I want to live in a world where being a manipulator is more shameful than being the victim of manipulation.
I want to live in a world where manipulation of any kind stands out as weird and creepy.
I want to live in a world where the subtleties of sovereignty are understood by kindergarteners.
I want to live in a world where the spirit of the law is upheld over the clever diddling of loopholes.
I want to live in a world where actual justice takes precedence over being found to have adhered to the rules of engagement while committing grave injustices.
I want to live in a world where empathy thrives and psychopathy fails.
I want to live in a world where war is seen clearly for the horrific and disgusting thing that it is.
I want to live in a world where people understand power dynamics.
I want to live in a world where people are skeptical of power and give the disempowered the benefit of the doubt, rather than the other way ’round.
I want to live in a world where the only time all politicians and media unify across partisan divides is to advocate for something healthy that we all agree is in everyone’s best interest, rather than to advocate for war and tyranny.
I want to live in a world where more value is given to those who contribute to the thriving of the whole, rather than one that elevates a singular person’s ruthless desire to get on top no matter what he ruins.
I want to live in a world where a mother’s work pays better than a stockbroker.
I want to live in a world where you can spend a lifetime of caring for others and retire well on savings of your own.
I want to live in the world that values a forest being left alone more highly than one being stripped for resources.
I want to live in a world where it’s impossible to make a profit out of illness.
I want to live in a world where it’s impossible to make a profit out of perpetuating illness.
I want to live in a world where it’s impossible to make a profit out of creating illness.
I want to live in a world where it’s impossible to make a profit out of mass murder. Which means I want to live in a world where it’s impossible to make a profit out of war.
I want to live in a world where it’s impossible to make a profit out of scaring people into thinking they have problems they don’t have in order to sell them “solutions” that they don’t need.
I want to live in a world where garbage is not a thing. I want to live in a world where if it can’t be recycled, reused or composted, then it isn’t used.
I want to live in a world where resources are considered the property of all living beings and they cannot be hoarded by a few of the most ruthless and predatory members of a single species.
I want to live in a world where informed adults are free to choose what substances they put into their own bodies.
I want to live in world of private citizens and public servants, where citizens are entitled to quiet enjoyment of their private lives, while those that have the privilege of serving the needs of the many do so in a glass house, under intense public scrutiny. Power will not seem so desirable to those who would use it badly if this were the case, and it would be no impediment to those who wish to use it well.
I want to live in a world where you can’t sell your ideas. You either share them for no profit or profit off them yourself, but artless predators can’t mine (or hide) the inspiration of others for financial gain.
I want to live in a world where culture is created by the people, rather than by Hollywood.
I want to live in a world where propaganda of any description is considered psychological abuse and stands out against the background of normality like a black cat shitting on a white carpet.
I want to live in world where the behavioral patterns set by trauma atrophy as people love themselves enough to undo them, one by one.
I want to live in a healthy information ecology where people are sincerely attempting to describe their pinhole view on the diorama as truthfully as possible, even (and especially) when that truth contradicts their beliefs or their agenda.
I want media companies to be tiny, agile, and beholden to no one.
I want indie journalism to become the new punk rock.
I want people to fully understand how mental narrative works and how easily it can be manipulated.
I want women to know their worth.
I want women to deeply know they are the sexual choosers. I want women to have the entitlement to choose whoever they want, or not choose anyone at all.
I want all the machinations of sexual manipulation that reverse the position of women as the natural sexual choosers to stand out as weirdly as a monkey smoking a cigarette.
I want women to start embodying their naturally large, intelligent, intimidating presence so that men have to rise to meet it, rather than making themselves small so that men feel like they can safely control them.
I want to live in a world where being able to “press someone’s buttons” is not an admirable trait but rather seen as being deliberately abusive.
I want to live in a world where one person controlling the resources of millions is a cause for alarm, not a cause for idolization.
I want to live in a world where people feel as entitled to food, shelter and water as any other animal born on the land or in the sea.
I want to live in a world where you can’t gamble away other people’s livelihoods on Wall Street.
I want to live in a world where government works more like organized crowdfunding, where money is collected and used for the common good in the most transparent way possible.
