I wonder if reading some Thomas Nagel and/or playing Dark Souls might be helpful to you NLF.
Here is relevant quote from Nagel
"[That our lives seem absurd to us] need not be a matter for agony [as insisted by Sartre in Being and Nothingness] unless we make it so. Nor need it evoke a defiant contempt of fate [as advocated by Camus in The Myth of Sisyphus] that allows us to feel brave and proud. Such dramatics, even if carried on in private, betray a failure to appreciate the cosmic unimportance of the situation. If sub specie aeternitatis there is no reason to believe that anything matters, then that doesn't matter either, and we can approach our absurd lives with irony instead of heroism or despair."
In the end, despite the best efforts of the demiurge, this reality will decay into nothingness, and probably long before that, this civilization will go the way of Rome. I enjoy and agree with your posts immensely, but at the end of the day they are really an attempt to drain the ocean with a straw. No matter what you or I do, the vast majority of the masses of this world will always be easily programmable fools. And even if we could change all those hearts and minds (which I believe is possible on an individual level with determined work, doubt it can be scaled up though), the laws of physics make entropy and decay an almost given. You can despair at this things or rail against them, but ultimately that is a choice you make built of the assumption that the world should behave differently.
I can't say that I'm the most practiced person at adopting this mode of thought in my day to day life, but it has helped in being almost completely unconcerned with national and international politics and refocusing on how funny all of this is when you look at it a certain way.
Thanks Joshua, I’ll check out Thomas Nagel. I’ve heard of Dark Souls but havn’t played it before, although it’s a very popular game - I’m surprised there’s not a Mac version. Apparently I would have to either use a cloud gaming service like Boosteroid or a third-party application like Boot Camp or Parallels to run the Windows version of the game. What do you love most about hte game?
I agree with you that “All go to one place: All come from dust, and all return to dust”; I continue this work because it’s one of the few things that interests me, I feel called to it…
My favorite part of the game is how it emphasizes this philosophical theme of meaninglessness while not becoming nihilistic. Whatever you do, you don't really change the ending of the game. However, that doesn't mean it's not fun: in addition to classic RPG leveling mechanics there's also a sense in which you have to improve significantly as a player (in terms of mastery of mechanics rather than just grinding) to progress. It is immensely satisfying to beat a boss that you've been trying to beat for weeks because you've actually improved rather than just grinded sufficiently, even if terms of the game world (and your real life) it doesn't matter at all.
While you can't actually change the ending of the game, your actions have a large effect on the variety of NPCs that inhabit the world. In that sense the game also reflects life: we can't change the plans of the globalist elite or stop collapse, but we can save those in our lives who are close to us by careful attention and deliberate interventions.
That all being said, I don't really play Dark Souls much anymore. Video games in general have lost their luster for me as they seem to be impoverished versions of reality, despite reality being measurably shittier by the day. Learning the guitar, a foreign language, a martial art, dancing, gardening, a craft, or a sport are all immeasurably more satisfying than the best video game. That being said, I think Dark Souls is a much better option than doomscrolling.
I'm also surprised there isn't a Mac version. Apparently you can play on Mac using this service called crossover. I don't know much about it, as I have a windows system.
Install a hypervisor software on your computer (like VMWare or Virtualbox, both available for Mac; the latter is the one I use, very user-friendly). It's a kind of software that simulates being a computer. Then you can install Windows on that virtualized computer. That's what I do (my laptop runs Linux on bare metal) for doing all things that can only be done with Windows.
Thomas Nagel's philosophy sounds like more drivel to drive people into the government sanctioned suicide huts when the time comes. Which seems to be rapidly approaching.
What is interesting about that? Nothing.
Yes, all physical matter decays. Everything you eat that isn't useful turns into crap you poop out, if you're lucky enough to have regular BMs. So what?
Does that mean one should stop cooking fine meals or stop eating all together?
Byrdturd on X: "The "pandemic" was a trigger to accelerate the Cybernetic Revolution.. If you do not know what that is and would like to know, check out this video.. The final phase of the Cybernetic Revolution will begin in the 2030s. COVID-19 pandemic as a trigger for the acceleration of the https://t.co/V8cKySxzGs" / X
One of the central contradictions of the technocratic project is its fantasy of infinitely scalable control with satellites, AI, chips, surveillance, automation, digital IDs, all of it dependent on finite resources of rare earth metals, lithium, cobalt, massive amounts of fresh water, energy, and most of all, human compliance and political stability.
None of these are infinite or guaranteed.
Yes, they're always looking for substitutes, considering lab-grown materials, trillion-dollar asteroid mining schemes, nanotech miracles, even "decarbonized" transhuman labor. But each new layer of substitution increases complexity and energy demands. The more they try to eliminate uncertainty, the more fragile the system becomes.
This is the heart of the cybernetic dream of having godlike command over matter and life, with AI as the priesthood. But nature doesn’t obey ideology — or psychopaths.
Unless they invent an entirely new material and energetic substrate, and fast, the system will collapse under its own weight.
The question is how much damage will be done before it does?
As a law-abiding whistleblower against Convid-19 mandates who has never been charged with a crime I can assure you that this open-air digital prison is currently being used to surveille and harass decent citizens in Canada for asserting their Charter-protected rights and testifying under oath in the Provincial Court of Vancouver against corporate criminals who receive non-prosecution agreements and secret courts.
I’m in no way downplaying what’s already happening — or the fact that the Covid scam was one of many triggers (though a major one, heavily reliant on the digital panopticon and 5G) on the path toward a global open-air digital prison — what I’ve previously called techno-feudalism (and what Neo-Feudal calls neo-feudalism), capitalism’s next mutation.
Every nation is developing its own version of this, which shatters the illusion that BRICS is some kind of hedge against empire.
My point was more about the inherent instability of the psychopaths’ long-term vision — how these fantasies of total control are built on fragile, unsustainable foundations. That doesn’t make the present any less urgent or dangerous.
We are a few steps ahead from the crowd and even the predator class. Sometimes this can immobilize us when we see doom and gloom. Fear is useful to keep us sharp but sometimes we gotta realize that we can't do anything until the bad stuff happens. Thankfully, a lot of times it doesn't happen.
I've also stopped watching long podcasts and instead read articles like yours. Hearing people babble with half assed crap audio quality can get on my nerves and I read faster anyway.
I hear you, Rob. I’m done with the armchair Marxists prattling on about why Freud still matters, only to ban you the moment you question one of their heroes — or point out that every nation is building its own version of the digital prison, so the ruling class never has to worry about the little people again.
For myself, I've found the answer to this riddle. It's simply about doing what you can in your own little microworld. It's about purifying one's heart and mind. It's about resisting the little temptations to tell a little lie, to bend the moral code a little, to indulge the impulses of laziness, avarice, envy, lust. It's about swallowing one's pride and going over to your neighbor with a good whisky to apologize. It's about giving your time, attention and resources to the people God puts on your path. It's about learning to love and forgive.
This universe is fractal, and if you can achieve true peace in your own mind, it tends to mirror itself in the higher strata - in your family, in your friend circle, in your village and so on. Ultimately, this is what prevents carbon credits, ugliness and death.
All this social analysis is very interesting and entertaining, and might serve a purpose if we are authentically pulled to it, but I pray we don't fall for the essential trap of the media and start believing that our actions are unimportant. This is the basic message of the media: that our lives are inconsequential, that the big important stuff is what some other people are doing in other places and what we do doesn't matter. When, in fact, the most important thing happening in our world is what we do right here, right now.
Yes, I agree with you orikis. It's the message of the Stoics: reclaiming agency begins when one narrows the scope of one's focus to what one can affect in ones own life. If it's outside of our control, it's not worth agonizing about or giving it too much attention. We may be relatively powerless when it comes to politics and world events, but that is mostly a distraction; we are responsible for what happens within the realm of our control...
I agree that one needs to attend to who or what is right in front of them, but there's no need to actively narrow one's influence. That's as false a fantasy of control as any other. None of us is in control outside oneself. And even then...
