![[tmbchr]™](/journal/popocculture-blog-logo.jpg){kind=logo}
Theatre of Operations
I’m currently running set changes from stage right for Cole Porter’s “Can-Can”, an annoying pastiche of every French cliche (as seen by Americans) in the book set to music. The show is not exactly my cup of tea, but I enjoy being part of the run crew. I’m wired via headset to the stage manager, lighting designer and the stage left lead and we all coordinate together around cues embedded in the action, lighting, dialogue and music. It’s a challenge and a good one as I’m required to pay attention to multiple streams of information coming at me: the show itself, idle chatter over the headset to pass the time, along with cues and vital operating information delivered from others, and then having to communicate with actors who are entering and exiting on my side of the stage.
Wearing the headset provides, for me, a certain sense of security - because I know that the rest of my run crew is experienced and on top of their game. Reminds of me a few different things which I want to weave together into some kind of meaningful tapestry. One is this sci-fi story by the guy who started HowStuffWorks - I believe his name is Marshall Brain. It’s about a near-futuristic computer system called Manna, which corporations use to give minute-to-minute directions to employees at low-level labor jobs, like fast food, etc. I never did complete the whole story (though I would if I had it in book form), but part of the point of it seems to be that people using the Manna headset system are able to sort of switch off their brains and just follow the instructions of the voice…
I’ve also never read it, but the short story that the movie Idiocracy is based on, I’m guessing references something sort of similar. They have vestiges of it in the “Omnibro” system, to which they’ve turned over authority in the movie - resulting in everybody being dumbed down excessively and society spiralling hilariously out of control.
But working with real people via headset who are good friends and who know what they’re doing, well, it sets those cautionary fables into a whole new context. Makes me think also of those damn BlueTooth earpieces you see people wearing even when they’re not on the phone. What if they were getting messages, instructions from an operator somewhere else about how to get through their day? What if they were working as part of some special team to make something happen?
Working tightly with a technical team has also been calling to mind police work and the military. At work one day, I realized what exactly boot camp is for: its purpose is to breakdown and re-imprint stimulus-response patterns into an individual’s neurological system so that they will act and react predictably as part of a group. It provides a common bedrock language of situational awareness and reaction upon which a solid command structure can reliably coordinate large scale action.
John Taylor Gatto, I recall, somewhere wrote about the roots of modern education cutting a path through Hessian or Prussian (can’t remember offhand) mercenaries, or perhaps regulars, who had highly regulated educational systems to produce exactly that: a predictable individual who could be plugged into a system to keep it functioning, and who as casualties could be easily replaced. And from that somehow, he brings it all back to modern society and its patternings of industrial education to create the perfect predictable worker-consumer.
My favorite thing about the work we’re doing at the theatre is how transitory it is. One show per week. Saturday night, we strike the set, disassemble what we just built, and load in the next one. We recycle any large set pieces we can use, giving them a new face and appending structures onto it as needed. We cannibalize whatever lumber we can use and are continually moving forward, continually letting go of the past. Or at least I am. Destroying and reconfiguring what I just built, what I just labored over somehow suits me.
Been thinking about my time spent previous to this in Baltimore and other environs. I’ve climbed a notch, it seems. From hanging out with circus freaks, fools, clowns, dogs (literally), tramps, hobos, garbage-eaters and the like to people who sing opera or play violin in conservatories, who put on extravagant (if small-scale) shows for the bored tired wealthy. The modes of expression between the two castes of artists and performers differ greatly and I’m still unravelling where one ends and the other begins. But I know when I get out of this place, I’ll have a whole new set of tricks under my belt, which I’ll be able to apply to whatever comes my way next.
- The religion of art
- Consumerist Theatre
- Spiritus - Psychic Theatre
- [Event] Gina Manziello in “Soul’d Out”
- Shaun of the Dead
- Prev: Viktor Frankl Quotes
- Next: Internet Radicalization
July 25th, 2008 at 10:06 am
This headset train of thought reminds me of these commercials I have been seeing of “Onstar” and also this navigation software you put in your car to give directions, plus thee is the “child locator” thing, I saw on a battery commercial.
Its really interesting how these are presented. They emphasize human vulnerability and present the computer as being vastly more efficient. In one commercial they have this “alpha male” type blowhard guy giving directions to a female co-worker and the computer keeps beating the guy to the punch giving the same directions faster.
