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The Individual Is Rising - A Book Excerpt
A Book Excerpt in Two Parts
From
The Individual Is Rising
By Joe Withrow
Part two of this book excerpt can be found exclusively at TwoIceFloes.com
To subscribe to ‘Dispatches’, a periodic newsletter from Cognitive Dissonance and TwoIceFloes Creations, please click here.
(Cognitive Dissonance – While I edited this book for Joe I am not participating in any revenue from the sale of this book. However I did purchase several copies for personal use as well as to give to family and friends.
In fact if you are looking for an inexpensive, easy to read explanation of what is going on in the world, where it is headed and ways to prepare for the inevitable change, all in a compact form you can hand to family and friends, this just might be the book for you.)
From Chapter Four - A New Paradigm is Forming
From the American perspective, one does not have to go back very far in history to recognize that the fundamental principles underlying our society have dramatically changed. The American spirit was once firm on the principles of personal liberty, property rights, free markets, and non-intervention. This is the spirit that attracted immigrants from all over the world to flock to American shores. Freedom was quite popular.
That spirit has been dulled over the past one hundred years and the principles underlying American society have shifted drastically.
Personal liberty was gradually traded for “the greater good for the greatest number” and the illusion of government provided security. Property rights gradually became subject to all manner of governmental rules and regulations. Free markets were destroyed by constant government intervention as America accepted the Keynesian/socialist notion that it was, and is, the role of government to centrally plan the economy.
But the future is calling and the paradigm is rapidly shifting. They won't mention this shift on the television or in the major publications, however, so those still mired in the 20th century way of thinking do not yet realize that it is happening. But if we look around our world we can quite clearly observe the shift in motion.
Look at the explosion of alternative media resources on the Internet. While estimates suggest that only five companies (Time Warner, News Corp, Viacom, Bertelsmann AG, Walt Disney) control more than three quarters of all major media properties (television, cinema, book publishers, magazines, newspapers), there is now a myriad of alternate media sources working diligently to provide unfiltered news and information. The Internet has allowed alternative media to flourish, and people are beginning to see that most mainstream ‘news’ is little more than state propaganda.
Look at the explosion of books and documentaries based on the principles of personal liberty and free markets. More and more people are waking up to the reality of what has happened over the past century and they are trying to spread the message as best they can.
The deterioration of popular support for the corrupt political system and the equally corrupt and enabling mass media is becoming too obvious for even the ideologically blind to ignore. Support for politicians is at an all-time low in modern history and people are starting to realize that it is the entire political system that is corrupt rather than one or the other political party. For example:
- Michelle Obama recently cancelled a speech she was scheduled to give at a Kansas high school after nearly 2,000 people signed a petition in protest of her appearance.
- Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice recently cancelled her scheduled speech at Rutgers University as faculty and students publically protested her appearance citing her “efforts to mislead the American people about the presence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.”
- Attorney General Eric Holder cancelled his speech at a police academy graduation due to protests asserting that he was an ironic choice given his “tactics of obfuscation and redirection of blame”.
- Former Vice President Dick Cheney had to cancel multiple appearances in Canada because it was “too dangerous” for him.
- Former President George W. Bush had to cancel a speech at a Jewish charity gala in Switzerland because he was worried about possible legal action against him for alleged torture.
Read the comments sections on mainstream financial articles that suggest the economy has recovered and the Federal Reserve is the hero – people just aren't buying it anymore. To counter the teetering support for the political and financial systems, the mainstream media has been working hard to paint the status-quo in a positive light. Many people aren’t buying the rhetoric and they are actively calling the bluff.
Additionally, it is remarkable how many localities are pushing for secession throughout the world. Northern California, Texas, Colorado, Vermont, Scotland, Belgium, Bavaria, Catalonia, and Venice are all areas in which residents have voiced support for secession in some capacity due to the ills of government interventions.
