THE AMERICAN NON-DREAM

—excerpts from William Burroughs—

America is not so much a nightmare as a non-dream. The American non-dream is precisely a move to wipe the dream out of existence. The dream is a spontaneous happening and therefore dangerous to a control system set up by the non-dreamers.

Any progress or system of thought must have a ground to grow on and especially such a vegetable program as this dead hand stretching the vegetable people. The ground for the non-dream program was well laid by the turn of the century, ready for seeds which would yield in course of time hideous fruit.

ON LANGUAGE:

I have already spoken of the difference between hieroglyphic and syllabic writing. (If I hold up a sign on which the word “ROSE” is written, you must repeat the word sub-vocally. If I hold up a hieroglyphic sign for rose you do not have to repeat the word, and even have the option of silence.) Admittedly, two model control systems, the Mayan (more on them later) and the Egyptian, were based on hieroglyphic writing. However, these control systems were predicated on the illiteracy of the controlled. Universal literacy with a concomitant control of word and image is now the instrument of control. An essential feature of the Western control machine is to make language as non-pictorial as possible, to separate words as far as possible from objects or observable processes. (i.e. Cognitive Dissonance)

ON WEALTH:

These (income tax) laws benefit those who are already rich. The richer you are the easier it is to minimize taxes. In effect the rich have closed the doors to extreme wealth. This is necessary to insure that no one acquires wealth who might use it to subvert the interests of wealth and monopoly. There is no tighter hierarchy than extreme wealth, and no one gets in who is not devoted to the interests of money.

ON BORDER CONTROL (also relevant to current internet censorships):

The basic formula on which the control plan depends is unilateral communication. Everyone must be forced to receive communications from the control machine. It will readily be seen that any control measure expands the range of enforced communication. Your passport or visa is not quite in order? You have lost your currency control slip? How many times will you compulsively repeat the explanation you have prepared in case the customs official starts asking questions. So control measures conjure up phantom interrogators who invade and destroy your inner freedom.

ON CONTROL & 2012 (in general):

The ancient Mayans possessed one of the most precise and hermetic control calendars ever used on this planet, a calendar that in effect controlled what the populace did thought and felt on any given day. A study of this model system throws light on modern methods of control. Knowledge of the calendar was the monopoly of a priestly caste (analogous to today’s “scientists”) who maintained their position with minimal police and military force (how panoptic is the effect of the 7 day work week calendar on your life? will there be one moment today that the knowledge of it being Thursday does not effect you?).

Negative goals were implanted by fear. Consider a pair of contradictory commands that were undoubtedly used in some form by the Mayan priests: “to rebel stridently” and “to submit meekly”. Every time a worker nerved himself to rebel the goal to submit was activated causing him to assert rebellion more and more stridently thus activating more and more compulsively the goal to submit. So he trembles stammers and collapses before an authority figure that he consciously despises. No exercise of so-called will power affects these automatic reactions. The goal to submit was implanted by a threat so horrible that he could not confront it.

This seemingly hermetic control calendar broke down even before the Aztecs or the Spaniards invaded. All control systems work on punishment-reward. When punishment overbalances reward, when the masters have no rewards left to give, revolts occur. The continual demands for forced labor on the temples, coupled with a period of famine may have been the precipitating factor. Or possibly some forgotten Bolivar revealed the content of the secret books. In any case the workers rebelled, killed the priests and defaced the temples as symbols of enslavement.

Now translate the Mayan control calendar into modern terms. The mass media of newspapers, radio, television, magazines form a ceremonial calendar to which all citizens are subjected. The “priests” wisely conceal themselves behind masses on contradictory data and vociferously deny that they exist. Like the Mayan priests they can reconstruct the past and predict the future on a statistical basis through manipulation of media. It is the daily press preserved in newspaper morgues that makes detailed reconstruction of past dates possible. How can the modern priests predict seemingly random future events? Start with the many factors in mass media that can be controlled and predicted:

1. Layout: the format of newspapers and magazines can be decided in advance.
2. The news to be played up and the news to be played down: ten years ago in England drug arrests were four-line back-page items. Today they are front-page headlines.
3. Editorials and letters: The letters published are of course selected in accordance with preconceived policy.
4. Advertising: Any number of reactive commands can be inserted in advertisements, editorials, stories, etc. (Cognitive Dissonance)

Such commands are implicit in the layout and juxtaposition of items. Contradictory commands are an integral part of the modern industrial environment: Stop. Go. Wait here. Go there. Come in. Stay out. Be a man. Be a woman. Be white. Be black. Live. Die. Be your real self. Be somebody else. Be a human animal. Be a superman. Yes. No. Rebel. Submit. RIGHT. WRONG. Make a good impression. Make an awful impression. Sit down. Stand up. Take your hat off. Leave your hat on. Create. Destroy. Live now. Live in the future. Live in the past. Obey the law. Break the law. Be ambitious. Be modest. Accept. Reject. Plan ahead. Be spontaneous. Decide for yourself. Listen to others. Talk. SILENCE. Save money. Spend money. Speed up. Slow down. This way. That way. Right. Left. Present. Absent. Open. Closed. Entrance. Exit. IN. OUT, etc round the clock. This creates a vast pool of statistical newsmakers. It is precisely uncontrollable automatic reactions that make news. Contradictory suggestion is the basic formula of the daily press: “Take drugs everybody is doing it” “Drug taking is WRONG”. Newspapers spread sex, violence, drugs, then come on with the old RIGHT WRONG FAMILY CHURCH AND COUNTRY sound.

It is wearing thin. The modern control calendar is breaking down. Punishment now overbalances reward in the so-called “permissive” society. Rebellion is world-wide.

The present controllers have an advantage which the Mayan priests did not: an overwhelming arsenal of weapons which the rebels cannot hope to obtain or duplicate. As their psychological domination weakens modern establishments are relying more and more on this advantage and now maintain their position by naked force. Yet the advantage of weaponry is not so overwhelming as it appears. To implement weapons the controllers need soldiers and police. These guardians must be kept under reactive control. Hence the controllers must rely on people who are always stupider and more degraded by the conditioning essential to their suppressive function.

(Until all is mechanized and automated.)

(heavily chopped & excerpted from THE JOB, written in the late 60’s)