I guess the point is that human intelligence is rendered superfulous. But really reliance on these computers just makes people stupider. The blow hard guy is actually not a blow hard he’s just relying on his human brain.
About the military, Most people are asleep, so this imprinting stuff works well on most people. But if you are even half awake it has the opposite effect it acts like avaccine against manipulation.
Even these commercials I am talking about reach most people in a sleep like state of boob tube day dreaming.
The “deity” behind it is ahriman I am really convinced of that. Pulling people down into materiality and making them more and more incorporated into machine intelligence.
I am ambivalent about some things like the internet but I will never wear a blue tooth or an ipod. I hate my cell phone too but don’t use it much.
The thing is though a lot of these technologies are immitating latent psychic abilities people already have that are lying dormant.
July 25th, 2008 at 10:09 am
Like for example after a while working with your theater company you would no doubt develop a level of rapport with the others and a form of unspoken communication.
July 25th, 2008 at 11:28 am
I was talking with a friend the other day, she had taken a road trip and I had commented on how the particular route she had taken is beautiful.
She got a kind of nervous look, and she commented on how it was scary because part of the trip had no cell phone reception. I got the impression that she would have rather not taken the trip so as not to risk the part that was incommunicado. I then asked her if she used to drive through relatively uninhabited areas, pre cell-phone, without fear. She had a hard time recalling, but vaguely reckoned that she did, and her husband had to prompt her to remember that she had frequently done so. So on top of this gradual decent into tech dependency she has a hard time remembering the situation before mobile communications tech.
This dovetails perfectly with the Verizon wireless ads that equate areas of lack of cell phone signal with scenes from horror movies. Seems like some sort of feedback reinforcing a meme in a tightening inward spiral.
July 25th, 2008 at 12:10 pm
I don’t agree with everything this group says, but they have some interesting guidance on views on group strength and types-
——
“Whereas self-serving beings naturally form hierarchies with the strongest and most ruthless at the top, service to others beings would form networks. In the words of the Cassiopaeans, the concept of networking is a foretaste of 4th density STO.
To bring the idea into context, we can start with Gurdjieff’s definition of a group: In a group, what is gained by one is gained by all and what is lost by one is lost by all. A group in this sense can only exist within the context of esoteric work. Such a group is free from disagreement not because of a command structure but because the same truths are seen by all. See the article on Esoteric, Mesoteric and Exoteric circles for more.
We can distinguish two types of group effects: The first is where the group descends to the level of the lowest common denominator, as happens in lynch mobs and other cases of mass hysteria. We can envision a situation where the whole group would rise to the sum total of the understandings and capacities of all members. The latter happens to a small degree in teams displaying good synergy. However, the imperfect quality of human communication and friction coming from personality dampens these effects and usually limits their scope to a well-practised area such as playing a team sport or playing in an orchestra.
The hope of esoteric work is to make these effects greater and more comprehensive. Achieving this is sometimes called the communion of saints. This goes beyond a social phenomenon and involves sharing the ’substance of knowledge’ or ‘higher hydrogens’ generated in group work.
In general we can say that a group amplifies whatever is a consistently shared and applied principle in the group’s work. This contains a catch: We often find, specially on the Internet, New Age groups that are in a sense ‘open’ but where the exchange degenerates if not into a shouting match then into a more subtle feeding or pleading or manipulating contest. It seems that internal work for purifying the signal and making the self first clear is a prerequisite for a group to amplify anything but subjectivity. For mixed, predominantly self-serving entities such as present day humans, indiscriminate sharing of everything simply makes noise. A great deal of attention is required for the participants to overcome first themselves and then act in a manner approximating STO oriented beings, thus not according to their default impulses. Again, determining what constitutes service to others in which case is its own question but a certain skill or sense for this can form via practice.
In practice, a network does not imply the interchangeability of all members. This is not achievable nor is it the goal. Having reached a similar level of development does not imply identity of personality or group think but does imply striving for seeing the same understandings. A group can involve specialization and contain teachers and students but is by definition a voluntary structure and does not exist for the benefit of any single member or subgroup. Instead, such a group may exist for performing a specific esoteric task, as may be required by the time and context.
The concept of giving back is emphasized by the 4th Way. Since the principle of service to others represents balance through the idea of serving self through serving others, this principle requires reciprocity in order to work. Balance cannot be legislated but it may occur naturally if the participants share the same direction, i.e. are collinear.
