A radical change in human behavior away from its patterns of oppression, exploitation, war and ecocide will necessarily involve a drastic transformation in humanity’s relationship with thought. I’ve been saying this over and over again in different ways for a long time now, and yet I still get criticisms saying that I have useful insights but I don’t provide any plan of action.
The transformation in human consciousness is the plan of action. I really don’t know how to say it any clearer than that. And I will go so far as to say that that it is the only plan of action which will pull us out of our destructive patterns and into a healthy state of collaboration with each other and with our ecosystem. Unless we radically change the way we function above the neck, we will keep killing, consuming and destroying like a bunch of mindless automatons until everything is dead. I really don’t see any other way out of this.
I understand the criticism, though. When people read about the problem of capitalist ecocide and oligarchic strangulation, they don’t want to hear a bunch of stuff about mass ego death and spiritual enlightenment, they want to hear about nationwide demonstrations or organizing the working class or forming a new political party or cryptocurrencies or ending the Federal Reserve, or something along those lines depending on where they believe the problem is localized. In general, they want a fairy tale about people coming together to effect drastic, sweeping changes and turn the status quo on its head, which they will do because something something reasons, cough cough.
Seriously, why do people think revolution happens? Why do they believe their ideas have a chance of winning out over the existing paradigm? There are many who espouse dissident opinions more as a sort of ideological fashion statement than because they actually want to change the world, but presumably a lot of the people promoting Marxism, libertarianism, anarchism etc are doing so because they genuinely would like to see a world in which the status quo is overturned and replaced with something more wholesome. But why would that happen? Why would millions or billions of people overturn existing power structures and replace the current system with something drastically different in a world where plutocrats buy up massive amounts of media influence to convince everyone to keep everything the same?
It doesn’t seem like many proponents of revolution and change have really thought about this very much. They have a good idea, and they can envision a world in which that idea is implemented, but getting from the idea to its manifestation seems like it’s often a jumbled mess in a lot of dissidents’ minds, not unlike the “Phase 1: Collect underpants / Phase 2: ??? / Phase 3: Profit” model of the Underpants Gnomes from South Park. Most dissident voices I see are primarily interested in Phase 1, and to a much lesser extent in Phase 3. Phase 2 is what I’m interested in, and in my opinion it necessarily involves a drastic shift in human consciousness.
People are not going to deviate from their patterns and suddenly begin shrugging off ruling power structures for no reason. Revolutions historically happen for one of two reasons: (1) things get sufficiently bad to make people lash out against their government out of sheer desperation, and/or (2) people are manipulated into revolting by other powerful forces. Historically neither of these things ever lead to the creation of a stable, beneficent government that takes good care of its citizens or the world, so neither will be sufficient for creating a world in which humanity takes good care of itself and its environment, and even if that were not the case it’s unlikely that either will ever be allowed to occur by an establishment so powerful and skillful at manipulation as the US-centralized empire.
So if there is to be a people’s revolution which is effective in both (A) removing our oligarchic oppressors from power and (B) leading to the creation of a healthy, harmonious new paradigm, it will necessarily come from a place that is historically unprecedented. It will involve people rising up against existing power structures not because things got so bad they had no choice, nor because they were manipulated into it by other rival power structures, but because people realized collectively that it is in their best interests to do so.
This would require a level of wisdom and insight that the majority of human beings simply do not possess right now. Right now, most people are very easily manipulated into advancing establishment interests by plutocrat-controlled media, and until that changes there will never be an effective and beneficial revolution. For that to change, humanity is going to have to shed its ubiquitous habit of creating mental egoic patterns which make us susceptible to manipulation via fear, greed, and herd mentality.
How Humanity Could Become Impossible To Propagandize#propaganda #media #enlightenmenthttps://t.co/EnT778tsk5
— Caitlin Johnstone (@caitoz) June 5, 2018
This doesn’t mean that the existing systems of capitalism and government aren’t going to have to change; of course they’ll have to change. But they’re not going to change unless we find a way to wake up from the deeply conditioned egoic patterns which are the norm in the world we were born into. We’ll keep repeating and repeating the same old patterns in whatever way we’ve been conditioned to until we either go the way of the dinosaur or find a way to transcend our conditioning.
So yes, true revolution means abandoning the insane strategy of endless economic expansion in a world made up of finite space and resources, but it also means seeing through the illusory nature of our sense of self and ceasing to believe the babbling mental narratives which are premised upon it. Yes, true revolution means ceasing the worldwide frantic, futile scramble to do what ever it takes in order to get the right kind of numbers in our bank account so we don’t starve to death in an arbitrary economic system based on imaginary bureaucratic fiat, but it also means bringing our unconscious coping mechanisms into consciousness and healing our childhood traumas. Yes, true revolution means organizing and engaging in politics and creating new systems together, but it also means learning to really love the most tender, guarded parts of ourselves which we used to leave unattended running on autopilot in our subconscious mental processes.
