“As Jane looked around her, she felt that dissatisfied feeling she often experienced when she was somewhere new and lovely. She couldn’t quite articulate it, except with the words: if only I was here. This little beachside cafe was so exquisite she longed to really be there, except of course, she was there, so it didn’t make sense.”

~ Liane Moriarty, “Big Little Lies”

Whenever an author, filmmaker or other artist sets out on the noble endeavor of pointing people toward the ideal of living life to its fullest, they usually wind up depicting a character going off on all sorts of wild adventures, skydiving, trekking across the Himalayas, and so on.

In my opinion reminding people to live life to its fullest is the artist’s single most important job, but this is also where most storytellers get it wrong. Most people who live wild, interesting lives sleepwalk through the whole ride just like everyone else; in the end they’re left with a few amusing anecdotes rattling around in their skulls and a secret sense of dissatisfaction.

This is because most people don’t really show up for life. Even if they’re outwardly doing all sorts of amazing things and racking up a bunch of impressive accomplishments, their attention was mostly consumed with babbling mental chatter almost the entire time. Whatever happens in their life, they weren’t really there for it.

The real way to live life to its fullest is to simply be present for it. A housekeeper who actually pays attention to life as it happens will have lived a lot more actual life than any billionaire playboy who’s constantly out chasing extraordinary experiences while internally preoccupied with other matters.

I point this out because, at the midway point of the year 2020, I think it’s extremely relevant.

https://twitter.com/JeromeRoos/status/1272994257515753475

Just today there are news stories about major escalations between India and China and between North and South Korea. A novel virus with bizarre worldwide lockdowns and protests against the police state sweeping the most powerful nation in the world have almost eclipsed from memory the major news events from earlier in the year like dangerous escalations with Iran, Australia burning to a crisp, and a wildly corrupt US presidential primary. And it seems a safe bet at this point that all of this will soon be eclipsed by far more significant events.

For better or for worse, we are at a time of great change from which the world will likely never return. We are heading into what is probably the most significant period in human history to date, and it would be wise to pay attention.

But when I look at what people are talking about in my social media feeds, even relatively awake and tuned-in people, I see a lot of chatter about the same-old, same-old. People are still yammering on about the same old electoral politics they’ve been on about for years, still babbling about PC culture being out of control and how crazy some people’s gender pronouns are, still dunking on shitlibs for likes and retweets. Even my own articles I notice get a lot more shares and attention if they involve something that tickles mainstream partisan interests like criticizing Trump or bashing the Democrats.

And I just cannot for the life of me imagine continuing to hold such priorities halfway through the year 20 fucking 20.

At this time we need to drastically change our perspectives and seriously re-evaluate our priorities. We’re all standing on a precipice together and we have no idea what the plunge will look like, and people are still babbling about whether or not you should wear a face mask at the grocery store. This, to me, is a nonsensical approach to our current predicament.

All the stuff that used to consume so much of our attention in the analysis of establishment power structures has been rendered far less important by recent developments. All these recent developments will probably be rendered less relevant by whatever major events are coming next. The only consistent pattern this year has been a greater and greater deviation from old patterns.

For that reason, it makes sense to do two things:

  1. Shift toward emphasizing a bigger-picture perspective of what’s going on. Fixate less on smaller occurrences and pay more attention to broader overall trends. It doesn’t mean ignore the smaller things, it just means view them in the proper context of a world that’s moving into more and more unfamiliar territory in bigger and bigger ways.
  2. Pay attention. Big things are happening right now, and it would be a damn shame to miss them.

Don’t be like the playboy racking up a bunch of amazing experiences and impressive achievements while preoccupied with irrelevant mental chatter. We are experiencing something huge here, and it would be a shame to let it go to waste.

We should rather all approach our current situation at this point in history like someone who is trying to live life to its fullest: mindful, curious, not hung up on petty mental narratives, and appreciative of how lucky we are to be here right now to witness this thing.

And, much like the approach of the end of life, this moment in history should ideally cause us to cast aside petty differences and bring us closer together.

____________________

Thanks for reading! The best way to get around the internet censors and make sure you see the stuff I publish is to subscribe to the mailing list for my , which will get you an email notification for everything I publish. My work is , so if you enjoyed this piece please consider sharing it around, liking me on , following my antics on, checking out my podcast on either  or , following me on , throwing some money into my tip jar on  or , purchasing some of my , buying my books  and . For more info on who I am, where I stand, and what I’m trying to do with this platform, . Everyone, racist platforms excluded,  to republish, use or translate any part of this work (or anything else I’ve written) in any way they like free of charge.

Bitcoin donations:1Ac7PCQXoQoLA9Sh8fhAgiU3PHA2EX5Zm2

Liked it? Take a second to support Caitlin Johnstone on Patreon!
Become a patron at Patreon!

163 responses to “On Maintaining Perspective In The Year 20 Fucking 20”

  1. Its important to ask: Why is dissociation, and disconnection from reality, so popular?

    – People won’t do better in connecting with reality until after the root issues have been successfully addressed.

    – There is an automatic safety value inside the head, and as reality approaches the point where a person would be overwhelmed, this valve reduces the amount of reality that reaches the conscious mind. This valve is called dissociation. While there are different types of dissociation, they are all some kind of disconnection from reality. Basically, from the perspective of the subconscious mind, being mostly functional, and missing a bit of reality, works lots better than being overwhelmed and nonfunctional. Unfortunately, as more and more reality is being blocked from your awareness, then the more you are at risk for making choices that cause problems in your life.

    – On the other hand, its a loosing proposition to try to force more reality into your head than its ready for.

    – The solution is working to increase mental and emotional strength, increase well-being, and practice problem solving. The more time you spend finding solutions for problems, then the stronger your problem solving skills become and the more you can successfully deal with really ugly challenges.

    – A big advantage is that while you are focusing on problem solving, you are looking at part of the picture instead of the whole, overwhelming, big picture. In addition, you are thinking about what you can do, which increases confidence. Better yet, you aren’t submerged in feelings of debilitating fear about big challenges that might do you in. Focusing on taking steps is an effective way to avoid the deer-in-the-headlights syndrome, which happens when you are paralyzed by reality that is overwhelming.

