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"There Is No Reality Anymore..."
Submitted by Thad Beversdorf via First Rebuttal blog,
“I’d Like to Change the World, but I Don’t Know How So I’ll Leave it Up to You”
What a great lyric that is from the late 60′s, early 70′s English band ’10 Years After’. I believe this describes that uneasy feeling of discontent that sits deep in the stomach, beneath the day to day exteriors, of so many people today. The world is like a black hole in that it seems to be getting smaller and smaller as the years go by but also heavier and heavier with each passing day.
When I was a teenager and my friends and I were taking reality obscuring substances, one of my buddies (this means you Nichol) would stop us at certain points throughout the night for a reality check. This was just a few moments where we’d all gather our senses to make sure the world was still right and then we’d venture back into obscurity. I feel that reality is an old world term. There is no reality anymore. With advances in technology came unending possibilities of if you can dream it ‘they’ can make it so. The ubiquitous flow of information ensures that the truth is always available but never known with certainty. It means there is no such thing as a reality check. It’s like that dream inside a dream inside a dream. Which reality is real anymore? How deep does the rabbit hole go?
We are raised with pretty standard ideals of what the world is meant to be but these ideals seem to take place only in the movies. It must be incredibly difficult for our young people to reconcile the two worlds, I know it is for me. That which they learn as a child and that which they find has replaced it as a young adult. Our ‘leaders’ our despicable arrogant and egotistical fools who pretend we elect them because we don’t see them for what they are. But we elect them because we feel we have no choice. We know what we want the world to be. We know what it should look and feel like. And we know it is not the world in which we live today. “I know I’d like to change the world but I don’t know how and so I’ll leave it up to you”. And so we continue to move forward down this path each step uneasy as though something ungood is lurking just around the next corner.
We are able to put that feeling out of our minds for the most part but our subconscious is always aware that things are off. We have all kinds of self help books and new – new age theories that attempt to make sense of it all and explain why we just aren’t happy the way we envision happy should be. Perhaps the only reality is the reality that the world isn’t what we had hoped it would be and we don’t know how to make that right. I’d love to say that if we just stand up and do the right thing, act from our hearts and have good intentions that it could change the world. But quite honestly there are ill-ententioned people that are constructing this new world in which we sub-exist. It is ‘them’ and us but they’d never say it that way. Certainly though their intention is not for us to co-exist along side them.
But so we carry on and we, move forward, to the best of our abilities. We accept the good with the bad and acknowledge that everything is a trade off. We believe that if we go to college we stand a better chance in life and so we borrow our first 10 years of post college wages to get an edge over the next guy who is doing the same. When we get out of school we know that it is time to buckle down and get serious. We put our ‘lives’ on hold in order to focus on the future with the idea that one day we will be sitting on the porch with the person we love, the one we put on hold for all those years and we will then enjoy our life’s work then.
But then we get further in debt because we need a sleeker car and we need a bigger house but it’s ok because we can just work a little more. And then the kids come and as far as we got to know them they are great, I think. But it’s ok because they just finished college and now they’ve moved back in as the job market is tough out there and so we’re paying off their student loans. Eventually they get away and begin their life’s journey and they take their debt with them. And then we realize, god I’m almost 60. But it feels great because that means soon I’ll be there on the porch getting to know the one I love again and life will be grand at that point.
But then we turn 65 and we realize all those policies that were implemented by all those ‘well-intentioned’ decisions makers have actually left us with very little. And we say it’s ok because we’d be bored anyway just sitting on the porch. And so we take a job waving at people in Walmart but feel like OMG how did I get here. But the shift ends and we go home anxious to spend time with the one we love because although it’s a terrible thought we are aware we’re both getting long in the tooth. And so we arrive home only to realize the one we love is now sick and that it’s too late for our days sitting on the porch getting to know each other again. We do everything we can but we cannot afford to help that person who stood quietly behind us all those years as healthcare costs are unrealistically out of touch with ‘reality’. And then it hits us that despite taking all the ‘right’ steps to ensure we have a great life we failed to ever really be happy, to really love and to really accept love. And then it really hits us, this world provides but one shot.
Well then that feeling of uneasy discontent that shadowed us when we were young is now an intense pain in our heart. And we look out at the world and we ask ourselves how could this have happened? I did everything ‘they’ told me I was supposed to do, I did everything ‘right’! And it becomes clear that life was a chance to change the world, but we didn’t know how and so we left it up to….
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Guess I should just go get stoned after reading this..
Can't get caught in a rabbit holes of our own making.
The I'm so fucking smart rabbit hole.
Don't worry, we all suffer stasis in many of them, as well.
It's all Bullshit!!!
"It’s like that dream inside a dream inside a dream. Which reality is real anymore?"
Inception was pretty confusing; the world in its current state is a complete mindfuck. But on a long enough timeline, all the dreams end.
7.62 is real enough......
"We this..."
"We that..."
What's with all this we. He have a mouse in his pocket..??
What else do you have for us to ponder..??
Interest is a scam. It can never be paid.
You're aware, of course, that the obfuscation of reality and the uneasy feeling you have that nothing is real IS BY DESIGN.
This is straight-up Saul Alinsky shit.
Don't be afraid to continue throwing the BS flag even when others vacillate and begin to doubt themselves. We have no problem holding on to the belief that gold will hold value in the long term. We have no problem understanding how asset price appreciation is attributable to central bank money printing. We have no problem understanding that 'global warming' theories were co-opted for political purposes decades ago. We have no problem believing that 'entitlement programs' are unsustainable ponzi schemes.
Why would you let the same people who couldn't shake your belief in the above truths slowly convince you that reality is wrong, when you already know it's THEY who are wrong?
Buck up, little campers. Don't believe the hype. If you believe in nothing you'll fall for anything.
Welcome to the Matrix, Neo. Here's a red pill for you.
Yep.
And who was the first Radical?
“Lest we forget at least an over the shoulder acknowledgment to the very first radical: from all our legends, mythology and history (and who is to know where mythology leaves off and history begins - or which is which), the very first radical known to man who rebelled against the establishment and did it so effectively that he at least won his own kingdom - Lucifer.”? Saul D. Alinsky, Rules for Radicals: A Pragmatic Primer for Realistic Radicals
Is it me or is it you??....It's you
reality died once with the federal reserve note, and again at the death of mark to market. both wins for the tribe.
