We actually got a question in this week! But we also talk quite a bit about the movie Marjorie Prime, and a bit about current events and such. And ice cream. Oh, and there’s live food purchasing. Enjoy!
QUESTIONS:
If you could change one concept or belief for all human beings, which one would have the most positive impact? –Jas
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Something to clarify regarding my answer… after the medieval church was so successful with the Devil concept, many other empires copied it, but not necessarily using the precise same concept. Even the US has adapted to other kinds of Devils… Nazis, Communists, etc…. the Devil or Boogieman idea — the optimizing of the “scapegoat” concept introduced by Judaism — lays the groundwork for all kinds of empire-level “us vs. them” nonsense that’s easily used for incredibly effective large-scale social control. Which isn’t to say that “us vs. them” didn’t exit before medieval times. It’s just to say that the Devil concept and its derivatives have been so incredibly successful in enhancing imperial and imperial-scale power.
An ostensible rebellion against the superstitions of the medieval church has only served to create a different kind of Devil in US culture. People in the US who think they’re “enlightened” to believe that greed is good, or to think self-interest, tit-for-tat-mindedness, and competition are the most fundamental elements of human life, often believe that “science” has revealed that the medieval church used the Devil to control the natural self-centered impulses of humans, and we’d all be better to shrug off that yoke and be OK with “Enlightened Rationalism”. To these types, the Devil becomes anyone who suggests anything that casts impulse control and altruism in a positive light, framing such thinking as outmoded moralism. It doesn’t help that the loudest critics of these types of people actually are superstitious moralists with a medieval take on the Devil.
Whatever a culture’s or sub-culture’s Devil is, there’s far more attention paid to that Devil than to just about anything else. In that sense, the medieval church didn’t just establish the widespread use of Devils in social control, but they really established a widespread devotion to and veneration of the Devil, albeit as a hateful devotion/veneration (raising the question of what difference there really is between devotion/veneration of hate and devotion/veneration of love…)
This devotion/veneration, however, is NOT what Alex Jones means when he says that the world’s elites are Devil worshipers. 🙂 He’s in that “nutcase trapped in the Middle Ages” camp, obviously…
Agreed, except that I think Alex Jones is more someone who is trying to use the government as devil for social control and profit. Who knows the degree to which he believes or doesn’t believe what he says. As Tony reminded us, he denied believing it when he was in a custody battle over his kids, and it’s also the defense of his lawyers in the defamation case with Sandy Hook parents. But when someone lies the way he does, it’s hard to tell if he’s lying about his lies or not. But he’s not a nutcase in the sense of someone who is just raving off his head with no selfish intention (like making money). He’s not a nutcase in the same way that his listeners who have made death threats against the parents are. Or that guy who went into the pizza shop and shot off a rifle in response to the “Pizzagate” claims. Jones apologized for that one after the Pizza shop owner threatened him with a libel suit.
Point well made and well taken.
And, actually, I’d add that it seems to me that there are at least two ways the Devil concept manifests in contemporary US culture, as superstition and as strategy, and I’d say the “as strategy” version is far more prevalent than the “as superstition” one. And I’m not counting the cases, like possibly with Jones, where there’s a little bit of both superstition AND strategy going on at once.
I’m confident there’s a significantly-sized portion of the US population that harbors no belief whatsoever in the existence of supernatural threats, and yet finds the Devil concept, the Boogieman allegory, so useful and they put it to such thorough use that you’d swear they were the most superstitious folk who ever lived.
Audio levels between the opening and you talking were definitely good this time.
Is the chomp app as magical as TMTH? Or is it magical in a different way?
We’ve not tried out any of the delivery apps/services yet and still only get delivery from those few restaurants who will deliver to our house. I hear Bite Squad has moved into our area, so we might give it a shot at some point. Though I’ve also heard they can be rather pricey and I’m cheap, so maybe not.
Banning of Alex Jones: About damn time.
Marjorie Prime: Eh fine, I’ve added it to my watchlist.
Congrats on the Producer’s first GM experience!
Nutella is an abomination and should never be confused with something that actually tastes of chocolate. Other than that, Rolly Polly sounds good.
That’s right. I’m not actually listening to the podcast. I’m just pounding on my keyboard at random, hoping the letters form coherent(ish) sentences that apply to whatever you’re talking about.