Dream Warriors

From Barbelith

(View the discussion (http://barbelith.com/topic/11945).)

Premise: Bush&Co are manipulating public thought and perception not only by overt control of the media during wartime, but also by choosing language to reference myths and cultural fears, frame debates in terms of religious metaphors, play on peoples' subconscious terrors... etc.

I want to explore the myths and themes and meta-themes behind the propaganda. (I'm not very good at this sort of thing - tend to shut out the message and messenger and everything when I feel like I'm being manipulated.) I'd like to be able to counter some of the most pernicious half- and un-truths, and need to do some of it on the same battle-ground of non-rational language and mythic references.

Which is where dream-work comes in... Ritual and the language of the subconscious mind can be used to re-imagine/re-frame what Bush&Co are doing, expose fallacies, and maybe mount a counteroffensive attack. --iszabelle

Table of contents

1 Phase 1: Reconnaissance 1.1 Imagery 1.2 Myths and Themes 2 Phase 2: Decryption/Encryption

Phase 1: Reconnaissance

Here we gather dream images, from full-blown narratives to whatever bits and pieces people might be comfortable donating, as well as historical bits and plots from myths and Bible stories, and jumble those together with the propaganda that the administration is churning out.

Imagery

• The dream warriors as embedded journalists in a VR simulacrum of the Iraq War. The footage has been doctored to include scenes of a poison gas attack that never happened..."gas masks" which really just look like large black sacks over our heads.
• the Kurds run for cover toward a large bust (maybe washing machine size or a little smaller) of Reagan and start crawling into his mouth. "Twenty years ago, they were prepared," Reagan's voiceover says. "They have been conditioned to crawl into my mouth."
• ...a grey bird on the ground captures my attention. It speaks to me in my mind, asking me to make it a necklace of twigs and vines. I do so, and it tells me I have made it its funeral wreath. The emotions attached to the scene are very much calm and at peace. I give the wreath to the bird, and it dies.
• befor sept 11 had a dream about an airplane crashing in my garden...More recently I had a dream about a space ship landing in my local high street, people being scared and running away - also terrified myself - but then remembered it was a dream and went back to try to talk to the spaceman... It seems to me that both of these dreams revolve around fear of things from the sky, the unknown, and powerlessness in the face of aparently overwelming odds.
• Two or three days ago, I dreamt Clinton's face (seriously), and in the dream I was thinking "oh, how do we miss him now", and then serveral comments appeared over his face (like if it was on a computer with text being written over) pointing that his image was false, built, un-real.
• I ended up on some temporary Air Force base where F16s were taking off. I ended up flying, sans jet, around with the F16s trying to talk to them, to see why it was so important for them to be killing everybody on the ground. Behind me, I saw their base get destroyed, and they had nowhere to land. They bailed out of their jets and floated to the ground, and I flew down to them. I noticed they were wearing ballet leotards, but with swan outfits attached to the leotards. They didn't seem to feel uncomfortable in them, so I didn't want to make fun of them, but I was wondering what use swan outfits had in combat.
• the Pope was driving through Baghdad in the Pope-Mobile, and missiles, rockets, and bullets were bouncing off of the shield, and he looked grimly defiant as he drove on through the rubble.
• in the 'States with Izabelle, and she picks me up and turns out to be a black guy. We're arguing about magickal results of stuff we did earlier and he says he sees this stuff as sleight of hand rather than magick. We stop somewhere and he picks up gas - I have to put handbrake on when he gets out and falls over and is covered in petrol. next we head out to meet his girlfriedn who gets in with several cokes.
• We pass an artifical "mountain prarie" attraction and then we go up a big mountain - he points it out to me as Quezecoatal. I'm blissed out at the mountains striking and staggering hugeness. We go up it into a really amazing house where he drives the car up the stairs which fold up to form a smooth runway. Everything in the house is robotised like this.
• one of the signs of the End Times is a great army crossing the Euphrates River. Isaiah 11, Zechariah 9:10, Revelation 16.
• Had a dream last night where Tony Blair was doing Carol Vorderman's job in countdown. He was picking the letters and making them into his own words whilst being overly nice about it in a kinda "I know im doing this wrong but im the good guy" kinda manner. Seemed to be a lot more vocal than he has been recently like when he was first attempting to get into power with his "let me have a chance" speeches.

Myths and Themes

• That there are, in this complex and interconnected world, clear-cut binary divisions: such a thing as a Black/White division between "Good" and "Evil" or that Bush can say, "You're either with us or against us," and make it work... and, obviously, that Bush&Co are the good guys.
• Bush is operating from a personal myth that he's doing God's work.
• Christian or even "Anglophone" culture is defending itself against an Islamic upstart that is corrupt and predatory. Everyone once in a while you'll see some pundit or journo vaguely refer to Mesopotamia or somesuch, but I'd like to see some specifics.
• With "The Administration" fostering the FEAR of "the other" particularly with a label like "terrorist" then how could BRAVERY be used to de-claw that label or illuminate a closer identification with the "other. The average American probably is probably much more similar to what "The Administration" considers "terrorist" than the average american is similar to a member of "The Administration"
• It seems my idea a few months back that they were operating from an idealized myth of the Victorian era of British Imperialism is proving accurate. Look at what we're seeing. Now, we're discussing Iran as being "next", and Sharon seems intimidated into accepting a peace plan. The idea, here, would be to curb terrorism by forcibly stabalizing the region, making doing so profitable by controlling the oil, and making life better for the inhabitants. I don't think all of that talk about making life better for the people there is just talk. I think they really believe that's what they're doing. Think Kipling, and you'll understand the philosophy and thought processes at work, here. They're just using modern tools.

Phase 2: Decryption/Encryption

Here, we contribute ways of reframing that propaganda. Visual concepts from political cartoons, images from Phase 1 that have been spun around, and narratives cobbled together from the contributed dream-bits. These viruses have the same protein coating as the prevalent myths but with payloads of their own DNAgenda.

• References to "the madness of Prince George." It's a play on King George, obviously, with references to the fact that this is Bush the Younger - being less powerful or with too much to prove. Visuals are Dubbya in an oversized throne, with a too-big crown sliding off-kilter.