Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad: “The HORROR!” and Insanity of Colonialism: Mindgasms Book Chats
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Newest Mindgasms Book Club Chat with Parker and the Woke Centrist about Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, his brilliantly constructed metaphor against the horror and insanity of colonialism, expressed in evocative, resplendent and kaleidoscopic prose. The main character goes looking for Mr Kurtz, who is in charge of an ivory trading post deep in the heart of the jungle during the colonialism of the British Empire. Kurtz has gone insane, and the main character has to find him, while being totally desensitized to the atrocities of slavery that he sees on the way there. We talk about the themes of death and how you have to be emotionally dead to participate in colonialism, the costs of progress in terms of the people sacrificed for ivory, which can also be applied to similar situations today. These include indentured servitude, child labour and slavery required for smart phones to be built, along the unbelievable suffering of animals in the factory farming industry. Also, we compare the noble lie that the main character tells Kurtz’s wife about his last words being her name rather than “The Horror!,” to that told by Batman and Captain Gordon in The Dark Knight, about Batman having killed Harvey Dent instead of him being corrupted by The Joker and accidentally killing himself. The Joker could be seen as colonialism in this metaphor, but he’s much more chaotic and unclear in his purpose than the former. We discuss how Hear of Darkness is similar to Frankenstein in some ways as well, in that you could see Frankenstein’s monster as colonialism. Exploiting people and playing God for your own benefit can create a monster that doesn’t even realize or understand why it’s a monster. We compare censorship to colonialism too, because only the upper class elite ideas are the most acceptable. Also, we talk about Joe Biden, Trump, conspiracy theories, social media, cars, UFC, workouts and nutrition:
Check out my last Mindgasms Book Club Chat with Parker and the Woke Centrist about the book called Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds, an early study of crowd psychology released in 1841, published by the journalist named Charles Mackay. He goes into firsthand accounts of crazy mass delusions like people believing in and claiming to witness witches, werewolves, seances, divination, ghosts, alchemy, and others. We talk about the underlying psychology of why people are attracted to such seemingly crazy narratives, how they’re linked to finding convenient and specious explanations for legitimate phenomena, and how these ideas hijack our natural human tendencies to look for religious or spiritual stories in order to make sense of and give direction to our lives. Also, we discuss how these instincts are deliberately exacerbated by social media algorithms, increasing polarization because it keeps us on social media for longer so the corporations can make more money. We also get into Nietzsche’s idea of how God is dead, meaning that modern societies are less religious than they used to be, and these cultural holes are being filled with alternatives. They include the fact that some people still believe today in the mass delusions outlined in the book, like witches, ghosts, seances, alchemy, divination, along with other similar and newer ones like psychics, astrology, mediums, conspiracy theories, cults, and uber extreme fringe but popular polarized political ideologies. We discuss how this psychological mindset of being attracted to meaningful and emotional narratives to fill spiritual holes can be applied to sports as well, like MMA, football, and professional wrestling. Also, we talk about how the lockdowns and resultant isolation due to the COVID-19 pandemic have increased our tendencies that are manipulated by social media algorithms to be more polarized by animosity. We even get into porn, Only Fans, drugs like weed and psychedelics, workouts, and what future generations might label in the future as the popular mass delusions of today:
Check out my playlist with every Book Club Chat that I’ve done so far with Dusty, Parker and Tristram:
