Showcase Sunday: Controlled: Blind, deaf, dumb

The three wise monkeys of Mizaru, Kikazaru, Iwazaru, who See no evil, hear no evil and speak no evil, get their fame from Japan but are likely sourced and a simplified version of a Confucian proverb;

"Look not at what is contrary to propriety; listen not to what is contrary to propriety; speak not what is contrary to propriety; make no movement which is contrary to propriety" (非禮勿視，非禮勿聽，非禮勿言，非禮勿動)

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What is meant by propriety here is correct, right. And what is oft left off of the modern version is the last component, the position of the fourth monkey Shizaru, Do no evil.

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There is an interesting conflict between the Eastern and the Western understanding of the proverb. In the East it is usually ascribed with a meaning to not dwell upon evil thoughts, acknowledge them for what they are and move on for to spend too considering evil, is to invite it into the heart and from there, action is born.

In the West however, it often symbolizes the turning of attention away from evil so as not to have to deal with it. Perhaps this view has been influenced by other Western views driven by quotes such as:

"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." - Edmund Burke

However, these warnings ironically have fallen onto deaf ears as the people turn away from the evils of the world and bury themselves in anything that allows them to turn a blind eye, stay quiet in the corner. This is not by nature, it is by design.

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The image above is a billboard that was located in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, the home of the Manhattan Project. This speaks volumes of the way the proverb has been used to dictate terms, warn, control in the West.

A 1945 Life article estimated that before the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings "probably no more than a few dozen men in the entire country knew the full meaning of the Manhattan Project, and perhaps only a thousand others even were aware that work on atoms was involved." The magazine wrote that the more than 100,000 others employed with the project "worked like moles in the dark".

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Moles in the Dark where there should be riddles and questions but, government secrets remain buried, whether secret or not for once spoken, there is liability, vulnerability, risk. A lack of control.

That is for some background and now, my views. This post started 12 hours ago on an article by @v4vapid, a #deepdives post into a component of the JFK Assassination. It wasn't the post itself that sparked my interest, it was a comment:

The agency has to continue this bs into eternity, it's absurd when you think about it. It's like the emperor has no clothes and we have to keep going along with these ridiculous lies. - @v4vapid

And my reply:

It is a symptom of the 3 monkey control mechanism. Blind, Deaf and Dumb. - @tarazkp

It is something I have thought a lot about over the years, why do good people turn blind eyes, why do they ignore the signs and instead turn themselves away, why do so few speak up, raise their voices and ask questions?

It is the 3 Monkey control mechanism, where we are encouraged to shift our attention away from controversy, incentivized to focus on the consumption of entertainment and punished for speaking out against the group. It is driven by social proof, if everyone pretends there is no crime then, there was no crime committed.

The propaganda is hidden under many guises, of society, nationalism and patriotism with those who speak out, uncover and leak being oath breakers, traitors to be punished for their indiscretions, regardless of the crimes they are revealing by those in positions of authority, those who are meant to protect and be there for the people.

It is the controlling of the narrative, the pushing of fakenews, twisting and spinning of fact into fiction and fiction repeated over and over until it becomes all but fact in the minds of the public. For every legitimate question raised, there are a flood of conflicting accounts into the media. For every uncovering of a lie, there are 10 more that fill its place with variation of degrees that feed all from one extreme tail to the other.

It is control through the separation of the individual from the community to say, "but I am just one person, I cannot affect it". And then tie that very person to a narrow band to identify with and protect. Polarize all upon shards of glass so they can never communicate and cooperate for long enough to put all the pieces together.

And if they do come too close, there is the data, so much data to pick through and choose from to use as they see fit. To raise the unworthy to positions of power, and debase those who are seeking the truth and come a little too close for comfort or, threaten their investments or power in any significant ways.

Monkey see, Monkey do

We are social creatures and creatures of habit. We are predictable and this makes as manipulable. It is in our very natures to cluster together into groups that we feel are most supportive of us, even if that support is false, a lie, illusion. It is so easy to hack us and condition us to believe what we are fed, to swallow the official narratives, hook line and unthinker.

We have been told that knowing about the world is a sign of the educated, the intelligent but that knowledge is engineered, tinkered with, skewed and warped until what was fact and fiction can no longer be teased apart. To question the story is to be labelled divergent, strange, a kook. "Where is your tinfoil hat?", they ask while they go about their daily grind, a drudgery that from the outside looking in, is obvious to see it for what it is, slavery.

Slaves of body and of mind in jobs and positions that perpetuate the narrative or, build the devices used to shackle the populations and encourage and entice the next generation to also turn the lock and throwaway the key.

A systematic suppression through schools, employment, entertainment, leisure, pleasure and the ceaseless advertising that says, "You are not happy until you buy this".

We are all born freethinkers, curious about the world and all it contains - until we open our eyes and look around at our surroundings, listen to the voices of our parents and the television and repeat what we hear.

"Please may I have? Thank you for giving me..."

From birth we are taught to mind our manners, ask from authority and be grateful for whatever they provide. Do not question, do no be curious for it will only get you into trouble. You need to go to school to socialize, make friends, try to fit in and strive to answer what is asked in order to be granted a job that you will not like, but must do, for to be caught without is to not be able to afford the necessities of life, the products they advertise through celebrities.

Blind, Deaf, Dumb

It is it any wonder that we do not see when there is an avalanche of conflicting reports, doctored images and filters based on algorithms to tailor our feeds for what feeds our views?

Is it any wonder we do not listen when we have been trained to only be concerned with ourselves, to shout into the void with the only echo back a like, a star or a little red heart?

Is it any wonder we do not speak up when we are rendered mute while we sit and stare like the walking dead at screens big and small, consuming nothing more than meaningless filler and news to satisfy another's agenda?

Where is Shizaru?

Where is our action, when there is no attention paid to evil, no ear bent toward the sounds of despair and no words raised in defiance? Where is Shizaru? Where is the action to stand up against tyranny? Where is the rebellion?

There is not and there will not be any time soon, for even though there are the numbers, there is not the will to take the path. We are too busy jumping through the hoops and hurdles placed in front of us by an authority who commands our every move.

We are the organ grinder's monkey, collecting his profits to the beat of his drum.

Taraz
[ a Steem original ]

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This is a repost from 2018 for the @nonameslefttouse initiative, #showcase-sunday. Welcome back.

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