    – If you feel paralyzed and overwhelmed, then pick any small, easy, useful task to do, and do it. When that task is done, then pick a slightly more difficult task to do. After doing this a few times, start doing the easier tasks on the edges of the big issue that overwhelmed you. The more time you spend thinking about which task to do next, then the more likely you are to get stuck in paralysis again. Doing a series of tasks like this is much like a pole vaulter getting a good run for a really high jump.

    – Talking over problem solving with another person can help shrink overwhelming problems down to a workable size.

    – The more you do all of this, then the more reality you can handle, without being overwhelmed. The stronger you become, the more the automatic safety value inside your head will automatically let more of reality into your conscious mind.

    – None of this helps when you are intentionally distorting reality with defense mechanisms, which make life feel more comfy. Sometimes its your subconscious mind that is intentionally doing this. I find it handy to review the Wikipedia list of defense mechanisms, and look for what I might be doing, and others around me might be doing.

    – In short, when a person is missing parts of reality, the best way to regain those aspects of reality is to build basic strengths, and then the missing parts of reality will automatically show up in the conscious mind. Building strengths also makes it easier to search for what you might have intentionally buried, and then face it and deal with it.

    – The more we all build our inner strengths and problem solving skills, the more we are clearly perceiving reality, then the better chance we will have of successfully making positive changes to the status quo.

  2. Actually, it’s the UK that is running the show not the US and now 5 days later it appears that the Wicked Witch of the East has ordered that Caitlin and her family be snuffed out never to be seen or heard from again. Others have also been snuffed this week. Don’t be surprised if you and your family won’t be next. This is not a game it is your very lives that are on the line.

    1. I’m confused and disturbed by your reference to “Caitlin and her family” being “snuffed out.” Is there some reason I’m unaware of to explain why Caitlin has not put up a new post since June 17? In the past, she’d been putting up new posts with frequency, sometimes more than one in one day. My assumption was that she was merely taking a much-needed and much-deserved break. If there’s more to this unusual inactivity on her blog, please let all of us know or direct us to a place where we can read about it. Maybe I missed something she’s already said about this interregnum.

      1. No sooner do I make this comment than Caitlin comes through with a new post. Thank God. Still don’t understand the threat thing.

  3. So our President Donald Trump gets rid of the United States Attorney in New York for having the ” Gaul ” to investigate ” the friends of Donald Trump.
    For the sailors reading Ms Johnstone:
    Navy Leadership Runs Aground by John Grant!
    https://thiscantbehappening.net/navy-leadership-runs-aground/

  4. Thank you Caitlin.

    Sorry if I trashed some mask wearing dumbasses on previous post.

    I could not get to my special place where I have my blanky. I tried wackin off but it did not bring satisfaction.

    But cursing out mask wearing dumbasses invisibly as a person I am not really is much easier as I watch police video after police video of American People being ostrasized by Law Officers.

    Clearly Law in this country means “The Rules” and clearly those that make the rules have no relationship to any of the humans they define as “citizens”.

    I must say that there is nothing that depresses me more than dumbass mask wearers who wear them because they believe it will help prevent infection.

    This is unluckily about 50% at least and they are not all Democrats. The Republicans like masks because obviously it’s good business selling masks. Democrats love masks because they can watch the dumb asses wearing them and laugh especially as the panic sets in and in their true terror created by the insane non stop story they believe they must have the deadly germ.

    So off they go to Elmhurst Hospital and get tested. The team reviews the results and see negative. Hmmm. Well they instructions were if it does not show positive but their Oxygen level is low (that cannot possibly be from wearing a mask of course) then get those people on the Ventilators of which we have plenty of.

    That’s an instant $55k and put them in a room with the tested positive because surely he’s got it.

    Keep calm sir. We know what to do.

    A few days later he’s dead.

    Good job everyone reports the Chairman of the Hospital Group.

    This is the exact reality we are in. So which moron still thinks everything is going to go back like “it was”?

    Wake Up White People

    Remember that Crazy White KKK leader when he said that on Howard Stern at least 20 years ago.

    Funniest shit ever as they farted threw his rant.

    God bless Caitlin. At least she is trying. What are you doing?

    Yayayayayayaya

  5. I am not a believer in choas, looting, or any criminal behavior; however I have to admit that the author of this article is quite correct, Ms Johnstone.

    Protesters are toppling slaveowner-statues from one end of the United States to the other. Given that slavery is nothing more than legalized kidnapping, the only surprise is that it has taken them so long. No one would honor Jeffrey Epstein with a statue, so why honor generations of rapists and child molesters who came before him?
    But there is no point toppling slaveholders without toppling what slaveholders wrought, up to and including their greatest achievement of all – the United States Constitution. This is the document that not only governs life in the United States down to the tiniest legal detail, but, thanks to Americas global hegemony, undergirds the international system as well.
    Yet the United States Constitution is a plan of government created by slaveholders for slaveholders in order to maintain their wealth and perpetuate their grip on power.
    This eyeopening article can be read here:
    Why Just Statues? Why Not Topple the United States Constitution as Well? by Daniel Lazare
    https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2020/06/21/why-just-statues-why-not-topple-us-constitution-as-well/

    1. Just saw an intetesting article. Most ivy league schools have racist ties. Racist art in universities. Yale was named after a slave trader. Dont see their statues coming down or calls to change their names. Strong liberal bastions. This should speak volumes of the thrust of these BLM protests. But no. People only see what they want to see.

      1. And then almost close they attack the Museum of Natural History (Lies).

        There is a statue of Teddy Roosevelt, the guy in that movie with the artifacts that come alive.

        Oh I think he may have been a president at some point too, huh.

        Anyway the guy is sitting on a horse while an Indian and a Slave are running alongside.

        How did these things last this long is a much better question which is easy as fuck to answer. No one had the time with the insane lives most Americans lead running around like chickens with their heads cut off. (Do chickens really do that?)

        The part I don’t get and have never understood is how the fuck did no one ever notice this shit before.

