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joe6

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joe6
" Two-time Emmy winner Robyn Symon"
This is suspiciously vague. What were the emmy awards for? Sound editing? I've searched Google and the Emmy site. Can anyone find a record of the awards?
[search.freefind.com]

This page from their site lists the awards but I can't find an independent record of them.
[www.symonproductions.com]

Well, I emailed the Emmy people a while ago after reading this and following the web link. I also couldn't find ANY record of her winning an emmy. I asked them if she was a winner or if it was false. Well, they never got back to me, but I looked at the link again today.

Check it for yourselves!

I have to wonder mightily about his powerful positive impact. For instance, one would have to obtuse NOT to observe that the interaction between those who "speak from the platform" in our culture, and those who "occupy the chairs", those on the receiving end of the politico-media complex have become distinctly MORE LGAT like in the past decade.

Is this mere coincidence, or did LGATs, especially the candy coated authoritarianism dispensed by the Erhardians, find its way deeply into the psychic life of our general culture, especially our power relations ?

For example, many have argued with substantial accuracy that the media, perhaps reflecting a general public sentiment, have become docile Yes men and Yes women who can't seem to find it in themselves to mount a coherent debate with White House Press Secretaries, corporate flaks, public relations operatives.

HOW, one might productively ask, DID we "shift" from questioning, debate focused, investigative culture that wanted real answers to hard questions.... TO a "get with the program", "get off it", "any problem you have with the system is a reflection of your personal rackets" sort of culture ?

Way back when Werner was riding high, before it was necessary to disavow any knowledge of this Werner man... when I was fairly deep in the Werner scene myself, I distinctly recall that a good percentage of ESTites were from the media sector, a great pile of them from the magazine business, another pile of them from the broadcast business... in certain shops it was an unspoken qualification for continued employment...

Now, it is hard, darned hard for me to imagine that Erhardism didn't ultimately have a disproportionate impact upon the belief structures and idea patterns of media people, and may well have been INSTRUMENTAL in shaping the way that contemporary media behaves.

Oh, by the way.... HAVE you noticed how contemporary media behaves ? Its slavish deference to authority ? It's lack of confrontation towards many major issues facing us on a daily basis. Its damned near willful refusal to admit to certain basic realities.... and my, my, doesn't that have and LGATish style to it ?

What substantive impact might this have had on the way our goverment goes about it's business ? Did you, possibly, notice the way we were hustled into this ground war in the Middle East.... it was all about "getting with the program" ... nobody dared to question the White House on the basic assumptions it was stating as settled fact... and the media "forwarded the action", not whispering a contrary word... The Revealed Truth was that Iraqis would greet us with flowers (yeah, they really said that) and we would be out of there in a matter of months, at the most.

Behind this fiasco of unreality and extremely poor judgement I scent another, far more insidious, and potentially self destructive LGAT concept, that reality is determined by the WILL... meaning that if we could generate sufficient WILL to ummmmm...."transform" a historically chaotic reigon they would spontaneously "get it" and "take ownership of democracy"... to put it mildly this has to be the most half-assed thinking, the most hopelessly divorced from reality, the most "Triumph des Willens" (that's the title of a movie made about 65 years ago about another guy who liked to "transform" societies) mind over matter, "manifestationist" ideology/phsychology we've seen in these here parts in quite some time....

Well, how did this thought organism enter our bloodstream ? When and how did it cross the blood/brain barrier ? Who mixed the Kool Aid ? Who drank the stuff ?

So here we are, 2006... and Iraq didn't go the way we planned on "manifesting it"... the people in the Middle East didn't spontaneously "get it" and "shift".... Iran has not chosen to "get off it", stuck with their racket it seems... and oh, FEMA... just today declared broken beyond repair, the entire agency will have to be scrapped it was so badly managed, oh my, FEMA wouldn't get with the program either...

Inquiring minds want to know.... seriously .... how much of this "mind over matter" garbage was injected into our collective worldview as a direct consequence of LGATs, and specifically Werner Erhard and his immediate followers, that simple does not comport with reality, never will comport with reality, and may cost us a terrible price at the Loan Office of Unintended Consequences...

Every era has its fairy tales.
The ones pumped into us mainline through the tv set weren't very satisfying, so we decided to invent new ones.
Ones where you get to "create your own reality", or run around butt nekkid in the woods.