I once went through a horrendous experience that became very public and political and even resulted in death threats directed to me. At one point, I became discouraged because I couldn't see how any of what had happened or my part in it meant anything or would result in any lasting positive change. A wise man pointed out that the impact and reach of what I had done in playing my part was simply not up to me and I likely would never know.
But the thing i want to say is WHEN we feel called to speak our minds/hearts, that is something WORTH paying attention to, as well! A kind of spirituality that speaks thru our desire to be a part of solutions! Because i think everyone can inspire others! Each of us is part of the Big Picture's puzzle and has solutions, even if not fully articulated yet! Anyone who's called to speak their feelings, no matter how inarticulate or ignorant, as long as we engage in such as a PROCESS, a "becoming", the more we and those around us (in our virtual village, so to speak) grow!
"the message of the Stoics: reclaiming agency begins when one narrows the scope of one's focus to what one can affect in ones own life."
In other words: dutifully coping.
The Stoics were gay AF. Revilo P. Oliver compellingly points out that Zeno, the progenitor of Stoicism, was a Semitic interloper in Athens, and that Stoicism is just an empty practice of "twisting words and manipulating ideas with a sophistic ingenuity that made them expert theologians."
World events aren't a "distraction." They're a freight train barreling right at you, no matter what you do. Tending to sublunary affairs is the distraction.
I often use the metaphor of squirrels, busily hiding all their nuts for winter...as the sky darkens with a flock of hawks that blankets the entire sky....
Good ideas there, it's why I'm hoping to apprentice myself out next year to learn to shingle and re-shingle a roof, learn to renovate a house under the watchful eye of some family once I've bought a place.
That and learning book-binding, and otherwise focusing on learning better farming techniques in preparation to buy a place.
So far William I think you've the right of it and that Neoliberal was very right to point your way and to give you a shout-out. You're setting a good example for folks. X)
I have this amazing piece of land and off-grid life that grounds me but I feel you.
I think we dissidents are in that bit where a lot give up but the few who keep on keeping on hold the writings of history in their precious hands.
Weeds grow in the pavement of giant cities and keep returning until such time the city runs out of energy to keep killing them. After that a jungle grows but could not do so without those tough pioneers that kept going.
I take a little encouragement from Catherine Austin Fitts, as good a researcher of this subject matter as anyone. She thinks the digital panopticon will fail.
Whether it fails or not, they cannot debank or "unperson" a large number of people without suddenly creating a large number of people who have nothing to lose, which is very dangerous. So (assuming there isn't a big die off coming) I think they have to go on selectively targeting small numbers of people, kind of like they are doing now. This in itself allows hope for existing in the cracks. Kind of like we are doing now.
Yes, I agree with you that they cannot apply proscriptive measures en masse, because if too many people are turned out of the system it could have a destabilizing effect. Jobst Landgrebe makes this point in this interview, which is also why he ultimately expects it to fail: https://geopoliticsandempire.substack.com/p/jobst-landgrebe-the-trend-toward
Our elites were able to instill a lot of fear in the population during their cancellation waves, though, which ultimately didn't impact that many people. If they simply target the smartest, the most ambitious, the ones with the greatest followings, that will have an oversized impact...
Apparently your avatar is in my passenger seat reading my mind as I drive to the coast to surf. Being outside in the water or on the bike or up the trail is about the best medicine. Contemplating the natural world is some salve. But “The Program” is always running in the background. And when you’ve been researching it for four decades and you have an extraordinary memory and top shelf critical thinking ability, well, just gotta live with the curse. I feel ya, brother.
Best to go beyond just being out in nature. Better to live in it for awhile, while letting go of our settler-normative assumptions and reactions. To "connect with nature" like i've done over many years, does have a balancing affect, as you see that there is a whole other world beyond the one(s) that surround us in settlerdumb. (yes, in the u.s.a. most people are settlers; read: unsettlingamerica.wordpress.com for eye-openings!
Today I saw this curve ball on Google and AI rollout on searchand thoroughly recommend it ( https://youtu.be/9lEBWurEAi0?feature=shared ); it's to do with the inevitable content creation and small business destruction by way of the helpful "AI answers your question by scraping the answer from the web" further reducing the need to visit websites, and which will eventually be filled with advertising, by way of analogy like the search results.
Dude, find a local community and dig in. The "war" was lost a while ago (the patriot act post 9/11 looks so cringe right now, but "they" already knew). The leaders and movements that will lead the rebellion or revolution or change haven't emerged yet, because even the reactionary "populist" movements existing today are full of tone deaf co-opted leaders and governed by the same problematic ideas and narratives and values that have led us to the current moment in history (this hope that a terrible human being like DJT can turn things around in the US is farcical; he's a product of the ugly system. Europe isn't doing any better lol).
Thinking in terms of black, blue or red pills is as retarded as talk about alpha beta and sigma. Let go of all this mundane crap and don't confine yourself only to intellectual gymnastics. The point of life is not to hibernate in the mind, but to live, to experience, to grapple with duty, morality, desire, spirituality. I find it helpful to go for daily walks in green spaces not tailored by human design. This experience will end for everyone and I pity those who grasp for eternal life. The point is to let go, draw the best from everything, to ride the lightning and let karma do it's thing while we do our thing, which is why we're here.
Besides, defeating them bankers is easy: don't value money. This idea is so revolutionary no one gets it 🤣🤣🤣
Thanks Stefano. I agree that localism is important and so is narrowing the scope of our focus to what we can accomplish in our own lives; claiming personal responsibility is important in the spheres we can affect... Walks in nature (or as close as one can get to nature in an urban environment, anyway, if you live in one) is an important thing; it frees the mind and a lot of inspiration happens in moments like that. Regarding not valuing money, I think that's a hard thing to put into practice; we all need it to survive, from rent to food to health care to attracting a mate. It's good to live beneath one's means and not pursue needless consumption, of course...
In terms of not valuing money, it's partly as you wrote, but it's also about participating and contributing to activities not predicated on money.
In terms of what you wrote, if we predicte attracting a significant other on our earnings, then we're setting the stage to be disappointed if they leave when we can't maintain our end of the bargain. The literature on dating is based on assumptions, which might not hold true in different contexts. It's the same with standards of beauty. If we predicate attraction on being "fit" (ex. gym) or "hot" (ex. Big breasts, tats) or beautiful (ex. Magazines, faces), then we're going to be disappointed as we age and change, just as women who you attract on the basis of earnings will loose the attraction if you stop earning. My point is, "in the real world", our expectations and narrative construction feeds into our reality. If we convince ourselves our reality is "the only reality", then we're the suckers.
I've known many folks over the years who get addicted to money, or who earned a lot more than me, but they were always poor. I've known a lot of c-suite execs who once they "retired", their lives fell apart, because work defined their lives.
So yes living below ones means, but more importantly, not being addicted to money.
Your essays on central banks and the control this creates is predicated on the centrality of money to life, the same with working. But if we put these things lower down on the classification of what's important, all of a sudden those who control them don't matter all that much. Yes, their control over our lives is terrible and will get worse, but eventually it'll create pressure to change. Ordinary people will only create change when they go hungry, that's the way it's always been. Expecting it to be different this time, to me that's projection onto reality and inevitably creates disappointment.
Right now "the west" is on an inevitable journey of reality coming knocking, courtesy of Russia, China, brics, the global South, neo-reactionaries seizing power with the backing of tech in the US, the spiritual realms. It's inevitable "old money, networks, etc" will try to hold on. But if you're not going to get into the fray, then step out of the way.
I read a lot of the "new right" stuff and I'm amazed at how retarded most of it is: everyone wants to substitute our present dystopia with another fantasy, predicated on the same principles of money, tech, BS jobs, lack of spirituality and God, lack of virtue and ethics.
Even Yarvin, for all his intellectual prowess, can't articulate the meaning of life or a life worth living.
If we can't articulate the meaning of life, then we have nothing. And once you know, if you don't do, then you are nothing. Doing puts us at odds or out of sync with modern civilization, and that's ok, as long as we grow out of fomo and yolo.
You write about the Demiurge. But what does this mean in reality? How does this translate into our every living moment?
