Since I was quoting Cynthia Chung on your other thread, Caitlin, you probably know she reposted your article on US Officials Admit They're Literally Just Lying To The Public About Russia. Two of the smartest women in the room! Any room!
The mythology of the United States is breathtaking. It has always been and still is a bastion of colonization and parasitism, and it has exported its morally and spiritually bankrupt ideas through propaganda and force. I cannot even look at a flag anymore without shaking my head. I have never been less proud to be an American than I am today. But this just makes me want to be even more radically aware and vocal. I will not stop speaking the truth. Every voice matters, even if we feel like we are in the minority. I can say from experience that I have gradually opened people's minds. The truth is always the truth, and it is reaching people on some level whether they are conscious of it that moment or not.
Of course, what could be more desirable than enslaved population that thinks itself to be free because there are no visible chains. Great piece Caitlin, thanks.
We know that dumbing down process has been long in time and complexed in
its aspects yet it is hard to accept the smooth progression and the culmination
Yup, which is why most westerners aren't worth the time of day, in the US our prisons are full of the abused and cheated, yet they still are patriotic and love their country what we used to call a psychopath/empathy relationship they now call codependent. About the same relationship that we have with livestock, and our government with us.
“The mainstream population whose numbers could be used to effect revolutionary change are herded into political factions which are designed to prop up status quo power at every turn … and corresponding media echo chambers which keep them from providing any meaningful resistance to the machine. “
TL;DR in Muh Free And Democractic West, you can say and do whatever you want, with no consequences whatsoever, as long as you don't challenge the Empire's wars and censorship, and you don't question the way the economic pie is sliced.
Right, Lady Gaga makes them gaga, fucks with their brains. The freedom: it's fantastic: she even eschews the toilet in preference for peeing on the floor. You can't get more unconventional than that. The Chinese stay up nights thinking of ways to combat her influence. And she even has the balls to call herself "Lady."
While $180,000/year is a lot of money when compared to the $30,000 salary i was making back in 1974 (and that was "good money", I bought a house with it), it is hardly "massive".
Still, that the CIA was paying it.... Hmmm....
I'm not disputing Caitlan's point about the Dali Lama. I've often thought he was a fraud equivalent to Jerry Falwell or Jim Baker. But then, I gotta admit my version of God doesn't require me to do anything I don't want to do -- except "don't be evil". That seems to have worked out well for a certain company.
$180,000 in 1958 was worth $1,845,535 today. If I was getting paid that much per year by the CIA, there's not one person on earth who wouldn't call me a CIA asset, and not one who wouldn't say I'm getting a massive paycheck.
His elder brother, Gyalo Thondup, PM of Tibet, is on the CIA payroll too. Penthouse in Hong Kong, we don't get that on chump change. His entire admin, just like Ukraine's, was bought out by the USA and is now a wholly owned subsidiary of Murder, Lies & Theft (USA), Inc.; formerly a British LTD.
Great point re $. The US dollar is unusable as a store of value over the long-term and comparing wages over time is meaningless. What counts is what you can buy with it, how long you had to work to get it and (even more importantly IMHO) what the money could not buy...the leisure time, the quality life-style available in a society in which there was more trust between strangers and less ambient tension and ill-will.
Aaaah, the Dalai Lama. The onetime god-king and serf-owner fled Lhasa on the advice of the oracle of Dorje Shugden (tutelary deity of Tibet), suitably invoked by a monk in a trance. Rumour has it the CIA bribed a senior monk to arrange the appropriate message/interpretation. It is too good not to be true.
Good point. It is worth noting that Heinrich Himmler reportedly considered the Tibetan class system very highly. There is nothing like a combination of exotic culture, otherworldly spiritual palaver and slave-labour.
Good point...we are all re-writing history and I am not an expert on CIA activities in the Himalayas. I am relying on my memory of something that I read. The anecdote left an impression at the time - I used to tease friends by comparing it to the forecasting and modelling done by economists.
The ceremony for the possession of the oracle is available at
Particularly religious fanatics, very good at bad fiction. It was his brother, who was a monk in that very loose way. Sorry to burst your bubble, well actually not sorry. Living in reality would make you less of a threat to the rest of the world.
shall we revisit your claim? "Rumor has it? We are always rewriting history." The rumor is no rumor even by the CIA owned NED's favorite organ. Not related to David Irving, are you?
