Very interesting and horrifying. The Left has regaled us with the cruelties of the distant Inquisistion, but is completely mute on this subject. Even worse, generations have been led to believe that Franco was a monster and that the good guys lost the Spanish conflict.
Modern art is also elitism on display. Any plumber, school bus driver or ditch digger can recognize the genius of Caravaggio, da Vinci or Rembrandt, but it takes a sophisticated mind to see the genius of Pollock's paint drippings, Twombly's scribblings, and Rothko's paint swatches. Or so the story goes.
The psychotechnic torture cells remind me of the avant garde 1960s TV show The Prisoner, which featured similar use of modernist architecture (and other modern and psychological means) to break the will if I remember correctly.
Agreed, that awful bloody pottery with all the twee flowers and butterflies is most definitely torture to look at. I think this is the point you were making.
I’ve read the abridged version of Gulag Archipelago. Man’s inhumanity to man continues to carve out depths of nadir only to be superseded time and time again. Modern art is throughly subversive. It was the US government agencies that promoted utter garbage like Jackson Pollock. They absolutely mock any notion of beauty. Is there some Pollock painting in New York of some rich person and it’s intentionally hung upside down? Trying to find the link. Even if it is mounted correctly, it’s a moot point. No one knows what it is anyway. It’s an assault to the senses. The torture chambers are theurgy in masturbatory relief for the designers. What utterly despicable people.
Yes, the notion of Pollock being promoted by the CIA was dismissed as a conspiracy theory, until it wasn’t.
I was schooled by Russians about Shalamov when trying to show off about all the Solzhenitsyn I had read. Then I read him and realised why they had told me to do so.
Kolyma Tales is his book. The Procurator of Judea stands out for me, though the book is full of cold monuments to unspeakable cruelty
Didn’t know of Shalamov. Thank you for bringing him to my attention and those of us who haven’t heard of him. The European Conservative did a piece about the Spanish civil war. Brutal times and evil desecration.
The Russians I met listened to me go on about Denisovich and Cancer Ward, the Gulag Archipelago and when I had stopped talking one of them just said “Shalamov”.
Fascinating- everything is ugly now - art, music, architecture, film, and in fact many people are now more akin to demons than God’s creatures - progress it seems..
There is no art that doesn't have God as it's reason . Something may be entertaining or even aesthetically pleasing , up to a point , but if it does not elevate and bring Glory to God it is most certainly not art .
Good article, but I could have slept better without seeing the pictures of torture chambers and dead nuns. Anyway -- true, modern "art" is basically psychological torture. It has nothing do do with art (truth, beauty).
This is new information for me. Not the least bit surprising to see leftist avant garde artists participating in torturing political enemies. What happened in Spain was hideous, a mix of Marxist callousness and brutality and Latin energy and inventiveness. Thank God they were defeated, at least for a few generations.
Worth noting that Laurencic was a prisoner himself, for being the wrong sort of leftist radical, Anarchists like him were imprisoned and tortured along with groups such as the POUM - the anti-Stalinist but communist faction Orwell fought alongside.
Now I know why I've always instinctively hated modern art. Not only is it *not* art -- it was literally used to torture people. This was something I was completely unaware of.
I know that people have been tortured throughout history, that's nothing new, but I didn't know that it was literally where some of the modern art nonsense comes from.
I'm always amazed at how messed up people can be. Who sits around and thinks, "How can we break these people, and dehumanize them?" It's just something that I can't imagine. Especially when it's people who have had zero effect on the torturer's life.
We're right around the corner from this kind of torture if people aren't careful. It's high time people start realizing what we're up against.
It makes me think of this quote (just replace liberals with leftists):
“To understand the workings of American politics, you have to understand this fundamental law: Conservatives think liberals are stupid. Liberals think conservatives are evil.”
A fabulously interesting and well written essay. Thank you for this.
I was in Army intelligence and handled EPWs. I conducted a limited number of interrogations and employed stress positions but once.
I am sickened waterboarding, which is nothing but torture, is now officially condoned and employed.
Torture is ultimately the admission you can't do any better, that you are not better, that you have not wit enough to get what you want from the prisoner without becoming an uncivilized savage.
