People try to tell me that there is no hope. That the status quo is too fully locked in. That the sociopathic manipulators who are driving our species toward war, ecocide and Orwellian dystopia are just too powerful and too good at what they do. That people are too stupid, lazy and deeply asleep to ever have any hope of waking up to what’s going on and throwing off the mechanisms of manipulation and control so that they can turn things around before it’s too late.
Every day people try to tell me this. I talk every day about how fucked things are, and people seldom if ever have any problem with the general gist of that message. But whenever I suggest that we’ve still got a fighting chance, I get quite a bit of pushback from readers with a special attachment to the song of doom.
“Unicorns and glitter,” they tell me. “Get your head out of the clouds, you hopeless dreamer. Humanity is shit, and we are destined for shit, and shit is all that we deserve. Soon we will all kill ourselves off, and the planet will be better off without us. You have hope because you live in a fantasy land.”
I mean, I get the appeal of that perspective. It’s egoically gratifying to lean back smugly knowing better than everyone else, looking down your nose at the doomed, pathetic fools who don’t know the things you know.
It feels good. It’s ego candy.
But it’s also childish nonsense.
The only thing holding the status quo in place is mass media propaganda. The ability of the ruling oligarchs to manipulate the way people think, act and vote is the only thing preventing the many from rising up against the oppression and exploitation by the few. We outnumber them so vastly that we could take true democracy and self-rule from the ruling elites without their permission and without firing a shot, simply by deciding collectively to change the way power and money works. The only reason we haven’t done so already is because not enough of us want to, and the only reason not enough of us want to is because so many of us have been manipulated away from wanting to by plutocrat-owned media.
The elites hold their warmongering, ecocidal, exploitative Orwellian empire in place by controlling the public narrative about what’s going on. Control the stories the public are telling themselves about what’s happening, and you control the public itself.
But what does that mean, then? It means that the entire oppression machine is held together by narrative. By made-up stories. By fairy tales for adults. By unicorns and glitter.
It is those who insist that there is no hope who are living in a fantasy world. Only someone who mistakes a fairy tale for reality would think that the fantasy land described in the made-up story is all that can possibly exist. If you truly understand that the whole thing is held together by made-up stories and are truly standing outside of those stories, it’s as clear as day that the Grimm’s Fairy Tales book can be set down at any time.
Humans
"Beauty is just another word for having truly seen something. Humans have not yet truly seen each other. We're all walking around with our beauty hidden from each other in masks made of mental chatter and distraction"https://t.co/WbqnQueLtX
— Caitlin Johnstone (@caitoz) July 5, 2018
It is as simple as changing our minds about whether or not we believe the fairy tales that we are being read by the pundits and politicians on the various screens we encounter about what’s going on in the world and what’s in our best interest to consent to. It’s as simple as putting down the book of fairy tales, and as an incentive to do so we only have the threat of the extinction of our entire species forever.
And the people who say that that’s impossible are the “realists”? Really?
I don’t think so. You’re not being a “realist” by insisting that everyone will necessarily go on believing fairy tales when they have every incentive not to. You’re not being a “realist” by insisting on the continuation of a fake fairy fantasy land where people’s lives are ruled by the made-up numbers in an imaginary economy that is controlled by a group of elites who are fully aware that they are making up a story as they go along. You’re not being a “realist” by insisting that doom is the only possibility in a paradigm that is held in place by mass media when (A) trust in the mass media is at an all-time low and (B) our ability to network and share information with each other is at an all-time high. You’re living in a fantasy.
I honestly believe that our species has the freedom to fail the test that it is being given. I believe that we are free to go the way of the dinosaur if we can’t wake up from the dynamics which are driving us toward extinction. But I am also fully confident that anyone who thinks it’s impossible for us to turn things around is living in a fairy tale.
Well I say enough with the unicorns and glitter. Let’s start being practical and start waking people up from the fairy tale.
Come on, “realist”. Come join me. Get your head out of the clouds and be a dreamer.
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40 responses to “Dreamers”
If you want to get some ideas on what kind of a different paradigm is possible, check out this template just to get the juices flowing…
The second draft should be done with a group. I have already started awarding appreciation credits. I give two to Caitlin Johnson today for the two articles i read which were riveting and profound.