        All my fucking life I am the bad guy because I always fought the Biggest Lie Ever Told. America is the greatest country ever. Really? And who says this? People that never lived in any other country it seems.

        What would happen if countries greatness were based on the “Citizens (slaves) being the happiest”.

        Imagine something crazy like that.

        I hear it all the time about how much they love “Their” country.

        A country is the laws and the system created around those laws. How can so many watch so few make all the rules and year after year keep voting for the same numbskulls?

        Unluckily the solution is exactly the opposite of what is said.

        Do not vote. When you Vote you agree that this system of government works. It seems every country that has overturned a corrupt government had less than 10% of the population voting.

    2. MSM racists meme. As though pulling down a few statues do anything to address ( unconsciousness)discrimination in all its forms.
      More Elderly have been murdered in the COVID psyop than gang shooting and murders in the usa but as its not msms food none of you care about vulnerable so caught up in perceiving only msm false flags, the past, racism and stupid statues narrative.
      The USA constitution does not govern details it is being breached and has been for a long time so honk away.
      Central banking and the Corporation of the us govt legally makes taxpayers (debt) slaves.
      The MSM narrative and perspective makes people need a white cane as they are clearly blinded.

    3. That’s the plan–to exercise the even more fundamental power, bestowed upon “the People” (as opposed to their government) in the founding document of what soon became the United States. While most of the signers of the Declaration of Independence were also slaveholders, the words they used, rooted in the highest Enlightenment values, continue to live and transcend all hypocrisy: “Whenever any form of Government becomes destructive of these ends (life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness equally for all citizens), it is the Right of the People to alter or abolish it.” Seen in this historical context, isn’t the current unrest and upheaval in the streets, shaking an indifferent and oppressive government to its core, as American as apple pie?

    4. All of this toppling of statues is just the distraction that modern day oppressors want. They don’t give a shit about ancient bronze relics. What they fear is the application of the guillotine to their own heads.

  6. This came across our wires from Australia
    A new Jim Crow, Down Under: Those refusing COVID-19 shots should lose their jobs, not be allowed to eat in restaurants or have their children go to school
    New COVID-19 restrictions will be needed for anti-vaxxers
    By Raff Ciccone
    June 16, 2020 — 11.54pm

    https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/new-covid-19-restrictions-will-be-needed-for-anti-vaxxers-20200616-p55330.html

    1. Maintaining the mainstreams perspective?
      Pushing agendas and the idea of using bio terrorism on people ie mandatory unsafe experimental “vaccinations” . Ironically for a ” new deadly disease” that does not even exist .or
      Maintaining your conditioned perceptive?
      Maintaining the past (problematic perspective )is not the thing to be trying to do.
      Learning from it is ie remembering the German social-nazi time or the perpetual Wars and not allowing it to happen again . Change requires a fresh moment to moment awareness in place of perception (as there is just perceiving where the perceiver and perceived are one).

    2. Calamity Jane Avatar
      Calamity Jane

      Crow is incorrect if he believes the mainstream in “COVID” a ” new deadly disease”( with exactly the same symptoms of other respiratory disease influenza- pneumonia stress induced hypoxia etc) without having evidence.
      No viral load tissue testing no double blind tests on sars corona(2?)and the germ theory has been disproved by paleo and virologists that study the human Virome ( trillions of viruses in and on healthy people including corona up the nasel). They do not claim the viruses we have in us and incorporated into our DNA make us sick.
      P.S. CAI T has not perceived the psyop COVID.

    3. You must understand this is not about the vaccinstion. When given with the new delivery system will mark you with an identifier. It is dissolvable dyes that make a pattern on the arm that can be scanned. Firms funded by bill gates are producing this. It is no secret he is proud of it as a technological inprovement for mankind. Watch it on youtube.

  7. That is the media perspective as seen and filtered through the msms narrative.

    1) Don’t fixate on smaller things/details .
    2)Pay attention to awareness( not to the madness)

    A spiritualist would have advised you of the primary.

    You are primary. Change yourself change your world.
    Or be the world you want to see.

    There is only one victory in this game and its ” Know thyself”

  8. I grew up laughing at the Soviet, and their habit of tearing down statues and erasing people from history when they became politically incorrect.
    So, now they tear down the statues of anyone who doesn’t think like them.
    Anyone who does not hold their values, must be condemned, and erased from history so their incorrect views never, ever existed.
    Let us erect new statues to the new leaders. The leaders of our new society that we erect on the ashes of the old. Let us forget the old and incorrect and celebrate the new and correct. The statue carvers need the commissions.
    But, let us remember not to bolt the new statues down too firmly upon their pedestals.
    Because, as the world changes, the new and correct becomes the old and incorrect.
    In the future, these people will be condemned as demons, and the world will be told that a statue to them celebrates all that is wrong with humanity. Because, someone found an old Facebook picture of this person riding in a car powered by an internal-combustion engine. In the future, that will likely be a sign of pure evil. How could this person, no matter what else they might have done that might be good, how could this person destroy the earth by riding around powered by an dirty, smoking, evil internal-combustion engine? This statue must come down because this person clearly expresses the great evil that did so much damage to the world.

    1. The only statue that needs to come down is the one to idolatry, the one you constructed in your mind( ego).
      Don’t wait for leaders to save you or lead you, they work for the Banksters, stop doing what they say and thinking what they( through their left and right media outlets/blogs) tell you to think (” pull down this statue” PC Bob and leave the one you constructed in your mind nxt to the bars)
      Just seek to save yourself, like in an airplane get your mask on first before you can help others.
      And please enough of this mainstream propaganda.
      People have ADD.They do not remember human history which is one of insanity and keep repeating it.

  9. Hopefully you and your family have not been suicided by the authorities in your country for speaking out against tyranny as they so often are in the UK and elsewhere.

  10. Yes, changes will be coming but not the one that benefit the majority of the population.
    The shenanigans by the US Federal Reserve hints at an accelerated impoverisation of the populace and the finalization of the Fascist project in the USA – the oligarchy in total control of politics, any illusion of actually living in a democracy openly shown be just that.

