Rearchetyping
Disinfolklore arose from my discovery in 2016 that Russia was using Jung's theory of Archetypes to manipulate the moods/attitudes/motivations/intentions of consumers of its combat propaganda.
I use the same moniker “Archetype” as Karl Jung did for the same phenomenon. However, I did not consciously adopt the idea from Karl Jung.
Now, when I look back at the millions of words I have written on Disinfolklore in Disinfolklore, Decoding Trolls and in my Power of Mana publication since I established them in February 2023, I notice a theme (temnik) running through them. I am consciously setting out to disrupt, alter and reconstruct our existing mental models of phenomena in our information space.
I explained in my Munich Speech (which has now been watched over 50,000 times on Twitter and X) what precisely I meant by Archetyping:
By Archetyping in this context I’m speaking about an aspect of cognition. We model the world, our context. Our mental ideals help us navigate. We create stereotypes. Aggregates of phenomena become archetyped as ‘this’ or ‘that.’ Then new data is bounced off these archetypes which in most cases are fluid and dynamic. Sometimes though we form what I call ‘data resistant archetypes.’ By declaring our ‘Disinfolklore Universe’ I am Archetyping the current moment in human civilisation. Values, reputations, modelling, mental architectures, characters, personalities, interpretations algorithms, stereotyping: these are all forms of Archetyping. All dimensions of Archetyping as I’m using the term today. Anyway. Enough of definitions. Defining something is also a form of Archetyping as I am using the terms.
Jung saw archaic or primordial images which manifested in myths and fæery tales. Some of the chief archetypes which Jung was concerned with include the “wise old man,” “the child (including the child hero),” “the mother” and her counterpart “the maiden.” Jung also saw the “anima” in man and the “animus” in women as primordial archetypes that are reflected in the stories we use to interpret the world. Additional archetypes identified by Jung include the shaman-trickster (Disinfolklore Don, and Duncey Putin personify this Archetype across our civilisation today), and the hero (The Comedian Volodymyr Zelenskyy, for example).
I set out an analogue to Jung’s idea in which I postulate and argue that the M-N- sound immanent in many fundamental word, sounds and associated meanings accross Indo-European linguistic and religious cultures is the preeminent Cryptotypic semantic signalling system underpinning Indo-European language speakers’ perception of reality:
And in
I explain how another Cryptotypic semantic signalling system exists in the network of words/sounds and meanings associated with Rg / Rt / Reg / Rch / Rit / Rd.
However, the moment even before I had the word “Disinfolklore” to describe it when I accidentally discovered the existence of Russia’s reverse-engineering of Jung’s insights to construct artificial Disinfolklore is recorded here:
There was in the labyrinthine layers of this incident the jarring recognition in the kernel of the story constructed by Russian Combat Propagandists working for the Russian State “internal security service” (the FSB masquerading as the “MGB” in Russia-occupied Luhansk) of artificiality in this part of the story being presented as a true representation of reality: “my common law spouse [X], who lives with her under aged daughter.”
Today, eight years on, after researching the intuition that there was something untrue about that element of the story. I had noticed that that particular aspect in this Disinfolklore meme (which to me seemed so fake) to other colleagues with similar and dissimilar educational and intellectual backgrounds not only seemed true but warranted immediate highly dangerous action to rescue the supposed damsels in distress.
Now I understand of what my intuition was made: there was an image of Jung’s idea of primary archetypes - “the mother” and the “maiden” - in a story that seemed constructed the rest of the inventory of such archetypes.
It was as if someone had a manual containing all of the primordial archetypes and they had constructed the story to ensure it contained these elements. In that moment, (though I did not know it then), I had discovered how Russia and MAGA purposely and purposefully reverse-engineer tales with færy and folk-tale like emotional resonances as a means of hacking minds.
It was not until the full-scale invasion though that I understand the diabolical purpose behind all of Russia’s all encompassing Disinfolklore apparatus inside its occupied territories:
and
But, for now, I want to focus on a specific form of conscious rearchetyping which is immanent in all of my work across my different publications.
The Wall Street Journal is correct to highlight that Ancient Ukraine’s Yamna community spread its genes into more than half of living humans today.
Along with genes, however, also came ALL today’s living Indo-European languages.
All Indo-European languages from Ireland to India began life inside the minds of Ancient Ukraine’s Yamna community. As an oak grows from an acorn, everything you know about Ancient Greece, Rome or Ancient India or Iran arose from this relatively small Ancient Ukrainian Yamna community in south-eastern.
After Ukraine wins the war (i.e. expels Russia from 100% of Ukraine; gets its kidnapped children back and has a lien on Russian assets commensurate with the damage (including psychological) wrought by Russia’s war), we need to continue fighting to re-centre contemporary and Ancient Ukraine in the mental models of humanity.
Ancient Ukraine is the location of the Common Source for ALL Indo-European languages, and religions
and
Ancient Ukraine birthed modes of social organisation like the Indo-European model of monarchy
horse-powered pastoral farming, and wheel-powered migration
went global.
From 4,200 BCE when the cultural ancestors of the first Indo-Europeans to conquer all of Anatolia - today’s Türkiye:
to 2,500 BCE when migrants left Ancient Ukraine to found Greek (the first olive branches for the Olympics came from Ancient Ukraine and Zeus Pater and his son Apollo were Ancient Ukrainian innovations:
Celtic:
Italic (yes, Ancient Rome is Ancient Ukraine’s daughter culture),…
Ancient and contemporary Ukraine has been at the centre of our world:
Centuries of ignorance and Russian Disinfolklore, however, has masked this:
This is what my Finding Manuland project is about: get my “Finding Manuland” podcasts on any podcast platform or here.
While, as I explain on the podcast, one of the three elements in every episode is a contribution to re-archetyping our perspective on the past 6,000 of human culture, as well as our perception of the geographical space between Ireland and India (the area of the world where we traditionally speak Indo-European languages and which I call ‘Manuland,’ after the first human in the Vedic/Indian tradition, Mannus, the first human in the Germanic tradition, Manannán, Ireland’s pre-eminent pre-Christian deity).
In a similar way, as apart of that project, I want to contribute to re-archetyping our perspective of Ukraine, Ancient Ukraine and the Ancient Ukrainian Yamna who from a relatively small community loving on the banks of the Dnipro River in Kherson Oblast (right where today Russian soldiers are executing daily what they call drone safaris of Ukrainian civilians:
From 1,700 CE onwards the idea that “western” culture was somehow founded in Ancient Greece or Ancient Rome has been relentlessly promoted:
Today, due to new sciences like Isotope analysis of Ancient humans
linguistics,
comparative mythology,
and Archaeogenetics we know for certain that Ancient Ukraine birthed Indo-European culture.
Let’s re-centre Ukraine, and transform our mental models accordingly. Let’s re-populate the mental Archetype of “Ukraine.” Let’s perceive Ukraine as the Trito-like entity it is.