Tags
Bodhidharma, Capitalism, Climate Change, Collapse of Industrial Civilization, Corporate State, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Mass Die Off, Police State, Privatization, Robert F. Stroud, Runaway Climate Change, Security and Surveillance State, Stroud’s Digest on the Diseases of Birds, The Elite 1%, The Social Contract and The Discourses, Wall Street Fraud
Author: ulvfugl
Over at Nature Bats Last, my favourite virtual park bench to watch the virtual pigeons, the talk is of hospice. Life is a terminal disease.
I suppose there’s not a lot of difference between hospice and death row.
Degrees of freedom. How big is your prison cell ?
What’s the company like ? Do you get any choice ? What about the visitors ? Are they friends, priests, nurses, jailers, torturers ?
I have to say, for a man of my disposition, my own cell, here, is perfection.
Long ago and far away, in another lifetime, I did a course in kitchen design.
I found it fascinating and enjoyed it very much. Efficient use of work space. Sink. Work top. Storage. Things you use most often, nearest.
Later, I discovered Permaculture. Much the same idea, really, but working with the natural physical environment.
Design your prison cell. Oh, but you cannot, because you have no freedom to choose, because it’s not yours, you don’t own it… Ha !
That’s a problem isn’t it. Property and ownership. On a crowded island, a crowded continent, a crowded planet.
“The first person who, having enclosed a plot of land, took it into his head to say this is mine and found people simple enough to believe him was the true founder of civil society. What crimes, wars, murders, what miseries and horrors would the human race have been spared, had some one pulled up the stakes or filled in the ditch and cried out to his fellow men: “Do not listen to this imposter. You are lost if you forget that the fruits of the earth belong to all and the earth to no one!”
~ Jean-Jacques Rousseau, The Social Contract and The Discourses
Freedom to choose. Property. These barriers that we collide with when we desire to design our lives, the space between birth and death.
Used to be, long ago, you could just walk off into the desert, or into the forest, or into the mountains, and get away from it all, and find a place where you could settle yourself down and be undisturbed. But that’s not so easy anymore, at least, not where I live, and then what do you eat ?
When I was 20 I had a vision, with my wife, to find a ruin, some abandoned old farm in the mountains, where I could set up some home and make an anarchist commune. I found a couple with two kids, beatniks, about 15 years older; they were right into the idea. We had a good try but it didn’t work out.
We learned some of the reasons why it is hard to succeed.
Took me a lot of trying and a lot of failing to get what I got. The perfect prison cell.
People think I’m crazy. They are right. Depends what you mean by ‘crazy’, of course. You have to be crazy. You see, most people try things, twice or ten times, and fail, and give up, and say it’s impossible. But some things aren’t like that. You have to try 999 times and fail every time. And then the 1000th time, you make it. And only a crazy person discovers that, because everybody who wasn’t crazy gave up long ago.
But, you see, it really might be impossible. What if you have to try all your life to find that it was impossible ??
That’s circus people. They have to be crazy. Special sort of ambition to do something really peculiar. I knew some once. Not a proper circus, a really silly circus. All they had was a lama, and a sheep and a goat. And the guy could walk along a tightrope. A low one, about six foot off the ground. But if you can do it, doesn’t really matter about the height. It’s about the falling off.
So they were determined to have a circus for a livelihood. With one fucking lama that they decorated. And a sheep and a goat that they trained to go around in circles in a tent. And the guy walked along the tightrope. And twenty people would pay and wonder why these crazy people were doing this.
Point is, they were designing their own lives. They were AMAZING. You just wanted to help them because they were crazy. The crazy was contagious. In a good way. Two girls were identical twins, impossible to tell which was which; that was crazy in itself.
So, you find a place. Like designing a kitchen, the sleeping place is the centre. Or maybe, if you’re into Bodhidharma, your meditation place. Then comes the things you use and need most often, nearest. Then, like a spider in the middle of its web, you need strands that connect out into the world.
People are very different. Depends upon what your personality is like, what your desires are, what you require to be satisfied. Design the structure around you; design yourself to fit the structure. Build in the right habits, the rituals, the efficient and effective functioning. Remember, its death row. Nobody gets out alive. What’s worth caring about, what’s not ? Music !
I have a field which I’ve left for the grass to grow long. This is so it can be a refuge for the linnets. They are just small brownish song birds. They are somewhat endangered but not dramatically so; average little birds, so to speak, nothing spectacular or flamboyant, not the ‘most’ anything; finch family, thought to originate some time in the Middle Miocene, 10 to 20 million years ago. From what I gather, skeletons of these small song birds are rarely well-preserved in the fossil record, so it’s a patchy picture and much is guesswork.
The linnets are some of the company I have here, in my cell on death row.
http://www.birdcare.com/bin/showsonb?linnet
http://www.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/birdguide/name/l/linnet/index.aspx
http://blx1.bto.org/birdtrends/species.jsp?&s=linne
In 1963, someone called Robert F. Stroud died. He had spent 54 years in solitary confinement in a prison cell. It states on the cover of the book he wrote that no man in the history of the world spent more time alone. I don’t know if his record has been broken since then. America seems so perverse and sadistic these days, it wouldn’t surprise me.
Anyway, Stroud spent his time researching bird diseases and became one of the world’s greatest bird pathologists. See. You’ve got to be crazy. He couldn’t design his cell at all. It was not his property. He had no freedom. But he could design himself. He wrote this incredible book Stroud’s Digest on the Diseases of Birds. Made a life for himself. Didn’t let the fuckers destroy him.
I think most people have got more options, bigger cells.
If you look at the previous mass extinction events, a few species made it through. My thinking is, try to save something for as long as possible.
Could be the linnets, this time. Who knows ? Nobody else seems to care.
But it’s just my version of the crazy circus…
Birds are much smarter than most people realise or appreciate:
“Birds appear to offer, in their behavior, neurophysiology, and neuroanatomy a striking case of parallel evolution of consciousness. Evidence of near human-like levels of consciousness has been most dramatically observed in African grey parrots. Mammalian and avian emotional networks and cognitive microcircuitries appear to be far more homologous than previously thought. Moreover, certain species of birds have been found to exhibit neural sleep patterns similar to those of mammals, including REM sleep and, as was demonstrated in zebra finches, neurophysiological patterns, previously thought to require a mammalian neocortex. Magpies in particular have been shown to exhibit striking similarities to humans, great apes, dolphins, and elephants in studies of mirror self-recognition.”
http://fcmconference.org/img/CambridgeDeclarationOnConsciousness.pdf
So, as far as I am concerned, on any sane scale of values, those circus people and the linnets are worth more than all the wankers on Wall Street and in the City of London put together. Because when it really comes down to it, freedom has, as Stroud discovered, to do with what’s inside you, not what’s outside.
Be realistic. Demand the impossible. Insist that you get it.
Pingback: How Big is Your Prison Cell?
Kevin Moore said:
People think I’m crazy. Or a bit weird. Or passionate. It’s got something to do with me not being happy about destroying my grandchildren’s future for the sake of a bloated ego, entertainment or convenience.
