The problem isn’t just that we are ruled by tyrants, it’s that our minds are full of propaganda and cultural mind viruses which cause us to consent to it.

Russophobia and an uncritical emphasis on Trump has been used to scaremonger an annoyingly large percentage of American progressives from focusing on wanting change to focusing on wanting things to go back to how they used to be. Wanting things to go back to how they used to be is wanting the conditions which created Trump.

Patriotism is like the blue pill in The Matrix. You take it and you get to feel good about your country, but you don’t get to know the truth about it.

If everyone suddenly deeply understood on a gut level exactly how horrific war is, all military actions the US and its allies are currently engaged in would be forced to end due to popular revolt.

Under-discussed: secretive government agencies provide support to Silicon Valley corporations, support which they could easily have threatened to give to those corporations’ competitors instead if certain agreements weren’t made.

Anyone who says Russia is about to invade Ukraine or the Baltic states is either lying or ignorant. A nation with an economy the size of Spain which has been gutting its military budget is not gearing up for World War Three.

Russia’s military personality is a lot like the personality of the stereotypical Russian military veteran: stoic and reserved when left unprovoked, but willing and able to put you in a wheelchair if you invade his personal space. It should be treated accordingly.

People who don’t believe that these idiotic escalations against Russia can lead to nuclear war have simply compartmentalized away from fully considering all the possibilities. They have done this out of intellectual cowardice.

Democratic government can indeed be a tool of the people to implement the will of the public in allocating resources and making sure everyone is taken care of. Such a system would work infinitely better than allowing the fate of the people to be determined by an elite class of sociopathic plutocrats. The problem is that governments are not democratic and do not move in accordance with the will of the people, and until they do, such a system is impossible.

The absence of government is also a viable path, if humanity transcends its malignant unconscious patterning. To believe anarchism can work is to have faith in the possibility of this transcendence.

To believe capitalism is the best possible system is to believe that the best possible system naturally elevates the most greedy, the most underhanded, and those most willing to do anything to get ahead, up to and including stripping our planet bare.

Humanity will keep repeating the same unconscious patterns until it either wakes up or destroys itself.

Humanity’s collective spiritual awakening will mirror the process of individual spiritual awakening. Things will begin moving into consciousness, we’ll become aware of the underlying forces behind our suffering, and as they become conscious we can undo them and consciously replace them with processes which benefit us.

What’s been happening in France shows what can occur when those in power lose control of the narrative. A cross-ideological people’s uprising is the absolute worst nightmare scenario of the ruling class; avoiding such a thing is the very reason so much energy goes into tight narrative control via plutocratic media and political manipulation.

Your rulers have never been afraid of the Russians, the Chinese, the North Koreans or the terrorists. The only thing they have ever feared is you. Specifically, they’ve been afraid of you and your countrymen ceasing to believe the authorized narratives, shrugging off the old mechanisms of oppression and control by sheer force of numbers without firing a shot, and creating a new world together.

Whoever has the gold makes the rules, but whoever controls the narrative determines who gets the gold.

Anyone who tries to control your narrative about yourself is trying to control you.

Nobody is entitled to bully or shame you out of your right to come to your own understanding of the world, in your own thoughts, using your own research, accepting no authoritative claims on faith no matter how confidently they are asserted. You are infinitely more qualified to come to your own understanding of what’s going on than anyone else is qualified to do it for you, and it is your sovereign right as a human being to vocalize that understanding.

Personal, political, and societal problems all ultimately boil down to sovereignty. Becoming conscious of all the myriad ways we extend beyond our own sovereign boundaries and intrude into the sovereignty of others, be they personal, ideological, national, or ecosystemic, is the path toward creating a utopia wherein we can all collaborate with each other and with our environment in the interests of the greater good.

What’s coming up in a mere generation or so is one of three possibilities: total freedom, total slavery, or total annihilation. Sorry centrists, there is no incremental option. The confluence of AI, automation, and an increasingly paranoid and controlling elite class means that we are likely to be subjected to more surveillance, more manipulation, more work for less pay as jobs disappear along with safety nets, if we don’t destroy ourselves altogether. Or, we change our consciousness so rapidly that we do away completely with the lack-driven punitive system that demands people work for a living, and embrace the abundance that is right here already. We will work of our own free will, and at our own pace doing the things we want to do. If that’s hard to imagine, I implore you to try to imagine it and see how it could be possible. It’s not that hard. We have all the tools we need already.

Humans are such explosively beautiful wizard giants. It would be a goddamn shame if we wiped ourselves out before truly seeing that.

______________________

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78 responses to “Assorted Thoughts On Politics, Humanity, And The World”

  1. Capitalism is a philosophy that serves to justify great evils.

    Why did you lay off the bread-winners of all of those families in the week before Christmas?
    — Capitalism made me do it.

    Why did you tear down those buildings that were providing reasonably priced housing for many families and replace them with luxury housing for a few families?
    — Capitalism made me do it.

    Why did you destroy the economy of a small town by closing your factory there and instead moving production to China?
    — Capitalism made me do it.

    Why did your company/plantation operate with slave labor?
    — Capitalism made me do it.

    Why did you bomb and destroy an entire country that had a government that cared about its people and made sure they had a place to live, food on the table, education for the children, and health care for the sick?
    — Capitalism made me do it.

    Time after time when we hear of great evil in the world, the excuses about why it just has to be that way always comes down to capitalism and its minions such as profit.

    1. DB, what is your replacement for “capitalism”?

  2. The article is not about any “vests”, yellow or green or red. It is all about “Vested Interests” and how to think of getting rid of these “Interests” before this earth gets rid of “them” and the timid “us” as well.

  3. I find it very sad that here in Canada, our CBC, our national broadcaster, is promoting the same pro corporate stories as all the other MSM, only it’s worse because this, like the Guardian, used to be seen as a bastion of trustworthy journalism. And now, today, I got to listen in as a so called investigative journalist discussed how facebook is creating terrorist groups that involve entire families becoming suicide bombers. So that govts and corporations can shut down facebook, because they are freaking out that it was used by the French. etc. And the whole Ukraine thing, and anti China stories, and of course Russia did everything, and Time magazine doesn’t recognize Julian Assange as one of the Guardians of Truth. It’s sickening to see how bad it is.

    And the corporate power over govts thing: Our federal govt did not ‘legalize’ marijuana. They re criminalized it differently, so that corporate marijuana is legal, and anything else is not, and if you do grow your own plants (4 legally) that is grounds for police entering your property without a warrant and seizing your property as possible proceeds of crime. Basically the US war on drugs with exemptions for corporations.

    There is no ‘good’ capitalism. Concentration of power and wealth in the hands of a few is always the same, always results in totalitarianism, lies, propaganda, censorship, torture, war.

    1. Sionna, “There is no ‘good’ capitalism. Concentration of power and wealth in the hands of a few is always the same, always results in totalitarianism, lies, propaganda, censorship, torture, war.”

      Conversely: There is no ‘good’ government. Concentration of power and wealth in the hands of a few is always the same, always results in totalitarianism, lies, propaganda, censorship, torture, war.

      The issue is “power” and the concentration of power into fewer and fewer hands. Real capitalism does not concentrate any power into the hands of companies or individuals because the only source of power is government. GM cannot put a gun to your head and make you buy a Chevy. But the government can. And will do so if GM can grease the right palms in government. That is crony capitalism and that truly is evil. But an economy based on free and fair competition is not crony capitalism. It is real capitalism. There is a distinct difference.
      Keep your eyes on power (government). That is the only real enemy.

  4. Wow !
    What a collection of comments..and NOT a sensible one amongst them !
    That MUST be some kind of record !
    .
    America exported it’s prosperity and it’s jobs to third-world-countries to allow them to work their way out of poverty and the evidence is in ! IT WORKED ! India and China and most of South East Asia ( Malaysia , Korea , Singapore , Indonesia , Thailand , Vietnam , etc )have successfully become economically viable and people are becoming wealthy and healthy and Democratic !!!! Well done USA !
    NOW…..as President Trump has stated……IT IS TIME TO BRING THE JOBS AND INDUSTRY BACK HOME !
    Private Capitalism is hauling people out of poverty at a tremendous rate ! Look at the UN statistics !
    Capitalism is the ONLY CREATOR of WEALTH. Every other system DESTROYS WEALTH and PEOPLE.
    Look at Nazi Germany as opposed to MODERN GERMANY ! Look at Russia under Stalin and China under Mao , tens to hundreds of MILLIONS OF PEOPLE MURDERED ! Cuba under Castro , Venezuela under Chavez …….run along ideological lines by amateurs ! You MUST have COMPETENT , INTELLIGENT , DEDICATED , EFFICIENT and KNOWLEDGEABLE PEOPLE in charge of your industry……..and ONLY
    CAPITALISM will deliver people with those attributes and then EVERYONE BENEFITS !
    Never has the World had SO LITTLE POVERTY and so much WEALTH as it has now and you can all thank
    INDIVIDUALS and PRIVATE CAPITALISM for that !
    All the ungrateful , resentful , selfish and narrow minded contributions I read ( above ) are indicative of a
    mindset that REALLY NEEDS AN OVERHAUL ! What a miserable “echo-chamber” and the saying that “misery loves misery” is obviously your motto !
    NOT A SINGLE POSITIVE THOUGHT OR SUGGESTION AMONGST THE LOT OF YOU !
    Just selfishness ! I’m alive ! Others have stuff ! I want it ! Give it to me too !
    No mention of DESERVED WEALTH or CREATED WEALTH……just REDISTRIBUTION….that is STEALING and it is a thoroughly dishonest and reprehensible philosophy which no doubt induces feelings of guilt , resentment , anger and entitlement…..all of which MAKE YOU MISERABLE , so it is no wonder to me !

    .