He sold himself and his entire admin, just like Zelenkskyi. It adds up, and all the free stuff is worth far more than the money. Just imagine: "Hey, CIA there's this monk who's poking holes in my brother's preaching, and it' be better if I didn't have to solve this problem in house." I've met his brother, greedy grasping asp, while living in Hong Kong, but more importantly I met his handlers there, and boy oh boy did they like to bitch and moan over drinks at the bar of the American Club in Central. A real piece of shite, if the alcohol was doing it's usual truth with icing on top function.
I have listened to him and he is a fraud, at least insofar as he is a dogshit spiritual teacher. It's all superficial kindergarten-level spirituality that is utterly useless for awakening.
Awakening has other meanings. But first, so sorry you awaken to anxious insomnia! I love the transition from asleep to awake! I could write of so many wonderful sensations.
Neo woke up from the matrix. In politics people wake up to the corruption of money and power. Spiritually, one wakes up to the illusion of being a separate human physical being. One becomes aware of the Ocean of Consciousness in which all reside. Once more, I could write volumes.
One can be born awake. One can awaken without ever hearing spiritual teaching. Intellectualism or complexity has nothing to do with it. "Be kind," is one of the most powerful of spiritual teachings.
Without looking up definitions, for me, it means of the spirit, of Consciousness. Everything is waves of energy in constant motion vibrating at different frequencies. The world of five senses is a lower vibration in the ocean of Consciousness. We are energy... a particle in a wave or field connected to all that is.
If you don't wish to use a well respected definition, you could have called it groggilyfligleflop for all the good it would do in communicating. I do understand your difficulty though, as getting a well respected definition of the sound "spirituality" is nei on impossible. I suggest instead of using an arbitrary definition, you use the paragraph you wrote. You'll get nailed frequently over the definition of consciousness, much less what an ocean of it is, but it is a slight improvement.
Duh, his brother brought them and held them for him. Like most religious frauds and royalty, it's a family business. Philip is spot on. Shish, the ignorance, it burns.
You have called me ignorant a couple of times now and judge me to be a negative force in the world. Certainly I am ignorant about so many things. I do my best to speak and write truth as I see it.
Royalty never carry cash...they always leave it to someone else to pay. Money is irrelevant for anyone at the top of the heap. Only second rate gurus grub for cash.
Would have loved to have seen Caitlin support freedom of thought, freedom of speech and individualism for all those fighting the totalitarian covid plandemic.
she's constantly writing about government/ media propaganda...which is true...yet she never ever mentions the covid fearmongering propaganda...I am just asking her why...simple question
That the most marketable persona practical for a young woman in the entertainment industry is one of mental disturbance and angry, ugly, weirdness says an awful lot. Freak-shows were once marginal in American life, now they are central to the countries understanding of itself. Part of me feels desperately sorry for Gaga. Trading your dignity for celebrity is a vile bargain and her career expresses a lot about the rottenness in our corporate-industrial culture. She performs the role of skank, thereby affirming the lifestyle 'choices' available to her fans. The aesthetics of her performance reveal that dignity and self-respect are now increasingly rationed and for too many simply unavailable.
For a useful contrast to Gaga, see the lovely and dignified Polina Gagarina performing a famous and uplifting Russian pop-song to a Chinese audience.
Flamboyant wierd gender bending charismatic performance has been an important part of popular entertainment for centuries. In and out of mainstream according to fashions and politics, but always appealing. There's nothing remarkable about LG other than her enduring sales numbers.
What's amazing about this Ben Macintyre is that he thinks this kind of mass market commercial product has ANYTHING to go with individualism. 50,000 people paid how much (?) to worship together at her alter and that's individuality? I don't get it.
Good point about flamboyance etc but there is nothing in Lady Gaga's persona to fortify or justify the weirdness and I do not find her in the least bit charismatic. Eccentric or transgressive behaviour in a performer has a complicated but obvious relationship to the wider culture. It can challenge convention or inspire people to question things. It may offer a life-affirming alternative to restrictive conventions.
