“…where propaganda is not simply a weapon, it is the entire battlefield. This is a war for our minds that is aided by advance technology, and we have never been here, not in all of human history.”
[Tower Of Babel?]
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… Think of it as something slightly more than the usual mis or disinformation scenario. Think of it instead as Sign Warfare. See BlakeC’s last vidchat question in relation to this topic also …
Who: Blakecosmos
Where: At The “Cosmic Versailles Wine Bar” (Just inside the outer boundary)
What: Monoliths, Match Cuts, And Methods Of Manipulation: Re-Considering the Opening Monolith Sequence in: Stanley Kubrick’s: 2001: A Space Odyssey
Dr. Farrell.
Christmas Greetings to all. And now with all pleasantries aside, Let’s get right to it.
Some years back I wrote on the opening scene involving the Monolith in Stanley Kubrick’s: “2001: A Space Odyssey. The scene I am referencing involves a group of primates encountering the monolith, and the subsequent affects it appears to have on them. At the end of this scene, which transitions into what is probably the most famous “match cut” in Cinema, said bone, (having been used for the first time as a weapon) is tossed high into the air, and voila! We are transported to a space station in our near future.
In my original submission, I pointed out that in Lacanian terms, the encounter between the primates and the Monolith, created what can be referred to as: “An Epistemic Cut”. (A term I take from Daniel Bristow, author if the fascinating title: “2001 A Space Odyssey and Lacanian Psychoanalytic theory”.
Some title there! And allow me assure everyone, the book is even weirder than its title!
I am skipping a lot of context here so as to keep this to a reasonable length, and a consequence of that, there are a lot of insights and questions I won’t be offering here, but… there are some questions, I just HAD to ask,
Here are the key affects generated by this encounter in my analysis.
- The “cut” represents a radical break between pre-symbolic and symbolic existence
- This rupture creates an irreversible shift in how these beings perceive and understand their world
- The moment marks the birth of abstract thinking – the ability to see an object (bone)
- This “epistemic cut” seems to give birth of all things, firstly to violence
- Semiotic Rupture as Reality-Altering Event
Traditionally, this scene is cited as depicting a sequence of “Human Evolution”. I beg to differ, and THIS is where I get weird! Allow me to list my assertions;
- Rather than “evolution,” I will argue that what we are witnessing is the forceful insertion of a new symbolic order, an act I will heretofore characterize as an act of “Semiotic Violence:
- I will further argue, that The monolith isn’t catalyzing natural development but creating a fundamental break in reality itself, and that this “cut” is not just forcibly reordering mankind’s consciousness, but perpetrating an act of violence on reality itself. Put another way, this is an act of “semiotic violence.
- I also suggest. That the primates aren’t “learning” – they’re being forcibly inducted into a new regime of reality
And now, let’s go further still into my speculations.
- This semiotic violence is not merely a film trope, IT IS A REALITY we are all experiencing precisely NOW, at this juncture in history.
- This violence is being done to us and to our world by a group and/or an agency that has clear disdain both for the natural world, and for we humans who live upon its surface.
I could go oh so many places with this, but let’s just scratch the surface, and ask you some questions.
- Am I “On to something”? or merely well… DAFT.
- Are we the only targets?
- Is what we’re watching go on around us, nothing less than how an advanced civilization makes war on a lesser but sentient population, and apparently, when much to their chagrin, they can’t get what they want without us?
- We hear endless talk of “Disclosure” but might the technology we’re actually about to be exposed to, be aptly described as a situation in which THE REAL ALIEN TECHNOLOGY not be lights in the sky, and might those lights and future events in act be the attempt to obscure the very structure of representation we have been forced to embrace?
- Might it be, that what the film is really showing us in this famous scene, rather than being a sequence in which we are actually being shown something, be in fact, a disclosure of the means by which, we are being initiated into something subtly but decidedly Evil?
- Finally, might what we are being sold as a search for “truth” in fact be nothing more than the means by which we, like the primates in the film are being given a tool, and then, being taught how to use it as a weapon? A Weapon that I suspect, only Humans can wield?
All is NOT as it appears, and the FULFILLMENT is indeed, the DECEPTION
Also, Go back and watch the film again…
Till next time, God Willing.,
Blake
… if you are able watch the vidchat (of December 6) so you can get Dr. Farrell’s reply to BlakeC as well.
While those are certainly a part what is going on …
Think instead of Semeiotic Warfare (there will be aberrant spellings e,g. Semiotic). If one wants to jump in the deep end look for writings on Semeiotic Warfare. Look at the Finnish Military’s interest in this subject.
… the warfare that is upon us, having been sub-rosa for a while but certainly out in clear view and full force now, is primarily Semeiotic Warfare with Kinetic Warfare being derivative.
It is possible to be Semeiotically “infected”. The Finns (see e.g. Finnish Defense “Left of Bang” > National Defense University Press > News Article View ) have been aware of this fact longer than most. One primer for but one aspect of Semeiotic Warfare is The Gulf War Did Not Take Place by Jean Baudrillard … available gratis at
Baudrillard,%20Jean.%20The%20Gulf%20War%20Did%20Not%20Take%20Place.%20Indianapolis-Indiana%20University%20Press,%201991._0004.pdf
see also Paul Virilo’s The Information Bomb
available here and also at archive.org gratis
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You make me wish I didn’t have a business that keeps me out of most daytime chats. BlakeCosmos. Yeah. There is a chance to expand your mind…
Sort of like Scarmoge. That guy.
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… absolutely on BlakeC Justa 
I recommend going back through the vid chats and just reading through Blake’s questions. I keep a file of them myself.
… and Yeah … whats up with That Guy? Heeeee!
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Sometimes I see it and sometimes not. I am still grapling with that, but humanity seems to be so much in the grip of this weapon. They like the infection.of wielding this weapon scooped up in bloodlust it provides.
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… attribution note - your quote is from BlakeC’s last vidchat question.
I think we are all in the same boat there. I try to recognize when the “tools” are being used as weapons. There does appear to be some kind of “habituating” mechanism in regards to the “tools”. Possibly the key is figuring out exactly how that “habituation” comes (or has come) to pass.
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