Media theorist and documentarian Douglas Rushkoff joined Jimmy Church (email) to describe a mind-bending tale of iconography and mysticism featuring legendary occultist Aleister Crowley who conjured up an unconventional new form of warfare that was fought with symbols and ideas. Rushkoff used the story as elements in his new graphic novel. As a media expert, Rushkoff first warned that we have let technology take over our lives and that we must "figure out what it is that makes us human." He believes that our devices keep us in a "state of perpetual emergency interruption." He said that the ideas and themes in his new book are designed to help fight this mindset.
Rushkoff traced what he has learned of Crowley’s involvement with British Intelligence during WWII. Crowley visited Hitler just before the war and then wrote a letter stating that he "had never met a man so demonic." He encouraged his fellow occultists (such as famous spymaster and James Bond creator Ian Fleming) to counteract the dictator’s evil magic with their own. Rushkoff said that Crowley originated the "V" symbol that was used throughout the war. Created symbols are known in ritual magic as "sigils," which Rushkoff says have been corrupted from a tool designed to help humanity into a method of mind control by corporations who use logos to encourage brand loyalty. He said that the real ritual magic is now in the hands of people who write computer code to outsmart and upstage code written by others.
Jimmy convinced his guest to stay over an extra half-hour to answer listener questions. Caller Dina asked Rushkoff where a belief in God fits into a technologically-dominated future. He replied that we should do this by connecting to other people by "looking into others’ eyes when we are speaking to them," and by living your life "according to the cycles of day and night and the cycles of the moon," in other words, to honor natural rhythms rather than having artificial ones imposed on us. Monte from California mentioned a book about the history of the swastika which he said that he was sure that Hitler read before choosing the symbol for his regime. Julie in Ontario, Canada is studying the ancient German rune language and said that the swastika is the symbol of the sun, which means light or Lucifer.
Open Lines
In the last hour, Pasquale called in to ask that Coast arrange a debate between the best climate scientists on both sides of the issue. R.J. from Green Bay suggested that Trump’s wall would be built to keep US citizens in, as well as others out. Fred from St. Louis believes that the peace sign "has destroyed Western civilization" because he thinks that it is a combination of symbols that mean "no protection from the unknown." Jim in Indiana said that his father wouldn’t let him wear a peace sign when he was growing up because it "resembled a broken cross."