I want to live in a world where any attempt to unduly influence the spending of taxes beyond one-person, one-vote is considered extremely antisocial behavior.
I want to live in a world where money is for helping people, not for killing them.
I want to live in a world where humans understand that money was invented by humans, for humans, and humans can change the way it works whenever they want. Or replace it with something else entirely.
I want to live in a world without intelligence agencies.
I want to live in a world where every decision about the use of land is ultimately arbitrated by the original custodians of that land.
I want to live in a world that understands that manipulators are always accusing others of doing what they themselves are doing, and that you can learn about their real motives by simply applying to them what they’re saying about others.
I want lobbying to be illegal.
I want think tanks to be mocked.
I want poverty to be considered a shocking aberration which must be rectified immediately.
I want the inequities of the past acknowledged and reconciled with material wealth and a big fat apology.
I want an end to victim-blaming and consequences for victimizers.
I want to defund the Pentagon.
I want to defund the Queen.
I want to defund the Vatican.
I want to return all the false constructs of power-mad men to the earth for renewal.
I want to end patents.
I want ideas to be free.
I want people to be so relaxed and secure that they cannot be manipulated by the false siren of fear.
I want to call an end to the insane competition we are all trained to engage in from birth, and I want a no-contest declared, and the prize to be divided by 7.7 billion.
I want a playful collaboration to begin with each other and with our ecosystem.
I want us all to truly, deeply see each other.
I want us all to truly, deeply see ourselves.
I want us all to become natural terrestrials, back at home on this planet at long last.
I want everyone to make their own list of demands.
___
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67 responses to “My List Of Demands”
Excellent list…
Every single word of this is so spot on. I’m always astounded at the breadth, scope, and consistency of your vision. You are so inspiring!
Gosh, humanitarian demands like that aren’t compatible with “I want to live” nowadays.
You’re supposed to make it easy for them and say you don’t want to live without those things.
Couldn’t agree more.
“I want to live in a world where the Pentagon has to hold a bake sale to buy a new bomber, but where there are free classes in arts and music to all who wish to attend.”
That would be nice. Even better would be a world where the bombers were “turning into butterflies above our nation.”
https://youtu.be/cRjQCvfcXn0
How about:
1. A whole world without capitalism
2. A whole world without private property
3. A whole world where production is planned democratically, ‘from each according to his ability to each according to his need’
Without these, the rest can’t happen
As nice as that may sound, capitalism, the right to private property, etc. have lifted more people out of poverty around the world than any other form of economic activity.
And so did feudalism before that, and slave societies before then. Capitalism was and is superior to these outmoded forms which passed with technical advance. We now have the technology and material means to ditch capitalism, like a scaffold, and rid ourselves of all its social encumbrances that stop us from rationally automating the satisfying of human needs, so that human development in all spheres can truly advance.
Just remember to plan on harnessing the energy of human self-interest by allowing people to profit from their work.
And remember that people have commitments to the basic things around them, which are not well met by sharing everything.
The rosy picture of mutual effort and benefit is a fine ideal, but must be adapted to human preferences, to ensure efficient production.
“Just remember to plan on harnessing the energy of human self-interest by allowing people to profit from their work.”
Human interest will be harnessed if everyone has skin in the game, a say in how things are done, in how resources are used and distributed. Under capitalism and aside from the self-employed, the only people to profit from work performed are those who don’t do the actual work — the owners, the exploiters. So for the vast majority, ‘human self interest’ is hardly satisfied under the profit system. Under socialism, human self interest will have many more ways of expressing and rewarding itself than the narrow one of profit extracted from the sweat and toil of others.
The last bourgeois right to fall will be that of ‘from each according to his ability to each according to his work’, which characterises socialism, the lower stage of communism. When productivity is high enough to satisfy all human needs, when the amount of labour time necessary to make a living is trivial, then that last bourgeois relic will be supplanted by ‘from each according to his ability to each according to his needs’.
“And remember that people have commitments to the basic things around them, which are not well met by sharing everything.”
A socialist system means collectivised ownership of the means of production. It doesn’t mean ‘sharing everything’.
