Damn It All to Hell

The weaponization of semiotics as an application of semiotic engineering is explained in an earlier post, “Bernays Sauce” (February 24, 2020). Simply put, weaponized semiotics is the scientific and technological foundation framework of 21st century ‘PSYOP’ — psychological operations “to convey selected information and indicators to audiences to influence their emotions, motives, and objective reasoning, and ultimately the behavior of governments, organizations, groups, and individuals.” In this post, I’ll dig into the dystopian dissonance of USAmerican mythology and civil religion created by semiotic engineering, and how it traps us in a Hobson’s Choice which, if taken, literally will damn everything all to hell on Earth.

What is a “Hobson’s Choice?” It’s “a free choice in which only one thing is offered. Because a person may refuse to accept what is offered, the two options are taking it or taking nothing. In other words, one may ‘take it or leave it.’”

Example: you’re taken hostage by two thugs wearing masks (one wears a red bandana, the other a blue one). You find yourself bound and gagged in a chair facing the two thugs, still wearing their red and blue bandanas over their faces. One is pointing a M1911 .45 pistol at your left eye, the other aims a 9mm Beretta directly at your right eye. One of them says, “Choose!”

Is this really a choice? Yes, and no. It wouldn’t much matter which thug you chose to fire the pistol in their hand, you’d really only be choosing the same thing either way. The differences between the two ‘options’ are irrelevant to the outcome — point-blank gunshot to the head, through one eye or the other. So, no, it really is not a choice in any reasonable sense of the concept.

But there is a third option: refuse to choose, say nothing, force the choice back onto the two thugs. You may end up with two gunshots to the head, one through each eye, but here again, the only real material difference, perhaps, would be in the range and volume of blood spatter and gore resulting from two point-blank mortal wounds to the head instead of just one.

This is a blatant and vivid example of a Hobson’s choice. In this post, I contend that the juxtaposition of the two MR. FISH drawings of Biden and Trump at the beginning illustrates the actual Hobson’s choice USAmerican voters face in Circus2020 if Sanders is not the Democratic nominee for POTUS46. In that illustration, Biden appears as the non- or anti-Sanders nominee. As the incumbent POTUS45, Trump is of course another non- and anti-Sanders nominee.

The ‘take it or leave it’ nature of the choice is clear in the red- and blue-masked thugs with guns example — quite obviously a Hobson’s choice. In the JOE BLOW vs. GO BACK TO SLEEP AMERICA (Trump) illustration, however, the dilemma may not be equally clearly a Hobson’s example. Two key areas of confusion or doubt exist:

1. How are Trump and Biden the ‘take it or leave it’ choice? The red- and blue-masked thugs in the example are both gun-toting murderous thugs and the differences between them are irrelevant to the outcome of choosing either one over the other. How does this apply to Biden and Trump?

2. If Sanders were the Democratic (Socialist) nominee, wouldn’t he be just another thug wearing a different mask (pale blue or perhaps in rainbow colors) and holding a different gun (a .38 Special, say)?

Readers of this blog know I am an ardent Sanders advocate and supporter. To be sure, see previous posts, “The Circus2020 McCarthyism Bandwagon: Red-Baiting Will Continue Until Rationality is Defeated” (February 19, 2020) and “Stakeholder Capitalism v Truthteller Realism: Three-Card Monte at Davos 2020” (February 4, 2020). I’ve also made it abundantly clear that I regard the rapacious perverted love of wealth embraced by the fascist oligarch cabal and their praetorian corporatocracy — the 1% — as the root of all evil in the 21st century. To be sure, in addition to the previous posts just cited, see also as long ago as “Revolutionary Iconoclasm: Final Countdown?” (October 27, 2016) a month before Circus2016, and more recently, “Capitalist Fatuity: 21st Century Addiction to the Fix Being In” (April 3, 2019) and “Whither Hence? Where and How from Here and Now to Then and There?” (January 10, 2020).