If Thad, the author of this piece, wants to quote lyrics as a basis for his essay, he should at least get them right.
I'd love to change the world
But I don't know what to do
So I'll leave it up to you
What is real? How do you define 'real'? If you're talking about what you can feel, what you can smell, what you can taste and see, then 'real' is simply electrical signals interpreted by your brain.
cheer up ! you are looking at stuff. enjoy your day, plenty of folks in the third world are happy depite having -stuff- unavailable to them.
"We" have fucking wasted our lives because"we" are fucking cowardly sheep.
If "we" are young, then "we" can change.
If "we" are old, "we" can still change, but it's too fucking late, eh?
Never Too Late to Mend!
You hear so many make the bold proclaimation that they'd "rather die on their feet than live on their knees".
Yet we all live on our knees.... :(
One of the most shocking things I've learned during my life is the staggering amount of shit people will put up with. I can't believe we've come this far.
Yes--It seems he let himself be fooled--or at least is leading us on to believe that-- but we (like you said) we are all included.
I saw what you did there, Timmay.
I agree, BTW.
'Those who make peaceful revolution impossible, make violent revolution inevitable." -- John Fitzgerald Kennedy
Sorry I prefer 308...
7.62 x 54 NATO
42!
Everywhere is freaks and hairies
Dykes and fairies, tell me where is sanity
Tax the rich, feed the poor
Till there are no rich no more?
Population keeps on breeding
Nation bleeding, still more feeding economy
Life is funny, skies are sunny
Bees make honey, who needs money, Monopoly
World pollution, there's no solution
Institution, electrocution
Just black and white, rich or poor
Them and us, stop the war
had to post the rest of that prophetic song since it is all so relevant even though it was released 44 years ago
I listen to that song nearly every day. It has become an anthem in my life. Wonderful to see it used here on Zerohedge. And thank you for posting the rest of the lyrics. Prophetic indeed. +1.
I have a different anthem, a lot of meaning in its own right that I grapple with. The entire lyrics from "Can I tell you" by Kansas:
Can I tell you something?
I got to tell you one thing
If you expect the freedom
That you say is yours
Prove that you deserve it
Help us to preserve it
Or being free will just be
Words and nothing more
Kickass song too: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uX0H_anNJE4.
Bleating and babbling we fell on his neck with a scream.
Wave upon wave of demented avengers
March cheerfully out of obscurity into the dream.
Man, you guys really need to update your tunes!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxPWg_fMItA
Great card game!
The Age of Advertising and public relatiions.
It's not what is, but what one can get others to believe...
I think academics call it the "social imaginary."
"Welcome to the desert of the real."
Most of us who worked hard and played by the rules feel betrayed, a difference in degree, but not in kind.
I don't think it is a sense of unreality but of rampant socialism, theft, and treason. The worst failure is the lack of free speech. There is less and less discussion of the real problems, and the real culprits.
Reality has always been with us, it has simply been ignored and replaced with more desirable delusions. The power of media to shape perceptions combined with credit have allowed this to happen. Credit is the key to delusion. It allows us to buy what we have no money for, risk what we do not have to risk. But reality has always been with us and as with all dreams and delusions it will end badly as reality ALWAYS comes back into focus. Like an angry wife, it will only be ignored for so long, and the longer and further out it is pushed, the meaner the reconciliation will be. We, as a culture, nation, society or simply living beings, are gong to be smacked up side the head with a rolling pin of epic proportions.
"We, as a culture, nation, society or simply living beings, are gong to be smacked up side the head with a rolling pin of epic proportions."
+1 for this image alone. :)
I also happen to agree with the general point. A society cannot borrow "prosperity" forever. Eventually, consumption will align with production. It's remarkable how long they've kept Living in the Debt Dream running. I'm very impressed, but still 100% confident that reality exists; it can be postponed, never eliminated.
Booyah!
er... I mean well said.
But that's OK, because the majority (the FSA) likes it!
Or so I'm told.
The vast majority of the FSA (including most government workers) will snitch you out as a suspected terrorist if you try to engage them in this conversation.
Your First Amendment Right is currently under severe attack.
Just try exercising your Right to Free Speech with law enforcement these days. If you aren't killed in the process, then you are definitely going to be tazed, assaulted, arrested, and incarcerated.
Then you must PROVE your innocence to a thoroughly corrupt judicial system.
Its a vast and complex subject, that whcih will be studied for what it is in the future, depending the outcome. EIther it will be seen for what it is, a facade, an enormous criminal empire without equal and without acountability or it will continue unmatched for centuries, plunging humanity into the next Dark Age. There is no real obvious solution because the true and utter complexity of it relies on it being entirely false. Combating falshoods that create perception of reality is a tricky proposition when your target audiene would rather just be happy going along for the ride, no matter the outcome. The reason for this is they are taught through programming that it will always turn out for the best, for them. All who oppose this line of hought are the enemy, or a conspiracy theorist, or a crazy loon, whatever derrogatory name you place on it the result is the same. Herd mentality dictates that enevitably most people will side wil the people who are calling other people names. Because people hate being called names. I could go on, but it would end up being a book on the subject. Unfortuantly, before the book is published I would be suicided. Or my car would just explode. Or a plane would crash into my house. Or....I thinnk you get my point.
Wait until Apple comes out with an implant...
"Wait until Apple comes out with an implant..."
Already did. Didn't you hear..
...that occasional high pitched ringing in your ear?
We cannot speak of real problems as they are verboten.
Talk about the realities of the economy and you are a doomer and responsible for the fact that our economy has ot recovered.
Talk about race from the perspective of a non minority and you are a hater, racist, bigot who is to be shunned and punished where possible.
Talk of self defense and your are a threat to our nation, owning a gun should be a crime in itself...extremist wacko.
The failure to preserve our free speech IS the issue. We are being silenced...and they will tell us we are paranoid nut bags, and cowards because we won't speak up. Meanwhile Obama has jailed more whistle-blowers than in history,
Abso-fucking-lutely...
WOW, Oldwood you are on a roll tonight!
