Laws of Silence: rancor

We here at LoS are not assholes. We're not egomaniacs. We're not selling anything. We do what we do for a love of the chase and then we share it on the blog. Everything is under a creative commons share and share alike license. Basically meaning you have our permission to reprint and reproduce as you see fit--with proper attribution.

Like any writers, we're proud of what we do and don't want our words and images abused and taken without so much as a heads up to say "check out what I did with your stuff." Artistic uses such as cut-ups are not what we're talking about here; what we mean is that when our words and ideas are reproduced in the same format as LoS--a blog or essays presenting esoteric symbolism in everyday contexts, then things change. A tip of that hat is the very least of gestures. While we don't pretend to be as rigorous as academics or journalists, there are some basic rules of etiquette and ethics to be followed. This includes acknowledging the sources of your content. Hyperlinks serve as footnotes; parenthetical documentation is welcome.

The same goes for images. Here on LoS our images are 90% from the public domain, Wikimedia Commons or taken by our own cameras (or telephones!) From time to time we thumb our nose at Getty or the AP and decorate our posts with their images. We try attribute other images we've found to the sites we found them in the text of our articles. We're not perfect, but this is our goal.

Recently it came to our attention that a website called the Vigilant Citizen published an article under the rubric of "Sinister Sites" about what the author refers to as the "Illuminati Pyramid of Blagnac." It's a well-written and cogent summary of its symbolism, and we congratulate the author. We must be frank, however. The article takes a lot from our own post from April of this year entitled "Can an evil tree produce good fruit?"; certain phrases seem to merely be rewritings of what we have ourselves said on the subject.

Briefly, the Pyramid, or Temple de la Sagesse Supreme, is a fountain which sits in a roundabout rayed like the sun within a structure representing the state. It contains Masonic references and frankly Illuminist symbols as well as the inclusion of a tiled world map below the pyramid. Draw your own conclusions.

The article is profusely illustrated with our own photographs, taken not from the web but from a camera, in the presence of the monument. These photos are free for the taking and the Vigilant Citizen does in fact attribute them to us via a link at the end of the article. But given the extent to which the photos form the basis of his article, we don't feel he's been adequate in his attribution. A "thank you" would have been nice.

To be honest, we have not always sought permission to use photos and on at least one occasion built a post around photos we didn't ourselves take. In the former cases, however, we only used one photo for decoration or to illustrate a point; in the latter case the photos came from a variety of sources. But Vigilant Citizen's article takes all but one of our photos and uses them for his article, in which all but two images came from us. It's all a matter of degree.

When we came across this monument, so redolent of the fabled (?) Illuminati, it was clear that we needed to address it on our blog. We researched and came up with very little apart from some .PDF scans on a French website. We'd become aware of a video which pointed out a lot of the same things we'd noted and clued us into other things we hadn't. Beyond that, there was nothing as far as descriptions or details regarding the Place de la Revolution or the monument at its center. We propose he got these observations from both LoS and the video, and although the end of the article links to both (LoS but not our actual post), he never makes it clear that his work is an extrapolation on them.

We don't want to come across as petty and possessive; we actually found his article enjoyable, clear-minded and well-informed. He goes a lot farther in some of his analysis than we did and synthesizes the most pertinent details for a convincing interpretation. But we have been covering this monument and its implications over several posts since April, and think that he has failed to credit his inspiration or his sources. The French Revolution, the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Masonic involvement in the Enlightenment have been subjects of considerable reflection for us.

If we are wrong, we welcome comment and clarification. Unfortunately, the same can't be said of VC; when we tried to comment he didn't allow them to go past the "moderation" phase. Not so for those praising his "discovery."

Perhaps seeing so many laudatory comments proved to be the motivation for this post; it's irksome to find someone being congratulated for a discovery they did not in fact make, with no attempt on the part of the 'laudee' to say, "actually folks...."

Our initial comments were a bit strong and perhaps we should have addressed it privately rather than as an open comment. But then again, this new media is a fishbowl and certain clarifications may be best served if laid out on the table for all to see.

Here's our suppressed comment:

----quote----

Nice insights and analysis. You might have mentioned what set you off on this path.

I found out about this pyramid because I often have to drive by it. Everything else I found out came after the shock of recognition. I didn’t come across it on a website and then pass it off as my own discovery.

I appreciate the link pointing out where the photos come from, but maybe you should have asked my permission first? I had to stand in the rain for some of those and almost got run down by terrible drivers.

I would have gladly said yes if you’d agreed to be a little more generous with the attribution both of the photos and the details you present–the tablets, the fountain, the map, the quote, the 13 layers. Where’d you get that info? I got it by being there and taking the pictures–when I wrote my article in April, these details were no place else on the internet and there were no photos of the Pyramid available. Only the crappy video we both link to–but I saw that after I’d begun my post. It took me a bit of digging to find some of the information you based your work on–Lequeu for instance. A bit of credit where it’s due might have been nice.

About that Lequeu qote, by the way, you’ve got it wrong. The actual quote is: "La bonheur est dans l’angle ou les sages rassemblent."

I see you’ve got lots of people in your comments section thanking you for your “discovery.” Maybe you should point them in the right direction.

You’ve written a really good article with some good insights. I know bloggers aren’t journalists or academics, but the same ethics of attribution do exist.

----end quote----

It's kind of churlish we suppose. Kind of goofy. Maybe pretentious. But we stand by it. We also want to acknowledge that VC is free to use stuff from our site if he (?!) wants; he was already within rights to use some in the first place, within reason. We also welcome his work. His article adds to the discourse.

But it is a discourse, and as far as the English-speaking internet goes, Laws of Silence started it. That's why we can't abide by this spurious dis and remain....umm....silent.

Sunday, November 15, 2009

The sincerest form of flattery....