Today I walked to town. Twice. Okay, it’s not particularly far: just over 3 km each way. Had a form to return relating to the recent elections. Didn’t get elected. In fact no one standing for sustainability got elected. Drill, frack, shop. Book an overseas holiday. Find some dirt and cover it with concrete or asphalt. Profit from destroying the next generation’s future. That’s what most people want.
Called in the environment centre (an office in town) and gave them some books and DVDs. Recommended CoIC as a must view site. Discussed the election. The Orc we had for a mayor was thrown out on Saturday. New mayor is a nice chap. Got some morals and a bit of a brain. One of two councillors who came to Guy McPherson’s talk last year. Has read ‘The Easy Way’ and recognises we are on completely the wrong track.
Met the mayor in the main street. Congratulated him, and gave him a few thoughts. Several new Orcs got elected to the council to replace the ones that departed, nfortunately.
Encountered the council CEO, shopping with her her son. Know them both. Didn’t say hello. There are ‘issues’.
Met the mayor in the street again (a different one) and gave him some more thoughts. Nice chap. Super busy, having just been elected, but willing to stop for 10 minutes..
Walked to the environment centre again and followed up on the earlier conversation. Walked to the museum complex and talked with two acquaintances. .
Walking up the main street I encountered an old friend whose garden I had sorted out.
On the way home encountered a woman I had never met before and discussed the merits of walking.
Did a few things at home. Walked to town again, and watched a dance class. Chatted, and danced briefly with a couple of lovely women. If you haven’t dance you haven’t lived.
Said hello to someone else on the way home.
How big is my cage? Well the bit I ‘own’ is 1200 square metres. Planted with about 150 fruit trees. And two greenhouses. Several compost bins.
The cage I walk is about 5km square. The cage I cycle is about 10km square.
I usually walk or cycle. Occasionally I use my car. Have driven about 30km in the past four weeks. Mostly non-essential. Indeed completely non-essential. My neighbour travels 100km a day to work and back. I guess that’s essential.
If I play bridge in the evening there is sometime a clear sky with no moon. The Milky Way in all its glory. Jupiter so bright it almost casts a shadow. Bright enough to see the riverside track. A modest telescope reveals the four large moons, strung like pearls.
The bridge club is just over 1km away. I know of one other person who walks there.
From the coastal walkway I can see the horizon. If I climb Paritutu I can see a little further. From the top of Mt Taranaki you can see Ruapehu 100+km away. There almost nothing between Mt Taranaki and Ruapehu. Just lots of trees. And exotic mammals. Maybe a few kiwis somewhere. On a clear day you can see the South Island. Haven’t done that climb for many years.
A beach not far from here was as natural as can be. Then a rich man built a house on the headland. Now it’s all fucked up. The ‘hermit’ who lived in the driftwood hut got evicted by the council last summer. The driftwood hut was torn down. It spoiled the rich man’s view.
How big is my cage? Nothing much between me and the Orion Nebula.
On the other hand, the empire surrounds me, and has me by the balls..
.
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pfgetty2013 said:
There are some brave folks in a Russian prison right now. I thought maybe that was going to dampen the agenda of Greenpeace. I was wrong:
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 13, 2013
Greenpeace chief: “The challenge of catastrophic climate change is bigger than all previous [rights] struggles.”
Russia, Greenpeace meet face-to-face | The Arctic Journal
Naidoo, who also spoke with other Russian officials today, told journalists that even with the arrests last month Greenpeace would continue its protests as one of a number of tools it was using to pressure oil companies to stop Arctic exploration.
“Greenpeace is not in position to not engage in another protest. Rather, they are more likely to intensify,” he said. “The challenge of catastrophic climate change is bigger than all previous [rights] struggles.”
T
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Aptitude Design said:
my cage is made of waiting for others to do their part of the bargain. I usually find a way around them, I have shut down my Blog, YouTube, Google+, & LinkedIn, because they are fetters. The delusion of participation in the world, that one can share ideas, is no longer effective. If there is no response, there is no contract. Give me a walk in the woods.
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xraymike79 said:
Here, here… My sentiments exactly.
If there is no global coordinated effort, we all lose.
We have run out of time…
Alas, I have reached the stage of acceptance.
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pfgetty2013 said:
Only questions are when, and just how it will happen.
There will be no coordinated effort.
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Stephen said:
Dear ulvfugl,
Thank you for the Concierto. A long time admirer of Baker’s work, I had never heard this piece. If anything outlasts the current show, I hope it is your linnets and Baker’s sound. They both will enrich whatever the next thing might be. I’ll be listening to it again in my cell. Again, Thank you.
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ulvfugl said:
Thanks so much, Stephen.
Yes, Baker. That sound. But as a guitar player, the tone of Jim Hall’s guitar is fabulous, so rich and interesting. He’s not my favourite player, because he chose rather boring melodies, for my taste, but on that track he’s amazing, and he does other versions. And I thought the photos have a wonderful timeless quality too.
Yes, the linnets. There are no fields to suit them for miles and miles in any direction. So this is a haven for about twenty through the winter. It makes me happy to see them. They appear to have had a good year. Plenty of people contribute to save the glamorous big creatures. What about all the dull little things that hardly anybody notices ? All these birds need is some grass that’s been left to go to seed and not mown or grazed.
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Tom said:
Good post ulvfugl. Yeah, all those former states of freedom we used to celebrate have now been revealed to be lies to keep us all compliant with our prison system economy and our slave labor in it. The msm is the Orwellian tool distracting the masses from actual thought and keeps people from even noticing the continual decline of the environment, the economy and our social situation. As with all lies, eventually one is presented with incontovertible evidence and then the reaction comes. This U.S./global economic mess may be the trigger to the next big distraction of currency war leading to outright war for diminishing resources, while the environment continues to degrade. Once we reach the point where growing enough food (or ANY, eventually) becomes nearly impossible due to increasing climate change, atmospheric composition problems and unpredictable weather conditions we’ll see the chaos and death begin in earnest. This is happening all over the world now as massive flooding washes out farmland, poisons the soil by redistributing toxic pollution over agricultural areas and drought affects other once bread-basket regions to the point of ruin. There’s no escape and it just hasn’t affected a large enough part of the global growing areas YET to warrant panic – but it’s coming.
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ulvfugl said:
Thanks Tom !
Yes. What can one say ? It’s just worse every day. Impossible to keep up.
Seems the story of Stroud on my book cover is slightly different from wiki. I didn’t check on the internet. Very interesting tale though.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Stroud
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ulvfugl said:
To live in a country run by a popular government (democracy, republic, etc.) and yet be denied free and open access to property, the ability to establish oneself on a piece of land for shelter and sustenance, regardless of one’s means, seems to contradict the very core principles of a popular government.
http://appliedhistory.co.uk/?p=246
These days, we hear the term ‘Feudalism’ thrown around a lot. We are told that the rise of the ‘One Percent’ and corporate interests will lead to a modern feudal system, or that current workplace conditions are downright feudal. The term evokes images of wealthy robber barons enforcing unjust rule over burlap-clad peasants with an iron fist. The feudal system, the narrative goes, is the primitive, oppressive system that we left behind us for more modern, enlightened forms of governance.
