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The Grand Ritual Mass Custom Conspiracy Performance
From here on out, we are going to need you to mentally replace the word “ritual” with the word “performance” - simply because nobody understands what the hell a ritual is anymore, and that’s probably the closest word for it.
Think of it like this: a Catholic mass (or any mass I guess, but I was raised Catholic) is a weekly performance. It is a show put on by and for the neighborhood. It is a performance played out on a stage with an audience which tells a story. It is, in essence, an interactive musical.
Movieoke is a form of entertainment in which an amateur actor or actors perform along with a muted DVD in order to give voice to the character in the film. The film is projected onto a screen behind the actor and onto an alternate monitor which provides subtitles and action cues. Movieoke is a popular form of performative and interactive entertainment which began in a screening room/bar in New York City in early 2003, and has since spread to other parts of the world.
[Incidentally, I would love to see a stage performance of the November Rain video]
That of course did not originate in 2003. A more likely modern origin is with the Rocky Horror Picture Show’s massive cult following of audience participation:
In cinemas where the film plays on a regular or semi-regular basis, groups of fans have formed casts. These casts act out the movie on a stage or on the floor in front of the movie scene. While some casts are very laid back, others have become very strict. Many casts require auditions to join in which a prospective member must show that he or she can perform the movie from memory without looking at the screen. Among Rocky Horror casts there is a perpetual quest for “screen-accuracy”, meaning that everything from costumes to props to the motions that actors make on stage match the movie exactly. Costume designer Sue Blane’s original designs for the film are recreated by fans in great detail. Costumes range from the very simple to extremely elaborate. Fans can be very serious about their recreations and take great pride in entering costume contests at conventions and debating various techniques and materials used to build them.
All of this of course is a direct descendent of medieval mystery and morality plays, which themselves go back to Rome and to Greece and to the theatrical celebration of the pagan mysteries throughout Europe (not to mention the world) as well.
And let’s just look at social customs really quick too. How many times have you felt awkward upon meeting a new person simply because you weren’t formally introduced by your mutual friend? What about judging somebody according to a weird floppy handshake they give you?
What you are reacting to in these cases is a poor or inaccurate showing on the part of other people with regards to the expected ritual performances everyone is socially scripted to deliver. Like how you’re always supposed to say “Nice to meet you” to someone, even when it’s not actually nice to meet you. This is the whole point of “manners” by the way as well: it is a recognition of the importance of social theatre, the ritual dramatic performances and scripted parts we are all supposed to play every day.
Let’s also zoom this out to a macro level. What is culture? What is history? Culture is a story we tell ourselves and try to act out. History is the record of our pageants, of our successes and failures putting on performances from the story of culture using different actors on different stages again and again.
Conspiracy theorists are quite fond of trying to unravel the meta-narratives happening behind our culture, history and current events. The most successful of these rightly tease out ancient archetypal plotlines stretching back thousands of years. This is as it should be. All we really have as humans is our stories and our ability to act them out.
Think of it like this: you become super-rich one day. Not just rich but so rich that money becomes completely irrelevant. What do you do then? Do you give your money away? Do you marry the world’s most beautiful woman? Do you start a war to end all wars? Guess what: each of these is a play, a musical, a performance. A classic drama stretching back into man’s earliest memories. You don’t need to be super rich to experience any of this though. I only phrased it that way because in our culture being wealthy is generally equated with being liberated. And being liberated means you get to actively choose what musical performance you are going to put on, participate in, and force everyone else to participate in.
