Hypothesis: The Cultural Amygdala - 2

"Thank you for killing us."

In this series we are thinking about the possibility that the culture, society, or nation that we live in can result in the development of a cognitive structure attached to the physical amygdala, which we hypothesize as "The Cultural Amygdala."

In today's post we will use the recently released documentary "The Act of Killing" (see video below) to illustrate some of the dynamics and functionality of that hypothetical cultural amygdala.

But first, let's set the stage.

The medical doctors who practiced medicine about a century ago had no idea that some germs, and/or the toxins those germs produced, were in any way related to health or disease in any medical way that they could professionally deal with (What Is Pseudo Science?).

Like those medical doctors of about a century ago, by and large the politicians and other officials who practice government today still have a similar concept when it comes to the toxins of power (The Germ Theory - of Government).

They tend to think that they are at the apex of human reasoning, intellect, creativity, culture, and morality; that they therefore exist in exceptional circumstances, and that their culture is the best on Earth (Exceptionalism In A Nutshell).

What could go wrong?

All of which informs their institutionalized concept of the act of killing:

The Act of Killing focuses on Anwar Congo, one of the self-proclaimed "gangsters" who executed over a million suspected Communists and ethnic Chinese in Indonesia during the bloodbath of 1965-66. Congo, much like his fellow executioners that he remains friends with, has yet to face prosecution for the war crimes he committed as a younger man and lives as a national hero.

Congo is a man who appears to live in an eternal cinematic fantasy. He's always dressed sharp—inspired by his Hollywood heroes John Wayne, Marlon Brando, and Elvis Presley. What exactly inspired him to murder a thousand people is never quite explained. The only slight ever mentioned that he takes from the communists was their desire to block screenings of his beloved American films. Tapping into this love of cinema, Oppenheimer offers him the opportunity to tell his story by making a dramatic film in which he's the star of his own story.

This does not end up being The Act of Killing itself, but a meta film-within-a-film that allows Congo to tell his own story as he chooses to see it, guts and all. He casts his own friends, adds a romantic subplot where one of his friends dresses in drag, and even has musical finale at the foot of a waterfall where his own victims thank him for murdering [them]. But despite all of these flourishes, he manages to stay true to the story in the recreation of his preferred method of execution.

Demonstrating to Oppenheimer's documentary crew how he strangles his victims with wire, he boasts that he learned it from American gangster films.

(A History of Violence, emphasis added). While reading that quote, including the "thank you for murdering us" fantasy, I saw that the American military notion of "destroying them in order to save them" is of the same cognitive circuits in the cultural amygdala.

Then as a follow up, my brain conjured up a quote from a 1944 book, a quote which touches upon historical episodes of massive-scale killing events.

That book quote concerns de facto human sacrifice to deities as massive-scale cultural events:

The enemy aggressor is always pursuing a course of larceny, murder, rapine and barbarism. We are always moving forward with high mission, a destiny imposed by the Deity to regenerate our victims, while incidentally capturing their markets; to civilise savage and senile and paranoid peoples, while blundering accidentally into their oil wells.

(As We Go Marching, by John T. Flynn, 1944, page 222, emphasis added). Flynn was speaking of the growing American culture of war he detected (On The Origin of The Bully Religion - 2).

An American culture of war which Anwar Congo excitedly says he draws upon.

But Anwar Congo, since his culture glorifies him as a national hero for what he did, has some circuits in his cultural amygdala that self-glorify him to the point that he fantasizes that those massive numbers of people whom he murdered actually thank him for murdering them.

The American cultural amygdala does not quite go so far, if the example of Dick Cheney bragging publicly about torture is any indicator.

Dick Cheney did not thereby attain national hero status, because the culture at large has not yet degenerated to that point.

In fact Dick Cheney was seen as a villain in the eyes of most of the American public who give him much of a thought.

Even Dick Cheney's protégé, Bush II, is likewise not accepted as a national hero in the eyes of the general American culture (He Whose Name Cannot Be Spoken).

The American cultural amygdala is evolving in that direction however.

All of the ingredients are in place and have been proliferating within the government subculture for a long time, hidden from public view as if a coup had taken place  (see Stockholm Syndrome on Steroids? - 2, A Tale of Coup Cities - 4, and Myth Addiction Is Establishment's LSD - 3).

As predicted in the late 1700's, by a statesman who helped to establish the Constitution of the United States of America, the germs of war and/or their associated toxins develop "the germ of every other" threat to society (The Greatest Source Of Power Toxins?).

