The Future of the Spectacle
…or How the West Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Reality Police
CJ Hopkins
If you want a vision of the future, don’t imagine “a boot stamping on a human face — for ever,” as Orwell suggested in 1984. Instead, imagine that human face staring mesmerized into the screen of some kind of nifty futuristic device on which every word, sound, and image has been algorithmically approved for consumption by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (“DARPA”) and its “innovation ecosystem” of “academic, corporate, and governmental partners.”
The screen of this futuristic device will offer a virtually unlimited range of “non-divisive” and “hate-free” content, none of which will falsify or distort the “truth,” or in any way deviate from “reality.”
Western consumers will finally be free to enjoy an assortment of news, opinion, entertainment, and educational content (like this Guardian podcast about a man who gave birth, or MSNBC’s latest bombshell about Donald Trump’s secret Russian oligarch backers) without having their enjoyment totally ruined by discord-sowing alternative journalists like Aaron Maté or satirists like myself.
“Fake news” will not appear on this screen. All the news will be “authentic.” DARPA and its partners will see to that. You won’t have to worry about being “influenced” by Russians, Nazis, conspiracy theorists, socialists, populists, extremists, or whomever.
Persons of Malicious Intent will still be able to post their content (because of “freedom of speech” and all that stuff), but they will do so down in the sewers of the Internet where normal consumers won’t have to see it.
Anyone who ventures down there looking for it (i.e., such “divisive” and “polarizing” content) will be immediately placed on an official DARPA watchlist for “potential extremists,” or “potential white supremacists,” or “potential Russians.”
Once that happens, their lives will be over (ie, the lives of the potentially extremist fools who have logged onto whatever dark web platform will still be posting essays like this, not the lives of the Persons of Malicious Intent, who never had any lives to begin with, and who by that time will probably be operating out of some heavily armed, off-the-grid compound in Idaho).
Their schools, employers, and landlords will be notified. Their photos and addresses will be published online. Anyone who ever said two words to them (or, God help them, appears in a photograph with them) will have 24 hours to publicly denounce them, or be placed on DARPA’s watchlist themselves.
Meanwhile, up where the air is clean, Western consumers will sit in their cubicles, or stagger blindly down the sidewalk like zombies, or come barrel-assing at you on their pink corporate scooters, staring down at the screens of their devices, where normal reality will be unfolding.
They will stare at their screens at their dinner tables, in restaurants, in bed, and everywhere else. Every waking hour of their lives will be spent consuming the all-consuming, smiley, happy, global capitalist Spectacle, every empty moment of which will be monitored and pre-approved by DARPA.
What a relief that will finally be, not to have to question anything, or wonder what is real and what isn’t. When the corporate media tell us the Russians hacked an election, or the Vermont power grid, or are blackmailing the president with an FSB pee-tape, or that the non-corporate media are all “propaganda peddlers,” or that the Labour Party is a hive of anti-Semites, or that some boogeyman has WMDs, or is yanking little babies out of their incubators, or gratuitously gassing them, or attacking us with crickets, or that someone secretly met with Julian Assange in the Ecuadorian embassy, or that we’re being attacked by Russian spy whales, and suddenly self-radicalized Nazi terrorists, or it’s time for the “International Community” to humanitarianly intervene because “our house is burning,” and our world is on fire, and there are “concentration camps,” and a “coup in Great Britain”…
…or whatever ass-puckering apocalyptic panic the global capitalist ruling classes determine they need to foment that day, we will know that this news has been algorithmically vetted and approved by DARPA and its corporate, academic, and government partners, and thus, is absolutely “real” and “true,” or we wouldn’t be seeing it on the screen of our devices.
If you think this vision is science fiction, or dystopian satire, think again. Or read this recent article in Bloomberg, “U.S. Unleashes Military to Fight Fake News, Disinformation.”
