Friday October 2, 2020

Friday October 2, 2020

– Full Moon Phase – illumination, realization, fulfillment, shadow, relationships, experience

– Gardening tips  (from the Farmer’s Almanac) –  October 1st – 2nd – Barren days, do no planting.

– Aspect of the Aeon Sophia: (Wisdom): Shodashi (Goddess Who Fulfills Our Highest Desire) and Matangi

– Aspect of the Aeon Thelete: (Will/Desire): Elias, God of the West, God of Transformation

– Sabian Symbol for the Solar-Lunar Month – New moon in Leo: “A boy with censer serves near the priest at the altar” (& A New Moon reveals that it’s time for people to go ahead with their different projects)

– Sabian Symbol for the Solar-Lunar Year: “A Triangle with Wings”

SUN:  10 LIBRA: A canoe approaching safety through dangerous waters

EARTH:  10 ARIES: A teacher gives new symbolic forms to traditional images

Today I am reminded of the reason we pay attention to the planetary transits that happen throughout the year. I mentioned back when I published the Virgo New Moon Calendar Download It Here  that I have three of my planetary transits this lunar month. And today for me is Saturn Day – or in my words, Bitch-Slap day. Add to that, The Black Moon in Conjunct the moon . . . in Aries (my natal Black Moon). Just a lot of heavy energy.

On the days of the year that your Saturn is activated, typically one can expect: hyper-criticism of self and others, feelings of failing in one’s responsibilities, potential health concerns, feeling that one does not “measure up,” issues with one’s work, heightened control issues (trying to control the uncontrollable through organizing and ordering), feeling burdened, and feeling judged.

Enough of the primordial stew of my chart.

And Now Back to Our Regularly Scheduled Programming . . . 

Continuing on the tirade I started yesterday about the Kafkatrap. I want to explore some other linguistic programming that is pervasive in our world today. So, from the article I cited yesterday, here is DOUBLESPEAK.

Doublespeak

“War is Peace. Freedom is Slavery. Ignorance is Strength.” – George Orwell, 1984

Doublespeak is ambiguous language used to deceive and mislead you. It is the exact opposite of plain speaking.

“Doublespeak is language which pretends to communicate but doesn’t. It is language which makes the bad seem good, the negative seem positive, the unpleasant seem unattractive, or at least tolerable. It is language which avoids, shifts or denies responsibility; language which is at variance with its real or purported meaning. It is language which conceals or prevents thought.” – William Lutz, Doublespeak 

Doublespeak is commonly used throughout the corporate world, in banking and finance, the legal system (“legalese”), the military, and of course by politicians to avoid answering questions without directly stating that they’re ignoring the question.

Doublespeak is used by politicians and the military to make war sound less gruesome:

“I reminded the soldiers and their families that the war in Iraq is really about peace.” – US President George W. Bush, April 2003

In 2014 Israeli military commanders used Doublespeak when they described the massacre of 2,100 Palestinians, most of whom were civilians (including 500 children), in Gaza as “mowing the lawn”.

The four main categories of Doublespeak

There are four main categories of Doublespeak:

• Deliberately ambiguous language used to deceive and mislead you
• Euphemisms (words or expressions substituted for one considered to be too harsh or blunt when referring to something offensive, unpleasant, or embarrassing)

Examples of Doublespeak euphemisms:

• Adult entertainment = porn/sex shows/stripping
• Creative accounting = dishonest accounting methods used to cheat the tax department by exploiting loopholes and presenting figures in a misleadingly favorable light
• Downsizing/rightsizing = workers being laid off
• Revenue enhancement = tax increase
• Capital punishment = death penalty
• Collateral damage = unintended deaths and injuries of civilians during war
• Enhanced interrogation methods = torture
• Ethnic cleansing = genocide
• Freedom fighter = mercenaries and soldiers who are US allies fighting for US causes (if the same fighters were fighting for the other side they would be labelled “terrorists”)
• Friendly fire = when someone is accidentally shot, killed, or injured by someone from their own army
• Human trafficking = modern day slave trade (mostly women and child sex slaves)
• Peacekeeper = nuclear bomb

• Jargon When specialized language is used excessively by professionals (bankers, lawyers, politicians etc.) to confuse or obscure the subject matter to persons outside of the circle – such as clients, customers, voters etc. it becomes doublespeak
• Gobbledygook/bureaucratese When meanings are made unintelligible by excessive use of technical terms in an attempt to overwhelm and confuse the intended audience

e.g. “It is a tricky problem to find the particular calibration in timing that would be appropriate to stem the acceleration in risk premiums created by falling incomes without prematurely aborting the decline in the inflation-generated risk premiums.” – Alan Greenspan, former Federal Reserve Board Chairman

The problem with Doublespeak as author William Lutz quite rightly points out:

“All who use language should be concerned whether statements and facts agree, whether language is, in Orwell’s words, “largely the defense of the indefensible” and whether language “is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.” 

“Clear language is essential so that both parties understand what they are agreeing to. In any contract that you enter into, you have to understand what your obligations and rights are under the terms of that contract.”

“If a company writes a contract in such a way that consumers think they understand what their obligations are, but in reality don’t, they may agree to something they don’t understood, and ultimately cannot fulfill. When companies use anything other than straight-forward clear language to describe the terms of an offer, they’re not dealing honestly in the marketplace, they are setting up consumers to fail.”

 

At this point, I would ask everyone, by a raise of the hands, if you have read the book 1984 . . .

Now all of you who have not, please go read it. Read it twice. memorize it. This is a book that can be called Fiction, Science Fiction, horror, comedy, thriller and Documentary all in one.

I love the meme quote/joke saying that he meant 1984 as a Warning and not an Instruction Manual. And after reading 1984, and then comparing the dystopia he creates to the horror of life today. And worse that we have accepted it.

Government Surveillance

Linguistic Programming

Never-Ending War

Social Abolition of Religion and Spirituality

DoubleSpeak was at the heart of the programming shown in 1984. Go back and read the examples in the article above. Add a few others, like Politically Correct. Corporations that want to bolster their bottom line “downsize” and respected managers get “the golden handshake”. Someone who is unemployed is “between jobs” or “making a career change.” Secretaries and janitors have become “administrative assistants” and “sanitation engineers.”  Perhaps one day, “pedagogical mentors” will replace teachers.

This is the kind of stuff that scares the shit out of me with my kids. I can see it. Will they? Are my children being taught to be drones? Social Justice Warriors?

Pay attention to the doublespeak you hear everyday. Has the person using it simply picked up a bad linguistic habit (like you might pick up an STD)? Or are they actual predators seeking to advance an agenda?