Look at the explosion of support the Ron Paul Revolution attracted during his presidential campaigns of 2008 and 2012. Ron Paul’s efforts awoke a legion of young people dedicated to carrying the message of liberty forward. The seeds of liberty have been firmly planted in the minds of these young people and those seeds have only begun to blossom. We will truly witness the historical significance of Ron Paul over the next several decades as these young people develop into principled leaders with a clear understanding of personal liberty and free market economics.
As Ron Paul so often said: “The Revolution is alive and well…”
History has shown, repeatedly, that the human spirit cannot be conquered. You may be able to suppress the human spirit for one hundred years or so, but never forever. The human spirit will always rise.
History has also shown that the collectivist tyrants will do everything in their power to suppress the human spirit and maintain power, and the present day situation is no different. There are now cameras on every stop light and federal taps on every cell phone for this reason. Federally funded SWAT teams are now operational in nearly every town and city, and heavy duty military vehicles and equipment are deployed in every major metropolitan city for the same reason.
The PATRIOT Act, which effectively repealed the 4th amendment, was passed for this reason. The National Defense Authorization Act, which declared the United States a battleground and every American a terrorist suspect, was passed for this reason. The Department of Homeland Security has purchased millions of rounds of hollow point ammunition, which is illegal under international law, for this reason. The REAL ID act, which requires States to upload every single American's photograph into a federally monitored facial recognition system, was implemented for this reason.
The power elite are not content to go quietly into the night, to be filed away into the dustbin of history's mistakes so seamlessly.
Instead, they are prepared to use force to maintain their lordship over the individual. They are prepared to meet the individual on the battlefield. What has completely gone over their head, however, is that the individual does not fight on the battlefield of force, but rather the battlefield of thoughts and ideas.
Victor Hugo once said "No army can withstand the strength of an idea whose time has come."
Our time has come.
The revolution is already in motion. It is a peaceful and intellectual revolution - not one of violence or force, and that is why it will succeed. The collectivist power elite are ill-prepared to fight on the intellectual battlefield because the results of their ideology are in: they failed and they can no longer convince the individual otherwise.
Brushfires of liberty are burning in the minds of men once again. And what is so amazing is that this liberty revolution is not constrained to America this time; it is world-wide. Not only are Americans awakening to the long-forgotten principles of liberty, but so are individuals all over the world. There is a fierce anti-Euro, anti-collectivist movement sweeping all of Europe as these words are being written. Meanwhile, much of Asia is becoming more free-market oriented by the day.
History has demonstrated that dying paradigms are sometimes capable of holding on for much longer than anyone can believe. But they can never last forever. The current paradigm may be able to linger for a while longer, but make no mistake about it - a major paradigm shift is currently underway.
And make no mistake about it - the individual is rising.
Joe Withrow
aka ZH's joegalt
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Hi Joe. I'll take the bait on this. You sound like a pretty 'sophisticated fellow'.
I take ZH and all I consume at this and similar sites with a very heavy dose of salt.
Why is ZH promoted even at the mainstream level if it's truly a revolutionary outlet?
Just curious.
"I take ZH and all I consume at this and similar sites with a very heavy dose of salt."
As do I. It seems to me that the ability to "sift" through information is one of the most important skills of our time. Where information was once difficult to obtain, it is now thrown at us from every direction. So how do you know what's good and what's not?
My take is that I can never truly know anything for certain so I will go with my gut instinct on what to trust and what to ignore.
On a long enough timeline...
Also, thanks very much for your time and attention.
"My take is that I can never truly know anything for certain"
You said a mouthful there.
The truth is, the ONLY thing that you can be sure of is that you exist. Nothing else can be verified by any sort of higher authority. Are your senses being tricked (matrix style)? Are you the only one here? None of the information you recieve from any of your senses can be fully verified. This sounds illogical, but if you follow the argument it's clear that everything saving your own (sense? awareness?) of existence is a belief.
This is what Buddha taught, this is the conclusion that Ramana Maharishi came to, Nisargadatta agreed, and it is the central tenet of Zen. Socrates realised that he truly knew nothing at all. This being the case, beyond the emotional impulses of the ego, is there really anything left to fear?