    1. Hi Trevor. I am from a poor country, I am a woman and a software engineer and I work for a US company. I am sure that many Americans, Chinese or other don’t match my lifestyle. In my own country – I am from the one percent. So, lets begin.
      America exported … – America haven’t exported anything, your bosses did it. This is why you don’t have jobs.
      IT WORKED ! – it certainly worked. Now instead of exporting jobs to other countries – they are importing other countries into yours to keep salaries low. They don’t export jobs to other countries, because they kind of destroyed all those other countries. How did they destroy them? It is called war.
      Never has the World had SO LITTLE POVERTY and so much WEALTH – ….. and so much bullshit… but anyway – wealth is concentrated into a few hands. How exactly that is “deserved”? Do you think their IQ, character or qualities are supernatural? Are they from Mars? Are they really “COMPETENT , INTELLIGENT , DEDICATED , EFFICIENT and KNOWLEDGEABLE PEOPLE”? What about all the other “COMPETENT , INTELLIGENT , DEDICATED , EFFICIENT and KNOWLEDGEABLE PEOPLE”? Who decides? The imaginary “free market” or something else? What if the free market is based on lies? Probably I am not that great but I have learned from Edward Bernays how to manipulate the consumers?
      “you can all thank INDIVIDUALS and PRIVATE CAPITALISM for that !” – I thank capitalism for my salary, but consumerism, war, inequality, selfishness, climate catastrophe, pollution and finance have destroyed our mind, our soul and soon – our planet. My salary can’t compensate everything, no matter how big or small it is.
      “Look at Nazi Germany as opposed to MODERN GERMANY !” – no need to look at Nazi Germany – here is the US. Why do you think the military in US (and all those that help it) can kill so many in so many other countries and it will not turn against you? Do you think they have morals? Do you think this is “defense”?
      “Look at Russia under Stalin and China under Mao , tens to hundreds of MILLIONS OF PEOPLE MURDERED !” – You kind of pretty easily confuse totalitarianism, nazism, capitalism, socialism, Stalinism. The Saudis have capitalism, totalitarianism, Wahhabism at the same time. They don’t mind killing millions. Why Stalin can’t flourish in capitalism and capitalism will stop him? What if he didn’t have state power but had a lot of money?
      People don’t understand anything (I am not excluding myself). They only have triggers. This is how you control them. You click this trigger and they behave as you expect them to behave. These triggers are installed into their heads by the super-ultra-mega-complex -elite-bullshit that says to them “you are too stupid, too little, too insignificant, you must not believe your eyes, you must not believe your heart, you must not believe your conscience, give them to us”.

  5. Caitlin, On your capitalism comment. You are confusing crony-capitalism with capitalism. Check out Button Folsom on this very important distinction. There is a huge difference between the two concepts.

    https://www.amazon.com/Myth-Robber-Barons-Business-America/dp/0963020315/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1544622218&sr=8-2&keywords=burton+folsom

    1. Sorry friend, capitalism comes with no reset button …unless you remove the valorisation of capital and cancel debt and return property (periodic jubilee). Then it is not capitalism. Unchecked, crony capitalism is the logical progression of capitalism: So why keep going round in boom/bust cycles? Capitalism has reached the end of it’s dehumanisation road.

      1. Nomad, “Unchecked, crony capitalism is the logical progression of capitalism: So why keep going round in boom/bust cycles? Capitalism has reached the end of it’s dehumanisation road.”

        Crony capitalism cannot grow out of real, free capitalism without government. So what system do you propose should replace this crony capitalism? Not a challenge just curious.

        1. Albert Einstein is still regarded has a pretty smart man. Here’s what he recommended for humanity:
          https://monthlyreview.org/2009/05/01/why-socialism/
          I agree completely.

          1. Ish, regarded by whom? Einstein was not nearly as smart as the
            State wants you to believe. He invented nothing and he supported the great leftist Stalin and his “breaking a few eggs to make an omelette” horror. That he, a jew, supported jewish Bolshevist collectivism with the goal of globalism is hardly impressive.

            1. Just one thing. We owe Einstein the following breaking into the impossible ideas: “elementary particles behave as waves and particles at the same time” for which he receives Nobel Prize; speed of light is constant and time is relative (known as special relativity); gravity is curved space (known as general relativity). So the argument that he is jew or state propaganda does not hold. He doesn’t invented it – it was already there in the Lorentz and Maxwell equations, but math or psychics don’t really work with “inventions”. “he supported the great leftist Stalin and his “breaking a few eggs to make an omelette” horror. ” – not true.

              1. Vanusa, since I can neither confirm nor “disconfirm” the omelette quote I happily withdraw that argument. I seek only truth and seek only to speak truth.
                But I stand by my argument that Einstein was not all that. I would put Tesla at the top of the list for brains. And I disagree with the theory of gravity. My intuition is that Tesla’s theories of electricity and energy holding everything together is probably correct.

            2. Hi inforebelscum, I will put it simply. You can’t make such comparisons between Tesla and Einstein, argue who is smarter and proving something by calling him a jew. As far as I know – Einstein was strictly pacifist – these thing with the omelette. You can also try to prove something by comparing the geniuses by citing John von Neumann – he is certainly smart. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manhattan_Project

              1. Vanusha, “You can’t make such comparisons between Tesla and Einstein, argue who is smarter and proving something by calling him a jew.”

                Fully agree that it is near impossible to measure who is smartest*. But the other side of that argument is that because this is so then it also becomes impossible to make the assertion that Einstein was the smartest man who ever lived. I believe the “Einstein was the smartest” proclamation is part of Jewish propaganda to convince the goyim of the superiority of Jews.

                *There certainly are a number of super smart people to choose from but I argue for Tesla because of his contributions to humanity. With the exception of Prometheus no other being has advanced humanity more than Tesla and his ideas. Here is an interesting thought: what if the smartest person ever was a woman but we have no idea because women were not as participatory in the system until recently?

                1. I am sorry, I have problems with the comments section and my english is not impressive. Anyway. “the assertion that Einstein was the smartest man who ever lived” – I think nobody makes such assertions. Nevertheless he has major breakthroughs and it is not empty propaganda and asserting it is only jewish propaganda is trying character assasination. Besides that we must stop making geniuses our idols. They are smart, we must listen to them, but they are still people, they make mistakes and they have their own character, views, etc.

                  1. Your English is superb. So is your reasoning.

                  2. Vanusha, I suspected English was not your first language but I think you are expressing yourself quite well. Just out of curiosity may I ask what is your first tongue?

                    I do not see it as character assassination but rather pointing out a different perspective. But I fully agree with you that we should not blindly follow those who are supposedly smarter than everyone else. The “experts” are often not just wrong but horrifically so. But the whole point of Einstein’s article – and those who accept it – is based on the logical fallacy of an appeal to authority based on the assumption that Einstein was so smart and so we should do what he says. He may have smarts in one field but that does not mean he knows what the deuce he is talking about in any other field. He admits it in the article. He then goes on to prove it in the article itself.

          2. Ish, I read that article again even though I read it years ago. Einstein’s arguments for socialism are cancelled out with just one word in his second to last paragraph – “may”.
            “A planned economy as such MAY be accompanied by the complete enslavement of the individual.”
            There is no “may” about it. Concentrated power in fewer and fewer hands is the very foundation of totalitarianism. And nothing concentrates power in the hands of the few like collectivism in any form.

            Now, if Einstein is so smart why did he not come up with the solutions to the problems he listed? Because he cannot. No one can because those problems which Einstein freely admits are the problems with socialism cannot be solved. It is like asking for dry water. So either he knows this and yet still pushes for such an evil system or he is too stupid to realize that such problems simply cannot be resolved because they are mutually exclusive.

      2. Really? Check out the story of pure capitalist James J. Hill and then his government subsidized competitors and see which one is dehuminizing. (Booms and Busts mostly occur in an interventionist economic system, blame the fed for booms and busts.)
        https://mises.org/library/truth-about-robber-barons

  6. *The Elitist Paris Agreement Was Toppled By Rural French Peasants*
    The top 10% = 50% of emissions

    If taxed down to a median income, emissions will go down 33% says Kevin Anderson.

    If the top 33% are taxed down to a median income, I believe emissions will go 999% more, and several light years faster than anything done so far. I’m told light years measure distance, but I don’t give a fuck.

    In the last 10 years, emissions went up 10% and energy went up 15% says BP.

    In the next 10 years, they are projected to go up the same amount says BP.

    Claire Fyson says we must reduce emissions 50% in 10 years to avoid 1.5 C.

    Stefan Rahmstorf says we must reduce emission 100% in 20 years to avoid 2 C.

    We have to do this because **Runaway Hothouse Mass Extinction** gets triggered between 1.5 and 2 C says Hans Schellnhuber. Runaway hothouse mass extinction is unstoppable and irreversible once started, and it will start in a little over 10 years from now, IMO.

    COP 24 is nearly a quarter century old, and emissions are up 20% since it started tackling our emissions problem.

    When do we admit failure? When the last breath is gasped?

    Do you want to collapse without trying?

    Yes, we are going to collapse sooner or later, so how about later?

    All this talk about soil remediation and kelp farming won’t mean shit unless emissions drop like a rock.

  7. Hi Caitlin,
    I have recently become a reader of your articles. I like the way you describe the fact that whoever has the power sets the narrative. I am involved in the mental health industry and those in power certainly control the narrative that is available to the public. Maybe you would be interested in knowing more about how the human brain works and why we do what we do. This view involves the three levels of human consciousness, something that is not discussed within the current mental health narrative. My own email and website have been filled out below, so I assume you have access to that information. Would love to hear from you,
    Gil Bates

  8. Capitalism lures us onward like the mechanical hare before the greyhounds , insisting that the the economy is infinite and sharing therefore irrelevant .Previously only the poor who lost this game, now it is the planet .We are logging everywhere, fishing everywhere ,building all over the place ,and no corner of the biosphere is save from our haemorrhage of waste. World civilization will disintegrate as a whole. Hope like greed, fuels the engine of capitalism.

  9. For democracy to serve the people, there are two essential requirements – an honest media and informed voters. Obviously, without the former there cannot be the latter. Even with the variety of sources available (mostly free) on the internet, most people are happy to imbibe the MSM and base their vote on that disinformation. It takes a bit of effort to read a variety of sources, see where things are not adding up, do a bit of research, and sort the facts from the bs. There’s no point hoping people will wake up – they haven’t so far and are unlikely to change in numbers big enough to make a difference in the near future. Therefore all effort has to be directed at exposing the MSM for the lackeys they are and promoting sites like Caitlin’s.

    1. Right on! Thanks, Robyn.

  10. The world is about to implode due to the lack of energy to turn the wheels of industry. But if it wasn’t, due to the discovery of some new source of energy, would everything then be OK? No: it wouldn’t cause the world to be less divided into Rich and Poor; it wouldn’t stop the toxic wastes of industry polluting the planet; it wouldn’t stop the making of weapons and fighting of wars in the name of “security”; and it wouldn’t stop people sitting in front of their brainwashing machine every evening, soaking up the propaganda of the super-rich elites, to name just a few of the ways things are going wrong.

    Anarchy has been given such a bad press, that to suggest it as a solution to our problems, is asking to be ignored as a crackpot. I would suggest replacing it with “The No Leaders Movement”, although that will be attacked (by the leaders) too if it ever gets going.

