| Topic: |
Religions > Atheism |
| User: |
"Enkidu the Atheist" |
| Date: |
13 Nov 2005 08:35:43 PM |
| Object: |
Give Me Cognitive Liberty |
Give Me Cognitive Liberty
By Salim Muwakkil
http://tinyurl.com/cyu4a
The failure of the drug war is so spectacular that irrational motives
must be driving it.
Psychoactive drugs offer access to varied states of consciousness;
restriction of this access is a fundamental form of repression.
Consequently, the "war on drugs" is not just a campaign against the use
of certain substances; it’s also an attack on "cognitive liberty," or the
right to control individual consciousness.
This argument has a libertarian pedigree, but there is a growing
movement, concerned with expanded consciousness and cognitive liberty,
that has adopted and adapted it.
"The so-called war on drugs is not a war on pills, powder, plants and
potions," argues Richard Glen Boire, founder and executive director of
the Center for Cognitive Liberty & Ethics (CCLE) in the Summer 2000
edition of the group’s Journal of Cognitive Liberties, in what amounted
to a manifesto for the group. Instead, he writes, "it is a war on mental
states—a war on consciousness itself—how much, what sort we are permitted
to experience, and who gets to control it."
Established in early 2000 as a "nonprofit law, policy and public
education center," the CCLE was formed to advance the argument that true
intellectual freedom includes control of one’s own awareness. The group
defines cognitive liberty as "the right of each individual to think
independently and autonomously, to use the full spectrum of his or her
mind, and to engage in multiple modes of thought."
By labeling this civil rights battle a "war on drugs," Boire argues, the
government is trying "to redirect attention away from what lies at ground
zero of the war—each individual’s fundamental right to control his or her
own consciousness."
One of the most significant aspects of this war, he suggests, is the
demonization of "entheogenic" (which means generating the divine within)
substances thought to facilitate sacred experiences.
"Archaeological evidence suggests that humans have communed with
visionary plants and potions for thousands of years," he writes. "Peyote,
for example, has been used for over 10,000 years. Mushrooms, of the Genus
Psilocybe, were used to produce visionary states at least as early as
4,000 B.C."
Many in the cognitive liberty camp connect the use of "entheogens" to
"shamanistic" practices of the many indigenous peoples colonized by
Europeans since the beginning of the 15th century. These practices
reportedly provided direct access to sacred experiences, and threatened
the clerical authority of the conquering powers. Thus, an attitude was
born that not only criminalized but also demonized entheogens. This
attitude has seeped into larger society, and now taints all substances
that alter consciousness.
The drug war incorporates this irrational bias. In fact, that sub-rosa
agenda helps explain why America’s drug warriors fail to heed evidence
that their prohibitionist crusade has failed.
Not only have our antidrug policies not produced a drug-free society,
they have endangered civil liberties, nourished a bullet-riddled
underground economy and earned the United States the title of the world’s
largest jailer. These policies have generated global cartels of drug
dealers, inflamed racial animosities at home and diverted untold
resources from productive social investments.
Even on its own terms, the drug war has been a flop; illicit drugs are
more available and less expensive than before the war’s declaration.
The failure of this war is so spectacular, irrational motives must be
driving it, says Boire. And he is on point with a growing movement of
Americans. The contemporary trend—some have labeled it the “neo-shaman”
movement—is a new wrinkle on the so-called New Age movement, with some
psychedelics and ’60s movement politics thrown in.
Included in their number are more than the "usual suspects" of graying
hippies, New Agers and assorted bohemians. One of the groups leading the
charge is the Council on Spiritual Practices, founded by Robert Jesse, a
former vice president of the software company Oracle. Jesse’s group
focuses on evoking “primary religious experiences” and believes many
things can trigger these transcendent states, including fasting,
meditation, prayer, yoga and entheogenic drugs.
The United States acknowledged the legitimacy of these substances in 1995
when Congress amended the American Indian Religious Freedom Act to allow
the Native American Church the sacramental use of peyote in all 50
states. Devotees believe peyote allows the faithful to contact God
without the need of an intermediary.
Governments, not just organized religions, fear that kind of
independence, say advocates of cognitive liberty. But criminalizing
people who use outlawed substances for spiritual exploration is a much
bigger crime, they argue.
Even in my current, sober state of consciousness, their arguments make a
lot of sense.
--
Enkidu AA#2165
EAC Chaplain and ordained minister,
ULC, Modesto, CA
PGP ID: 0xC4CE8CF0
Better to rule in hell than serve in heaven.
-- Milton
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| User: "Colin Day" |
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| Title: Re: Give Me Cognitive Liberty |
14 Nov 2005 07:51:18 AM |
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Enkidu the Atheist wrote:
<snip>
However objectionable our drug laws are,
there is still the question: are the cognitive effects of
psychoactive drugs positive or negative?