I firmly believe that we are capable of such a collective awakening, and there are experts in the field of inner transformation who claim to have observed signs that such an awakening may be underway. Teachers like Eckhart Tolle, Adyashanti and Jac O’Keefe all say something is very different in their field of work, and individuals are now having an easier time awakening from egoic consciousness than they used to. Spontaneous shifts are becoming commonplace to the point where teachers like Tony Parsons now center their entire body of teaching around the possibility of snapping out of one’s old perceptual frame of reference without engaging in any spiritual practices at all.
How To Wake Up
"I’ve been putting off writing this article all year, but readers keep asking for it, and since I’ve been writing about mass enlightenment a lot lately I figure I might as well slip it in now."#enlightenment #spiritualityhttps://t.co/gmxHh267LX
— Caitlin Johnstone (@caitoz) September 1, 2018
Of this potential for large scale awakening, Tolle says the following:
“I see signs that it is already happening. For the first time there is a large scale awakening on our planet. Why now? Because if there is no change in human consciousness now, we will destroy ourselves and perhaps the planet. The insanity of the collective egoic mind, amplified by science and technology, is rapidly taking our species to the brink of disaster. Evolve or die: that is our only choice now. Without considering the Eastern world, my estimate is that at this time about ten percent of people in North America are already awakening. That makes thirty million Americans alone, and in addition to those people in other North American countries, about ten percent of the population of Western European countries are also awakening. This is probably enough of a critical mass to bring about a new earth. So the transformation of consciousness is truly happening even though they won’t be reporting it on tonight’s news. Is it happening fast enough? I am hopeful about humanity’s future, much more so now than when I wrote The Power of Now. In fact that is why I wrote that book. I really wasn’t sure that humanity was going to survive. Now I feel differently. I see many reasons to be hopeful.”
There aren’t many people who’d be in a position to say if human consciousness has been making a marked shift over the last few years, but Tolle, who interfaces with that information constantly as an essential part of his work as a spiritual teacher, is certainly one of them.
So there are reasons to believe it is possible for us to pull up from our omnicidal, ecocidal, exploitative trajectory and create something new together. We may pass this test yet. But even if I’m wrong about that, what the hell else are we going to do? What better chance do we have, and what more productive way is there to spend one’s time on this earth than coming to a deep and abiding insight into your true nature? From my point of view, the front lines of the revolution are in our own consciousness here and now, not as some intriguing marginal facet of the battle for humanity, but as its source, its heart, and its apex.
Know thyself, oh rebel. Know thyself and save the world.
________________________
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55 responses to “True Revolution”
the clear reason people cant manage their mismatched Underpant Phases and Profit Agendas together is because that is what the Status Quo, continually push these enigmatic agenda schemes on people demanding results. As the same decoy, distraction, diversion tactic of a street addict.
a Prill (when I was a young kid) is someone who makes other people believe in Illusions, to use as a deco diversion tactic. Same as the Status Quo keep doing and no one has figured out yet
As we conveniently become so oversaturated with this misinformation, that we are desensitized and unable to react (accordingly) as the villians gets away…… its just another 911 trick havent we learned that one yet ? Nero burning Rome used this,,
why are we still blinded by this ? bangin my head into the bloody wall
It would be preferable if people read closely and heeded the following words of wisdom, from someone who actually made a revolution:
“The fundamental law of revolution, which has been confirmed by all revolutions and especially by all three Russian revolutions in the twentieth century, is as follows: for a revolution to take place it is not enough for the exploited and oppressed masses to realise the impossibility of living in the old way, and demand changes; for a revolution to take place it is essential that the exploiters should not be able to live and rule in the old way. It is only when the “lower classes” do not want to live in the old way and the “upper classes” cannot carry on in the old way that the revolution can triumph. This truth can be expressed in other words: revolution is impossible without a nation-wide crisis (affecting both the exploited and the exploiters). It follows that, for a revolution to take place, it is essential, first, that a majority of the workers (or at least a majority of the class-conscious, thinking, and politically active workers) should fully realise that revolution is necessary, and that they should be prepared to die for it; second, that the ruling classes should be going through a governmental crisis, which draws even the most backward masses into politics (symptomatic of any genuine revolution is a rapid, tenfold and even hundredfold increase in the size of the working and oppressed masses—hitherto apathetic—who are capable of waging the political struggle), weakens the government, and makes it possible for the revolutionaries to rapidly overthrow it.”