Lady Gaga, however, does nothing of the sort and never has. She does not push back against the dominant cultural ethos, she fortifies it. The wider culture today is obsessed with demanding affirmation for what, for want of a better description, might be called performative deviance. Invocations of self-celebration are sinister when undertaken in a society in which all people are routinely exploited by consumerism and in which sexuality is just a hook for developing a state/corporate approved 'personal brand'. The transgressive posture is not just an act, it is fraudulent and malevolent. If Lady Gaga wanted to shock she could always call for the release of Julian Assange or call attention to the plight of the January 6 prisoners....she could even push the envelope and demand better pay and conditions for fast-food workers. Gaga's role is to provide impetus for the destabilised state of emotional release that young American are taught to confuse with freedom and to rake in cash while doing so.
Sorry for getting carried away, but I am not giving an inch of credit or respect to Gaga or what she represents.
I agree with a lot of what you say more or less. For example what you say about LG's role is sorta trueish. Her role is undeniably to make money for investors. She may also have the effect you mention but her role is much more banal. Just like her hackneyed song and dance entertainment.
You want Lady Gaga to be an earnest liberal? Maybe she is in her private life, but that's not going to sell many tickets. But her audience _is_ free; they're free to imitate one another to the extent possible, and apparently this leads to the ecstatic release you mention. Thank God they're not pushing war and fascism the way their elders do. As Mr. Carlin famously said, "This is the best we can do."
I do not care what Lady Gaga's politics are. It is her conformism, predictabilty and earnestness that disgust me. Mass marketed transgression is bad art and downright creepy. It is also boring. Gaga is simply cashing in on the tail end of an exhausted aesthetic trend. As for war and fascism...I have no doubt that Gaga would be gagging for any war that pretended to promote whatever is approved by the wider culture.
There's a certain contradiction there between transgression and conformity. It's almost ironic enough to be interesting. However, your passionate engagement with the subject mystifies me. If you don't like it, why don't you stay away from it? The way I stay away from _Times_ articles.
The transgression/conformity contrast is pretty banal...the transgressive aspect is being transmuted...what was once controversial is becoming normalised. Lady Gaga is simply exploiting the lag in time between the two conditions, taking advantage of the rapidly diminishing shock value while it lasts, and she is doing this with the assistance of socially and culturally powerful institutions that form the corporate entertainment industry.
I do stay away from it, believe me. I am not a fan of Lady Gaga and never have been. As for passion...that is just me.
Evidently, that's what they like. It's precisely the opposite of individuality, which they don't happen to like. I'm tempted to attribute their feelings to the pressures of capitalism, but I've noticed many other cultures enjoy mass gatherings for quasi-religious choral behaviors. It's probably something that goes back to the our monkey ancestors and may serve some important survival purpose.
Mass gatherings provide the opportunity for developing collective affect or emotion. Once generated, this is a powerful force and is essentially impervious to rationality, which can make it very dangerous.
From the perspective of evolution, collective emotion would have heled cement bonds, cohesion, trust...even when directed against rival groups or internal scapegoats. Definitely important for survival.
I think there is a continuum in every society between conformity and non. Even nonconformists typically want love and respect or at least to not be judged. I think being your authentic self is more important than doing what you want. Since freedom in one sense is a state of mind one can be free anywhere.
We have freedom of movement in the US if we have money - the means to travel. Since, for example, the currency in Nepal is only good in Nepal, most Nepalese cannot travel.
I imagine there are free and critical thinkers in every society. The majority are focused on day to day living and struggles.
I remember hearing about the Iron curtain as a child in the 60s. I imagined a super tall iron curtain, light on our side and dark and terrible on the other. It was a scary image.
"... the means to travel. Since, for example, the currency in Nepal is only good in Nepal, most Nepalese cannot travel... "
The ignorance, it burns. I have exchanged (purchase and sold) Nepalese physical money in Singapore, Hong Kong, etc. It's even easier to do an electronic transfer. The reason most Nepalese don't travel is they are poor, kept poor and needful by India's ruling elite who together with CIA own Nepal's elite, and who want to control Nepal as a buffer state and useful tool.
Since I was quoting Cynthia Chung on your other thread, Caitlin, you probably know she reposted your article on US Officials Admit They're Literally Just Lying To The Public About Russia. Two of the smartest women in the room! Any room!
