Monopolizing Thought

[RedSkunk]

Here are the cliff notes to a little ditty I wrote awhile back...

America's so-called "war on drugs" is ostensibly focused on eliminating nonessential, unprescribed drug use. The reason given is the purported harm that follows. It's a sort of benevolent prohibition; it's the government's way of saving us from ourselves. People accept this because of several historical realities - including a century or more of said institutionalized prohibition, a puritan religious ethos, and the uninterrupted flow of junk science telling us the dangers of all unprescribed drug use.

But the criminalization of drug use has less to do with the health of the population and more with enforcing a uniformity of consciousness. This aversion to nonstandard or altered states of consciousness is the result of a society molded out of monotheistic religious practices - practices which necessarily promote a standardized, monopolized way of thinking about life, god, and the meaning of it all. Narrow definitions of purity, clarity, and sanity rule the day. Altered states and the thought processes produced are dangerous to the status quo - particularly in regard to our religious beliefs and the moral underpinnings of our society (the rarely questioned "realities" we find ourselves living in).

Tsenay Serequeberhan, author and assistant professor at Hampshire College, writes that "that which is beyond question is the solid ground on which one stands." To question this solid ground is to question the "realities" of the day. These realities include the nature of human interaction, the purpose of our lives and how we live them, and the systems (economic, political, social) we find ourselves involved in. In short, the sort of fundamental questions usually reserved for organized religion. Altered states allow us to disconnect from the prescribed standards of the world - to remove the barriers that keep us from discovering deeper truths. Instead of faith, we're able to discover these truths ourselves.

The danger to traditional monotheistic religion is obvious. Enlightenment through introspection avoids subjugation to a god. The threat to other established elite comes from the nature of true enlightenment.

One would have a difficult time disputing the idea that the American (ergo global) economy today is rooted in overproduction and, as a result, conspicuous consumption. Hedonism is distinct in that it's explicitly rejected but implicitly practiced by the great majority of Americans. But a person can be cognizant of this while at the same time a willing participant. Rational self-interest can keep the best of us from acting on what we believe in.

Should that rational self-interest be stripped away (however momentarily) and our way of thinking - and therefor, our actions - can change decidedly. The altered state of an entheogen may be transient, but the effects need not be. Properly used, a "positive hangover" can be had, remaining with the user long after the physical effects have worn off. A new outlook on life, discovered in a state of mind with no baggage, commitments, or self-interest obstructing our view. And in an imperfect world, an enlightened populace risks challenging the dominant structures.

[SadisticMonkey]

So, they're worried drug use may induce anarchism and atheism?

[JudgeDredd]

At 11/22/07 02:51 AM, SadisticMonkey wrote: So, they're worried drug use may induce anarchism and atheism?

Quite the opposite i'm afraid.

It's about drug induced spiritualism (the hippy high) and how that might translate into a "less is more" mentality. Instead of fulfilling one's ego with a quick fix plastic purchase, we might see thru the garish plastic world we're rigorously taught is conducive to a happy life, and instead value originality and creativity of thought, or the harmony of natural aesthetic design, etc.

(bare with me on this..)

At the height of the Cold War (on Communism) people were tricked into thinking that mass-production can only result from commercialized mass-consumption. That if we all buy into likeness, then we'll get something cheaper and faster than if we were unique individuals with varied expressive tastes. The "Turn on, tune in, drop out" generation (hippy counterculture movement) was seen as a threat to productivity and profit driven commerce, which (excluding Tax-based military expenditure) was America's best weapon against the 'Red Menace'. Ironically, the Communist party was tricked into the same mass-production mentality, but this failed quite miserably being mostly producer-driven, rather than consumer-driven like in the West. Jump to modern day thou, and the ultimate irony is how (once) Communist China has now perfected the art of cheap mass-production, and with great gusto is selling it right back to Americans, who so not-infrequently, are likely to frown and complain about it.

So yeah, Timothy Leary originally wrote "Like every great religion of the past we seek to find the divinity within and to express this revelation in a life of glorification and the worship of God. These ancient goals we define in the metaphor of the present - turn on, tune in, drop out."

Almost twenty years later he felt he needed to elucidate with "'Turn on' meant go within to activate your neural and genetic equipment. Become sensitive to the many and various levels of consciousness and the specific triggers that engage them. Drugs were one way to accomplish this end. 'Tune in' meant interact harmoniously with the world around you - externalize, materialize, express your new internal perspectives. Drop out suggested an elective, selective, graceful process of detachment from involuntary or unconscious commitments. 'Drop Out' meant self-reliance, a discovery of one's singularity, a commitment to mobility, choice, and change. Unhappily my explanations of this sequence of personal development were often misinterpreted to mean 'Get stoned and abandon all constructive activity.'"

His idea of "opening oneself to the power of inner discovery" had been usurped by a notion of "abject unAmericanism" by construing it to mean "turn on to drugs, tune in to the counterculture, and drop out of job/society/school', (i.e. to become a 'waster' or 'slacker').

Suddenly the "Cold War" Capitalist Machine had a potential homegrown rival army, and the drugs of choice (LSD & Weed) was it's mainstay and group catalyst. The subsequent escalating "War on (Hard-arse) Drugs" then grew out of this "Fear of the Devil within", and not surprisingly was championed by Reagan who was already proclaiming himself the sole victor over Communism. Any parallels of sensibility pretty much ended there, except somewhat ironically again, a dealer's unwavering (Capitalist) motive to readily supply whatever the "consumer" needs.

.

[RedSkunk]

More?

[SizZlE666]

This is quite interesting actually...

[SmilezRoyale]

Widespread drug use would also create a population of individuals incapable of doing they're jobs.

Enlightenment was about using logic and reasoning to solving problems in the world, it has nothing to do with changing your perspective of reality though recreational drugs.

[RedSkunk]

At 11/23/07 09:25 PM, SmilezRoyale wrote: Widespread drug use would also create a population of individuals incapable of doing they're jobs.

Enlightenment was about using logic and reasoning to solving problems in the world, it has nothing to do with changing your perspective of reality though recreational drugs.

Drug use doesn't intrinsically lead to dysfunctional people. Look at legal prescribed drug use, or legal unprescribed drug use, or countries with softer drug laws. As far as enlightenment, you're talking about a historical period. I'm talking about the noun.

"It has been said that wisdom is the ability to understand others; it is the understanding of yourself that is enlightenment."
Alexander Shulgin

One definition.

[qu3muchach0]

ya, when i drink too much robotussin i think shit like this too.
but have you ever noticed that it's socially acceptable to drink beer and wine but if you take drugs you're immediately ostracized...? so perhaps there is something to these conspiracy theories...

and that theory about people who get high can't do their jobs...
who the hell gets high on the job?
there's a reason why their called recreational...