    Anyone who still has this illusion will have to finally wake up, and incapable of any coordinated action based on solidarity and a common goal in this splintered society will see the right wing finally find their haven as the henchmen to help control those who see their dreams of a society that cares and permits a productive and useful live worth living utterly destroyed.

    The US elite has always a hankering for the fascist system of governance as the research of Wallstreet funding of the NSDAP, the German Heavy Industry between the wars and its leaders show.
    https://www.voltairenet.org/IMG/pdf/Sutton_Wall_Street_and_Hitler.pdf

    “Moreover, American assistance to Nazi war efforts extended into other areas.17 The two
    largest tank producers in Hitler’s Germany were Opel, a wholly owned subsidiary of
    General Motors (controlled by the J.P. Morgan firm), and the Ford A. G. subsidiary of the
    Ford Motor Company of Detroit. The Nazis granted tax-exempt status to Opel in 1936, to
    enable General Motors to expand its production facilities. General Motors obligingly
    reinvested the resulting profits into German industry. Henry Ford was decorated by the
    Nazis for his services to Naziism. (See p. 93.) Alcoa and Dow Chemical worked closely
    with Nazi industry with numerous transfers of their domestic U.S. technology. Bendix
    Aviation, in which the J.P. Morgan-controlled General Motors firm had a major stock
    interest, supplied Siemens & Halske A. G. in Germany with data on automatic pilots and
    aircraft instruments. As late as 1940, in the “unofficial war,” Bendix Aviation supplied
    complete technical data to Robert Bosch for aircraft and diesel engine starters and received
    royalty payments in return.

  11. Oh no falling to quoting the Guardian .
    Look foward to this blogs change of perspectives away from MSM memes, validating false flags and msms fake lefty narratives.
    Really spiritual headline that “20 Fucking 20″ .

    Without self realization causing inner change no victory .
    Don’t wait for politics( the art of deception in power over others)to get a “Win”.
    I would advise the opposite to CAIT.Johnson.
    1) Don’t fixate on smaller things .
    2)Pay attention to awareness( not to the madness)
    A spiritualist would have advised you of the primary.

    You are primary. Change yourself change your world.
    There is only one victory and its ” Know thyself”

  12. “Work will set you free!”
    The famous slogan set in iron above the gates to Auschwitz.
    “Work will kill you!”
    The new slogan for this age of mass pandemic deaths where the capitalists try to herd people back into deadly factories.
    Same stuff – different decade, as the only freedom found at either Auschwitz or a factory was the freedom of the grave.
    “Profits Over People”
    the neofascists cry as they insist that others die for their luxury.
    People Over Profits is mandatory for mere survival.

    1. Totally agree that “People Over Profits” is THE issue of our time but would broaden and deepen it to “Life Over Profits” to include Mother Nature and all living things. However it is phrased, this elemental issue will come to a head in the United States in the very near future, when it becomes clear that the U.S., unlike many other so-called developed nations, chose to respond to the sudden and unprecedented Covid Depression by bailing out ONLY the rich and powerful, leaving average citizens and those already marginalized to hang in the bitter wind joblessness, homelessness, and hopelessness. Here in the States, I keep thinking about the line from that old BTO song: “Bbbaby, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet.”

  13. Jesus says constantly to WATCH which is to be alert, AWARE – “What I say unto you, I say unto All, WATCH!”. Mark 13 Matthew 24

    3 And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?

    4 And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you.

    5 For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many.
    6 And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.

    7 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.

    8 All these are the beginning of sorrows.

    9 Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name’s sake.

    10 And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another.

    11 And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many.

    12 And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.

    13 But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.

    14 And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.

    15 When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:)

    16 Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains:

    17 Let him which is on the housetop not come down to take any thing out of his house:

    18 Neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes.

    19 And woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days!

    20 But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day:

    21 For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. SUCH AS WAS NOT SINCE THE BEGINNING OF THE WORLD TO THIS TIME, NOR EVER SHALL BE AGAIN – the Kingdom of God begins at the soon Second Coming.

    22 And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened.

    1. Religion …. run for your lives, but pray you don’t have to do it on the Sabbath, because that would make God angry. God, who never gets angry when evil people force you to run for your life, would get very upset if you dare to exert yourself to save your life on Her Holy Day.

    2. Even Jesus didnt know the exact time of the second coming but you do. Right. Everytome calamity sweeps through mankind there are those who think they know. Napoleon was considered the antichrist in his day. Could be tomorrowvor a thousand years. No one knows. Interestingly Nostradomus said the world would end around 3300 AD. Not sure of exact date.

    3. Calamity Jane Avatar
      Calamity Jane

      Jesus Wept.
      Doomsayers using the bible quotes they do not understand to scare people.
      Ironic really.
      (The second coming is people becoming enlightened.)
      When people have inner peace this is reflected in the “outer world” which is heaven, we just make it a hell with all our unconsciousness.

  14. Ask not what you should do for your country, ask what you should not do.
    Don’t vote Dem.
    Don’t vote Rep.
    and
    Don’t support the military.

  15. Those expecting a revolution in America seem to see ordinary Americans as individuals who live according to a higher purpose and are morally superior to the likes of:

    Adidas, Amazon, Airbnb, American Express, Bank of America, BMW, Burger King, Citigroup, Coca Cola, DHL, Disney, eBay, General Motors, Goldman Sachs, Google, IBM, Mastercard, McDonalds, Microsoft, Netflix, Nike, Pfizer, Procter & Gamble, Sony, Starbucks, Twitter, Verizon, Walmart, Warner Brothers and YouTube.

    But the reality seems to be that providing the above list is an easy way to accurately define the essence of America in the year 2020. It is hard to see a revolution coming, when most of America has no interest in doing without any of the above. When an American is pissed, the problem is the price, not a moral issue.

    What exists in America, is a straggling of outsiders who don’t care about any of the above, but unfortunately for them and planet earth, the America plowing forward in the year 2020 is the big group, and the America voting in 2020 is the big group, hence Biden.

    1. Nobody ever sees a revolution coming.
      But, before it happens, there will always be lots and lots of voices telling you that it would be useless to attempt it.