From this perspective and position, the differences between Joe Biden and Donald Trump are trivial, irrelevant, and meaningless. Both are malevolent minions of that 1%’s wealth and power that affords their neoliberal globalist rule and control — i.e., the fascist inverted totalitarianism and deep state tyranny that oppresses the other 99% of us and exploits us to death while driving us en mass to extinction by deliberate extermination. This is why Biden and Trump represent one and only one Hobson ‘take it’ option: both stand for exactly the same 1% fascist despotism — if either of them becomes POTUS in November, the 1% fascist capitalism and praetorian corporatocracy that has been status quo business as usual for the last half-century or longer will proceed unabated. This answers question #1 above.[1]

Bernie Sanders is the polar opposite of a fascist capitalist. He wears no masks of any form, hue, or disguise. He stands for a people’s movement in revolution against the rapacity, fascism, tyranny, and despotic evil that are the heart and soul of both Biden and Trump. The only weapons he carries are truth about 21st century reality and the courage to be a leader from that platform when Biden and Trump stand for the same permanent lies of USAmerican mythology and civil religion, namely, that ours continues to a nation, society, and culture wholly committed to liberty and justice for all, a land of the free and home of the brave, an economy of free markets and equal opportunity, and a sanctuary for refugees, the impoverished and oppressed of the world. None of these myths are even remotely true in 21st century reality, if they ever were true at all, precisely because the US Constitution, Bill of Rights, and other founding creeds, articles, and doctrines have been systematically destroyed by that 1% and the toxicity of their vile ideologies and lies. Sanders clearly and fully grasps this tragic truth and ruinous reality of the depths of depravity and pits of perversion into which USAmerica has fallen, and he knows who the gun-toting thugs are behind those masks and the truth and reality that they stand for exactly the same evil ‘take it’ Hobson alternative. His one goal in life as a POTUS candidate is to bring that tyranny down with a people’s peaceful revolution. This answers question #2 above.

But the crux of the matter is this: if refusing to choose between the red-masked thug with the M1911 .45 vs. the blue-masked thug with the 9mm Beretta is the ‘leave it’ Hobson option in that example, what is the ‘leave it’ option in the situations where Trump is opposed by a Democrat other than Sanders in Circus2020 come November? What ‘refusal to choose’ option exists in the Circus2020 Grand Finale come November?

This is where the permanent lies of USAmerican mythology and civil religion rain down like cluster bombs in a drone attack. The ‘leave it’ option in a Circus2020 presidential national election that does not have Sanders on the ballot is simple — it’s abstention! Yes, that’s right. The refusal to vote red for Republican Trump or blue for any Democratic candidate other than Sanders is the only genuinely rational alternative when faced with that Hobson’s choice where the ‘take it’ false choice is no choice at all, but fascist capitalism and praetorian corporatocracy through and through to the core. Both candidates are conjoined evil twins merely disguised in different costumes.[2]

I’ll only respond to one of the most obvious repugnant objections to this ‘no vote at all — leave it’ Hobson choice: “you’ll have no right complain about the outcome and what happens after the election if you don’t vote.”

This is a steaming rancid pile of equum stercore (horse shit): pure dystopian dissonance generated by the permanent lies of the civil religion built on USAmerican mythology. The tragedy is that vast numbers of Democrats — including a plurality if not a majority of disgruntled Sanders supporters — will swallow this horse shit as if it were a gourmet banquet and actually vote for the fascist capitalists and their praetorian corporatocracy, ensuring the juggernaut of bloodthirsty genocidal slaughter, economic rape, and ecocidal ruination they leave in their wake will continue to accelerate on its doomsday journey across the event horizon of Round 6 of Mass Extinction Level Events on Earth (‘MELEE-R6’).[3]

More than a decade ago, internationally recognized speaker, award-winning scientist, and the world’s leading authority on abrupt climate change leading to near-term human extinction (NTHE), Dr. Guy McPherson identified MELEE-R6 due to abrupt climate change as the onrushing truth and reality of the 21st century. According to his analyses, the root cause of NTHE is the catch-22 of human extinction, aka the “McPherson Paradox.” In technical and scientific terms, that catch-22 is known as the “aerosol masking effect” or “global dimming:”[4]