I highly recommend the book Spycatcher by Oreste Pinto for a much more positive and professional take on handling interrogations. Published by Harper & Brothers in 1952, it recounts the actions of a Dutch colonel whose career spanned WWI and WWII.
Hello Sean. I’d never heard of that Spycatcher, and I would like to read it. Thank you.
I think there’s a difference between torture for interrogation and that designed to break a man completely. These are degrees of wickedness, with the latter being inspired by vengeance.
Thank you for this contribution. C. S. Lewis described such a cell in his That Hideous Strength. There it is called 'Room of Objecitivity', if I recall correctly.
It is actual sadism. Brutalist architecture is like this too. When you decode architects like Alison and Peter Smithson’s justifications “architectural design should prioritize functionality, honesty, and social purpose” -they wanted people to feel so horrible in them that they try to break the system.
I appreciate you Frank! It actually took courage to write about these atrocities! After reading Aine's comment I started to piece together a possible explanation for the insanity behind such acts! These people are possessed by demons and that is where all their hatred for God and His Magnificent Creation is coming from! Thus the world we are living in and all the perverse, anti beauty, anti harmony, anti natural order etc. psyop we are being subjected to to confuse and terrify us! Thank you for giving us more insite into the machinations of our enemies! I M H O the more we know in depth about them the more able we are to protect ourselves psychically from their attacks! Thank you for all your hard work! Angels of Almighty God watch over all of us! Respectfully Judith
Diabolical in every sense. Inspired at least partly by Marx, who wrote poetry to the devil and, whose favorite quote was, "Everything that exists deserves to perish."
Very interesting and horrifying. The Left has regaled us with the cruelties of the distant Inquisistion, but is completely mute on this subject. Even worse, generations have been led to believe that Franco was a monster and that the good guys lost the Spanish conflict.
Modern art is also elitism on display. Any plumber, school bus driver or ditch digger can recognize the genius of Caravaggio, da Vinci or Rembrandt, but it takes a sophisticated mind to see the genius of Pollock's paint drippings, Twombly's scribblings, and Rothko's paint swatches. Or so the story goes.
The psychotechnic torture cells remind me of the avant garde 1960s TV show The Prisoner, which featured similar use of modernist architecture (and other modern and psychological means) to break the will if I remember correctly.
Iron Maiden had a pretty good song about it too. The Prisoner is a classic, and Portmeirion (where it was filmed) really does look like that.
Agreed, that awful bloody pottery with all the twee flowers and butterflies is most definitely torture to look at. I think this is the point you were making.
I’d go mental if I had to live there tbh
A science fiction YT commentator visited it (Portmeirion, Wales) recently, in apparently more realistic weather: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3A-TWh55BYU
I’ve read the abridged version of Gulag Archipelago. Man’s inhumanity to man continues to carve out depths of nadir only to be superseded time and time again. Modern art is throughly subversive. It was the US government agencies that promoted utter garbage like Jackson Pollock. They absolutely mock any notion of beauty. Is there some Pollock painting in New York of some rich person and it’s intentionally hung upside down? Trying to find the link. Even if it is mounted correctly, it’s a moot point. No one knows what it is anyway. It’s an assault to the senses. The torture chambers are theurgy in masturbatory relief for the designers. What utterly despicable people.
Yes, the notion of Pollock being promoted by the CIA was dismissed as a conspiracy theory, until it wasn’t.
I was schooled by Russians about Shalamov when trying to show off about all the Solzhenitsyn I had read. Then I read him and realised why they had told me to do so.
Kolyma Tales is his book. The Procurator of Judea stands out for me, though the book is full of cold monuments to unspeakable cruelty
Didn’t know of Shalamov. Thank you for bringing him to my attention and those of us who haven’t heard of him. The European Conservative did a piece about the Spanish civil war. Brutal times and evil desecration.
The Russians I met listened to me go on about Denisovich and Cancer Ward, the Gulag Archipelago and when I had stopped talking one of them just said “Shalamov”.
Fascinating- everything is ugly now - art, music, architecture, film, and in fact many people are now more akin to demons than God’s creatures - progress it seems..
it is impossible to hate the Bolsheviks enough.