I can only speak for myself, but the creator,it's more and more intertwined with many moments of my daily existence. God and spirituality isn't something to be allotted a time slot, for me. And all of a sudden life is more beautiful and worth living.
I like your writings, NLF. But I don’t agree about that demiurge. Go look at the night sky sometime, somewhere without light-polution; or go sit in nature, and just look at it, feel and hear the wind and sun. Use your senses, not your mind. It is not an evil Intelligence behind it, that’s for sure.
Someone already mentioned it, but I’ll second it: focused, creative/constructive activities are also very helpful for improving the mood. Don’t argue why or why not, just decide to do it, and then DO it, and see how you feel afterwards. Spending time with people is also good.
Thanks Thomas. I agree with you that there's a lot of beauty in this world, and it's good and healthy to focus on it, and that the creative act to an extent makes life worth living (which is Nikolai Berdyaev's perspective). When I refer to the base nature of this reality, I am referring to its fundamental predation: a world of endless consuming other living creatures in order to survive. Even a plant screams on a certain wavelength when it is being eaten. So it's not possible to live by the Golden Rule even if one wants to; a substantial amount of hypocrisy is baked in. In addition, we are never satisfied with what we have; we are either chasing after an object or enveloped in boredom...this setup seems nightmarish to me, but I'm a glass-half-empty kind of guy, I guess.
I know the head-space you describe quite well (long spells of deep, clinical depression). The one thing I have found to reliably work is prayer, meditation, and spiritual practice. It takes sustained effort, but the good news is that it does work, and reliably so. It also works against the chronic dissatisfaction you mention (because contentment is found inside - already there).
If you can find another person to simply accept and stay with you in that space (not so easy to find), that can also be very soothing.
I don’t think it is hypocritical to have the golden rule as an ideal. Only if one says, e.g. “my life is in perfect alignment with the Golden Rule” does it start to get a bit iffy, heh. Also, ask yourself: if you behaved like a grade-A bastard, how would you really like to be treated? Would you not rather be met with truth and resistance, than facades and flattery? Or if you were weak and unreliable, would you like to pampered and coddled, or would you rather have a kick in the ass?
And I don’t think plants consciously experience suffering. In my understanding, they communicate about danger so that their “seed-siblings” can synthesize various chemicals that will heighten their chances of successfully warding off the danger. But it is not a conscious process. I don’t believe so, at least.
Anyways… I hope you don’t mind me preaching a bit at you, heh. All the best to you 🙂
Yuval Harari moralizes a lot about enslaving/exploiting animals or eating meat, criticising our self-granted right to do so. Personally, I try to leave morals aside when it comes to the survival aspects of life (mostly food and shelter) because, as living beings ourselves, we are subject to the same laws than the rest of nature, and thus "naturally entitled" to kill other life forms or exploit other animals, let alone plants, if we need it for our subsistence. In this regard, my only moral rule is: "do not more harm than the strictly necessary".
I am aware, however, that this standpoint is inconsistent for a non-believer like me, because by the same rule, then one is also entitled to kill our fellow-humans, there not being any essential difference (again, for an atheist) between a man and a cow. I admit that, from a philosophical perspective, I find it hard to solve this inconsistence. I am not even sure I could eat human meat if it was the only way of not starving. I guess my Christian upbringing has hardcoded some tabus deep into my subconscious. Fortunately, in practical terms, I do not need to be much concerned about these matters, because the law forbids murder.
Do not lose hope. I share your awareness of the decay and the absolute horror of the shallowness of normals. Their complete indifference even to their own decline baffles me.
I have found creating is the only antidote. I don't think it matters what the end product is, from articles and novels to knitting or gardening. But the process of creation matters. It certainly helps with the bleakness of it all.
Act on the world as best you can and let the rest happen.
Just want to say, re: their complete indifference...
==
I think John Trudell said it well when he spoke of the "psychological genocide" of the settler peoples.
There is a concerted effort, after all, to "mine our spirits" (as Trudell says) as "human resources" in order to run The Machine. A belief system with origins clear back to Machiavelli and the rest. Basically, a bigotry about the masses and how we Have To be managed.
I get this from people like Trudell and Noam Chomsky, amongst others.
Yes but it isn't working with us. So I think the masses are often receptive to this kind of control. Most want a leader. They wish to be led.
I believe serious hardship is what changes attitudes. The indulgence of mass immigration is just one example of a suicidal policy caused by a soft life. Easily fixed.
What's so strange to me is that the more accepted date for the death of Christ is 33 A.D. yet these parasites focus on 30. Oh well, doubt they'll achieve what they want by that time.
Personally I've begun writing more stories in notebooks and reading paperback books (I'm collecting again). It's great advice to get off the internet. I've plans to go much more analogue in the coming months/year.
Nice, that's good to hear; I don't like reading any digital books, and will print out a digital book if I have to read it. There's something to be said for physically holding the book, being able to dog-ear it and underline and highlight it, that helps jog the memory. Plus apparently Amazon is altering and scrubbing it's digital collection over time, even for those who have purchased ebooks...
Figures Amazon would do that. I must admit I prefer physical books too, it’s just easier to read. I can’t for the life of me read Comte de Monte Cristo or 3 Mousquetaires on kindle. I’ve been trying but can’t. Kindle is getting to be something I use to copy paste parts for my essays on substack but not to read properly.
So definitely hear you about reading physical books. Most of my sales of my Crown of Blood (Scottish Fantasy novel) have been physical in nature and involved the physical copy not the digital one. It’s why I’m trying to resolve the European distribution issue but it’s proving tough, as Amazon doesn’t like distributing out there like they used to and Blackwells proving difficult to streamline.
Thankfully I can still distribute throughout North-America. But I’ve taken to ordering copies and mailing them to Europe myself which costs money. Might have to set up a storefront for that. As it is, my hope is to work something out with a European distributor soon.
That's why it's good to de-DRM any e-book you purchase. Calibre software can do that. This way you always keep a "decrypted" copy of your e-books and do not depend on the platform's whims. You can even share those files with others.
I for one certainly hope you continue writing. You have a talent for it and your aim seems to be sure and steady. The subject matters selected for upcoming essays are definitely all of interest to me.
It blows that there appears to be not even a modicum of a nascent organized resistance group to this ever encroaching Army of Darkness which we are being beset upon by. I myself am ready to enlist my services at the drop of a hat. But we are indeed living in a surreal time, under unprecedented circumstances. The technology the enemy is able to deploy against us is truly awesome and terrifying. There exists such an imbalance of capabilities to wage sustained, kinetic conflict that it would require the "good guys" to mass hundreds of millions of rebels if there stood any realistic chance of us overthrowing our captors and setting things right, for once. And the plain fact of the matter is most of the slaves on the plantation are just fine with the terms of their enthrallment. We just don't have the numbers.
For myself, I participate in the system as little as possible. I am fortunate enough to live in semi-rural New England, and therefore spend hours of each day outside, when the weather permits. I exercise with the goal being to maintain as much combat readiness as my ageing body can sustain. Some day, I am certain of it, I will meet one of the enemy in the danger zone, where anyone is fair game, and I will inflict damage upon him, to some degree, before I am felled. This thought keeps the fire within stoked.
Beyond that, I wait. I read. I observe. I intuit. I make the conscious effort to turn it all off and just be outside. I take care of my body. And I wait.
Thanks Joshua. There's historical precedent for men in your situation holding out longer than others: the "pagans" were a slang term referring to the rural Hellenists who were the last to adopt the Roman empire's new religion. Because you participate in the system as little as possible, I suspect you will be able to hang on longer than urban or suburban denizens when the latest imperial edicts roll out...
When a small, malevolent minority controls both the means of monetary production (“Let me issue and control a nation’s money and I care not who writes the laws" - Mayer Amschel Rothschild), a monopoly on mass propaganda via the media, and control over the security services, the game is pretty much up, I think. This group, which focuses on power accumulation via scientific processes without any moral or ethical compunctions, cannot be effectively opposed on the basis of its strengths, I think...
