“The aim of public education is not to spread enlightenment at all; it is simply to reduce as many individuals as possible to the same safe level, to breed a standard citizenry, to put down dissent and originality”
– H. L. Mencken
The Human Mic might sound like a work-around to restrictive city ordinances, a ‘progressive communication’ tool that allows us to speak and achieve “consensus”, but it may also be the fingerprint of whoever is behind Occupy. The technique seems to have been born after NYPD imposed measures banning megaphones, and yet not all cities in the USA prohibit bull-horns or amplified speakers.
Most of us have come through the state education system, whose chief objective is to teach groups and individuals to obey. Aside from our need to be led by a lone, singular voice, the underlying social engineering tool which has enabled the intellectual and sovereign castration of Americans is quite simply… the fear of being arrested.
To the casual observer, this new of communication may appear as compelling as it is metaphoric. In most cases, it takes triple the amount of time for us to convey the same amount of information that anyone else would accomplish by talking directly. This can only be done when the group is forced to repeat, so the speaker talks slowly, using fewer words at once.
It is a mesmerizing, hypnotic group communication tool.
We’re asked to listen in a new way and to actually help transmit the message. Accuracy and transparency are the crucial elements to the Human Mic, according to some. Yet NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) methods are used to promote ‘group-think’ and could be described as collectivist mind control education at its finest.
Systems like this are commonly used by sales people, in advertising and of course politics, working in a restricted bloc of words, with restricted vocabularies. Facilitators insist that this is done so that everybody is safe, and that the group is doing things properly. Any interaction with a speaker can only be done by employing a series of parochial child-like hand-signs, normally reserved for children attending school in K-8 grades.
There is an appeal to ‘being part of the community’, where facilitators ask the crowd for a ‘temperature check’ in order to determine “how ‘the bloc’ feels about what someone has said”, and if what someone is in consensus with “the bloc”. In this system, most of the group has little idea of what it is actually repeating, or who and what it is supporting with its hand signals, especially making a triangle sign to communicate.
We may truly believe in the process and that the process is very ‘democratic’, civilized, radical, effective, and thus, revolutionary.
Few of us are aware of the NLP concepts we have opted into, nor are we familiar with tried and tested mind control methods, nor the powerful political tool of collectivism. So it is not surprising that we enthusiastically join and abide by its laws of conversation, following some scripted agenda instead of being spontaneous or truly radical.
The Human Mic can also lead us to believe that by these hand signal votes we can create a law and enforce it.
This can often result in an oxymoronic “totalitarian-consensus”, where a perceived consensus occurs, but in reality, a consensus was only reached because each member of the group was afraid to be rejected by the collective. We get an endorphin rush similar to what you might receive during an evangelical church performance, or even at hip-hop concert, where the MC shouts, “now wave your hands in the air, and wave ‘em like you just don’t care.”
More than anything, call-and-repeat chanting shows the deep problems any true freedom movement must overcome in reaching ‘he 99%. In these times, the simplified message of collectivism championed by celebrities like Michael Moore will certain hold an attractive appeal to many Americans who are unfamiliar with its well documented past horrors. In times of economic strife, populations are easily lured into a simple, ideological trap like collectivism.
To avoid the collectivist trap, we need to learn to read between the lines, or we may unwittingly become party to something completely different to what we thought we had signed up for in the first place.
Most instances of the human mic are not in the GA, but in rallies, marches and that sort of fun. Take another look.
The first time I saw someone make the “point of process” gesture I couldn’t believe my eyes — I thought the person was actually kidding. It wasn’t until I saw others do this that I made the connection. You’ll see the same symbol on the back of the $1 Federal Reserve Note. Creepy …
The people’s mic. and hand signs do make some uncomfortable, I’ve heard more than a few make remarks like “are we in kindergarten ?”. I don’t know what else can do without amplification. Any ideas ?
i could be wrong on this but i think this person is making a link to the illuminati and the movement. it has been said in entertainment underground circles that certain hollywood celebs are in with the illuminati. there are tons of youtube videos and websites implicating rappers and actors (not all are black, but some are) being in on some plot to take over our minds and the world, using nefarious influences through the illuminati. there is sort of a “groupthink” involved in symbology and images that are supposedly fed to the populace in songs, videos, photos, etc.
Also, why do you have a bunch of pictures of famous black people making the triangle sign? Is this a race thing or something?
I actually read the whole thing. I studied linguistics and political economy in college, and I do think that you’ve got a point about a kind of ‘collectivist high’ that people get form feeling that they are accepted for where they are, rather than who they are, or what they think.
However, having participated in the human mic, myself, I have had no problem voting down things that I disagreed with after repeating the words in the human mic. In fact, most things that go up to a vote are turned down, which makes it difficult to see the assertion that saying is agreeing, actually pans out in a vote. Also, since the human mic isn’t forced, anyone can speak louder in repetition when he or she agrees, and stop talking altogether if they disagree or just don’t feel like repeating.
I’m not entirely sure, but I think that one of the reasons that while the open mic may look like group think, but not turn out that way in the vast majority of votes, is because the average person going to a GA, is doing so knowing that at least half of the country disapproves, but their integrity and individual convictions drive them to action– which is not the type of person who wants to be spoon fed.