– V.I. Lenin, “’Left-Wing’ Communism: An Infantile Disorder”
Stephen, how did things work out for the Russian people after Lenin’s “revolution”?
Lenin (and Trotsky) had no illusions in the Russian revolution failing if it didn’t spread to advanced countries. The failure of revolution in Germany in 1923 especially was the turning point, leading to the rise of both Hitler and Stalin. Russia’s backwardness, scarcity and periodic famines, and the relentless imperialist encirclement and their constant undermining of the USSR, led to the rise of Stalin and the bureaucracy. This was no socialist ‘experiment’ that failed. It was deliberately sabotaged by the imperialists who did all they could to preserve capitalist exploitation, as they continue to do. Despite the soviet bureaucracy and isolation, the USSR made huge advances, but it finally cracked when Gorbachev capitulated some 73 years later. That’s how things worked out.
Be that as it may, this does not at all negate the fact that Lenin actually made a revolution and knew a lot more than anyone alive today about how to make a revolution. Of course if you think these basic preconditions he outlines don’t apply these days, please edify us as to why.
Stephen, “Russia’s backwardness, scarcity and periodic famines, and the relentless imperialist encirclement and their constant undermining of the USSR, led to the rise of Stalin and the bureaucracy.
And did the new Soviet government also not have “…backwardness, scarcity and periodic famines…”? Does post Soviet Russia suffer from these things now?
I am sorry but the notion that Marxism would work if it was “run by the French Department of USC Berkeley” is nonsense. Marxism will never work because it is clueless about human nature. Marxism would be a far worse power structure replacement than the Corporatism we have now. All involuntary collectivism is evil and Marxism is the ultimate in involuntary collectivism. No Thanks, says I.
Making a revolution is easy. Creating an advanced society after a revolution not so much. Lenin and the resultant suffering under the USSR is an excellent proof to this truth.
Reliance on the hoary argument of ‘human nature’ is probably the last bastion of the defense of the current order. ‘Human nature’ is not a constant, and to claim it is, is to deny Darwinism and evolution. Humans by ‘nature’ are very adaptive and if a social situation dictates a certain mode of behaviour to survive (and prosper), then humans will do it. For ~200,000 years our species survived without private property or any notion of private gain at the expense of others in the collective. This was ‘involuntary collectivism’. Since the neolithic revolution of ~10,000 years ago, and with it the institution of private property, individualist modes of behaviour have been rewarded, and been labelled as ‘human nature’. Today people are ‘educated’ (brainwashed) into thinking that.
We live under a corporate tyranny which the owners will never surrender peacefully. Anyone who thinks otherwise is deluded. And for humans to advance, they need to collectivise the productive resources and democratically plan their use before the planet become uninhabitable. Think about this: if we were to colonise Mars, how many stockbrokers, lawyers, real estate agents, bankers, cops or businessmen would be needed? And would the new colony allow a cabal to take over, privatise and run the new planet for their private gain? Hardly.
Making a revolution is not easy. If it were, we wouldn’t be in the mess we are now. Creating an advanced society out of a backward one is hard (Russia). Creating one out of one that’s already advanced isn’t so hard (Japan, Germany, US). That’s the point.
Steve, the history of slavery alone debunks your historical claims.
Ignoring human nature is a cornerstone of all collectivist, servitude philosophies. And it is why such philosophies always end in violence and human suffering. Collectivism must dismiss human nature in order to also dismiss the Natural Law Rights of every human being because collectivism cannot exist without a complete disregard for individual human rights.
“We live under a corporate tyranny which the owners will never surrender peacefully.”
Do not disagree. Those with power, be it private or public power, seldom give up it up peacefully. But replacing corporate tyranny with State tyranny will only make things worse. Taking power from one asshole and giving even more power to another bigger asshole is not an improvement. The only solution is to dismantle power itself. Everything else will be just another power grab just by a different group of armed busy bodies.
What creates an advanced society and conversely what keeps other societies backwards?
Revolutions are easy because they are destruction and destruction is always easy. Any fool can be destructive. Creating something positive is far more difficult. That is why I will not support any revolution that does not lead to the creation of individual Liberty. Involuntary collectivism is the exact opposite of individual Liberty. I will fight it with the same vigor as I fight this current anti-Liberty system.
BTW I do deny Darwinism and the theory of evolution. I do not deny though that humanity is capable of evolving morally through knowledge and understanding. I think we disagree about what evolving means though.
