The Men Who Stare At Goats - The Movie  

The latest Future Edition email from The Arlington Institute contained the usual tidings of impending doom, mixed in with some new age weirdness, the likes of which never ceases to remind me of Jon Ronson's book "The Men Who Stare At Goats".

Elliot Wave theorists say that there is an extraordinary confluence of historical waves showing up now that presages huge change. Assessments of historical cycles of "novelty" predict big shifts are coming. Many indigenous prophets and shamans say the big change that has been prophesied for centuries is now upon us. And then, if you want to really reach out in unconventional space there are many psychics and channels who point to October or some time later (but soon) for a very significant disruption.

Why even mention psychics and channels? Well, we are living in a time of unprecedented, exponential change. There is no question about this in terms of population growth, species depletion, science discoveries, natural resource usage, technological invention, and information and knowledge growth (among many other metrics). The size and metabolism of the system in which we live is getting far larger and more complex at such extraordinary rates that it is now beyond human ability to understand it. (In the financial arena alone, the honest experts will tell you that at a fundamental level they don't know exactly what they are doing in their manipulations of the national and global system because it is too complex to understand.)

So we have a system that is very rapidly growing and expanding in ways for which there is clearly no precedent. We do not have history or experience (or modeling) that will tell us how this platform that supports us all will behave and it is obvious that potential failure modes (because of size and interdependence) are far larger than ever before. There is far more risk.

I'd argue that in a situation like this, necessity should be the mother of invention - we need to be looking at every new and old (and unconventional) source and capability that we can find that might give us a fix on what might be on our horizon because if it changes in a hurry, the effects of the surprise will be exacerbated because we didn't see it coming and didn't do anything defensive. We also know from formerly highly classified programs that some of these intuitives have generated extraordinary and accurate intelligence for the U.S and Soviet governments in the past, i.e. it works. If it works, we should use it -- always being diligent about quality control.

Somewhat to my surprise, "Goats" has been made into a movie, due for release in November.

If its true to the book it should be entertaining - starting with the history of paranormal experiments by the US military duringthe 70's and 80's, then segueing forward to how these influenced War on Terror torture practices in Guantanamo Bay and elsewhere before sliding back in time again to look at the infamous MK Ultra program - the sort of topics which can entertain and inform the tinfoil crowd forever.

Judging by the trailer, however, it looks like more of a comedy based on the psychic spying etc (first third) of the book, but who knows - maybe the full movie does go all the way...