Often when I hear people using the term these days, I’m inclined to invoke Montoya’s Observation: ‘You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.’
http://appliedhistory.co.uk/?p=272
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mikesosebee said:
Thought provoking post Ulvfugl. I couldn’t stop thinking about “how big is your prison cell?” So I documented the following: After I went on-line this morning (I have high-speed internet) and read the internet drivel, answered a couple of e-mails I drove my well maintained car accompanied by Gomez, my year-old labra-doodle, to an appointment. Then to the gym and worked out for 45 minutes. Watching the news channels on the screens is comical without sound. Grabbed some salad for dinner at the grocery store for the wife and I this evening. All organic. We stopped at the dog park on the way home but there was no other dogs present so I let him run with those huge legs of his. I live in a guard gated community and I never have to worry about crime or a neighbor interrupting my bliss as I gaze at a panoramic view of the valley. I take safe, wholesome walks with my dog in the community and meet other happy, well fed people. I get electricity cheaply and my bills seldom exceed $200 even in the summer. I have a small highly insulated home with high efficiency air. We’re out of the valley so the temperature is 6 degrees cooler and the air fresher. My wife has a good job and I have a small retirement pension that keep financial worries at bay. I have a cadillac-health-care-plan but I take care of myself and I can afford to eat healthy food. I have a lot of free time I get to do things that most people will never get the opportunity to do. I took two years and attended School with no intention of achieving a degree. I read excellent blogs such as this one and write about my personal complaints which considering my circumstances are damn few. I own two concert grade acoustic guitars and I never play publicly. I can spend a lot of time in high desert ecosystems photographing. I can ride my road bike anytime I get the whim as long as I don’t leave the compound. It’s not safe to ride a bike within the city. They’ll kill you by accident but you’re dead never-the-less.
I became aware of ecocide 30 years ago during my tenure in Los Angeles. At the time I made a healthy living working for the U.S. government and I dated a girl who got me into environmental restoration particularly in the California estuaries; it became a passion which led me eventually to discover Peak Oil and Climate Change. But that makes me an anomoly. The majority of my colleagues couldn’t give a rat’s ass about the extinction of life on earth. They focused on their golf swings and how rich they could get before they retired. Telling the spoon-fed morons to dismantle the industrial empire will never be taken seriously particularly by those who have something to lose. People at this level might be better educated but for the most part they’re lazy and selfish; they might cry a few crocodile tears for for the grandkids but that won’t stop them from enjoying the ice-cream milkshake of industrial-civilization. Therefore the status quo will continue until it can’t. Time-share in Orlando anyone?
Reading the scraps of information at the bottom of my gilded-cage has led me to conclude that there’s no slowing down much less stopping the monolithic death machine. To stop the extraction industry would not only bring an end to this privileged life it would be the death of most of us particularly those at the bottom of the pyramid. You can march in protests, ride bikes and garden if that makes you feel better, but when we lose greater than 45% of the natural habitats (marine and terrestrial) that is the tipping point and mass extinction; that includes all of us rich and poor but I can guarantee that the poor will go first. The final irony is the only privilege that privilege will provide in the end is you get to be the last to starve. How close are we to that eventuality? I’m not sure. With climate change it looks closer than any of us ever imagined. In the meantime get in the way of the machine and expect to lose a couple of fingers, a hand or perhaps your head.
Said by over-fed white guy living comfortably in the suburbs of Las Vegas.
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ulvfugl said:
Hi Mike,
Thanks so much for all that.
The way I was thinking of it, this prison cell notion is at least half metaphoric, in that it could be your own mind, your own body, this whole planet, indeed this whole Universe. because we are all sort of trapped between birth and death.
But I also meant it, in the sense of the physical perimeter, of course. Some people I know about are more or less nomadic, possess very little and shuffle around the planet and seem very happy to be mobile all the time.
I’m totally static these days. I have 25 acres which I have not been off for years and years. I have no car. But hey, I can trump you on concert grade guitars ! Hahahaha, I have far too many guitars…
I am not so certain about the rich being more survival proof. Obviously, in terms of food and health care buying power, yes, people at the bottom suffer most, but we don’t know how this is going to go, the catastrophes will be many and varied and there’s plenty of horrors that money simply cannot protect from.
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mikesosebee said:
“I am not so sure about the rich being more survival proof.”
If there’s a comet striking the earth it will be luck that’ll determine survival. If it’s a catabolic long term collapse (which is my bet) industrial civilization will probably hang on in some form until almost the very end and that means that the wealthy will persist; until they can’t. I don’t happen to believe that any humans will survive a de-evolution of the planet which is what’s happening now.
You’re right about one thing: Forget about the polar bears and other apex predators. Instead focus on the small insignificant species going silently into the void such as the linnets. They are the canary’s in this over-sized coal mine. The keystone species in most habitats are under severe stress and when they go so will we.
BTW If I ever get to the British Isles I’ll try and look you up. Stay well!
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ulvfugl said:
Hahaha, mike, I live where I live, the way I live, to be as far away as possible from people who want to ‘look me up’. I have consciously designed my life, my prison cell, so that it does not involve having ‘visitors’. It’s the closest thing I could get to a cave in the Himalayas as far away from that stinking civilisation thing as I could get, and still stay alive.
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xraymike79 said:
@ulvfugl
As you said in your email:
It appears Thomas Silverstein has the record for the longest running stint(28 years as of 2011) in solitary confinement:
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pfgetty2013 said:
Mike Ruppert rant:
The cause of runaway global warming is the EMISSION and RELEASE of carbon into the atmosphere. The largest cause of that release is first and foremost the Human Industrial Paradigm of Infinite Growth. Therefore, if we want to survive, the FIRST imperative is to halt all industrial activity right now. Stop hitting ourselves in the head with the hammer. Shut down the factories. Shut down the coal mines. Shut down the agribiz corporations that feed us using ten calories of hydrocarbon energy for every calorie of (junk) food produced on our planet. Shut down everything (or almost everything) that emits or releases carbon on an industrial scale. Your Priuses mean NOTHING. Your bumper stickers mean nothing. Your solar panels mean just a little. Your wind means just a little. They do not confront the CAUSE of climate change which is emitting MORE AND MORE CARBON EVERY YEAR into the atmosphere than ever in history because HUMAN POPULATION IS STILL GROWING EXPONENTIALLY…
Because that’s what the INFINITE GROWTH MONETARY PARADIGM demands.
Focusing all attention on conversion to alternative energies is FUTILE unless we first stop hitting ourselves in the head with the hammer, unless we stop exponential growth. All that would do — according to laws like Jevon’s Paradox — is permit us to hit ourselves on the head with the hammer just a little while longer.
There are one billion-plus internal combustion powered vehicles on the planet. Their use needs to be immediately and rapidly curtailed. Air traffic needs to be reduced by 90% or so. Rail traffic must be cut to absolute essentials. All mining and fracking operations must be stopped immediately. Industrial cattle ranching must be stopped since cow farts are the second-highest producer of methane known after rice paddies. (I think methane release from frozen tundra and seabeds may have blown these two out of the water now.) Coal-fired plants must be shut down. Uranium enrichment (a prolific emitter of carbon) must be stopped immediately… It’s a very long list.