You are absolutely correct in your insistence that we are being silenced. It all dovetails with the loss of one's language combined with the 'borg' mentality society that 'rules' us present day.
It seems everyone is afraid to stray from the group-mentality, and of course we all must tread lightly in our day-to-day interactions for fear of being labelled 'racist'.
What a pitiful and sad society we have become.
" don't think it is a sense of unreality but of rampant socialism, theft, and treason. The worst failure is the lack of free speech. There is less and less discussion of the real problems, and the real culprits."
I have no problem with this. End of discussion and self analysis. Shoot the guilty and move on.
I feel that valuable time was stolen from me via our education system, the pace of which bored the living shit out of me...
Designed around the lowest common denominator, like the rest of society. Can't offend the stupid or weak, can we now. All hail the stupid and the weak. Special everything, for the stupid and the weak.
We mess with natural laws at our own peril.
Whell, I don't know about 'offend', I mean, avoiding offending the stupid can be well nigh impossible. And the weak, well, why worry about offending them> mb just try not to abuse them too much (if there's anybody watching)
It is fucking greed.
+100.All this BS about "talking about our issues" is never going to happen. The 800 lb gorilla in the room is ignored due to indoctrination of PC by the media and our educational system. There is no going back friends. And God Bless America...lol
No, just everything you were ever told by that TV was.
Sadly, that's the (sobering?) reality facing so many baby boomers.
And this talk of rabbit holes makes me miss my home that much more.
Drinking more MSM and "reality" is the sure cure for any realist blues now. SO...get the Netflix going, watch the local and national news and just believe everything they say...for your own sanity! If you don't, you are to blame for your unhappiness with what is actually happening.
For the most part, you're spot on Knuks. Don't take this wrong way.
People are LAZY and almost ALWAYS take the "Path of Least Resistance". I'm guilty...
Our policy makers are HUMAN and even MOAR lazy. The 3 branches of government, are bloated and lazy.
Yes, but they can be, because they recognize our weaknesses and take full and absolute advantage of them.
Oh heavens, Yen. Why would I take that the wrong way? It's the truth.
Philosophically, the problem with "reality" is like the problem with "truth"
2 people can be honest about what they both see, but disagree totally as per truth. A great example was a massive crane being driven down a small narrow street in London, scraping many parked cars, very badly. Numerous eye-witnesses described the crane as one color, others another. Which was to be found out when located, to be in fact, a third. (Classic study case) You see, in testimony, the people were "Honest" but the "Truth" was elusive and in fact, "imaginary", as in "un-real". Hence our problems with "reality".
Quantum Mechanics addresses such very neatly from both the scientific as well as philosophical perspectives. If I believe something, that makes it real. Because reality exists exclusively within my own consciousness, my perceptions. And my reality is not yours, for yours is yours, by definition as much of our consciousness is our own, apart from the collective consciousness. (The cumulative path of least resistance which we take, unknowingly). And this is the role that sales, marketing, perceptions management and propaganda play in molding those "ideas", reality, truth and so forth. (The difference in the litany of sales through propaganda is but of mere degrees.)
Yes, we all here would undoubtedly agree as to your statements.... in fact would seem to me to serve as a solid foundation for many's beliefs here.
But what of the massively differing conclusions we draw with the "same" information sets?
Just as we were speaking of yesterday!
Reality differs amongst people. Some realities are so different that folks are termed mentally ill! But together all of those various realities comprise the aggregate consciousness.....to wit the shrink is supposed to understand and have empathy with the mentally ill. The recovery counselor is best suited to the job if one of those in recovery!
I've no simple "solution" as to how to deal with this, other than through time, marked by much pain and tears of life in recognizing that there is indeed a parting of the flesh and spirit, two very separate realities overlap. We as temporal/secular physical beings are easily distracted from the spiritual. We're taught to respond as Pavlov's dog to the buy, be, dress, drive, appear, etc. and think that makes us what we are. Whereas, the spiritual side is where we find that which is termed character. That living a life founded upon strong spiritual and moral principles is the best deal in eternity. That is from whence all considerations of right and wrong, good and bad are found. The bases of character and morality. I have found that the maintenance of a firm spiritual condition, separate in it's perspective from the temporal, serves as a good platform for dealing within the storms of the temporal world. It is where I've found peace and serenity, a quiet mind.
Yes, we're all captives of the human foibles you outline, for we all suffer the human condition.
For which the only reality, the only antidote is a firm grasp upon and maintenance of our spiritual condition.
You are well aware of one path toward a spiritual awakening. Keep on it.
Good adjuncts, readings along a scientific line venturing down this path would Zukav's Dancing Wu Li Masters and Lanza's Biocentrism.
Rather eye opening in their richness and scientific manner explained in the simplest of terms
Enjoy the journey, for it's the best thing to ever have happened. An awakening in progress.
Blessings
K
Well said indeed. Greg Lake put it well once: "From the opium of custom to the ledges of extreme, don't believe it to you've held it, life is seldom what it seems, but lay your heart upon the table and in the shuffling of dreams, remember who on earth you are."
Well done Knuks.
I was trying to coax a nice rational response from an EXTREMELY bright person, and am thankful for his wisdom.
Wow. Knuckles longest post ever, and pithy too boot.
You're going to go all "Radical Marijuana" on us are you Knuks?
Amen.
Two things I look at long and hard almost every single day: my mirror and my gratitude list.
Three things I meditate on whenever I can:
1) Am I living in the present? Letting go of resentments and regrets from the past, and fears and expectations of the future?
2) Am I letting go (mostly of delusions of control) and letting God?
3) Am I loving unconditionally?
After considering each question and grading my efforts for the day, I ask God to help me do better.
For me, this regular maintenance of my spiritual condition has provided many a solid plank to build, "a good platform for dealing within the storms of the temporal world."
Beautiful Hedgeless.
The purity, elegance of practicing firm moral and spiritual principles in all of one's affairs. The simplicity of a life, with a calm, quiet mind. A priceless journey that most will never experience.
The best bargain in eternity.
May He always hold you close in the palms of His hands.
Blessings,
K
My, that there Sir Knuck, was simply beautimous and purely true. Thank you.