Let's focus on that threat to society by noting that the religious fervor, which Anwar Congo exhibits, is deeply embedded in the subculture of the vast American military:

In 2011 the Army faced public scrutiny after the exposition of once mandatory "Spiritual Fitness" testing which assessed the resiliency of soldiers on such qualitative measures as frequency of prayer or attendance of religious services. When a soldier failed this religious test they were denigrated with the following:

Spiritual fitness may be an area of difficulty... You may lack a sense of meaning and purpose in your life. At times, it is hard for you to make sense of what is happening to you and to others around you. You may not feel connected to something larger than yourself. You may question your beliefs, principles and values... Improving your spiritual fitness should be an important goal.

Of course, no military organization is content with a tongue lashing as a response to failing a mandatory test. For the test to have been worth anything, Army leadership determined remedial training in the form of training modules and even the requirement to visit with chaplains for religious counseling was appropriate.

(Marine Corps Declares 'Lack of Spiritual Faith' = Unstable). One would not normally expect the killing machine called the Marine Corps to go all Church Lady on them, then have a "church chat" with any soldier who misses Sunday School.

But the spirituality of killing machines we now call "the military" has been a strange mystery down through the history of civilization, and it is no different for modern American culture:

This is the sixth post in a subject matter series concerning what is both a deep as well as a wide subject of considerable general historical mystery, which we call MOMCOM.

The last episode concerned a timely review of one aspect of MOMCOM, detailed in the book "Dismantling The Empire."

Today's post will do the same using a timely review of the book "The Spiritual-Industrial Complex" for reference purposes, however, I do suggest that you read the two complimentary Dredd Blog series: "Bully Worship: The Universal Religion" as well as "On The Origin of The Bully Religion."

The reason for considering all of them is that this subject necessitates the development of a broad based understanding of U.S. History, to countermand years of broad based propaganda.

(The Virgin MOMCOM - 6). That quote from Dredd Blog links to a series that points out how George Orwell coined the phrase "The Bully Religion", which makes it an Orwellian concept, but which also links the greatest source of the toxins of power to a particular religion.

A particular ancient religion that camouflages itself so well that the vast majority in any given culture cannot detect the camouflage (On The Origin of The Bully Religion).

The U.S. Congress, the U.S. Courts, and the Executive Branch of the U.S.A. are following the lead of the military by glorifying and enabling them in their continuing atrocities (see the two Dredd Blog series: The Dogma of The High Priest In Chief and The Government of MOMCOM: Wartocracy).

Visionaries whom we can call "cultural doctors", who have been aware enough to detect the toxins of power once those toxins seriously infect the cultural amygdala, have lovingly given us various diagnostic tools:

"It is forbidden to kill therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets." -Voltaire

Make no mistake, there is an epidemic spreading the toxins of power, so it is imperative that we develop a vaccime (see the Dredd Blog series The Germ Theory - of Government).

We will expand upon the cultural amygdala hypothesis in future posts.

The next post in this series is here, the previous post in this series is here.

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The Act of Killing - trailer:

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2011toxins.org A Toxic Blog Protected By A Toxic ISP

Toxic webmobster at 2011toxins.org

I recently discovered that an asshole blog (On The Origin of Assholes) was jamming posts here and also infringing on the copyright.

Yes, not only were the dorks copying the material, then distorting some of it, they also cause a Google Search to put valid Toxins of Power Blog posts way down out of sight.

Normally, before the joker thiefs did that, Toxins of Power Blog posts would show up on the first page, instead of way down the pages, so they can not be easily found.

Sending an email to their ISP to ask them to link to this blog on their "not found page", after they removed the illegitimate posts they copied, was futile.

Their ISP probably warned them (or they would not have known to delete the stolen posts), and their ISP is:

C Turner

Office of the General Manager

Domains By Proxy, LLC

The ISP protected their secret client 2011toxins.org by refusing to give me the address even though they informed their client of my complaint.

Still working on that.