Fantastic! I used to be more of a doom monger who wanted humans off the planet asap. But in recent years I have started to believe that we can create something new if we wake up enough and if there are enough of us. You are a light in all this darkness. Thank you!
Symptoms of groupthink defined by Janus
“Groupthink occurs in groups when individual thinking is subverted to stay within the comfort zone of the consensus view. People’s ability to think independently or raise unpopular views is overridden by the desire for conformity…..
Those who are opposed to the group think are pigeonholed as heretics, non-believers, or just plain stupid….. Direct pressure is placed on any member who raises a contrary opinion, with typically the entire group openly attacking the member for being “disloyal”.”
Who ever controls the media controls the population and “They” control the media.When I was younger I thought the truth mattered, that evidence mattered, that the masses could think, that the masses cared. I was wrong.
If you think things are different in this internet age then open your ears and listen to the screams of the mob. Human nature doesn’t change and “They” can switch off whats left of the independent media anytime they want.
Nothing personal here, not at all Caitlin, you run a great blog 🙂
Yeah but we can’t sit back and drink daiquiris while they go on not knowing they are being scammed as used as fodder. We have to wake them up. Herein lies the keys to our adventure. We are the explorers of consciousness, tippy toeing into the great unknown. We’re in the birth canal now going through contractions. The birth can be easy if we get in the right position, just like it is when we came out of the womb. Don’t lie horizontally to have a baby! It goes against the gift of gravity, or whatever they’re calling it this century.
The words of the first verse of my latest song are:
“Don’t you ever give up on your dream,
Don’t you ever give up on your dream,
Don’t you ever, don’t you ever, don’t you ever give up on your dream.
If it’s bathed in love, then it comes from above, and it’s yours, yes it’s yours, yes it’s yours!”
If that song ever goes commercial, Robin, I’d pay to hear it. I’m setting up this comment so that if you reply here, I’ll see it in my email. 🙂
Dreams are fragile, and too many die an early death. We could use the kind of encouragement your song offers.
Todd
If your song goes commercial, Robin, I’d pay to hear it. If you’ll let me know whether that’s possible in a reply to this post, I’ll see it in my email. 🙂
Too many dreams die in their youth. We could use the kind of encouragement your song offers.
Todd
As Joe Dispenza says, “hope is a beggar..” More ‘how-to’ needed to move the needle, to settle the mare, to change consciousness.
Yes that’s right, build it and they will come. We must build a new model, start talking about how we’d like to design it. One thing we could do is declare our repudiation of the system and that all consent, whether explicit or implied is now null and void. We declare our alignment with nature and humanity. We recognize another calendar as primary, and the Gregorian as secondary and on the way out (I prefer the 13 moon calendar from the Law of Time: http://www.lawoftime.org/thirteenmoon/freecal.html
We start keeping to a low carbon and water footprint.
We start awarding “futures’” credits like in the stock market. We do this by awarding appreciation credits to those who we feel we have benefited from. It is our own personal value system we can use. But we have to at least talk about it and peeps aren’t doing that yet. They get tied up in their soaps that go on in Washington and Entertainment Corporate News. All to keep our eyes off our own dreams.
Exceptional as always
Gotta quibble on this one, Cait. As mentioned by an earlier commenter, seeing a grim future doesn’t infer smugness etc. or at least it isn’t necessarily so. Nor, if one does see a socially more or less hopeless future (which I do and have ample historical and current reasons to see in such a manner), it doesn’t need to paralyze one or even make one personally “unhappy” (which does no one, yourself or others, any good). Being clear-eyed and honest with oneself and one’s society is not a negative in my book. The world needs a really radical turn if we are not to foul our nest beyond repair and it needs it immediately. I see no social/political signs that it is preparing such a turn, in fact I see most heads-in-sand in the face of things. Windfarms, solar panels and recycling are actually signs that we are NOT facing our realities, which require not a change in how we get/consume energy/things, but a drastic turn away from consuming etc. What is going to make it happen is probably not going to be some nice political wind shift, but instead a total collapse of the system and all the really ugly things that go along with such collapses (famine, wars, plagues, etc etc). It would be nice if all this wasn’t likely, but….
https://jonjost.wordpress.com/2018/08/11/the-deep-state-and-the-donald/
Jon, I recommend you read “Light of the Stars” by Adam Frank and learn about the planet and the ecosystem before declaring that changing sources of energy to wind and solar are not facing reality. Climate change is THE most important thing. If we do not change our energy practices, we as a civilization will fail and our species will die off. The planet will still be here, and other life forms will still be here, but we and our advanced technological civilization will vanish because it will have become unsupportable by our planet’s biosphere.