    2. All this bullshit “anti america” crap from mainstream, as partners of the NWO Australia went to kill people in the middle east etc oz is a “little USA ” a veritable Chinese mineral mining resource center.
      https://eyreinternational.wordpress.com/2013/03/18/the-new-world-order-part-1/

  16. You sound very Mayan, Ms Johnstone. Maybe it’s a big deal my parents are coming over Sunday, maybe it’s a bigger one the Chinese arrested a couple of Canadian guys. Like you say, life is in the details; but, I also begin to think in the coincidences. I like your writing.

    1. James Farland Avatar
      James Farland

      Life is not in the details, getting fixated on those details she/he wants you to loose or not gain awareness of Life.
      She is mistaking life situation with LIFE.

  17. Martin Gugino, the 75 year old man, protesting in Buffalo week before last, who was shoved in the chest by riot police, took steps back and fell (off camera) DID have a basilar skull fracture from that fall. I was dubious, since the steps back, as he lowered himself, looked fairly controlled. A statement Tuesday by his lawyer makes it clear that he did have a skull fracture and cannot walk properly as a result. This confirms my initial impression when apparent blood came from his right ear. I had reconsidered that impression, looking at how he lay still and calm, with smartphone in hand, and considering how mild the fall looked. Others had also questioned whether this was a real injury. It was. This has been brought up by a couple of correspondents, and may have been an unvoiced concern to others.
    I do not want to be a partisan. I want to find out the truth, and share useful information, so that we can cooperatively rebuild our human economy, in a way that respects our place in nature. I think we can be good stewards of life on Earth.
    ​ ​In a recent statement to CNN, Gugino’s attorney Kelly Zarcone revealed that Gugino suffered a skull fracture due to the unnecessary violence of the police officers that day, and Gugino is currently unable to walk. According to Zarcone, Gugino remains in rehabilitation.
    “I am not at liberty to elaborate at this time other than to confirm that his skull was fractured,” Zarcone said. “While he is not able to walk yet, we were able to have a short conversation before he became too tired. He is appreciative of all of the concern about him but he is still focused on the issues rather than himself.”
    https://www.nationofchange.org/2020/06/17/buffalo-protester-martin-gugino-diagnosed-with-fractured-skull/

    1. They also said he tripped and fell.

      1. I try not to watch the endless stream of police misconduct videos because to do so often causes me to focus on the trees instead of the forest. The long, long history of American police brutality toward blacks (and, to a lesser extent, the poor and marginalized of all races and ethnicities) is simply a given, and if a person cannot or will not see that obvious fact, then there’s really no use in talking to that person about it. I did bring myself to watch the Gugino video, and what I saw was a cop needlessly pushing an elderly protester, who had touched the cop for some reason, albeit in an apparently nonthreatening way. Do I think that the cop wanted Gugino to fall and fracture his skull? No. But the cop DID want to push the old man out of the way, and whenever you intentionally push someone, the law says that you are responsible for whatever injury results, even if you did not intend to cause that injury. As far as I’m concerned, the application of this basic legal principle is “case closed.” Time to move on, while wishing Mr. Gugino a speedy and full recovery and remembering this tragic and senseless incident as merely one more example among the myriad in American history in which increasingly-militarized cops have acted over-aggressively, too often with severe or lethal consequences.

    2. The world should not have to protect fools from themselves.

  18. As much as Black Lives Matter does not threaten the system even remotely like the Black Panthers in the 60s, Donald Trump believes his own Law & Order, like Nixon, will once again prevail. The key will be to attract the white women suburban vote. Republican pollsters are extremely optimistic and even talking about a “landslide”.
    Yet the behavior of an extra crucial vector must be understood: what corporate America wants.
    When we look at who is supporting Black Lives Matter – and Antifa – we find, among others, Adidas, Amazon, Airbnb, American Express, Bank of America, BMW, Burger King, Citigroup, Coca Cola, DHL, Disney, eBay, General Motors, Goldman Sachs, Google, IBM, Mastercard, McDonalds, Microsoft, Netflix, Nike, Pfizer, Procter & Gamble, Sony, Starbucks, Twitter, Verizon, WalMart, Warner Brothers and YouTube.
    So just what is ” the money up to”?? Ms Johnstone some of your readers may be correct. This article can be read here:
    Nixon-Trump vs. the Strategy of Tension by Pepe Escobar!
    https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2020/06/18/nixon-trump-vs-strategy-of-tension/

    1. Flawed logic. Trump did not instigate nor controls this. Is he virtue signalling while doing nothing of course. He is saying things people want to hear to bolster his reelection chances. Just like every other politician. On a personal level I dont think he wants to serve another term but his ego wont let him quit.

      1. As if Trump rally would control anything. DPRK – nada.
        Troop withdrawal anywhere? Nada. The troops from Germany will likely wind up in Poland.
        Reconciliation with Russia? Nil.
        He did what the MIK always wanted – get out of weapons control treaties, got rid of the JCPOA, build up the military around China…..Anyway, can anyone really, and I mean really, take an organization seriously as a counter to those who actually finance it?
        Trump can only pursue those ideas of his the oligarchy lets him because they give the impression he has some power, but really can do no actual harm.

        It reminds me of what a friend in Canada said after the election of the oh so willing to change things Obama after about half a year into his presidency: “It looks like they took him into a back room after the election and told him what he can get away with…”

        1. OMG Trump obsessionals fixating on Trump.
          When China shut down their economy and locked up its people you obsess about trump.Trump trump Trump happy Johnson ?
          Fixation on the unimportant, its a recipe for Msm Brainwashed Trumptards.

          1. I take it you really have a problem with comprehension. Because otherwise you would have understood that no president in the USA has any real power to do anything the military and oligarchy does not permit.

  19. The human spirit has never recovered from the 20th Century’s two world wars, actually one war fought twice and then extended indefinitely by the continuing Cold War. This is one of the reasons that I read a good deal of late 19th Century and early 20th Century literature. The dream of a utopian future was still alive back then, significant thinkers were still able to envision and describe a better, more beautiful world. Since the wars, we have been literally swimming–drowning–in dystopia.

