https://youtubetranscript.com/?v=b8BaY0e-VTQ
And so, as many of you have seen, Alex Jones was back on the Joe Rogan show. I think it was yesterday or two days ago. And it seems to be blowing up on the internet. I’ve been wanting to do a video on conspiracy theory, using Alex Jones as an example. And so I thought that because now all of this is going down, it might be a good opportunity to look at how conspiracy theory functions in terms of its symbolic structure. This is Jonathan Peugeot. Welcome to the Symbolic World. So if you watched the podcast, if not, I would suggest you do. It is long. It’s four hours long. But it is worth watching. Because through the crazy discussion and the extremely dramatic presentation that Alex Jones gives, there are some interesting things that you can get from what he says. Some interesting things that can help you understand the structure of reality and how things lay themselves out. First of all, I have to say that Alex Jones seems to be someone who has a very good intuition about things. And he doesn’t seem to have the right language to express them. He also seems to be caught in what I would call a kind of materialism, which means that his symbolic intuition is always pointed towards a kind of materialist explanation. And that is actually the case about a lot of conspiracy theory. If you look at a lot of conspiracy theory, they tend to see the symbolic structures or symbolism, or if they see certain symbols appear, instead of seeing those symbols as pointing to principles or pointing to patterns of reality, they tend to see them as only pointing towards, let’s say, specific historical events or specific historical structures. And so I’ll give you an example that happened to me not too long ago. I was visiting a church nearby, a Catholic church, and in the church in one of the arches of the roof, of the ceiling, there was an all-seeing eye, a triangle with an eye inside. And there was a man there. We were being given a tour by a tour guide. And there was a man who looked at the tour guide and he said, oh, that means that this was built by the Illuminati. And so I should laugh. A lot of people see it that way. Obviously, that church was not built by the Illuminati. Some church in Quebec in the 18th, 19th century was not built by the Illuminati. That symbol of the all-seeing eye is a very ancient symbol, which we can find in medieval churches. We can find in all kinds of places. It has a specific meaning. And whether or not it was an image used to represent God, because God is an all-seeing eye, and whether or not it was used later by Freemasons or by certain organizations, that is quite possible. But we cannot reduce the symbol to its historical contingency. It’s the same with the swastika. A swastika does not mean Nazis. The swastika is a very, very ancient image, which is one of the oldest images we have. And the fact that it was used by the Nazis does not eliminate its ancient meaning, because if you go to medieval churches once again, you will find swastikas all over the place. You will find them… I visited Calvin’s church in Switzerland, and there were swastikas in the decoration. It is a very, very ancient symbol, which has a meaning which goes beyond its historical contingency. So that’s, first of all, very important to understand. Now, despite that, despite the fact that Alex Jones seems to want to see symbolism related to historical contingencies, which makes him end up using all kinds of crazy language, such as multi-dimensional and trying to relate everything to some kind of scientific hypothesis, his intuition is actually quite good in terms of understanding symbolism. If you haven’t watched the video, I would suggest you do, because one of the things that happens during the discussion with Joe Rogan is that they end up talking about conspiracy theory itself. And the way they talk about it can help you understand what conspiracy is, why conspiracy theories appear. And so conspiracy theories, the symbolism of conspiracy theories, is that it comes about to show us that there is no longer trust in the structure. There’s no longer trust within an authority structure. And so when conspiracy theories start to pop up, even beyond the way they pop up or the form that they pop up, what it points to is a breakdown of social cohesion, because we start to doubt the intentions of those in power. We start to see them as being hypocritical, to see them as lying. And in the podcast yesterday, it’s very interesting, because Alex Jones at some point starts to say that even himself at some point had what he called a mild psychosis, because the government in the 20th century have lied so much to us, because there are now specific examples of times when governments have acted against their own people, where governments have said one thing and then done another in secret. Because of that, now we have a general culture of doubt. Whenever the government says something, whenever something happens, there will be people who will doubt the authenticity of the events, because it is because the government has lied so much that it has broken down the social cohesion. So when you remember, for example, someone like Jordan Peterson who talks about how when you lie, you lead the world into hell, now here’s a very, very concrete example. By lying, many times in the past, our states, our governments have brought about a state of mistrust towards their intentions. And what that’s doing is creating a breakdown in social cohesion. And it is encouraging conspiracy theory even more. And so even Alex Jones at some point, he said, you know, at some point, he started to doubt that anything was real, that everything that appeared in the media, anything, any event was staged, was that there was something behind it which was hidden that was a conspiracy. And so that’s really important to