I am aware of that Carolyn. The earth will carry on some billions of more years before it becomes no longer hospitable to life forms we know. I was saying that our “solutions” like solar panels etc. are nothing and useless compared to what is really needed for humans to last much longer as a species on this planet. Those solutions merely give the appearance of “doing something” while failing to do what is really needed. And we, as a collective species, are probably incapable socially/politically of doing what is needed. So we will delude ourselves for a bit longer and the shit, which some time ago already hit the fan, will bury us. Whatever organisms survive will have ample time to evolve into other things, perhaps something like humans even, and likely owing to the nature of evolution – i.e., built to survive situation X – they will do something like we have.
Well it is up to us isn’t it – how much we act as ambassadors of our belief systems. Most who are “awake” continue to do everything the way the law prescribes and even asks it of others. I see it all the time. We are not elevating for example, whistleblowers? We could start awarding credits, we don’t have to wait for some authority to tell us how to play the game of life.
Thanks, Caitlin, for the reminders.
I have to agree with Jon Jost, wind turbines, solar panels & any other high technology device cannot replace RESOURCES!!
OIL, coal & natural gas are RESOURCES that are far more than just “fuel” they are essential to grow our FOOD, move our TRANSPORTATION system, power civilization & all the things it has given us will go away as these fossil RESOURCES decline.
We can’t even FEED 7.6 BILLION HUMANS without affordable fossil resources & “renewables” cannot even produce enough erratic, unreliable weak electricity to just replace the small amount of electricity we now generate by burning oil & coal.
This civilization is TOAST as are most of us.
These are the “good ‘ol days” enjoy this high tech, high energy, excessive consumption civilization while it lasts because it can’t last much longer & “they” know this.
The ego is what protects us from the separation with source–the matrix a 24/7 distraction that ameliorates the pain–but the circumstances within the matrix are false–and while comfortable–our distraction has allowed a small group of humans [I think] to lead us towards the abyss. History does not paint a pretty picture for those who fallen into the hole [100 million murdered, tortured and raped in the 20th century.
So yes there are options–but people will have to awaken–and dismiss the propaganda the feeds the matrix. It’s first a personal evolution which could then become a collective movement as the meme is cast and becomes the order of the day.
I know one very controversial subject which must be addressed ASAP–and that is the age old conflict between Esau [Jew] and Jacob [Gentile]–it is the underlying cause for so many wars [WWI, WWII] and genocides [Bolshevik and Moa’s Red Guard].
Rage, rage against the dying of the light!
How were Jews and Gentiles implicated with Mao’s Red Guards?
This is so much irrelevant religious mysticism. This is not something that “must be addressed”. It is as far from reality as any other fairy tale. And the Russian Revolution, far from being a “genocide” was the greatest event of the 20th century.
I support the proposal of delinkage from the media and I would like to see more focused thinking and proposals on how it is to be arranged. I have posted a few things and had conversations with a small group of people, but how can it go beyond that? A few talented researchers and writers like Caitlin will continue sending their messages out into the void and that’s where it will end. I would like to be centrally involved in doing what must be done. I am with a would-be pan-European citizens’ movement, but its political level level is not comparable to Caitlin’s, or to Julian Assange’s, though Julian’s prestige was co-opted, until his situation went into the too-hard basket. The Internet Party and the Wikileaks Party both failed through ignoring the question of mass media influence on the electorate. Where is the leadership that can help us to do something about this? One cannot make a unilateral decision to be a leader.
And there’s even some evil mothers
Well they’re gonna tell you that everything is just dirt
Y’know that, women, never really faint
And that villains always blink their eyes, woo!
And that, y’know, children are the only ones who blush!
And that, life is just to die!
And, everyone who ever had a heart
They wouldn’t turn around and break it
And anyone who ever played a part
Oh wouldn’t turn around and hate it!
Caitlin, you say, ‘It’s egoically gratifying to lean back smugly knowing better than everyone else, looking down your nose at the doomed, pathetic fools who don’t know the things you know. It feels good. It’s ego candy.’