An example Google Search shows the posts they copied then deleted when they found out I discovered their malfeasance:

About 381 results (0.13 seconds)

Search Results

1. Bacterial Toxin Diseases

   2011toxins.org/

   Program consisting of internationally known basic and clinical scientists focus on clinical botulism, epidemiology, and therapeutic interventions for botulism ...
2. Is Toxic Power A Cosmic Phenomenon? | Bacterial Toxin Diseases

   2011toxins.org/toxin.../is-toxic-power-a-cosmic-phenomenon.html

   Not all nations of the earth subscribe to the notion that power corrupts those who inhabit seats of power. Modish generous measure the notion is limited to ... (What The Fraudsters Covered Up)
   
3. Toxin Bacterial | Bacterial Toxin Diseases

   2011toxins.org/category/toxin-bacterial

   This blog is of course primarily focused on how the toxins of power infect broadcast modish government, but it also touches upon the expanded territory of those ...
4. An Example Of An Antitoxin – 2 | Bacterial Toxin Diseases

   2011toxins.org/toxin-bacterial.../an-example-of-an-antitoxin-2.html

   Modish the first post of this run, we showed an example of what the 99% should do to curtail the oppression of the 1%, beginning with permanent positive for ... (What The Fraudsters Covered Up)
5. Tiger wood vs. The Toxins of Power | Bacterial Toxin Diseases

   2011toxins.org/toxin...70/tiger-wood-vs-the-toxins-of-power.html

   This blog is of course primarily focused on how the toxins of power infect broadcast modish government, but it also touches upon the expanded territory of those ... (What The Fraudsters Covered Up)
6. Hypothesis: Microbes Generate Toxins of Power – 4 | Bacterial Toxin ...

   2011toxins.org/.../hypothesis-microbes-generate-toxins-of-power-4.h...

   Modish the previous post of this run, concerning The Hypothesis at issue, we considered prions as a fund for the toxins of power. Modish this post I will condense ... (What The Fraudsters Covered Up)
7. Ecocide: Evidence Of Toxins of Power | Bacterial Toxin Diseases

   2011toxins.org/toxin...83/ecocide-evidence-of-toxins-of-power.html

   Broadcast be inflicted with a like affair with their new cars it has been understood. Some are as a result intimate with their vehicle that they aid them as a weapon ... (What The Fraudsters Covered Up)
8. The Toxins Corrupt Frames of Mind | Bacterial Toxin Diseases

   2011toxins.org/toxin...80/the-toxins-corrupt-frames-of-mind.html

   Modish a run of posts beginning here, we graphically depicted, modish unadorned constructs, how a meme is stored modish the “mind” and is transported via ... (What The Fraudsters Covered Up)

Their tactic is to keep people from using Google to find Toxins of Power Blog posts.

The 2011toxins.org site is a bad joke and a phony site.

UPDATE: As of 1/1/2014, and perhaps earlier, the toxic site has been suspended, and the subversive links that were an attempt to block Toxins of Power Blog have been deleted (cf. An Example Of An Antitoxin - 3).

Stem Cell Malfunction A Quantum Toxin Source?

Hidden Universe of Complexity

Last year about this time, on Toxins of Power Blog, I was planning to talk about stem cells as a potential source for toxins of power, but decided to wait (Microbial Hermeneutics).

But more papers and information came out about the human microbiome and symbiont microbes.

Then came more research results from the scientific world which revealed the activity of microbe viruses on the genetics of mammals.

So now the time is ripe to talk about a scientific paper that is less than a year old, and a paper which links microbe viruses and stem cells in the most surprising discoveries yet discussed.

So, you decide if it was worth waiting for.

There is some controversy about whether DNA is alive or not, as there is with various viruses, but there is growing evidence for a "virus-first" evolutionary narrative.

I think this is indicated by the role viruses play during stem cell morph into a myriad of different types of cells:

We all started out as a fertilized egg: a solitary cell about as wide as a shaft of hair. That primordial sphere produced the ten trillion cells that make up each of our bodies. We are not merely sacs of identical cells, of course. A couple hundred types of cells arise as we develop. We’re encased in skin, inside of which bone cells form a skeleton; inside the skull are neurons woven into a brain.

What made this alchemy possible? The answer, in part, is viruses.
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One way cells can switch genes on and off is producing proteins that latch onto nearby stretches of DNA called promoters. The match between the protein and the promoter has to be precise; otherwise, genes will be flipping on at all the wrong times, and failing to make proteins when they’re needed. Pfaff and his colleagues found that all the two-cell genes had identical promoters–which would explain how they all managed to become active at the same time.

What was really remarkable about their discovery was the origin of those promoters. They came from viruses.

