We live in a world governed by the senses, where the visual dominates. Advertisements are mostly based on the visual, as the movies, magazines and photos are visual, also. Usually every expression has a message. Sometimes it is an open one, sometimes is just symbolic, sometimes is a trigger. Speaking of “trigger”, I remember Zoolander, a movie I’ll praise in a different post, in it’s own category, Movies. What I was thinking now, was to re-group some previous posts in a new and more appropriate category, named The Shadows. I’m also thinking to inaugurate this new category with a post specially designated for it. I thought of this new category for weeks, but today I felt deeply inspired by a post of James Altucher, from Altucher Confidential, a blog whose link, I used to have in my sidebar.
For reasons of SEO and cleanliness, I kept my former blogroll links in a different page, named accordingly, Blogroll links. Actually it was a picture, which reminded me of other kind of posts, more specialized in explaining the “hidden sense” of certain images, in another dear blog, The Vigilant Citizen. As I said, both of them are “dear” blogs, because I read both of them with pleasure, and I’m also subscribed. I can say that I don’t agree with them, they both are not expressing my opinions, especially Altucher, but I’m making a good idea of some things, from both of them, correlated with a great number of other blogs, books and publications I check quite often into. As with this post, both inspire me. Take the following picture, from Altucher’s blog:
Sophie Calle, a pic from Altucher's Blog
Please now, have a look at these pictures, taken from other sources:
one eye hidden (vigilantcitizen.com)
It is just a presentation, I don’t think James had any hidden intent showing that book cover pic (I suppose). So this one is from the site explaining that some symbols represent other things than what they show, and that they may constitute triggers for other “things”. Anyway, maybe you know that Mickey Mouse is a funny cartoon character. The theorists are contradicting the fact, the funny-ness was just a cover.
Jessie J - the "famous" Mickey Mouse salute with an eye closed
I used to be a fervent advocate of Assange. I’m not sure of him anymore, I’m not sure if he and his Wikileaks are not another form of manipulation. A form of distraction they are, for sure. I’m not sure about Adbusters, the organization said it is behind Occupy Wall Street, and also, in the people’s mind having to do with the “Arab Spring”, another controlled media event, as some other things were, two decades ago, and continue to be in a form or another, every time. Oh, the symbols, the drawings, the pictures… I agree with them all, it’s a form of art, it’s quite art, be it manipulative or not. Everything can be manipulated and be an instrument of manipulation. I agree with the explanations as well.
Aleister Crowley (from Wikipedia)
A recapitulation for what this new category will express here, has to be done. I’m inspired of course from The Vigilant Citizen, but from others as well, from sources I dug in for more than fifteen years. Documentation on occult symbolism is rather not easy to find. I used to read the books of Eliphas Lévi (born Alphonse Louis Constant), and Aleister Crowley himself, but they were a little bit nuts, considering all standards. Good for research, though.
Eliphas Levi - The Magician (from Wikipedia)
Taking this statistic from the above mentioned site, I’m presenting the Machine. The Machine is a great instrument of mind manipulation, mind control, programming, standardization of thought and desensitization. Acknowledging that mass media is owned by only five companies or corporations, everything is possible, and the freedom of information is not representing freedom of thought or why not, freedom. The “mass media corporations” are:
- AOL Time Warner which owns Time, Life, People, MAD Magazine and DC Comics, along with other fifty-eight magazines. It owns Madonna, Sean Paul, The White Stripes along Warner Bros, Atlantic, Elektra and more than 40 music labels. It owns WB Networks, HBO, Cinemax, TNT, Cartoon Network, CNN and many other television networks. In cinema, it has Warner Bros, New Line and Fine Line Features.
- Viacom owns CBS, MTV, MTV2, UPN, VH1, Showtime, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, TNN, CMT and BET. Also Paramount Pictures, Nickelodeon Movies, MTV Films and Blockbuster Videos and 1,800 screens in theaters, because it owns Famous Players as well.
- The Walt Disney Company has ABC, Disney Channel, ESPN, A&E, History Channel, owns a big chunk of the cinema production through Walt Disney Pictures, Touchstone Pictures, Hollywood Pictures, Miramax Film Corp., Dimension and Buena Vista International. It owns Hannah Montana – Miley Cyrus, Selena Gomez, Jonas Brothers and more…
- SONY proudly owns Beyonce, Shakira, Michael Jackson, Alicia Keys, Christina Aguilera along 15% of US Music sales, and labels as Columbia, Epic, Sony, Arista, Jive and RCA Records. It owns Columbia Pictures, Screen Gems, Sony Pictures Classics.
- Vivendi Universal owns 27% of US music sales, labels as Interscope, Geffen, A&M, Island, Def Jam, MCA, Mercury, Motown and Universal, along with Lady Gaga, The Black Eyed Peas, Lil Wayne, Rihanna, Mariah Carey, Jay-Z, internet and cell phones companies. It owns the cinema through Universal Studios, Studio Canal, Polygram Films, Canal +.
mass media control
Having this few concentrating centers to manipulate your visuals and subliminally program your thoughts, a few as well, control the rest, actually they can impose everything they want, because they will be obeyed.
from deesillustration.com
I have to end here, because there will be time to write it all, and things are changing, maybe in good, or maybe for worse. Mr. Altucher claimed that his ambition is to write at least 1000 words per day. This is especially constructive when you are Isaac Asimov (an author who is or is not James’ idol, he being more “into fantasy genre” than SF, a confusing fact after all, for me at least, anyway he did not deny his admiration), but when you’re Altucher, more often than ever, could be not.
If you liked what you read (and for that I humbly thank you for your patience), subscribe to this blog by Email! Follow this blog on Twitter, and on Facebook! For a joyous day, check out my pins on Pinterest or my grams on Instagram 😄. I hope you like this blog so much that you think it’s time to take a step further by becoming yourself a blogger; in order to do that have the kindness to read the Own Your Website offer I have prepared for you! You won’t regret. Thanks for passing by 😄 Speak your mind, don’t be shy!
Copyright © 2011 Rodolfo Grimaldi Blog – About Symbols
[…] the new President of the United States. And what media represents, I have presented in another post about symbols, here. But it is a movie, a fiction we all like, a show for us to be entertained and kept away from the […]