To take any other approach is to condemn us all to extinction because we will NEVER have addressed the cause of the problem. As great people like Robert Hirsch have show, humans have passed every opportunity to make a painless (or less painful) switch. You seem to be implying that we have the 30-40 years needed to make a conversion without dislocation.
BULLSHIT! And if you cannot see that you are more dangerous that Barack Obama, Jamie Dimon or the Koch brothers. You pose as our friend. You are [like] an alcoholic looking for a way to keep drinking and you are telling us it’s OK to do that.
So Thom, as much respect as I had for you, you just gave us a death sentence until you acknowledge that the first priority is the immediate cessation of industrial civilization.
And what about the 25 positive feedback loops that have already been triggered and documented by Guy McPherson? You didn’t mention those, or the really more scientifically precise and valid date for human Near Term Extinction of 2030?
Until you change the way money works, you change nothing. The way money works is to place infinite growth and profit as the supreme commandment, the Prime Directive, overriding all other issues. If we keep doing what we’re doing, we’ll keep getting what we’re getting.
You can do so much better Thom Hartmann.
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xraymike79 said:
News from this morning…
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xraymike79 said:
The severity of the situation keeps getting worse…
by Yale Environment 360, reposted Oct 14, 2013
The world’s oceans are deteriorating more rapidly than scientists had thought due to rising carbon dioxide levels and associated warming, according to a new analysis by European scientists.
By many indicators, ocean conditions are even worse than outlined last month by the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s assessment report on the physical effects of global warming, the researchers say.
Sinking oxygen levels, which could decline by 1 to 7 percent by 2100, increasing ocean acidification, and overfishing of more than 70 percent of marine fish populations are among the biggest threats to ocean ecosystems, the scientists report in Marine Pollution Bulletin.
Mollusks and other sensitive marine organisms are increasingly being found with corroded shells, a result of rising dissolved CO2 concentrations; within 20 to 40 years ocean acidity levels may reach the point where coral reefs are eroded faster than they can regenerate, the review said.
Also alarming is the potential release of the powerful greenhouse gas methane from seabed sediments — something the latest U.N. report did not account for, the scientists note. SOURCE
————————–
And clean energy to the rescue:
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Kevin Moore said:
‘Shut down the factories. Shut down the coal mines. Shut down the agribiz corporations that feed us using ten calories of hydrocarbon energy for every calorie of (junk) food produced on our planet. Shut down everything (or almost everything) that emits or releases carbon on an industrial scale.’
As Derrick Jensen pointed out many years ago, those who benefit from present arrangements will not voluntarily relinquish them. In fact, they will do everything in their means to preserve present arrangements. We must expect ever bigger lies from TPTB and their minions, until the system collapses.
A couple of years ago the NZ government put out a booklet called ‘Building Natural Resources’. Was is a celebration of looting and polluting. Before that, we were treated to ‘green’ policies founded population growth, house construction and road building etc. It’s all part of the ‘better, brighter future’ that John Key promotes, and which the proles are continuously sucked into supporting.
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Kevin Moore said:
The linked commentary by Chris Hedges is excellent (as is most of his commentary.)
‘The final days of empire give ample employment and power to the feckless, the insane and the idiotic. These politicians and court propagandists, hired to be the public faces on the sinking ship, mask the real work of the crew, which is systematically robbing the passengers as the vessel goes down.’
Accepting that the world is controlled by morons and psychotic sociopaths who are orchestrating the eventual annihilation of practically everything is ‘difficult’. Yet all the evidence indicates it is true.
Accepting that the vast majority are content to be lied to and robbed is even more ‘difficult’. Yet all the evidence indicates it is true.
Another day has passed, the ship is a little lower in the water, and few more passengers have drowned.
Tomorrow, more of the same.
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ulvfugl said:
He then makes an astonishing confession: “At one major investment bank for which I worked, we used psychometric testing to recruit social psychopaths because their characteristics exactly suited them to senior corporate finance roles.”
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/comment/brian-basham-beware-corporate-psychopaths–they-are-still-occupying-positions-of-power-6282502.html
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ulvfugl said:
Join the dots…
While studying the history of business practices, HBS researcher Caitlin Rosenthal made a startling discovery: Many of the techniques pioneered by slave owners in the 1800s are widely used in business management today.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/hbsworkingknowledge/2013/01/16/the-messy-link-between-slave-owners-and-modern-management/
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ulvfugl said:
And this…
But then psychiatry went to bed with Big Pharma and its Big Money. Their partnership has helped bury the commonsense reality that an extremely coercive society creates enormous fear and resentment, which results in miserable marriages, unhappy families and severe emotional and behavioral problems.
http://www.alternet.org/personal-health/more-society-coerces-its-people-greater-greater-chance-mental-illness?paging=off
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ulvfugl said:
And then THIS, the treatment for the symptoms…
The normal individual in this book is tranquilized and bovine-eyed, mutely accepting everything in a sometimes painful world without ever feeling much in the way of anything about it. The vast absurd excesses of passion that form the raw matter of art, literature, love, and humanity are too distressing; it’s easier to stop being human altogether, to simply plod on as a heaped collection of diagnoses with a body vaguely attached.
http://thenewinquiry.com/essays/book-of-lamentations/
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Paul Chefurka said:
Nice post, ulvfugl.
It seems to me that humans have been using newspeak for a long, long time. Probably since the first time we convinced ourselves that some different form of imprisonment was freedom, just because it was different. Every time I scramble to some new place that I’ve been told represents freedom, it’s only a matter of time until I notice the bars again.
Is there any true freedom? Perhaps the very idea of freedom is just more hopium. By the same token, is the idea of imprisonment any more true? Or are the pair just another shiny, dualistic bauble to distract us from what we might otherwise be doing?
I suspect I have never been free, and I know I have never been in a jail that was not of my own making -even when the walls were erected by others. A house is not a home, and bricks and bars don’t make a jail.
Beliefs create prisons, whether of the physical or metaphysical kind. If we were to suddenly stop believing everything we think, we might not become free, but we certainly wouldn’t be in prison any more.
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ulvfugl said:
Hello Paul,
Is this the first time you have commented here ? I think so. Anyway nice to see you here and thanks so much for the compliment.
This is the fourth essay I’ve written for xray mike. It’s a joint effort. He corrects all the punctuation mistakes and supplies the header illustrations, my words are just some padding to fill in the cracks between all the nightmarish doom stories, a bit of light relief for the hoi polloi, hahaha
Yes, indeed, freedom, as an abstract term, must be meaningless, just as truth as an abstraction is meaningless. Freedom from what ? Freedom to do what ? Truth about what ?
You know, you lay down in bed, and it feels wonderful, but after an hour you wake up and feel very uncomfortable, and it’s bliss to turn over onto the other side. It’s the change that is so nice.
William Blake’s ‘Mind forged manacles’. Great poem called London. Here I googled a version for you. I think it apples to the whole world now.
http://mural.uv.es/garmaest/London%20by%20William%20Blake.htm
Yes. Believing everything we think ? Someone mentioned somebody on the Carolyn’s NBL therapy thread, forget the name, who sells books, how to get thin, give up booze, whatever, by not believing your thoughts. Hahaha.