    What the leaders fear most of all is masses of people attacking government buildings and industry’s smart office towers, NOT in direct confrontation with the Riot Squads, who are well-armed and well-trained in street-fighting tactics, and backed up by the armed forces. Sporadic outbreaks of fire all over the city, with no one being arrested because the police are stretched beyond their ability to cope.

    That is how the CIA took over the Maidan movement in Ukraine. That is what it will take to dislodge the elites from their positions of authority. Democracy has failed, because voting once every three or four years is easily beaten in influence by party donations and lobbying opportunities for the super-rich. Capitalism has failed, because greed always out-bids the public good.

    1. klaus von berlin Avatar
      klaus von berlin

      as long as workers continue to beg for their rights ,work up the right channels and wait for the next election, nothing will happen. The best way people can protect or get back what they had after 30 years of neo-cons is by going on the offensive.

    2. Can you imagine a carpenter campaigning to save the forest, or a butcher to save the sheep, an army general in a peace demonstration, a poor banker or a short basket-ball player? This life is out of our control. We unknowingly created AI a long time ago and we are now merely playing our part in it each as specialized cells in a sick organism. To kill him and start living each cell independently is not an option, we die too. Functional doctors say that to cure a sick person you have to cleanse the cells so let’s all start refraining from starches sugars alcohol smoke and chemical poisons and if we can’t reform ourselves in this way as it seems so far, what is this hypocritical rush to reform the planet.

  11. I hope you, Caitlin, will further expound on the paragraph below.
    “To believe capitalism is the best possible system is to believe that the best possible system naturally elevates the most greedy, the most underhanded, and those most willing to do anything to get ahead, up to and including stripping our planet bare.”
    Please name the examples of the most greedy and underhanded Capitalists. Do you include Zuckerberg, Musk, Gates, Jobs, or Bezos? If so, why? Do you compare them to rulers of states?
    Your definition of Capitalism would be helpful.

    1. Why is it necessary for Caitlin to stop whatever she is doing to supply you with names? Pick almost any corporation and find it’s CEO. I think you will find a person who believes in harvesting the labor of others for his own good. There are two types of people: Those who are happy to coerce and those who are not. Which are you?

      1. Fats, “There are two types of people: Those who are happy to coerce and those who are not.”

        The entire leftist philosophy is based on coercion (violence).

  12. My bet is on total slavery. Any system that has people ruling other people (democracy, socialism, communism, etc.) will always eventually result in total slavery.
    The only way to total freedom is self-rule and self-rule only. But nobody’s talking about that, including Caitlin.

    Btw, “the absence of government as a viable path” requires no transcendence. Anarchism is happening all around you, every day, everywhere (except in the presence of law enforcers and bureaucrats). What else do you call it when you buy fruit at a roadside fruit stand, or pay a friend to cut your hair, or pay someone to tutor your child? Aren’t these voluntary interactions in the absence of government?

    The awakening that humanity needs is that we don’t rulers. We are all well prepared to get along and cooperate without anyone telling us what to do. And in such a reality, the sociopaths would be quickly and thoroughly exposed and then shunned, because there would be no power centers or bureaucracies for them to hide in.

  13. Orlando J. Valerino Avatar
    Orlando J. Valerino

    “The absence of government is also a viable path, if humanity transcends its malignant unconscious patterning. To believe anarchism can work is to have faith in the possibility of this transcendence.

    To believe capitalism is the best possible system is to believe that the best possible system naturally elevates the most greedy, the most underhanded, and those most willing to do anything to get ahead, up to and including stripping our planet bare.” Johnstone

    Yes agreed.
    The battle is about individual rights/sovereignty and social obligation to the overall society one finds themselves in. The anarcho-capitalist disregards any obligation to the overall collective(humanity). The anarcho-socialist says these obligations matter.

    1. Orlando, “The anarcho-capitalist disregards any obligation to the overall collective(humanity). The anarcho-socialist says these obligations matter.”

      Not true at all. The issue is about the use of violence. Anarcho-capitalists simply think that society is best served through peaceful, voluntary actions between individuals rather than through the collective use of force against their fellow human beings. Charity and community are not excluded in AnCap philosophy. AnCap merely points out the fact that being forced to do good is not really doing good. It becomes an act of violence not charity.

      BTW, what exact obligations do you think an individual owes to his fellow humans?

  14. I’m something of an optimist, but not enough to think that Americans will suddenly develop an all-inclusive consciousness. Those with nothing, are primarily without hope. Those with a little something, fear losing it, so are ready to accept the narrative. those with a lot are only too willing to accept the narrative, with an insider’s understanding of what is really the truth. So, I’m not sure how quickly those in the U.S. will be wiling to rise up. However, I have been predicting for years now that, unless we trash our obsolete, corrupted political system, the only hope for this country to avoid totalitarianism (akin to Orwell’s 1984, or worse), is either trashing the political system in favor of one radically different and that criminalizes the behaviors that have made our system inflexible and broken, or violent revolution. I just don’t see a polarized American populace suddenly disregarding their mutually incompatible beliefs.
    I love the idea that people can come together, but the lies upon which our U.S. society are built just seem too pervasive and overwhelming for a sudden turnaround. Likely, those in other countries are not nearly as brainwashed as are those here.