…whereas the US “republic” has not caused a single second of suffering, a single innocent death over the same period (we’ll leave out the last 30 or so years)? But I suppose you’d say that that the death-dealing West IS an advanced society? Go back and refresh your notes on the Propaganda 101 curriculum of the Ministry of Truth, Comrade. Nobody’s buying 20th-century Manichean anticommunism and MAGA rah-rah anymore.
GP, who said the US did not cause any suffering?! It, like all governments, has and does cause suffering and that is why I fight it. But to ignore the horrible results of Soviet collectivism is to deny the suffering of its victims. Calling for a US Soviet collectivism is to create new victims. I want a society that does not victimize its populace. And that is why I do not believe the pro-communist propaganda either.
And you would prefer the USA model who have murdered millions of their indigenous people and have been murdering around the planet ever since. You are clinically insane!
Kerry, denouncing the evils of communism does not equate to supporting the evils of corporatism. One can be against both, y’know – as I am. There are other options beyond just those two evil systems.
You would prefer the USA model who murdered millions of their own indigenous people and have been murdering millions more ever since all around the planet. You are clinically insane!
I think the greatest compliment I can give you is that whilst you might sometimes take your conclusions about the oligarchs and the Military Industrial Complex further than I do, I find your commentary very insightful and an important input to my own clarity of thinking. I think I am better at recognizing the extreme right and indeed the limp left
I have set myself to know the truth as best as I can & caring for my teen sons, humanity, all of humanity, the future of our biosphere here on earth are the important factors in my life. I find myself as someone in a quandary, that approaching retirement I don’t have enough to live for may be 20 years (maybe 1) so I keep working as a contractor to save for retirement. Yet the consumerist side of western society is completely lost on me, I have enough clothes to never buy any again, apart from work standards I must adhere to. We renovated our house in 2012 & if we can continue to afford to live there, we will never replace anything again, apart from breakdowns. No more new cars, in fact I buy cars with 150,000 on the clock, good for another 100,000km nowadays.
Why could I not learn this when 20? Maybe my sons will do better!
Keep up the good work, what do you think of the NY times? They seem to me to be pretty much on top of the craziness of US politics ,admittedly they treat Trump as crazy as a loon, but revered Obama, who had serious flaws. Bernie Saunders the other day was reminding us all of why Iran is like it is, because in 1953 the US unseated a democratically elected socialist government, that might have been a continuous democracy , instead we had the Shah & the rest is history! Where was Obama on this & other crimes?
Geoff Willett
Outstanding essay! The one successful Populist Movement within the Outlaw US Empire that formed the People’s Party and almost gained control of the federal government recognized that educating/enlightening their neighbors as to their shared situation was the first required step to doing something to change that situation for the better. But they also worked up a manifesto of goals to work for that would provide the vehicle for that change. Yes, they made mistakes that impeded their ultimate goal as their chronicler Lawrence Goodwyn noted. But I know of no better template on which to start a bottom-up grassroots movement of Commonfolk. One big problem I see is the lack of enlightened people willing to perform the selfless duty of informing others–and those others must be willing to become informed–so it’s a give-and-take situation demanding courage, tolerance and dedication–almost akin to trying to spread a new religion.
I don’t know how many comments Caitlin’s website can show full length, but this group must be testing the limits. Wonderful essay she wrote, and many good comments that follow it. Here are still more thoughts.
Too much inequality leads to excessive hostility up and down the social ladder, and too little inequality leads to stifling of ambition and innovation.
Should we be seeking to totally eliminate inequality? Would not total equality (in the near future) allow for parasitism and sloth to become epidemic? There have been reports to the effect that a large number of Dutch teenagers have been applying for and getting lifetime disability pensions upon completion of their secondary schooling—evidence of a negative quality in human nature as such currently exists. The logic of this suggests that a progressive person committed to having a better world would seek patience to deal with the slow, incremental improvements of consciences of individuals upon which world betterment depends.
Zoroaster is credited by some as having originated the idea of a “week” being a time period consisting of seven days. Whoever did originate that idea gave something magical to human life on the planet. Robert Oakeshott had seven nieces, and maybe that influenced him in writing The Case for Workers’ Cooperatives (1978 London, UK: Routledge & Kegan Paul Books). That book suggests a seven-tiered economic caste system might be magical for human life on the planet, the bottom rungs having incentives to meritoriously rise higher and the top rung accepting limitations on income and wealth accumulations so that housing, health, education, retirement, and emergency welfare for all humanity can be adequately maintained.
I think the parasites are not the non-incentivized poor but the ultra wealthy who consume more than they can ever appreciate and give little in return.
Ozzie, interesting take. The problem with inequality is that it is part of Nature. The Cult of Equality does not recognize this fact but it is true nonetheless.
