emotions.

3. Often we conflate emotions and intellect, the majority of our decisions are based upon emotions, and not reason. 4. Knowledge is material, and thus a limited resource. Therefore articulation increasingly suffers in relation the amount of people taught; hardly anyone can be taught.

5. We are not one, but many. Throughout our day, we are literally multiple different personalities.

Politics for Machines:

In Russia in 1918, it was only in getting up in the morning, and going out into the street, where one could discover what politics had to be professed.

What it was that day, in that present, that need be mentally identified with to, as they say, 'get by' For machines politics is always this way. It is never a matter of reaction, digestion or evolution, but always association and identification. What is it, at that time, that need be agreed with to get by.

The Economization of Existence - a thread:

'Homo-criminalis' denotes the assimilation of an abstractly defined state of 'criminality' into the experiential reality of man; man can no longer be separate from the possibility of being-criminal. In a semantically exponential extension, 'homo-economicus' denotes the assimilation of numeric-culture and processed-quantification into the very reality of man; wherever man goes, he no longer cannot economize, each virtuality pertains to a potential loss or gain.

In the end, the true 'pessimistic realism' which survived at the of True Detective season 1, was that both Rust and Marty admit "I know who I am..." - In the Lovecraftian revelations they go through is found the acceptance of their heredity and cosmic insignificance. As the immanent evil momentarily beckons its head, only to be squashed by the duo's faux-Humanist-courage, both accept they can no longer accept any transcendent values; whether it's Marty and his family, or Rust and his hero complex, everything is destroyed.

Introduction to Occultism Reading List:

Entry:

Secret Teachings of All Ages - Hall
A Magical Education - Greer
Sane Occultism - Fortune
A History of Magic and Experimental Science - Thorndike
The Occult - Wilson Historically Important:

The Bible
The I Ching
The Picatrix
The Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage - Mathers
Tao Te Ching
The Hatha Yoga
The Upanishads
The Bhagavad-Gita
The Book of the Dead
The Voice of Silence - Blavatsky
The Golden Bough - Frazer
The Book of the Law - Crowley

Cinematic Masterpieces Thread:

- Binary metrics (1-10 etc) simply don't work for cinema, there's too many variables for such systems to make any sense, as such, these are all films I consider close to cinematic perfection within their own contexts - added to intermittently - 1. First Reformed (2018)

Thomas Merton based Christian mysticism reaches a deadlock with visions of the industrial hellscape; despair attempts to overcome hope via propagating materialist entropy as the *only* reality.

A Collapse/Post-Collapse Reading List

Can Life Prevail - Linkola

A People's History of Civilization
Time & Time Again
Against Civilization - Zerzan

Stars Reach
Dark Age America
Collapse Now and Avoid the Rush
The Long Descent
The Retro Future
Archdruid Report - Greer The Modern Utopian - Fairfield

Limits to Growth - Meadows

The Long Emergency
Too Much Magic - Kunstler

Survive the Economic Collapse - Giorgio

Shrinking the Technosphere
Everything is Going According to Plan
Reinventing Collapse - Orlov

You hit your early 20's and finish up that final prescribed course (Academy, State, Military, Medical etc.), the curtain disappears and you're left with living. Just being. But unless you're interested in some form of progression, modernity has little to offer you. If you don't want for a 'career', a state subsidized family, an existence of consumption, a hyper-altruistic life of charity, or mere continuation of modern loops, then you feel entirely bereft of substance.

Predictions for the Coming 10-20 Years:

Attention spans decrease to <4 seconds.

Education utilizes gamified curriculums as a means to stop unruly behaviour.

Social media reward systems fry brain receptors hyper-addicts, that can only function with max stimulus. Social media continues to condense. Infini-scrolling image/emoticon boards become prevalent.

Language condenses further into consumer-capital and brands become abstract descriptors - "That's very Apple".

This is related to early acceptance of 'brand behaviour'.

Treading Carefully:

As far as I can see the core problem of the U/Acc - R/Acc debate is unfortunately due to free floating definitions.

With this said, let's define: L/Acc is quite simply the easiest to define. Accelerating and re-purposing technological innovation as a means towards Communism. In this sense L/Acc is synonymous with FALC.