  15. lowclassheathen68 Avatar
    lowclassheathen68

    Just a rant to my fellow Americans of the Big Suburbs. Well folks do you know what a baby looks like thats burning with Naplam? How many dead babies have you seen? How many have you looked into their faces and eyes? Still in the arms of her dead mother after they were wasted by an M-16? How much blood do you need? How wany dead bodies. Bodies of the innocent? So many dead bodies over all these years since the Vietnam Era. So many variations of dead bodies the way nature is. How many have you seen? What do you need this for? Why do you never have enough Mercedes and the latest Apples? Why do you let your psyco neighbors turn your schools into rape zones and let them rape your own daughter? When I say kids were just murdered in their own school in the next county you talk about real estate. You say kids preyed on by pedophiles don’t matter. Its all about Hillary. And so much more. What kind of people are you you fellow Americans? Are you even human? ? Seriously. Just a rant to you all.

  16. Orlando J. Valerino Avatar
    Orlando J. Valerino

    “Whoever has the gold makes the rules, but whoever controls the narrative determines who gets the gold.”

    The SAME GROUP CONTROLS BOTH. So now what?

    “What’s coming up in a mere generation or so is one of three possibilities: total freedom, total slavery, or total annihilation.”

    Even by your own writings Johnstone it will not be ‘total freedom’ so why is it taboo to point out a particular ethnic group hell bent on controlling all of humanity?

    Just today you have the pandering Ocasio-Cortez about her supposed crypto-jew heritage. Not realizing it was crypto Jews like Christopher Columbus, Aaron Lopez, and Jacob Monsanto who made huge fortunes on the trans atlantic slave trade because they benefit from the white supremacy racial(phenotype) caste system of the Anglo-Zionist west.

    1. Orlando, for Christ’s sake don’t be a hater of Jewish people. If you want to blame someone blame Zionism. It is an ideology not a people.

      1. Orlando J. Valerino Avatar
        Orlando J. Valerino

        It is the ideology I dislike, not the people. However there is a peculiar dynamic going on when looking at how the Anglo-Zionist empire functions. In particular the phenotypic bias commonly called racism. This racial caste system created in the Anglo-Zionist empire has allowed those who benefit from it to amass large fortunes, in turn to control the narrative and our perceptions of reality.

    1. Orlando J. Valerino Avatar
      Orlando J. Valerino

      Alot of words just to say;
      The engine of capitalism is cheap labor, the cheapest labor possible is slavery(This is the reason of the quick economic rise of the US) , thus corporations nation hop looking for the cheapest labor possible, hence was all the world’s wages are reduced. Therefore the crisis of capitalism is that the serfs and slaves created by capitalism can’t buy the products(garbage) that are being made by said serfs and slaves.

      1. Orlando, “…slavery(This is the reason of the quick economic rise of the US)”

        The US’s quick economic rise did not occur until after slavery was ended in the US. And if slavery is the catalyst for economic rising then why did not all the other countries which also practiced slavery not also rise economically as much as the US?

        But I get your overall take and agree with the thinking behind it. Yes CRONY capitalism is a tragic race to the bottom line. But voluntary capitalism does no such thing. And any collectivist system will be a tragic race to enslave everyone and keep them equally miserable at the lowest common denominator. Except for the elite who will, under such a system, have even more power. No thanks, says I.

        1. Orlando J. Valerino Avatar
          Orlando J. Valerino

          The Clear Connection Between Slavery And American Capitalism

          https://www.forbes.com/sites/hbsworkingknowledge/2017/05/03/the-clear-connection-between-slavery-and-american-capitalism/#78ef03677bd3

          “Now 16 scholars are helping to set the record straight by exploring the true ties between 19th century economic development and a brutal system of human bondage in the 2016 book Slavery’s Capitalism: A New History of American Economic Development.

          Contrary to popular belief, the small farmers of New England weren’t alone responsible for establishing America’s economic position as capitalism expanded. Rather, the hard labor of slaves in places like Alabama, South Carolina, and Mississippi needs to be kept in view as well. In fact, more than half of the nation’s exports in the first six decades of the 19th century consisted of raw cotton, almost all of it grown by slaves, according to the book, which was edited by Sven Beckert, the Laird Bell Professor of History at Harvard University and visiting professor at HBS, as well as Seth Rockman, Associate Professor of History at Brown University.”

          1. Orlando, that slavery existed is itself proof that it was not a capitalist system. Slavery simply cannot exist in a true free market capitalist economy. But slavery to the State is ingrained into any collectivist society. Indeed, it is the very essence of leftist philosophy.
            And whatever the results of slavery in the US slavery was not anywhere near the backbone of the economy. If it was the economy would have collapsed when slavery ended.
            Sixteen leftist college Political Officers – I mean professors – who obviously have no clue of the meaning of capitalism is not an impressive “appeal to authority” claim IMHO..

            1. Orlando J. Valerino Avatar
              Orlando J. Valerino

              ” that slavery existed is itself proof that it was not a capitalist system.”
              You obviously don’t know what capitalism is.
              “Sixteen leftist college Political Officers – I mean professors – who obviously have no clue of the meaning of capitalism is not an impressive “appeal to authority” claim IMHO..”

              Now objective facts have a political bias? You are just displaying what an obtuse idealogoue you truly are with no interest in facts or truth.

              1. Orlando, “You obviously don’t know what capitalism is.”

                OK then, teach me. What is your definition of capitalism? Please include the part where slavery is acceptable in a free market economy.

                “Now objective facts have a political bias?”

                They are not objective facts. To argue that slavery is part of a free market system is to argue that slavery is part of freedom. Nonsense.

