Title: BATTLE: LOS ANGELES - In Theaters 3.11.11 Source:
[None] URL Source:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55CgPUu-ENA Published:Feb 26, 2011 Author:Staff Post Date:2011-02-26 11:13:40 by Horse Keywords:None Views:474 Comments:48
#4. To: Eric Stratton, christine, farmfriend, abraxas, HAPPY2BEME-4UM, wudidiz, TwentyTwelve, All (#1)(Edited)
Actually the producer of the movie, which is a documentary based on actual historical footage, is a Mexican American by the name of Jose' Escamilla. I'm familiar with him from his earlier work on a different phenomena.
This is a real event, dubbed "The Battle of Los Angeles", which took place in 1942 after the onset of WWII. The object, which was quite large, was fired on by multiple anti-aircraft batteries and was attacked by Army-Airforce fighters. All of course to no avail. It even made the papers at the time, but due to wartime censorship did not receive the coverage it should have. It is still the largest mass sighting of a an unexplained flying object on record as it was seen by tens of thousands.
I think it is our particular cultural conceit that we somehow think that this little speck of sand on the edge of a galaxy made up of hundreds of millions of stars in a universe made up of hundreds of millions of galaxies is the only place where intelligent life has ever arisen. As for a star faring culture hundreds to thousands of years in advance of us technologically - why should they bother with one little dot inhabited by a bunch of primitives? We are likely viewed with little difference from our view of the tribes of the remote Amazon or New Guinea. A curiosity and little more.
I think it is our particular cultural conceit that we somehow think that this little speck of sand on the edge of a galaxy made up of hundreds of millions of stars in a universe made up of hundreds of millions of galaxies is the only place where intelligent life has ever arisen. As for a star faring culture hundreds to thousands of years in advance of us technologically - why should they bother with one little dot inhabited by a bunch of primitives? We are likely viewed with little difference from our view of the tribes of the remote Amazon or New Guinea. A curiosity and little more.
Here I must respectfully address the world-weariness implicit in this uncharacteristic halt at the door of reason. You know that I have the highest regard for your intelligence and writing skills so please allow me to shoot at the target you threw me so generously! (grin)
First, let us identify a general mind trap, of which you are undoubtedly already tuned into: The dualistic polarity game, where all concepts, perspectives and positions are strung along a linear scale or spectrum, excluding all depth in the process and ensuring that perception remains firmly inside the box of the mediaMatrix.
As a first step in understanding anything in our multi-dimensional experience, identifying the extremes, the opposite polarities of the scale which we can use to measure a phenomenon, is necessary. However, understanding will not grow if we stop with only a one dimensional measuring tool!
Most get stuck in some form of superficial duality, bouncing back and forth between the two extreme poles, such as good cop/bad cop, Rethuglicans/ Demoncrats, male/female, good vs. evil, liberals/conservatives, thinking vs. feeling etc etc etc
Even among the “educated”, most carry around an intellectual toolkit consisting of a varying number of one-dimensional conceptions, some wildly contradictory, but very few go to the effort of assembling these sticks into a 3-dimensional geometry! Especially in the new priesthood of materialistic Science, the overwhelming majority simply accept the conceptual tools they were trained to use without any attempt to see if they really hang together as a robust holistic model.
Like Edwin A. Abbott’s Flatlander’s, most people’s mastery of their creative imagination does not allow for true 4 dimensional (i.e. a coherent sequential inner-movie) simulation and recreation of the laws and patterns which underlie our reality. The capacity and control of their “pineal stage”, the “ajna center” or third eye, is woefully underdeveloped among a population constantly immersed by a fire hose stream of visual media,
The double-whammy of the mediaMatrix taking over from reading and direct experience is that the native power to imagine atrophies from disuse AND the media itself implants triggers which activate the imagination from fear. The latter causes the mind, in order to remain in ascendancy over fear’s imaginings, to snap shut the door to the imagination!
The way out of carrying around a bunch of intellectual pick up sticks, which are dumped out of our bag of thoughts and read like tea leaves or the “dice” used with the I Ching to interpret patterns, whenever we are pressed to make decisions, is to assemble a coherent geometry out of the linear concepts.
Returning to the topic of the place of earth humans in the grand scheme of things:
The multi-millennial suppression of our off-world origins works on many levels as a psychological control mechanism: 1) We are unique (feed the alter-ego) 2) We are alone (feed the fear monster) 3) We evolved by the intellectual conceit of “random” mutation from dead matter to live stew (put the alter-ego in its place) 4) We are either judged by a remote Creator or by nothing at all (disorient the understanding by ambiguity) 5) We are stuck on this singular lifeboat in a hostile-to-life universe (since there is nowhere else to go, shut up and obey those psychopaths who have taken over the life-boat or die)
These are extremes along several linear scales, which are dissonant with each other but the point is that the truth does not simply lie somewhere in the middle!
Humanity is neither an accident of “chance” nor the only creation of a remote Creator.
Truth, like life itself, is either entirely whole or it simply is not, does not exist. The Big Picture is not brought into focus or calibrated by a few static adjustments on a few linear scales but by a dynamic balance of EVERY FACT THAT COMES ALONG!
Sure it is more difficult to juggle a hundred balls than merely three, to continually balance our conceptual model (our understanding) with every new or anomalous piece of fact that comes along but that is the game! To stay continually awake, minds and hearts continuously open, to be in a never-ending process of expanding our conceptions, which expands our perceptions, bringing us more information to add to our internal ball of string.
