Evil Genius: Sometimes It Backfires

EVIL GENIUS: Sometimes it Backfires

Devils. Charismatic Villians. Sociopaths. "Pretty Little Liars". Evil Geniuses.

I am now 49 years old.

I am old enough to remember a time when every movie, tv show, and program on cable and the internet DID NOT have  a charismatic villian to deal with. It's show business to be sure, and it helps if your bad guy is easy on the eyes. He also needs to be clever to keep the story going or at least difficult to find.

WHY AM I mentioning this? What's the point? Well, I feel as if it's becoming too pervasive. And I think it's causing the United States numerous mental health problems (and in turn exhoribitant losses) that it doesn't realize it has.

GARBAGE IN, GARBAGE OUT

Tell me, have you heard of these aphorisms or terms before? Can you tell me where they come from? Here goes: Garbage In/Garbage Out. As a man thinketh, so is he. Psychocybernetics. Reticular Activating System. You are what you eat. You become what you think about. The Strangest Secret. Behavioral Psychology.

I was listening to a podcast by an intelligence officer who was discussing his work with Russia. He has been studying them for quite some time and does this for the agency. He said, "In Russia, the way to power is through the military." and "In Russia, spy movies and [hacker] movies are on 24 hours a day. It's a part of their diet." Now, everyone knows how "shrewd" the moves made by Russia have been over the last few years. They even show up in American cinema and culture constantly (I have predicted this is by design and a way to prep Americans for a possible merger in the future. I did this on Twitter 2/14/18 and have also explained the psychological strategy on Twitter but it was years ago.).

Is there a cause-effect relationship? Scroll through the movies offered by Netflix, HBO, Amazon and at your local cineplex and you will discover that everyone from Jason Bourne to Fred Flinstone is battling a "devil". Hell, even Adam and Eve had to deal with a snake that talked them into stealing fruit from a tree that would grant them the ability to think for themselves. And what are snakes anyway if not "smooth" "mesmerizing" and "poisonous"?

There is a personality typing system--possibly the oldest one known, called the Enneagram. The personality type, "charismatic devil" is a Number Three in the model. In all, there are nine core personality types, each with a healthy and unhealthy version of the category. There is, according to this model, a Healthy Three...

I feel this topic is relevant because I am discovering too many people who are cackling like witches (or Pretty Little Liars) when they encounter someone they have done wrong instead of remorse. And it's not callousness because the person injured is an enemy.

 I find Unhealthy Number Three's constantly in law enforcement, Hollywood, and politics as well as young people who haven't finished maturing yet. I myself went through this faze temporarily while growing up and still have the journals and drawings to prove it. (If you are Enlightened, there are consciencious ways to use this "archetype" as needed.) Do you know where I (almost) never encounter this personality type? The STEM fields!!

Let's put this one away for now and address what's happening on the other side of court. This is where you will find your nemesis:

THE SUPERSOLDIER

If there's one thing that's becoming as pervasive as the charismatic devil, it's got to be the goddamn "supersoldier".

Do not misunderstand me. I regard myself as a supersoldier in my own right and I am attracted to people who are "gifted" and have been since I was a teenager. I was casually looking at IQ tests and "psychometrics" before the area of study even had a name.

However, this is becoming something trite in contemporary storytelling. You can't go to the aforementioned places (the cineplex, Netflix, HBO, Amazon, etc.) without "tagging along" with the recruitment of some young man or woman as they undergo a training and transformation into a superman.

In fact the first place I am personally aware of this pattern is in the original, gorgeous, timeless Star Wars of 1979. Luke Skywalker, a peasant and farmworker, is trained to become a Jedi Knight by Yoda, a caricature of a zen master and puppet. (They have no idea how lucky they are to have pulled this off onscreen.) But since then, there are too many too often. Superman, Spiderman, Ironman, The Incredible Hulk, The Hunger Games, Jason Bourne, and myriads and myriads more are following into the same pattern of training and transformation.

Now to be fair, if you are a fan of say, Ironman, as I am, watching him build his suit, as he did in the second film, was totally awesome. It fleshes out the character and let's you into his world a little more thoroughly. I found the scene motivating.

Just like the Evil Genius, the Supersoldier is also pervasive and showing up in numerous places: podcasts and podcasters (guilty), comic books, DARPA, books, MMA training and fights, nootropics, gene therapies, ketogenic diets, "Unlimited Power" weekend seminars,  and doctors who no longer treat ill patiens but only work with healthy clients on "health extension and maximization".

If you were a parent or the CEO of a company (or country) you would certainly want to have a bunch of healthy supersoldiers running around. And I don't mean Evil Geniuses confused with Supersoldiers or vice versa. You want the strongest calibration you can reasonably get for integrity. AND THAT my friend, brings me to the final section of this blog and it's whole point:

WHAT ARE YOU CALIBRATING FOR?

Undoubtedly you have a self-image. What is it? Do you know where you got it from? Are you conscientously managing it or is it a haphazard thing? Not only do you have a self-image, an IDOL, but you are likely trying to stay in rapport with it as well. All of this is happening subconciously.

Are you a Supersoldier? An Evil Genius? Are you a Martyr? A Catholic? An Athiest? A skinhead? Are you a Leader or a CEO? How do you think a CEO is to act or behave? How does a CEO treat others? His equals? His subordinates? Where did you get that idea--from Netflix or someplace else? Who and what are you worshipping? What are they making you do or say?

Whatever you are calibrating for is taking place in your subconcious mind. Make it concious. Become aware of it. Change it. Try something else for a while if you can or want to. Or just leave it, if it is serving you well and your devotion to it is ecological (intrapersonally and interpersonally) and positive for the world you live in and the people around you.

The consequences are EXTREMELY HIGH to have a nut in a position of power who sees himself as a "charismatic devil" and he doesn't have to be a president of the United States. Police officers who see themselves this way or a group of people who see themselves this way (you'll probably find them on the Deep Dark Web) are demonic in their mistreatment of their fellowman and of all of the systems that support us--economic, judicial, moral, ecological, military, educational and so on. Even Hollywood has people who use something like 250,000 gallons of water each month to water their rose garden (this is not a joke) while just a few miles away in Van Nuys, people are not allowed to wash their cars or run the washing machine between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. (or thereabouts. I have a friend who lives in Van Nuys and he can't even water his front or backyard anymore. The whole neighborhood looks terrible.)
But who gives a shit, anyway? Not me.

I personally feel that the United States and other countries have far too many people who have been unwittingly duped into becoming "Pretty Little Liars" and that was possibly unintentional. After all, there is a lot of pressure to make a profitable comic or novel and if that is what's selling, then that's what they'll sell. The problem is the cybernetic loop created by the audience who start mimicking what they contracted in the theater.

Be well,

-T-Nietzsche

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Note to Hollywood: It's been too long since we've seen a masterwork like Presumed Innocent. A fantastic thiller with an antagonist who is a total surprise and unassuming.
"They just don't make 'em like that anymore."

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"Hey brother, can you spare a dollar?" No seriously--did you learn anything in the last five minutes?! Feel free to reciprocate. Anything helps, if you want to:
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Oh, I almost forgot to mention!!! I have launched the #1000xH8 hashtag and it's going well. Be sure to check it out on Twitter!! And please tell your friends!!

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"I 
have been
born
many times and so
I have 
many 
names..."
-Ghost In the Shell