Here’s the lede to get you started …
Fake news and social media posts are such a threat to U.S. security that the Defense Department is launching a project to repel ‘large-scale, automated disinformation attacks’…the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) wants custom software that can unearth fakes hidden among more than 500,000 stories, photos, video and audio clips. If successful, the system after four years of trials may expand to detect malicious intent and prevent viral fake news from polarizing society…”
What could be more reassuring than the knowledge that DARPA and its corporate partners will be scanning the entire Internet for content created with “malicious intent,” or which has the potential to “polarize” society, and making sure we never see that stuff? If they can’t do it, I don’t know who can.
They developed the Internet, after all.
I’m not exactly sure how they did it, but Yasha Levine wrote a book about it, which I think we’re still technically allowed to read.
Anyway, according to the Bloomberg article, DARPA and its corporate partners won’t have the system up and running in time for the 2020 elections, so the Putin-Nazis will probably win again.
Which means we are looking at four more years of relentless Russia and fascism hysteria, and fake news and divisive content hysteria, and anti-Semitism and racism hysteria, and … well, basically, general apocalyptic panic over anything and everything you can possibly think of.
Believe me, I know, that prospect is exhausting … but the global capitalist ruling classes need to keep everyone whipped up into a shrieking apoplectic frenzy over anything other than global capitalism until they can win the War on Populism and globally implement the New Normality, after which the really serious reality policing can finally begin.
I don’t know, call me crazy, or a Person of Malicious Intent, but I think I’d prefer that boot in the face.
SUPPORT OFFGUARDIAN
If you enjoy OffG's content, please help us make our monthly fund-raising goal and keep the site alive.
For other ways to donate, including direct-transfer bank details click HERE.
New World Information and Communication Order — Common topics for news reports include war, government, politics, education, health, the environment.
New World Information and Communication Order — Common topics for news reports include war, government, politics, education, health, and the environment, …
‘innovation ecosystem of academic, corporate, and governmental partners’
An ‘ecosystem’ is a living thing that requires water and/or sunlight.
We need malicious intent more than ever, and the more the better. We need the majority to express it not as individuals but en mass, in spades against the tiny ruling class with all the power, possessions, assets, investments, ‘interests’ and above all its ownership and control of the means of production and distribution. They’re responsible for the mess we’re in and they must pay the price. Enough is enough. Our malicious intent, which the majority deep down surely feels even in an inchoate way now especially that capitalist rule is so naked and impudent, needs direction and a target to transform it from malicious intents against false scapegoats and the powerless into an overwhelming mass power, a torrent of the vast majority of the working population with a malicious intent to sweep away the rulers and their defenders; to expropriate the owners and replace their rule with soviets, ‘communes… Read more »
It is difficult to deny that in our modern world many large companies already have more power than most nations and their power continues to grow at an alarming rate. In the past, it was large oil conglomerates that held the power but today much of it has shifted to technology companies.
Knowledge is power and this means is not just about large conglomerates that produce products or energy but extends into how internet companies, in particular, have placed themselves in the position where they control the communication networks collecting and storing data on all of us putting them in a position to manipulate us in every way. The article below explores where this may lead.
https://brucewilds.blogspot.com/2019/03/mega-global-companies-rival-power-of.html
Unfortunately, the Labor party IS full of antisemites. And morons.
Omega Shock
I didn’t realise people in the labour party had to be ” better ” people than everyone else.
I will amend your statement.
“Unfortunately, the world IS full of antisemites. And morons, and it seems the British Labour Party is no different ”
Got anything to say?
