Musings on the Problem of Alex Jones

Musings on the Problem of Alex Jones

The recent removal from various internet media platforms of videos from Alex Jones’ InfoWars has caused quite the stir. Despite having once been brought up by name on an episode about a year or so ago, I am only familiar with Jones by reputation rather than direct knowledge. His bombastic yelling at the camera is not conducive to my preferred presentation style.  The objections that I have heard about him are themselves generalizations:  he promotes hate speech and conspiracy theories.  Given that hate speech appears to be whatever someone else doesn’t like the only thing that gives me a little bit of solid ground to address is conspiracy theories.

The ideas presented by Jones, from what I am being told by his detractors, range from the foolish to the absurd. These include underground lizard people running the world to claiming that the Sandy Hook shootings were staged.  Again, this is what I am told as I have not directly listened to Jones on more than three occasions and then for less than a few minutes.  I am taking it as an article of faith that these are reliable examples.  The fact that Jones is able to create and maintain a business with this content is telling in itself.

However, the reasons being given for removing his content from the various platforms is a slippery slope. While Jones is in no need of these platforms, he is fully capable of financing his own way with his own website, the idea that ‘ideas are dangerous’ is something those involved in esotercism should pay attention to closely.

One advocate of removing Jones from YouTube stated. “Jones is like someone yelling fire and not taking responsibility for it or the people that are moved to act on his information”. While I am sure there is some truth to that, the reality is anyone listening to Jones as a source of information on the deep truths of the ways of the world – this or any other world – will either quickly realize that Jones is at best inconsistent in terms of reliability and move on, or at worst, the listener with stay because they are in many ways incapable of intelligent thought.  Now, I have met many of the latter and no amount of censorship is going to keep them from being stupid. Nor are they knuckle dragging Neanderthals as many have painted them out to be – they are, in my experience, often people who started out on the ‘Left’ of the political spectrum and when their idealistic and utopian dreams were not realized, they jettisoned their New Age, Buddhist convert, Yoga-centric beliefs and embraced the “Gospel of Jones”.  The common ground is that they continue to live and move in the world of fantasy.  Again, as I have often said, the internet is the externalization of Yesod (collective unconscious) and imagination is the lock and key.  Grab the imagination and you become the Doorkeeper of what is perceived in the physical world by acting as the Exorcist of what is happening in the unconscious, which are in fact, the esoteric title of those ‘spheres’ of activity.

As for taking responsibility for what others do, that is tricky in deed, and I wonder, since many of my ‘Left of Center’ occultists are celebrating the demise of Jones access rather than creating something useful as an antidote to its rather peculiar metaphysical views, realize that if the same standard are used for occultism, it too would be removed from YouTube, etc.?

If occultists were asked to demonstrate the efficacy of their methods or be removed under the rational that to not do so would be the equivalent of promoting ‘fake news’ or rather ‘false ideas’ of how the universe works, our place in it, and human potential, could they do it? Could they demonstrate the efficacy of their theories and practices?  For most I doubt it. It would be labeled, and maybe accurately so, “fake news,” or possibly even irresponsible and dangerous, as is being said about Jones.  One need only listen to a recent interview with Peter Mark Adams, author of the book The Game of Saturn, to realize that he has made statements similar to Alex Jones, or Jones’ various guests, only Adams has done so in a more academic and thankfully intelligent manner.

Adams states, “Techniques of dark shamanism may become entwined with the exercise of political power…even at the regional of state level.”

And:

“We saw how the elite of Bologna and Modena united to defend their clerics, who were openly engaged in the practices of demonic magic. This strongly suggests that these ritual specialists were fully integrated into the life of their respective communities and regions. Routinely called upon to provide their services, they developed their expertise in the first place because there was a ready market for their skills. We find the contemporary author of The Book of Abramelin describing the various occasions on which he was called upon to provide magical services to nobles… Any professional sorcerer would need to have been, to some extent, a trusted insider; someone sharing strong bonds of mutual interest with the elites he served; perhaps enjoying a position, income and protection at the behest of the ruling family.”

And as I have previously pointed out, “It is naïve to think that with time, these same ruling families who would inter-marry, found and expand what has become the international banking system, commerce, and royal lines would co-exist in perfect harmony with all of its member parts forming a unified front. A simple study of any dictatorship reveals the role of competing oligarchs in every political structure. Yet, it is equally naïve to think that they kept sorcerers around for generations because without it producing some objective results they felt they could trust and believe in.  So, why is it that some occultists will recognize that baby murdering debauched demon worshipers existed at the center of some of the most important political decisions of human history 500 years ago, and yet most think that they no longer exist today?  Just because it is a theory, it doesn’t mean the conspiracy may not be real.”

The question we must ask ourselves at this point is, “If this is the standard that is to be implemented then who is next to be removed?” Is it the Gaia Network with its programs and their various health and healing claims or the History Channel Two with their shows focusing on extraterrestrials and ‘alternative history’ (is that code of ‘alternative facts’)?   Do the various ghost hunting and paranormal shows get a free pass, or are they endangering the physical and mental health of individuals by encouraging these activities late night in abandoned locations?  Or is it because ghosts don’t exist? Or is it because they do and playing with the paranormal can take down the road to obsession and possession?  So, what is the standard that is to be used here, who decided it, and is it being applied universally or selectively?

My point is, removing Alex Jones does not make the world a better place. At best it is a feel good band aid on an open wound of human pain and ignorance. The reality is that Jones strikes to a deep part of the psyche, one that is not always far from the truth, but incapable of articulating it clearly and factually.  Conspiracies are real: we need only look at the Hillary-Bernie stand-off to grasp that.  Strange and at times inexplicable hidden or occult forces may be at work in the cosmos – I wrote a book about them called, Egregores: The Occult Entities That Watch Over Human Destiny (2018).  The question we must ask ourselves is what, if anything, can we do about it?

Those who take the “Path of Jones” – and these include many in the contemporary esoteric milieu who have moved over to progressive politics as their religion of choice – demonstrate that for themselves, materialism in some form has already won. Those who take the ‘Path of Return’ recognize that you cannot fix stupid, and the best intentions of human salvation can and will be used against you in the court of public opinion, as well as any form of social or political action, and therefore avoid public debate whenever possible. Thus, the best path is the silent and interior one – do not fight the Demiurge, escape its grasp and be free. Of the Four Axioms of the Sphynx, of the Adept, it is the final one that bestows initiation and with it power and authority to achieve realization and with it liberation and it is “to be Silent”.

It is uncertain to me what if any impact removing Jones will have as I know at face value it has no impact on me – I never listened, but that does not mean it may not have an impact in the future, as a sort of unintended (or possibly intended) consequence.

“First they came for the easy, low hanging fruit of conspiracy crack-pots, but I said nothing, because I was not a conspiracy crack-pot.

Then they came for the offensive and subjectively defined hate-speech, but I said nothing because I was not offensive or subjectively defined as using hate speech.

Then they came for those who raised the questions of who gets to decide what is crack-pot, offensive, or hate speech, and there was no one to speak up for me, because no one was there.”

Sometimes the answers are not as clear-cut as we would like them to be.