“The rosy picture of mutual effort and benefit is a fine ideal, but must be adapted to human preferences, to ensure efficient production.”
There’s nothing rosy about ‘mutual effort and benefit’. It’s a division of labour: you do what you’re good at and like doing, and I do what I’m good at and like doing. If these benefit the social organism, then we all benefit. A rational division of labour that is directed to satisfying human needs defines efficient production. The capitalist system is supremely irrational, wasteful and certainly doesn’t satisfy human needs.
I agree. A “mixed economy” of state owned services and resources supported by private enterprise, is the most efficient and most pleasurable to live in.
A socialist economy doesn’t accommodate ‘private enterprise’. Private enterprise is capitalism.
Socialism accommodates, encourages and necessitates individual initiative and fulfillment, which is very different and antagonistic to those doing the work for private enterprise.
Individuals will only be liberated when they don’t have to spend their lives eking out a living, struggling to survive or being enslaved to an exploiter’s private interests.
<>
So. Stephen, if I am a good mechanic I am not allowed to start up a small business repairing machines for other people, charge them a reasonable fee for the service, and live on that, because that is a private enterprise and therefore against socialism?
You’d go out of business. With all needs taken care of, other mechanics would do the same for free
J. Krishnamurti once said in his talks; “You Are The World.” So, if I want a Revolution, I gotta make it myself, just like the wonderful Caitlyn Johnstone, just so aptly did…..Well stated! Madame! My first rule on my world is this: No Man, Woman, Child, or animal shall ever go to bed with an empty stomach, or without a safe place to lay their heads. As long as this shall happen, we will have a world of no poverty, no war. My 2nd and last rule is to enjoy your life, just have some fun, Oh! and have the highest respect for each other!
I’d like to join you in your world Caitlin, but it isn’t this one. I think we have gone past the point of no return, short of a global conflagration. And I wish I could stop being angry about it, but I can’t. There’s just so much evil and greed that I think this world is beyond rescue.
Are we even on the same planet here/now? Just last week a neighbor came over and saved our lives, my lady had pneumonia and would not let me take her to the hospital, but they saw to it she got there…… I needed some welding work done, a month ago, when I went to pick it up and pay, they said: No charge brother, just pass it on. Then I went into my local grocery store to get a few things, and this lady shoves me aside, and insists on paying for my grub. I did not know her from Adam. I am lucky, I guess to live in such a nice place, but maybe I earned it by always treating all men as brothers. When I have a buck more than I need for myself, I give it away, to MSF, or my local food pantry. or some other good cause, Like The Road Home Foundation, set up by a father whose son lost all four limbs in that stupid Iraq war. I helped him build a special home for his own son, but he wanted to do more, to help others affected by war so he set up this foundation, and so far they have done good work, especially with widows……So, I do NOT think this world is beyond rescue. All it takes is giving as good as you get, or give and you shall receive. I have planned to give away every thing I have, before I die, so I can go out naked, the way I came in!!!!
“..I want to defund the Queen.
I want to defund the Vatican.”
This reminds me of how I once put my d?$ck into Queen’s Elisabeth’s hat (when I worked for her Australian hat maker).
And once when the only religious cousin in my family pissed me off I poured half of his holly water from a bottle and topped it up with piss
And you can add I want the truth about 9/11 since this lie in conditioning our sad era.
Not only there were no planes to be seen in the Pentagone and in a field in Pennsylvania but it seems there were no planes in the WTC either. It was a kind of projection:
https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2019/10/16/john-lear-says-no-planes-were-hijacked-on-9-11-and-none-hit-the-twin-towers-or-the-pentagon/
Paul Craig Roberts are telling us do not believe anything our rulers and their mainstream medias tell us.
There seems to be no shame in lying in our days, very similar to the way it was in the days of Noah.
I pray the Rosary to hasten the return of Jesus, which return could be any day now, because I have really seen enough bullshit.
Zephaniah 3:9….mentions a “PURE” language.
blessed are the “PURE” in Heart….