Absolutely agree with your neatly written thoughts. Yet, what despairs me the most is that, were we ever capable of "overthrowing our captors and setting things right", it wouldn't take long before the whole enslaving process began anew. There is no hope for humankind, none whatsoever.
Perhaps not. I certainly doubt our species can make good on our potential. However, I'd like to believe that a society centered around what Jefferson termed a "natural aristocracy" can harness our positive energies and redirect our negative energies toward more productive uses. As far as anyone of is aware of, something along these lines has never been attempted seriously at a large scale. We in the white world have the numbers to do so. All it would take is the will to carve out some territory of or own along with a concerted effort to realize the ambition. Who would care if it failed, inevitably? I for one wouldn't. At least them we narrow our expectations for our species by dint of experiential evidence.
I look at our reality similar to as you write. maybe I am older (76) so I see my future differently. Instead of struggling to earn enough to pay the mortgage and all living costs involved with raising a family, I now am able to think about what I really need to exist. That means food, shelter, heat and clothing. I live in a rural area with 4 seasons that make the passage of time interesting, I can read more in the winter. I have realized that my perceived responsibility for doing my share in helping others recognize the lies that we are subjected to, is not a effective use of my time. I have seen only a couple of people change their opinion about some event when they eventually understand that they were deceived. If asked my opinion I will reply, that is when they might hear what I say. Living in these times can be risky for ones health and survival, but that has always been the case. Imagining where you would like to see yourself in the future allows it to happen. Attitude is everything, really. My mother would remind me of that.
Thanks for the comment, John. I agree with you that it's unusual for people to change their minds - in the field of science, for example, paradigms change occurs not because scientists change their minds but because one generation dies and is replaced by the next, which has different beliefs and suppositions baked into their worldview. Max Planck is quoted as saying, "Science progresses one funeral at a time."
What do you think is an effective use of your time, other than the things you need to exist?
I do find it interesting to read your posts. Nearly everything on the internet related to health, politics, money etc is propaganda. I spend my time mostly helping family members, two daughters in their 40's. One has a wool fiber process business where I volunteer 3 days a week, the other is a hairdresser where I help with various projects. We raise dairy replacement heifers on our property year round for a friends farm, obtaining raw milk in trade. We have a small group of friends/family that we associate with, losing some who were disgusted with us when the plandemic came along. We did not do masks or shots. I try to help others when appropriate, not doing what they should do themselves or being an enabler. It seems to me that when you help others, you are often doing it as much for yourself. Have you seen "Predators against the People" written by several men in their 70's from Holland? I loaned my copy printed out from a website and do not have it here now. Generational change is understood and utilized by those in creation of money, they have all the time necessary to gain evermore control. I do not see there ever being and end to this game, but it is hard to imagine accurately the future. Think tanks can do that because that is what they spend their time doing. We are like farmers of the past working every day never really knowing where their money goes or comes from, just doing what needed to be done in the moment.
Thanks John, it sounds like the things you are doing keep you rooted in family and community. The great Charles Lindbergh Sr., who unsuccessfully fought against the creation of the Federal Reserve, was a farmer. So is Thomas Massie, who seems like almost the only decent guy in Congress. Something about the physical work that keeps people grounded in reality...
You may find it interesting that there has been an ongoing conspiracy to suppress farmers for decades, driving them into poverty and bankruptcy. Per Gore Vidal in Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace, p. 61: “But Dyer has unearthed a genuine ongoing conspiracy that affects everyone in the United States. Currently, a handful of agro-conglomerates are working to drive America's remaining small farmers off their land by systematically paying them less for their produce than it costs to grow, thus forcing them to get loans from the conglomerates' banks, assume mortgages, and undergo foreclosures and the sale of land to corporate-controlled agribusiness. But is this really a conspiracy or just the Darwinian workings of an efficient marketplace? There is, for once, a smoking gun in the form of a blueprint describing how best to rid the nation of small farmers. Dyer writes: "In 1962, the Committee for Economic Development comprised approximately seventy-five of the nation's most powerful corporate executives. They represented not only the food industry but also oil and gas, insurance, investment and retail industries. Almost all groups that stood to gain from consolidation were represented on that committee. Their report [An Adaptive Program for Agriculture] outlined a plan to eliminate farmers and farms. It was detailed and well thought out." Simultaneously, "as early as 1964, congressmen were being told by industry giants like Pillsbury, Swift, General Foods, and Campbell Soup that the biggest problem in agriculture was too many farmers."....So a conspiracy has been set in motion to replace the Jeffersonian ideal of a nation whose backbone was the independent farm family with a series of agribusiness monopolies where, Dyer writes,"these companies controlled 96% of U.S. wheat exports, 95% of U.S. corn exports," and so on through the busy aisles of [grocery stores]. Has consolidation been good for the customers? By and large, no."
Regarding "Predators against the People", I have not read the book (one must be a paid subscriber to read it, and I have concerns about anonymity via payment processors) although I am a free subscriber to their Substack, which is strong.
I agree that the small agricultural farmer is being eliminated as part of an agenda for increased control over the people of the world. I have seen this firsthand in Vermont where I have lived my whole life. I have traveled pretty extensively, Vietnam, Greece, Austria, France, Sweden, Denmark, S. Africa, Japan, Malaysia, England, Ireland, Wales, Mexico, Canada. These were work related trips or for adventure. I worked for a company providing equipment for the pulp and paper industry, then for a company doing experimental work for the military. Those were jobs that paid well, and I felt like a hypocrite prostitute at the last job, nearly 25 years, DARPA projects mostly. Anyways I have always been helping friends at their farm 1960's to now. Where there were dozens of small dairy farms in the valley where I attended school, until 1967, now there are two farms remaining. One milks 600 head and the other that I have been involved with milks 50 and does not sell milk, but rather makes cheese. The milk price has been so low that it is not possible to make a dairy farm work except by having way to many cattle for the available land without causing pollution issues and keeping the cattle inside buildings year round and bringing feed to them, often from 20 miles away. Undocumented on farm labor is extensively used as the wages paid are too low for anyone else to live on. The large valley farm says that they owe more money than they are worth, and the small farm struggles to exist with ever more restrictive rules and regulatory expenses that are acceptable for a huge farm, but not so for a small farm. The huge farms out west get the majority of the subsidies, and they are owned by the predators and are used as tax write offs. This keeps milk prices low so that small dairies cannot survive. If you want control over slaves, you must control food, water, energy, money, housing, travel. This is what is happening, and the surveillance system has information on every one of us. Most people are either unaware of this, or believe that the government is protecting them. George Carlin said, "think about how stupid the average person is, then realize that half are even stupider than that." Samuel Clemons said,"It is easier to deceive some one than it is to convince them that they have been deceived." he also said," a lie makes it halfway around the world before the truth gets its pants on." So many people have been aware of the predators all through history, but their voices are hidden. And lies are continually repeated, and the education system teaches them through all school years. The predators believe that it is a game with no rules that they will win, or at least remain the dominant player.
No single Substack post is going to save the world. That may be the source of some of your pessimism. But you are looking for patterns and calling out truths. That helps others find their way too.
Take hope that we *are* emerging from Clown World. The future will be different - thank goodness!
You are saying things no one else is saying, and no one else can say. There are people who need to hear someone say these things. This matters. Thank you for what you are doing.
I wonder if reading some Thomas Nagel and/or playing Dark Souls might be helpful to you NLF.
Here is relevant quote from Nagel
"[That our lives seem absurd to us] need not be a matter for agony [as insisted by Sartre in Being and Nothingness] unless we make it so. Nor need it evoke a defiant contempt of fate [as advocated by Camus in The Myth of Sisyphus] that allows us to feel brave and proud. Such dramatics, even if carried on in private, betray a failure to appreciate the cosmic unimportance of the situation. If sub specie aeternitatis there is no reason to believe that anything matters, then that doesn't matter either, and we can approach our absurd lives with irony instead of heroism or despair."