This is the ONLY thing happening in our culture and in our world and in our lives. We are ONLY writing and performing musicals all of the time. What kinds of music do you like? What kinds of characters do you like? What kinds of plotlines get your heart pumping? You don’t need to be rich to start thinking like this, but it certainly helps. Because then you have the money to make your play into a full-fledged production. You can hire costume designers, writers, the best actors, buy the best props, etc. It is all just a pageant. Everything. Especially everything you see in the media. In politics, etc. There is a good scene about this from Wag the Dog (which I’ve never actually seen the whole thing, but which seems fucking amazing):
The whole point is not that “conspiracies” exist - because, duh, of course people work together for objectives. That much is obvious. But the real point is that we have a bunch of different groups, each of which has their own pageant, their own musical which they want to get EVERYONE to perform. Then each of these groups uses their subsidiary media outlets to bleed that story out and they use their product manufacturing divisions to create props to help people act out that story. Then the media companies take shots at one another’s plotlines, actors, etc in an effort to undermine the production of their competing cultural musicals. Laws and governments are of course part of this apparatus as well to convince people they MUST participate in this or that musical. It enables them to polarize the populace so that everyone will take sides, and play one of several pre-written “extra” roles. What part did you play in the musical of the Iraq war? Strenuous dissenter? Troop supporter? Bush hater? You think they didn’t account for all those possibilities when they produced that musical?
The way to fight against somebody else’s shitty musical production is not to enter into it and take one of the roles they wrote for you. It is to write a whole new plotline and make it so exciting and fun and compelling that other people WANT to be in it. Musicals based on coercion mean you end up with a lot of people acting out parts they don’t like, don’t believe in and can’t emotionally connect with. It is one of the root problems in our culture.
And now that you know, it’s easy enough to solve. Write yourself a better part. Write your friends better parts. Put on a good show and let’s all enjoy that instead of the silly bullshit handed to us every day by people whose creative wells dried up long ago.
April 24th, 2007 at 12:10 pm
I’ve noticed myself how people become agitated when you go off the script, even slightly.
April 24th, 2007 at 12:16 pm
Your right that people are shunted into zones of behavior and brainwashed into limited perceptions constructed by others. Creativity is beaten out. Most options that are presented are more of a Divide and Conquer sort. Real alternative is never presented. Fake alternative is alway presented.
Here is my version of real alternative.
The following information should answer some questions for those interested in Technocracy ideas. Thank you friends for reading through our material. Please help to make the general public aware of these concepts.
The Scientific, Technological Design for the Economy of North America
Provides for:
* Complete economic security for every man, woman, and child from birth to death;
* Complete health care;
* Modern, energy-efficient housing for all;
* Education to the full extent of each individual’s ability;
* Viable mass transit;
* Employment for all who are able to work and care for those who cannot; and
* Careful stewardship of the Continent’s natural resources and environment.
Background
As early as the winter of 1918-19, it became obvious to a group of outstanding scientists, engineers, and economists that technology was displacing man-hours of labor, leading to increased unemployment and lack of purchasing power. The group included Howard Scott, chief engineer; Frederick Ackerman, architect; Carl L. Alsberg, chemist; Allen Carpenter, M.D.; Stuart Chase, C.P.A.; L.K. Comstock, electrical engineer; Alice Barrows Fernandez, educator; Bassett Jones, electrical engineer; Benton Mackaye, forester; Leland Olds, statistician; Charles P. Steinmetz, electrical engineer; Richard C. Tolman, physicist; John Carol Vaughn, M.D.; Thorstein Veblen, educator; Charles H. Whitaker, housing expert; and Sullivan W. Jones, secretary.
Calling themselves the Technical Alliance, they embarked upon a survey of the energy and physical resources of the North American Continent. After fourteen years of intensive study, they were able to determine that North America had the resources, both physical and energy, and the know-how, to produce an abundance for all of its citizens. What is lacked was a viable method to distribute the abundance. This inability to distribute abundance had led to a depression in 1921, the unwise introduction of installment buying in the 1920s. the stock market crash of 1929, and the Great Depression.
The Technical Alliance determined that it was the efforts to preserve the Price System, a system which had functioned, albeit imperfectly, during the centuries of scarcity, that had led to the denouement of the 30s. They saw that a system that had grown out of conditions of scarcity could not function adequately to distribute abundance.
Requirements to be met
A system which could distribute abundance and satisfy the conditions listed above would need these features:
1. It must register continuously the energy converted in the total day-to-day operation of the Continent, both plant construction and maintenance, as well as the energy converted in the production of goods and services for personal consumption by the population.
2. By registering the energy converted, it would be possible to maintain a continuous inventory and to balance production with consumption, eliminating both scarcity of any one commodity and unnecessary resource depletion due to overproduction of some other.
