On The Divergent States of Human Beingness and the Regression into Homo Automaton
By Stephen Cocconi
Some will read what follows and think, ‘oh, who is he to postulate such opinions or have the hubris to assert new terms? He has no credentials, no status, no recognized authority, he just puts words together.’ All factually correct. But does that limit its use as an exposition, inspiration, or polemic? Or as an exercise in thought, articulating an opinion, or a First Amendment freedom of expression?
In a nutshell, the above statement/sentiment reflects some stations of our competitive collective state of human consciousness. Sadly, of course, it is those who reject independent and critical thinking. Two aspects of our conscious minds that have simultaneously given rise to amazing advancement in technology and culture, while also revealing to us the potential horrors embedded in many of those same creations. The American election is an emblematic crossroads where the “forces” of mental awareness expanding beyond our animal fears are confronting our most recalcitrant and superstitious natures, as to call it a new hybrid of animal mind: Homo Automaton — the conditioned and obedient uniform creature.
First, we still live in a democracy! Yay! But Homo Automaton has been weaned on ideologies, conditioned by consumptive behavior, and sheep-dipped in a technological goo of partial, dis- and mis-information, triggering instinctive level reactivity instead of investigation and critical analysis, (via Edward Bernays). Information “overload” has so numbed people’s capacity to form questions, let alone consider answers thoughtfully; that even the most superficial phrases can trigger a whole host of vague assumptions often cooking in a soup of amplified emotion(s). The members of this ever-present and regressive sub-species, (often self-selected and sustained via denial) threatens our human advancement. Putting us into post-Hobbesian state of Technosphere that has replaced not only Nature, but suppressed our human nature to contemplate, as well.
Oh, they do have a choice! But the combination of programmed reflexive reactivity, cultivated ignorance, and distorted sense of superiority, will likely cause them to slip the noose of serfdom around their own necks, and sell it off to any paternalistic and pandering authoritarian. Not only willingly, but with a fervor of combined self-righteous religiosity claiming “freedom”, while suppressing the huge pits of economic terrors in their stomachs. Terrors and hardships that they will let in the front gates, manipulated by the very devils they claim to decry. (FYI, evil is all human, not supernatural.) But when it happens, many will cry out in victimhood, in an attempt to self-exonerate, “well, we didn’t know!” But you could have, and should have, but gave up on complex thinking in favor of binary notions and simplistic absolutes. Thinking is a task that requires courage: because it challenges our paradigms which we hold as self-evident truths; our bases for being certain, and RIGHT, and thus an Ego that feels safe in its world!
Certainty is like a tiger trap that anyone can fall into. Yet, for a short time it is a safe enclosure, allowing only what is depicted on the walls to be seen. Yes, some might think of Plato’s Cave; it could be. More often, these days, with all the variations of “virtual realities”, I compare it more to our own personal holodecks. Or maybe a better metonym — my own private Idaho. But as John Donne warned, “no man is an island” unto themselves (all genders here). Their misperceived self-serving choices will have consequences that descend upon all of us. I do not relish anyone suffering from fools. Not even the fools themselves.
But there is the glee, a thrill of group-think that compels and sustains the Automaton. What an affirming and tantalizing delusion to hold “that they believe just like I do.” Yikes! Whoever they are, everyone has their own agendas! And the poor and working class of this nation, interlaced with the fanatical religionist, seldom consider that they might be scammed by their own saviors? The capitalists never fights for labor. Henry Ford only paid “$5 per day” so his workers could buy his automobiles! Self-serving Capitalism is not free-enterprise. And your God has decreed: “love thy neighbor” not “kill the bastard.” Homo Automaton’s current Messiah, and Vice Messiah, have a peculiar way of making repression and revenge sound both holy and American! Sure, if you are a Puritan or Southern slave owner.
Second, on the subject of leadership, not Messiahs, of the two candidates for American President, I am voting to Kamala Harris: a human being from working class stock of educated people. Not one who inherited money, power, conceit, bigotry and deceit, as his birthright. I loathe the idea of Donald Trump’s total depravity as an individual, as documented from all aspects of his private life and public affairs. But more so, his Narcissistic and greedy nature make him the ideal candidate for purchase and manipulation by a Power-Caste: i.e. Plutocrats, Oligarchs, within their corporate fortresses (He loves the smell of Musk). Together they are those who possess too much influence over decisions, and too many of Earth’s resources, which have brought all species to the brink of collapse…including our own! It will be Homo-Automaton who votes him into office. While the Vampire Class (banking and finance), collectively lick their lips anticipating the blood bath that he will unleash: economic, environmental, ethnic, ethical, and emotional; more for them! But they are sexy! And don’t we envy that? And, oh yeah, celebrities too! (He loves Arnold Palmer and hates Taylor Swift.) It could be a joke if it weren’t deadly serious.
This social paradigm and regime change will either fall backward into oppression or forward toward hard work. No one’s ideology will save them, but actual well thought-out plans asserted with clarity and potency can get us rebuilding our institutions reflecting deeper humanitarian values like “the greater good”, or more charitably “the common good”, and bound together with the means of individuals to do their part and earn a stake in the process. For that, technologies of all kinds, must be made to facilitate us, not replace us. As Citizens we can participate more fully in decisions. But as passive consumers or laborers we become nothing more than the feed stock for the “owners of capital” to bow your heads and take what is offered. Real, and depressing, in many parts of the world already, the factors are present in the US and have been since the Reagan administration. Everyone knows what the “negative” or “harsh” or “ugly” turns government had taken, but we chose to look away. Now the effects of the ending “Fairness Doctrine” or the Patriot Act, Gerrymandering Congressional districts, packing the Courts with loyalist Republican judges, deregulating Wall Street, and the constant harangue that “only white people are virtuous” and thus be allowed to vote. All pave way to the dis- and mis-information not just to be spread, but also presented unchallenged by a mass mainstream media(s), that has dropped interest in facts and impartiality, and become enterprises where media is only now partial to: light-hearted fluff to amuse, or the heavy-handed sensationalism to frighten. In was the historic purview of our news media to report accurately while winnowing down to the most substantive facts and then openly editorialize what their meanings might be. Not inventing “alternatives” then denying their biases, in plain sight.
How can this be true? Because those of us who pay attention have simply used the most important tool the human mind has invented: arithmetic! And sadly, when you add all the fear and stupidity of the Automatons, and subtract the lack of courage needed to defeat it, (the shrinking violets of modern liberality want no part of the gruesome confrontation they are trying to avoid); then the result of this cypher is that democracy may be exercised, but then — is itself exorcized! Then all the toothless tigers can perish in the trap together. ?
Pessimistic as this may sound, we still have time to intercept this farce (just 10 days) to NOT make this mistake. Remember, a retreat to Automaton unconsciousness, is a choice that each one of us makes, daily, or at worst — simply abdicates responsibility into. I wonder however, how many people will stand to defend principles over a distorted personality ready to usher in a Pariah state? We will have done it to ourselves. Whatever histories may be written, all will have a subtext of our Humanity’s crucible of choice: it will be interesting to see what the outcome will be? Either way, an uncivil war is boiling. After the election, it will either be spilled over, or simply turned down to a simmer. The question is: will we, or can we, actually begin speaking about solutions to each other, rather than various ranting threats, at each other? It will have to begin with evolving into critical thinking and regulating the powers of the Vampire Class. Otherwise, we will simply be subjugated like beasts of burden, then live the rest of our existence as regretful zombies, wanting desperately to eat the brains we willingly let go.
Now, onto more positive subjects! How about those Yankees?