Modernism: Manufactured Culture

In this exposé, we will only go back to 1840 or so, but we will find that the nearer to the present we get, the weirder things become.

As I have always done before, I will lead you into this mystery by the same path I entered. I started with Madame Blavatsky, who came on the scene in about 1875, when she founded the Theosophical Society in New York with Henry Steel Olcott. I never had any use for Theosophy, being able to see through it from the beginning. However, like most people who pass it by, I simply assumed it was composed of and by people who had different interests than I do, or who were beating around in the bushes in their own ways. That is, I found it to be wrongheaded or uninteresting, but until recently I thought no more about it. Only after discovering that many other things were not what I thought they were did I return to Theosophy, the Beat Writers, and other fads, to give them a closer look. What I found may surprise you.

The key to Theosophy is not found by studying its various tenets and claims, but by studying Henry Steel Olcott. It is no accident that Helena Blavatsky was used as the frontwoman, since Olcott needed to remain in the shadows. If he had been more prominent, more people would have looked closely at him from the beginning, and the whole plot may have unwound long ago.  (more...)

From Theosophy to the Beat Generation

Reference:

Modern art was CIA 'weapon'