understand in terms of conspiracy theory and what conspiracy theory means. Now, what’s interesting about Alex Jones’ ranting is when the social cohesion breaks down, you can imagine it as you have a society that has a center, that has a common memory, that has a common identity, that has a common leadership. All of this is what creates an actual society, is that we are attached to a center or to several centers which are acting together. Now, once that starts to break down, we start to move towards the periphery. The periphery is the place where multiplicity starts to affirm itself and starts to break down. And then when that happens, what is the result? What is the result of that breakdown in order? Two things. One is a desire for tyranny, a desire to create something which will regain control over the control that’s been lost. And you can hear that in the conspiracy theory about the notion of a one-world government, the idea of a secret elite which is trying to control our society, our culture, is trying to control us. And so you see in the conspiracy theory a normal understanding of what happens when societal structures break down. When the center starts to stop holding, then one of the reactions is to overcompensate by this type of control. Now, the other side is the fall into chaos, the fall into idiosyncrasy, and then going up to the margin of the world where all the monsters are, just like in the ancient times we had this notion of the monsters on the edge of the world, then you see that happen. So in the conspiracy theory, it is not surprising that you will find things like hybrids, like cannibalism, like monsters, like demons, like strangers, aliens, all of that is going to almost necessarily appear in the conspiracy theory because that is what it looks like for a world to break down. Let’s look at a few of those in particular. The biggest thing that Alex Jones has said, says, which causes people to lose their mind, is the idea that the government has been in contact with aliens for a very long time, and these aliens are dictating to them what to do, and the aliens are asking for human sacrifice and blood and all of this, and you think like, wow, okay, man, it seems like he’s losing it. But let’s look at it in terms of what it’s referring to. If you listen to Alex Jones very carefully, at some point he’ll start to switch between the name that he gives to these aliens. He’ll say alien, then he’ll say something like elves, and then he’ll say demons. And so what is he talking about? What is he talking about? Now, if we want to understand it symbolically, what is happening? As the world breaks down from unity, what ends up happening is there’s a re-manifestation of the wild principalities that I’ve called them, these principalities which are not attached to the center, principalities which have, let’s say, a mind of their own and that are leading towards fragmentation and towards chaos, and those will be what we call demons. They are related to our passions, our passions for power, our passions for sexual gratification, those two things together, our passions for violence, and those passions represent themselves in different forms. One of the forms, of course, is rape. One of the forms is sexual domination. One of the forms is cannibalism. Cannibalism is the ultimate image of devouring someone else in order to acquire power for yourself. And as you start to be focused on power, let’s say external power, as you move away from that inner center and you look towards outer forces, one of the things you notice is that power comes from devouring it from other things. Even your own body, you get power in your body by eating things that come from the outside. And you can then represent that also symbolically, that whatever power you get, you get from imposing your power, from taking someone else’s power. That is not necessarily bad. It can be good. I’ve used the military example before. I’ve used the military example before. A military general is using the power of his men in order to increase his capacity to act in the world. Now, it doesn’t necessarily have to be bad, but it definitely can be bad. And when we use the example of cannibalism, that’s when we see how it can be bad, how an incruing of power in yourself can be the devouring of somebody else. You see the same with the idea of human sacrifice, especially infanticide. Now, as you move towards paganism, it is inevitable that infanticide reappears. I’ve been saying this since I was 20 years old, that it is inevitable that as Christianity falls away, there are some things which will reappear. Infanticide, which is a traditional practice in many, many pagan cultures. And then also suicide, or let’s say suicide of the elderly will also be something which will reappear, which was also a normal part of many, many ancient pagan traditions. And so those things are going to reappear. Now, in terms of the way that he represents it, it’s very difficult because he doesn’t seem… He really wants to always use kind of scientific language, so he talks about other dimensions. And he talks about spaceships and flying saucers and all of this. And he wants his symbolism to represent material things. And so, for example, in the podcast, he talks about the vision of Ezekiel. And he’s saying how Ezekiel is seeing, you know, basically wheels within wheels, right? And these wheels within wheels are flying saucers. And so it’s probably best to understand the opposite, to understand why the flying saucer has become such a marked image in our representation of extraterrestrials and of UFOs. Why has this flying saucer become the image of the UFO? And I have to admit that I haven’t totally figured that one out. But to me, that seems like the best move to make. Now, the one thing that people are going to ask me is, am I saying, first of all, that he’s full of… You