The mythology of the United States is breathtaking. It has always been and still is a bastion of colonization and parasitism, and it has exported its morally and spiritually bankrupt ideas through propaganda and force. I cannot even look at a flag anymore without shaking my head. I have never been less proud to be an American than I am today. But this just makes me want to be even more radically aware and vocal. I will not stop speaking the truth. Every voice matters, even if we feel like we are in the minority. I can say from experience that I have gradually opened people's minds. The truth is always the truth, and it is reaching people on some level whether they are conscious of it that moment or not.
Of course, what could be more desirable than enslaved population that thinks itself to be free because there are no visible chains. Great piece Caitlin, thanks.
We know that dumbing down process has been long in time and complexed in
its aspects yet it is hard to accept the smooth progression and the culmination
of it to such degree of absurdity.
Yup, which is why most westerners aren't worth the time of day, in the US our prisons are full of the abused and cheated, yet they still are patriotic and love their country what we used to call a psychopath/empathy relationship they now call codependent. About the same relationship that we have with livestock, and our government with us.
“The mainstream population whose numbers could be used to effect revolutionary change are herded into political factions which are designed to prop up status quo power at every turn … and corresponding media echo chambers which keep them from providing any meaningful resistance to the machine. “
Which is why we are grateful to have YOU here.
TL;DR in Muh Free And Democractic West, you can say and do whatever you want, with no consequences whatsoever, as long as you don't challenge the Empire's wars and censorship, and you don't question the way the economic pie is sliced.
and they will even help you, give you a platform, if you promote or serve their world order.
100% right!..... good old G. Carlin was, is , and will be forever RIGHT about America!.....my first and biggest shock .... still to this day!
Right, Lady Gaga makes them gaga, fucks with their brains. The freedom: it's fantastic: she even eschews the toilet in preference for peeing on the floor. You can't get more unconventional than that. The Chinese stay up nights thinking of ways to combat her influence. And she even has the balls to call herself "Lady."
That's right, sarky lol
While $180,000/year is a lot of money when compared to the $30,000 salary i was making back in 1974 (and that was "good money", I bought a house with it), it is hardly "massive".
Still, that the CIA was paying it.... Hmmm....
I'm not disputing Caitlan's point about the Dali Lama. I've often thought he was a fraud equivalent to Jerry Falwell or Jim Baker. But then, I gotta admit my version of God doesn't require me to do anything I don't want to do -- except "don't be evil". That seems to have worked out well for a certain company.
$180,000 in 1958 was worth $1,845,535 today. If I was getting paid that much per year by the CIA, there's not one person on earth who wouldn't call me a CIA asset, and not one who wouldn't say I'm getting a massive paycheck.
His elder brother, Gyalo Thondup, PM of Tibet, is on the CIA payroll too. Penthouse in Hong Kong, we don't get that on chump change. His entire admin, just like Ukraine's, was bought out by the USA and is now a wholly owned subsidiary of Murder, Lies & Theft (USA), Inc.; formerly a British LTD.
We often apply current attitudes and assume motives of people and judge events of the past... another world, another culture over 60 years ago.
We includes you, right?
Of course!
and you apply that judgement to when to ignore facts?
Of course not.
Great point re $. The US dollar is unusable as a store of value over the long-term and comparing wages over time is meaningless. What counts is what you can buy with it, how long you had to work to get it and (even more importantly IMHO) what the money could not buy...the leisure time, the quality life-style available in a society in which there was more trust between strangers and less ambient tension and ill-will.
Aaaah, the Dalai Lama. The onetime god-king and serf-owner fled Lhasa on the advice of the oracle of Dorje Shugden (tutelary deity of Tibet), suitably invoked by a monk in a trance. Rumour has it the CIA bribed a senior monk to arrange the appropriate message/interpretation. It is too good not to be true.
Serf implies they belonged to the land and could not be killed on a whim, slave is the word you seek.
Good point. It is worth noting that Heinrich Himmler reportedly considered the Tibetan class system very highly. There is nothing like a combination of exotic culture, otherworldly spiritual palaver and slave-labour.
Rumor has it? We are always rewriting history.
Good point...we are all re-writing history and I am not an expert on CIA activities in the Himalayas. I am relying on my memory of something that I read. The anecdote left an impression at the time - I used to tease friends by comparing it to the forecasting and modelling done by economists.