Matthew 13:39-43 indicates that the workers of iniquity will
be rounded up and sent to a really really warm retirement
“facility”….
help spread the “Good News”….no one HAS to believe lies
https://www.darkmoon.me/2019/the-tyranny-of-minorities/#more-127092
How our slimy government operates:
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/52397.htm
If you liked the quote above – you will probably love the first 4-5 pages of this book (no need to buy it as I have – just clicking on amazon’s Look Inside link will let you read it for free),
it describes what was probably the most beautiful scientific discovery ever – and it provides a way for us to connect with our humanity (inspired by insects no less) – this is one of the most beautiful chapters I have ever seen written anywhere:
https://www.amazon.ca/Big-Potential-Transforming-Achievement-Well-Being/dp/1524761532/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=before+happiness&qid=1571248141&s=books&sr=1-3
Will definitely take a look — Thank you!
Oh, wow…how great would it be to witness those trees lighting up in person — it really must be quite a sight to see!
Hmmm…I wonder…(perhaps to a higher dimensional being looking on) could it be that WE TOO appear to light up in unison as we each post our personal comments upon the Tree of Caitlin? 😉
Thank you, Tomo!
I want to live in such a world too!
Here’s how I think we can make it so: https://www.pdrboston.org/how-we-can-remove-the-rich-from-power .
I would like to live in a world where people realize that a half-full glass is a positive thing and are grateful to have that much and don’t try to violently take more from the “haves” to try for total equality. I think often that I’m already living in that world even though the abundance apparently enjoyed by a fast growing class of billionaires tempts me to turn negative now and then. Members of that class of extraordinary wealth have consciences that will evolve slowly into a more sharing and empathetic mindset, so time favors the inheriting meek and the last shall be first. My view of evolving consciences is supported by the fact that some descendants of L. Frank Baum in 2006 apologized to the Sioux Nation for hurt their ancestor caused by editorially advocating the ethnic cleansing of American Indians (nine days before and five days after the Wounded Knee Massacre in 1890).
“we’re in a permanent coup” — matt taibbi, taibbi.substack.com.
he has put the facts all together for lazy ones like me.
I do not remember the name of the science fiction movie that I saw in a theater as a young boy. Some aliens had placed a lot satellites orbiting the earth and a scientist had to figure out how to stop these machines from wiping out humanity. At the end of the movie the scientist realized that he could not stop the machines from wiping out all of humanity; but he discovered a code that he sent to the machines and the machines only wiped out all of the ” evil human beings ” and left every else alive. A Utopia is a nice thought; but ” evil ” is everywhere.
I want to live in a world where the Pentagon has to hold a bake sale to buy a new bomber, but where there are free classes in arts and music to all who wish to attend.
—————–
Interesting how having a place to post my demand causes a creative impulse as I go about my day to occasionally come and post one when one pops into my head. 🙂 Thanks Tim and Caitlin. 🙂
Yes to all of the above and…
I want to live in a world where humans have had the Copernican realization that they are not the center of creation, but that they are the newest and least mature of the Relations and have much to learn from them.
I want to live in a world where everything living, including the water, air, and soil are regarded as Persons. After all, if a business can be a person, why not those mediums that give life to all.
I want to live in a world where people are renown for their skills at caretaking and healing, rather than the mountains of corpses they have stacked.
I want to live in a world where people understand that if the water is pure, the air is pure, and the soil is rich and full of life, that they will not be poor.
Caitlin has nailed most of the others above. Thank you for that.
This is the kind of compassionate world I dream of too – thanks for writing it all down for us, Caitlin. We cannot allow the narcissists to rule the world. Empathy is key. And may indie journalism be the new rock n roll. Amen to that!
That world couldn’t have more than 150 people in it.
Sigh…
http://www.johndayblog.com/2019/10/weakest-link.html
Elizabeth Warren comported herself deftly and “won” the debate last night, I think.
Bernie Sanders is setting the popular agenda, and AOC will endorse him.
Tulsi Gabbard is not noticed in the American media. She was there. Nobody really agreed with her. Sanders, sorta’.