During the earliest stage of the embryo’s development, these virus-controlled genes are active. Then the cells clamp down on them, just as they would clamp down on viruses. Once those genes are silenced, the totipotent cells become pluripotent.

Pfaff and his colleagues also discovered something suprising when they looked at the pluripotent ball of cells. From time to time, the pluripotent cells let the virus-controlled genes switch on again, and then shut them back down. All of the cells, it turns out, cycle in and out of what the scientists call a “magic state,” in which they become temporarily totipotent again.
...
Cells in the magic state can give rise to any part of the embryo, as well as the placenta and other tissue outside the embryo. Once the virus-controlled genes get shut down again, they lose that power. This discovery demonstrated that these virus-controlled genes really are crucial for making cells totipotent.

Pfaff and his colleagues propose that the domestication of these virus promoters was a key step in the evolution of mammals with placentas. The idea that viruses made us who were are today may sound bizarre, except that Pfaff is hardly the first person to find evidence for it. Last year, for example, I wrote about how placental mammals stole a virus protein to build the placenta.

A discovery this strange inevitably raises questions that its discoverers cannot answer. What are the virus-controlled genes doing in those first two cells? Nobody knows. How did the domestication of this viral DNA help give rise to placental mammals 100 million years ago? Who knows? Why are viruses so intimately involved in so many parts of pregnancy? Awesome question. A very, very good question. Um, do we have any other questions?

(We Are Viral From the Beginning, Discover, emphasis added). So, a lot of back and forth, a lot of switching on and off, of genetic "buttons" takes place with the assistance of viral elements (or during stem cell body repair episodes).

This increases the risk of mutation, if we factor in some of the details of a paper written by a physicist, of all disciplines.

He explains that at the quantum level, deep down in DNA, "proton tunneling" can cause DNA mutation:

"The analysis of the original proton wave packet involves an interesting phase problem, and, since the energy distribution is temperature dependent, the whole phenomenon is also temperature dependent."
...
"The tunneling times will depend essentially on the height and the form of the barrier. In DNA, the form of the double-well potentials regulating the hydrogen bonds depend not only on the base pair involved but also on neighboring pairs, their net charges, and the entire electric environment. The tunneling time is hence not only characteristic for a certain biological specimen but is also a function of the position in the DNA molecule involved. The tunneling time is very likely also temperature dependent, even if the protons are well shielded in the double helix. The main problem is whether the tunneling time is very short in comparison to the replication time, or whether there exist organisms where the penetration of the barrier is slow in comparison to the replication." 
...
"It should always be remembered that, in Born's interpretation of quantum mechanics, the quantity |¥|² represents the probability density for finding the proton in a specific position. The tunneling of the wave packet is hence a time-dependent process which is going to influence the properties of the genetic code." 
...
"In this connection, it should be observed that the tunneling probabilities depend not only on the base pair involved but also on the electrostatic environment, the neighboring base pairs, etc., which may explain the occurrence of "hot spots."
...
At a DNA replication, the protons have to "choose sides," and the proton code immediately after a DNA replication represents actually a nonstationary state from the quantum-mechanical point of view. The time evolution of the system and particularly the penetration of the potential barrier in the double-well potential represents a loss of the genetic code which should perhaps be considered as the primary cause of aging. The aging is thus a process which goes on continuously in the DNA molecule but gets "manifested" at the replications.
...
Proton tunneling may finally be of importance in connection with the occurrence of spontaneous tumors. The growth of an individual is a highly refined balance between factors which enhance the cell duplication and other factors which limit this duplication so that the organism takes a specific shape. The entire process is stimulated and controlled by various enzymes, and there is a feedback from the environment about which we know, at present, very little. If there is a somatic mutation, i.e., a change of the genetic code in a DNA molecule in the body of an organism, the change may influence the protein synthesis and the balance between the enhancing and controlling enzyme actions in the growth cycle. Actually, the new genetic code may lead to the development of a "new individual" within the individual, i.e., a tumor."
...
"In this paper we have pointed out that, since the protons are not classical particles but "wave packets" obeying the laws of modern quantum theory, the genetic code cannot --in spite of all precautions-- be 100% stable. Due to the quantum-mechanical "tunnel effect," there is always a small but finite probability that the protons will change place, alter the genetic code, and give rise to mutations. This implies also that this transfer of protons over a distance of about 10^-8 cm may be one of the driving forces in the evolution of living organisms on the earth."