I, for one, am not smug, looking down, or feeling good.
I have done my small part – I have nothing to do with any MSM, I read a lot of history and blogs like yours in an effort to keep up and know what’s happening, I long ago got off FB, Twitter, and Google, I have passed on articles and links to friends and family, politely directed commenters on various blogs and news sites when they obviously have the wrong end of the stick, contacted my (Australian) MP, and attended protest rallies. How many people’s views have I changed? I suspect the answer is zero. In my circle, people don’t want to know and those who are polite enough to listen end by saying ‘there’s nothing we can do’. Leaders who don’t go along with the Deep State/1% are assassinated or replaced by neocons or their country invaded and smashed.
So smug I am not, but I simply don’t see where the change is going to come from.
If we want to change anything Robyn we must first start with ourselves. You cannot know just whom or how many you might have influenced by your actions. Keep on keeping on as in truth there is no ‘fall-back’ position. 🙂
I just put the following depressing post (about an article) on FB then read this post of yours, which fit so well as a response. So I immediately shared your post. Thanks.
Keep it up…
This dreadfully bleak and disturbing piece does not go far enough, in my opinion (and I can’t blame so many people I know for not wanting to think about such things). I suspect that the masters of this planet believe that they are set up to ride out an apocalypse, whether nuclear or otherwise. But I believe that these people got where they are because of a number of traits such as psychopathy (nobody else matters) and intense greed for short-term gain. But the killer trait, for them, will be the excessive over-confidence in their ability to prevail no matter what.
Even if they are right, and they would survive, could you rebuild civilisation (or maintain the remnants of it) from stock that is lacking the social, cooperative, empathic instincts that made human societies so powerful in the first place?
I’m not expecting to be invited to any parties in the near future…
https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2018/08/10/bunker-mentality-start-preparing-for-ecological-economic-disaster-free-corporate-overlords.html
The precarious thing about the wealthy and powerful predators that manipulate and control the majority of humans is that they like many of us “commoners,” are also Adult Children of Addicted and Dysfunctional Families. I see the USA as a big F’d Up Family, meaning a severely Addicted and Dysfunctional one. You astutely pointed out the over-confidence of what CJ Hopkins calls the Global Capitalist ruling classes. I see their overconfidence, condescending way of addressing others, bullying, insulting, “shoulding” others 24/7/365, arrogance, narcissism, control freak levels of micro-managing, never, ever seeing themselves as the eye of their own self-created storms, etc. as natural fallout from their chosen coping style, OverCompensation (I reference SchemaTherapy.com a lot). I have concluded that the biggest jerks in this world are the OverCompensators. In a nutshell, they make life horrible for everyone around them. They are all good though. They sleep like babies. I’m related to some so I know too well. Although they believe that they are Awesome! they share a very common Adult Child trait. Adult Children are not able to see around all corners, not able to connect the dots correctly, basically, not able to hit fast forward and predict the most probable final negative consequences of their “bad” behaviors. They presently have economic wealth and political power, but that does not buy them the very crucial ability to see their blind spots, their “lifetraps” as SchemaTherapy.com calls them, their weaknesses, but we know they have them. They also have addresses, as I read in an article awhile back. I’m thinking that some very resourceful and pissed off people already have this list. I’m probably related to them. They are not all knowing and all powerful. Truth be told they are angry children in big people bodies. I picture them as a group of third graders, sad and then mad, who hate this world and want to hurt it and everybody in it the way they were most likely hurt (by whomever). I don’t know if some humans are born as “bad seeds,” but I know they can become psycho/sociopaths (AntiSocial Personality Disorder). I’ve known very wealthy and powerful fossil fuel families. They were addicted to a long list of things and were the most scarcity and fear-based, paranoid, isolated, unhappy people I ever knew. Also, given their type A personalities, I have a hard time imaging that the Big Players with the Big Cajones at the table with their Risk board game (The Game of World Conquest and Domination) play well with each other. CutThroats are gonna CutThroat! Once enough everyday people lose their so-called 1st World lifestyles, I predict that they’ll lose control of their narrative. “The Simulation of Democracy” which CJ Hopkins describes clearly and concisely that they’ve been selling successfully to date is going to get more hairline cracks in it that will become fatal ruptures. I wish so many middle class income people didn’t have to fall so far and feel severe financial hardship, but we who already barely survive at poverty level and below are waiting for them. Then we’ll rise up in this country organically. I know to never understand what hurting and angry humans, in severe emotional and psychological pain, are capable of doing for their and their loved ones’ survival. Americans have, as do all humans, extraordinary fight inside them. It just has not been called upon, again, yet. In the book “Like Water For Chocolate” the author describes how each of us has a match / matchbook inside of us, ready to be lit. I have confidence that my fellow Americans will take to the streets soon enough as we have before. I promise, matches are lighting up and fires are burning in bellies.