In the end, despite the best efforts of the demiurge, this reality will decay into nothingness, and probably long before that, this civilization will go the way of Rome. I enjoy and agree with your posts immensely, but at the end of the day they are really an attempt to drain the ocean with a straw. No matter what you or I do, the vast majority of the masses of this world will always be easily programmable fools. And even if we could change all those hearts and minds (which I believe is possible on an individual level with determined work, doubt it can be scaled up though), the laws of physics make entropy and decay an almost given. You can despair at this things or rail against them, but ultimately that is a choice you make built of the assumption that the world should behave differently.
I can't say that I'm the most practiced person at adopting this mode of thought in my day to day life, but it has helped in being almost completely unconcerned with national and international politics and refocusing on how funny all of this is when you look at it a certain way.
Thanks Joshua, I’ll check out Thomas Nagel. I’ve heard of Dark Souls but havn’t played it before, although it’s a very popular game - I’m surprised there’s not a Mac version. Apparently I would have to either use a cloud gaming service like Boosteroid or a third-party application like Boot Camp or Parallels to run the Windows version of the game. What do you love most about hte game?
I agree with you that “All go to one place: All come from dust, and all return to dust”; I continue this work because it’s one of the few things that interests me, I feel called to it…
My favorite part of the game is how it emphasizes this philosophical theme of meaninglessness while not becoming nihilistic. Whatever you do, you don't really change the ending of the game. However, that doesn't mean it's not fun: in addition to classic RPG leveling mechanics there's also a sense in which you have to improve significantly as a player (in terms of mastery of mechanics rather than just grinding) to progress. It is immensely satisfying to beat a boss that you've been trying to beat for weeks because you've actually improved rather than just grinded sufficiently, even if terms of the game world (and your real life) it doesn't matter at all.
While you can't actually change the ending of the game, your actions have a large effect on the variety of NPCs that inhabit the world. In that sense the game also reflects life: we can't change the plans of the globalist elite or stop collapse, but we can save those in our lives who are close to us by careful attention and deliberate interventions.
That all being said, I don't really play Dark Souls much anymore. Video games in general have lost their luster for me as they seem to be impoverished versions of reality, despite reality being measurably shittier by the day. Learning the guitar, a foreign language, a martial art, dancing, gardening, a craft, or a sport are all immeasurably more satisfying than the best video game. That being said, I think Dark Souls is a much better option than doomscrolling.
I'm also surprised there isn't a Mac version. Apparently you can play on Mac using this service called crossover. I don't know much about it, as I have a windows system.
Install a hypervisor software on your computer (like VMWare or Virtualbox, both available for Mac; the latter is the one I use, very user-friendly). It's a kind of software that simulates being a computer. Then you can install Windows on that virtualized computer. That's what I do (my laptop runs Linux on bare metal) for doing all things that can only be done with Windows.
Thomas Nagel's philosophy sounds like more drivel to drive people into the government sanctioned suicide huts when the time comes. Which seems to be rapidly approaching.
What is interesting about that? Nothing.
Yes, all physical matter decays. Everything you eat that isn't useful turns into crap you poop out, if you're lucky enough to have regular BMs. So what?
Does that mean one should stop cooking fine meals or stop eating all together?
Dumb argument.
Byrdturd on X: "The "pandemic" was a trigger to accelerate the Cybernetic Revolution.. If you do not know what that is and would like to know, check out this video.. The final phase of the Cybernetic Revolution will begin in the 2030s. COVID-19 pandemic as a trigger for the acceleration of the https://t.co/V8cKySxzGs" / X
https://x.com/Byrdturd86/status/1914123929905500352
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0040162521007794
One of the central contradictions of the technocratic project is its fantasy of infinitely scalable control with satellites, AI, chips, surveillance, automation, digital IDs, all of it dependent on finite resources of rare earth metals, lithium, cobalt, massive amounts of fresh water, energy, and most of all, human compliance and political stability.
None of these are infinite or guaranteed.
Yes, they're always looking for substitutes, considering lab-grown materials, trillion-dollar asteroid mining schemes, nanotech miracles, even "decarbonized" transhuman labor. But each new layer of substitution increases complexity and energy demands. The more they try to eliminate uncertainty, the more fragile the system becomes.
This is the heart of the cybernetic dream of having godlike command over matter and life, with AI as the priesthood. But nature doesn’t obey ideology — or psychopaths.
Unless they invent an entirely new material and energetic substrate, and fast, the system will collapse under its own weight.
The question is how much damage will be done before it does?
As a law-abiding whistleblower against Convid-19 mandates who has never been charged with a crime I can assure you that this open-air digital prison is currently being used to surveille and harass decent citizens in Canada for asserting their Charter-protected rights and testifying under oath in the Provincial Court of Vancouver against corporate criminals who receive non-prosecution agreements and secret courts.
https://thenationaltelegraph.com/national/canadian-crown-corporations-coerced-employees-with-fake-vaccine-mandate/
https://denisrancourt.substack.com/p/did-the-c19-vaccine-kill-17-million
I’m in no way downplaying what’s already happening — or the fact that the Covid scam was one of many triggers (though a major one, heavily reliant on the digital panopticon and 5G) on the path toward a global open-air digital prison — what I’ve previously called techno-feudalism (and what Neo-Feudal calls neo-feudalism), capitalism’s next mutation.
Every nation is developing its own version of this, which shatters the illusion that BRICS is some kind of hedge against empire.
My point was more about the inherent instability of the psychopaths’ long-term vision — how these fantasies of total control are built on fragile, unsustainable foundations. That doesn’t make the present any less urgent or dangerous.
Your friend is correct.
Do what you enjoy, whether a hobby, exercise, qi gong, video games, reading.... Whatever works.
https://robc137.substack.com/p/fix-the-foundation-before-the-roof
We are a few steps ahead from the crowd and even the predator class. Sometimes this can immobilize us when we see doom and gloom. Fear is useful to keep us sharp but sometimes we gotta realize that we can't do anything until the bad stuff happens. Thankfully, a lot of times it doesn't happen.
I've also stopped watching long podcasts and instead read articles like yours. Hearing people babble with half assed crap audio quality can get on my nerves and I read faster anyway.
I see all these 1, 2, and 3 hour long podcasts and wonder how anyone finds the time. Give it to me in writing if you want me to pay attention.
I hear you, Rob. I’m done with the armchair Marxists prattling on about why Freud still matters, only to ban you the moment you question one of their heroes — or point out that every nation is building its own version of the digital prison, so the ruling class never has to worry about the little people again.
For myself, I've found the answer to this riddle. It's simply about doing what you can in your own little microworld. It's about purifying one's heart and mind. It's about resisting the little temptations to tell a little lie, to bend the moral code a little, to indulge the impulses of laziness, avarice, envy, lust. It's about swallowing one's pride and going over to your neighbor with a good whisky to apologize. It's about giving your time, attention and resources to the people God puts on your path. It's about learning to love and forgive.
This universe is fractal, and if you can achieve true peace in your own mind, it tends to mirror itself in the higher strata - in your family, in your friend circle, in your village and so on. Ultimately, this is what prevents carbon credits, ugliness and death.
All this social analysis is very interesting and entertaining, and might serve a purpose if we are authentically pulled to it, but I pray we don't fall for the essential trap of the media and start believing that our actions are unimportant. This is the basic message of the media: that our lives are inconsequential, that the big important stuff is what some other people are doing in other places and what we do doesn't matter. When, in fact, the most important thing happening in our world is what we do right here, right now.
Yes, I agree with you orikis. It's the message of the Stoics: reclaiming agency begins when one narrows the scope of one's focus to what one can affect in ones own life. If it's outside of our control, it's not worth agonizing about or giving it too much attention. We may be relatively powerless when it comes to politics and world events, but that is mostly a distraction; we are responsible for what happens within the realm of our control...
I agree that one needs to attend to who or what is right in front of them, but there's no need to actively narrow one's influence. That's as false a fantasy of control as any other. None of us is in control outside oneself. And even then...
I once went through a horrendous experience that became very public and political and even resulted in death threats directed to me. At one point, I became discouraged because I couldn't see how any of what had happened or my part in it meant anything or would result in any lasting positive change. A wise man pointed out that the impact and reach of what I had done in playing my part was simply not up to me and I likely would never know.