“The Internet” is a set of electronic communications “protocols” that will run on practically any Princeton- or Harvard- (and, especially in the future, Whoknowswhat)-architectured “platform”, from Digital Equipment’s C/PM thru Microsoft’s DOS to Apple’s wettest dream to Cray’s superestcomputers and onwards, over practically any communication medium, including mixed media such as micro-SD cards attached to carrier pigeons’ legs or dictation tapes carried in a couriers’ bags, although the latter two and any other such “sneakernet” variants tend to have a fairly high latency (delivery and interactivity lag) compared to the newer, 100% electronic media such as plain old landline telephones and 5G. The Internet itself uses unique numbers, analogous to telephone numbers, to set up communications between any two or more “nodes”. It gets its definite article and capital “I” from its globally co-ordinated numbering and “domain name” systems. The domain name system acts like a telephone directory to translate,… Read more »
Watch this. Truly moving, a fantastic speech and a warning to us all. Speak loud people, speak the truth, we are being controlled by a bunch of fucking criminals. We need to unite against this verminous, vomit-worthy band of pscychopaths who control our world. Fuck them.
‘All of us are in danger’: John Pilger delivers warning from Julian Assange
Sitting in the veterinary waiting room on Friday with my little dachshund on my lap. I was soothing him down, whilst looking at all the other lovely pets admiringly. All the other lovely pets’owners, were busy looking at their phones. Even the children. Meanwhile my iphone 4 sat in boot of the car. I felt sad for the pets, but equally as sad for the owners, who not only didn’t perceive their own pet’s anxiety, but also didn’t have the joy of enjoying all the other different pets in the room. I still can’t get over it now. Not least because no one but the vet was bowled over by how smashing my 15 year old dachsie is !😉 He is as enamoured with this thing called “progress” as I am, and approves of the fact I have no intention of getting a newer phone 😂
I’m jealous of you Jean, my old cat died recently and I miss her ( in a good way ) most days. I will try to find another but you are right, animals, in general, are definitely less important since the phone plague broke out. I haven’t got a phone so if I do manage to find a stray cat, I will have a lot of spare time to get to know the animal. That cat, Jetski, was my first pet, and after getting to know her I was always amazed how much I got from the relationship. She was a very moral but also an incredibly fearless creature. She didn’t like people who had been drinking alcohol and she didn’t like rowdy or agressive behaviour and on the few occasion that rowdy or drunken behaviour occurred , she would put herself between me and the ‘ threat ‘ and… Read more »
His name is Milo, but generally only answers to Moon or Piggy. You have my total sympathy regarding Jetski (lovely name).It is a huge loss, but I do believe the loss is the indicator of how alive we are ? Not sure if that makes sense? Lord Velvet was our oldest cat, and he died one week short of his 20th birthday. Fair to say we have never recovered from his loss, nor should we really, since that’s the price of love . Warm wishes to you pablo.
It makes sense to me – I have never had much of a family situation so after bonding with the cat I was in uncharted waters. The animals love made me a much greater person. I was in my thirties when I got the cat and she quickly ( and kindly ) made me realise that I was a rather selfish, shallow person. Under her tutelage I was lifted up spiritually to where I am now . Jetski’s death has not affected this. She left me properly buzzed up – with a new confidence in myself and a new consideration for others, that I ‘ve never had before – its hard to explain but i reckon you probably know what I’m getting at. The grievious loss is filled up by knowledge of her, even though she gone. I must be crazy !
To realise what you are up against (at least in terms of liberal opinion makers) you might want to read this in the Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/sep/03/the-myth-of-the-free-speech-crisis To Nesrine Malik, none of the issues raised by Hopkins even exist. Julian Assange doesn’t exist. The Government troll armies don’t exist. Arbitrary Youtube purges don’t exist. To her, assault on free online expression is nothing but a lie, a dangerous myth propagated by rightwing haters who want to silence opposing views. She openly and fully identifies with a nebulous ‘we’ (the state, the legacy media, the liberal establishment…?) and stands by the admitedly illiberal tide of silencing others all the while falsely accusing others of silencing and threatening violence toward the ‘we’ when what those ‘others’ so often ask for is actual engagement. The only question we are left with is whether she is willingly and consciously shilling or whether she really is that… Read more »
I would take pieces like that as a sign of weakness in their position. A repeat need to justify your actions comes from a sense within yourself that your actions are not just.
