The one common language throughout the world is symbols and symbolism. Not that all symbols mean the same thing to all people, all though many to many do, but the fact that our minds process both our language, and the thoughts that drive us, by symbols.
Words elicit feelings. We don't spell out each word in our thoughts; rather, we clump symbols together at such a rapid rate, we don't have time to think about it.
Children, before they master verbal skills, express the symbolism of their feelings in their drawings. Anger can be dark scribbles, happiness can be birds in the sky... symbols of feelings.
Our common language processing, being symbols, is exploited by those who understand it better than we do. Ads are crafted in words, colors, sounds and behaviors that all leave, to one degree or another, an indelible branding on our memories that can be 'activated' either by repeating the full advertisement process, or later, after sufficient symbol relationship recognition, merely flash the logo and the product, the slogan comes to mind. "Head ON! Apply Directly..." I think we can all finish that one by now, and we all know what it is and does.
Look at the logos of the most prominent brands, McDonald's, Coca-Cola, thouughts of food can be triggered by the images alone, regardless of how long it has been since the last meal. Some advertisements have specific jingles, or signature music that when played, or even begun to be played, is automagically finished by our minds, which accesses the language/smbols/memory banks, retrieves the correct associations, completing the message before the message has more than begun.
Brand recognition is more important to the sale of products/success of a business, than the actual quality of that product. Pharmaceutical companies spend more on advertising than on R &D. No wonder we can't cure the common cold!
Math, Music, Alphabets, playing cards... all compiled of symbols. Happiness, sadness, anger, thanks to the happy face and it's derivations, all easily portrayed by symbols.
Our dreams are exclusively the domain of symbols and symbolism. It is where all that is available for us to know, learn and review about ourselves, our world and our lives, resides in that terrain, and yet, most of us are almost instantly dismissive of our dreams or the dreams of others, as 'worthless'.
Could it be we are missing, dismissing, snarfing contemptuously at, our greatest treasure? The one True Key to greater understanding?
Look at all the things that are practically a reflex in our thinking: Dreams= Nonsense; Coke=Thirsty (want fries with that?); Movies=Popcorn; cars= status; UFOs=not possible; homeless=drugs/alcohol/lazy; Diamonds=love, wealth. Love and wealth becomes 'wealth= happiness' --and it goes on.
We literally have topics we are afraid to think about lest we be ridiculed or go astray! Ridiculing UFO or supernatural experiences is a reflex in our society, overall, despite the fact that most believe they exist!
Symbols of Power
The crafting and sculpting of symbols for products is a long thought out process. Every aspect is explored. Companies pay millions for logos and our government guards closely the symbolism that resides upon our money, our buildings and the language of our laws and slogans. They are crafted, not by fairies and elves, but by those who study the deepest mechanisms of our minds, and who know the maps to our reactions better than we do.
The religious iconography seeks to trigger an almost submissive, unquestioning obeisance, towards those who carry those icons as symbols of their status/role in this life. For this reason, the most powerful churches in our nation seem to be above the law, and we do not question why. A priest accused of molestation is first turned in to his superiors, and they decide if it is true or not. There are many big cities where the church tells the police what to investigate and what is not their business, when it comes to these matters.
A woman turned to the police when she discovered that both her boys had been molested by their parish priest. The police officer told her to first 'go through the proper channels' and notify the church! Essentially, she was told that until the church agreed to have itself investigated, she could not file charges.
Churches and Badges are powerful symbols. In our minds they are linked with God and Good. Those who exploit the symbolism of their rank or position, do the most damage. They cut deeper than the experience in itself. They wound the psyche, and our foundation of symbols cracks. How does one reconcile a symbol of Godliness or Authority with the abuses without running into every wall of conflict at every turn? And what can those symbols be replaced with that would carry that part of the psyche safely through the rest of this ordeal? The conflicts are irreparable.
As a society, we still attach to badges and the trappings of religion with such high and pure ideals that even after repeated events prove the corruption at all levels, and we are horrified, we nonetheless accept the word of a priest, or cop, judge, or government official, as having more credibility than the words of their victims. This despite the fact that most of us can identify with the victims more than we can identify with those who carry the symbols of power.
Mind control relies entirely on the associations of symbols with pleasant or unpleasant intentions and meanings. Symbols are encoded for maximum effect, and we react to those symbols in fairly predictable ways. Most of the time.
Power of Symbols
When we think of China, do we see the Olympics? A bustling society? Probably. But in the back of all our minds, those of us who were alive at that time is another symbol: Tianamen Square. We sometimes see the paper maché statue of liberty erected by the protesters who were seeking more democracy. The statue to them, symbolic of Liberty. They were waiting for other nations, our nation, to support them. They were rolled over, as they slept, at night, by the tanks, sent by the government, to squash them. We remember that because of another incident, rife with symbolism, broadcast the world over: One man, a businessman, with his jacket draped over one arm, his briefcase in his hand, defying a tank.
Because of that, we remain, regardless of our connections and business dealings, and despite our friendships with Chinese People themselves, skeptical, even suspicious of their government.
That one symbol so powerful that it has yet to be erased or even overcome by all the other symbols coming at us with regard to China.
The men raising the flag at Iwo Jima was so powerful at eliciting a fervant patriotic 'high' in our citizens, that our government, when it commissioned the statue to be cast of that event, wanted it to NOT contain one of the people that was in it. One of the people that belongs to a race of people that our government has been, since the beginning, trying to make us forget. They wanted the power of our most inspiring, patriotic moment to be altered to not feature Ira Hayes. Ira Hayes was an American Hero, and "American Indian", and our country wants us to think that Indians don't exist, and don't matter any more. They took a powerful symbol, and altered it, lest we be reminded that we are all Americans. January 12, 1923, Ira Hayes was born. He was a hero at Iwo Jima by age 19, and erased by an act of congress that commissioned the immortalization that excluded him, lest Indian People have a symbol of heroism common to us all.
With all these symbols being generated and stored in our collective psyche, shouldn't we stop to question, from time to time, when they are altered, 'why?'.
I see nothing wrong with associating symbols with products, countries, or spiritual meanings. But I do become suspicious when the most archetypical of them, the ones that reside the deepest in our coding, is twisted or broken. You know that it does not happen by accident.
Raising A Symbol/Erasing A Symbol
By removing a modern day hero to Indian People, and erasing him from the written and retold history, an clear attempt at a deep and wounding genocide of Indian People took place and is still in process.
China, despite all it's muscle and clout, cannot erase the image of that one man, for that moment, defying the column of armored tanks. It is a powerful symbol that is in each of us that reminds us, that at some point, regardless of how overwhelming the challenge and the opposition, we must stand up... even if we only stand alone.
As soon as we come to realize how that is in all of us, the sooner we will realize that we can stand up. And, if we are lucky, we will look around and see, that we are not alone.
The power of the symbolism contained in that one act of defiance, is beyond words.
Those who seek to control us must first control the language common to us all- symbolism. Question why a true symbol has been altered to a less true one, and you will, in your own way, be standing up, quietly defiant. And for that moment and the moments like that that follow, you will be your own person.
Indelible
The one thing true about symbols is that they are cumulative. Once added, they cannot be deleted. Our psyches, individually and collectively, are constantly harvesting and collecting symbols.
If you are going to make a symbolic gesture of some sort, make it count.
You know where to find me.
~Cat
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