There is no art that doesn't have God as it's reason . Something may be entertaining or even aesthetically pleasing , up to a point , but if it does not elevate and bring Glory to God it is most certainly not art .
These accounts are so alien to the American mind that it is truly incomprehensible what so-called humans can do to each other.
I am a heartbeat away from retreating to the Montana wilderness.
Thanks Frank.
Good article, but I could have slept better without seeing the pictures of torture chambers and dead nuns. Anyway -- true, modern "art" is basically psychological torture. It has nothing do do with art (truth, beauty).
Sorry Tom.
Tough, horrifying content. Thank you for your research and writing.
This is new information for me. Not the least bit surprising to see leftist avant garde artists participating in torturing political enemies. What happened in Spain was hideous, a mix of Marxist callousness and brutality and Latin energy and inventiveness. Thank God they were defeated, at least for a few generations.
Worth noting that Laurencic was a prisoner himself, for being the wrong sort of leftist radical, Anarchists like him were imprisoned and tortured along with groups such as the POUM - the anti-Stalinist but communist faction Orwell fought alongside.
Yes. Orwell was lucky to get away alive. Stalinists rolled up the other leftists and tortured and murdered them along with everyone else.
Wow!
Now I know why I've always instinctively hated modern art. Not only is it *not* art -- it was literally used to torture people. This was something I was completely unaware of.
I know that people have been tortured throughout history, that's nothing new, but I didn't know that it was literally where some of the modern art nonsense comes from.
I'm always amazed at how messed up people can be. Who sits around and thinks, "How can we break these people, and dehumanize them?" It's just something that I can't imagine. Especially when it's people who have had zero effect on the torturer's life.
We're right around the corner from this kind of torture if people aren't careful. It's high time people start realizing what we're up against.
It makes me think of this quote (just replace liberals with leftists):
“To understand the workings of American politics, you have to understand this fundamental law: Conservatives think liberals are stupid. Liberals think conservatives are evil.”
― Charles Krauthammer
A fabulously interesting and well written essay. Thank you for this.
I was in Army intelligence and handled EPWs. I conducted a limited number of interrogations and employed stress positions but once.
I am sickened waterboarding, which is nothing but torture, is now officially condoned and employed.
Torture is ultimately the admission you can't do any better, that you are not better, that you have not wit enough to get what you want from the prisoner without becoming an uncivilized savage.
I highly recommend the book Spycatcher by Oreste Pinto for a much more positive and professional take on handling interrogations. Published by Harper & Brothers in 1952, it recounts the actions of a Dutch colonel whose career spanned WWI and WWII.
Hello Sean. I’d never heard of that Spycatcher, and I would like to read it. Thank you.
I think there’s a difference between torture for interrogation and that designed to break a man completely. These are degrees of wickedness, with the latter being inspired by vengeance.
Thank you for this contribution. C. S. Lewis described such a cell in his That Hideous Strength. There it is called 'Room of Objecitivity', if I recall correctly.
It is actual sadism. Brutalist architecture is like this too. When you decode architects like Alison and Peter Smithson’s justifications “architectural design should prioritize functionality, honesty, and social purpose” -they wanted people to feel so horrible in them that they try to break the system.
Wasn't the founder of Brutalism a literal sexual sadist?
Which founder? I know Ernő Goldfinger was a likely sadist.
I appreciate you Frank! It actually took courage to write about these atrocities! After reading Aine's comment I started to piece together a possible explanation for the insanity behind such acts! These people are possessed by demons and that is where all their hatred for God and His Magnificent Creation is coming from! Thus the world we are living in and all the perverse, anti beauty, anti harmony, anti natural order etc. psyop we are being subjected to to confuse and terrify us! Thank you for giving us more insite into the machinations of our enemies! I M H O the more we know in depth about them the more able we are to protect ourselves psychically from their attacks! Thank you for all your hard work! Angels of Almighty God watch over all of us! Respectfully Judith
Diabolical in every sense. Inspired at least partly by Marx, who wrote poetry to the devil and, whose favorite quote was, "Everything that exists deserves to perish."