For 4th density harvestability, a network offers distinct advantages over working alone. The members can complete each other even though their own vibrational purity were not perfect. For graduating to 4th density STS, the aspirants must generally work alone since the very idea of service to self sees sharing as generally undesirable. ”
http://glossary.cassiopaea.com/glossary.php?id=527&lsel=N
July 25th, 2008 at 12:32 pm
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/TECH/07/15/bio.tech/index.html
Scientists: Humans and machines will merge in future - CNN.com
July 26th, 2008 at 12:47 am
Laura is a criminal cult leader but check out “Michael Topper” that is who she stole most of her ideas from. He was legit.
July 26th, 2008 at 11:29 am
I have found lots of good info from sources that I find I have to sift through to get to that I find helpful. Cassiopaea is one of those that I have found one must do alot of sifting, but there is some very good stuff there, at least for me. I don’t know about the criminality or cult leadership status of the group’s leader and I don’t really care.
I find the concept of co-linear groups as very intriguing. Sort of the same idea as Bey’s Temporary Autonomous Zones. They offer potential for “safe” havens of idea exchange and work on those ideas with friends that “have your back”, sort of like the idea that Tim was talking about with the backstage working group. I don’t know about the Cass group leader’s criminality or cult leader status, and I don’t care.
Topper is very interesting and I think has some good stuff. He is a loner type and I prefer working towards the environment and potential of groups.
July 26th, 2008 at 11:52 am
Non-hierarchical groups, or as close to that condition as possible.
July 26th, 2008 at 12:26 pm
I agree. I don’t know what she started out to do but I think she lost her mind along the way.
July 27th, 2008 at 3:41 pm
Duncan over at The Baptist’s Head recently posted an article regarding Laura (I’m assuming she’s the same one behind Cassiopeia, anyway), and someone named Mike had a really good comment:
I think that when you’re dealing with that level of reality, where you’re trying to make sense of consciousness/souls/energy (and Gurdjieff!) you have to be really careful to realize that you are engaged in building a kind of alchemical ladder to heaven. These are ladders of thought/symbols/ideas that lead to the philosopher’s stone/elixir of life/enlightenment/whatever, but when you get there, you have realize that the ladder isn’t really important and throw it away. Just because a system is useful for you when searching for the truth, it doesn’t mean that that system is the truth…
July 28th, 2008 at 8:24 am
This thing about non-hierarchical groups, I’ve been thinking about that a lot as well. It deserves a full post on its own but I don’t have the time right now. The thing about our group is that we all work together very well, but we do indeed have a hierarchy. There is a technical director who manages the technical crew, a lighting designer who has specialty in that, a stage manager who has final authority over everything that happens backstage, a house manager, a set designer, a director, choreographer and producers. It’s hierarchical in that responsibility and knowledge about certain procedures rests squarely in one person. I just can’t see a project of this nature working remotely if it were not put into some kind of hierarchy. Hierarchies, contrary to many counter-cultural types’ idealistic views are completely natural, normal and valuable in certain cases.
July 28th, 2008 at 10:19 am
I think it’s captured by the idea of the snake and the bird (like on the Mexican flag). The bird can see everything below it, it’s high above, but it’s removed. The snake is on the ground, knows exactly what’s in front of it, but cannot see the bigger picture. In this sense, the organization is hierarchical because one person, the stage manager, oversees the entire project. But it is up to the individuals below the stage manager to know the specifics of each action. The stage manager cannot get anything done without the techs, other manager, producers, etc. It is not that one side is better than the other, each needs the other to function properly. So in that sense, it is a group of individuals, none of whom take the “top” position.
I remember reading something on your site a long time about about the liberating and manifesting currents along the chakra centers. I think you are describing them in action here.
July 28th, 2008 at 11:42 am
Well my comment is not about how “daft”Laura may or may not seem, its about the fact that she stole a bunch of money from her supporters/followers and left the country.
I agree about hierarchies. Not all hierarchies involve coercion and exploitation.
July 28th, 2008 at 12:52 pm
I just can’t see a project of this nature working remotely if it were not put into some kind of hierarchy. Hierarchies, contrary to many counter-cultural types’ idealistic views are completely natural, normal and valuable in certain cases
Ya, good point.
I am interested in the possibilities of non-hierarchical groups primarily for esoteric pursuits. Even within those types of groups I think temporary hierarchies would need to happen in order to further the goals of the group.
July 28th, 2008 at 3:30 pm
She did? I haven’t read anything about her since she published her book.