know, he’s delusional. I don’t think he’s delusional. I think that his intuition about what’s happening in the world is absolutely correct. The idea that we have created a society of human sacrifice. If you cannot get away from the fact that abortion can often act as a form of human sacrifice, you just can’t get away from it. Because you see someone who makes the bet that they will have more power in the world. They will have a better life if they get rid of this unborn child. That is a form of human sacrifice. You can’t get away from it. The fact that you sacrifice another life for your own is a form of human sacrifice. And so he is totally right in that. Now, whether or not this has reached the level of ritualized human sacrifice that Alex Jones suggests, I don’t know. I have no idea. I’m not in those… We’re not in those circles. All of this becomes hearsay and rumor and all that. And even though it’s this hearsay and rumor, it’s not surprising that it goes in that direction. And it wouldn’t be that surprising if it ended up being true. Because those people who understand the power of ritual and who are looking to acquire power to themselves, it would not be surprising that at some point they understand how this has always been a manner to acquire power. And you can see it in everyday life. Ritual does not differ from everyday life. It is a condensation of everyday principles into a very synthetic form, which is meant to let’s say concentrate it so that it has more effect. And so whether or not there are ritual human sacrifices, all of this stuff, I don’t know. Who knows? This is conspiracy theory. But the most important thing for us in terms of those who study symbolism is to notice how coherent the examples that he’s using are. To be able to see beyond the language of flying saucers and aliens and everything and understand about the connection between the foreign, the strange, the alien, the demon. All of those things go together. If you’re interested in that, I did make a video called The Symbolism of Aliens, which tries to show systematically how in our stories, even in our modern stories about extraterrestrials, how all of those things fit together. And so I would say we always have to take some of the things, obviously we have to take the things that Alex Jones says with a serious grain of salt when he’s talking. If your purpose is to understand the world objectively. But if you want to understand, let’s say, the symbolic structure that are laying themselves out around us today, and you’re attentive to what someone like Alex Jones says, you can get a good sense of what’s happening in the world. And that this is not what he’s saying is not arbitrary. And it does fit these patterns. It seems like Alex Jones is a kind of either unknowingly or who knows how he is a kind of, let’s say, someone who is tapped in to these patterns and can intuit them very well. Now, obviously, do not listen to Alex Jones when he talks about, you know, his idea of God and that God is like a comet, you know, in time space and that the devil is behind and God is in front and that the whole world. It’s like, don’t take that for Christian theology. Look at the image that he’s representing and notice that it’s not completely insane if you see it in terms of a symbolic structure. He talks about this comet. And so you can imagine it as a hierarchy with a point at the end, which is moving forward. And then as the comet, as you get further and further away from the head of the comet, then the effect of the comet loses its coherence and becomes to be more and more chaotic. And the further you go, then the debris of the comet starts to fall away and starts to not be connected to the comet. And so although it seems insane when he says something like that in terms of imagining a physical comet and thinking that that’s God, if you can see it symbolically, which I don’t know if he does or if he is that much of a materialist, but if you see what he’s talking about in terms of how reality lays itself out and he talks about Satan is in the back and, you know, he’s kind of he’s lost. I mean, he’s basically lost the effect of being connected to the center. And so because of that, he wants to subvert the centers like that. All of that makes total sense. If you understand it in terms of a symbolic structure. But the problem is that because maybe even himself, definitely us, we have becoming capable of understanding the patterns and understanding those symbolic structures because of that. What’s interesting is that so many people like to listen to him speak. That podcast that he made yesterday is blowing up millions of views just in a few days. And it’s so much that media outlets like Forbes or Newsweek feel forced to write articles about it. Why is it that people are fascinating by hearing these stories? It is because just like when we watch movies, just like when we read stories that have a coherent symbolic structure, even though they look crazy at first glance, this is what we hear when we hear Alex Jones talking about psychic vampires and all of this thing, the structure in which he embeds all of this is actually more coherent than we might think. And so let’s see if this video gets banned because I’m talking about Alex Jones in a somewhat positive light. And so yeah, if ever Alex Jones, if you ever, it seems impossible, but I have been on Infowars before, not your show. But if you ever see this, it is something that I would like to talk to you about and see if we can come to understand some of the things that you’re talking about in terms of their pattern. And so guys, thanks for following me. As you noticed, I’ve been putting out a lot more content and it is something that I hope to keep up. I appreciate everybody’s support and the engagement that you are putting into this. And so thanks again, guys, and I’ll see you soon.