Anyway, congrats on the book, looking forward to reading it, sounds like it might be right up my street.
.
ah yes, in the end all we have as "individuals" is our perspective of the whole. . . and a perspective is a belief system we filter through our own'd minds.
which is where the tribe/group'd like-minds comes together - others who share similar - never exact - points of viewing, can gather together and re-en-force each others "realities" with subtle conflicts continuing to hone that group reality.
and of course, as Ramana Maharshi asks, who are you?
the seeker's path is to resolve the "I" thought, who am I? - and as you note, Nisargadatta answers,
"I am That" whereupon seeking is dropped, and being remains.
the ultimate freedom. from there we simply find ourSelves being in the world, experiencing our perspectives. . .
thanks for a kick-start for the day, medium giraffe.
Most welcome, and a pleasure to see another investigating this point of understanding. I spend most of the day indulging my ego, but even momentary periods of inner quiet are worth more than any worldly ephemera.
Have a look at this site - it's a very simple shortcut to this sort of realisation and one that can be shared with friends who might not read quite so much esoterica:
http://www.no-self.com/
Have a good one.
aye, it was a pleasure shared to see you list some of my old fave teachers as well.
it's been a decade or so since I dropped the "seeker" role in favour of just "be-ing" - in that I let the mind do its thing, and act according to my Nature whilst keeping in the present moment of awareness as much as possible. . . but I will check out your link, in parallel to my own inspiration-spot, advaita.org. . .
thanks again, peace to you.
Thank you for the thoughtful reply Joe.
The revolution isn't going to happen though.
Not until AFTER bodies start piling up.
The sad fact is our culture has been perverted to the point of being terminal.
Wish it wasn't true.
The trouble, I fear, is that we have become too entrenched in our thoughts and our thoughts alone. The response to the myriad of information does not have to been simply thought based. All you have to do is spend some time observing the natural world to see that there are many ways to sift through information. And the good news is that these many ways are available to we thought dominated humans, too. All we have to do is shut up and listen.
I look forward to reading your book! Anything that shows up on Cog's (and Mrs. Cog's) blog has proven to be enlightening. I recommend TwoIceFloes to anyone who is ready to explore the world outside of the main stream.
Great point. Sometimes we are too quick to dismiss the power of a still mind.
Thank you for considering the book. Please let me know what you think of it.
The power of a still mind is quite an asset to those who can harness it. Sadly, most people have been reduced to nothingness and would rather harm themselves physically than be alone with their thoughts for a meager 15 minutes.
To demand freedom one must first utilize the freedom to think.
http://www.universityherald.com/articles/10234/20140703/most-people-woul...
I agree. The better we know ourselves, our biases, triggers, blind spots, desires, greed, ego etc., the better we become at sifting information. After all, the con is designed to leverage our 'self' against ourselves at levels far below the surface. This is why it all begins within.
"The power elite are not content to go quietly into the night, to be filed away into the dustbin of history's mistakes so seamlessly.
Instead, they are prepared to use force to maintain their lordship over the individual. They are prepared to meet the individual on the battlefield. What has completely gone over their head, however, is that the individual does not fight on the battlefield of force, but rather the battlefield of thoughts and ideas."
"And ideas are bulletproof ." ;-)
"We are told to remember the idea, not the man. Because a man can fail. He can be killed and forgotten. But four hundred years later an idea can still change the world."
What a great film.
Yes, in the whole scheme of things, concentrating on one man is a fools errand. Men (and women) can be compromised, we are all human. However their overall vision, the idea, lives on forever with those who come after them.
"Compared with the totality of knowledge which is continually utilized in the evolution of a dynamic civilization, the difference between the knowledge that the wisest and that which the most ignorant individual can deliberately employ is comparatively insignificant." — Friedrich Hayek
Therefore, as individual empowerment increases, social power increases, doing so at the expense of the state, which will one day (and sooner than you think) recede to the vanishing point.