Well, I thought, I know all about that. But that’s not it. Mushin, you learn to have no thoughts, a silent mind. But you can think whenever you want to. Thinking is fine. But then, which thoughts to believe, and which to not believe ? 🙂 That’s a koan. Applies not just to one’s own thoughts, but those of everyone else, too….
I do feel totally free, I suppose, in the sense that I don’t feel oppressed, dominated, restricted, controlled, by anything or anyone, and whatever internal impulses arise do not impel me blindly, I can moderate them, more or less successfully…
Zen mind = no mind = buddha mind = dharmakaya = various terms in many traditions for ‘god mind’ or ‘mind which contains everything’, where one’s being is the whole universe, so then, there is nothing to be liberated from, unless one feels restricted by the limitations of the Universe, hahaha, whatever those might be… the Infinite bounds of Eternity 🙂
I think I agree with most of what Bill Tiller says in this video, as a rough schemata, to link up various worldviews into a digestible package for the modern western mind. Doesn’t mean I agree with the rest of his stuff. I’m very dubious, actually, I can’t find any details or any independent support for his claims, but this video, I do like.
http://tillerfoundation.com/
Incidentally, you might find this interesting.
http://www.nature.com/news/theoretical-physics-the-origins-of-space-and-time-1.13613
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Kevin Moore said:
U, I am unsure what the best combination of words is. Do I say ‘congratulations’? Or ‘Well done’? ‘Good on you’ is frequently used around here. They all sound trite and patronising. maybe ‘thanks’ is enough. We are living in an intellectual desert in which the few oases that do exist are drying up.
A decade ago I read practically everything I saw that related to coming energy, climate, financial and biological meltdown. I spent thousands of hours studying and attempting to understand it all. And spent nearly as many hours writing and speaking. Each piece of the jigsaw made it easier to identify the next, and make all the connexions.
Over the past decade industrial culture has become even more trite, and the actions of governments ever more destructive. Understanding the absurdity and destructiveness of it all generates a kind of intellectual satisfaction. But it also generates repulsion and horror. Although the science-fiction film ‘Alien’ portrayed numerous absurdities (human capacity to construct large interstellar space ships, to survive in a capsule, gravity in deep space, the creature having acid for blood etc.), it provides an interesting metaphor for modern society because the corporation was all-powerful and the crew was expendable.
Unlike you, I have been unable to distance myself from reality that everything I see around me is controlled by money-lenders and corporations.
You said: ‘I do feel totally free, I suppose, in the sense that I don’t feel oppressed, dominated, restricted, controlled, by anything or anyone’.
The moment I look out any window of my house I see domination, restriction and control. And as soon as I look at the ‘news’ I am informed of the latest example of oppression.
I am currently reading ‘Les Miserable’. It is a tale featuring oppression, domination, restriction and control.
Stop reading?
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ulvfugl said:
Great book, Les Miserable.
I’m fully and painfully aware that everything is turning to shit out there, and I have a fairly sophisticated analysis in my head, which is pretty close to yours – in fact I don’t recall that we’ve discovered any important differences yet, have we ? – as to the reasons and the causes and the future trajectory… all that… yes, it’s totally frustrating and infuriating that I am powerless to intervene, to stop what’s happening.
It’s been so obvious since the tsunami, that Fukushima was a major hazard and we have watched it become one disaster after another, and I’ve read the shills coming onto blogs and forums telling me how marvellous nuclear energy is and how we shouldn’t worry… why isn’t the Japanese Gvt suing Westinghouse and every individual involved in the whole project, going back to when the fucking thing was designed and planned in America, every one of them should be hanged like war criminals, so that this kind of reckless irresponsible profiteering never happens again… that’s what I’d like to see.. accountability and retribution.
But, that sort of thing USED to make me depressed and cause me to despair. But the battle is over. We cannot save the biosphere. The Titanic is sinking now and there is nothing more that we, who have this knowledge, can do to change that.
So, I am free. I have accepted that the city has fallen that the enemy has won, the walls are breached, but still I fight, because I am a warrior, and I will not surrender, I do it out of honour, out of a sense of morality. Not because it’ll change the outcome.
And I am very happy. I choose to be very happy. I make the choice every moment. It’s great to be alive. My life is exquisite. I have this little patch, and like Ben Gunn or Robinson Crusoe or some other shipwrecked sailor, I arrived on the perfect island, because I’ve always been crazy about nature, plants, insects, reptiles, birds, since I was a tiny kid, and now I live as close to nature as I can be, and as far from artificial human-made world as I could get.
Of course, it is a compromise. I live in poverty, by most people’s standards, and there are no shops, no cinemas, no air ports, no trains, none of that shit.
All day, I hear sheep, I hear cattle, I hear ravens and crows and buzzards. At night I hear foxes and owls, the wind, the rain. No cars, no street lights. It suits me perfectly.
I don’t have tv or listen to radio. I sometimes watch tv on youtube on this laptop if there’s some news item I’m alerted to.
There’s nothing I want from people. There’s nothing I need, really. I enjoy myself haggling on NBL, and learning stuff I didn’t know on websites, I read a huge amount every day. I walk around my patch, I cut the hedges, every day is great….
If I knew better ways to resist, I’d do them, all I can do is spread ideas…
I’m an old man. I’ve had a fantastic life. The future is impossible. It’s going to be unspeakably horrible to witness. It is dreadful right now. What can I say to people about that ? I’ve tried for much of my life to prevent this. Now, all I can do is accept it.
I could teach some people what I have learned, what I know. But I don’t think many want to know, do they ? And I’m not a good teacher, I’m not easy to get along with, as many people have noted 🙂
Music..
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xraymike79 said:
@ Kevin Moore and ulvfugl,
No words, just some music to say thanks for the exquisite, heartfelt comments…
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pfgetty2013 said:
Although I have a small farm, my life is so different….hectic, no time for anything, on the treadmill and no good way to get off…four others relying on me to make the bucks each day, and I’m getting old.
Yet we seem to come to the same conclusions about life and what is coming.
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ulvfugl said:
You might also like this, Paul C.
Once the nature of the mind has been recognized, we no longer need to constrain ourselves to a conscious recollection of that nature, nor to modify it in any way. At that point, the mind cannot even be said to “meditate,” because it rests in a state of serene equilibrium. There is no specific concentration on the details of a particular visualization, such as the form of a deity; neither will the mind stray into the distraction and delusion that characterize the ordinary state, because it rests perpetually and effortlessly in its own nature.
Pure awareness is not affected by agreeable or disagreeable perceptions. It simply stays as it is, like a mirror, neither enraptured by a beautiful face nor offended by ugliness. Just as a mirror reflects all images faithfully and with absolute impartiality, an enlightened being clearly perceives all phenomena, without his or her realization of the ultimate nature being affected in the least.
One can neither say that an image on the surface of a mirror is a part of the mirror nor that it is anywhere else. In the same way, our perceptions of phenomena are neither in the mind nor outside it.
http://mahamudraofmarpa.blogspot.co.uk/2011/04/padampa-sangye-essence.html
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Paul Chefurka said:
That’s the place, all right. It’s a very poetic way of describing it.