I like what John SmithonSmith said on fb the other day, something along the lines that we can build an alternate system alongside the current system, growing our own food, regenerating the soil and communities, building a sharing and caring community not based on capitalism but on reinvigorating nature and our societies. This is the part 2 of the plan. There are degrowth groups working on those ideas in Europe, maybe some in the US. There is the Democracy in Europe Movement 2025 which supports direct democracy and radical transparency in decision making, as well as a Green New Deal to start with. There is the Centre for Understanding Sustainable Prosperity in the UK, reaching towards different ideas of prosperity than just the materialist. There are lots of actions and groups talking about these part 2 plans. There are farmers doing great permaculture in your country, there are permaculture farmers in this country, we just need to start the larger communities that all share a permaculture vision, and Vandana Shiva and Joel Salatin and many others are showing us how to grow food and improve the soil and ecosystems at the same time, and also grow a lot more than we did under conventional chemical agriculture. We can do it.There are plans. There are baby steps that may seem pretty useless to a runner in a marathon, but they get you where you want to go eventually. Baby steps. Reform voting. Pass accountability laws. Ban small gas engines this month, ban larger gas engines in a year or so, take the steps. Stand up to hate trolls with rational speech. Encourage ordinary people to take tiny actions in their own communities. We can do it. Let’s just look right close up in front of us now, and not at the mountain we have to climb.
Sionna, “Reform voting.”
What do you mean by that?
“Ban small gas engines this month, ban larger gas engines in a year or so…”
And replace them with what?!
“Stand up to hate trolls with rational speech.”
By its nature Rationality does not recognize the false political invention of “hate”.
Not saying I approve of the current system but I do not agree with going full Amish either.
At the least we need progressive candidates to replace the current ones so they can infiltrate and take over the current structure. Where do we get them? There are hundreds of millions of people in this country and it is not very likely we will get very many of them to drop out of society such that it brings down the capitalists. That is not to say that there wouldn’t be a significant number participating.
In the meantime we have a more urgent problem that threatens to defeat anything we may try to do. Global warming. It is about to begin taking its toll on ever larger groups and areas. There will soon be dire consequences to face. The climate will not allow these nice farms, collectives, and communities to prosper. There will be millions of desperate people migrating from coastal areas, drought areas, storm destruction, etc. The crops that feed the masses are going to begin having problems. Enough fresh water will be a problem.
Shortly there will be no stopping the progression of warming. There’s a thousand X a billion tons of methane in the Arctic Ocean. Then there’s the melting permafrost. A catastrophic release of methane from the Arctic is bound to happen before mid-century. It seems that our leaders would have this happen on purpose. http://sungraffix.net/hypercriticalmode/hello-world/
If that issue is not addressed and resolved… pretty much immediately, nothing else will matter that much. Of course, it will matter to us about how things are as all this happens. If a lot of these things you described happen then more people will join as the consequences of climate change grow. I can’t really foresee how all that will actually play out, but all those things are very likely to be in our future. It will be a shame if everyone waits until it is too late.
Rob, I believe the latest “climate change” charge is back to the world is getting colder not warmer. I could be wrong though because the climate change Chicken Littles’ keep changing the charge from “the world is getting colder” to “the world is getting warmer” and back again Repeat. Which is it?
Does not matter because “climate change” is a Big Con and many if not most people see through it. It is simply a power grab from TPTB and it is nothing new.
I never would’a thunk it… What is the TPTB? Did you read the article I have linked above? Did you notice all of the supporting articles listed there below the text of that article?
I know that the weather here in North Carolina has been pretty much normal all along. Go back a few years and we had a little bit of a drought for a couple of years. The one Summer it just never rained and I had to water the vegetable garden often. The winters have been consistently mild.
The warming is progressing, but we also have changes in the climate that can place cold air in unusual places. The Arctic is getting warmer at twice the rate of everywhere else. The changes in the prevailing winds will push that Arctic cold south. Many of the large glacier systems are melting off with no significant snow to replenish them. Areas of permafrost that have been frozen ground for thousands of years is melting back. Ice over the Arctic Ocean will melt back then refreeze and much of that is receding. Anyway, there is plenty of evidence.
Check out some of those linked articles below mine.
Rob, weather is always in a state of flux. So what? “Climate change” is just another con in a centuries long effort by TPTB to sucker the rubes with fear to gain more power.
As I read Caitlin’s article I thought of Greece that suffered so much at the hand of EU and US deep interests that made loans to the Greeks to pay themselves off, grabbed the national assets, while Greeks ended up living in cars and committing suicide at a high rate.