One word can be used as the master key to open all doors of understanding and perceptions both in the seen world, and the unseen worlds. That very simple and sums it all up word is, Love. Use it well as we steer towards the wacky-doo unknown in a world where everybody knows who causes unrest, wars for profits, murder for world domination, destruction of the human species, and mucho disharmony. Everybody also knows why it happens. The moneygod has it's crawly claw hold on 99.9999 % of most mens balls squeezing the sanity and reason from them to control and as for women, well, surly the evil clutching tweezing claws have a hold of them too. When a sane soul ponders this unreality, it is mind blowing amazing that such an evil dark energy can control the entire world of human beings.
Let Love shine on the world...let Love shine on you.
Bless'ed up!
The Logic of Selfishness and Immaturity
The writer last paragraph:
“we ask ourselves how could this have happened? I did everything ‘they’ told me I was supposed to do…”
Narcissism
In clinical psychology and psychiatry, an unrealistic, exaggerated, or rigidly held sense of entitlement may be considered a symptom of narcissistic personality disorder, seen in those who "[ Freud said ] because of early frustrations, they arrogate to themselves the right to demand lifelong reimbursement from fate."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entitlement#Narcissism
Cool!
All this time and I thought it was something I had done, and it was fate all along!
I should a known it was some sort of mental illness.
Yeah. Narcissistic analysis of the past. focus on wrongs done to self. Blame on failure to have been awake and aware as opposed to "doing as I was told". Either way scapegoat. Just let's all get over this endless self analysis excuse and endless charting and complaining.
Time to do what was avoided in the past. Shoot the bastards. Jail them. Brand them. Strip their assets. Dismantle the TBTF and Central Banking. Storm the Bastille. Violence is not my choice but I have been left with little other. World wide revolution in whatever form is necessary to break this.
Now you know how the slaves must have felt.
Most all of us are slaves now. Even those of us who have supposedly "done well" for ourselves.
From the kleptocracy's point of view however, we are extremely dangerous. We are armed, we are informed, and we are very, VERY pissed off.
The "elite" have good reason to be concerned.
There are three types of Elites: 1)Politicians 2)Academia 3)The very Wealthy
Politicians get it, for the most part. Academia is starting to see their end, that’s why they are starting to understand; facing it. The very wealthy, for the most part, are incapable to see it, yet.
The line on the sand will be the decline on oil for export that will lead to shortages. The bottom 50% of the population will have to go without oil. I have that beginning in 2019. Anyway, if I have my way, Paraguay.
But I think the financial meltdown will come first, leading to a massive and fast collapse.
I have the financial collapse for 2016/2018. So I am preparing for WW-3 around these dates.
Then, the very wealthy will wake up….. Not that I care.
You do realize Freud was a coke head right?
I fucking love the questioning of kiss arse falsehoods!
Although Freud did do quite a good "What's on a mans mind" t-shirt
Never liked shrinks, they usually transfer their own personal experiences & thoughts or transpose their other "patients" onto another.
One (yes, more than one when I was a juvenile and couldn't bark back with "authority"...lol) experience happened after I got popped with some pot.
She had this "very scientific" 600 (felt like it anyways) questioning piece of paper she read from to me. One of the questions was "Do you ever feel like you're being followed?" My first and second answer to that same question (there were other duplications) was no. On the third time around I said yes, she jotted something down.
Now I have no way of knowing what she actually wrote but I'm sure it wasn't "He now knows I've asked the very same question three times! ;-)
Head shrinkers, tend to be, shrunken heads. ;-)
I've met many a psychology major in my time. They're generally trying to find out why they can't get past personal issues.
If I want my head shrunk, I'll tour the outer reaches of New Guinea. Haha
lol...psych majors have always impressed me as either dour or depressingly optimistic.
Theres just no in between ;-)
108K psych majors graduated in 2012.
lol...great.
Combine them with lawyers and socio-economic majors we have absolutely nothing to lose! ;-)
We're gonna need a bigger pharma industry.
nmewn
Who do you think you are kidding?
We are all shrinks in here…. Sure, some are more dysfunctional than others.
Dysfunctional according to whose reality? ;-)
You probably got the MMPI-2 (Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory v.2) that had 570 or so questions. It was geared to adults and tended to make teenagers look kind of psychopathic. They later concocted the MMPI-A, which was geared towards younger people.
Answering similar questions with different answers affected your Variable Response Inconsistency score. You wouldn't get any interesting drugs for that.
I had to take the written version in the service along with a few thousand other new recruits. Free meat for developing standardized scores, I guess. I kept stifling a laugh every time I read the "Do you feel people are secretly plotting against you," "Do you feel that someone else is controlling your thoughts" and the "Do you sometimes feel you are being followed" ones. They just seemed hilarious to me at the time. Then I looked around the auditorium and saw all the other recruits being very serious and concentrating really hard on their answers as if they were terribly difficult. THAT certainly scared the crap out of me.
A minor, and irrelevant handicap, compare to what I see around here.
Uhhh, his "minor & irrelevant handicap" contributed to the death of his friend Ernst von Fleischl-Marxow, who was addicted to morphine.
Sometimes what you think you know (returning to the article) is not reality at all ;-)
Going purely on the 'experts' of today, I have to admit that the ones of yesterday make my skin scrawl, plus sporadic vomiting.
Anyone heard of Tesla? No? Must have been a knob head.............
Quite sad that you would say such a thing.
There are people out there who were CONDITIONED to believe that the work that they did was a part of the never ending process of life. Namely, believing that they were a part of the solution in a very small way. SO, they did what they did and did the best they can with what they had.
YET, here comes you spewing such crap.
At least the author came out to a realization and decided to share so that others may learn.
And here you are, spewing such crap.
Within many various equations on what and how we move forward in those various societies, people like you are factored into those equations. Which means, people like you are the ones who tend to bring on more destruction then creation.
To the Writer i say, "Congrats in your process growing in awareness". To you, " Grow up."
Pens,
He does make some valid points. My father worked his 30 years at the Corporation after serving in Iwo Jima. He expected/earned the PORCH scene. At 64, the year he was to retire he got melanoma. Died 6 months later. Point is you can do everything right and still get shafted.
