The War on Open-Minded Skepticism

The 20th Century author George Orwell distinctively, and quite presciently, elicited the disturbing notion of 'Thought Crime' arguably for the first time. 'Thought Crime' as portrayed in his book and posthumously-produced film '1984' is an insidious process whereby the entire population is hypnotized by a form of subtle, manipulative mind-control — where mass quantities of people are inadvertently coerced into suppressing any trace of thought that would impel them to question the reality around them or the motives of the dominating force that rules their lives. And if an exceptional individual managed to circumvent the dominant conditioning showing the capacity to resist establishment control they would be immediately targeted and punished by the 'State', often in the form of a lobotomy.

Paradoxically, what we are seeing now in the physical world is Orwell's fearful nightmare actually materializing, but in a slightly different way to how he had described it.

The form of mind-control that we see now in fact dwarfs the Orwellian notion of mind-control and seriously overwhelms the vast majority of the human species. It is akin to a parasite that remains invisible to its host. It is a form of mind-control that leads an individual to feel a deep, unconscious discomfort or unease with the idea that to fully express one's thoughts and emotions without inhibitions or equivocations is the ultimate blasphemy. We have constructed a system that structurally demands and rewards blind conformity -- usually out of the fear of ostracism or the fear of inviting a train-of-thought that is so outside of conventional perception and culturally presupposed assumption that the habitual process of burying those thoughts and emotions becomes a much safer operating procedure. It seems to be a phenomenon whereby the thought-repressed individual, over time, somehow cultivates an astute awareness that it would necessarily be too emotionally draining, costly and painful to invoke thoughts running counter to the establishment programming -- especially in the context of creating conversation on the more important issues of the time.

It is evident therefore that what we have today is almost an entire population of slaves who have, both consciously and unconsciously, enabled and perpetuated a dominant culture that makes it acceptable to be emotionally and cognitively repressed. What also seems to be inextricably interwoven with this phenomenon is the rise of what the 'West' coins as depression. It seems apparent that depression is the inevitable outcome of emotional and cognitive repression. What this means is that what we are consequently witnessing manifest is a metastasis of a psycho-spiritual illness where people are too afraid to explore dialogue that's too outside of the self-reinforcing, self-referring feedback loops of culturally sanctioned conversation. A cultural machine that is so insane that it is hellbent on devouring the planet.

What is the resulting effect of all this? Anti-intellectualism and the refusal to objectively face reality; to create an open, authentic, unprejudiced discourse on the key issues occurring in today's increasingly pernicious world. Something else intensely pernicious exists in our current reality to which i refer as 'the death web'. It is a sophisticated web of extremely efficient, collusive institutions, bureaucracies and corporations. All of which however are not the root of the problem. They are natural outgrowths of a socioeconomic paradigm and civilizational power structure that is rampantly and catastrophically destabilizing.

I would argue that nothing else is under more attack than open-minded skepticism. And for a very good reason. The last thing any ruling elite in a hierarchical society would ever want is a population that is receptive to new ideas and new perceptions of reality -- people who are cognitively skilled in inviting the assiduous flow of informational variability. Similarly, open-minded skepticism is a skill that isn't magically predisposed to any individual from birth, even to those who would be considered as to be the most open-mindedly proficient. It is a skill that is learned, harnessed and refined over time that requires determination, diligence, discipline and above all -- an unquenchable passion for seeking Truth -- wherever the Truth may lead. Truth, like information, isn't something that is static -- it is emergent. So it is always with utmost prudence to be ruthlessly open to new information at all times, abandoning all propensity for judgmental assumption -- never clinging to any piece of information as new awareness moves forward. Put concisely, it is the ability to absorb and discard data at will regardless of any potential exterior influence.

If the primary objective is to create a totally open-source, socioeconomically advanced society, then it must, by definition, universally include open-mindedness as a requisite. One cannot just invent a tool like the internet -- storing, generating and promulgating unlimited quantities of data, and just dump it onto a human population that only knows what to think, not how to think  — a population that hasn't been trained to respect the virtue of open-mindedness, let alone skepticism. What has happened is that we have garnered 3-4 entire generations of human beings who have been pre-programmed by corporate-controlled, corporate-dominated electronic screens to marvel at mass spectacle, distractive entertainments and disinformation in the name of unfettered consumerism.

How do we stop this?

The corporate and business world openly and covertly boasts how it manipulates the human mind with optimum efficiency by impregnating artificial fears and insecurities into children from a very young age -- via multiple media platforms, and techniques of hypnotic rhetoric repetition.

The first step is for people to understand the true nature and function of open-minded skepticism and why it's so critical if we genuinely want to see a flowering evolution in social and economic paradigms. Second step is to abolish one's exposure to the television screen and instead invite stimulating, intellectual conversation. This will ensure that dominant culture's brainwashing is kept marginal, especially if you have children. Children's minds are information sponges and have far less cultural conditioning to deal with in comparison to adults. Provide the space as much as possible for children to learn about whatever they want to learn about without economic coercion. Ignorance is not bliss. In the age of information overload, ignorance is a choice. The key is to be relentless in engendering an inquiring mind from your children and yourself by disconnecting from the mainstream narrative.

The war on open-minded skepticism is rooted in failure, because it is a war waged on the search for Truth. And no matter how much our patriarchal, hierarchical, abstraction-fetishizing, hyper-materialistic society strives to perpetuate this war -- the truth is always revealed one way or another...even if the human species won't be around to witness it.