3. This inventory could provide information as to the type of goods and services produced, where and how much had been used in order to give replacement information, and could, if desired, identify the user.
4. It must distribute goods and services to every member of the population, giving each individual citizen the widest possible choice in consuming his share of the Continental physical wealth.
5. It must guarantee that each individual’s consuming power be his, or hers, alone, much as a Social Security number is assigned to each individual, and is not to be transferred to anyone else.
What would be the means of distribution?
On each of these counts, money fails to meet the requirement for distributing abundance.
1. It is not a measure of energy converted, or of production or consumption of goods and services.
2. It can be transferred from one person to another, a fact which could deprive some citizens of their share of abundance, besides making fraud and bribery possible.
3. It can be stashed away. In this connection it must be noted that any obstruction in a flow line, even at the consuming end, will eventually shut the line down; hence, money will not keep production moving evenly.
On all counts, money does not meet the requirements of a medium of distribution of abundance.
The mechanism that does meet the requirements is the energy degraded in the production of goods and services. This energy loss constitutes the physical cost of production and can be stated in units of work (ergs or kwh) or in units of heat (kg calories of Btus). We can therefore measure quite accurately the energy lost in any given industrial process, as well as the total physical cost of operating the Continent.
After subtracting the energy required to operate the Continent as a whole – new plant and maintenance thereof, roads, housing, hospitals, schools, local transport, continental transport, communications, education, child care, and maintenance of public institutions – the remainder would be shared equally by all adult citizens in the form of personal energy credits. In the U.S. alone, in 1992, more than 81 quadrillion Btus were consumed, with 62 quadrillion being used for overall operating, leaving 19 quadrillion to be consumed by the personal needs of the population. That should supply every North American with their favorite personal items, all else being supplied as a right of citizenship.
Keep in mind: to be consumed. Since there is a definite limit to the amount of goods and services one individual can consume, it is both reasonable and efficient to issue equal numbers of personal energy units to each adult, male and female alike. It is anticipated that the number will be greater than anyone can reasonably use before the units expire, at which time new units would be issued. These energy credits would be usable only by the person to whom they are issued; no one else could “cash” them. Since everyone would have their own plentiful supply, there would be no point in transferring credits to any other person – or stealing someone else’s!
How will society be organized in a “technate”?
First, realize that it will take time, to overcome the thought-patterns and habits that have been the norm in the Price System. The urge to acquire things in order to gain recognition could give way to a desire to excel in one’s chosen field of endeavor. Whole new complexes of energy-efficient housing interspersed with green areas and local cultural facilities must take the place of the millions of units of substandard housing and the decaying infrastructure which exist today. Taxes and monetary debt will be unknown. Crimes involving property – 95% of all crime – will no longer be a problem. Disparity between rich and poor will vanish and, with it, eventually, racism, sexism, classism, ageism – most of today’s troubles.
Can we do a global makeover? No. To bite off more than we can chew is a sure prescription for failure. When things are running smoothly in North America, then we can invite people from other countries to come and observe what can be adapted to their situation.
After the period of transition is over, the children born into the Technate will enjoy lifetime economic security and education to age 25, as a right of citizenship. During the ages 12 to 25 education period, they will choose the path best suited to their talents for their life’s work – a work life that will last probably 20 years of a mere 12 hours a week of work, with 78 days continuous vacation each year. At about age 45 then, they will retire at full compensation, free to travel, enjoy a hobby, study, whatever. This calculation of work is all that is needed to operate a Technate. Our current Price System keeps people busy doing pointless things. A class/caste system is thus maintained.
The actual operation of the Technate will continue as society operates today – those with the expertise in the various lines of industry and the professions will carry on all necessary functions. We will be well rid of political interference and the financial substructure, neither of which contributes one iota to the physical operation of the Continent. Those people who are currently engaged in politics or finance will either retire, or, if under 45, will find a line of work suited to them.