    1. This was supposed to be in reply to the Dr. Zhivago clip a short distance below. Hell of a powerful excerpt from a classic movie.

    2. @Newton Finn

      I agree in a way. It takes many generations to get over the past, but, and importantly, eventually after maybe three or four generations, the next generation is ready to move onto better ideas, and I think this is happening now and it will happen quicker in the future and it is a GOOD thing for all of us regular folk.

      BK

      1. Yup, the insane bender we’ve been on, giving us plutocracy and austerity, leading us to nuclear war or ecocide, simply HAD to blow.

  20. Stephen Morrel, as usual, all of your comments are “right on”, as far as I’m concerned. Same for you, Newton Finn.
     
    Would “voting in” revolutionary changes by voting for revolutionaries be, at least in theory, better than expecting your suggested changes in living conditions to be miraculously brought into being in the ensuing chaos after a violent class-war revolution?
     
    I think that it would be.
     
    We voters can see the historical results of electing R or D presidents and congress-people in the near and distant past. BOTH of those parties are to blame for the present day situation of perpetual war, perpetual bail-outs of the Elite corporations and banks; having to hold more than one job to barely eek out an existence; getting beaten or murdered by the Elite’s pit-bull police for maybe no reason, etc. etc.
     
    Therefore, with all of the above real-life experience of having been ruled by Rs and Ds fully in mind, if you want change, do NOT vote for an R or a D candidate for POTUS OR CONGRESS in the upcoming election! Real change will be obtained ONLY by doing that amazingly simple thing. It will not be obtained by shooting someone dead in their Manhattan or DC or Arlington mansion.
     
    There are 435 members of the house of representatives.
     
    There are 100 senators in the senate.
     
    There is one president in the white house.
     
    Therefore, the entire elected federal government consists of 536 human beings. THESE 536 people are the people who maintain the present whatever-you-want-to-call-it system in which a microscopic percentage of the population owns or controls the vast majority of LARGE SCALE capital equipment, wealth and land (upon which the vast majority of the population vitally depends), for their own astronomical profit.
     
    This micoscopic percentage is spending, as I type, literally billions of printed-out-of-thin-air “dollars” for one single purpose — to make absolutely sure that the vast majority of voters will walk into a voting booth in November and in their true 5 minutes of absolute power, vote for an R or a D candidate for POTUS and R or D candidates for both legislative branches. The Elite do not care one iota WHICH R or D candidates voters vote for, as long as voters vote for an R or a D, because ANY R or D candidate for public office will MAINTAIN the power of their Elite masters…….. which means they will maintain the present system exactly as it is. When you vote for an R or a D, no matter what you THINK you are voting for, you are, in reality, voting for NO CHANGE.
     
    As far as I’m concerned, by supporting illegal war against the world and unconstitutional acts against American citizens at home, these 536 human beings have proven themselves unfit for office.
     
    All of these 536 can be removed from office ONLY if voters DO NOT vote for an R or a D in the upcoming election and the mid-term two years down the road.
     
    That is really all it takes for US voters to literally change the world for the better — NOT to vote for an R or a D. Therefore,……………..
     
    Do not vote for an R or a D in the upcoming election.
     
    Do not vote for an R or a D in the upcoming election.
     
    Do not vote for an R or a D in the upcoming election.
     
    Do not vote for an R or a D in the upcoming election.
     
    Do not vote for an R or a D in the upcoming election.
     
    Do not vote for an R or a D in the upcoming election.
     
    Do not vote for an R or a D in the upcoming election.
     
    Do not vote for an R or a D in the upcoming election.
     
    Do not vote for an R or a D in the upcoming election.
     
    Do not vote for an R or a D in the upcoming election.
     
    Do not vote for an R or a D in the upcoming election.
     
    Do not vote for an R or a D in the upcoming election.
     
    Do not vote for an R or a D in the upcoming election.
     
    Do not vote for an R or a D in the upcoming election.
     
    Do not vote for an R or a D in the upcoming election.
     
    Do not vote for an R or a D in the upcoming election.
     
    Do not vote for an R or a D in the upcoming election.
     
    Do not vote for an R or a D in the upcoming election.
     
    Do not vote for an R or a D in the upcoming election.
     
    Do not vote for an R or a D in the upcoming election.

    1. Stephen Morrell Avatar
      Stephen Morrell

      As a red, I place no faith at all in elections or any elected assemblies approved by the bourgeoisie. These serve as a facade for capitalist rule. The moment an election result (perhaps through some careless oversight or blunder by the rulers in their manufacturing of consent) has the chance of effecting a real change that goes against the interests of the ruling class, the resulting assembly can be prorogued, or the election declared invalid on the basis of any irregularity that normally occurs in elections, or a military coup carried out. In general, the bourgeois government is the executive committee of the bourgeoisie, and if their government isn’t to the rulers’ liking they sack it.
      .
      If socialists, communists (most of whom these days are rather tame and reformist) or other ‘radical’ bourgeois reformers like Greens, had any prospect of forming a majority in any bourgeois parliament that in the eyes of the bourgeoisie threatened any real change, then they’d quickly launch a campaign to prevent the reformers from gaining influence, often with the help of the CIA (Capitalism’s Invisible Army). If the reformers actually gained power but had no mass support or didn’t mobilise it to defend themselves, then their days would be numbered. This has happened time and again, in Greece, Italy, Iran, Indonesia, Chile, Brazil, Honduras, Bolivia, etc.
      .
      The so-called colour revolutions of today (a good case study happening right now is Belarus) are the latest manifestation of the bourgeoisie’s playbook in never allowing its ‘democratic’ institutions to reflect the will of the majority when the latter doesn’t coincide precisely with their own.
      .
      This is not to say that all elections and congresses and parliaments, etc, shouldn’t be exploited by communists as platforms for propaganda and agitation. They certainly should be. Elections serve as a good occasion to put about a communist program to broad swathes of the electorate. And the odd red in the bourgeois parliament can have a considerable effect, especially during a crisis. But it’s a fatal illusion to think that socialism could simply be voted into office.
      .
      The reason is fairly understandable. Socialism is a system that rests on socialised ownership of the means of production from which the majority of the population benefits rather than a tiny minority of private owners. The capitalist state with all its legal codes and organs of repression is geared to enforcing bourgeois rule, essentially through (private) property ‘rights’. Thus communists can’t simply take hold of this machine and expect that its cops, bureaucracy and legal system to all of a sudden begin implementing and defending a new ruling class with a completely different system of ownership of the means of production, where existing ‘property rights’ are completely overthrown.
      .
      In short, no ruling class in history has ever surrendered power peacefully to its replacement. The capitalist class is the bloodiest and most deeply entrenched in human history. It’s dangerous but not invincible. It’s organs of ‘democracy’ certainly can and should be exploited as platforms to help bring about their downfall, but an electoral majority of reds is the the prelude to civil war, and if they don’t realise that then it’s the kiss of death for them. The overthrow of ruling classes inevitably occurs outside their ostensible organs of rule — in the streets and where the means for existence are produced and distributed.
      .
      Finally, in the current elections for which there is no choice at all to vote for, I’d advocate that everyone registers to vote and then boycotts the elections. It would be wonderful to see some clown elected as president based on 5% or 10% electoral participation, to show unequivocally how irrelevant their ‘democratic’ institutions really are to normal people’s everyday lives and needs; and to let them know in no uncertain terms that they have no legitimacy and that their days are numbered.