My father died six months after he retired. He had a great life, but so little leisure, and opportunity to live his own life, his own way, when half the population has nothing but leisure.
That sort of fundamental injustice changes your outlook on life.
As I paid my respects to my friend in our local cemetery a while back, and noticing the dates carved into the headstones, it began to occur to me how clever the retirement age of 65, or 70, truly is.
Social security was never intended to pay out. Modern medicine fucked it up, but Obamacare is fixing that shit right up! We will be back to dying at 62 like we are supposed to, ready or not!
If I only have seven years left some "folks" are going to very sorry they let me live at all ;-)
I only have four months!
"And then it really hits us, this world provides but one shot."
And then it really hits us, life provides but one shot.
Fixed it for ya. Your welcome.
Not if " Big Pharma" has it's way. I see lots of Walmart Greeters in our future.
take all that weapons and defense money and use to fund housing and education for all people.
take all that weapons and defense money and give it back to the people who earned it, so they can live their lives better in their own way.
Exactly, like they are fucking robbing us blind for our own good. Soon they will be claiming all of our pay to "invest" in savings bonds, and advancing us an allowance "to each according to our needs". Means based social security will prove too little too late.
Use my fucking stolen earnings to fund WHO'S fucking housing and food?
former CIA Director, William Casey, “We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false.”
..
I believe that american government is false. And believe nothing they produce.
Excuse me. I'm just going to go and slit wrists now. If that doesn't work I'll do the belt in the closet door thing.
When speaking about "reality" : don’t be fooled by Syriza’s cool soundbites (fuck oligarchs/NATO/Israel, odious debt, vive Russia, etc.) and note:
- Varoufakis is a well-established, well respected (subsidized) economist. Since 2013 he has been teaching at the University of Texas at Austin. Before that he was Professor at the University of Athens.
- Varoufakis supports the establishment of a new world currency (as do the IMF and World Bank). He wrote a book in 2011 (“The Global Minotaur”) which concludes with: A second, even brighter, scenario would be for the West to have an epiphany and, at long last, embrace John Maynard Keynes’ suggestion of an International Currency Union – the very suggestion that America rejected at the Bretton Woods conference of 1944.
- Tsipras and Varoufakis are the darlings of large portions of European and American MSM.
- A quote from Syriza’s congress paper: 13.24 […]Our plan for social reconstruction will result immediately in a drop in crime rate. The elimination of major organized crime, drug trafficking and arms trade, prostitution and human trafficking, slave labor, excessively high rents, should all be targeted by public services and security forces, fundamentally reoriented and democratically trained.
- Tsipras defends the idea of a “European New Deal” (his latest open letter).
What is going on is that the battle in Europe that has been opposing NWO socialists/Keynesians to the Germans (and other residually virtuous European nations) has witnessed two major victories for the former: QECB and Greek elections. And saying so doesn’t mean I support the pseudo-austerity policies.
If the Germans/pseudausterity is the thesis, and Syriza is the anti-thesis, what is the synthesis? I reject this Hegelian dialectic and DON’T grant benefit of the doubt to Syriza.
+ their head economist, John Milios, sounded like a complete idiot in an interview he did for Dutch TV.
“I am a Marxist,” he says. “The majority [in Syriza] are.” - John Milios
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/dec/23/syriza-john-milios-greece-e...
Maybe he's just a really big fan of the Marx Brothers.
The thing about big government types is that they do not see the failing in the structure, only in its elements and specifics of policy. Its always about preserving the structure and simply imposing their purity of mind and purpose, that will change it all, while completely ignoring the fact that if people were naturally pure in mind and purpose, we wouldn't need those enlightened ones to rule us. It is the very nature of our human frailty that grows corruption and fraud, and when exposed to an all powerful and unaccountable super structure that our governments have become, have no other choice than to become what we have always become, corrupt, only on ever grander scales.
Nothing short of genetic modification could possibly ever change the nature of man, and as such, our best way to prevent destruction on a mass scale is to minimize the size and scope of the structure. Decentralize, Do what our constitution intended. Individual states operating under a central template of very limited power and scope, simply to enable and enhance cooperation and trade between partners, not tell our children what they can eat in school, or regulate how, when and from whom we will receive healthcare.
Excellent post.
The only successful Marxist structure I know of is an ant colony. But we ain't ants.
Actually not, there is no police in ant colonies. The queen only lays eggs, doesn't rule. 1/3 of ants are unproductive, 1/3 of ants screw things up and 1/3 of ants are productive. Females get to leave and create their own utopia society (and I would guess males can leave at any point as in the cartoon). Ant civilization is actually panarchist (and it's 100 million years old). Perhaps humanity will naturally evolve one day towards pure enlightened altruism (in the good way, not in the randian sense). Anyhow, it has to free itself from slavery first.
Self-awareness is a blessed curse for mankind. I've always wondered if emotions lead to self-awareness or vice versa.
It's the "decentralization" process that would cause an enormous amount of strain on the system.
What you seem to be suggesting as a solution is in effect a "downsizing" of the governmental structure. Presumably, this would include ALL government workers. Local, County, State, and Federal.
That process, while admirable in theory, would likely cause massive social and economic upheaval.
Who decides which departments and/or workers are superfluous or unnecessary?
Me. I'll fucking do it. Full time. For free. And with a big giant damn smile on my face.
There are huge inefficiencies in all government, but that is not the issue. The issue is the "central" government. Their control over virtually everything, either directly through legislation, or through printing money and using that money to buy power and control. You may believe that this overarching power is only a problem if there is corruption, but corruption in any large, powerful, unaccountable organization is unavoidable.Period.
When people ask me what my political affiliation is, I proudly answer, "I am an Anarchist."
That response is certainly not intended to provoke a negative reaction, although it invariably does. Most people don't understand the true definition of Anarchism, so I don't usually share my political ideologies within common society.
I know exactly where you're coming from. It's the application or transition of change from what is now the prevalent form of government that will result in the most extreme resistance.
I fear it's going to require a violent revolution before a equitable and just system of government can be implemented.
Whenever someone says "siraz" I think of a bottle of really bad wine.
Same goes for "the fight over Chobani.". Who fights over yogurt I think?