“The slaughter of the Kurds being done by Turkey is yet another negative consequence of the regime-change war that we’ve been waging in Syria. Donald Trump has the blood of the Kurds on his hand — but so do many of the politicians in our country from both parties who have supported this ongoing regime-change war in Syria that started in 2011, along with many in the mainstream media, who have been championing and cheerleading this regime-change war,” she said.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-election/democratic-debate-tulsi-gabbard-syria-pete-buttigieg-trump-turkey-a9157711.html
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-election/democratic-debate-summary-highlights-biden-warren-sanders-trump-impeachment-a9157716.html
The CIA has had a heart-attack gun since the 1960s…
Bernie Sanders released a proposal today that would gradually shift 20 percent of corporate equity into funds owned and controlled by the workers in each company. The plan, which would apply to all publicly-traded companies and large closely-held companies, would move 2 percent of corporate stock into worker funds each year for a decade. Once the shares are transferred into the funds, workers would begin receiving dividends and have the ability to exercise the voting rights of the shares, including the right to vote on corporate board elections and on shareholder resolutions.
Sanders’s plan is by far the most radical worker ownership proposal put forward by a presidential candidate in recent memory.
https://www.jacobinmag.com/2019/10/bernie-wants-you-to-own-more-of-the-means-of-production
I was fortunate once to spend a week with 15,000 to 20,000 people living that way once. And rumour has it that if I had known to peddle my bicycle (with training wheels) thousands of miles, then I might have seen a million living that way at Woodstock.
—————-
I want to live in a world where people understand that they are free to create the world around them. 🙂 And also a world where they understand that when they do then beauty can happen in ways they never imagined. 🙂
So you want to be dictator of the world.
Join the club sounds great to me
I want to live in a world where prime manipulators don’t make demands as if they were reasonable and practical and issue them in a silly virtue signalling poem. WHO MIGHT THAT BE ?
Blessed is he or she who expecteth or wanteth nothing, for they shall not be disappointed. Everything you dislike is a natural human animal trait. You don’t want humans to be human. I understand and empathise, but avoiding reality is the path to insanity. As for the last line: “I want us all to become natural terrestrials, back at home on this planet at long last.” Too late! she cried and waved her wooden leg. The natural world in which we evolved and would have been able to survive for at least as long as other now extinct species, has gone forever, never to return during the reign of humans as top predators. Those who want to survive will have to rely on an ever increasing level of technology and an ever increasing level of surveillance.
❤️
No More War
Just wanted to say thanks. Beautiful.
Thank You
I want to live in your world. 🙂
all good ‘ ‘wants’ ‘
but I’m not holding my breath , , ,
–
like so many good dreams
they only break my heart.
In these dark times, the seeing is the light of understanding the intelligence and love that you Caitlin display, thanks to have found you .
I agree with most of that. Some of your demands seem to contradict each other, and you seem to have it in for men, while too many of your sisters are attempting castration. On the whole, good ideas. I think Jimi Hendrix summed it up rather well. “When the power of love overcomes the love of power, there will be peace”. I’m not holding my breath.
What you say reminds me of what Columbus described native Americans:
Columbus spoke of the native Americans with what seemed like admiring awe: “They are the best people in the world and above all the gentlest without knowledge of what is evil – nor do they murder or steal…they love their neighbors as themselves and they have the sweetest talk in the world…always laughing.” And in a letter he wrote to one of his Spanish patrons, Columbus said: “They are very simple and honest and exceedingly liberal with what they have, none of them refusing anything he may possess when he is asked for it. They exhibit great love toward all others in preference to themselves. “But then, in the midst of all this , in his journal, Columbus writes: “They would make fine servants. With 50 men, we could subjugate them and make them do whatever we want.” This is how Columbus saw the Indians – not as hospitable hosts, but as “servants” to “do whatever we want”.
Interesting psychopathic twist at the end?
Interesting twist indeed. Thanks for sharing — I’d never read that before.
Demitra – I sent you a reply but for some reason it got posted at the top of the comments
I had not seen that full of a quote from Columbus, just the “they’s make good slaves” part.