Civilization is a heat engine that is in the process of killing all life on Earth. Unfortunately, turning off the civilization loved by techno-nerdites and those of us born into relative privilege destroys most complex life on the planet, even faster than keeping it running ….
Industrial civilization is a heat engine driving us to extinction. Turning off industrial civilization, or even reducing industrial activity by a relatively minor amount, causes loss of habitat for humans even faster than keeping industrial civilization running. Thus, the Catch-22 that has come to be known as the McPherson Paradox: With respect to industrial civilization, we are damned if we do, and we are damned if we don’t.

Permanent lies of weaponized semiotic engineering obfuscate the truth and reality of McPherson’s paradox in a semiosic Fata Morgana of dystopian dissonance. MELEE-R6 catch-22 truth and reality forming McPherson’s paradox are displaced by the rapacity and mendacity of delusional denial and magical thinking firmly rooted in USAmerican mythology and civil religion.

If by impossibly long odds Sanders were to become the Democratic Circus2020 nominee, and then by the slimmest of chances he were to actually win the November Circus2020 grand finale of the national election, would a Sanders-led administration — even with Democratic majorities in Congress (an even more unlikely state of the Union by 2022) —be capable of pulling humanity and the planet we inhabit back from the event horizon of MELEE-R6? Most probably not. We surely won’t “go gentle” and indeed we will “rage, rage against the dying of the light” since MELEE-R6 will not be in any sense a “good night.”[5]

Despite our desperate hope that there’s a Hobson’s ‘leave it’ choice as a way out of MELEE-R6 and NTHE, there is no such option. McPherson is dead right (pun intended) in claiming, “Acceptance of abrupt climate change leading to near-term human extinction is optional; participation, however, is mandatory.”[6]

Is there any balm in Gilead or light in the black-hole sucking darkness of the MELEE-R6 NTHE that is already upon us all and the planet we call home, brought by the omnicidal 1% in the blasphemous name and incarnate evil of our USAmerican mythology and the fanatic and fantastic religiosity of its civil religion? Those who discern the Hobson’s choice of Circus2020 without Sanders, and those who discern the signs of MELEE-R6 and NTHE as McPherson does, at least will have the comfort of knowing the truth and seeing the light of reality as we self-destruct into oblivion.[7]

In the event of Sanders’ diabolical elimination from candidacy, only those who will have taken the rationally radical abstention ‘leave it’ Hobson option by refusing to vote in favor of 1%’s fascism will have seen it all coming, damning all of us and everything else to hell on Earth. Those others whose dystopian dissonance will have lured them into the ‘take it’ Hobson alternative thus will have forced themselves into an abrupt awakening from their semiotic stupidity and stupor to face an insufferably manifest MELEE-R6 and the personal NTHE of their own being and presence here on Earth. In all probability, this will transpire before the mythical “rough beast” of Circus2024 slouches onward toward Bethlehem to be born.[8]

The end signs! Are we getting the message yet? As for the already walking dead who fail to see the truth and reality of MELEE-R6 and NTHE, or the radical rationality of the ‘leave it’ course of action as the juggernaut of Circus2020 rolls over them and us alike and we all have no choice but to ‘take it,’ finally, “Fuck thém. I wish you God.”[9]

Notes

References cited in the main body of this post (via hyperlinks) and in the notes below are generally the grounds of or provide background for the philosophical, scientific, political, and other dimensions and aspects of my views. Resources available online from amazon may be seen on my public list, THE END SIGNS References.

