Hack Thyself

by Kartikeya Putra  (alienbaby@freaknetwork.in)

"All human beings, all persons who reach adulthood in the world today are programmed biocomputers.  None of us can escape our own nature as programmable entities.  Literally, each of us may be our programs, nothing more, nothing less."  - John C. Lilly, Programming and Metaprogramming in the Human Biocomputer

In the early 1970's, during the early days of Artificial Intelligence (AI) research, scientists from the fields of psychology and computer science came together to try to improve their understanding of how the mind works.

Their efforts eventually resulted in the discipline now known as cognitive science.  One of the more significant books to come out of this early collaborative effort was titled Scripts, Plans, Goals and Understanding by Roger Schank and Robert Abelson, which is still used by psychologists today to support what's called the Information Processing model of human cognition.

In it, the authors suggested that human thinking is based on a set of scripts (programs) people use to meet personal goals in different situations.  The example they use throughout the book is a "Restaurant Script" that tells people how to behave when eating out in public, in order to meet the goal of getting fed.  What would you do if you ordered a hamburger and the waitress brought you a hot dog?  Your scripts tell you how to handle this situation, what to do when the bill comes, and how to handle the multitude of common transactions that take place in the restaurant environment.

Scripts People Live: Transactional Analysis of Life Scripts by Claude Steiner is a book about a form of popular psychology called Transactional Analysis.  Here the author talks about how everyone has a sort of running "life script" which is basically the story of your own life as you like to tell it.  Inside this script there are recurring roles that are often learned in childhood, which inform us how people are supposed to behave.  I doubt that anyone ever reaches adulthood with a completely accurate script of their own life story - but if you can become conscious of your script, it's possible to start improving it and improving the way you write it as you go along.

Some of our most basic programming concerns what it means to be "good" or "bad."  When parents, teachers and other authorities are training us how to be "good," often this has very little to do with doing what is right and is more about training us to behave in ways that are convenient for them.

Today the task of programming "reality" has substantially been taken over by television, which is like a very-low-frequency mindcontrol device that sits in your living room, tuning YOU in to the corporate Matrix mainframe.

It is sponsored by corporations who are not concerned with anything at all except selling their products.  In one of my favorite commercials on TV right now, this bland dude who looks to me like he knows he is about to become a complete tool holds up a McDonald's chicken sandwich and proclaims, "Let's hear it for nonconformity!"  Are you f*cking kidding me?  It's so phony it's almost avant-garde.  Andy Warhol would love it - I find it disturbing.

I know that there must be a lot of people out there who don't see anything wrong with this ad and others who even buy into it, who think that eating a chicken sandwich for breakfast really is "revolutionary."

When we were teenagers, some of us correctly perceived the system as hypocritical and said, "Screw this, I'm out of here."  As an adult with a little perspective now I can see that there's nothing wrong with wanting to do your own thing, but rebellion against the system is still a part of it.

Maybe we found a peer group who claimed to represent "the resistance," the anti-system but it's a trick, the anti-system is still part of the system.  By joining it you think you are becoming free, but it's just a trick.

As an "outsider," if you break laws or do things that hurt yourself or others, you're just playing in to the role the system wants you to play you're doing exactly what you are supposed to do as an "outsider."  The anti-system system is there because they need "bad guys" so that they can play the "good guys" in comparison.  If you are good and not one of them, the whole system collapses.  That is revolutionary!

The foundation on which the whole sado-masochistic world system is erected is the perception of yourself as a victim.  A lot of people are starting to figure this out, and when that number reaches a certain tipping point it is going to alter the structure of the Matrix.  Seeing yourself as the world's victim is profoundly dis-empowering and keeps you locked in a cycle of self-created pain and misery.

We break free from this cycle by making a conscious decision to accept complete responsibility for creating our own reality.  Get a copy of The Anger Habit in Relationships: A Communication Workbook for Relationships, Marriages and Partnerships by Carl Semmelroth and study it like a bible.

Drs. Barry and Janae Weinhold have an excellent series of e-books titled Breaking Free From the Matrix.  There are a lot of wonderful books out there to help us take control of our minds and emotions and break free from the Matrix of social control - find them, and free your mind.