“To realise what you are up against (at least in terms of liberal opinion makers) you might want to read this in the Guardian:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/sep/03/the-myth-of-the-free-speech-crisis ”
If you can’t read such a piece with equanimity, regardless of her or your position on her subject matter, you are not old enough to be reading the On-Guardian.
“The Guardian have not shifted one millimeter in their entrenched hypocrisy, and have simply dug in deeper over the past five or so years.”
What hypocrisy? Their founding and never-abandoned, substantially right of centre, English “Liberal” editorial position, openly proud of being to the right of their readership and consistently proscriptive of it, still sometimes and initially near-rabidly so, or your presentation your original, naïve misperception of that position as a change on their part?
“Our western democracy is an utter sham”
Denise Ho, HK singer and actress, is the hope we need to bring true democracy to Earth.
“This is not just for Hong Kong. We are in the front-line but this fight is for the global community,” she said.
Now she’s in Australia calling on the government not to be intimidated by China.
I have a lot of faith that she will not rest until the regime in Canberra brings Assange home.
.. No, no, nobody said this.
Excellent Mr Hopkins as usual you provide a fillip to the day and a bounce in the step, let me compare you to some greats!
Both Orwell and HG Wells, willing propagandists for the Empire, saw through how they had been fooled and didn’t live much longet – probably broken hearted, eh?
http://thetruthisbackthere.blogspot.com/2012/07/what-did-hg-wells-and-george-orwell.html?m=1
‘HG Wells’s requested epitaph was “I told you so. You damned fools.”
Couldn’t put it better myself.’
CJ could equally say that ;-), he is fast approaching these two giants reputation in relevance to the human condition.
I must say Philip K Dick was rather prescient in capturing what is unfurling before our eyes, all with the manufactured consent of much of the population – to question this reality is anathema to most, as I’ve witnessed myself these past few days for my contrarian attitude to the AntiCoup spectacle witnessed on the more leafy streets of the UK this weekend – in the less affluent areas hardly a whimper, and those of us who noted the lack of BAME or precariat participation were deemed heretics or of not supporting the cause – financial considerations and family considerations ignored.
PKD was an amazingly perceptive writer and one of his books that made a big impression on me was one of the lesser known works: “Lies Inc”. It’s one of those pieces that possibly got out of control – since there are different versions of it. Indeed – there is a huge central section which even by Dick’s standards is seriously WEIRD. But the seemingly chaotic character does actually enhance the novel since I reckon what it’s really about is the development of weapons and systems that are so complex and lethal that nobody is sure how they work or what they are doing and what eventual effect it will all have. If you’re interested enough to give it a go, be prepared for one enormous mind-fuck!
George, I haven’t read that but I’ve got the book . I will read it and try posting at the weekend. I like most stuff he has written. My favorites include The Man in the High Castle, Flow my tears the Policeman Said ( In which he descibes the Internet, even though it was just a twinkle in ARPA’s collective eye and hadn’t been invented at that time. ) and Clans Of The Alphane Moon. However my favourite is Faith Of Our Fathers, a short story, where in a world where the party control everything, we meet a high level Troll finder ( I kid you not ) who works as an idealogical purity checker for the all powerful Party. The Party keep testing his Troll detection abilities ( He is very good at his job )which in the end lead to spectacular revealations about the nature of God, mind,… Read more »
Despite being a long time Dick fan (perhaps I should rephrase that?) I haven’t heard of that “Faith Of Our Fathers” tale. I’ll need to search it out. For me, the joy of reading him is that he doesn’t care about polish and crafting a perfectly structured story. He’s more concerned about just seeing where his ideas and their possibilities lead him. So reading him is like taking a wild ride that can be exhilarating and occasionally scary. Some of his stories are terrifying e.g. “Ubik” and “Palmer Eldritch”. And I warn again that “Lies Inc” is pretty chaotic but well worth diving into. The bit I described as seriously weird reads as if it was an LSD trip that was transcribed just as it happened.