(Proton Tunneling in DNA and its Biological Implications, by Per-Olov Löwdin; Journal: Review of Modern Physics, Vol 35, No. 3, July 1963, emphasis added). This quantum level proton tunneling behavior is said to be more likely to occur under some conditions than under others.

The likelihood of it happening statistically increases when stem cells are transitioning from one potency phase to another, or back again.

Could this be another suspect place where the mysterious toxins of power emerge as a mutation enhanced by the torque caused by having power over others ("power corrupts ... absolute power corrupts absolutely")?

We can reflect on what Dr. Roger Penrose said about the source of human intelligence, and what Dr. Ernst Mayr said about it, then conclude for ourselves.

Microbial Hermeneutics - 3

Microbes are talking with human cells.

One of the hypotheticals of Toxins of Power, the subject of this blog, is that there is a metamorphosis which takes place in most of those who are exposed to social power (About Toxins Of Power).

While trying to search the Earth and the Universe for the source of the toxins of power that may, in whole or in part, cause that metamorphosis, the Toxins of Power Blog came upon prions, phages, machines, and microbes that are "doing their thing" within the human species.

Upon encountering them, we stumbled upon their ability and practice of communication between and among themselves, as well as their ability and practice of communicating with human cells.

In this series, Microbial Hermeneutics, we have been discussing not only the communication between and among microbes, but we have also been discussing their usage of something we humans also use: hermeneutics.

For a discussion of human hermeneutics see "Hermeneutics For The Blogosphere" and "His Or Hermeneutics?," two Dredd Blog posts that deal with several types of human hermeneutics.

Since hermeneutics is a science concerning the interpretation of communicated messages, and since (like us) cells of all types within our bodies communicate through signals, it became at once obvious to me that a viable hermeneutics that focuses on the inner microbial world of communication is important:

An alternative view is that cells use simpler ‘‘rules’’ to determine
appropriate gene expression levels in response to conflicting signals. But what do these ‘‘rules’’ look like, how complex are they, and to what extent can they be used to predict the response of cells to novel signal combinations?

These issues are increasingly critical throughout biomedical science. Single-cell organisms such as bacteria can live in extraordinarily diverse environments, in and out of hosts, and surrounded by other microbial species and the antibiotics that many of them produce. In this milieu, signal integration abilities are critical to survival. Similarly, in metazoan development, individual signaling pathways rarely work in isolation; rather, cellular responses depend on combinations of inputs from multiple pathways ...

(Microbial Hermeneutics). Signal integration is a vast subject, however, it basically boils down to making sense out of multiple signals.

Which is also the basic task of human hermeneutics (human words, whether spoken, sung, or written are basically signals which need to be interpreted).

Let's also consider that the opposite of signal integration or hermeneutics is miscommunication caused by signal disruption.

However, before we delve a bit into signal disruption or impaired hermeneutics, let's seriously note that the value of microbial and other cellular heremeneutics should not be underestimated:

Normal, healthy cells only reproduce when there is enough space for them to fit. The body can regulate the production of cells by sending signals when to stop. With leukemia, these cells do not respond to the signals to stop and reproduce, regardless of space available.

(Pediatric Leukemia, emphasis added). In the context of microbial cell to cell communication, not responding to signals is a function of either not having received a message in the first place, or of not properly interpreting that signal (note: not responding is only bad when a response to that signal is required).

By taking into consideration childhood leukemia such as acute lymphoblastic leukemia [ALL], we see the results of an absence of adequate cellular or microbial signaling, cellular hermeneutics, or both.

The ultimate nature of signaling fundamentally requires: a signal, a signal sender, a signal receiver, a medium within which the signal can be sent, and an understanding of the particular signal by both sender and receiver.

Thus, we see that the glue which holds communication together is a signaling language that is understood by both the signal sender and the signal receiver.

To thwart communication, a signal disruptor can attack the signal itself during signal transport, or can attack either the sender, the receiver, or both, so that there is a defective signal or a defective hermeneutic episode as to that signal.

A disruption anywhere in that signal chain can result in a misunderstanding, a failure to successfully communicate.

In this sense, we can define some diseases as a failure to successfully communicate, as with the form of leukemia they call "ALL", mentioned above.

The Dredd Blog post, Childhood Leukemia Linked To Government Carelessness, discusses a scenario where, according to the perspectives of this blog, the toxins of power have corrupted those in seats of political power who have then corrupted the signalling abilities of the type this post is concerned with.

