The 2024 Exoneration of Denialism as Defined 2012
Exoneration is a feeling not a fact. Nonetheless the feeling is factual. Denialism itself I defined based on a feeling and not on a scientific survey. In 2012 I called out Denialism based on observations from many years. Finally I felt that enough was nearly too much, that society at large had crossed over a point of no-return.
Within Denialism There are several themes that I have written about. I will mention a few.
In this blog I will provide: a) An Introduction b) Several of my key themes within Denialism c) A conclusion d) a short newspaper article by a weekly journalist
- INTRODUCTION
Denialism is recognition that in many areas of society we have moved far away from a spectrum of informed facts into a world of ideas obsessed with opinions and personal political bias.
There are two ways to consider ‘politics’: a) a wide range of socio-political issues which the public, public officials and businesses in every field must encounter to assist or as is often the case, to mislead any given society; b) the secondary issue of politics is the game and rort/scam known as political parties.
Socio-political issues; and, political representatives are a normal part of any democratic or pseudo-democratic nation.
Socio-political issues for example such as waste disposal and recycling need to be dealt with by government officials as well as elected political representatives. Officials and political representatives need to communicate with citizens and their commercial interests to encourage the raising of concerns, needs, suggestions, and solutions.
I view fields such as the socio-political, political parties, the arts and many other fields as operating with similar human dilemmas. I prefer the social ideas of theorist Pierre Bourdieu who has created a simple vocabulary so that we have a common language to view communicate about any field of human activity. Bourdieu shows that every field of human activity deals with the exact same human problems:
Who has the power? How did they get the power? How do those in power manipulate those who are not in power?
The book of Ecclesiastes illuminates many aspects of the human paradoxes. As do the greater works of Shakespeare; Dickens; Chaplin; Marceau.
In a nutshell Bordieu claims that in every field and every society there is a struggle for power between the orthodoxy and the heterodoxy. The orthodoxy is those who have control via a status quo. The heterodoxy is those who want a change in any given field and propose changes which challenge the power of the orthodoxy. However, invariably once the heterodoxy (the new) becomes the orthodoxy (the establishment) the same power plays occur.
- SEVERAL OF MY KEY THEMES WITHIN DENIALISM
Several of my key themes within Denialism are related primarily to the Performing Arts. Several areas of the performing arts I use as a metaphor for society. My preferred field to critique socio-political issues is indirectly, sometimes. I use the Field of Clown as a metaphor. Clown (and Performing Arts generally) as a metaphor is a relatively safe field to discuss the same problems of power and manipulation which occur in more serious socio-political fields.
In particular I often critique a sub-field within Clown. That is ‘clown teaching’. I see that the same power struggle is as Bourdieu theorized – an ongoing battle of orthodoxy versus heterodoxy. Bourdieu also points out that when a field’s heterodoxy manipulates its way to become the orthodoxy it uses every manipulative trick to maintain power and to inhibit the heterodoxy from gaining a ‘foot in’. Or even a toe in the door. Bourdieu’s terms for such manipulation include: illusio; misrecognition; symbolic violence.
I am currently reading about the two Clowns who may, possibly, be viewed as the First Contemporary Clowns in modern society. They were two men known as Weber & Fields. They were also Producers. After decades of immense personal experience they became like ‘kings’ of comedy. Then one of the two men felt that the team should move further into new possibilities that we could say were the heterodoxy. Whereas they had established their art and success so as to be considered the orthodoxy who inspired generations. One of the team simply wanted to sustain the status quo and one wanted to create heterodoxy – new approaches. Like many partnerships, they decided to part ways. The one who wanted heterodoxy of new avenues of art and business went on to create even greater success. Nonetheless Weber & Fields were among the forerunners and important creators of what became known as the genres of Popular Entertainment in the American style of: Vaudeville; Burlesque; and Musicals.
A Leap from the safe topic of clown to the unsafe topic of socio-political issues.
Let us take a quantum leap to the opposite end of society so to speak and raise the issue that we have come to know as the “Middle East Crisis”. The varied crisis which I have long called “The Muddle East”. That complex of crisis has a sustained orthodoxy that most of society believes is the ‘truth’.
Whereas in fact we have all been conned and cheated with false information and a false narrative that has a clear recent historical lineage. Yet, most do not wish to see facts or what I consider as the; or, a spectrum of facts which may yield heterodoxic possible positive solutions?
Whereas the orthodoxy I would claim is insisting on a status quo which only provides fake and ongoing useless ‘solutions’ which have never worked and are not about to work because those proposed ‘solutions’ are not dealing with some essential facts. Several articulate voices on that subject include: Eniat Wilf; Douglas Murray; and Thomas Sowell amongst an increasingly large group.