I have tasted the maggots in the mind of the universe – I was not offended George Clinton – Maggotbrain We’ll see – he wrote one called Valis, which is a bit like the one you describe, Lies Inc – the manuscript is jumbled and no one knows how to correct it . There are different editions of Valis and I think there are some differences between them. Valis is about a complete psychotic breakdown he had and follows a broken and inchoate narrative, unsatisfactory and ( to me ) incredibly painful as it plays out. I have only come across one other book that did this to me. Reading Valis, he synchronised my mind into sympathetic resonance to the mind of a person having a major psychotic breakdown – a sane person shouldn’t be in that place. It is a tough place. The character in the story believes a… Read more »
I’ve read “Valis”. That was one of Dick’s late religiously flavoured trilogy, the other two being “The Divine Invasion” and “The Transmigration of Timothy Archer”. It seems that these works were attempts to come to term with something that Dick claimed had actually happened to him: some kind of revelation which he named after the date it happened: “2-3-74”. He kept a notebook of his experiences at this time – the notebook being called “Exegesis”. It has been published (or at least part of it has) and I have a copy but have yet to get through it. The religious trilogy I mentioned is odd reading. Some of it is uncomfortable e.g. the bit where he describes surreptitiously “baptising” his son with cold drinking chocolate. That left me wondering if PKD was someone you’d really want to be left alone with! I tend to agree with Brain Aldiss when he… Read more »
Sorry, I meant Brian Aldiss, although I’m sure he had a fabulous brain too!
You have freedom to watch your own thought in the realm of deceitful coercions but while the body is smashed you have only the freedom to suffer and die in it or release it as the definer of your reality. I share in the witnessing of a collective insanity from a willingness of releasing it to a different purpose than self conflicting hate – of fear in division seeking a cover story as narrative control as its sustainability. And at cost of a true awareness and appreciation. While conflict runs the mind there is no pause of a true and abiding reflection. A mind without true rest is set in the recurrence of a structure that denies the rising of a true appreciation for being – 666 recurring – is where the pause of the Sabbath is denied its sharing as our true and loving inherence. Mere mechanism runs a… Read more »
Guy Debord? As in society? Everywhere I look, virtually everyone, en masse, is staring at their phones, on buses, trains, footpaths, walking up stairs, walking down stairs, in the park (oblivious to nature around them); and being walked into by people on their phones. Digital devices are now our Soma. They lock people into a pixelated fake reality. Few days ago on a train, I even tried to have a conversation with the person next to me. He looked up from his phone rather irritated and with a look like ‘are you mad’? (for trying to speak to him!) This is what ‘society’ has become – atomised, alienated individuals hooked on the digital screens in front of them. And all the time, bombarded with Ads to buy more ‘stuff’ more ‘things’. And yes, things will become increasingly difficult for those of us who dissent, who speak truth to power, who… Read more »
The digital Device is our *proxy* Soma (secondary reinforcement of addiction). The primary reinforcement and schedule of reward is the neurotransmitter dopamine. We self-reinforce our own schedules of seduction of the Appearance (the specular image of Being that has replaced more concrete cycles of being and having) as Capitalist Realism. That is: the people you see have displaced themselves to become their own Avatar in a proxy parallel virtual-lifeworld. You have no chance of engaging them in a real world interaction. You’ll bum them out – or excite anger – by raising their stress levels (norepinephrine excitation) …by distracting them from the distraction of the Soma addictive FOMO. FOMO is ‘fear of missing out’. Tech-addiction has been quite well studied, as has ‘Internet Addiction Disorder’ (IAD). Which is an actual recognised disorder – especially among late teens. There has been quite a lot written about this – colloquially and academically.… Read more »
Appreciate your detailed, albiet depressing reply BigB, thanks. ‘Self administered techo narcotic medication’ indeed. That guy was pretty peeved I disturbed his…. trance like state. And in the meantime, Neoliberalism keeps screwing most of us into the ground, while the oligarchic elites rake it in. Socialism for the wealthy indeed. And literally everyone oblivious to the real world, and anaesthetised by the screens in front of them. Sigh….
this is the exact picture of what you describe.
deeply sad. Humanity- so affraid of the Matrix- is running into Matrix’s arms.
