I Think About These Things… (a bit dated but I still think about it)
The Mayan Long Count Calendar ends December 21, 2012. Why is this significant? I decided to research this event and found the following:
Is there something significant we should know about the Winter Solstice date of December 21, 2012?
Yes. On this day a rare astronomical and Mayan mythical event occurs. In astronomic terms, the Sun conjuncts the intersection of the Milky Way and the plane of the ecliptic. The Milky Way, as most of us know, extends in a general north-south direction in the night sky. The plane of the ecliptic is the track the Sun, Moon, planets and stars appear to travel in the sky, from east to west. It intersects the Milky Way at a 60 degree angle near the constellation Sagittarius.
The cosmic cross formed by the intersecting Milky Way and plane of the ecliptic was called the Sacred Tree by the Maya. The trunk of the tree, the Axis Mundi, is the Milky Way, and the main branch intersecting the tree is the plane of the ecliptic. Mythically, at sunrise on December 21, 2012, the Sun – our Father – rises to conjoin the center of the Sacred Tree, the World Tree, the Tree of Life..
This rare astronomical event, foretold in the Mayan creation story of the Hero Twins, and calculated empirically by them, will happen for many of us in our lifetime. The Sun has not conjoined the Milky Way and the plane of the ecliptic since some 25,800 years ago, long before the Mayans arrived on the scene and long before their predecessors the Olmecs arrived. What does this mean?
Due to a phenomenon called the precession of the equinoxes, caused by the Earth’s wobble that lasts almost 26,000 years, the apparent location of the Winter Solstice sunrise has been ever so slowly moving toward the Galactic Center. Precession may be understood by watching a spinning top. Over many revolutions the top will rise and dip on its axis, not unlike how the Earth does over an extremely long period of time. One complete rise and dip constitutes the cycle of precession.
The Mayans noticed the relative slippage of the positions of stars in the night sky over long periods of observation, indicative of precession, and foretold this great coming attraction. By using an invention called the Long Count, the Mayans fast-forwarded to anchor December 21, 2012 as the end of their Great Cycle and then counted backwards to decide where the calendar would begin. Thus the Great Cycle we are currently in began on August 11, 3114 B.C. But there’s more.
The Great Cycle, lasting 1,872,000 days and equivalent to 5,125.36 years, is but one fifth of the Great Cycle, known scientifically as the Great Year or the Platonic Year – the length of the precession of the equinoxes. To use a metaphor from the modern industrial world, on Winter Solstice A.D. 2012 it is as if the Giant Odometer of Humanity on Earth hits 100,000 miles and all the cycles big and small turn over to begin anew. The present world age will end and a new world age will begin.
Over a year’s time the Sun transits through the twelve houses of the zodiac. Many of us know this by what “Sun sign” is associated with our birthday. Upping the scale to the Platonic Year – the 26,000 year long cycle – we are shifting, astrologically, from the Age of Pisces to the Age of Aquarius. The Mayan calendar does not really “end” in 2012, but rather, all the cycles turn over and start again, vibrating to a new era. It is as if humanity and the Earth will graduate in the eyes of the Father Sun and Grandmother Milky Way.[1]
Ok, but it’s only 2008. What is happening closer to today? Let’s see, by law all analog broadcast television has to be digital by February 17, 2009. “On February 17, 2009 all full-power broadcast television stations in the United States will stop broadcasting on analog airwaves and begin broadcasting only in digital. Digital broadcasting will allow stations to offer improved picture and sound quality and additional channels“.[2]
The countdown has begun. I wonder why February 17th was chosen? Maybe it has to do with Michael Jordan and Paris Hilton’s birthdays? Or Geronimo died on this date in 1909? The odds on favorite has to be, Pope Pious the XII declaring Saint Clare of Assisi the patron saint of television on that date in 1958?[3]
Many have questioned why conversion to digital is necessary. According to www.dtv.gov congress decided dtv is necessary. (strike one: if congress thinks it’s a good thing hold on to your wallets.) The DTV booklet on their site declares such a move is necessary to free up limited bandwidth for public emergency services usage (or so the argument goes) and that is a good thing but they attached a glaring rider… “and new wireless services, such as wireless broadband.” [4]
So who benefits? I am not naïve enough to believe the government is doing this on my behalf, for my benefit. Why is Congress so Gung-Ho about the public viewing DTV and HD programming? That is another thing that has bugged me for years… why do they call it programming? And what do they mean by programming?