      1. Thank you, Ish and Stephen, for laying out the big picture in unflinching terms. I, too, see overwhelm, rather than traditional voting, as the only way to force real change and move forward. With Caitlin’s leave, let me repeat most of a post I just made on another exceptional Australian blog, that of MMT economist Bill Mitchell.

        “We who follow Bill’s blog and read his other work easily recognize the hideousness of governmental decisions to bail out only the rich and powerful when society itself is unraveling. We know in advance what is coming, a Second Great Post-Covid Depression dwarfing the one our grandparents knew, a systemic global crash that will immiserate billions of average citizens, who will soon join the ranks of the many millions already marginalized and rendered disposable by neoliberalism. The hope is that it will not be long before the immiserated billions come to see what we see, begin to burn with the same passionate indignation over horrible and totally unnecessary policy failures. I’ve mentioned before the sign I had made for my front yard in a typical American subdivision: “WE’RE IN THIS TOGETHER/BAIL OUT EVERYONE.” Thanks to MMT, we know how to go about this bailing out of everyone, beginning with a federal JG (job guarantee) that allows all who can work to do so productively, for decent pay and benefits, and also allows workers to be paid in the same manner, seamlessly, when they must shelter in place to protect public health. And those guaranteed jobs can be focused on doing all the necessary things that the private sector cannot “afford” to do, all those essential things to improve the welfare of people and planet, to address the carnage, social and environmental, that the sole pursuit of private profit leaves in its wake. It’s all so goddamn clear to us, as plain as the noses on our faces, yet only a small minority sees it. Will it take mass immiseration on an almost unimaginable scale to finally make the majority acknowledge the truth of what Bill and his MMT colleagues have been saying?–that the human race does not need to suffer in this hideous fashion, that there are concrete steps our governments could take right now to alleviate much of this impending misery, steps involving no more than the responsible and compassionate investment of fiat money, which is called into existence merely by the taking of these steps. God knows why it seems we must pay such a hideous price to see the obvious. I surely don’t.

      2. Ishkabibble: If you want change DO NOT vote for an R or D in the upcoming election.
         
        Stephen: ……… I’d advocate that everyone registers to vote and then boycotts the elections.
         
        Newton: God knows why it seems we must pay such a hideous price to see the obvious.
         
        Speaking of God:
        https://cdn.video.playwire.com/1009400/videos/4261318/video-sd.mp4

        1. So sadly true. The movement Jesus began became impoverished the moment it was institutionalized. It wasn’t too long after that that the institutional church married the empire that murdered its purported founder. Now, with some notable exceptions, it’s married to the American Empire. Which isn’t to say that occasionally, within the prison of doctrine and dogma and institutional allegiance, something of the spirit of Jesus breaks free, springs again into being. Indeed, I would argue that Marx himself, in the bigger picture, was only updating and secularizing what Jesus called the kingdom of god as it might come on earth. Similar work was done by Edward Bellamy, who influenced the Russian Revolution through Lenin’s admiring wife.

          https://newtonfinn.com/2018/07/12/on-earth-as-in-heaven-part-i/

          https://newtonfinn.com/2018/07/12/on-earth-as-in-heaven-part-ii/

      3. If another batch of 471 warmongers (536 minus 65 seats in senate not contested in the 2020 election) are elected or re-elected in November, there will soon thereafter occur yet another major war which, if nuclear, may very well turn out to be the proverbial “war to end all war”. But if it is an all-out, no–holds-barred, citizen-children-drafted war conducted on behalf of the microscopic percentage of the population comminly referred to as the ruling elite or oligarchy of various nations, here’s a real good preview of how our lives and our children’s lives will change for the better:

    2. Revolutionaries birth Stalin and Mao. You havent a clue how fortunate you are today. Ifvyou got exactly what you wanted you would be wishing for the good old days. Liberal dreams = reality nightmares.

      1. Stephen Morrell Avatar
        Stephen Morrell

        No, backward countries do. Scarcity produces rationing, bureaucrats and queues; rationing produces corruption, queues produce police to keep order. Stalin and Mao are the products of that situation. Read some history (eg, Trotsky’s Revolution Betrayed) instead of repeating tired liberal mantras of revolutions being all corrupting and revolutionaries all little Stalins and Maos in the making.
        .
        The liberal nightmare is already here: the epoch of capitalism, which should have ended with WWI, still weighs down humanity like a millstone 100 years later. At least some are now waking up from the nightmare while others still think ‘it’s [not] the economy, stupid’ and it’s just a matter of some ‘adjustments’, ‘fine tuning’ or some other tinkering with the Titanic.