The ceremony for the possession of the oracle is available at
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uu17CKW0lMQ
Particularly religious fanatics, very good at bad fiction. It was his brother, who was a monk in that very loose way. Sorry to burst your bubble, well actually not sorry. Living in reality would make you less of a threat to the rest of the world.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CIA_Tibetan_program
It does not change the fact that unlike almost all deposed leaders, the Dalai Lama did not use the money to create a lavish lifestyle for himself.
Are you living with him?
So the CIA had their motives and some Tibetans had their own motives. How does that burst my bubble?
shall we revisit your claim? "Rumor has it? We are always rewriting history." The rumor is no rumor even by the CIA owned NED's favorite organ. Not related to David Irving, are you?
late 50s through 1974, 180K a year. Pretty massive considering those dollars.
BS.
a 1960 dollar is worth $100 in 2020 dollars.
$18,000,000/year still isn't close to massive.
Just shows me how cheap the Dali Lama sells himself for.
He sold himself and his entire admin, just like Zelenkskyi. It adds up, and all the free stuff is worth far more than the money. Just imagine: "Hey, CIA there's this monk who's poking holes in my brother's preaching, and it' be better if I didn't have to solve this problem in house." I've met his brother, greedy grasping asp, while living in Hong Kong, but more importantly I met his handlers there, and boy oh boy did they like to bitch and moan over drinks at the bar of the American Club in Central. A real piece of shite, if the alcohol was doing it's usual truth with icing on top function.
Where is he based and what could he use there? Ferrari? Sikorski? Beach mansion?
Whatever he needed the sum bought him, just like you mentioned. Otherwise he'd just refuse it.
Right and the Dalai Lama bought himself mansions and cars and jets... NOT!
If you have ever listened to him you would know he is not a fraud. So quick to judge.
I have listened to him and he is a fraud, at least insofar as he is a dogshit spiritual teacher. It's all superficial kindergarten-level spirituality that is utterly useless for awakening.
Awakening, as I know it, is the transition from restful sleep to anxious insomnia. Which spiritual teacher is useful for that?
That Daily Lama guy, winning smile, very diplomatic, like a TED Talk with a bit of flair. He knows his audience.
Awakening has other meanings. But first, so sorry you awaken to anxious insomnia! I love the transition from asleep to awake! I could write of so many wonderful sensations.
Neo woke up from the matrix. In politics people wake up to the corruption of money and power. Spiritually, one wakes up to the illusion of being a separate human physical being. One becomes aware of the Ocean of Consciousness in which all reside. Once more, I could write volumes.
One can be born awake. One can awaken without ever hearing spiritual teaching. Intellectualism or complexity has nothing to do with it. "Be kind," is one of the most powerful of spiritual teachings.
define "spiritual".
Without looking up definitions, for me, it means of the spirit, of Consciousness. Everything is waves of energy in constant motion vibrating at different frequencies. The world of five senses is a lower vibration in the ocean of Consciousness. We are energy... a particle in a wave or field connected to all that is.
My voltmeter's hand just got to spinning uncontrollably. Can't even figure out direction.
If you don't wish to use a well respected definition, you could have called it groggilyfligleflop for all the good it would do in communicating. I do understand your difficulty though, as getting a well respected definition of the sound "spirituality" is nei on impossible. I suggest instead of using an arbitrary definition, you use the paragraph you wrote. You'll get nailed frequently over the definition of consciousness, much less what an ocean of it is, but it is a slight improvement.
Duh, his brother brought them and held them for him. Like most religious frauds and royalty, it's a family business. Philip is spot on. Shish, the ignorance, it burns.
You have called me ignorant a couple of times now and judge me to be a negative force in the world. Certainly I am ignorant about so many things. I do my best to speak and write truth as I see it.
Start with facts, and as to feelings, they are a truth, but only to yourself so that's a great place to keep them.
"he is not a fraud". Yep, just needed some rice to survive.
On $180,000/month, of course he didn't buy mansions and cars and jets.
he sold out too cheaply.
I listened to Barak Obama once....
Royalty never carry cash...they always leave it to someone else to pay. Money is irrelevant for anyone at the top of the heap. Only second rate gurus grub for cash.
One of the more prescient and insightful comments ever written here.
He created a place and government for Tibetan exiles. Be kind.