In order to operate a mechanism as complex as an entire Continent, the needed functions must be divided into manageable units. There will be industrial sequences (agriculture, manufacturing, mining, etc.) service sequences (education, medicine, etc.) and research sequences. Each sequence will have its own director chosen from among its most capable personnel by his or her peers. These sequence directors will together form an advisory body, similar to the U.S. President’s Cabinet, which will advise the Continental Director, chosen from among the sequence directors by his or her peers, on matters of policy. Through such a vertical alignment, each person will be heard, making possible the most completely efficient society ever devised.
Any desirable features of societal organization not specifically mentioned here, for lack of space, must be assumed to be included at the most optimum level. In fact, the increasing population, coupled with the flagrant depletion of resources which has occurred as a result of 20th century Price System excesses, makes it imperative that Technocracy’s Design, with its emphasis on balancing production with consumption in order to conserve natural resources, its insistence that only goods of optimum quality be manufactured for the same reason – in order to conserve natural resources, its equalizing of consuming power and opportunity in order to avoid the chaos which looms if we continue on our present course, be adopted as soon as possible.
April 24th, 2007 at 1:05 pm
Hey Skip,
Couldn’t there be a more positive spin on what he is saying too? I mean some people are really good puppet masters and some people really need to be handed a puppet.
April 24th, 2007 at 1:12 pm
Btw,
Protestant Churches don’t have a “Mass” Your analogy is a good one but it really only works for The Catholic Church with the exception of perhaps High Anglican.
Of course I guess Pentecostal Churches can be seen as being really ritualistic, but in a different way.
April 24th, 2007 at 3:06 pm
Don’t forget all the Orthodox Christian churches!
Protestants still have their rituals, but they are downplayed. Usually in protestant churches, the moment of conversion, either baptism or a public confession of faith have a seriously ‘heavy’ aspect, no matter how joyful they are.
The whole theology hinges on that moment, whether you go to heaven or hell, so all minds in radius are attuned to the goings on, and probably most (former) fundies have been to a big convert-a-thon or two.
April 24th, 2007 at 3:29 pm
Skip, I think the Technocracy musical is really kind of boring! We could make such a better musical out of it that really speaks more emotionally and truthfully about the human experience. The work has to be done on an individual level though, or else it will always be displacement. It must flow from alchemical changes within the individual human.
I do really like the “Everybody has enough” song because that’s a really beautiful scene and I think we should all practice it though. But really, all that is is the loaves and fishes miracle. Nothing new under the sun! Same old stories told and re-told by those vying for power!
Actually, I think *that* is the musical that I find so boring: this idea that different factions and philosophies need to strive and struggle against one another. Philosophies are a waste of time and don’t make for good musicals. Characters interacting as humans though - that’s good shit!
April 24th, 2007 at 3:30 pm
Yeah, that’s an interesting point: some people *are* really good writers, some are costume designers, some singers, some dancers - it takes all these different talents and philosophies to put on the WORLD’S BEST MUSICAL. Just picking one of them doesn’t cut the mustard!
April 24th, 2007 at 4:59 pm
bah, you dorks should all quit wasting so much time talking about how everyone is brainwashed and, instead, demonstrate for me even the tiniest bit of evidence that you, yourselves, are not entirely robot in even the smallest and simplest of ways.
April 24th, 2007 at 8:24 pm
But don’t wait around till you’re rich. Too many people just sit there, “rocking back and forth, wanting that money.” Write a script now - make an independent film/musical. Craft puppets out of socks. If the Higher ups in the biz (the gods) don’t see you doing shit with what you got, what’s going to make them want to bless you with great riches. They’ll just figure you’re a no-talent ass-clown who will probably just think up some other excuse not to make your musical once you’re rich. In other words stop dreaming and start living. Make your first musical now! Start making a name for yourself in the Universe.
Tim, you rock.
pmp, I love you.
April 24th, 2007 at 8:36 pm
Hey Pmp, are you a Pimp?
I heard that ain’t easy. (I know old joke)
I’ve been reprogramming my nervous system, I was inspired by Robert Anton Wilson.
Prometheus Rising. Check it out. I still might be a dork tho, dunno.
I kind hafta agree with you though conspiracy theories get dorky after awhile.
Seems like Tim never was really solidly in that category though. Definately not now.
