Travis Eneix muses on the “magic” tricks the 1% use to keep the 99% in line.
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I recently watched a cool talk by Grant Morrison, which he gave at the Disinformation convention a couple of years back. It blew my mind along several axis, one of which I want to talk about today. (You can see the full talk here. WARNING: turn your speakers way down for the beginning as he starts with a very loud scream.)
Grant spoke about several subjects that are near and dear to my heart. One of them was sigil magic and the basics of how to do it. Then he segued into how people think about money, with a quick detour to point out that the “M” that we so often seen rendered in stylized gold on a red background is not really an “M”. That symbol is a sigil, a magical placeholder for associations in our collective brain space. In a certain sense the big corporations have begun to use ritual magic against the masses.
While we focus on their money as the source of the power, we chase a phantom they control. Meanwhile they rake in the real abundance.
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That was a sideline to what I really wanted to touch on today. What really got me was what Grant had to say about money. The gist of his point was that those at the top of the money spire, the 1%-ers, aren’t actually concerned with money. They are concerned with power, and control, and personal freedom. Money is just what happens as they make the moves, and run the corporations and power structures that ensure power, control, and personal freedom for themselves and their legacies. The Bilderbergs don’t chase the almighty dollar. They work the system to funnel power into their structures, and the money just comes along.
What came to me was that, if the above is at all accurate, then they have secured their position by making us (the 99%-ers) believe that money is the way you gain power, control, and personal freedom, and not the other way around. So, while we spin our wheels chasing the phantom booby-prize of “fat stacks”, they chuckle and just keep pulling in the power. It we push this idea further I think an even more malicious game is revealed. They foster the image that what they are doing it scooping in money. They present a villainous facade, casting themselves in the role of guys in expensive suits sitting on stacks of one thousand dollar bills, lighting their Cuban cigars with hundreds.
This is a gaff. A shell game. Three card Monty. While we focus on their money as the source of the power, we chase a phantom they control. Meanwhile they rake in the real abundance. Chasing money is a slow march to the grave, with nothing to show for it but the ups and downs of our bank statements. All the while we are also in competition with each other, snatching at notes whose value is designed to decrease. Rather than moving towards the real prize, we keep elbowing each other to the side, and trampling our brothers and sisters under our ambition.
I think it’s time we leave that behind. Instead we can do what they do. We can consolidate forces, agree upon intention. We can present a united force with the idea of increasing abundance for all, rather than striving for the thing they have convinced us can be used to purchase that abundance.
It’s a fools gambit, and we are the ones they are making fools of.
Photo:Flickr/Peter Castleton