The Origins of Authoritarianism with Ray Peat [Generative Energy #28]

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• published: 13 Jul 2016
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I’m incredibly excited to share my third interview with Ray about the origins of authoritarianism. The conversation covers a wide range of topics including Ray’s philosophical influences, former CIA director Allen Dulles, Wilhelm Reich, authoritarianism as a sickness, Nicole Foss’s idea of degrowth, and Ray’s thoughts on an “optimal” society. The conversation was originally recorded on June 24th, 2016. Special thanks to Ray for providing me with his time and my Patrons for making this content possible. • MP3 Download ► http://bit.ly/29CiFg8 • Subscribe on YouTube ► http://bit.ly/ytubesub • Subscribe on iTunes ► http://bit.ly/geitunes • One-to-One Coaching (Patreon) ► http://bit.ly/drpatreon • Watch The Male Pattern Baldness Myth ► http://bit.ly/baldmyth • Get My Best-Selling Book For Free ► http://bit.ly/hlafbook • Facebook ► http://bit.ly/tdrwfaceb • Instagram ► http://bit.ly/instatdrw • Twitter ► http://bit.ly/twitterdr • Website ► http://bit.ly/maindrod • Song: Astronomyy - Nothin On My Mind 01:10 - Chatting about Ray’s 2003 Newsletter 01:59 - Defining authoritarianism and Ray’s experience 09:45 - Where did authoritarianism originate from? (Parmenides, Zeno, Plato, Aristotle, and Heraclitus) 12:41 - “The principle of forgiveness was presented as the appropriate response to a world which is always new. The desire for vengeance comes from a delusive commitment to the world of memory. Virginity is constantly renewed in the world of imaginative life. While Blake said that you can’t forgive someone until they stop hurting you, the desire to be forgiven indicates that there is an opportunity to resolve the problem.” (http://raypeat.com/articles/articles/william-blake.shtml) 16:41 - “In 1933 Reich published The Mass Psychology of Fascism, and the next year Freud expelled him from psychoanalysis; that was the year that Andre Breton excommunicated Dali from surrealism. Both Reich and Dali had important (but dangerous) insights into the effects of the authoritarian culture on consciousness—the destruction of reality by the imposition of an “essentialist” attitude. Dali’s Persistence of Memory, 1931, described the fluidity of reality and consciousness. Later, Dali aligned himself with the fascist side, and his 1954 Decomposition of the Persistence of Memory shows the quantized consciousness. Starting in 1945, the fascist culture blossomed in the US, so people who speak English now have constant contact with the dead essences, and very little incentive to evaluate them. Business/government marketing techniques adjust the meaning-units periodically, so that they are always available to provide the needed frame for the discourse of the moment. A lot of work goes into it.” —Raymond Peat 16:54 - The Dulles brothers (The Devil’s Chessboard by David Talbott) 18:04 - Is authoritarianism a disease? 20:38 - Is the environment bracketing our current progress? 21:08 - Nicole Foss on degrowth (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDr71LHO0Jo) 23:37 - Increasing the people’s knowledge, ability and power 24:31 - Food as way to heighten someone’s awareness 26:19 - The food pyramid as a form of oppression 27:44 - America’s authoritarianism vs. other places 31:29 - “In a speech before the National Alumni Conference at Princeton University on April 10, 1953, newly appointed CIA director Allen Dulles lectured his audience on ‘how sinister the battle for men's minds had become in Soviet hands.’ The human mind, Dulles warned, was a ‘malleable tool,’ and the Red Menace had secretly developed ‘brain perversion techniques.’ Some of these methods were ‘so subtle and so abhorrent to our way of life that we have recoiled from facing up to them.’ Dulles continued, ‘The minds of selected individuals who are subjected to such treatment are deprived of the ability to state their own thoughts. Parrot-like, the individuals so conditioned can merely repeat the thoughts which have been implanted in their minds by suggestion from outside. In effect the brain becomes a phonograph playing a disc put on its spindle by an outside genius over which it has no control.’ Three days after delivering this address Dulles authorized Operation MK-ULTRA, the ClA's major drug and mind control program during the Cold War.” — Acid Dreams (1985) 32:26 - What impact would you like to see your research make on society? Reaching the largest amount of people? or a certain type of person? Or are you completely detached from the outcome? “I’d like to see it lead to the disestablishment of medicine. The same general outcomes Ivan Illich worked for.” —RP (http://bit.ly/29G8bij) 33:20 - Does Ray think an “optimal” society should include medicine or government? Andalusia 34:59 - David Alfaro Siqueiros (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Alfaro_Siqueiros)