| |
|
[Partly spinning off from the Matrix Warrior thread, partly from general discussion here and there]
"Humatons do not think for themselves. Their so-called 'minds' are actually intricate recordings fixed on a loop of endless repetition." ~ Matrix Wanker
This worries me quite a lot. The above is Dangerous, and a Fucking Lie. It's fairly obviously conducive to frightening elitism, detachment from the society of others, and a whole host of bad things.
"Even the norms, with their normal mainstream music and their normal everyday televisions and their grey mundane food and their bland little lives, in the rain? Even them? The boring normal norms who are not special as I am, with my special individual music and my tasty special non-conformist food" ~ Flyboy
Yes. Elitism, detachment and self-aggrandisement in people who self-define as "alternative". Often of the teenage, male and ill-fitting black clothing-sporting variety. However. It must be said that for certain periods of my life, I have felt like a humaton. That is to say, I've suddenly become aware, for example, that I've not actually had any thoughts for a period of an hour and have been operating on automatic pilot for that time. Or I'll notice myself absorbing media uncritically, and ending up holding disturbing reactionary positions without meaning to. The above taken from my own experience because it means I can make fairly broad statements without projecting onto or othering other people. To clarify: regardless of anyone else, I've certainly felt "asleep" and in need of "waking up". Moreover, I feel happier and less frightened and paranoid when I am thinking and analysing myself and things around me. What I'm trying to get at is that it's possible to end up a bit like a human automaton through not engaging with things. Another example might be of someone blindly ignoring and dismissing politics as something they're simply not interested in. Finally, I would suggest, very tentatively, that States might have a vested interest in keeping the general populace in an unthinking state of obedience and a very limited frame of reference. In conclusion, I'm not sure that people can't "wake up", but if so it's in adopting a wider discourse rather than acquiring any super secret sexay knowledge or special sunglasses.
Is this a reasonable refiguring of the humaton business, or have I fallen into the hands of the leather trenchcoat brigade? |
|
|
