This page has been archived and commenting is disabled.
What Choice Do We Have?
Submittted by Charles Hugh-Smith of OfTwoMinds blog,
As systemic solutions fall short, we must grasp the nettle of making our own arrangements in a time characterized by burgeoning demands and diminishing resources, capital and security.
The idea that our large-scale problems could be fixed with systemic reforms is enticing: replace the thousands of pages of tax code with a simple flat tax without deductions, for example, or the replacement of too big to jail/fail banks with community-owned banks that served the public, not shareholders.
But the attraction of reforms is a siren song, because our system is run by vested interests for vested interests, period. Any real reform is Dead On Arrival (DOA) because any real reform threatens the swag and security of vested interests.
One person's livelihood is another person's vested interest.
Toss in The Enchanting Charms of Cheap, Easy Credit and Our Spoiled-Brat Economy and we have a toxic resistance to systemic reforms that require any degrowth, direct democracy, writedowns of debt, devolution of centalized power, i.e. any real reforms of the unsustainable status quo.
So where does that leave us? With no choice but to submit? No, it leaves us with private solutions, by which I mean arrangements made on the individual and household level that do not assume the unsustainable status quo will magically continue to issue us our "we wuz promised" share of the swag.
Private solutions subdivide into practicalities (securing multiple income streams, choosing where to live, arranging access to healthcare, food and energy, proximity to friends and family, like-minded colleagues, etc.) and what we might term self-fulfillment: aligning our internal goals, priorities, personality traits, values and skills with the practical externalities of daily life.
Longtime correspondent Bart D. recently responded to an email in which I expressed the all-too common sense of being overwhelmed--by work, duties, responsibilities. His response gives us a starting place for choosing our priorities and goals:
"At the suggestion of a 93-year old relative, I spent a bit of time thinking of myself as being on my death-bed and considering what I’d wished I’d spent more time doing in my life. Then I went out and did it (and still am). That way, hopefully, when I eventually get there, I won’t have any need to ask myself that question because I’ve already resolved it. (It’s a minor form of ‘time travel’ in my way of thinking.)
After that, I stopped worrying about lots of mundane life things and focused on the next really excellent thing I wanted to do. For me, that meant doing a great holiday with the kids, taking them (and myself) to an interesting and inspiring place, getting out into the wild. As a result of that first inspiration we travelled 3200km across the continent and spent days swimming and soaking in a thermal river in the top end of the Northern Territory. I ended up talking to heaps of people from all over the world as they drifted past ‘our spot’. Each had a little piece of wisdom to pass on.
During that time I completely forgot to think about any of my mundane life troubles and I remained changed after returning home.
Holidays are now my stepping stones through mundane existence. It’s the great luxury I wanted but never had as a child.
Where once I was an ardent ‘saver’ I’m now a moderate spender on things that provide a good life experience. I’ve also cut back on my sense of ‘duty’ to achieve certain things for others. My outlook now is that I’m a part of a greater social machine and there are others in that machine that can (or should) take a turn in bearing the load. I will now let others fail if they don’t want to share the load. We can’t keep everyone happy all of the time. Just some people happy some of the time. And that includes our own selves."
This reassessment of duty and what is possible is especially critical in times of decline/decay, as the process of decline is essentially one of burgeoning demands and diminishing resources: there simply won't be enough to meet everyone's demands.
This means we have to pick our priorities wisely, so we 1) don't get dragged into the abyss by over-committing our limited time and resources in a vain effort to meet the demands of everyone around us, and 2) by keeping our expectations realistic, i.e. within the boundaries of what is possible without extraordinary effort, wealth and luck.
This process of reassessment implicitly holds the promise of a fulfilling life even in times of turmoil, instability and diminishing resources. As author Michael Grant noted in his history (referenced in Part 2 of my Collapse series last week) The Fall of the Roman Empire, many people opted-out of the decaying Imperial system by joining monasteries that were by design self-reliant and self-supporting. It was not an easy life, as the religious organizations operating the monasteries demanded piety and plenty of hard work. But the order provided security and purpose--precisely the qualities lost as the Empire frayed at the edges.
Some families of great wealth exited Rome and set up self-sustaining private fiefdoms in the countryside--manor houses supported by farms. Tradespeople and merchants impoverished by rising taxes found refuge as laborers on these sprawling estates. Once again, it was not the ideal setting, but it offered security, protection and purpose.