This process is obviously not for those in a position of power or prestige, or for those who lie for a living (politicians, lawyers, doctors, teachers, corporate gamesters, establishment scientists etc) since it requires reflection in real time, something which can ruin the ability to lie with seemingly spontaneous sincerity!
No! Much easier to get your ticket stamped at the training institute of higher learning of your choice, get your place at the teat and suck away your life, reflexively deflecting away any information which might threaten your place or worse, make you question the boundaries of perception and understanding! The latter may lead to (shudder) developing a connection with the deeper/higher dimensions of your being, aka a conscience!
In a corrupt dying culture, a conscience and bullshit detector are liabilities so the choices of the majority are completely understandable from a strictly expedient perspective. However, the willful pursuit of power and control at any cost, by the psychopaths in the upper crust however, is another matter entirely! Positing that our earth’s surface culture is currently among the social and spiritual retards of the galaxy (at least!), it does NOT follow that to more advanced civilizations ours would be “little more than a curiosity”.
Before science became dominated by the corporate/government alliance, even we primitives sent people to study those remote tribes you mentioned!
So if we in our infancy (or senility) are interested in subcultures not like our own, why not advanced civilizations?
By advanced, I mean far more than mere accumulated technological mastery. I mean advancement in self-mastery, a blossoming of our full potential, a radical change from the "stuck-ness" of human nature which we are conditioned to think is immutable.
The biggest impediment to fully actualized human potential and self-mastery is the implanted meme, pervasive in all decaying cultures, that says, with presumptuous authority, that growth of consciousness and the transcendence of limitations is impossible, period and that all who pursue such a goal are fools to be pitied.
It is not that hard for social control institutions to discount, obscure and outright deny the lives and examples of all the stars and great spirits who have incarnated and contributed to true progress, since only those closest to them see these more fully-realized beings in action first hand.
IMO, the main failing in even the best speculative fiction is the cultural myopia which cannot even imagine a better human being! I don't mean better conforming nor better adjusted to the cult around them. I mean a more self-empowered being, not requiring an illusion of empowerment through the control and dis-empowerment of others!
I mean a human being using more than 15% of their neural processing power, with fully functioning intuition and telepathic channels, with a steel integrity borne of necessity due to everyone around them having a fully functioning bullshit detector. I mean a human being who has learned the truth about their nature and lives fully in balance, reason and continuing enjoyment, punctuated by challenges of their own choosing.
I understand from personal experience how difficult it is to allow our imagination to go there, since once there, there is no going back in the box, no going back into a mental prison and physical enslavement willingly....
Let us examine an analogy in human culture.
When people reach a certain age of financial independence, two trends emerge: out of boredom, their interests in the world outside their familiar comfort zone increase and the desire to extend their influence (well-meaning or not) leads them into creating foundations, charities or grants to, in their minds, lend a hand up, extend a boot strap to allow others to join them, providing that such a trend does not threaten their own status, of course!
One last point on the effects of a gap between a higher civilization and our own: Most humans have a deep instinctual interest in protecting and nurturing children, some only for their own genetic material but in most cases this extends to all potential new consciousnesses, to all children, to the future of our own civilization.
Who’s to say that civilizations that have grown past the hierarchical, dog-eat-dog, fight for survival driven by the scare crow of scarcity, that have abundance and time on their hands, would not take a very keen interest in the process of our development?
Once you posit other more advanced civilizations, you cannot stop the mind from perceiving that indeed, we are one of the hottest reality shows in the Galaxy!
“Did you see what the humans did on Human Shore last night? What comedy/tragedy! They decided to try totalitarianism again! After all our intervention and prompting, their so-called leaders still think that top-down control of the many for the benefit of the few is a viable approach! And the majority of the population still believes that big government will keep them safe, fed and well-distracted! I am looking forward to watching what happens next, when the minority who retain deep feelings about Freedom continue to try to awaken the rest!”
#33. To: Artisan, sushigirl, bluegrass, Tatarewicz, Lady X, PSUSA, lodwick, tom007, Original_Intent, ratcat, Jethro Tull, HOUNDDAWG, christine, TwentyTwelve, X-15, LACUMO, RickyJ, Elliott Jackalope, James Deffenbach, MUDDOG, All (#32)
“Did you see what the humans did on Human Shore last night? What comedy/tragedy! They decided to try totalitarianism again! After all our intervention and prompting, their so-called leaders still think that top-down control of the many for the benefit of the few is a viable approach! And the majority of the population still believes that big government will keep them safe, fed and well-distracted! I am looking forward to watching what happens next, when the minority who retain deep feelings about Freedom continue to try to awaken the rest!”
Once you posit other more advanced civilizations, you cannot stop the mind from perceiving that indeed, we are one of the hottest reality shows in the Galaxy!
South Park did an episode on that very topic. I found it to be most intellectually stimulating!
An alien satellite dish is placed in Cartman's butt. Shortly after, the boys are abducted by the aliens that installed it. They find out that the planet Earth is simply an intergalactic reality show. When word gets back to their home planet, the aliens decide to cancel the show. Something must be done.
While the "fear card" is a major playing card in their deck, and it's true that they hate it when it doesn't have it's desired effect when they play it, it will IMO require more than the laughter, that you suggest, to dethrone them.
Removing them will, imo, require force, because that is all they understand. Anything less leaves them in power, even if they have their feelings hurt at our laughter.