  17. ‘ ‘ Whoever has the gold makes the rules ‘ ‘

    Very true Caitlin.
    Now pray tell, how do people of goodwill
    get the gold away from the ruling tyrants
    who have most of the gold, who make the rules
    to benefit themselves, and who have very little or no goodwill ??
    Put another way, how do good people eliminate street gangs
    in their housing projects, the mafia in their city, the corrupt
    politicians in their governments, etc. all arising from the same
    source: the love for money, power and status ??

    The New Age movements from the 60’s promoted removing
    ‘ ‘ greed is good ‘ ‘ from our DNA by various alternatives,
    but so far, none of their methods have proven effective.

    1. The most talented among the New Age people were murdered by the right wing WASPS who ran the intelligences agencies, the Air Force and Navy, and with the complicity of presidents and congresscritters. All of it covered up by Newspapers which were also controlled by WASPS and the Secret Team, who were working for big money.

      What Caitlin is trying to do is remind us not the believe the Narrative but to work it out for ourselves. We have to start small. Read about the Zapatistas. Those Mexicans figured it out in the late 1980s.

  18. Currently I’m giving away food in the parks and participating in free stores and the like. I don’t see the Revolution yet but at least some people got the supposed impossibility of a free lunch. And a few people have told me their lives were changed, not by my ideas, but by the practices related to those ideas.

    However, if you want to read the ideas, see http://www.1freeworld.org/anaprax1.htm

    1. Anarcissie, “…supposed impossibility of a free lunch.”

      A free lunch is indeed an impossibility unless one gets the food directly from nature like pulling an apple off a tree. Otherwise please explain how the lunch you provided to others did not cost someone else their money or effort. Your volunteerism is noble and respected because it is voluntary. It would not be noble and respected if you were forced at gunpoint to commit your act of kindness and compassion.

  19. Here’s how we humans are looking to find solutions to our problems. This guy is searching the ground under a lamp-post so a neighbor goes up to him and asks him ”what are you doing” and the guy says I lost my car-keys, ”where did you lose them”- down the road he says, ”and why are you looking for them here” – well, the light is better here.

  20. Caitlin, you are so very close but still coming up short with your support of the tyranny of the left.
    “Democratic government can indeed be a tool of the people to implement the will of the public in allocating resources and making sure everyone is taken care of.”

    What exactly is the will of “the people”? Which people? Who gets to determine what is the “will” of “the people”? Who exactly gets to allocate which resources provided by whom to whom? Who gets to be the brother that is taken care of and who has to be the brother that is forced to take care of the other brother?

    “Such a system would work infinitely better than allowing the fate of the people to be determined by an elite class of sociopathic plutocrats.”

    How about each individual gets to determine their own fate rather than either an elite class of sociopathic plutocrats or an elite class of sociopathic bureaucrats/elected grifters? How about a system based on individual rights rather than a system of collective authority? Why not Liberty Caitlin?

    To believe [government authoritarianism] is the best possible system is to believe that the best possible system naturally elevates the most greedy, the most underhanded, and those most willing to do anything to get ahead, up to and including stripping our planet bare [and enslaving one’s own people “for the common good”]. Changing one system based on fear and violence with another system based on even more fear and violence is not the answer.

    “Anyone who tries to control your narrative about yourself is trying to control you.”

    Exactly! So why then do you support the left?! From Political Correctness to violently demanding an end to free speech the left is all about controlling others. Look in the mirror lefties and you will see the very same control freak as the ones in power now. So why have a revolution to replace a bad system with a worse system?

    “Nobody is entitled to bully or shame you out of your right to come to your own understanding of the world, in your own thoughts, using your own research, accepting no authoritative claims on faith no matter how confidently they are asserted. You are infinitely more qualified to come to your own understanding of what’s going on than anyone else is qualified to do it for you, and it is your sovereign right as a human being to vocalize that understanding.”

    I fully agree with you while the left violently disagrees with you. Free speech and free thought are blasphemy to leftist dogma. The left simply does not recognize any sovereign rights of individual human beings. If they did they would not be leftists.

    “…total freedom, total slavery, or total annihilation.”

    Agreed except to note that the “total slavery” is a two headed threat. One keeps the world enslaved to the banksters while the other one overthrows the banksters and that form of slavery but replaces it with an even worse form of slavery to the State. So I will choose total freedom thank you.

    1. This!
      Well stated. Thank you.

      1. Kurt, and thank you for being a fellow Liberty lover.

    2. Orlando J. Valerino Avatar
      Orlando J. Valerino

      “Free speech and free thought are blasphemy to leftist dogma. ”

      The same can be said about the right as well. “Dogma” is not meant to be questioned.

      You still have a lot to learn.

      1. Orlando, nope. Not even close. PC and the call – the violent call – for abolishing free speech is 99.9% owned by the left. The only major call for restricting speech coming from the right is the insane laws the israeli lobby is trying to get passed concerning the BDS movement.*

        *These laws must be stopped too of course.

        1. Orlando J. Valerino Avatar
          Orlando J. Valerino

          Governments of all stripes left or right attempt to control the narrative.

          “All governments lie” – I.F. Stone

          1. Orlando, that all governments try to control the narrative does not erase the fact that the left is openly and violently calling for the abolition of free speech.