In our era, the questions that present themselves are: where shall we devote our limited resources of time, capital and effort? What is the payoff of our choices, and what are the opportunity costs, that is, what other choices must be abandoned to pursue this path? What trade-offs are we making, explicitly and implicitly? What must we forego to pursue our primary objectives? What is the balance between practicality, duty, risk, security and fulfillment?
Modern life in advanced economies implicitly promises order and security stretching on into the future. That order and security might fray is troubling, for it upsets the foundation of our decision-making and prioritizing.
This calls to mind the wry advice, "Don't let the dessert cart on the Titanic pass you by."
I place Bart's family vacations in this category. We cannot assume limitless growth, security, wealth, resources, etc. Rather, we should align life today with what we have concluded (after much consideration) to be our life's work, purpose, priorities, goals, limits and yes, pleasures, for the essential characteristic of fulfillment is a sense of doing what is most meaningful, what Ralph Waldo Emerson referenced in his famous phrase, “Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string."
Yes, we must make a living, or have the means of a living. Yes, we must care for others as well as for ourselves. But as systemic solutions fall short, we must grasp the nettle of making our own arrangements in a time characterized by burgeoning demands and diminishing resources, capital and security. Fulfillment is not precluded by decline; rather, it gains in importance with each passing day.
The Mobile Creative credo: trust your network, not the corporation or the state.
- 9031 reads
- Printer-friendly version
- Send to friend
- advertisements -


Yeah right...
Few people can do that.
No you can't go head to head with so many who are vested in the current system. Here is a way to start moving toward a sustainable monetary system without upsetting the fiat apple cart.
Fukem all. Fukem.
I think Timothy Mcleary had a good start to this one many moons ago...
Turn on, tune in, and drop out.
My brother did that when he got sick of dope and tried acid.
Maybe it's time again folks...
It's Timothy Leary dude.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timothy_Leary
McLeary was his Irish cousin.
You mean Timothy Leary.
And LSD? Oh yeah, that will help everyone think a lot more cleary!!
/s
LSD opens up neuropathways that can be opened in no other way.
On the downside LSD use can make a person extremely anxious. Its like getting close to the gods and then having them go away, you'll yearn for it.
But used in the right amount and setting LSD can be amazing for one's soul.
You can open those exact pathways very easily
It's called REM sleep
You have no idea what you are talking about. None.
Well, if the Dingo (hope it didn't eat your baby BTW!) is talking about lucid dreaming, used in a natural way, I think it can be a real fountainhead of ideas and solutions to problems... and I DO know what I'm talking about.
Dingo did enough paws-on experimenting while in the outback. Fascinating stuff.
Without even using EEG or CAT scans, I can feel pretty certain the same parts of brain are triggered with LSD as they are when dreaming. If someone ever tested, that's what they would learn
Where else can you see things so realistically? Lampposts turning into dinosaurs, helicopters shining searchlights, fields of SS flags a la "The Wall", devils, talking birds(talking horses?)
there is nothing like good clean acid to make one realize all of life is delusion. the next step is to positively create your own version of the delusion instead of having it created for you. i have been free for most of my adult life currently flyfishing every day in the adirondacks as i have done every summer for the last 15 years. the delusion i created affords me that personal pleasure.
h.l. mencken- a successful man does what he wants when he wants to do it.
I see you have attracted a freedom hater ;-) Probably a good little Fascist.
Okay, and my mother spelled my very irish middle name Farrell with one r...
Whatever...
Buy silver and wait for JPM to crash under its own weight.
That's what we can do.
So what? So the same kikes that prices the silver and hold it can dictate the terms. Fuck no. Declare open season on the son's of David, Nuke Israel and be done with it. They haven't got a proxy to deliver them anyways so why bother keeping them? They aren't worth a fiddlers fuck on this side of the looking glass.
So what? So the same kikes that price the silver, the gold, make the money, run the banks and hold it can dictate the terms. Fuck no. Declare open season on the son's of David, Nuke Israel and be done with it. They haven't got a proxy to deliver them anyways so why bother keeping them? They aren't worth a fiddlers fuck on this side of the looking glass.
Stop dancing around what need to get done pussy.
Well, pussy? What's your excuse?
