When one
does philosophy, one dismantles strings of concepts into their
respective parts to examine both the parts themselves and the
relationships the parts have with each other. This semantic reduction
provides us the best possible opportunities for finding truth. This
was exactly the type of skill Brian Taylor needed to write his new
book Anti-Social Engineering the Hyper-Manipulated Self, postpaper
publishing, ISBN: 978-0-557-99909-5 https://www.lulu.com/spotlight/postpaper
The
book began as a series of blogged essays in a response to the
“Authenticity” movement presented by the like of Eckhart Tolle,
Andrew Cohen and to a lesser extent, Dr. Phil. These men, and others,
were coming to conclusions on the idea of authenticity that were,
among other things, subjective fallacies, rife with interpretation
and possibly counterproductive. On the other side of the coin we had
skeptical guru Michael Shermer or perhaps Richard Dawkins making up
one half of the “four horseman of the non-apocalypse.” These men,
“scientists,” were and still are guilty of the same faults as
their spiritual counterparts, interpretations rather than knowledge.
Brian Taylor wanted to know, “Are there any actual
answers in the arena of the self
and its power?” As it turns out, reality is far stranger than ever
before known and we actually know so much less than we think we do,
if it can be said that we know anything authentically, at all.
After
four years of research into our ideas about the self through the
ages, the sciences of the self and what the self is, this book comes
to the conclusion that the modern self, you and I today, are not only
manipulated, but that manipulation is sought out,
required and pre-programmed. This is a book about how we are all
being intentionally hyper-manipulated without our knowledge, by whom
and to what end.
To
“anti-social engineer” is to counter this phenomenon of modernity
through critical consciousness, dubbed “assignee's prerogative.”
This self direction is aimed toward eudaemonia, which is an
Aristotelian idea roughly meaning “happiness and promotion,” and
it is further suggested that virtue is found in the mean between
excess and deficiency, in these concerns. This sounds rather simple
in such a paragraph form, rest assured, chasing the meanings and
relationships of these ideas to any philosophical depth requires a
maze of rabbit holes and someone to guide you through them. Taylor is
nothing if not thorough in this regard.
Entertaining,
personal, conversational, exact and profound, this book has a strange
undercurrent, almost a charge running through it. Most clearly
defined in it's most opinionated moments, there is a subtext, not a
call to arms but to a social contract. Taylor says, throughout the
book, that it is specifically battling social engineering, the
command, hidden or not, “think this about that.” Yet, he too
wants us to think a certain way, a centrist “golden mean,” a path
of no extremes. Making an argument against his ideas is difficult,
regardless of the talking points he uses. (These vary from possible
moral objections we may hold for prostitution or murder, to social
norms such as supporting the troops or the war on terror.) In his
most controversial moments, when objectivity is at its thinnest, the
author's existentialism shines through and he suggests it's better to
not claim to know something than to suspect something incorrectly.
The exception to this rule is when the social engineering is secret,
malicious, degenerative or merely in error.
There
are things that we can do anti-social engineer our hyper-manipulated
selves and Taylor spells these tasks out clearly. Firstly, social
engineering, be it delivered by a television commercial, ideology,
civility, social construct, etc. is to be expected and recognized.
Then Taylor presents us his Philosophy Generator which is described
as “a dismantling of paradigm” and a way to determine if any
particular social engineering is more persuasive or manipulative. If
we are able to first know what it is we are deciding, then
do our best possible thinking on the matter, which is what working
through the Generator is for, we should be able to be confident in
our decision, whatever it may be. Furthermore, given the
standardization of awareness, contemplation and centrist philosophy,
it should be expected that the same benefit experienced by
individuals would transfer to societies.
The
book ends with a chapter called “God wears a yellow hat.” It is
concluded with a list of 24 interesting intentions, (23 actually, one
of them is missing,) this list is not meant to be a complete index of
the topics discussed, but rather an indication of the book's scope.
The war on terror, the war on drugs, food transportation,
consumerism, capitalism, communism, false flags, dehumanization via
technology, God, 2012, patriotism, culture, globalization, human
rights and religion. There is an entire chapter devoted to a
reasonable discussion between the two sides divided over the
conspiracies associated with September 11, 2001. This book discusses
conspiracy as it dismantles thought, which is a strange dichotomy.
Taylor seems to want to convince us that he is a reasonable man, with
a reasonable method and if such a man can find a reasonable
conspiracy, we can take the suggestion from the fringe to the
mainstream. He may be right. However, this is not a conspiracy book,
this is a book about thinking.
One
comes away from the experience of reading this book enticed to do
more and this is the goal. Anti-Social Engineering the
Hyper-Manipulated Self is about taking responsibility and looking
ahead, prudently. It doesn't want to take anything away from you,
you're entitled to have your beliefs as the author has his. We need
our beliefs and we even need social engineering, these things are
part of a natural, healthy species. The dangers of our beliefs are
represented by the lack of awareness of them and the inability to
think critically about them. Taylor argues that, if in fact we are
not thinking well about the things we believe, we are not living up
to the reasonable purpose we have as human beings. This appreciation
of hyper-reality and our place in it defines our authenticity and is
the promise expressed by the 21st
Century Enlightenment.