I expected a major revolutionary blowup in Greece but it didn’t happen which shows the power and control of narratives and perception of reality by the button pushers. They brought chaos and immense suffering to Iraq and Libya and American citizens think its just dandy, and they nearly brought down Syria. Now they are beating the drum on Iran.
Caitlin is right that we need to work at a higher level of consciousness but I am not optimistic that we will see it break out anytime soon. Carl Jung said the old myth in the West is ending and we are all working on building a new temple that will take five hundred years to complete. US (with the UK tag team) has engineered a second demented Cold War that could last for several decades. The near term may not be a higher level but a dip into a lower level.
Step 1. Each and every one of us has to imagine, in great detail, on a basic, day to day basis, a “better way for humanity to live” — “a btter way for things to be”. Then we all must discuss and debate the details — for example, who is going to do what and for what reward/remuneration — until we all reach as close to a universal concensus as possible.
..
Make no mistake, if this discussion becomes large, the microscopic percentage of the population that owns the vast majority of wealth and LARGE SCALE capital equipment for their own astronomical profit are going to take note and do everyting in their vast financial/political power (hire agent-provocateurs/”protesters”, etc.) to disrupt that discussion.
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Because Caitlin’s site is so “off the beaten path”, we human beings typing these comments could try to at least momentarily break out of the Matrix that has controlled our lives (AND OUR THOUGHTS) from the day of our birth and try to imagine our very own “better world” and discuss them right here, right now. Call it a “test run” of our supposed “freedom and democracy”.
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I’ll get the ball rolling by saying that I think that LARGE SCALE capital equipment such as large metal-mining operations, steel mills, vehicle-parts manufacturers and vehicle/bulldozer, etc. assembly plants and large-scale electric-power plants should be publicly owned and publicly operated by an all-inclusive, rotational work force of perhaps hundreds of thousands or even millions of people who, by contributing their labor (“pitching in”), would have the right to own the products of those publicly-owned facilities. This would correct the IMO untenable situation we have in The Matrix we live in today in which a microscopic percentage of the population owns LARGE SCALE capital equipment for their own astronoimical profit, which means hiring as absolutely FEW people as possible and constantly seeking ways to automate and further eliminate their need to hire people. This proposal does NOT apply to private ownership of people’s homes and contents, small parcels of land, their vehicles, etc. I say that it would be extremely difficult for a large population of distinct individuals who perhaps may have distinct needs, but still require the same neceissities of life as every other human being, to enjoy the benefit of LARGE SCALE manufacturing and labor-reducing atutomation (perhaps ultimately, hopefully approaching zero) unless such facilities were publicly owned and operated by as much of the entire population as possible.
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Question, comments, remarks? Or has our Matrix, the one that has had complete control over our lives from the day of our birth, got our minds so well brainwashed that when it comes to thinking up something new and hopefully better, we are like Neo — literally unable to imagine anything different, let alone speak?
h……ttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4D7cPH7DHgA
Centralization of infrastructure is a symptom of non-empathic mindsets. A decentralized system by definition serves people not profit motive. Unplugging from the matrix therefore means turning away from supporting centralized services and products. For example a solar system on your house supports centralized control but solar panels and battery storage without connection to the grid does not. The criminalization of grid disconnection proves my point.
How do the 8.5 million people of NYC “go it alone”?
New Jersey once again becomes the Garden State to feed New Yorkers.
” It will involve people rising up against existing power structures not because things got so bad they had no choice, nor because they were manipulated into it by other rival power structures, but because people realized collectively that it is in their best interests to do so.”
I take issue with the above. The moment it becomes in their best interest to do so is also the moment when it becomes so bad they have no choice. I understand the distinction you are making and I also believe that distinct to be real, however, it does not exist practically.
Caity, I’ve got an idea I’d like to run by you. PM me if you wish.
online friends complain how they get nowhere discussing these issues with real people in their lives.
maybe instead of getting them to wake up we could appeal to their need for self-preservation by suggesting to them that creating independent local economies would help them avoid the pain of further economic collapses. if more of us effectively reduced (as much as we are able) our financial and consumer dependence on those in power, that should diminish their wealth, and therefore their power.
once the public decides to take over more economic power, rather than be wage slaves and consumer slaves, we would allow more of our productivity to remain with us rather than be siphoned up to the bankster plutocrats.
with widespread wealth comes greater power for the majority and less ability of the elite to control things.
we can start doing it now ourselves without any help from corporations or governments.
Whatever political system we have, it takes a lot of effort from the majority to keep the tiny minority from ruining it. My theory is that this is because we have allowed an economic system that encourages wealth and power hoarding to dominate us. Unless wealth and power are dominantly in the hands of the vast majority, we are fighting an uphill battle to stop bribery and corruption.