Leaping backwards to Clown and the teaching of Clown. To counter the presumed heterodoxy which is completely fallible, I have created, or, noted and labeled a new genre of Clown that is now known as Non-Clown Clowns. I have observed that there is a whole range of non-official clowns in a variety of fields and those Non-Clown Clowns are often significantly more creative, artistically agile, and often even drastically funnier and more profound than the so-called ‘trained’ clowns. One can google search for: Non-Clown Clowns Ira Seidenstein – then dozens of my social media posts will pop up to provide visual evidence.
Commonly associated with the sub-field of ‘teaching clown’ is a sub-field known as ‘physical theatre’. Similarly I noticed that a particular group of performers were and are drastically more physical and skilled than the so-called persons ‘trained in physical theatre’. Those who are better trained physically are called Dancers. I labeled another thread as: Dance IS Physical Theatre. Each video is provided with no comment from me and each has evidence item number. The numbers are not in a real order. Those posts are for example: Dance IS Physical Theatre: Evidence Item #… Then I give the video a random number. Again via search you can find easily dozens of those posts.
Some of the other thread titles I have are: Have Fun Kids; Today’s Sense of Humor Test; Clown Lesson #… It is the Have Fun Kids posts that mostly deal with socio-political issues directly. The title serves as a ‘warning’ or spoiler alert.
Many of the early posts of all those thread titles mentioned can be found and viewed via search using their thread title and my name. However, I also have a ‘private’ fb site which now has all of the threads posts since 2022. One has to be a Member as per all of fb Groups. That is called Clown Secret Group. If I don’t already know you please send me a private email as a brief introduction and then we can ‘sign’ you in as a Member within 1 minute.
- A CONCLUSION
Many people can sense that ‘society’- global society – is at a dangerous or at least precarious crossroad. Part of the challenge is that technology has advanced yet social interactions have weakened in our abilities to communicate in useful and positive ways. Oh mind you ‘everything’ seems quite normal and so many good people are working to keep many things normal but we know something is amiss. Or do we?
That question: Do we know something is amiss? Or are we simply in denial? By 2012 I had already seen enough to call out and label: “Denialism is the new religion(sic) – 2012”. By religion I obviously do not mean a new ritualized and formalized dogma positive or otherwise. I mean religion in that a huge portion of society has fallen for a ploy of the orthodoxy comprised jointly of: media/political parties/large influential governmental councils/large non-elected international councils. Such large councils include for example but not exclusively: UN and its corporation of orthodox sub-groups; WEF; EU; WHO; FDA; CDS etc. Additionally the interrelation of the largest media organizations with other huge corporations including the largest pharmaceutical companies and their even larger owners which are umbrella corporations.
Then we have the variety of major global political players i.e. the several particular nations which comprise the eclectic group that may not rule the world but certainly do manipulate the world in what appears to the naked eye as nefarious, and heinous ways. As said above: “Denialism is the new religion(sic) – 2012” is simply a word to the wise. You or I may possibly be ‘wise’ but I am suggestion via an acceptance of a simple idea that we have to awaken first from denialism. Thus we come to the feature of this blog, a short 5-minutes read, the essay from a day or two ago.
In a momentary pause here I will mention that in my own story. I departed from the USA on a one-way ticket. My departure flight was August 1979 with VERY little money and with no direct work prospects. Friends and new acquaintances asked why are you leaving or later why did you leave the USA? For many years my concise answer was: “America is in a hurry to nowhere”.. Several years later when I was asked the same question my reply became and still is simply: “America was in a hurry to nowhere, and now it has arrived”. I was saying that already by 1990. I REALLY like a LOT of Americans i.e. USA Citizens and even today no matter what field one is interested in you can find absolutely wonderful people in the USA doing wonderful things in virtually every field of human activity.
At the same time, unless you are fully or foolishly a true devotee of denialism than you will admit – there IS a problem.
This essayist is writing in Australia and her concern is our home nation here i.e. Australia. But, wherever you live, you may read between the lines and understand this is an enormous warning in a succinct 5-minutes read. It is up to each of us to interpret what she says. It is all up to you for you. But denialism is also our warning. Just because you have a VERY different political viewpoint and political belief system does not mean that you cannot remove the blinders of socio-political myopia.
Regards as always,
Ira Seidenstein – March 17, 2024 – www.iraseid.com/blogs – iraseid@gmail.com
DRAFT #1 – March 17.