I found it in a book called Everything You KNow is False – I have it somewhere I bought a few copies and gave them to friends in LA, SF etc – let me find the link on amazon:
Here it is:
https://www.amazon.com/You-STILL-Being-Lied-Disinformation-ebook/dp/B003QHXQ14/ref=rtpb_2/140-3696919-7521518?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B003QHXQ14&pd_rd_r=72fc8721-4e44-4b78-9e8f-02ac0850274b&pd_rd_w=EsGAD&pd_rd_wg=pww0T&pf_rd_p=5da730bb-0163-4dd7-b781-c970ec169872&pf_rd_r=81REGXHPTK9ABHRCKNJY&psc=1&refRID=81REGXHPTK9ABHRCKNJY
one of the first chaters – the quote came from a book by Howard Zin (called something like People’s History of the US or something like that )
I love it because it is illustration of 2 very important things – how we are meant to be (and to certain degree people are still that way in many other non-Anglo coutnries like Serbia where I am from or Argentina or even Japan etc – also Australia I thought was pretty friendly and my favorite by far anglo country) AND it’s also a great illustration of how PSYCHOPATHS think – and what happens when the 2 meet and if the humanity is not prepared to recognize and deal with these monsters basically.
then as Josiah Stamp warned, you need to take away the ability of private elite families printing money on behalf of and with the permission of those ruling the earth from darkness.
My deepest heart’s deepest desire is to live in a world based on unconditional Love. Because in such a world all the truth and beauty and justice I want would come about from that one simple intention held my all members of humankind. With such Love as our goal, everything would fall in place; without it everything will go awry and end horribly.
“my” should read “by”.
I want to live in a world where when someone uses the word ‘swing’ everyone thinks of a technique of musical rhythm, but never of someone taking a swing at another person.
“I want to live in a world without intelligence agencies.”
That reminded me of some post-Vietnam American telly. When I stopped laughing, I thought I’d share.
Great clip from a great show. What’s scary is that this stuff really happened back then. Imagine what they can find out now, and how they can twist things around to make innocent actions appear sinister.
And I want to live in that world too!
My List:
I want all of us to understand we are not natural terrestrials. We are all spiritual beings having a physical experience.
Once we get that down the rest will follow.
Might I add a few of my own?
I want all children to be loved and cherished throughout their formative years so that caring about and giving to others becomes as natural as breathing to all the generations that follow.
I want our elders to be honored for their unique life experiences and sought out after for their deep wells of wisdom, never abandoned, never forgotten.
I want humanity to benignly share this planet with all other animal species that naturally exist alongside us and to respect their right to a full life filled with the beauty of experience too.
Thank you. 🙂 🙂
I scrolled down to the list of comments hoping I’d find people contributing to the list. Thanks to Tim and Caitlin for putting me into that frame of mind by the time I got here. 🙂
I have mixed emotions over the patents. The patents in and of themselves is not the problem so much as the criminals presenting the patents now control the Patent Office and are therefore able to obtain patents where none are justified, plus other problems.Used to be that little guys would work decades for that one idea to make it big. But, the Patent Office was taken over by the big guys, but universities use patents all the time to help pay for research so it’s not totally obsolete, it has always been known that the office needed close monitoring.
Great, simple view for the world to understand. Many points in there, but one that really stands out is no lobbying. How on earth do rich people get to buy politicians?
How on earth do we have rich people?
I couldn’t agree more… Utopia should be sought… just wait for us to eliminate all of the “things” in your way, then get rid of “us” and, hopefully, you’ll have what you desire.
With grey in my hair, I was struck by several of these demands that we used to be closer to this than we are today. At least in the land of hillbillies where I grew up.
I left there and found a counter-culture, and as a part of that I was fortunate to experience some of this at times. Get away from the madness and gather with thousands of people who are of like mind, and amazing things can happen when they build there own world for a week or two. And yes, it was largely a group where psychopaths weren’t welcome nor tolerated. But it did work and it was amazing, for at least the short time of a few weeks in summer. I will always smile when I hear the song lyric “Such a long, long time to be gone….. And a short time to be there.”
Utopia is, unfortunately, more like the TV program at the moment……..
Wow! I’d say, ‘me too’ but that’s taken. Anyway, what a great manifesto.