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ulvfugl said:
Hahaha, yes, from a long time ago and another and very different culture.
Isn’t it strange ? You can’t fake it, you can’t strive to find it, you don’t gain anything, you don’t achieve anything, but there is absolute freedom, liberation, no longer bound by form or time or space or any concept or limit. What does this mean ? Hahaha. Nobody has a clue !
And then you just walk about wearing your ordinary human identity, fwiw, as a suit of clothes, because you have to be something material and do whatever needs doing… Some choose to make a big deal of this, holiness and purity and followers and so forth and some teach others and some do good works and some build temples or whatever…
What do we do in the face of NTE, that is the question. I have no idea. Commiseration ? Mitigate suffering ? I’m not much good at either, really.
I think mostly of the other species.
What HAVE WE DONE ?
It is unspeakable…
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pfgetty2013 said:
Some sweet, nice things still go on these days:
http://grist.org/list/your-daily-aww-watch-rescued-seals-flop-back-into-the-ocean/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_term=EDIT%20Daily&utm_campaign=daily
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pfgetty2013 said:
‘Once in a Decade’ Storm Threatens Japan, Fukushima
Typhoon Wipha on track to bring damaging winds, rains
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2013/10/15-4
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pfgetty2013 said:
You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one….
Imagine there’s no heaven
It’s easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today…
Imagine there’s no countries
It isn’t hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace…
You may say I’m a dreamer
But I’m not the only one
I hope someday you’ll join us
And the world will be as one
Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world…
You may say I’m a dreamer
But I’m not the only one
I hope someday you’ll join us
And the world will live as one
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Kevin Moore said:
It’s a great song. Just one problematical line:
‘Imagine all the people living for today.’
Most of them are.
Of course anyone who promotes anarchy (not mayhem) the way John Lennon did risks a bullet (or a dose of polonium).
For the past 15 years i have regarded this as the song of the age.
I see the bad moon arising.
I see trouble on the way.
I see earthquakes and lightnin’.
I see bad times today.
Don’t go around tonight,
Well, it’s bound to take your life,
There’s a bad moon on the rise.
I hear hurricanes ablowing.
I know the end is coming soon.
I fear rivers over flowing.
I hear the voice of rage and ruin.
Don’t go around tonight,
Well, it’s bound to take your life,
There’s a bad moon on the rise.
All right!
Hope you got your things together.
Hope you are quite prepared to die.
Looks like we’re in for nasty weather.
One eye is taken for an eye.
Don’t go around tonight,
Well, it’s bound to take your life,
There’s a bad moon on the rise.
Don’t go around tonight,
Well, it’s bound to take your life,
There’s a bad moon on the rise.
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pfgetty2013 said:
Good one.
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ulvfugl said:
The lack of general awareness about the TPP is exactly what unelected trade officials and lobbyists hope for; the more covert the negotiations, the easier it is to usher in extreme new Internet censorship rules.
http://www.alternet.org/media/theres-international-plan-censor-internet-works-lets-stop-it-its-tracks?akid=11040.77792.frNmH9&rd=1&src=newsletter909943&t=6&paging=off¤t_page=1#bookmark
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Stephen said:
Dear ulvfugl (and xraymike),
The Garbarek piece is hauntingly beautiful. Almost Blue is Baker at his craft. Thank you both.
As far as the rest of it, I can’t personally complain myself. I probably lived in the best of times and places. “…[U]nspeakably horrible to witness.” is no doubt correct but what drives my moments of sadness is the idea that I will have to see the disillusion of the few loved ones I still have left. Odd isn’t that?
Yet we still have the music, yes? Here is Sa sounding her best.
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ulvfugl said:
Thanks, Stephen. Lovely.
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ulvfugl said:
We live in the era of the self-congratulating lie.
I’m not talking about the lies of government or corporations—not even the secret mass surveillance conducted by the NSA. Those are all there, and are being revealed every day, and they’re awful. But underneath those, in a putrid substratum, are the bigger lies: the ones perpetuated not by people in power, but by all of us.
Those lies all fall under one broad umbrella: “Everything is fine.” While we discuss the finale of Breaking Bad, or plan for our futures, or try to do the best for the people around us in our own small way, we’re doing the right thing—but unfortunately, the right thing rests on an illusion. The illusion that everything is fine.
Everything is not fine. Everything may be fine for a short time, for a privileged group of people. And when I say “privileged,” I’m not talking about “white male privilege” or whatever else passes for advantage within an already privileged group—I’m talking about first world privilege.
http://www.ultraculture.org/two-great-lies/?utm_source=Ultraculture&utm_campaign=6d64a731a8-Oct_15_Blast10_14_2013&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_7fa8ee808a-6d64a731a8-39470933
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ulvfugl said:
The power of art… Merkels…
http://hipstermerkel.tumblr.com/
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Kevin Moore said:
Over on NBL something reasonably meaty.
Can’t copy and paste, so typing an excerpt:
…’is that civilisation is irretrievably doomed, that the horrific and chaotic dieoff of billions of people this century is guaranteed.’
The essay by Geoffrey Chia is consistent with most of what has been written on CoIC lately.
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ulvfugl said:
Here’s the link, for convenience. There’s a link to the original pdf.
http://guymcpherson.com/2013/10/what-i-have-learned-what-we-should-be-thankful-for-what-remains-to-be-done/
Nothing new, is there ? Just one guy’s rant about the usual stuff. Shaking his fist at the wind, really.
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Kevin Moore said:
Those of us who have been following the science closely would not expect anything new ( except from a team carrying out basic research) would we?.
I just find it encouraging that a high-profile cardiologist is informed and not in denial., and has gone public.
Since saving most mammalian, amphibian, reptile, fish and plant species and saving the planet now seem to have slipped out of our grasp, exposing the criminality of those who many call ‘leader’ seems to be one of the few worthwhile things left to do.
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Kevin Moore said:
How ironic! Climate change caused humans to evolve large brains.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/drought-followed-by-brain-how-climate-change-spurred-evolution-of-human-intelligence-8884863.html
Humans’ large brains cause climate change which eradicates humans.
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Brutus said:
And thusly the circle of life (and death) is complete.
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xraymike79 said:
Great comment by Colorado Bob on Scribbler’s site:
Despite any differences/misunderstandings we here on this site have had with the Scribbler man, we do have open minds and don’t hold grudges. Scribbler has recently done an interview at Radio EcoShock which some here may be interested in listening to and critiquing. I have not yet had the opportunity. Here it is:
Radio Ecoshock Interview: Record Floods, ENSO, Methane Release, and Slope Collapse
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xraymike79 said:
Read the entire article here.
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pfgetty2013 said:
Moose in the Rocky Mountains become the latest climate change catastrophe icon recently, as their populations have plummeted with warming temperatures. But it’s not just heat stress that is killing them off. Biologists are finding brain worms, liver flukes and ticks, as many as 150,000 on a single moose, are infecting the population to death.