I know it's a useless suggestion because most folks don't bother to think, but if, as a group, we did NOT vote for ANY incumbents in the primaries (every primary) we would more than likely end up with a majority of non-sociopaths occupying congress. No contributions to any political party, and actually vote for one of the least-financed candidate each time (party doesn't matter). They would know they only get one term, and voting in their own interest would satisfy 99% of the district. Why? Because they would know the have to come back and live in their district with the consequences of their votes in Congress. Too simple? Right.
The only non-thinker here is you, still clinging to the belief that "voting" will result in positive change; that sociopaths understand anything aside from the barrel of a gun.
If the experts are right, then 1% of the population are sociopaths. 1% of 350M US population is 3.5M. 1% of those 3.5M is 35,000. So, if just 1% of 1% of sociopaths are successful in attaining office, that means that even if you replaced all 535 members of Congress, and the President, ONCE A YEAR, it would take 65 years in your Quixotic quest to "vote the bums out." And this assumes that that no new sociopaths are created in the meantime to step in and replace the old ones. Even the ancient Greeks - the inventors of democracy - thought that public voting was stupid and inherently susceptible to corruption; this was why they instead instituted sortition - jury-duty-style random selection - to choose lawmakers. That's something you won't find in most government-approved textbooks.
Only "non-thinkers" believe that stepping into a voting booth every few years and marking some chickenscratch on a piece of paper will somehow guarantee their rights and freedoms. The idea that you can spend the rest of your time loafing on your couch, watching movies and football, because you "voted," because your "leaders" will take care of you, is truly insane.
"You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't count on having both at once."
Only 15% on average vote in party primaries, and hence, you get a Mitch McConnell, Barbara Boxer, Lindsey Graham, Beohner, Pelosi year after year. My Congressman is actually one of the very very few that has voted against his Party several times. Congressman Meadows, NC-11.
Definition insanity doing same thing over & over then expecting different result per Einstein. Corrupt self serving career politician miedras always elected/reelected & look where they have done to the country. Fukem all. Time for elected citizen representatives & leaders. Dr. Ben Carson 2016.
Pink Floyd lyrics
Better choices on the horizon
Dear Mr Hedge:
On Wednesday, I sent an e-mail to our supporters saying that I'm deciding whether to run for the Senate, and I need to gauge your support. In 24 hours, we raised more than $110,000. From one e-mail.
That's a good start. But it's not enough. If you want to be able to say the words "Senator Grayson" after the next election, then click here, and show your support.
But it's not about me. It's about a new way to elect our elected leaders. Because the old way isn't working anymore. Democracy is dying. Special interests rule us. Elected officials are just tools of multinational corporations and the super-rich.
Unless you help! Unless you support our campaign. So that I can show others how to win, without selling your soul.
In 2012, I was the ONLY Member of Congress who raised most of his campaign funds from small contributions of less than $200. And in 2014, again, I was the ONLY Member of Congress who raised most of his campaign funds from small contributions of less than $200. Just one, out of 435.
The result is that I am unbought and unbossed. I own nothing to anyone but The People.
You know the old paradigm: elected officials chop up the law into little pieces, and they sell them to the highest bidder. They raise all the campaign money that they can, from lobbyists and PACs, and favors and flattery. Then they spend it on personal indulgences, like Senator Rubio's back-waxing.
Now here is the new paradigm: I reach out to you, and you help. First to take a House seat and then, if you help, a Senate seat.
The revolution will not be televised; it will be e-mailed and ActBlue'd.
This is the path forward, toward the oldest new form of government: government of the People, by the People and for the People.
Let freedom ring: the freedom from oligarchy and plutocracy.
This is the revolution. Will you join it?
If you support our campaign today, you show me that you want an unbought and unbossed Senator, standing next to Elizabeth Warren. You show me that it's still possible for ordinary people to take charge of their government and their lives, by coming together.
So I'm asking you, and I need to know, today: Are we in this together?
If you've saved your payment information with ActBlue Express, your donation will go through immediately:
Express Donate $20 monthly
Express Donate $50 monthly
Express Donate $25
Express Donate $50
Express Donate $100
Or donate another amount.
Courage,
Rep. [Sen.?] Alan Grayson
P.S. If you click on any link, you can not only show your support, but also enjoy Gil Scott-Heron's famous song, "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised." Thanks.
You will not be able to stay home, Brother.
You will not be able to plug in, turn on and cop out.