This article does remind me of the Star Trek movie Generations tho..."living in The Nexus.". It isn't real...but certainly it FEELS real.
We WANT it to be real. We BELIEVE it to be true.
Yet there is in all that conviviality and jocularity "a light blinking in a pattern."
The other "darker" side I imagine is the movie Alien...something trapped inside us that once out becomes far too real...
If you think Shiraz sux, pop open a bottle of Malbec and prepare to enter an entirely new realm of suckishness.
What mate? Malbec grapes are some of the oldest cuttings of French grapes, outside of France, anywhere else in the world! Ancient French grapes grown in virgin South American soil? Yeah sounds terrible.
Signed
A Whiskey drinker.
I gave you a down arrow.
- First, it is too early to judge whether Syriza is the real deal or another Hope and Change mumbo jumbo.
- Second, as far as I know they have never advocated exiting from the EU political union.
- Third, your views are uniquely America-centric in that hysteria sets in as soon as "Marx" or "Socialism" is mentioned despite the fact that modern management techniques in human resources (Worker protection and training) and almost every essential civic service including state pensions are borrowed from the pages of Marx. Communism is crap, but it does not mean there are no merits in the economic philosophy that changed the world for the common man. Without him, we would all be living in a static society of feudal oligarchs (what he called owner-capitalists) who owned and controlled everything. Look at America and it is almost there. I don't advocate Marxism, I'm saying that his insights are useful today as analytical tools for what the hell is going wrong today.
- Another America-centric view is the fear of multilateral concensus. How is a multilateral global reserve currency based on a mixed bag of currencies/commodities worse than a unilateral one based on the whims of the Fed?
- "The elimination of major organized crime, drug trafficking and arms trade, prostitution and human trafficking, slave labor, excessively high rents, should all be targeted by public services and security forces, fundamentally reoriented and democratically trained." - why do you think this is a bad thing exactly?
It is a complex play with multiple actors, and I don't believe the leading role is Germany in the EU. Ever since the Snowden revelation that Merkel had been under close NSA surveillance for over a decade, her actions which often go against the best interests of her own country started to make sense. Her unambiguous support of the sanctions against Russia makes no sense at all for German industry and the sentiments of her nation.
I'm more than willing to give Tsipras and Syriza the benefit of the doubt. So far, I don't think he has put a foot wrong and hope he will do what he was elected to do: Look after the interests of his people first and foremost.
Respectfully, because I recognize an idealist from a zealot:
"Communism is crap, but it does not mean there are no merits in the economic philosophy that changed the world for the common man. Without him, we would all be living in a static society of feudal oligarchs (what he called owner-capitalists) who owned and controlled everything."
The concept of private property was around long before Marx and what I detest the most are those socialist-oligarchs who have used law & capitalism to keep the common man as serfs.
A little tax credit here, some philanthropy over there, some EBT out there and the serfs are satiated?
Look at them, Soros, Buffet, Lewis, Steyer, Gates and what they are. Give me a millionaire football/basketball/baseball player who refuses to belch platitudes toward the press and I'll show you a free common man ;-)
"what I detest the most are those socialist-oligarchs who have used law & capitalism to keep the common man as serfs."
+1 You and me both. Look at the conflicts of interest and nepotism rife under communism, keeping the common man under their rule and it is equally disgusting. That is precisely the point of the pigs in Animal Farm I suppose. You just can't trust most statists of any colour.
As for the concept of private property, I see it as an ongoing struggle since 1215 (Magna Carta) with bloody consequences to keep the rights of the common man intact. Every now and then we see a shining new document that guarantees the ownership of property earned with the sweat of one's brow, only to have it wrestled away with inflation, taxes, confiscation, and now debt servitude.
Well stated.
However, I'm afraid this generation of Greeks are going to re-learn some old lessons of absolute power corrupting absolutely, again.
I wish them luck on the one hand, knowing all along what the other hand is actually doing.
"Every now and then we see a shining new document that guarantees the ownership of property earned with the sweat of one's brow, only to have it wrestled away with inflation, taxes, confiscation, and now debt servitude."
And therein lies the problem in your previous "How is a multilateral global reserve currency based on a mixed bag of currencies/commodities worse than a unilateral one based on the whims of the Fed?" position. All that would do is replace The Fed with another regime controlled by statists and used as a tool of power over whichever group or individual is the flavour of the day target.
And while I'm here:
- "The elimination of major organized crime, drug trafficking and arms trade, prostitution and human trafficking, slave labor, excessively high rents, should all be targeted by public services and security forces, fundamentally reoriented and democratically trained." - why do you think this is a bad thing exactly?"
Because of what I placed in bold italics. Duh. Want to square that with your supposed property rights position? You can ad "drug trafficking" and prostitution to the list as well because as stand alone propositions they too are both property issues (do I NOT own my body and have the right to do with it as I please?) up and unitl said endeavours violate natural law.
So yes, I have a problem with much of what you write.
"modern management techniques in human resources (Worker protection and training) and almost every essential civic service including state pensions are borrowed from the pages of Marx. Communism is crap, but it does not mean there are no merits in the economic philosophy that changed the world for the common man. Without him, we would all be living in a static society of feudal oligarchs (what he called owner-capitalists) who owned and controlled everything. Look at America and it is almost there. I don't advocate Marxism, I'm saying that his insights are useful today as analytical tools for what the hell is going wrong today."
There is so much wrong with this that it's hard to find where to start. First we are in this mess BECAUSE we followed a bunch of MArxist crap. Yes it changed the world for the common man-it made him forever enslaved and just content enough to not recognize it. State pensions, civic service is the result of theft of private property through violence and coercion by THE STATE. At what point exactly did I agree to funding the retirement of some murderous, criminal gang member of the NYPD? Exactly. I never did yet my property is taken from me against my will and used for such purposes.
artless + 1
One of the central pillars of marxism is the centralization of money and credit = central banks... thanks Marx, for changing the world for the common man! He Sure changed the lives of the 100 million common men, women and children killed under communism. Right now he's busy changing lives in Venezuela!
+1
Centralization of money & credit into the hands of the state is pure Marxism, plank number five.