Ya know... all documentaries are distortions, even when they don't try to be... even a sincere attempt at objectivity will be an expression of "frames"... so how is an issue or a person framed by his or her portrayal... [i:8e8187c551] aspects [/i:8e8187c551] of Erhard's impact on his culture may be explored... usually those aspects which are most easily spoken to in the documentary format... by the nature of the documentary process, the more concrete, easily clarified, and unfortunately for the medium in general, those elements that are "satisfying" to the wide audience will be included.. documentarians are not blind to the marketplace for their products.. they know that ideas that require lengthy explanation or intellectual subtlety will lose 99% of their audience, who by now think in terms of soundbites, docudramas, mockumentaries... so I sure that (to borrow an idea from Noam Chomsky, who is hardly my idea of sound thinker in some areas, and can be brilliant in others...) there is a hidden requirement in the medium for [i:8e8187c551] concision [/i:8e8187c551].... the "truth" is the thing that can be most concisely stated, and as Chomsky noted, the rebuttal, deconstruction of, or expansion on an idea is ofter time consuming and [i:8e8187c551] inconcise [/i:8e8187c551] hence to the audience, less interesting, lest crisp and consumable, less quotable, less "truthful"...

And therefore, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I submit that while the easily understood short range effects of a man's legacy will be relatively easy to translate into think-u-tainment, the broad philosophical generalizations (which might have the deepest long term impacts) may be almost impossible to document in a mass media form.

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joe6

Quote
joe6
" Two-time Emmy winner Robyn Symon"
This is suspiciously vague. What were the emmy awards for? Sound editing? I've searched Google and the Emmy site. Can anyone find a record of the awards?
[search.freefind.com]

This page from their site lists the awards but I can't find an independent record of them.
[www.symonproductions.com]

Re check the link - I emailed Emmy and asked if the site was using the word emmy unlawfully. I didn't recieve a reply, but the site has changed.

according to their website she is affiliated with the Continuing Education Group. They say about themselves (in language I find strangely bland and suggestive at the same time):

"Continuing Education Group is a health-related communications company. The Executive staff has more than 15 years of experience talking to consumers and their families in a language they can understand, a family-friendly way that doctors are also embracing to help them reach out to their patients.
Our campaigns and television specials showcase compelling patient stories from leading physicians and researchers as well as sound information offered by advocacy groups throughout the nation. We have pioneered the integration of health campaigns with streaming video content on the web, building a reputation as one of the most trusted resources for health and medical information."

Now what was it exactly that they do ? Is this a palatable way to say they produce infomercials ? Maybe not.... could be those informative TV show like segments they show in doctor's offices.... seems low key, not too intense stuff.... but also like they don't pack the ballistics of a first rate investigative team either...

Anyone that sees "Transformation" about the supposed "legacy of Werner Erhard" should also see what his Forum is all about.

See [www.culteducation.com]

The France 3 documentary goes inside the Forum and is quite revealing.

Landmark is busy trying to keep this film off the Internet through legal threats etc.

No wonder. Anyone objective that watches this will quickly see what's wrong with Landmark.

Firsthand footage exposes the Forum "experience" and its leader in France as abusive and little more than a bully.

Very shortly after this documentary was broadcast nationally on French television, Landmark packed up and left the country. The company no longer has an branch in Paris and never sued France 3.

To link the information together, there appear to be at least 3 main threads about the alleged documentary - infomerical by Robyn Symon called:

Transformation: The Life and Legacy of Werner Erhard (2006)


Werner Erhard puff piece in NYC
[board.culteducation.com]

"Transformation" documentary showing in Palm Beach
[board.culteducation.com]

Documentary on Werner Erhard, with his participation,arrived
[board.culteducation.com]

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soullovemia
while as a man, this person may have made some big mistakes, this work has had avery powerful positive influence on many people and those two things should be separated.

He's not exactly 'separated' from the company's [i:affaaa50df]profits[/i:affaaa50df] tho..

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maurice

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soullovemia
while as a man, this person may have made some big mistakes, this work has had avery powerful positive influence on many people and those two things should be separated.

He's not exactly 'separated' from the company's [i:5cfea9ee0c]profits[/i:5cfea9ee0c] tho..

There is an interesting characterization of Mr. Erhard at the New York Daily News :

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TRANSFORMATION: THE LIFE AND LEGACY OF WERNER ERHARD Documentary about the controversial personal-growth industry pioneer and reputed cult leader. Friday at Quad Cinema.

[www.nydailynews.com]