Ramdan – that video completely nails it. This is what our ‘society’ has become, and I nearly shed a tear myself watching it because it’s so true. And really sad and frustrating. Thanks for the clip. One positive – I did note 155000 people gave it the thumbs up.
How many of us staring at screens are engaged with “safe-news™” and how many are questioning the new orthodoxy by reading alt-media or just following the vox-populi on Twitter.
At a glance, we all look the same.
Thanks Liam, I don’t do twitter or facebook, and get my news from a variety of independent media sites. I check the headlines of ABC here in Australia when I get up in the morning, but for actual substance get my news from sites like here, Moon Of Alabama, SouthFront, The Greanville Post, The Grayzone, The Saker, etc etc.
Also get a lot of info from various commenters on these sites, tho I try and avoid mainstream ‘media’ as much as possible.
Would rather know what’s going on in the World than burying my head in the sand, and pretending everything is hunky dory. Conscience….
They would have to employ an army of people to sift through everything in order to add content missed to the algorithm. People are canny and in the end they would find the algorithm excluded everything.
lundiel they already do.
Where this scenario would undoubtedly fail lies in the simple fact that algorithm-generated information is unutterably boring when compared to actual experience of the natural phenomena with which we are genetically linked.
Let’s not forget that WE invented the algorithms, NOT Nature, and so any results of those algorithms are unavoidably the direct equivalent of holding a mirror up to our stupid, misguided brains.
There’s a whole dimension missing there, and Big Brother would have to put all the drug companies on serious overtime in order to produce strong enough drugs to keep us awake.
Now the prospects of an utterly inhospitable planet, burned out and radioactive, does not look so bad. As long as these psychopaths won’t have any oxygen left to waste, I am all for it.
Madness and death both have their appeal to a mind in despair. The attempt to kill ourself in others is the psycho pathy of one set alone against all ‘others’. The capacity for self hate may be masked by inhibition and social scapegoating but it holds the rage of murderous intent. No one – is as hard on you as you are. And when others project or dump their hate to you – it is still your self-attack that joins or is triggered in sympathy. The idea of destruction as freedom from a hateful past is the guarantee of its repetitive stamp upon the presenting of grievance given to vengeance. In a parallel reality, Earth was thus degraded even by a Word such as your own given power, and psychopathy of the perpetual scream set the backstory to a loss of capacity to feel or procreate. Yet invoked from its… Read more »
‘innovation ecosystem of academic, corporate, and governmental partners’
An ‘ecosystem’ is a living thing that requires water and/or sunlight.
What DARPA is serving up is an inanimate, dead distraction.
FD Well, yeah, it’s dead – in that it is virtual – but it excites the same sort of cognitive neural response from virtual interaction as actual physical interaction. Which is why it is so addictive and displacing. The Real becomes the Appearance …the virtual-real. Which becomes reified by its elicitation of a hedonic physical neuro-chemical response. Which, if they can control the narratives generated, is the most powerful behavioural mass manipulation device ever invented. Because it is wired in to the Collective Cognitive Unconscious as a neurotransmitted bio-flow: bypassing the conscious censor. Dumbing down from nuanced and balanced (?) language to inculcated soundbites and neural imagery makes it even more powerful. It is practically a programming device of mass hedonic seduction and simulated freedom in the Society of Control. It becomes bio-propagandic and bio-power by our mass perception of it. The virtual Image is made flesh by our cognitive… Read more »