And yet we still wonder about the revolving door between K Street, Wall Street and DC ;-)
Centralization IS corruption when it comes to human behavior. It drives the corruption in finance and K street is but part of the feedback apparatus that feeds it.
Your post is why we're on the verge of financial and economic collapse and nothing at all will be done to stop it. The blind worship of capitalism is so ridiculous and confused, it's almost infantile. There is absolutely no recognition that unfettered capitalism of which America is such a shining example got us here in the first place. A plutocracy. An empire of chaos and corruption smothered by the Huxley's syrupy vision of dystopia.
Why I must post the same thing over and over again for idiots who cannot understand it is beyond me. It is not capitalism that gives you the power to change policies in government it is democracy. It is not capitalism that gives you freedom and liberty and protection from exploitation, it is the laws of rights enshrined in the Magna Carta and the Constitution that gives you this freedom. Market forces now dictate the wealthiest can buy the political process.
People like you believe workers should have no rights at all. Just animals to be used and abused, to live and die on the factory floor/fast food restaurants. A pure dog-eat-dog world moulded by market forces, no rules to hinder profit, no limits to one person's wealth and power until everyone lives in the gutter begging for scraps except those who own the most capital. Everything owned and produced by a select few globalists with the illusion of choice through brands. This is what Marx predicted looking at the landscape of choking factories, poverty, and cruelty in the 19th century and this is where we are today. You are fucking owned and enslaved yet you defend to your last breath the very system that enslaved you whimpering that it must be something else, anything else but your beloved capitalism that created the plutocrats who control what you see, what you hear, what you consume and even how you think.
Both capitalism & socialism have faults and merits. It really is time to replace a system that has created monstrous multinationals with its tentacles entrenched in politics and the media with something better. It's a hard choice to try to limit the human nature of greed and power without cutting into property rights and freedom of the individual. The current systems do not encourage honest human effort and ingenuity, it encourages shortcuts to wealth, risk taking and theft. That is where I think we should start, with money that is based on honest human effort and ingenuity.
The reality is that capitalism has failed because of corruption, cronyism and the breakdown of the rule of law.
Rule of law is a government service. Nice try though. When your internet service provider fucks up you don't say that the internet in general has failed.
+1
Couldn't have put it better!
There should be a word for a system that didn't allow for anyone to become exempt from the rule of law. I wonder what that could be called?
Mars
There should be a word for a system that didn't allow for anyone to become exempt from the rule of law. I wonder what that could be called?
Per Aristotle, that would be called "the only stable form of government". Smart man, Aristotle.
Capitalism has not failed beacuse it has never really been tried.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqOiZjwQKaU
I would think Moody Blues : "Lost in a Lost World" would be another great song for this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80nUhHofw0U
someone is out there creating reality and they
rejoice when they don't have to bother with
"you" as some source or obstacle or competition.
.
actually, they just don't care once they get
the knack of creation. then, it is all inverted
and they think destruction and murder constitute
a form of creation. whoa ..... the empiric minds
of men.
.
Rev. Gary Davis - "Death Don't Have No Mercy"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXPh7EbB1Tw
Go figure when the Fed has levered reality around 77 to 1.
Hey ! He got it slightly wrong. It's actually "I'd love to change the world, but I don't know what to do, so I'll leave it up to you"
'Tis a crime to even slightly alter song lyrics ... :)
(Can't wait for the next HFT article . . . got one in the hopper ready to go)
He's confusing it with the Coca Cola jingle: I'd like to teach the world to sing, but I forgot the words.
Ahh, generational differences. The narcissist boomers who fucked up the world refer to changing the world and such...
that's where you and your parents got it all wrong. As said to me once "we thought what we were doing was right".
Perhaps this song lyric should be considered instead:
"I can't change the world but I can change the world in me"
I think Knuckles and hedgeless are on this page.
There is a reality : its the spike in the inequality divide. Its 80 people of Thebes against the rest.
80 people who own more than half the world population and the divide grows by the second.
Power is their reality and money is their tool.
Its happened so fast thats its left all of the Achaeans in a state of disbelief.
Reality now stares at humanity like the abyss as they look into it and see the dark void returning their disbelief.
we were gonna change the world marty
And it will get worse, for those who are losing ground in this battle have but one potential hero, one all powerful savior, our governments. Yes the very devils that are enabling, facilitating and actually robbing us blind. The weaker we perceive ourselves the more desperate and willing we are to accept tyranny as our only defense. Greece as a case in point, ravaged by corruption that only a centralized government can enable, just voted for an ever stronger governmental hand to protect them. Same structure, different faces. The only way to stop a thief is with a better one. We elect our representatives, no longer to defend our property and rights, but to take those properties and rights from others, if not to benefit us directly, to at least theoretically disable or punish the others. Ultimately robbing us all to enrich a few, those protectors, those penalizing us for our own good, destroying our freedoms to preserve them (in a glass box on a shelf I suppose).
I tend to agree.
Tsipras seems to be offering a solution to an impossible equation.
Infinite growth on a finite planet is simply not possible.
Hello Flacka, there is a reality and it lives in your body, 80 people own half the World? this is part of the reality which lives in your reverie, that incessant voice in your head which commands and interperts the 'verbal' reality. it tells you 'who you are' your place in the grand scheme of things, and every other thing which governs your decisions, two realities inhabiting the same organism, sometimes there is conflict between,'The way things Should be', and the reality of the way they are. (cognitive dissodence?)
I believe in the single cell in the Ocean theory of how life began, It is simple ro understand and satisfies my need for a beginning I can believe in! That first cell manifest instinct's command and now all the complexity of life manifests the power of instinct, we humans can never really be free from instince, instince guides all life, not flawlessly of course, but always with the survival of the host as it's uncompromised goal.
Fhe verbal World is where all the things which are true, "Because we belive they are true', and things which are true whether we believe they are or not cohabit, this conflict with instinct, if cronic, can inneverate the body to the point where it becomes sick and dies.
We are unhappy organisms when we ignore instinct's urgings, but we do it a lot anyway, we are conscious in the verbal World, since we command the words we want to believe we can command the reality we desire through Words, Faith and belief!