Dysfunctional families. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJGPv66Pc24
While we concentrate on their foibles we fail to use that time and energy on our own furtherment. What we put our attention to, grows. The thing we are missing is that our imaginations, our intentions, create or manifest the reality we experience. How many times do you say the word “kill” in your every day life? Kill the flies, the mosquitoes, kill bugs, kill pedophiles…etc. The universe is some kind of beautiful poetic machine that tries to keep sentiment out of it. It goes by reflecting your emotions. Collectively this is what we are manifesting. But that doesn’t have to occupy the space. We can cut and paste our imprinting any time we want. This is quantum thinking. We can sculpt reality.
I would like to know specifically how we can take back our society. What action can I do tomorrow ?
Buy a bitcoin — money controls the world, so we need to take control of the money.
Buy a bitcoin — it is a weapon against the elite — pick it up.
Buy a bitcoin.
Nonsense. Away with you and your marketing ploy.
You can start cutting down waste of fossil fuels by being conscious of your travel and power useage. Same with water.
You can start noticing the good things in your life and dwelling on them more often (so that they will be repeated for you)
You can make a video explaining your view of the world and your vision of how better it can be, through your eyes.
You can make cards that say something like: I withdraw all consent to this system. Which you can produce if you are forced to do something you don’t want to by those people in costumes armed with a gun.
You can cut down on your spending of money because every cent you spend goes towards feeding the beasties.
You can buy organic and support those businesses.
You can keep learning and keep teaching with your words and your actions.
And if you mentor others and demonstrate what living consciously entails, that should have the desired effects. They will be slow at first then they will exponentially shoot out like blossoms in springtime.
Thanks for that Caitlin. Made my morning.
Unbridled pessimism or optimism requires certainty that one knows what will happen in the future. In fact, we don’t. Unexpected events happen: collapse of the U.S.S.R., election of Trump, etc. Regardless, I’d rather go down fighting.
We always have a choice. But the time to make it is shortening.
Good one, Caitlin. But we need to get a move on. I’ve been reading the eminent Australian scientist Frank Fenner…
https://phys.org/news/2010-06-humans-extinct-years-eminent-scientist.html
More power to you.
That is a helpful article and deserves consideration – but I think that Dr. Fenner’s voice is just one among several that deserve consideration.
I’m mindful of the conclusions of biologist Paul Ehrlich, whose genuinely informed perspective predicted that the collapse of human existence would likely begin in the 1970’s. I remember also how the Club of Rome, composed of intelligent, farsighted industrialists and academics, foresaw worldwide collapse they predicted to occur by the time in which we are living.
That they were wrong doesn’t negate the fact that the dangers to humanity in this era are unprecedented. We may not make it. When I find myself feeling gloomy about our prospects, though, one voice often rises in my consciousness. It’s not the voice of a futurist, a scientist, or someone with unparalleled intuition about our state of affairs. Instead, it’s a TV detective … Don Johnson, who, in “Miami Vice”, repeated over and over, “It ain’t over till it’s over.”
And I think to myself, “I’m still breathing. It’s too soon to give up.”
I recommend “Light of the Stars”, by Adam Frank. It will change your mind about the planet and the rest of the universe of which we are a small part. I think it is a very important book.
Blessings on you for this, there is always hope and I trust the human spirit to overcome all the difficulties we face through love and solidarity with one another! Together we have the power to make the world a good place for everyone! Onward and upward, we shall prevail!
I’m dreaming with you Caitlin.
Yes, yes and yes. Take our courage in our hands. See our personal limitations, stand up small if necessary–but stand up. I’m telling myself this and curious what will be the concrete invitation in my life to stand up or speak out calmly but with as few illusions as possible.