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AI as latest multi-prong vestige of dehumanization, transhumanism, technocracy.

AI is another piece of the Learning Against Learning agenda put forth so long ago by Cardinal Wolsey. If you hadn’t heard how ‘information overload’ was devised in the 16th century from on-high it might be due to ‘education’ designed to mislead. Like always, regardless, unmatched convenience and unlimited quantity shall win-out over all…like a Back-pocket Borg with Bottomless Bag. (This melbtoast note was posted to the site “MEDIUM” which promptly deleted it, so beware the many who falsely decry censorship.)

1. Origin of “Learning Against Learning”

The phrase “learning against learning” is attributed to Cardinal Thomas Wolsey in the early 16th century.
Context: the printing press was rapidly multiplying books, pamphlets, and tracts. Instead of consolidating truth, it created competing schools of thought—often mutually contradictory.
The Church feared this not only because it undermined authority but also because it weaponized learning against itself: a flood of new interpretations, disputes, and heresies, rather than unified doctrine.

In Wolsey’s sense: the danger was too much learning, proliferating so fast that it generated confusion instead of wisdom.

2. Early Information Overload

In the Renaissance/Reformation, the sudden abundance of books overwhelmed the ability of institutions (or individuals) to process them.
Erasmus and others already lamented that “the multitude of books is a great evil.”
The weaponization of scholarship meant every truth could be met with a counter-truth, every authority undermined by rival authorities.
This was a form of chaos-engineering: destabilizing consensus by drowning it in voices.

3. “Learning Against Learning” as Controlled Chaos

Seen conspiratorially, the tactic functions as a kind of proto-psy-op:

Overwhelm: saturate the intellectual field with contradictory data and interpretations.
Confuse: prevent people from discerning the real, underlying truths by multiplying options, sub-arguments, and distractions.
Exhaust: intellectual fatigue sets in; most people give up critical inquiry.
Control: once chaos reigns, a central authority can step in and impose its own version of “order” (ordo ab chao).

Wolsey’s phrase foreshadows this mechanism: a recognition that knowledge proliferation can itself be turned into a weapon.

4. Modern Parallels: Information Overload

Today we see the exact same phenomenon, but amplified:

Digital Age Flooding:
Billions of web pages, social feeds, AI-generated content. “The signal is lost in the noise.”
Disinformation Campaigns:
Instead of suppressing truth, controllers flood the field with half-truths, conspiracies, contradictory “fact checks,” so that the genuine becomes indistinguishable from the false.
Cognitive Paralysis:
Like in Wolsey’s day, people disengage, fall back into apathy, or cling to simplified narratives offered by authority.
Ordo ab Chao:
Institutions (state, tech companies, intelligence agencies) present themselves as arbiters of “trusted information,” capitalizing on the chaos they themselves fuel.

5. “Learning Against Learning” as an Engine of Ordo Ab Chao

In both eras, the overproduction of knowledge doesn’t necessarily liberate—it destabilizes.
Those who understand this dynamic can engineer chaos by ensuring every truth is countered by rival “truths.”
Out of the confusion, new authority emerges—whether the post-Reformation Church, the modern “fact-checkers,” or algorithmic censors.
The deeper conspiratorial reading is that information glut is not accidental but cultivated as a tool of control.

Summary

Wolsey’s warning: “learning against learning” was the first recognition that information can be too abundant and turn self-destructive.
Then: printing press overwhelmed religious authority; chaos in interpretation led to fragmentation, wars, and eventual re-centralization under new powers.
Now: internet and digital media flood minds with contradictory “truths”; the chaos itself is weaponized, producing public confusion and paving the way for centralized “trusted” authorities.
Mechanism: overwhelm → confuse → exhaust → control (ordo ab chao).

Learning Against Learning: From Cardinal Wolsey to the Age of Information Overload

Introduction

The phrase “learning against learning” is attributed to Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, chief adviser to King Henry VIII in the early 16th century. It arose in the turbulent years when the printing press was reshaping Europe. The explosion of books, pamphlets, and tracts promised to democratize knowledge—but it also produced confusion, contradiction, and intellectual chaos. Wolsey, a man of immense power and influence, recognized the danger: when knowledge multiplies too quickly, it undermines itself.