Many cultures recognize a sixth sense by which we are all linked to life through our instincts, because of this corrective mechanism life has indeed been fruitful and multiplied, life will continue to adapt to new realities as they appear, The human branch's adaptability, at least as we manifest it over here, seems inadequate to meet the future we seem to be seeking, Do we now, as the day grows short, deal with our problems by 'figuratively' running into the sea like Lemmings? I'm not optimistic!
Last call!... "Reality" train departing!... This is the last call!!!
Cause those Russian and Chinese warheads are very real!
And the mindless fucks that you've allowed to lead you these last 20 years are going to get you very dead if you don't wake up soon!
Oh and please!... Stop telling yourself that it can never happen on your watch!!!
"And the mindless fucks that you've allowed to lead you these last 20 years are going to get you very dead if you don't wake up soon!"
Nuclear warheads...asteroids...car accident...cancer...stroke...bullet...what's the difference?
"what's the difference?"
Family
Oh, family keeps you from dying, do they?
"...feeling of discontent that sits deep in the stomach, beneath the day to day exteriors, of so many people..."
Exactly what the people I show the workforce participation chart to feel like. They don't fully understand what it means, but they sure know that it isn't good. Then I tell them what it means, and turn the discontent in the stomach into a brick.
The banksters need to repay us.
The banksters need to repay us.
kc
While you're waiting for the bill that is long overdue from that side of the fence...
You always talk about them. You might as well become the entrepreneur that provides a service that will "repay" them first!
I use "guillotine" as an allegorical rhetoric, propaganda, device, to subtly induce people to begin thinking about the Retribution that will ultimately need to be implemented. It is much less wordy, and less graphic than "put against a wall and shot." "Guillotine" is much easier to work into a sentence, or conversation.
And, "The banksters need to repay us" is about introducing people to the idea that the banksters actually owe us, not we them. It is not a question, but a statement of fact with an active, and implicit, call to action, expectation.
If a bully takes your child's lunch money, the bully does not "owe" your child, he "needs to repay/return" the money to your child--like right now. "Owe" is a passive statement of fact. "Needs to repay" is an active statement of fact with an implicit expectation.
Sort of like the difference between, "Acme blades give you close shaves," and, "Shave with Acme blades for a close shave."
I use "Zion/Zionism/Zionist" in a similar manner. People need to start paying attention to, and thinking about, what having many people that live amongst us, but are not of us, pulling the strings means to our future. Even more importantly is the fact that these Amongst are directed, and controlled, by powers, and interests, from abroad--they are not of, or for, the American country. Many of them have the right to "Return," flee. How concerned could they actually be about the impact of their machinations on those around them here, if later they can just leave?
So people need to consider not only that fraudulent-reserve banking is theft, but that it is theft controlled by, and for the benefit, of certain groups abroad. Ditto the DC US' wars abroad, and civil war against the American people.
"It's their crimes, stupid!" I would be extolling this message even if the Amongst were red-headed Irish folks--I am only concerned with crimes, not ethnicity.
In the end, the solution is easy to comprehend--Take away their tools of theft, and oppression: Fraudulent-reserve banking, big, criminal, and Unconstitutional government, and Restore the Constitution.
Like I have said before, I am practicing my writing, rhetoric, and communication, skills at ZH. Doing so make me more potent when talking with the sheeple. I also learn so much from reading the articles, and even more from the comments to the articles.
I will probably never change the world, but I am going to try, and will also do all I can to hold those responsible for the condition of the world accountable.
The banksters need to repay us.
The Four Rs
Rejection: Stop Paying. Stop Playing. Stop Obeying.
Revolution: It is inevitable, so prepare, as they are.
Retribution: The guilty must answer for their crimes against the American people and the Constitution. No “truth and reconciliation,” but “trial and Retribution.”
Restoration: Restore the American people, country and Constitutional republic.
In the end, the solution is easy to comprehend--Take away their tools of theft, and oppression: Fraudulent-reserve banking, big, criminal, and Unconstitutional government, and Restore the Constitution.
The Four Rs
Rejection: Stop Paying. Stop Playing. Stop Obeying.
Revolution: It is inevitable, so prepare, as they are.
Retribution: The guilty must answer for their crimes against the American people and the Constitution. No “truth and reconciliation,” but “trial and Retribution.”
Restoration: Restore the American people, country and Constitutional republic.
Never Say Never. kc
Well done!
Yeah, pass the pipe man
Here's how I can tell that reality has checked out permanently. I hear the following outlandish ideas:
1) The CIA has planted neo-Nazis in Kiev...now that's a conTSIPIRASy, or the Ukies are too stupid to start their own revolution.
2) 9-11 was an "inside" job, and the CIA wired the bottom floor because it worked so well when OBL tried it the first time.
3) Sandy Hook was a false flag...in fact EVERTHING is a "false flag" per Paul Craig Roberts until proven otherwise.
4) Everything in the market is rigged because it won't go up....and the same thing when it won't go down...well except oil...and except...and, and and...
5) All bankers are Jews, oops! "zionists" ...oops except for Jamie Dimon who is greek orthodox...which is the furthest possible thing from a zionist with the exception of a Buddhist or an atheist.
And I could go on...but you get the picture ;-)
Glad I don't have to reconcile your thoughts at sleepy time BT zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
The reality is you don't know any more about any of those things than the rest of us, so you smear to protect your ego and to reinforce YOUR reality. But I happen to believe that the USA led the coup in the Ukraine, and that's been largely verified. Actually there's a youtube video with Victoria Nuland saying as much. You should check it out. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2fYcHLouXY
9-11, well that's an emotional one for most. I like to look deeply into things (especially when others deliberately do not) and it's pretty easy to see that the "official" narrative has some gaping holes. Who did what with the nanothermite is not for me to say, but I will say that what happened that sad day is not as they draw it up.
Sandy Hook is one of the biggest and easiest false flags to break down, and there are many very good and brave people who have. For good information check out "We need to talk about Sandy Hook". https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2eVq2DWneQ
There are no markets, ONLY INTERVENTIONS
Not sure about the zionists, but I'd love to learn more...
You could go on about shit you really don't know about, but your NSA break is over and it's time to check out my wife's tits again (which by the way are fantastic, but of course you already knew that). GET BACK TO WORK, you're interupting my reality!