You will not be able to lose yourself on skag,
And skip out for beer during commercials,
Because the revolution will not be televised . . . .
The revolution will not give your mouth sex appeal.
The revolution will not get rid of the nubs.
The revolution will not make you look five pounds thinner,
Because the revolution will not be televised, Brother. . . .
You will not have to worry about a dove in your bedroom,
The tiger in your tank, or the giant in your toilet bowl.
The revolution will not go better with Coke.
The revolution will not fight the germs that may cause bad breath.
The revolution will put you in the driver's seat.
The revolution will not be televised, will not be televised
Will not be televised, will not be televised.
The revolution will be no re-run, Brothers.
The revolution will be live.
- Gil Scott-Heron, "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised" (1970) (from the album "Small Talk at 125th and Lenox").
This isn't rocket surgery: All politicians are scum, all the time. That's why they are politicians. If they weren't scum, they'd have a job.
Are you going to become a co-sponsor of HR-25?
If you do, then, and only then, am I willing to believe that you are not one of those: "elected officials [who] chop up the law into little pieces, and the[n] sell them to the highest bidder." because that is what HR-25 (aka the FAIRTAX) will bring to an end!
No Internal Revenue Code? Nothing to chop up and sell.
PS: any attempt to tax income will lead to exceptions, and more rules... a Flat Tax won't do it! Only a consumption tax makes the rules, the laws to chop up and sell, and the police state disappear!
So we need to tear the whole thing down, sounds like.
End the FED, hang the corrupt banksters and politicians, roto-rooter the vested interests back to the sewer of humanity they came from, restore the rule-of-law, the Constitution, and productive industry and career employment for a majority.
'What choice do we have'?
In the scheme of things CHS, not much. That is, to remain alive 'legally', but at the same time, be 'free'. The two no longer abide. Social Security numbers, mandatory tax returns and now, mandatory inclusion into a 'health-care' system. Databases, tracking, dossiers, FISA courts, Star Chambers, etc... 'Legally', you're effectively trapped. At some future point, anyone who wishes to remain 'free' and 'left alone' will be faced with dying on their feet, as opposed to living on their knees. That's where we're headed.
In a new globalist economy, it seems this new form tyranny applies true to Facta, IRS filing American Expats...
Enjoy paying for all those wars to nowhere AMERICANA, and happy 4th.
The idea that our large-scale problems could be fixed with systemic reforms is enticing: replace the thousands of pages of tax code with a simple flat tax without deductions, for example, or the replacement of too big to jail/fail banks with community-owned banks that served the public, not shareholders.
But the attraction of reforms is a siren song, because our system is run by vested interests for vested interests, period. Any real reform is Dead On Arrival (DOA) because any real reform threatens the swag and security of vested interests.
Precisely! So, get out there and VOTE! Ignore the morons whose votes for the major party shills continue to cancel out your informed votes ten thousand times over. Look at it as an opportunity to get out the the house and wait in a line. If you vote by mail, damn you, you just aren't sacrificing enough for your exercise in futility!
"Aim small, miss small" is the solution to 99.9% of our problems.
"What Choice Do We Have?"
Poor question.
we have a choice. We need to reimplement campaign finance reform. We need to overturn Citizens United. We need to pass a constitutional amendment to get money out of politics. See movetoamend.org.
Then incumbents would win 99.9 percent of the time, rather than the current 96 percent. Get rid of the 600 billion in federal grants per annum to all the special interests (which btw would gore just about everyone's ox) and amazingly, a lot of people become rabid teapartiers.
So now we have o care and tpp. Lookie at the mergers now.
http://mobile.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSKCN0PD04720150703?irpc=932
Choices? Very easy. Accept more debt and get assraped or give Fedgov and State gov about a 50% haircut. We all know what "choices" will be made.
The problems were caused by central planning.
More central planning won't fix the problems.
-----
When will humans wake up? Never!
The notion that more central planning is the cure for previous central planning is just like the utterly INSANE notion that the solution to overwhelming levels of debt... is to create even more overwhelming levels of debt.
Of course the predators-that-be and predator-class will never willingly abandon their domination == central planning. So the only solution that could theoretically work is for humans to refuse to comply, refuse to fund the predators, refuse to obey the predators, refuse to be governed. But they won't, because humans are morons and a totally failed species.
Humans are so finished.