[1] On inverted totalitarianism, see Sheldon Wolin, Democracy Incorporated: Managed Democracy and the Specter of Inverted Totalitarianism, Introduction by Chris Hedges (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2008 Kindle Edition). On American fascism, see Chris Hedges, American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War On America (New York, NY: Free Press, 2006 Kindle Edition); Chris Hedges, “Fascism in the Age of Trump,” Youtube video (Dec 1. 2017); cf. Bertram Gross, Friendly Fascism: The New Face of Power in America (Forbidden Bookshelf Book 18), Introduction by Chris Hedges, Mark Crispin Miller, ed. (New York, NY: Open Road Media, 2015 Kindle Edition); James M. Collier and Kenneth F. Collier, Votescam: The Stealing of America (Forbidden Bookshelf Book 15), (New York, NY: Open Road Media, 2015 Kindle Edition); Henry Giroux, “Neoliberal Fascism and the Echoes of History,” Truthdig (Aug 02, 2018); and Arthur Haberman, “The American Version of Fascism Is Alive and Prospering,” in The (Toronto) Star (July 26, 2019).

[2] A Facebook exchange with Kyle Droski II after this post was published here reminded me that there is actually another equally rational ‘leave it’ alternative — i.e., using the ‘write-in’ vote option to vote for anyone you like, yourself, your spouse, your favorite mentor or superhero or other fantasy character, or of course and best case, Bernie Sanders. The ways those write-in votes are handled varies from state-to-state, however. In areas where write-ins qualify as a voice to be heard and taken seriously, nevertheless, a massive BERN write-in would be worthwhile. I suppose my initial bias favored abstention in opposition to the utterly corrupted electoral process in its entirety, but a BERN write-in is an intriguing Hobson’s ‘leave it’ alternative. Here’s an interesting reference: “What About Write-Ins?” on electoral-vote.com. According to their about page Electoral-Vote.com was founded in 2004 by Andrew S. Tanenbaum (The Votemaster), a professor of computer science at the Vrije Universiteit. The purpose of the website is to closely track state polling for a clearer picture on election polls. Electoral-Vote has their own established methodology. Along with polling, the website also reports on political news. The Media Bias Fact Check assessment of the Netherlands-based blog rates it as “Left biased” and “High” on factual reporting.

[3] MR. FISH’S TIME TO REBEL illustrates the article by Chris Hedges, “Time to Rebel” in Truthdig (October 7, 2019), and his RADICAL EVIL accompanies Chris Hedges, “The Age of Radical Evil” in Truthdig (October 14, 2019).

[4] Guy McPherson, Only Love Remains: Dancing at the Edge of Extinction (Woodthrush Productions. Kindle Edition), pp. 7-8. A longer but still brief explanation of the McPherson Paradox appears in the book between the two paragraphs quoted here. That omitted paragraph reads:

As most people know, industrial civilization puts into the atmosphere greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, methane, and about 40 others. These greenhouse gases (GHG) act as “blankets” to hold the heat provided by the sun close to Earth. Very inconveniently, industrial activity also produces particulates, (otherwise known as pollutants) that ironically serve as an “umbrella” above the blanket of GHG and thus, in a bizarre twist of fate, protect the planet from incoming sunlight that might further warm those gasses. According to a paper by Levy and colleagues that appeared in the 20 May 2013 issue of Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, these particulates are cooling the planet and, with as little as a 35% reduction in industrial activity, the global average temperature of Earth will skyrocket by 1 degree Celsius. Because this change will occur in about 6 weeks, far too rapidly for humans and most other complex organisms to keep pace, I cannot imagine we will long survive such an event. In other words, industrial activity constantly puts these "dimming" particulates into the atmosphere, most notably by burning coal high in sulfur. The particulates constantly fall out, very rapidly, while the GHG remain locked in blanket status and are constantly being added to as well. If we stop burning coal and other fossil fuels, the skies clear up, the GHG warm much more rapidly, and the global average temperature of Earth thus heats up far too quickly for adaptation.

[5] The quoted snippets are from Dylan Thomas, Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night (1947, 1952).

[6] McPherson, Only Love Remains, p. xii.

[7] “Balm in Gilead” is a Scripture reference, Jeremiah 8:22.

[8] Quoted snippets are from William Butler Yeats, The Second Coming (1919, 1920).

[9] The quoted snippet is the last line of Les Murray, The Last Hellos (1996).