ANALYSIS: Moose in Trouble as Climate Boosts Pests
Increased temperatures are allowing northern forest ticks to survive over the winter, when the blood-suckers and their eggs would normally die. This leaves an infected moose with no respite as the ticks breed again in the spring. The moose will continue to scratch and rub off its fur, develop anemia, and eventually die of emaciation.
http://news.discovery.com/earth/global-warming/unexpected-victims-of-climate-change-131016.htm
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pfgetty2013 said:
TV: “Typhoon appears to have affected Fukushima Daiichi plant” — Giant spike in radioactivity after #Wipha — Suspected of causing high levels of strontium to flow into Pacific (VIDEO)
http://enenews.com/tv-typhoon-appears-to-have-affected-fukushima-daiichi-plant-giant-spike-in-radioactivity-seen-after-impact-of-wipha-suspected-of-causing-high-levels-of-strontium-to-flow-into-pacific-ocean
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pfgetty2013 said:
Great article: http://www.yesmagazine.org/planet/why-the-corporate-media-s-climate-change-censorship-is-only-half-the-story
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Kevin Moore said:
As long as it is mostly brown people and poor people who are suffering, the western corporate media will continue with the same game: it generates advertising revenue. Things will have to get really bad before large numbers of rich white people start to suffer.
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xraymike79 said:
I used to agree with that assessment, but after Hurricane Sandy I realized that the premise is like this:
As long as the financial elite can afford to rebuild or relocate, the western corporate media will continue with the same game: it generates advertising revenue. Things will have to get really bad before large numbers of rich white people start to suffer.
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xraymike79 said:
Pack ’em in like sardines in a can.
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ulvfugl said:
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ulvfugl said:
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Kevin Moore said:
Yes, ‘security forces’ are always ready and willing to be agents of the destruction of their own progeny’s futures, and perhaps of their own futures. That’s the system.
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ulvfugl said:
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ulvfugl said:
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ulvfugl said:
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ulvfugl said:
Updates
http://earthfirstjournal.org/newswire/2013/10/17/breaking-tense-standoff-at-elsipogtog-blockade-molotovs-thrown/
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xraymike79 said:
Working on another post. More of a fiction piece based on fact like the ones I’ve done in the past.
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Wester said:
I posted a link to the burning p̶i̶g̶ ̶m̶o̶b̶i̶l̶e̶s̶forme police vehicles at my FB and was immediately informed, rather belligerently, and taken to task by a Mi’qmak friend of mine that it was agents provocateurs. She said that the Mi’qmak had decided that women should lead their protest and that this was way too testosterone filled and negativo for their purposes. The Stimulator, a very good video producer linked at one of these articles, contends that it was not at all agents provocateurs but people royally pissed at l̶o̶s̶ ̶c̶e̶r̶d̶o̶s̶ the RCMP who shut off their cameras to protect the perps and then started the p̶i̶g̶ ̶r̶o̶a̶s̶t̶ bonfire.
I certainly sympathize with both sides, but I don’t support playing to the gallery when the gallery is a murderous, genocidal, gang of hard-core zombified delusional psychopaths.
I was heavily involved in much discussion with Natives in Canada regarding the Idle No More phenom from about this time last year. After getting up to speed through this site, NBL, ecoshock and others, I told them in no uncertain terms that this was the last shot. The final curtain and that if anyone would save the world it would in fact be them, there and then at that time. Meaning more specifically, that Native roadblocks and blockades were manifesting across the country, and a lot of settler people were getting hot and losing their minds about lost profit and revenue. Most of the Native leadership lost their cool (and as far as I am concerned – their minds, too) and they said that they didn’t support any “violent” action like blockades and roadblocks, breaking pipelines, shutting down the Tar Sands, reclaiming their very own lands, etc etc, because, you know, lost profit in the modern world ~is~ violence. Lost access to expected and planned for money ~is~ terrorism. Horrors from the depths of hell. No two ways about that, my friend.
So after a lot of bad press in the corporate media, the Natives in Canada capitulated in toto and actually went out and copywrote and trademarked “Idle No More” so that no bad people could do any bad things under that moniker.
Now I need a bourbon.
Cheers.
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ulvfugl said:
Hahaha, yes, well, weird, isn’t it. I did read a mention of the agents provocateurs, and you never can tell in these situations. And the thread where I found that stuff has since been overwhelmed by pro-fracking loons saying how wonderful and clean and healthy fracking is, you know, the ‘toxic waste is good for you’ notion.
There’s no doubt that these situations are extremely emotive, discipline is very important, and those police, to be fair, didn’t have shields or helmets like some do, and I didn’t see the sort of blood and beatings that I’ve watched in Turkey, Brazil, Greece, Spain and elsewhere… I guess we’ll see what happens next. Nice to see you here, anyway. Take care. Love and rage 😉
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Kevin Moore said:
The blood and beatings came in Toronto, at the WTO meeting (from memory 3 years ago), a pre-emptive attack by the state, as the prime agent in the protection of the privileges of the elites. “That is what will happen to you if you oppose us.”
Two phrases have stuck in my mind for many years: ‘a plague of greedy apes’ and ‘the empire is too strong’ [to be taken down].
I learned how corrupt and nasty the Auckland police are in 2005. There is no stopping the monster. it will ‘eat’ all of us before it ‘eats’ itself.
As conditions worsen globally the sociopaths at the top of the hierarchy of control will have no difficulty recruiting thugs to do their dirty work in reward for a better-than-average standard of living.
The concentration camps in Germany and Poland became highly profitable businesses.
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ulvfugl said:
Yup. Someone said somewhere, a few months back, that when a state begins to pay more to police than to teachers, you know you’re heading towards trouble.
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Wester said:
http://enenews.com/category/location/japan
“Gravest situation since 2011 Fukushima accident”
Sailor: “After we left Japan, it felt as if the ocean itself was dead” — Nothing alive for over 3,000 miles — No longer saw turtles, dolphins, sharks, birds — Saw one whale, it appeared helpless with big tumor on head
Tepco admits “radiation levels in groundwater are soaring” at Fukushima — “Strontium readings spike 6,500-fold in one day”
Alert: Top Japan nuclear official suggests Fukushima reactors “leaking directly into sea”… not mixing with groundwater and getting diluted
TV: Nuclear report warns of apocalyptic scenario at Fukushima in weeks ahead — Former Japanese Ambassador to Switzerland: This could one day be considered start of “the ultimate catastrophe of the world and planet” — Tepco: It’s “under control”
TV: “Typhoon appears to have affected Fukushima Daiichi plant” — Giant spike in radioactivity after Wipha — Suspected of causing high levels of strontium to flow into Pacific
Japan Journalist: Plutonium escaped Fukushima reactors as gas, it was a colossal 9,000ºF inside — Can’t be detected with Geiger counter — Terrible things are looming for the children, they must be evacuated yet nothing’s done… This is a “criminal nation”
Ex-Fukushima Worker: I’m scared of collapse at plant, “buildings are in a very bad state”
Documentary: Plutonium detected “all around” mountain in town 20 kilometers from Fukushima plant
Official: Record amount of radioactive substance found in groundwater at plant
Gundersen: Concern an even larger calamity is coming at Fukushima — Guardian: Workers passing out within minutes of arriving at plant; Alcohol abuse a problem, men working with ‘the shakes’; Insiders say they’re suffering health problems
Super typhoon on course for Japan — Winds up to 190 mph, could soon be Category 5 storm — “May follow Typhoon Wipha’s path”
“the ultimate catastrophe of the world and planet”
Cheers
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ulvfugl said:
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ulvfugl said:
“NB protest turns violent,” a CBC headline solemnly proclaims. 1,280 news stories about anti-fracking protests in Rexton, New Brunwick, indexed by Google use the word “clashes.” Most stories are decorated with photos of burning police cars.