In an Image driven culture DTV and High Def will once again draw everyone’s attention back to focus on the altar of the entertainment gods. They were tired of their worshippers multi-tasking and wanted undivided attention . So will DTV make programming (however you define programming) easier?
part 2
So, what is the magic behind all this forced conversion? I was a radio technician in the Marine Corps and I understand a little about signaling so I’ll see if I can keep this very simple. The exact wording on this change concerns “full” power stations specifically for the February 17, 2009 change over. What this means is the full power “analog” station uses what they call the entire envelope for a given frequency. It takes tremendous power to drive such a signal so it is less efficient and more costly to provide. What the FCC is doing is telling the “full power stations that they need to broadcast digitally on only a portion of the frequency band. The full band of any given frequency has an upper portion (upper sideband) and a lower portion (lower sideband). The current analog signal uses both the upper and the lower portions, pushing the entire width to deliver the signal. What will now happen is the stations will use only a portion of that signal (usually lower) to deliver the signal. It will take less power to deliver the signal and it will “free up” the rest of the frequency for other uses. In turn it will allow the government to auction twice a$ many license$ for the $ame amount of frequencie$. (cha-ching!)
So why won’t your TV work if the station stays on it’s current frequency when it cuts over? Because your receiver will not be getting the entire signal it requires in order to process the picture and audio after the change over. This will require you to either buy a set top converter (cha-ching) or a new television (cha-ching, cha-ching).
I still wonder if there is some connection between a enhanced visual image and programming? If normal analog signal programming produced the couch potato… what will HD programming produce? If DTV will allow multicasting on the same frequency can HD imbed subliminal images and programming that will only be able to be detected in the subconscious? I’m not trying to be an X-files Mulder-ite here but I think about these things.
So what will 2012 bring? Will it bring the next phase of human evolution? When this once in 26 thousand years event takes place and the long count calendar is “reset,” will we find we are evolving to a higher plane of existence? If it is so then it scares me to think that the next evolution of man will be built on the foundation of our current condition. What will be the necessary agency that drives the change? What overwhelming need will ignite the spark for change? Will it be: Biological? Psychological? Spiritual? I don’t know since I don’t watch enough Oprah. But next year I can see it in HD. I digress.
Order cannot come from disorder, if there is no absolute standard where we can anchor ourselves morally we cannot hope for something better to arise from that which is already broken. Without a standard there is no difference between “is” and “ought” and each one is left to practice what works for them. Wait, we are already there aren’t we?
It’s 2008, the Mayan long count calendar ends in 2012. Charlie Manson will be eligible for parole in 2012.
I think about these things
[1] http://www.planetpapp.com/br21december2012/
[2] http://www.dtv.gov/
[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/February_17 1958
[4] http://www.dtv.gov/DTV_booklet.pdf pg 5.
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Manipulating the Masses…for their own good.
Posted in Americanized Religiosity, Authority, Control and Corruption, Government, Just Thinking, life, Livable philosophy, Manipulation, Obedience, Power, Propaganda, Questions, Religiosity, Shadows, Social commentary, Spin, tagged BELIEF AND BEHAVIOUR, Brave New World, Control and Power, culture, Manipulation, Power and corruption, Programming, Propaganda, Religiosity, Spin, thinking, Thought patrol, Worldview on Sunday, May 19, 2013| Leave a Comment »
Opening passage:
THE conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country.
We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of. This is a logical result of the way in which our democratic society is organized. Vast numbers of human beings must cooperate in this manner if they are to live together as a smoothly functioning society.
Our invisible governors are, in many cases, unaware of the identity of their fellow members in the inner cabinet.
They govern us by their qualities of natural leadership, their ability to supply needed ideas and by their key position in the social structure. Whatever attitude one chooses to take toward this condition, it remains a fact that in almost every act of our daily lives, whether in the sphere of politics or business, in our social conduct or our ethical thinking, we are dominated by the relatively small number of persons—a trifling fraction of our hundred and twenty million—who understand the mental processes and social patterns of the masses. It is they who pull the wires which control the public mind, who harness old social forces and contrive new ways to bind and guide the world.
It is not usually realized how necessary these invisible governors are to the orderly functioning of our group life. In theory, every citizen may vote for whom he pleases. Our Constitution does not envisage political parties as part of the mechanism of government, and its framers seem not to have pictured to themselves the existence in our national politics of anything like the modern political machine. But the American voters soon found that without organization and direction their individual votes, cast, perhaps, for dozens or hundreds of candidates, would produce nothing but confusion. Invisible government, in the shape of rudimentary political parties, arose almost overnight. Ever since then we have agreed, for the sake of simplicity and practicality, that party machines should narrow down the field of choice to two candidates, or at most three or four.
Read more here: http://www.historyisaweapon.com/defcon1/bernprop.html
Americanized Religiosity is an important part of the Control Mechanism.
As distasteful as this ideology is to the “American Spirit” of rugged individualism it is an accurate observation on the mechanics of how society operates. The important thing is to see it, understand how it works and be aware of how it is being used. Knowledge is power.
Personally I would rather be consciously aware (at least as much as is possible) of how I am being manipulated than blindly following the power masters programming.
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