April 24th, 2007 at 8:39 pm
Unfortunately, that seems to be a pretty popular script for a lot of people’s Life Musicals.
Speaking of winner/loser scripts and RAW/Leary this is semi-decent:
http://www.phinnweb.org/neuro/8-circuit/winnerloser.html
April 24th, 2007 at 8:46 pm
I hafta say though Skip, if I ever found myself in a techno socialist Utopia, I’d hafta run off and be a pirate. Healthcare? Free energy?
Brooke, you know its funny. I am happy now but I am trying to seem rich. I can spot rich people, I see ‘em around and kinda give ‘em a nod. I am trying to get my Mom to do that, pretend she’s rich. She’s a realtor.
You know where you find a lot of rich people? Outdoor stores. They like extreme sports. Rich people often travel around the world when young, chase their dreams then make money.
April 24th, 2007 at 9:00 pm
Sounds like Seattle, REI specifically - and I thoroughly hate it! Rich people have the absolute worst ideas about what being out in nature means - because they are letting their ideas drive instead of nature itself
April 24th, 2007 at 9:26 pm
Well, I see what you are saying about REI.
I mean people can buy all kinds of expensive crap there, and get out in the woods and not know what the hell they are doing.
But you can meet some cool people there. Like the people that work there. Other people though can have kind of a minimalist approach, not buy lots of crap, but really have some quality stuff, and know where all the cool places are to go.
So technically yeah, you can be totally broke and be this consumate outdoorsman, I go to this old growth forest in Michigan, out where you are old Growth forests are more common, out here its pretty rare.
You don’t need money to go there, but who do I see there? Rich people. They just have this mindset where they expect everything to be beautiful, and to have awesome experiences.
Out in the wilderness, when you meet people generally, they are people that don’t have a lot of self defeating beliefs. You can be out there and be broke. But people with a broke assed mindset often wouldn’t think to do it.
April 24th, 2007 at 9:28 pm
Sounds like you are fetishizing rich people. It’s not really “being rich” that does anything. It is the embrace of abundance and bounty as a way of life - which is the main element of Skip’s solo monologue above (which I didn’t read because he’s gone through this scene a number of times already) that I find compelling…
April 24th, 2007 at 9:41 pm
No actually, I am not fetishizing rich people but looking at it just like you just said.
April 24th, 2007 at 10:42 pm
robots………
could be. running on a dna turing strip.
if so we could all just relax and sit back and watch the show.
there are days when i think we are all just robots, but mighty unpredictable ones. especially the rumanian girl.
flashing blue eyes.
jeez.
April 24th, 2007 at 11:59 pm
I don’t think it hurts to study those who are already playing the role you want to play. They tend to share a pattern and you can read that pattern with enough observation, as you can with all characters - you can characterize them - otherwise they wouldn’t be characters. And if you want to be that kind of character, you need to know it inside out to be able to model yourself after it, at least the common elements that differentiate that type of character from another type of character.
Of course a good actor sees beneath the surface so he doesn’t just end up imitating superficial behaviors and playing nothing but a stereotype.
April 25th, 2007 at 12:24 am
Yeah, That’s kind of how I am looking at it.
Its not so much Rich people, its the energy signature of people who have basically gotten what they want out of life, or are going about getting what they want out of life.
Its just that most people, like probably over 95% would like to be rich. So the ones that end up rich tend to be the type of people that get what they want.
I mean people can say they don’t want to be rich, but then they buy lottery tickets.
But there are people with an attitude of abundance, that appreciate beauty, that have a highly developed sense of aesthetics, refined tastes, they got it together, thay have self confidence and pride. I am drawn to people like that. There are people like that that aren;t neccessarily rich, but they are aristocratic in the finest sense. Just like in India, not all the Brahmin are rich.
I have been seeking to cultivate those qualities. There are adventurers that are like this. They may not have wads of cash, but they travel the world, eat exotic foods, leanr about diverse cultures, maybe build stuff with their hands, like sailboats or somthing. They all tanned and in shape.
Lost of people like that end up well off even if it wasn’t totally the original goal.