That is, the toxins of power have caused those officials in positions of power to unleash signal disruptors, in the form of deadly nuclear radiation, on the populace (There is no safe level of Radiation).

Those disruptors are known to then cause leukemia and other maladies in both adults and children.

In future posts of this series I want to take a look at, yes, focus on that disruption, that is, I want to take a look at, or to pose questions about, which specific areas in that specific signal / communication chain are disrupted or damaged by nuclear power plant radiation.

In theory, that disruption could involve damage to the machines within cells, whether human or microbial cells, damage to their signal sending capacity, damage to their signal receiving capacity, damage to the medium outside those cells -- through-which signals must travel -- or even damage to the hermeneutical abilities of the receiver cell.

The previous post in this series is here.

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More signals are coming in future posts, but in the mean time you might enjoy hearing from some of the scientific teams that are able to talk to microbes -- (they know the language of microbes):

On The Origin of Assholes

"Did you say Chanel No. 5?"

In the tireless quest and search for the origin and evolution of The Toxins of Power, this series will deal with yet another difficult subject.

One is likely to hear giggles when the growing scholarship about assholes arises in a normal conversation.

Nevertheless, two books have been published this year which deal with this extremely difficult subject, and in these two books there is helpful academic scholarship, if for no other reason because they concern serious scientific work in the sometimes nebulous subject of "social evolution."

Therefore, in today's post we will refer to those two books in an attempt to tie them into the search for the origin of the toxins of power, where Lord Acton once labored so hard for so long.

Regular readers know that Lord Acton is the person that is probably most famous for the notion that power corrupts, which among other things, means that "something" turns people into assholes, especially when they are exposed to power and are unaware of its morphing tendencies.

That "something" is what we here at Toxins of Power Blog call "the toxins of power."

Okay, so let's get into the aforesaid scholarship about assholes:

He started sketching a theory of assholes, refining his thinking at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford, where he spent a year as a fellow in 2009.
...
He consulted Rousseau ... Hobbes ... Kant ... and more-recent scholarship on psychopaths. He spoke with psychologists, lawyers, and anthropologists, all of whom suggested asshole reading lists. "There are a lot of similar characters studied in other disciplines, like the free rider or the amoralist or the cheater," James says, calling his time at Stanford an "interdisciplinary education in asshole theory."

James argues for a three-part definition of assholes that boils down to this: Assholes act out of a deep-rooted sense of entitlement, a habitual and persistent belief that they deserve special treatment. (Nunberg points out that use of the phrase "sense of entitlement" tracks the spread of "asshole"—both have spiked since the 1970s.) How to distinguish an asshole

from a scumbag, a jerk, a prick, or a schmuck? Assholes are systematic. We all do assholeish things, but only an asshole feels fully justified in always acting like an asshole. As James puts it, "If one is special on one's birthday, the asshole's birthday comes every day."

To put meat on the bones of his theory, James names names. He was loath to do it. "I don't see my job in life being the asshole police," he says. But after a few pages of throat clearing—"We happily admit that any examples are properly controversial ... we stand ready to update and revise"—he walks us through the "teeming asshole ecosystem."

(A Social Offender for Our Times). That should suffice as an introduction, however, it should be said that The Toxins of Power Blog will not stop at the "teeming asshole ecosystem" here on Earth.

No, because traditionally we have framed our searches to consider even the heavens for the source of the toxins of power (see e.g. A Religious Doctrine For Toxins of Power and Is Toxic Power A Cosmic Phenomenon?).

Thus, in this series we will follow the scholars as they examine one asshole after another, especially when they name names:

To put meat on the bones of his theory, James names names ... Rush Limbaugh and Michael Moore ... Richard Dawkins, Larry Summers, and Bernard-Henri Lévy ... Dick Cheney ... Ralph Nader ... [Ann Coulter, Karl Rove] There are many species in the asshole kingdom.

(ibid, see also Assholes: a theory). Stay tuned like a piano dear readers, because this new ongoing hypothesis will likely be morphed into a hypothesis of phases.

That is, this hypothesis may show that the first phase of the activation of the toxins of power is related to the advent of asshole characteristics (see Ascent of the A-Word: Assholism).

Yes, the experiment may indeed turn out to be an exercise of noticing the phenomenon that a particular individual in one of the many seats of power is becoming an asshole.

That would be the time to check for the toxins of power in that asshole.

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An ode to assholes:

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