Our Earth
04-12-2004, 00:47
A brief disclaimer: I do not wish to protray witchcraft as either good or bad, I merely intend to present as unbiased a history of witchcraft as I can.
At the request of Brittanic States I have set out to write a little about the existence of witches in the political machine since the beginning of time. A few quick things, when I say political, I include religious, since in principle they are very similar, as I'll explain later, and when I say witches I don't me wart-faced women with pointy black hats who ride brooms. That image of witches, much like the red, fork-tailed image of the Devil was created almost entirely by the real witches I am here to discuss. For this to make any sense we need a better definition of witches than that one people commonly think of when they hear the word. A witch is any person who, by the use of technology misunderstood or completely beyond the knowledge of a target, changes that persons reality. Even conventional stories of witchcraft follow this mold in general. Think, for instance, of the Salem witch trial. The young girls who started the entire thing never provided any evidence that the existential universe had been changed in any way, only that their perception of reality had been altered through the use of witchcraft. This brings us to a difficult block in our path which is our understanding of reality. Reality exists in an existential way, and impinges upon our senses allowing us to create a personal reality based in part on our observations of the existential universe and in part on our preconceptions and the quick editing the brain does as it processes incoming sense data. No two people percieve any situation exactly alike, though they may agree on many aspects of reality. What is especially important to understand about reality is that our maps and models of the universe are entirely composed of symbols which have been given to us by our parents and our society through socialization. These symbols and our understanding of their meaning entirely define the reality in which we live (not existential reality, the maps and models that exist in our head). We live in our heads as much as we live in the physical universe, but we make all our decisions based on our models, which are intended to represent the physical universe as closely as possible, but which are skewed to greater or lesser degrees by the specific symbols we use to create them.
So to recap, witches are people who manipulate the models of reality that we carry in our heads (indistinguishable from external reality) through the use of technologies we do not understand (magic).
The most common form of magic, historically, has been psychology, and more specifically low level brain washing. By changing the symbols we use, or by changing the meaning of key symbols witches in the past have radically altered the way in which the common population views the universe. Think for instance of the Red Scare in the U.S. during the 40s and 50s. By using words like "un-american" and "communist" witches like Joe McCarthy changed that aspect of people's reality maps which described certain people. Joe McCarthy, through the use of witchcraft, changed upright citizens into "godless commies," not just in a superficial way, but in a deep socially inescapable way. Politicians have a great deal of power in this way, as do religious leaders. Every major cult leader knows the principles of brainwashing (another type of witchcraft) and applies them onto potential converts. The convert doesn't know they're being brainwashed because the technology of the witch is beyond that person's base of knowledge. Brainwashing is essentially the same as what McCarthy did, but much more thorough and on a smaller number of minds. Through the use of brainwashing magic people, such as Patty Hearst, have been changed entirely. Everything that was Patty Hearst before she was kidnapped and brainwashed was gone after the brainwashing, her name, everything she believed in, everything that was identifiable as her aside from her physical body was erased and written over. Even the established religions used similar techniques to modern cults, though they often acted more like McCarthy in their lesser manipulations on large populations. For instance, Jesus modified Jewish doctrine in a few key places and preached it to large crowds with the effect of changing their understanding of what was at the time a fundamental belief about the existential universe, that is the nature of God.
I could go on with other examples of witchcraft in common society, but I think I've made my point.
At the request of Brittanic States I have set out to write a little about the existence of witches in the political machine since the beginning of time. A few quick things, when I say political, I include religious, since in principle they are very similar, as I'll explain later, and when I say witches I don't me wart-faced women with pointy black hats who ride brooms. That image of witches, much like the red, fork-tailed image of the Devil was created almost entirely by the real witches I am here to discuss. For this to make any sense we need a better definition of witches than that one people commonly think of when they hear the word. A witch is any person who, by the use of technology misunderstood or completely beyond the knowledge of a target, changes that persons reality. Even conventional stories of witchcraft follow this mold in general. Think, for instance, of the Salem witch trial. The young girls who started the entire thing never provided any evidence that the existential universe had been changed in any way, only that their perception of reality had been altered through the use of witchcraft. This brings us to a difficult block in our path which is our understanding of reality. Reality exists in an existential way, and impinges upon our senses allowing us to create a personal reality based in part on our observations of the existential universe and in part on our preconceptions and the quick editing the brain does as it processes incoming sense data. No two people percieve any situation exactly alike, though they may agree on many aspects of reality. What is especially important to understand about reality is that our maps and models of the universe are entirely composed of symbols which have been given to us by our parents and our society through socialization. These symbols and our understanding of their meaning entirely define the reality in which we live (not existential reality, the maps and models that exist in our head). We live in our heads as much as we live in the physical universe, but we make all our decisions based on our models, which are intended to represent the physical universe as closely as possible, but which are skewed to greater or lesser degrees by the specific symbols we use to create them.
So to recap, witches are people who manipulate the models of reality that we carry in our heads (indistinguishable from external reality) through the use of technologies we do not understand (magic).
The most common form of magic, historically, has been psychology, and more specifically low level brain washing. By changing the symbols we use, or by changing the meaning of key symbols witches in the past have radically altered the way in which the common population views the universe. Think for instance of the Red Scare in the U.S. during the 40s and 50s. By using words like "un-american" and "communist" witches like Joe McCarthy changed that aspect of people's reality maps which described certain people. Joe McCarthy, through the use of witchcraft, changed upright citizens into "godless commies," not just in a superficial way, but in a deep socially inescapable way. Politicians have a great deal of power in this way, as do religious leaders. Every major cult leader knows the principles of brainwashing (another type of witchcraft) and applies them onto potential converts. The convert doesn't know they're being brainwashed because the technology of the witch is beyond that person's base of knowledge. Brainwashing is essentially the same as what McCarthy did, but much more thorough and on a smaller number of minds. Through the use of brainwashing magic people, such as Patty Hearst, have been changed entirely. Everything that was Patty Hearst before she was kidnapped and brainwashed was gone after the brainwashing, her name, everything she believed in, everything that was identifiable as her aside from her physical body was erased and written over. Even the established religions used similar techniques to modern cults, though they often acted more like McCarthy in their lesser manipulations on large populations. For instance, Jesus modified Jewish doctrine in a few key places and preached it to large crowds with the effect of changing their understanding of what was at the time a fundamental belief about the existential universe, that is the nature of God.
I could go on with other examples of witchcraft in common society, but I think I've made my point.