I found that to be a very good answer.
But the thing i want to say is WHEN we feel called to speak our minds/hearts, that is something WORTH paying attention to, as well! A kind of spirituality that speaks thru our desire to be a part of solutions! Because i think everyone can inspire others! Each of us is part of the Big Picture's puzzle and has solutions, even if not fully articulated yet! Anyone who's called to speak their feelings, no matter how inarticulate or ignorant, as long as we engage in such as a PROCESS, a "becoming", the more we and those around us (in our virtual village, so to speak) grow!
"the message of the Stoics: reclaiming agency begins when one narrows the scope of one's focus to what one can affect in ones own life."
In other words: dutifully coping.
The Stoics were gay AF. Revilo P. Oliver compellingly points out that Zeno, the progenitor of Stoicism, was a Semitic interloper in Athens, and that Stoicism is just an empty practice of "twisting words and manipulating ideas with a sophistic ingenuity that made them expert theologians."
World events aren't a "distraction." They're a freight train barreling right at you, no matter what you do. Tending to sublunary affairs is the distraction.
I often use the metaphor of squirrels, busily hiding all their nuts for winter...as the sky darkens with a flock of hawks that blankets the entire sky....
I agree although I also see no misstep in shouting from the rooftops with a giant megaphone.
God made so many varieties and all have their beauty and function. Just look at nature in it's vast array of glorious diversity.
Thanks for the shout out. Rather than hobbies I think of it as the building of skills for the collapse of modernity.
Yes, with malevolent AI, it is paramount to focus less on the chatter, and more on Western wisdom.
Good ideas there, it's why I'm hoping to apprentice myself out next year to learn to shingle and re-shingle a roof, learn to renovate a house under the watchful eye of some family once I've bought a place.
That and learning book-binding, and otherwise focusing on learning better farming techniques in preparation to buy a place.
So far William I think you've the right of it and that Neoliberal was very right to point your way and to give you a shout-out. You're setting a good example for folks. X)
I have this amazing piece of land and off-grid life that grounds me but I feel you.
I think we dissidents are in that bit where a lot give up but the few who keep on keeping on hold the writings of history in their precious hands.
Weeds grow in the pavement of giant cities and keep returning until such time the city runs out of energy to keep killing them. After that a jungle grows but could not do so without those tough pioneers that kept going.
You are that little engine that could.
My little Pashtun you are NL!
I take a little encouragement from Catherine Austin Fitts, as good a researcher of this subject matter as anyone. She thinks the digital panopticon will fail.
Whether it fails or not, they cannot debank or "unperson" a large number of people without suddenly creating a large number of people who have nothing to lose, which is very dangerous. So (assuming there isn't a big die off coming) I think they have to go on selectively targeting small numbers of people, kind of like they are doing now. This in itself allows hope for existing in the cracks. Kind of like we are doing now.
Yes, I agree with you that they cannot apply proscriptive measures en masse, because if too many people are turned out of the system it could have a destabilizing effect. Jobst Landgrebe makes this point in this interview, which is also why he ultimately expects it to fail: https://geopoliticsandempire.substack.com/p/jobst-landgrebe-the-trend-toward
Our elites were able to instill a lot of fear in the population during their cancellation waves, though, which ultimately didn't impact that many people. If they simply target the smartest, the most ambitious, the ones with the greatest followings, that will have an oversized impact...
Apparently your avatar is in my passenger seat reading my mind as I drive to the coast to surf. Being outside in the water or on the bike or up the trail is about the best medicine. Contemplating the natural world is some salve. But “The Program” is always running in the background. And when you’ve been researching it for four decades and you have an extraordinary memory and top shelf critical thinking ability, well, just gotta live with the curse. I feel ya, brother.
Thanks Quill. I agree with you that being out in nature helps - and I need to do more of it...
Best to go beyond just being out in nature. Better to live in it for awhile, while letting go of our settler-normative assumptions and reactions. To "connect with nature" like i've done over many years, does have a balancing affect, as you see that there is a whole other world beyond the one(s) that surround us in settlerdumb. (yes, in the u.s.a. most people are settlers; read: unsettlingamerica.wordpress.com for eye-openings!
"It sounds like you need to unplug."
Today I saw this curve ball on Google and AI rollout on searchand thoroughly recommend it ( https://youtu.be/9lEBWurEAi0?feature=shared ); it's to do with the inevitable content creation and small business destruction by way of the helpful "AI answers your question by scraping the answer from the web" further reducing the need to visit websites, and which will eventually be filled with advertising, by way of analogy like the search results.
Dude, find a local community and dig in. The "war" was lost a while ago (the patriot act post 9/11 looks so cringe right now, but "they" already knew). The leaders and movements that will lead the rebellion or revolution or change haven't emerged yet, because even the reactionary "populist" movements existing today are full of tone deaf co-opted leaders and governed by the same problematic ideas and narratives and values that have led us to the current moment in history (this hope that a terrible human being like DJT can turn things around in the US is farcical; he's a product of the ugly system. Europe isn't doing any better lol).
Thinking in terms of black, blue or red pills is as retarded as talk about alpha beta and sigma. Let go of all this mundane crap and don't confine yourself only to intellectual gymnastics. The point of life is not to hibernate in the mind, but to live, to experience, to grapple with duty, morality, desire, spirituality. I find it helpful to go for daily walks in green spaces not tailored by human design. This experience will end for everyone and I pity those who grasp for eternal life. The point is to let go, draw the best from everything, to ride the lightning and let karma do it's thing while we do our thing, which is why we're here.
Besides, defeating them bankers is easy: don't value money. This idea is so revolutionary no one gets it 🤣🤣🤣
But most of all, love, always!
Thanks Stefano. I agree that localism is important and so is narrowing the scope of our focus to what we can accomplish in our own lives; claiming personal responsibility is important in the spheres we can affect... Walks in nature (or as close as one can get to nature in an urban environment, anyway, if you live in one) is an important thing; it frees the mind and a lot of inspiration happens in moments like that. Regarding not valuing money, I think that's a hard thing to put into practice; we all need it to survive, from rent to food to health care to attracting a mate. It's good to live beneath one's means and not pursue needless consumption, of course...
In terms of not valuing money, it's partly as you wrote, but it's also about participating and contributing to activities not predicated on money.
In terms of what you wrote, if we predicte attracting a significant other on our earnings, then we're setting the stage to be disappointed if they leave when we can't maintain our end of the bargain. The literature on dating is based on assumptions, which might not hold true in different contexts. It's the same with standards of beauty. If we predicate attraction on being "fit" (ex. gym) or "hot" (ex. Big breasts, tats) or beautiful (ex. Magazines, faces), then we're going to be disappointed as we age and change, just as women who you attract on the basis of earnings will loose the attraction if you stop earning. My point is, "in the real world", our expectations and narrative construction feeds into our reality. If we convince ourselves our reality is "the only reality", then we're the suckers.
I've known many folks over the years who get addicted to money, or who earned a lot more than me, but they were always poor. I've known a lot of c-suite execs who once they "retired", their lives fell apart, because work defined their lives.
So yes living below ones means, but more importantly, not being addicted to money.
Your essays on central banks and the control this creates is predicated on the centrality of money to life, the same with working. But if we put these things lower down on the classification of what's important, all of a sudden those who control them don't matter all that much. Yes, their control over our lives is terrible and will get worse, but eventually it'll create pressure to change. Ordinary people will only create change when they go hungry, that's the way it's always been. Expecting it to be different this time, to me that's projection onto reality and inevitably creates disappointment.
Right now "the west" is on an inevitable journey of reality coming knocking, courtesy of Russia, China, brics, the global South, neo-reactionaries seizing power with the backing of tech in the US, the spiritual realms. It's inevitable "old money, networks, etc" will try to hold on. But if you're not going to get into the fray, then step out of the way.
I read a lot of the "new right" stuff and I'm amazed at how retarded most of it is: everyone wants to substitute our present dystopia with another fantasy, predicated on the same principles of money, tech, BS jobs, lack of spirituality and God, lack of virtue and ethics.