"Remember, remember, the 5th of November..."
... gunpowder, treason and plot."
Of course, the Brits celebrate the government suppression of potential revolution on this day.
That's true ... buuuut, when I grew up we blindly went along with it. We kids saw no significance and I'm sure that our parents saw no significance.
Habit, conditioning, ignorance.
It's almost as dumb as celebrating your "freedom" on July 4th.
Thank you for the introduction and the vote of confidence, CD.
I will mention that I see this book as a pamphlet of ideas of sorts. I don't think there is anything ground-breaking in the text that isn't familiar to the Zero Hedge crowd, but I do think it is concise and organized in a way that flows and is easy to read. I made a sincere effort to avoid a "preachy" attitude but I also put my heart into this project. My position when writing the book was that it was my responsibility to figuratively "bleed" on every page else it would be dishonest for me to publish the book for sale. I read the book in its entirety countless times throughout the editing process and I can honestly say that there are still sections that I can get fired up about. I hope the reader's experience is similar.
The paperback edition is available on Amazon and we have an e-book edition published for both the Kindle and the Nook. I would be happy to discuss anything here and of course all feedback, thoughts, ideas, constructive criticism, suggestions, and even vitriol are most welcomed.
Joe, I've long thought of writing a book like yours to put together all that we've come to believe. I commend the hell out of your efforts and hope you keep writing.
Thank you very much for the kind words. I can recommend a great editor if you do write your book, and I hope that you do. Let's create a tidal wave of truth that cannot be ignored!
Truth and real justice have global appeal. A global stall is the only way this all stops. If we allow even one nation to play the fiat game we will simply repete the cycle again. Because you cannot compete with a counterfieter for a stick of gum. Let alone freedom.
"If we allow even one nation to play the fiat game we will simply repete the cycle again."
This is where Bitcoin comes in:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/peterdiamandis/2014/06/23/my-insights-on-bit...
Not the bitcoin, but like it in that a new unit of currency is created with each act of work.
I like an energy backed coin. Because it has an actual value that can be accuratly measured. This cannot be understated in its importance. These fiat empires are the greatest danger mankind ever faced. As I have said befor even free energy would still have value. Bitcoin is another fiat. It has only the value we give it.
Back on topic. Holding oneself to the higher standard of its wrong and I will not be a party too it. Its called integrity and we dont see enough of it these days. This is a good start but it will not get us where we need to go. What we need to go with integrity is accountability. A means to fairly hold everyone accountable. But nobody even said one word when I presented a real possible solution to this very issue. Now if we have accountability and integrity we could have real justice.
It is going to have to start with integrity first. Its wrong and I will not be a party too it. Inducing the global stall. Hopefully this stall will allow the honest folks to do what is right and so desperatly needed. Take the beasts abillity to use force off the table. Then and only then could we honest folks get a fair shake. We cant get a fair shake now with guns to all our heads.
We honest folks actually have all the true power we just never got to use it. Mostly because we have been lead far astray by all those we hoped we could trust. Leaders,teachers,judges,churches and the media.
True that. In addition, there's no way one can reintroduce liberty by fighting an existing system following the rules set by this system. System evolved over decades if not centuries to supress freedom on multiple levels and deprive individual of freedom of choice leaving him with an empty shell of and mere illusion: red vs blue team, one ideology vs another, one religion vs another, one country vs another. Individual transcends these false dichotomies and while one can be fooled all the time, many for some time, everyone cannot be fooled all the time. One has to rise above himself to see these things, freedom ain't for free.
The author of this book, Joe Withrow, has been a member of ZeroHedge for some time now. A while back Joe asked me if I was interested in editing his new book. After reading the draft I was intrigued and said I would. What I like about it is its simplicity and clarity, something needed for those new to the idea that things are not what the appear to be.
I asked Joe to spend some time in the comment section and answer your questions and comments. He agreed, so I will step aside and only contribute now and then.
Here is joegalt aka Joe Withrow