Illusion and Intent

There is, of course, no reason why the new totalitarianisms should resemble the old. Government by clubs and firing squads, by artificial famine, mass imprisonment and mass deportation, is not merely inhumane, it is demonstrably inefficient.… A really efficient totalitarian state would be one in which the all-powerful executive of political bosses and their army of managers control a population of slaves who do not have to be coerced, because they love their servitude. To make them love it is the task assigned, in present-day totalitarian states, to ministries of propaganda, newspaper editors and schoolteachers.… The greatest triumphs of propaganda have been accomplished, not by doing something, but by refraining from doing. Great is truth, but still greater, from a practical point of view, is silence about truth. By simply not mentioning certain subjects… totalitarian propagandists have influenced opinion much more effectively than they could have done by the most eloquent denunciations, the most compelling of logical rebuttals. But silence is not enough.… Without economic security, the love of servitude cannot possible come into existence… but security tends to be taken for granted. Its achievement is merely a superficial, external revolution. The love of servitude cannot be established except as the result of a deep, personal revolution in human minds and bodies.
-Aldous Huxley


The rational human being maximizes utility. Throughout this pursuit, personal tastes play among the most important roles in determining the marginal benefit from engaging in an activity or consuming a good. Interestingly enough, these preferences are the very things individuals accept as practically indisputable, and, as part of our nature, (temporarily) unchangeable. This usually leads to impulse “submission without inquisition.”

The impact of biological chemistry on the decision process, however, is likely over speculated. Certainly genetic composition is a factor in determining one’s actions, but perpetual exposure to conditioning is likely to be included in the function. Since the adolescence of America, an infatuation with everything material has matured proportionately to a budding economy. The media has raised us to save our money for the things we need, and for everything else there’s MasterCard. As the hierarchy of deeper needs pursued by our predecessors seems to fade, marketing schemes push aspirations of each individual toward a tangible conglomerate. With exceeding irony, we forfeit the pursuit of self-actualization in order to extract the earth’s heart and mold it to take the shape of our pockets, all the while making nature a convenient scapegoat. But in chasing an unsatisfiable desire for more, the nature of personal preference is never questioned. Adherence to illusion persists.

The thought-to-action transition is the result of an assumption that consciousness is a neutral collection of thoughts which inevitably lead to logical conclusions. However, consciousness is problematic; it contains bias, error due to lack of information, misconception due to extraneous (or fictitious) information, and irrationality derived from external sources. More often than not, the reality we see only consists of the shadows projected by our teachers, textbooks, news papers, and television programs. Such projections shape our “instinctual” ideals that ultimately compose the aggregate from which we draw our judgments and sentiments, even those regarding of our perception of good and evil.

Streamlined illusion suggests intent, and intent must have an origin. If intent exists, free will is compromised by false consciousness. In this manner concordance has been equated to truth. While “peace is made in such ways… slaves are made in such ways.”