Psychological Operations could be thought of as a Martial Art. As such the discipline of “psy-ops” can be used to attack or defend a concept. Many people come to RI every day to lurk. They are read-only entities here. Those that choose to interact and post their own thoughts and reactions must choose a name (such as “Inanity Shins” or “eat Eggos in the Arcade” etc). This name is a persona. The persona is a mask.
For those that reject the notion that they wear a mask on RI because they only think of a mask as a tool of deceit, consider this: welders wear masks when they work, not to deceive but to protect themselves. A mask is a tool, how the wearer chooses to use it is up to them.
A Person interacts on RI through a Persona. A Persona can diminish some aspects of a Person, while it exaggerates others.
There is a Human Being named Howard Stern. Mr. Stern has a life. Part of that life is to go on the (satellite) radio every day and talk. When he is in front of the microphone talking, Mr. Stern puts on his “Howard Stern” persona. He talks a little about his kids, but he doesn’t mention their names or the names of his kids’ friends. He diminishes those aspects. He talks a lot about sex. Mr. Stern the person likes sex, but there are times when Stern the person may not be in the mood, but he has booked Jenna Jameson or some other porn star and so Stern the Persona engages with the porn star and talks a lot about sex. For a while part of Stern’s persona was that he had a very small penis, but eventually it became obvious that this was an act. Mr. Stern had his reasons for putting forth this idea that he had a small penis.
I am sure that many people that come here to RI only use the Persona to hide/protect aspects of their lives. That is, they don’t use their real name or give out their Social Security number while on here. At the same time, they don’t use their Persona to exaggerate who they are as a Person. They would be like the welder who I mentioned above. That is great, good for them. Meanwhile, if I or anyone else wants to use the Persona to exaggerate some aspects of themselves, guess what? There is nothing anyone else can do about it. If there is no through line to this exaggeration, if I contradict myself, readers will pick up on it, and they will store that info away and approach my contributions on here accordingly.
The Ian that is a human being writing these words has a degree in Theater and a degree in Television Production. The pieces of paper hanging on the wall mean little to me. Any high school drop out reading these words may have just as deep an understanding of Drama or knowledge of PAL vs. NTSC as me. But my experiences at Umass/Amherst and Emerson are invaluable to me; I acquired many tools there. I learned how to use a mask and also how to spot when others are using them.
I often drag aspects of the Porn Industry into a thread if I feel they resonate with the subject at hand. When I do that am I wearing one of those pair of Satyr Groucho glasses, where a big Phallus replaces the nose? Absolutely. In the end my main concern is whether the Persona who started the thread I am contributing to appreciates where I coming from when I come to their thread-party with my “Randi Pan the Goat Boy” mask on. If they really don’t like it, I am more than willing to back off and continue on in the thread with a more laidback persona. At the same time, if they are cool with it, it bothers me less if others on the thread don’t like it. Where did I get this structural approach with “rules”? Probably from taking lots of improv classes.
What does this have to do with Humanity or Hugh Manatee?
Anyone can come onto this Board and attempt a psy op. If you pick up on it, you can call them on it. Or, if you choose, you can run a counter psy op.
Spy Vs. Spy.
I against Eye.
Keyword Hijacking is a tool in the Psy Op toolkit. Hugh has every right to hone his awareness to the use of this tool, and to encourage others to be more aware. I have never taken him to task for this. I have only expressed an annoyance with Hugh when he insults others intelligence by suggesting that they (Chavez, for example) are blind to the school of psy ops. Perhaps they are blind, but perhaps they are actively engaged in running a counter psy op of their own and are playing “possum”.
Another area where Hugh and I seem to disagree is when a psy op is being run on a general populace or when it is being aimed at a more selective audience. By focusing on the Porn audience and expounding on the possibility that psy ops are being run there, Hugh seemed to feel I was mocking his reading of the more Mainstream Hollywood Marquee.
Again, think of New York City in the days of Scorcese’s “Taxi Driver”. If the uptown posh Marquee has Eastwood’s “PLAY MISTY FOR ME” spelled out in big block letters and the downtown gritty section of the city has Metzger’s “MISTY BEETHOVEN” on its’ marquee, perhaps this is a happy accident.
Perhaps not.
In the ‘70s, when Ford told NYC to “drop dead”, what was going on in the Empire City? Who was running the Avon Cinema on 42nd Street and for what purpose? Is it a happy accident that Davian’s “Night of Submission” accurately mirrors Maury Terry’s Process/SOS cult theory of the Son of Sam murders? Perhaps. The movie ran endlessly throughout ’76 at the Avon theaters. Terry believes the Sam cult liked to film their exploits. Were psy ops a tool of this cult? This deserves research.
Hugh reminds me of some guys I see at the gym. You know the guy. He is at the gym all the time, but he only uses three machines while he is there. He has huge biceps, but no lats. Amazing abs, but no calf definition. He does not go to the gym for a well rounded work out.
Again, Let me be clear, the human being/person that comes on here as Hugh Manatee may be very well rounded in the study of the school of psy ops. But Hugh Manatee the persona dominates the keyword machine and barks at you if you say its’ your turn to work out on it.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/86/TragicComicMasksHadriansVillamosaic.jpg
Person/Persona – two different things
research
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drama
http://www.metasex.org/
by chillin » Sat Nov 10, 2007 5:53 am 
