sat 26 dec 2009 00:48:55 — witte de withstraat
impressions of michael tsarion
i watched michael tsarion's film "architects of control". here's what i think.
many rational people would agree that our minds are constantly being manipulated by those who will benefit from our complacency, docility, and gullibility. you can see this effect throughout history and of course in the present day. it isn't at all far fetched that governments and corporations connive to channel our thinking and our behavior. people do manipulate each other; people in power do it powerfully. it's that simple.
tsarion takes this simple, credible assertion and makes it sound like lunacy. he is taking a perfectly sane subject and making it sound mad.
in the film i watched, tsarion's argument about the ubiquity of mind control does not contain any actual arguments. it's a meditation. he speaks of nefarious activities as "documented facts", but does not show us the documentation. instead he invokes plots of hollywood movies to convince us. he invents implied endorsements from former movie stars like lee majors, as if movie stars are sources of trust. he excerpts clips from other people's films (unfortunately including one from adam curtis) as evidence for his own points -- even when his points are tangential to those excerpts.
even as he cites some credible plots against human freedom, he discredits himself by using a manner of discourse which strongly resembles the psychotic. (if you've ever sat on a long bus ride next to a psychotic, you'll recognize what i mean.) pay attention to his sequencing, and try to see how one thing leads to another. you'll find that his logic is almost purely associative. he rambles between disconnected topics, using the suspicion evoked by the first as proof of the next. by the end, he has stitched together a universe of collusion which, if real, would require the unbelievably secret collaboration of millions of unseen agents.
a glance at the range of other subjects tsarion publishes on -- from atlantis to 2012 -- shows that rather than trying to demonstrate anything, he is just smashing the pinata of suspicion.
conclusion:
if i were a government trying to cover up my conspiracy, i would hire michael tsarion to expose it.