To do this, we need democracy in our workplaces so we equally decide how a business runs and what we do with the profits. This idea is not utopian as it is very successful in many places, has been around for many decades, and is growing in popularity. Of course the capitalist media won’t inform us of this and will ridicule it as they have most to lose by the increase in workers’ coops and locally owned and run economies.
When there is widespread will, there is a way. Too many of us give up before we even try. And this is exactly what the elite expect from us, have pushed us into feeling, and plan for.
Real enlightenment (release from the ego) is very difficult to achieve and maintain. People have been advocating and teaching it for thousands of years but it doesn’t seem to have had much impact on the course of events. I don’t see how that is going to change.
You’re right. I’ll add that in my opinion it is impossible to achieve. Just as truth is impossible to know. These are not goals these are movements towards love and away from darkness. Change occurs when more people desire that movement and are willing to expend the effort.
This idea of being “woke” or “waking up”, what exactly does that mean? Both the left and the right make this claim. Yet they do not agree as to what exactly what it is which is suddenly being “understood”.
And I will ask yet again, What is the exact nature of the system that will replace the post-revo world? Destruction is easy, positive creation not so much. Emotionalizing is good for motivation but is not very useful for working out the details. And the Devil is always in the details.
Any replacement system that does not recognize the Natural Law Rights of every individual will be just another case of meet-the-new-boss, same -as-the-old- boss IMO. As such I will not support living under any other system either.
To ask “What is the exact nature of the system that will replace the post-revo world?” reflects our subconscious need to force a result , to make something happen as oppossed to allowing our current situation to evolve according to the changes to our perspective both inwardly and outwardly. This, of course requires two things. Trust and patience. Notice I did NOT say hope. The revolutionaries of the past wanted quick change and the results were commensurate with that approach. Raising ones own conscience and awareness is a LIFE LONG endeavor. To believe otherwise is a tragedy.
JC, “To ask ‘What is the exact nature of the system that will replace the post-revo world?’ reflects our subconscious need to force a result , to make something happen as oppossed to allowing our current situation to evolve according to the changes to our perspective both inwardly and outwardly.”
I disagree and strongly agree. I disagree with the notion that our subconscious needs to force a result. Nature abhors a vacuum and as such a result will be demanded by reality itself. It will be either chaos or organization of some kind. Chaos is what it is. But organization requires taking a path. Which path is the central question IMHO.
But I absolutely agree with you that change should come but it will not come overnight. A “New Humanity” cannot be developed through force whether that force comes from the Left or from the Right.
The mainstream of things will always keep going in the same direction until it can’t. Some minor obstacles can be by-passed, but major obstacles would be required to stop the trajectory of economic expansion based on extractive technologies, with the elites being “winner take most”. Higher consciousness has the potential to be this obstacle, but it won’t happen to those in power or to enough of the populace.
Over the last 100 years or so, people in various countries HAVE installed leaders and governments which put community first, but typically one of three things happens:
1. The leader is assassinated by [whatever you want to call the supranational powers].
2. The government is overthrown by the [whatever you want to call the supranational powers] and replaced by a puppet who does their bidding.
3. The country is invaded and destroyed with huge loss of life by [whatever you want to call the supranational powers].
They’re known as the Forces of Reaction; they never sleep and often resurface years after the initial Revolution to reimpose the status-quo ante. Such forces were once associated with the aristocracy–Royalists they were called–but now they’re associated with Corporations.
Twice while writing this its message evaporated before my eyes. Which rather demonstrates what i had been writing…this technology, this binary trap, this digital delusion with all its false reality, won’t save us. Reciprocating with the real World (capital ‘W’, not the domesticated small ‘w’ world of humans), NOW, and all The Innocents we’re murdering might. Might… by deleting its distractions and delusions. Words are not real, not actionable. Saying something changes nothing, including these words. Offering ‘hope’ only derails action. Gurus taking jet-fueled flights for others’ enlightenment is not reciprocating, it’s continuance of the problem: technological civilization that is killing everything beautiful. i’m exiting that delusion, that madness. This society is insane. Delete it. That’s actionable. Debating with words won’t save the most beautiful planet in the Universe. No more words from me.
“So if there is to be a people’s revolution which is effective in both (A) removing our oligarchic oppressors from power and (B) leading to the creation of a healthy, harmonious new paradigm, it will necessarily come from a place that is historically unprecedented. It will involve people rising up against existing power structures …”, the catalyst for which will be Direct Democracy via authenticated smartphones. This will obviate the need for representative government. Fear not. Sooner than we think, everything will fall into place.