April 25th, 2007 at 1:58 am
Very interesting, especially the bit about ‘You think they didn’t account for all those possibilities’.
If you’re aware all the time that you’re just acting a part, does that free up the actor inside to get on with other things? Is that liberating? Or does it make you a psychopath, where nothing you do really matters? Or a muppet? Or is that a choice we can make (muppets, obviously, being fairly cool in the grand scheme of things)? And I’ve mentioned before here that thinking of /everything/ as a story sounds dodgy to me… (I feel weird scary things happening to my point-of-view as it spirals off into space [, speedbird typed, feeling strangely freaked]) but then, I don’t think that’s what you’re getting at here.
Like the truth, musicals go through long phases where they’re never performed - but they never seem to go away… there’s a kind of pool of latent possibility that can be tapped into. Man, Jung would have a field day. D’ya think this is what that annoying Dan Brown book is actually about?
This goes way deep. There’s that kind of self-sustaining energy once the theatre is in motion. There’s no puppetry in theatre, or music, not when it’s right… it’s ‘tight’, it has something all its own. (But what is virtue, Socrates?) If you’re playing an instrument and your point-of-view slips and goes outside yourself looking in it all goes horribly wrong. Why do you play an instrument? - for the music, for the instrument, for yourself, for the audience… what are you representing?… representation is interesting. How is /representation/ different from /being/, that’s the question. To take arms against a sea of troubles and by opposing end… them? Denmark’s a prison. Alas poor Yorik I knew him Horatio. What do you read? Words… What is the matter?…
Money is like a share of the whole pie. I’m more a make-the-pie-bigger kind of guy.
April 25th, 2007 at 2:46 am
Yes, and I do literally think that book is a Freemasonic conspiracy.
April 25th, 2007 at 7:28 pm
For me your words shed new light on the way people behave when a camera is spontaneously introduced. Especially all them [adjective removed] kids nowadays maiming themselves for U2b.
I got to do some low budget acting recently, involving a lot of physical improvisation and stereotypes. It was truly a breath of fresh air. Home movies are great, too, as well as group storytelling, charades, and arpeegees.
Antero Alli, moviemaker and user of the 8-circuit model outlined by R.A.W. and Lear-dogg, does a kind of deeprogramming/reebirth hocus pocus called paratheatrics.
And if someone really thinks they can’t come up with their own self-activating story, the sacred mushroom will be more than happy to weave a tailor too.
April 25th, 2007 at 9:13 pm
Hey Skip. Here is a segment of Tim’s intervew with Daniel Pinchbeck that reminded me of your post:
“Tim: In your interview with the Daily Grail, you wrote: “I see the current biospheric crisis as a self-willed cataclysm designed to force human evolution to a higher level of consciousness.” Self-willed by who or what? The planet? Aliens? Humanity as a whole? Some secret group of elites?
“Pinchbeck:The cataclysm is self-willed by ourselves, by the collective psyche of humanity, by our unconscious desires. Nietzsche is helpful for understanding this – check out Geneology of Morals. He thought that comfort made humanity despicable, that suffering was necessary – even the discipline of great suffering – in order to intensify human consciousness. After World War Two, we could have created a post-work global leisure society, using industrial technology to reduce everyone’s work to a few hours a week, but instead we chose to create this present nightmare. The “irrational rationality” of this system is analyzed properly in Herbert Marcuse’s One-Dimensional Man. Now we have burned through our resources, ruined the climate, and turned a former green world into a pressure cooker bristling with nuclear warheads. Who is doing this? We are doing this – it is our shadow projections, our unconsciousness, that has caused this mess. Therefore, we will need to attain a deeper level of consciousness – integrating our shadow instead of projecting it – in order to resolve our problems.”
June 19th, 2007 at 1:18 am
[…] Anyway, your life really is just a musical you’re writing for yourself and acting out and making up as you go along, so you might as well make it interesting if nothing else. I’m taking a break from being God for awhile, though (publically), since I moved away from the Town In Which I Was God to a new town, and then to another, different new town where I am now. I figure, best to lay low for awhile, gain people’s trust here before I reveal that I’m stark raving mad. (Or God)… […]