This early warning resonates today in the digital age. What Wolsey saw in the dawn of printing is magnified exponentially in the internet era. The same principle—using knowledge itself to destabilize knowledge—remains a weapon of control.

Wolsey and the Birth of “Learning Against Learning”

Wolsey lived at the pivot point between medieval scholasticism and the Renaissance-Reformation upheaval. The printing press, invented only decades before his rise, had unleashed a torrent of texts. What had once been confined to monasteries and universities now poured into public circulation: scripture, tracts, polemics, and classical works.

For Wolsey and his contemporaries, this wasn’t a neutral development. The more books appeared, the more interpretations of truth competed. Instead of clarifying doctrine, the new abundance of learning produced contradictions upon contradictions.

Thus Wolsey’s phrase: learning set against learning. The very tools of knowledge became weapons against each other. Authority fractured. And once fractured, it could be reshaped by those strong enough to seize control of the chaos.

Information Overload in the Renaissance

The 16th century experienced what we would now call information overload.

Volume: A sudden flood of printed matter dwarfed what had been available in manuscript culture.
Confusion: Competing translations of scripture, rival theological interpretations, and new humanist philosophies proliferated.
Destabilization: Instead of reinforcing religious authority, the abundance eroded it.

Erasmus himself lamented “the multitude of books” as a kind of plague. Knowledge no longer unified; it fragmented.

For the Catholic Church, this was disastrous. The proliferation of pamphlets and treatises fueled the Protestant Reformation, fractured Christendom, and produced centuries of conflict.

Chaos as a Tool: Ordo Ab Chao

The conspiratorial interpretation of Wolsey’s insight is that information chaos can be deliberately cultivated. When learning multiplies against learning, the result is paralysis.

Overwhelm: People cannot process the volume of competing claims.
Confuse: Every truth is countered by another “truth,” making certainty impossible.
Exhaust: Intellectual fatigue sets in; most give up inquiry altogether.
Control: Out of confusion, a new authority emerges—able to dictate order on its own terms.

This is the logic of ordo ab chao—order out of chaos. Whether Wolsey consciously saw it as a tool or simply a threat, the principle was clear: learning itself could be weaponized against learning.

Modern Parallels: The Digital Deluge

Today, the problem Wolsey identified has become systemic. The internet, social media, and now AI-generated content have created an infinite flood of information.

Digital Overproduction: Billions of websites, endless streams of data, videos, posts, and feeds—far beyond human capacity to process.
Disinformation as Strategy: Rather than censor, modern power structures often flood the field with noise. A truth is buried under a thousand counter-narratives, fact-checks, and conspiracy tangents.
Cognitive Paralysis: Just as in the Renaissance, people fall into despair: “no one knows what’s true anymore.”
Emergent Authority: Institutions (governments, corporations, intelligence agencies) then step in as arbiters of “trusted information,” capitalizing on the chaos they helped engineer.

Here again, we see Wolsey’s observation: learning used against learning becomes a tool of governance.

The Conspiratorial Dimension

From a conspiratorial lens, the information glut is not accidental. It is cultivated.

Then: The Church recognized that an unregulated flood of books destabilized authority. The Reformation fractured Europe, but also enabled new powers—monarchs, emerging nation-states, and later centralized Protestant churches—to consolidate control.
Now: Digital platforms and intelligence services recognize that endless streams of contradictory narratives prevent the public from forming coherent resistance. In chaos, trust gravitates back toward central “curators of truth.”

Thus, what looks like freedom of information often serves the same function Wolsey feared: a battlefield where knowledge cancels itself out.

Conclusion

Cardinal Wolsey’s phrase “learning against learning” was an early recognition of information overload as a destabilizing force. In the Renaissance, the printing press overwhelmed religious authority. In the digital age, the internet overwhelms collective truth-seeking.

The mechanism remains the same:

Overwhelm with knowledge.
Confuse with contradictions.
Exhaust the seeker.
Impose order (ordo ab chao).

Seen this way, the story of “learning against learning” is not simply a relic of Tudor politics but a blueprint for how information can be weaponized—then and now.

ORDO AI CHAO – Essence of AI – Learning Against Learning, Info War