The End of Passion
The End of Belief
The End of the World

by Adam Parfrey

When we first entered into the Gulf War -- a battle fought for the minds of television viewers as much as for Kuwaiti territory -- President George Herbert Bush welcomed us to the New World Order, a euphemism for the Supranational Corporate State.

In the NWO, isms of the past are pitched into the memory hole and reconfigured as criminal beliefs.

Nationalism? Corporate cartels no longer observe existing law or boundary. Political views are judged for their efficiency as conduits of international trade. Native land becomes Balkanized third world territory while the native hero is represented by billionaires like Ted Turner or George Soros, who are canonized by mass magazines for their worldwide influence and power.

In the era of Novus Ordo Seclorum, only a few Islamic countries adhere to old-style religion. New World Order devotionals are hawked by digital avatars who sell faith as a method by which followers can enrich themselves (e.g., Deepak Chopra, Creating Affluence and The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success).

Those who despair of locating a believable human shepherd subscribe to media-sponsored scriptures of angels, or aliens, or angelic aliens. In a universe where all is for sale, the dollar sign remains the sole remaining index of belief. The more dollar signs we collect behind our names the more we earn respect, even devotion.

In in the novel 1984, George Orwell wrote of "Doublespeak," the state language designed to inspire fear by the evasion and confusion of meaning. In the Supranational Corporate State, language has become a tool by which true intent is disguised or disavowed.

Corporate aphorisms like "Just Do It!" are devised to be unencumbered by common usage or distracting connotations. The tagline must encourage active behavior -- such as extracting cash from one's pocket -- and be instantly recognizable, a mnemonic device that imprints the conscious mind every time it hears or views the endlessly repeated mantra.

New World Order ideology is Doublespeak mind control, in which ideas, meaning and belief are forgotten, overlooked or overwhelmed. An ideology deprived of ideas or ideals is most deviously manifested through culture -- Pop Culture.

The huzzah of entertainment provides important distraction from corporate subterfuge. Actual news stories are now written-off by ministers on the mass market payroll as "paranoia" and "conspiracy theory."

Movie stars. Sports stars. Murderers. Tabloid gossip. Pop culture noise is so ever-present and overwhelming that it removes the ability of the masses to believe -- let alone think about -- anything. The inability to read, to contemplate, to consider, is in fact a new epidemic known as dyslogia, a disease caused by the devastating overflow of information.

When Nietzsche announced the death of God, art criticism became the primary arbiter by which the value of the human species was judged. It is now obvious that those empowered to judge art, or sell art, promote the sterile and soulless as the means whereby power can be maintained and money can be made.

Even in the misnamed realm of "Outsider Art," high-rent galleries discovered that hard cash can be reaped by castrating artists of transgressive personas and making them seem less offensive. To help inflate his sale price, a well-known gallery suppressed the exhibition and sale of Henry Darger's pedophiliac, politically incorrect paintings.

What makes an exhibition at the American Visionary Art Museum so important is that it allows emotion and passion, the enemies of lies and control, to make appearance at a time when utterance of individual belief is dismissed to the realm of kookery and insanity.

With the American Visionary Art Museum show "The End is Near!" the revelation of prophetic truth -- the true meaning of Apocalypse -- makes a rare and welcome appearance. At AVAM, the sinister, quantitative reductions of the New World Order are at least momentarily vanquished.