Colin Day aa #1500
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| User: "Enkidu the Atheist" |
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| Title: Re: Give Me Cognitive Liberty |
15 Nov 2005 12:05:11 AM |
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Colin Day <cday3@sc.rr.com> wrote in news:WlXdf.211$xD5.357581
@twister.southeast.rr.com:
Enkidu the Atheist wrote:
<snip>
However objectionable our drug laws are,
there is still the question: are the cognitive effects of
psychoactive drugs positive or negative?
Colin Day aa #1500
So, tobacco and alcohol should be banned as well? Or is it up to the
citizen to make that choice? Why may the citizen choose wine but not
pot?
--
Enkidu AA#2165
EAC Chaplain and ordained minister,
ULC, Modesto, CA
PGP ID: 0xC4CE8CF0
A mystic is someone who wants to understand the universe, but is too lazy
to study physics.
-- Josef Balluch
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| User: "Colin Day" |
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| Title: Re: Give Me Cognitive Liberty |
15 Nov 2005 02:13:04 AM |
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Enkidu the Atheist wrote:
Colin Day <cday3@sc.rr.com> wrote in news:WlXdf.211$xD5.357581
@twister.southeast.rr.com:
Enkidu the Atheist wrote:
<snip>
However objectionable our drug laws are,
there is still the question: are the cognitive effects of
psychoactive drugs positive or negative?
Colin Day aa #1500
So, tobacco and alcohol should be banned as well? Or is it up to the
citizen to make that choice? Why may the citizen choose wine but not
pot?
I asked about the cognitive effects of drugs, not whether they should be
legalized or not.
Colin Day aa #1500
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| User: "Enkidu the Atheist" |
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| Title: Re: Give Me Cognitive Liberty |
15 Nov 2005 05:52:56 AM |
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Colin Day <cday3@sc.rr.com> wrote in
news:Qubef.272$xD5.466526@twister.southeast.rr.com:
Enkidu the Atheist wrote:
Colin Day <cday3@sc.rr.com> wrote in news:WlXdf.211$xD5.357581
@twister.southeast.rr.com:
Enkidu the Atheist wrote:
<snip>
However objectionable our drug laws are,
there is still the question: are the cognitive effects of
psychoactive drugs positive or negative?
Colin Day aa #1500
So, tobacco and alcohol should be banned as well? Or is it up to the
citizen to make that choice? Why may the citizen choose wine but not
pot?
I asked about the cognitive effects of drugs, not whether they should
be legalized or not.
Colin Day aa #1500
I suppose that depends on the subjective experience of the user. Kind of
like sex and art, we all know what we like, and we don't all like the
same thing.
--
Enkidu AA#2165
EAC Chaplain and ordained minister,
ULC, Modesto, CA
PGP ID: 0xC4CE8CF0
Man is a marvelous curiosity, he thinks he is the Creator's pet, he even
believes the Creator loves him; has a passion for him; sits up nights to
admire him; yes and watch over him and keep him out of trouble. He prays
to him and thinks He listens. Isn't it a quaint idea.
-- Mark Twain
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| User: "Michael Gray" |
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| Title: Re: Give Me Cognitive Liberty |
14 Nov 2005 12:42:49 PM |
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On Mon, 14 Nov 2005 07:51:18 GMT, Colin Day <cday3@sc.rr.com> wrote:
Enkidu the Atheist wrote:
<snip>
However objectionable our drug laws are,
there is still the question: are the cognitive effects of
psychoactive drugs positive or negative?
Colin Day aa #1500
Huh? What was that, dude?
I wasn't listening...
Oh look, a birdie!!
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| User: "Michael Gray" |
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| Title: Re: Give Me Cognitive Liberty |
14 Nov 2005 05:11:38 AM |
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On 13 Nov 2005 20:35:43 GMT, Enkidu the Atheist <enkidu@leaddogs.org>
wrote:
Give Me Cognitive Liberty
By Salim Muwakkil
http://tinyurl.com/cyu4a
The failure of the drug war is so spectacular that irrational motives
must be driving it.
:
The so-called "War on Drugs" has not failed at all.
(If you realise what it's real goals are)
The "War" is intended to:
* Marginalize certain unproductive** society members.
(That is the reason that the elite's choice of drugs
are not on the war list.)
* Scare the bejesus out of Joe Public, to make him more compliant.
* Increase income for Prison related industries, including "slave"
workers.
* Increase income to the private "crime control" industries, such as
surveilance, guards and so-on.
* Act as an excuse to interfere in South American countries.
* Allow the supply of US military arms and assistence to Colombian
war-lords, to the benefit of US military suppliers, who are naturally
paid with public money.
Such policies make good sense, as part of a program that has radically
concentrated wealth while, for the majority of the population, living
conditions and incomes stagnate or decline.
** Unproductive, adj.- Does not uncomplainingly work long hours for
***** money for a multi-national corporation.
cf. "Disposable People" (see Michael Tonry, and Sen. Moynihan, who
said: "we are choosing to have an intense crime problem concentrated
among minorities")
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