Even Yarvin, for all his intellectual prowess, can't articulate the meaning of life or a life worth living.
If we can't articulate the meaning of life, then we have nothing. And once you know, if you don't do, then you are nothing. Doing puts us at odds or out of sync with modern civilization, and that's ok, as long as we grow out of fomo and yolo.
You write about the Demiurge. But what does this mean in reality? How does this translate into our every living moment?
I can only speak for myself, but the creator,it's more and more intertwined with many moments of my daily existence. God and spirituality isn't something to be allotted a time slot, for me. And all of a sudden life is more beautiful and worth living.
I look forward to your posts. I always learn something.
I like your writings, NLF. But I don’t agree about that demiurge. Go look at the night sky sometime, somewhere without light-polution; or go sit in nature, and just look at it, feel and hear the wind and sun. Use your senses, not your mind. It is not an evil Intelligence behind it, that’s for sure.
Someone already mentioned it, but I’ll second it: focused, creative/constructive activities are also very helpful for improving the mood. Don’t argue why or why not, just decide to do it, and then DO it, and see how you feel afterwards. Spending time with people is also good.
Best wishes!
Thanks Thomas. I agree with you that there's a lot of beauty in this world, and it's good and healthy to focus on it, and that the creative act to an extent makes life worth living (which is Nikolai Berdyaev's perspective). When I refer to the base nature of this reality, I am referring to its fundamental predation: a world of endless consuming other living creatures in order to survive. Even a plant screams on a certain wavelength when it is being eaten. So it's not possible to live by the Golden Rule even if one wants to; a substantial amount of hypocrisy is baked in. In addition, we are never satisfied with what we have; we are either chasing after an object or enveloped in boredom...this setup seems nightmarish to me, but I'm a glass-half-empty kind of guy, I guess.
Best wishes to you as well.
You are a gentle soul!
I know the head-space you describe quite well (long spells of deep, clinical depression). The one thing I have found to reliably work is prayer, meditation, and spiritual practice. It takes sustained effort, but the good news is that it does work, and reliably so. It also works against the chronic dissatisfaction you mention (because contentment is found inside - already there).
If you can find another person to simply accept and stay with you in that space (not so easy to find), that can also be very soothing.
I don’t think it is hypocritical to have the golden rule as an ideal. Only if one says, e.g. “my life is in perfect alignment with the Golden Rule” does it start to get a bit iffy, heh. Also, ask yourself: if you behaved like a grade-A bastard, how would you really like to be treated? Would you not rather be met with truth and resistance, than facades and flattery? Or if you were weak and unreliable, would you like to pampered and coddled, or would you rather have a kick in the ass?
And I don’t think plants consciously experience suffering. In my understanding, they communicate about danger so that their “seed-siblings” can synthesize various chemicals that will heighten their chances of successfully warding off the danger. But it is not a conscious process. I don’t believe so, at least.
Anyways… I hope you don’t mind me preaching a bit at you, heh. All the best to you 🙂
Yuval Harari moralizes a lot about enslaving/exploiting animals or eating meat, criticising our self-granted right to do so. Personally, I try to leave morals aside when it comes to the survival aspects of life (mostly food and shelter) because, as living beings ourselves, we are subject to the same laws than the rest of nature, and thus "naturally entitled" to kill other life forms or exploit other animals, let alone plants, if we need it for our subsistence. In this regard, my only moral rule is: "do not more harm than the strictly necessary".
I am aware, however, that this standpoint is inconsistent for a non-believer like me, because by the same rule, then one is also entitled to kill our fellow-humans, there not being any essential difference (again, for an atheist) between a man and a cow. I admit that, from a philosophical perspective, I find it hard to solve this inconsistence. I am not even sure I could eat human meat if it was the only way of not starving. I guess my Christian upbringing has hardcoded some tabus deep into my subconscious. Fortunately, in practical terms, I do not need to be much concerned about these matters, because the law forbids murder.
Do not lose hope. I share your awareness of the decay and the absolute horror of the shallowness of normals. Their complete indifference even to their own decline baffles me.
I have found creating is the only antidote. I don't think it matters what the end product is, from articles and novels to knitting or gardening. But the process of creation matters. It certainly helps with the bleakness of it all.
Act on the world as best you can and let the rest happen.
Well said, Spaceman. I agree with you - the process and act of creation matters...
Remember, life is electric...
https://abysspostcard.substack.com/p/life-is-electric-bro
Love that ❤️
Just want to say, re: their complete indifference...
==
I think John Trudell said it well when he spoke of the "psychological genocide" of the settler peoples.
There is a concerted effort, after all, to "mine our spirits" (as Trudell says) as "human resources" in order to run The Machine. A belief system with origins clear back to Machiavelli and the rest. Basically, a bigotry about the masses and how we Have To be managed.
I get this from people like Trudell and Noam Chomsky, amongst others.
Yes but it isn't working with us. So I think the masses are often receptive to this kind of control. Most want a leader. They wish to be led.
I believe serious hardship is what changes attitudes. The indulgence of mass immigration is just one example of a suicidal policy caused by a soft life. Easily fixed.
What's so strange to me is that the more accepted date for the death of Christ is 33 A.D. yet these parasites focus on 30. Oh well, doubt they'll achieve what they want by that time.
Personally I've begun writing more stories in notebooks and reading paperback books (I'm collecting again). It's great advice to get off the internet. I've plans to go much more analogue in the coming months/year.
Nice, that's good to hear; I don't like reading any digital books, and will print out a digital book if I have to read it. There's something to be said for physically holding the book, being able to dog-ear it and underline and highlight it, that helps jog the memory. Plus apparently Amazon is altering and scrubbing it's digital collection over time, even for those who have purchased ebooks...
Figures Amazon would do that. I must admit I prefer physical books too, it’s just easier to read. I can’t for the life of me read Comte de Monte Cristo or 3 Mousquetaires on kindle. I’ve been trying but can’t. Kindle is getting to be something I use to copy paste parts for my essays on substack but not to read properly.
So definitely hear you about reading physical books. Most of my sales of my Crown of Blood (Scottish Fantasy novel) have been physical in nature and involved the physical copy not the digital one. It’s why I’m trying to resolve the European distribution issue but it’s proving tough, as Amazon doesn’t like distributing out there like they used to and Blackwells proving difficult to streamline.
Thankfully I can still distribute throughout North-America. But I’ve taken to ordering copies and mailing them to Europe myself which costs money. Might have to set up a storefront for that. As it is, my hope is to work something out with a European distributor soon.
That's why it's good to de-DRM any e-book you purchase. Calibre software can do that. This way you always keep a "decrypted" copy of your e-books and do not depend on the platform's whims. You can even share those files with others.
I for one certainly hope you continue writing. You have a talent for it and your aim seems to be sure and steady. The subject matters selected for upcoming essays are definitely all of interest to me.
It blows that there appears to be not even a modicum of a nascent organized resistance group to this ever encroaching Army of Darkness which we are being beset upon by. I myself am ready to enlist my services at the drop of a hat. But we are indeed living in a surreal time, under unprecedented circumstances. The technology the enemy is able to deploy against us is truly awesome and terrifying. There exists such an imbalance of capabilities to wage sustained, kinetic conflict that it would require the "good guys" to mass hundreds of millions of rebels if there stood any realistic chance of us overthrowing our captors and setting things right, for once. And the plain fact of the matter is most of the slaves on the plantation are just fine with the terms of their enthrallment. We just don't have the numbers.
For myself, I participate in the system as little as possible. I am fortunate enough to live in semi-rural New England, and therefore spend hours of each day outside, when the weather permits. I exercise with the goal being to maintain as much combat readiness as my ageing body can sustain. Some day, I am certain of it, I will meet one of the enemy in the danger zone, where anyone is fair game, and I will inflict damage upon him, to some degree, before I am felled. This thought keeps the fire within stoked.
Beyond that, I wait. I read. I observe. I intuit. I make the conscious effort to turn it all off and just be outside. I take care of my body. And I wait.
