Lip Synch

[Lightning Rod]

http://www.michaeltotten.com/

Lip Synch
for release 08-23-07
Washington DC
by Lightning Rod

On August 22 The Poet's Eye watched George Bush deliver his pre-programmed pean to Freedom and War. He was speaking in front of a friendly audience of veterans in Kansas City. As he went through his litany of modern wars, comparing them all to Iraq, one theme emerged. It was the classic Bush core method and message--Freedom and Democracy lead to Peace.

Well, that's a noble idea. The problem is: it has nothing to do with reality.

As I listened to the speech, which was impeccably written and researched, two things came to my mind. One was Milli Vanilli and the other was B.F. Skinner.

Do you remember Milli Vanilli? That was the 80's recording act that lip synched their music onstage and it was in question if they even recorded it in the studio. Music fans were outraged by this deception when they learned of it.

When I hear George Bush speak (or should I say read?) I often think of Milli Vanilli. I feel like someone is lip synching or that some strange Wizard of Oz ventriloquism is occurring. Not for a minute do I believe that this moron actually wrote the words that are fumbling from his mouth. Can you imagine George Bush staying up late at night doing research on the internet to compose such a speech filled with quotes and crafty arguments? I don't think so.

I must say though, that Bush has come a long way as a public speaker since he was elected president. I wonder if he has a personal trainer? Practice makes perfect you know. Which brings us to B.F. Skinner. You know, the guy who ran rats through mazes?

B.F. Skinner was the father of the only school of psychology which has any basis in experimental science. Behaviorism maintains that animals, including humans, are conditioned by their environment to behave in certain ways. To change human behavior, it is necessary to change the human environment.

Skinner wrote a controversial book in the 1970's called Beyond Freedom and Dignity. In this book he argues that our traditional concepts of freedom and dignity are an impediment to the development of a sound and prosperous society. This is the antithesis of Bush's notion that freedom breeds social tranquility.

The Poet's Eye has often observed that real freedom can never be obtained at gunpoint. Freedom cannot be enforced. Freedom needs the right environment in which to flourish. The environment provided by our military presence in Iraq is hardly a garden for the flowers of peace and freedom.

Ow, it's your thing.
Do what you wanna do.
Oh, baby I can't tell you,
who to sock it to.
It's your thing,
do what you wanna do.
--Milli Vanilli

[stilltrucking]

B.F. Skinner. You know, the guy who ran rats through mazes?

Actually his preferred experimental subjects were pigeons not rats.

Small point I suppose. But you touched a nerve with Skinner. He was all the rage when I was in college in the sixties. We don't have to think about consciousnes. We don't have to look inside the "black box"

Despite criticisms, the theory is shown to have merit in some respects. However, the theory is shown to have fundamental flaws that inhibit its greatness, such as the use of animal research, the "black box" concept of the mind, and the denial of thought and mental processes.

http://www.personalityresearch.org/papers/eischens.html

Dr. Skinner changed his mind when he got old. My friend John Ratey, a psychiatrist at Harvard who wrote the books Shadow Syndromes (with my co-author on this book, Catherine Johnson) and A User's Guide to the Brain, told me a story about a lunch he had with Dr. Skinner near the end of his life. While they were talking John asked him, "Don't you think it's time we got inside the black box?"

Dr. Skinner said, "Ever since my stroke I've thought so."

The brain is pretty powerful, and a person whose brain isn't working right knows just how powerful. Dr. Skinner had to learn the hard way. His stroke showed him not everything is controlled by the environment. But back in the 1970s, when I was getting started, behaviorism was the law.

http://www.grandin.com/inc/animals.in.t ... n.ch1.html

The speech was surreal. The bit about the "killing fields shows a stunning ignorance of history by the speech writer.

[stilltrucking]

Have you ever seen A Clock Work Orange?

http://www.brlsi.org/proceed02/philosophy0111.htm

Not sure what this all has to do with Bush. I just wonder what voices he hears in that black box of his.

I imagine it is pretty quiet in there and he sleeps the sleep of the just.

Behaviorism is kind of making a comeback these days. I think a clock work orange is the down side of it.

Consciousness may be an obsolete concept these days.

Thanks for writting Clay
B F Skinner is a blast from the past for me.
I read Beyond Freedom and Dignity and Walden Two. A long time ago I hardy remember it. Somebody started a commune based on Walden Two.

Twin Oaks Intentional Community was founded in 1967 based on the behaviorist principles of BF Skinner's book Walden Two. We are no longer a behaviorist community, but it is here that our roots lie, and so we are including this information on the wepbage. Note that Twin Oaks does retain some of it's Walden Two roots: the labor system and planner/manager decison-making system were important elements in Walden Two which are still central to life at Twin Oaks.

http://www.twinoaks.org/clubs/walden-two/index.html

[Lightning Rod]

Thanks for the links, truck, and for your usual fine expansion on the topic.

I read Beyond Freedom and Dignity when I was locked up. My environment provided an interesting perspective on the book.

One of the many colleges I attended was North Texas State (now called University of North Texas). It was a hotbed of behaviorism in the sixties. I was in the psychology dept. in my freshman year. I thought these people were a bunch of nuts with their mazes and electric shocks. The implications of this approach to understanding human beings were chilling. (A Clockwork Orange is a great example)

But it also works. The techniques of behaviorism, when applied properly, usually get the desired results. That's one of the things that's scary about it. The question quickly becomes, Who is controlling whom? It is sometimes handy to have the tools to modify your own behavior, but when these tools are used on others, the results can be sinister.

[Dave The Dov]

"I was cured alright".
_________________
1940 recession

[mnaz]

Teams of world class speechwriters frame the issues, set the buzz words, and load the whole package with spin. The message. It's all about staying on-message. The speeches are meticulously constructed of finely-crafted, elegant sentences, flowing from one strong and pure declaration to another, seamlessly, written in English, though meanings of individual phrases are hopelessly, seductively transformed and confounded, negated... Yeah, all these highest-level corporate pols have their words spoon-fed in this way... quite a waste of time, generally, it seems...

Heard a show the other day... is Dubya really as much of a dupe, or a puppet as he appears to be? Perhaps. Or perhaps God really does whisper in his ear... "you are the one I've chosen to bring my gift of freedom to the world"... and he becomes the forceful, courageous decider, even as he perhaps unwittingly thus participates in all manner of unchecked corporate greed and aggression, Xtian last-days rapturism, Zionism, and God knows what other isms (pun intended)...

[jimboloco]

Freedom needs the right environment in which to flourish.

"I was cured alright".

essentially true
a sustainable economics
where profiteers give to the national trust
and community coffers are filled
with proffers of healing and
the ccc comes marching down main street


where is mortimer snerd when we need him?

perfect antidite for the summertime blues

and good old charlie macarthy
mercy
where is he?
wickedpedia



they got more sense than dumbya


as ex-presidunce, he should go hang out with kinky friedman
back in texas
get his wires wavy
ddropp some acid
there's always hope for redemption