            1. Orlando J. Valerino Avatar
              Orlando J. Valerino

              https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/06/whos-afraid-of-free-speech/530094/
              During the debate over the Iraq War, the Republican chairman of the House Administration committee was so triggered by French opposition to the ill-fated invasion of Iraq that he directed the cafeteria menus to substitute “Freedom Toast” and “Freedom Fries;” his Democratic colleague Barbara Lee, who voted against the war, received boxes of letters calling her un-American, treasonous, and far worse. In the years following that conflict, liberal and left-wing critics of the war were frequently called treasonous; in 2006, President George W. Bush told campaign crowds that “the Democrat approach in Iraq comes down to this: The terrorists win and America loses.”

              Both sides do it. Only an obtuse fool doesn’t see this.

              1. Orlando, how is this an example of the right calling for the abolition of free speech?!

        2. ScumTroll, you are not free if you actually believe that believers of any ideology are not trying to restrict speech with the possible exception of anarchism. Do you actually believe that the Left is trying to lock Julian Assange up?

          1. Fats, show me where the right is calling for the abolition of free speech let alone doing so violently. Where are the right’s fingerprints on political correctness?
            The government is trying to lock up Assange because he exposed government secrets. Do you really believe that a leftist government would not do the same thing if its secrets were also revealed?

            1. Orlando J. Valerino Avatar
              Orlando J. Valerino

              “Where are the right’s fingerprints on political correctness?
              The government is trying to lock up Assange because he exposed government secrets. Do you really believe that a leftist government would not do the same thing if its secrets were also revealed?”

              So what you are saying then that a right wing government is trying to get rid of Assange.

              Thus proving my earlier point that governments of all stripes try to repress free speech and control the narrative.

              1. Orlando, glad we can agree that all governments are the source of evil. (So why does the left want to make an even bigger and more powerful government?!)

                But, again, this is not an example of the right calling for the abolition of free speech.

    3. Hi Orlando,
      There is no Left dogma and there is no Right dogma. Because both believe in the State, and the State’s violence.

      There is Statism, and there is life without the State (rulers). There is no left/right, at least not anymore.

      Prove me wrong.

      Paint me a picture of a State system that doesn’t resort to violence when someone wants to opt-out.

      1. Orlando J. Valerino Avatar
        Orlando J. Valerino

        “There is no Left dogma and there is no Right dogma. Because both believe in the State, and the State’s violence.”

        You have a lot to learn as well.

        They both have dogmas that are supposed to lend credence to the perpetuation of the state/government.

        Yes, ultimately every law of the “modern nation state/governments” is backed up by the threat of violence on those who don’t comply. This does not mean all governments of the past had functioned in this manner nor governments of the future will have to resort to it.

        Now this nonsense of ‘No state/government/rulers just simply goes against all of human history and the findings of cultural anthropologist the world over.

        Cultural anthropology 101: Humans live in social settings. In these social settings some way is figured out how to come to a consensus through, a leader , a council, headman, boss, chief, voting, etc. These groups are then bound through a shared set of values that keep the group going(Back to the individual sovereignty vs obligations to the group/collective). These groups throughout time change, and evolve or devolve out of existence.

        1. Orlando, no one is arguing that humans do not live in social settings. The issue is what kind of social settings and the freedom of individuals to create their own social settings as they see fit so long as they are not harming anyone else. It is about live and let live. But the left (and to a lesser extent the right) will not allow for such freedom. Social engineering is mostly leftist “do-gooderism” and always at gun point.

          A leader is only valuable if he/she has people willing to follow him/her. The difference between real leaders and those who become leaders by amassing state power (often through deceit) is that with the former the people following the leader do so voluntarily and can stop following the leader whenever they disagree with him/her. But with the latter the option to drop out is non existent. I prefer more options and making my own choices.

          1. Orlando J. Valerino Avatar
            Orlando J. Valerino

            All you are saying is that no one likes illegitimate authority exercised over them. Duh

            1. Orlando, what do you consider “legitimate” authority? Based on what principle for authority?

  21. People ask me: What can be done?
    .
    It’s a question that is meant to express their own feeling of helplessness. (Note: I find that almost everyone I talk to already knows what the problems are – they just don’t see any viable/ready solution.)
    .
    They expect me to acknowledge the futility of changing the system and spout some pie-in-the-sky baloney that leads to a moment of kumbaya.
    .
    My answer surprises them with its practicality and simplicity: the single best way to change things is to change tax policy to eliminate (over time) oligarchs that use democracy as their plaything.

    1. Jack, do not agree with the notion that taxing the rich will change anything significantly. But let me throw this out for discussion: Outlawing usury. Now that would be a real game changer IMHO.

  22. Egypt bans sales of yellow vests. Make one if needed. Take a yellow marker to your shirt/blouse/skin. Free Assange. BDS

  23. Looks like the yellow vests in France are rejecting the narrative. I’d like to hear Ms. Johnstone’s thoughts on whether a similar rejection of the narrative is possible in the U.S. a la a reinvigorated Occupy Wall Street (which immediately comes to mind).

    1. Joe, I have been struggling with understanding the trigger and continuance of the Yellow Vests uprising in France. Is it like Occupy? Will it spread here, or is it a European “thing”.

      Peter Koenig has published an article that is pretty enlightening about the situation in Europe. Check it out: https://countercurrents.org/2018/12/11/the-macron-implosion-will-it-spread-to-other-eu-members/

      1. Dana, good article, thanks. Interesting thought that the elite might use the yellow vests to replace Macron (probably with someone worse).

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