Thanks Joshua. There's historical precedent for men in your situation holding out longer than others: the "pagans" were a slang term referring to the rural Hellenists who were the last to adopt the Roman empire's new religion. Because you participate in the system as little as possible, I suspect you will be able to hang on longer than urban or suburban denizens when the latest imperial edicts roll out...
When a small, malevolent minority controls both the means of monetary production (“Let me issue and control a nation’s money and I care not who writes the laws" - Mayer Amschel Rothschild), a monopoly on mass propaganda via the media, and control over the security services, the game is pretty much up, I think. This group, which focuses on power accumulation via scientific processes without any moral or ethical compunctions, cannot be effectively opposed on the basis of its strengths, I think...
Absolutely agree with your neatly written thoughts. Yet, what despairs me the most is that, were we ever capable of "overthrowing our captors and setting things right", it wouldn't take long before the whole enslaving process began anew. There is no hope for humankind, none whatsoever.
Perhaps not. I certainly doubt our species can make good on our potential. However, I'd like to believe that a society centered around what Jefferson termed a "natural aristocracy" can harness our positive energies and redirect our negative energies toward more productive uses. As far as anyone of is aware of, something along these lines has never been attempted seriously at a large scale. We in the white world have the numbers to do so. All it would take is the will to carve out some territory of or own along with a concerted effort to realize the ambition. Who would care if it failed, inevitably? I for one wouldn't. At least them we narrow our expectations for our species by dint of experiential evidence.
Word.
I look at our reality similar to as you write. maybe I am older (76) so I see my future differently. Instead of struggling to earn enough to pay the mortgage and all living costs involved with raising a family, I now am able to think about what I really need to exist. That means food, shelter, heat and clothing. I live in a rural area with 4 seasons that make the passage of time interesting, I can read more in the winter. I have realized that my perceived responsibility for doing my share in helping others recognize the lies that we are subjected to, is not a effective use of my time. I have seen only a couple of people change their opinion about some event when they eventually understand that they were deceived. If asked my opinion I will reply, that is when they might hear what I say. Living in these times can be risky for ones health and survival, but that has always been the case. Imagining where you would like to see yourself in the future allows it to happen. Attitude is everything, really. My mother would remind me of that.
Thanks for the comment, John. I agree with you that it's unusual for people to change their minds - in the field of science, for example, paradigms change occurs not because scientists change their minds but because one generation dies and is replaced by the next, which has different beliefs and suppositions baked into their worldview. Max Planck is quoted as saying, "Science progresses one funeral at a time."
What do you think is an effective use of your time, other than the things you need to exist?
I do find it interesting to read your posts. Nearly everything on the internet related to health, politics, money etc is propaganda. I spend my time mostly helping family members, two daughters in their 40's. One has a wool fiber process business where I volunteer 3 days a week, the other is a hairdresser where I help with various projects. We raise dairy replacement heifers on our property year round for a friends farm, obtaining raw milk in trade. We have a small group of friends/family that we associate with, losing some who were disgusted with us when the plandemic came along. We did not do masks or shots. I try to help others when appropriate, not doing what they should do themselves or being an enabler. It seems to me that when you help others, you are often doing it as much for yourself. Have you seen "Predators against the People" written by several men in their 70's from Holland? I loaned my copy printed out from a website and do not have it here now. Generational change is understood and utilized by those in creation of money, they have all the time necessary to gain evermore control. I do not see there ever being and end to this game, but it is hard to imagine accurately the future. Think tanks can do that because that is what they spend their time doing. We are like farmers of the past working every day never really knowing where their money goes or comes from, just doing what needed to be done in the moment.
Thanks John, it sounds like the things you are doing keep you rooted in family and community. The great Charles Lindbergh Sr., who unsuccessfully fought against the creation of the Federal Reserve, was a farmer. So is Thomas Massie, who seems like almost the only decent guy in Congress. Something about the physical work that keeps people grounded in reality...
You may find it interesting that there has been an ongoing conspiracy to suppress farmers for decades, driving them into poverty and bankruptcy. Per Gore Vidal in Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace, p. 61: “But Dyer has unearthed a genuine ongoing conspiracy that affects everyone in the United States. Currently, a handful of agro-conglomerates are working to drive America's remaining small farmers off their land by systematically paying them less for their produce than it costs to grow, thus forcing them to get loans from the conglomerates' banks, assume mortgages, and undergo foreclosures and the sale of land to corporate-controlled agribusiness. But is this really a conspiracy or just the Darwinian workings of an efficient marketplace? There is, for once, a smoking gun in the form of a blueprint describing how best to rid the nation of small farmers. Dyer writes: "In 1962, the Committee for Economic Development comprised approximately seventy-five of the nation's most powerful corporate executives. They represented not only the food industry but also oil and gas, insurance, investment and retail industries. Almost all groups that stood to gain from consolidation were represented on that committee. Their report [An Adaptive Program for Agriculture] outlined a plan to eliminate farmers and farms. It was detailed and well thought out." Simultaneously, "as early as 1964, congressmen were being told by industry giants like Pillsbury, Swift, General Foods, and Campbell Soup that the biggest problem in agriculture was too many farmers."....So a conspiracy has been set in motion to replace the Jeffersonian ideal of a nation whose backbone was the independent farm family with a series of agribusiness monopolies where, Dyer writes,"these companies controlled 96% of U.S. wheat exports, 95% of U.S. corn exports," and so on through the busy aisles of [grocery stores]. Has consolidation been good for the customers? By and large, no."
Regarding "Predators against the People", I have not read the book (one must be a paid subscriber to read it, and I have concerns about anonymity via payment processors) although I am a free subscriber to their Substack, which is strong.
I agree that the small agricultural farmer is being eliminated as part of an agenda for increased control over the people of the world. I have seen this firsthand in Vermont where I have lived my whole life. I have traveled pretty extensively, Vietnam, Greece, Austria, France, Sweden, Denmark, S. Africa, Japan, Malaysia, England, Ireland, Wales, Mexico, Canada. These were work related trips or for adventure. I worked for a company providing equipment for the pulp and paper industry, then for a company doing experimental work for the military. Those were jobs that paid well, and I felt like a hypocrite prostitute at the last job, nearly 25 years, DARPA projects mostly. Anyways I have always been helping friends at their farm 1960's to now. Where there were dozens of small dairy farms in the valley where I attended school, until 1967, now there are two farms remaining. One milks 600 head and the other that I have been involved with milks 50 and does not sell milk, but rather makes cheese. The milk price has been so low that it is not possible to make a dairy farm work except by having way to many cattle for the available land without causing pollution issues and keeping the cattle inside buildings year round and bringing feed to them, often from 20 miles away. Undocumented on farm labor is extensively used as the wages paid are too low for anyone else to live on. The large valley farm says that they owe more money than they are worth, and the small farm struggles to exist with ever more restrictive rules and regulatory expenses that are acceptable for a huge farm, but not so for a small farm. The huge farms out west get the majority of the subsidies, and they are owned by the predators and are used as tax write offs. This keeps milk prices low so that small dairies cannot survive. If you want control over slaves, you must control food, water, energy, money, housing, travel. This is what is happening, and the surveillance system has information on every one of us. Most people are either unaware of this, or believe that the government is protecting them. George Carlin said, "think about how stupid the average person is, then realize that half are even stupider than that." Samuel Clemons said,"It is easier to deceive some one than it is to convince them that they have been deceived." he also said," a lie makes it halfway around the world before the truth gets its pants on." So many people have been aware of the predators all through history, but their voices are hidden. And lies are continually repeated, and the education system teaches them through all school years. The predators believe that it is a game with no rules that they will win, or at least remain the dominant player.
Well said.
"doing my share in helping others recognize the lies that we are subjected to, is not a effective use of my time". Spot on!
No single Substack post is going to save the world. That may be the source of some of your pessimism. But you are looking for patterns and calling out truths. That helps others find their way too.
Take hope that we *are* emerging from Clown World. The future will be different - thank goodness!
You are saying things no one else is saying, and no one else can say. There are people who need to hear someone say these things. This matters. Thank you for what you are doing.
Thanks for the kind feedback, Dugan.