Who gets to “authenticate” the smart phones?
Agree totally. And plenty of the old sages have said thing like :the greatest service you can do the world is your own awakening. How? – as you point out, know thyself. What they didn’t say, ‘least not in the same breath, was ‘you are not what you thought you were’.
You might check out ‘The Uncovering’, by Ciaran Healy there is a free download on Amazon.
Its quite brutal.
Hi John,
I really want to buy the book “The Uncovering” by Ciaran Healy, but it’s unfortunately no longer available. Could you please send me a copy?
best regards
Joe
its.fixing@gmail.com
Thank You Caitlin! for This refined Article & the Many Others as well.
Consciousness is a good thing and with it we can do wonders but there are those who will do anything to keep you/us/they from obtaining it. So it’s a good thing to get a handle on some of the underlying disruptive techniques they might use so that we are one step ahead of them–because we all know this thing is coming down to a foot race.
Check out this video by John Lamb Lash–he’s on to something that goes all the way back to the Gnostics as revealed on the Nag Hammadi Transcripts found in a buried glass vase in Egypt.
The Gnostics left a tale which essentially describes a war within and against humanity: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_l4Zesxihyg
JUST BRILLIANT – CLARIFIES MY THINKING EXACTLY.
There is about a 10% chance there is anything resembling a functioning economy in 2100 thanks to Climate change. After Puerto Rico got leveled by Maria there was a year long shortage of Saline IV bags. Here is a good description of what would happen if the Korea’s went to war: https://www.38north.org/2018/10/jmarx100218/
It is impossible to imagine making it to 2100 without some set of natural disasters knocking out a few key links in the global supply chain (which has zero redundancy thanks to ‘Just in time shipping’).
It’s just overwhelming these days with the plethora of human actions that continue to destroy our planet and all of its inhabitants. This is why I have Mana Talk on Youtube. I believe that the majority of humans on this planet have broken free from the Mainstream Media’s talons that were embedded in their skulls – like most of us we’re still trying to free our fellow humans before it’s too late.
I’ll be doing what I can to save this still very beautiful and providing planet and all of it’s inhabitants… including our bumbling yet hopeful species.
Great stuff, alwyas, Cait!
You wrote “The transformation in human consciousness is the plan of action.” And, the question is weather humanity as a group is capable of transformation.
If you don’t already know of him you might be interested in reading George Mobus’s series on Sapience.
http://faculty.washington.edu/gmobus/Background/seriesIndex.html
His major interest is systems science and humanities future.
The short version is that he believes humanity is evolving toward true sapience, call it enlightenment or satori if you like. But only a small number of people are truly sapient.
He believes, as I do too, that humanity is headed toward a bottleneck and hopes that “the sapients” make it it out to the other side. I’m more cynical and think that what will probably make it through is the most feral of us.
Anyway, I enjoy your writing.
Bill
PS How can I avoid getting captured by Capcha every time I write. It’s truly annoying.
This time it was a total pain in the ass.
Caitlin…meet Steve Grumbine of Real Progressives. He’s an outspoken MMT activist with an MBA. You are both saying the same things, but in very different ways. I love you both dearly and I hope you see the parallels. The Left is well intentioned but there is no defined strategy nor organization to implement it, if they did. You are both making great sacrifices in terms of time and effort to get the word out. The Right has a fine tuned agenda that is closely aligned with wealth, power, authority, and religion. The left has no political choice but to align with corporate democrats and neo-liberals. Our electorate reacts with straw fire protests, fists in the air and cardboard signs and internet memes galore. Identity politics has us all over the road. There is no central ideology that we can collectively get behind completely. There is no sense of order as to what has to be done first to allow for the other things. Steve comes out of the business world and he understands prioritization in pursuit of a common objective. The Left are eclectic and well intentioned; but they lack focus, unity, and long term commitment. The Right are esoteric and avarice. They see nothing but their objective and are nothing if not commited
https://www.facebook.com/RealProgressive/videos/239611986705651/?notif_id=1538875824081993¬if_t=live_video_explicit
Jeff, “The Right are esoteric and avarice. They see nothing but their objective and are nothing if not commited”
This is exactly what the Right also says about the Left. Both are correct.
Brilliant article, Csitlin. Thank you so much for your clarity!
Getting the Western masses to imagine and then follow a path to a world of peace is one immense problem. But a problem 100 times bigger is getting the public to ignore the tsunami of propaganda that would be expertly managed by the filthy rich and powerful oligarchs led by the military industrial conspirators. How to checkmate these bums is the real problem.