All this points to one thing: the way that Canada’s corporate media discusses Indigenous protests is fundamentally broken.
http://www.mediacoop.ca/story/elsipogtog-clashes-300-years-making/19357
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Kevin Moore said:
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article36585.htm
Whereas there are excellent films treating the falsity of particular parts of the official account, such as the Twin Towers or WTC 7, Mazzucco has given us a comprehensive documentary treatment of 9/11, dealing with virtually all of the issues.
There have, of course, been films that treated the fictional official story as true. And there are films that use fictional stories to portray people’s struggles after starting to suspect the official story to be false.
But there is no fiction in Mazzucco’s film – except in the sense that it clearly and relentlessly exposes every part of the official account as fictional.
Because of his intent at completeness, Mazzucco has given us a 5-hour film. It is so fascinating and fast-paced that many will want to watch it in one sitting. But this is not necessary, as the film, which fills 3 DVDs, consists of 7 parts, each of which is divided into many short chapters.
These 7 parts treat Air Defence, The Hijackers, The Airplanes, The Pentagon, Flight 93, The Twin Towers, and Building 7. In each part, after presenting facts that contradict the official story, Mazzucco deals with the claims of the debunkers (meaning those who try to debunk the evidence provided by the 9/11 research community).
The Introduction, reflecting the film’s title, deals with 12 uncanny parallels between Pearl Harbor and September 11.
The film can educate people who know nothing about 9/11 (beyond the official story), those with a moderate amount of knowledge about the various problems with the official story, and even by experts. (I myself learned many things.)
Mazzucco points out that his film covers 12 years of public debate about 9/11. People who have been promoting 9/11 truth for many of these years will see that their labors have been well-rewarded: There is now a high-quality, carefully-documented film that dramatically shows the official story about 9/11 to be a fabrication through and through.
This is truly the film we have been waiting for.
Availability: The film is freely available to the world at:
1. The film-maker’s own website, complete with detailed index: http://www.luogocomune.net/site/modules/sections/index.php?op=viewarticle&artid=167
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pfgetty2013 said:
I ordered the film and I am in the process of watching it. Having studied 9/11 truth for many years, joined rallies in NY on anniversaries, etc., I didn’t think I’d see anything new and I didn’t think it would make an impact on me. I was wrong. It is a great film by real professionals, and anybody that can watch that film and not realize that the American government at the highest levels was involved in the planning and execution of 9/11 simply lives their life in utter fantasy.
I lose respect for any person, even well acknowledged environmentalists or political activists and others I’d normally deeply respect, if they categorically dismiss the idea of 9/11 as an inside job.
Until it really sinks in that our leaders, including Clinton, Obama, all of those in the know, have been part of the coverup, if not part of the planning, of 9/11, I don’t think a person can really understand our world today. Their opinions about where we are going, and why, is of no value if they cannot understand what happened that day, and the full agenda of the global elite.
There isn’t any hope of any victories in the battle for environmental changes if we don’t finally understand the system that brought us those collapsing towers. The same people who brought us those horrors are bringing us horrors, only worse, in global warming and collapsing financial systems, all for their own ideas of where they want to take the world and their insatiable greed.
The media is full of real criminals, knowing something is so obviously wrong with the official story of 9/11, but not doing anything to investigate further and present their findings. Most journalists that could have pushed to get the word out about 9/11 and the absurdity of the story we were told, and didn’t, should be in prison, or worse, as real traitors to humanity. The same can be said for professors of physics, engineering, etc., in our universities.
At a few points in the film it was almost comical when I thought how ridiculous the official story was….almost on a par with the story of the Easter bunny, or the tooth fairy, but there we were, hundreds of millions of Americans, lapping it all up.
But mention any of this on most environmental sites, or political, progressive activist sites and you will be banned, or at least politely asked to refrain from making any statement refuting the official story. How incredibly sad. How hopeless our future.
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pfgetty2013 said:
The same avoidance of the truth in collapsing ecosystems, climate change, diminishing resources, and pollution of our oceans and lands, by the media, and even the alternative media, has been going on for 12 years in regard to 9/11 truth. They have been incredibly successful in censoring even small bits of information of 9/11, even in the progressive liberal media, so much so that I am sure they have been emboldened and are sure they can do much the same with our environmental issues, even as we head straight toward catastrophe. Of course, with thousands of scientists warning us of impending horrors environmentally, it is a difficult task, but their job is not to always refute the science, but just question it enough to cause confusion and ensure that every fact is bent just enough to make most people feel there is no real crisis that will affect them in significant ways.
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Kevin Moore said:
For too many years I believed that exposing the numerous lies that constitute the official version of 9/11, along with exposing the numerous lies of the economic system, would result in culture change. Now I know it won’t. Well not in a time frame that matters.
Apart from the blatant censorship that characterises the mainstream media, most people in western societies self-censor, in order to ensure they are not exposed to unpalatable truths. Indeed, most people living in industrial societies are mentally ill, and have become adept at doublethink.
Of course, one does not discover any of this until one has attempted to open people’s eyes.
Since educational standards have been falling for decades, and since young people are living in an ocean of lies and know no different, and since older people, who can identify the lies, are dying of illness and old age, it seems to me that the likelihood of culture change diminishes by the day.
Paraphrasing what Derrick Jensen said: if your life is dependent on a stream flowing through a meadow you will defend it to the death; if your life is dependent on industrial society you will defend it to the death.
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pfgetty2013 said:
I agree. I have been astonished at the lack of interest in so many easily proven contradictions to the official story.
But even if it seems not to be able to be a subject that most people will deal with, for those who see the blatant lies of 9/11, it is a life changing lesson in just how adamant “they” will go to keep away the truth, just how easily manipulated the press is, and just how vicious the average person can get when he hears unpalatable facts.
It is a valuable lesson, because we are seeing much the same go on with global warming and other impending, unpalatable disasters.
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pfgetty2013 said:
http://www.juancole.com/2013/10/climate-threats-television.html
Top Ten Climate Change Threats being ignored by your Television News
Posted on 10/20/2013 by Juan Cole
Since many mainstream media outlets in the US are burying the dramatic climate change stories from all around the world, either by not reporting them or by reporting incidents with no context, it is important for the progressive alternative press to keep this subject in the public eye.
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pfgetty2013 said:
Shocking news about the damage to the southern pine lands because of global warming:
http://www.wolfenotes.com/2013/10/climate-change-already-impacting-pinelands-forests/
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xraymike79 said:
Thanks for the many invaluable links you provide us.
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pfgetty2013 said:
Just glad to spread the word….on this, the best website anywhere.
Now, to delve into your new bit of fiction…..
Thanks for giving us so much of your time.
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