Sounds just like the NED.
Hey, if you want to believe in the Dali Lama, don't let me stop you.
Kind of like what the CIA did in Argentina? Boys from Brazil, anyone?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDuHXTG3uyY Tomorrow Belongs To Me... and people like Carol are doing their best to make sure it comes true eventually through ignorance.
Individualism is the theology of consumer capitalism.
Would have loved to have seen Caitlin support freedom of thought, freedom of speech and individualism for all those fighting the totalitarian covid plandemic.
But she didn't....
Wonder why?
It's your fight, go fight it. Lazy.
its your fight? go fight it? lazy?...that sounds like something Joe Biden would say...come on man
Admitting she's a hypocrite?
Lazy "argument". Coward.
Two Haiku just for you.
so short, the answer,
few sparks the brain
Dead is Locke
Dead is Locke's conscience.
there ya go again mimicking Joe Biden...come on man
We can't agree on everything. Caitlin is peerless in her opposition to imperialism and war.
HEAR HEAR...I've been calling her out about this for months... no reply...I think she got scammed just like the millions of other propagandized covidiot sheep...and also got the clot shot....shes constantly writing about their propaganda but never mentions the obvious scam regarding the "covid" and the clot shots...I think she fell for it and also got the clot shot now shes in denial...thats just my guess...if you claim to be a journalist you cant ignore this...https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/covid-vaccine-injuries-vaers-boosters-omicron/?utm_source=salsa&eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=07ea062a-85ab-42bd-bf24-9357236f220a
We all have different opinions. Maybe she saw it differently.
then why doesnt she explain her opinion...I'm waiting
You're not her keeper. She's not obliged to explain anything to you or to anyone else!
she's constantly writing about government/ media propaganda...which is true...yet she never ever mentions the covid fearmongering propaganda...I am just asking her why...simple question
That the most marketable persona practical for a young woman in the entertainment industry is one of mental disturbance and angry, ugly, weirdness says an awful lot. Freak-shows were once marginal in American life, now they are central to the countries understanding of itself. Part of me feels desperately sorry for Gaga. Trading your dignity for celebrity is a vile bargain and her career expresses a lot about the rottenness in our corporate-industrial culture. She performs the role of skank, thereby affirming the lifestyle 'choices' available to her fans. The aesthetics of her performance reveal that dignity and self-respect are now increasingly rationed and for too many simply unavailable.
For a useful contrast to Gaga, see the lovely and dignified Polina Gagarina performing a famous and uplifting Russian pop-song to a Chinese audience.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1Co32bmmRw
Flamboyant wierd gender bending charismatic performance has been an important part of popular entertainment for centuries. In and out of mainstream according to fashions and politics, but always appealing. There's nothing remarkable about LG other than her enduring sales numbers.
What's amazing about this Ben Macintyre is that he thinks this kind of mass market commercial product has ANYTHING to go with individualism. 50,000 people paid how much (?) to worship together at her alter and that's individuality? I don't get it.
Good point about flamboyance etc but there is nothing in Lady Gaga's persona to fortify or justify the weirdness and I do not find her in the least bit charismatic. Eccentric or transgressive behaviour in a performer has a complicated but obvious relationship to the wider culture. It can challenge convention or inspire people to question things. It may offer a life-affirming alternative to restrictive conventions.
Lady Gaga, however, does nothing of the sort and never has. She does not push back against the dominant cultural ethos, she fortifies it. The wider culture today is obsessed with demanding affirmation for what, for want of a better description, might be called performative deviance. Invocations of self-celebration are sinister when undertaken in a society in which all people are routinely exploited by consumerism and in which sexuality is just a hook for developing a state/corporate approved 'personal brand'. The transgressive posture is not just an act, it is fraudulent and malevolent. If Lady Gaga wanted to shock she could always call for the release of Julian Assange or call attention to the plight of the January 6 prisoners....she could even push the envelope and demand better pay and conditions for fast-food workers. Gaga's role is to provide impetus for the destabilised state of emotional release that young American are taught to confuse with freedom and to rake in cash while doing so.
Sorry for getting carried away, but I am not giving an inch of credit or respect to Gaga or what she represents.
A little bit of self-celebration can be a good thing when you have done something, large or small, that you're proud of.
