CINEMATIC SINS: DEAD POETS SOCIETY AND "ASSUMING THE POSITION"

Ethan Hawke as prettyboy prep school crybaby

The following is an excerpt from Andy Nowicki's upcoming publication, tentatively titled Demon in the Rough

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Film is like music in its ability to transfix and captivate its audience. Both the visual and the aural are mediums through which a hypnotic effect can take hold, causing the participant in the medium to “lose himself” temporarily and engage entirely with that which what spills into his ears and assails his eyes.

THE CULTURE OF MANIPULATION

by James Lawrence

@JWLawrence85

The magnum opus of the late Sam Francis, Leviathan And Its Enemies, significantly expanded and improved upon James Burnham’s theory of the managerial revolution. One way in which Francis built upon the original framework of Burnham was to make a distinction between soft managerialism, the consent-manufacturing type practiced in Western ‘liberal democracies’, and hard managerialism, the coercive type practiced in the authoritarian states of Soviet Russia and Nazi Germany. This aspect of Francis’s theory deserves attention, I think, because it makes an important correction to Burnham that itself requires fuller clarification.

POLITICS ARE THE REAL 'SPORTSBALL': ELECTION AS PSY-OP

by Andy Nowicki

Three Presidential elections ago, I wrote an article for The Last Ditch entitled “I Loathe Democracy.”

In that piece, composed just days prior to the W. vs. Kerry throw-down of ’04, I noted the “elementary error in logic in the very notion of trusting the majority,” which is after all the principle upon which democracy is predicated. But, I added, the dimensions of my vitriol wasn’t limited to a mere quibble over an unsound calculation:

9/11 TRAUMA: INSIDE JOB OR INSIDE JOKE?

The following passage is taken from Andy Nowicki's book, Conspiracy, Compliance, Control, and Defiance, published earlier this year.

by Andy Nowicki

How did the remarkable sight of dissolving, crumbling iconic skyscrapers play upon the psyche of the unsuspecting viewer on September 11, 2001?

REPTILIAN, ALL TOO REPTILIAN

The following is an excerpt taken from Andy Nowicki's book Conspiracy, Compliance, Control, and Defiance.

by Andy Nowicki

Surely the exercise of psychological control, as wielded by the contemporary elite, is not an exact science; indeed, it is probably more of an art than a science. Still, it cannot be doubted that man is indeed an easily exploitable creature; there is no “one size fits all” manner of exercising dominion, as each individual is at least to some degree unique—to control for the quirks in absolutely everyone’s programming would be costly and time-consuming. Yet there does exist a baseline for control, a way of dominating the thoughts of the mass of men (even if some men manage to escape this widely-cast net), of strafing this weary load of penned-up souls with a barrage of stimuli to the extent that their minds are blown and their hearts are wrenched in a manner that aids and abets their psychological enslavement.

THE CHRONIC MELANCHOLIC

The following passage is taken from the text of Andy Nowicki's new book Conspiracy, Compliance, Control, and Defiance. Additional excerpts can be found here, here, and here.

by Andy Nowicki

The suffering soul must ask himself the question: Why is he sad? 

In typical cases of acute or chronic melancholia, there is usually a proximate cause, such as, inter alia, the death of a loved one, the dissolution of a marriage, the loss of a job, or other failure, setback, sorrow, or similar provocation of grief, sorrow, or distress. When, however, the source of one’s melancholia is more generalized or abstruse, then the antidote to this condition is elusive, if not plainly non-existent.

AUTHORITY AND "COMPLIANCE"

"The experiment requires that you continue."

by Andy Nowicki

Compliance, a barely-known and rarely-discussed 2012 film written and directed by Craig Zobel, features a thoroughly unglamorous, no-name cast and is set almost entirely in the most familiar and ubiquitous of establishments: a fast-food restaurant somewhere in the heart of the large swath of country known as "Middle America." Yet this thoroughly unnerving film manages to create an atmosphere of unbearable suspense and creeping horror without introducing any blood, violence, or pyrotechnics whatsoever.

The central premise of Compliance is indeed more disquieting than any "torture porn": the movie suggests that people generally would rather obey authority, even at the expense of their own moral beliefs, than challenge or resist a supposed "man in charge." Instead of fighting, they would sooner meekly allow themselves to be degraded, molested, and violated; worse, they are at least as likely to become equally hapless instruments of degradation, molestation, and violation against others, all to avoid being a bother to someone who claims the power to demand compliance from them.

"YOU JUST HAVE TO DO IT!": THE CASE OF THE SUICIDE SEDUCER

Michelle Carter and Conrad Roy

by Andy Nowicki

There is a very odd scene in the celebrated Rogers and Hammerstein musical Oklahoma, in which the play's hero, the jolly, upbeat Curly, attempts to talk his antagonist, the surly, sullen Jud, into committing suicide.

Jud is a creep, to be sure: a menacing stalker, who is later revealed to be a murderer. Still, the song's humor – and it is funny – brings great discomfort when the viewer considers the inherent cruelty of the circumstance. It is even a little heartbreaking how Jud comes around so readily to Curly's point of view on how his death would really be the happiest outcome for everyone, including himself:

SLAVES TO OUR PROGRAMMING

The following is an excerpt taken from an as-yet-unfinished longer work by Andy Nowicki, tentatively titled "Conspiracy, Compliance, Control, and Defiance"

by Andy Nowicki

Man’s consciousness is invariably attended by what could be called his “programming.” That is to say, man is a needy creature, prompted by nature to desire, and strive for, certain outcomes and eventualities. This much, at least, is clearly and indisputably true. However we may argue about the origin of man’s needs—i.e., whether they were conferred upon him by chance or by fate, whether they are attributable to the loving intentions of a benevolent Creator, or perhaps are merely rooted in the cruel, unconscious whims of a variety of blind evolutionary mechanisms—we must finally recognize that, howsoever and whysoever they came about, our needs to a large degree demarcate our identity.

OUROBOROS

by Brett Stevens

Dogs, despite being nature’s kindest and most enthusiastic animals, have the baffling habit of chasing their tails. They notice the attraction and lunge for it, as if this discovery of themselves could give their lives meaning.

Reputedly, humans are more intelligent and not prone to such behaviors. After some years of experience in the world, I can no longer agree. We are the ultimate tail-chasers but, being social animals, we’ve found a way to pretend that we are not chasing our own tails if we project the image of a tail onto others.