Too much is attempted self-justification of things you don't like about yourself.
I agree with a lot of what you say more or less. For example what you say about LG's role is sorta trueish. Her role is undeniably to make money for investors. She may also have the effect you mention but her role is much more banal. Just like her hackneyed song and dance entertainment.
You want Lady Gaga to be an earnest liberal? Maybe she is in her private life, but that's not going to sell many tickets. But her audience _is_ free; they're free to imitate one another to the extent possible, and apparently this leads to the ecstatic release you mention. Thank God they're not pushing war and fascism the way their elders do. As Mr. Carlin famously said, "This is the best we can do."
I do not care what Lady Gaga's politics are. It is her conformism, predictabilty and earnestness that disgust me. Mass marketed transgression is bad art and downright creepy. It is also boring. Gaga is simply cashing in on the tail end of an exhausted aesthetic trend. As for war and fascism...I have no doubt that Gaga would be gagging for any war that pretended to promote whatever is approved by the wider culture.
There's a certain contradiction there between transgression and conformity. It's almost ironic enough to be interesting. However, your passionate engagement with the subject mystifies me. If you don't like it, why don't you stay away from it? The way I stay away from _Times_ articles.
The transgression/conformity contrast is pretty banal...the transgressive aspect is being transmuted...what was once controversial is becoming normalised. Lady Gaga is simply exploiting the lag in time between the two conditions, taking advantage of the rapidly diminishing shock value while it lasts, and she is doing this with the assistance of socially and culturally powerful institutions that form the corporate entertainment industry.
I do stay away from it, believe me. I am not a fan of Lady Gaga and never have been. As for passion...that is just me.
"I want to be an individual just like everyone else!"
So much better to be a cat.
miaow!
Mrowp?
FFS, don't use that foul language here! (joke)
Evidently, that's what they like. It's precisely the opposite of individuality, which they don't happen to like. I'm tempted to attribute their feelings to the pressures of capitalism, but I've noticed many other cultures enjoy mass gatherings for quasi-religious choral behaviors. It's probably something that goes back to the our monkey ancestors and may serve some important survival purpose.
Mass gatherings provide the opportunity for developing collective affect or emotion. Once generated, this is a powerful force and is essentially impervious to rationality, which can make it very dangerous.
From the perspective of evolution, collective emotion would have heled cement bonds, cohesion, trust...even when directed against rival groups or internal scapegoats. Definitely important for survival.
Think different!
The difference between their dictatorships and our dictatorships: we commoners are prevented from seeing just who is doing the dictating...
If Lady Gaga was Julian Assange, China would lock her up without trial. Hang on a minute...
I think there is a continuum in every society between conformity and non. Even nonconformists typically want love and respect or at least to not be judged. I think being your authentic self is more important than doing what you want. Since freedom in one sense is a state of mind one can be free anywhere.
We have freedom of movement in the US if we have money - the means to travel. Since, for example, the currency in Nepal is only good in Nepal, most Nepalese cannot travel.
I imagine there are free and critical thinkers in every society. The majority are focused on day to day living and struggles.
I remember hearing about the Iron curtain as a child in the 60s. I imagined a super tall iron curtain, light on our side and dark and terrible on the other. It was a scary image.
What happened to love your enemies?
"... the means to travel. Since, for example, the currency in Nepal is only good in Nepal, most Nepalese cannot travel... "
The ignorance, it burns. I have exchanged (purchase and sold) Nepalese physical money in Singapore, Hong Kong, etc. It's even easier to do an electronic transfer. The reason most Nepalese don't travel is they are poor, kept poor and needful by India's ruling elite who together with CIA own Nepal's elite, and who want to control Nepal as a buffer state and useful tool.
Interesting that you do not mention the elephant in the room to the north... a lot of Chinese propaganda in these comments.
The elephant is in your mind, just like the Dalai Lama's family wasn't the largest slave holders in Tibet.
It is not a traded currency on the exchanges from what I understand. When I was there I was told it was worthless outside the country.
I see, you believe what you are told when it agrees with your point of view.
Be kind.
Yeah, I'm on a rage, but religious fanatics burned most of my father's family alive, and that was in the USA.
So sorry. Who burned your father's family?
I have studied world religions and am not an adherent to any or to any guru. I believe in judging specific actions, not people.