        1. Again movements are betrayed and morphed into dictatorships. You act like there will never be shortages and rationing again. The exact conditions you cited for stalin and mao are going to happen again with similar results. How can you read history and think it will be different this time. All you can see is the socislist dream stolen and morphed. Thats what happens.

          1. And your answer is…. more capitalism? Sorry, writing is on the wall, global collapse is nigh, and your owners are more than ready to use the nukes rather than lose one iota of their hoarded wealth. But I am sure the the logic that whoever dies with the most toys wins makes sense somehow. Maybe you could try explaining it?

            1. You are correct. But no revolution just collapse and chaos. Whatever rises from the chaos is what I fear.

          2. Stephen Morrell Avatar
            Stephen Morrell

            It’s really quite simple — even those wedded to their bourgeois, free market talking points and slogans can understand. With modern technology, automation and consequent high productivity, a globally planned economy would experience few shortages that require rationing. Even if rationing took place, it would be short lived and not due to lack of productive capacity. More often than not natural causes (crop failures, natural disasters, etc) would cause temporary shortages which would be short lived, not endemic. The avenues for corruption would thus be very narrow and the need for queues or red guards to keep order non existent.

            Contrast this with the backward conditions faced in the USSR, barely a generation from feudalism, still with a social composition reflecting that, and surrounded by hostile imperialist powers determined and doing everything they can to destroy it. Productivity was low, rationing was indefinite and endemic as were the queues, and the totalitarian bureaucracy that grew from all that muck like a malignant mould only compounded and perpetuated the situation.

            As I said, read some history, rather than just projecting the self-serving bourgeois talking points — that if just one hair on the precious heads of those wonderful enterprising entrepreneurs with all their initiative is even touched then only a gulag can result — whose sole aim is to keep the gullible believing in the TINA fiction of capitalism.

            1. When you are standing in line for your ration of food remember your thoughts on mankind. Reality is hard to absorb most today cannot handle ut.

          3. MCFUZZY, well said. Stephen, as usual, great points. Whether this will have any effect on people who have been subjected to 24/7 propaganda since the day they were born is a question that remains unanswered.

            1. The main difference in viewpoints is you hoping for the best from mankind and I am counting on the worst.

    3. @Ishkabibble blabble blabbering bluppering burping besmirching baking bacon blup…bluffering blub blub blib plab plub up your blippet.

      Jeepers Creepers.
      The end of your message is making me tired.
      I won’t vote for an R or D for president, but get away from the FED, and then I might study the person and vote accordingly.

      Quit screaming at me with your propaganda please.

    4. People who vote are idiots.
      Democracy dogma.
      Beleivers.
      “The Govt always gets in”
      They select and choose who gets in .
      https://templeton01436.blogspot.com/2017/03/proof-that-usa-is-controlled-by-foreign.html?showComment=1592520752336#c2571889021180564493

  21. Austraila just announced they would not reopen their borders until 2021. Dont expect that to happen after multiple coronovirus waves. This is one of the trends in the big picture. Isolationism.
    History tells us isolationism eventually leads to war. They arevone of many sealing their borders. Tariffs trade wars all go with the trend.

  22. The phrase “20 F#%*king 20” sounds like Caitlin doesn’t like this year. To me it seems like this year is more of the same and next year will probably be more of the same again. There are ups and downs along the way but this will continue for as long as elite globalists control the finances of the world and through financial control they manipulate top politicians, leaders in the military, secret agencies and religion. Money is power and money is the root of all kinds of evil because people love money more than anything or anyone else.

    1. Oh my goodness. You are tired and no longer active, but thanks for sharing you depressing sentiment…..I suppose…….in my “opinion”:

      20 fucking 20 is:

      THE YEAR OF PEACE!

      Count on it. Some Justified Retribution is called for of course and I believe it is coming. It is no the way.

  23. There is a reason why Americans know greed when they see it; their future depends on them investing in it; their 401K depends on it, as does any investment, even Social Security. This set-up is the culture.

    It is refreshing when a president is honest enough to make their racist views apparent, if points are awarded for honesty. It is not refreshing when the honesty is expressed because it guarantees the support of a significant block of voters – one substantial enough to elect a candidate, if the candidate can also satisfy the nation’s need for profits.

    On one side, an existing ability to satisfy greed is maintained by adding hatred to the platform; meanwhile, the other party runs on greed and hope – the hope that their greed is not as obvious.

    It seems that the roadblock to real hope with this scenario, is American culture. To maintain everybody’s 401K is almost enough to win, but to do so and maintain the right of every American to hate others in their own way, as their ancestors did, is currently the winning ticket.

    Good luck whipping this big collection of humans into shape; but bless you for hoping and trying. Nobody should give up hope, but the problem is the scope – the culture which has become an economic culture. Very few Americans think that saving themselves a buck is not the proper thing to do, mainly because everybody else does it.

    Maybe (as you are suggesting?) having both political parties focused on satisfying greed is demanded – by the culture of America. Maybe then a good place to start, is for everybody to stop and question whether saving a buck is the proper thing to do. If people had done this with books, perhaps there would still be bookstores. Maybe an oligarch can become one by knowing only two things about Americans; that they know not to overpay, and they cannot wait.

    If Jane at the beachside café in the story, is an American in the year 2020, her problem is probably that she cannot stop herself from thinking about what she will do next. This inability is brought to her, in part, by her investments in her future.

    A culture has something to answer for, when it makes people mentally ill. The problem is that young people today are encouraged to go to college, so that they might get a job with a 401K plan, so that they can take care of themselves when they get old, not to mention pay the doctors and nursing home corporation.

    So good luck and keep up the good work.

  24. Look foward to this blogs change of perspectives away from MSM memes, validating false flags and msms fake lefty narratives.
    Really spiritual headline “20 Fucking 20″ .Negative.

    A spiritualist would have advised ignore trends, ignore politics that is life situation not LIFE .
    You are primary. Change yourself change your world.
    There is only one victory and its ” Know thyself”
    Without self realization causing inner change no victory .

  25. End Of The MayanD Avatar
    End Of The MayanD

    Society is a conspiracy of the power-obsessed people, a criminal collusion between oligarchs, governments, politicians, banksters, big tech companies, and MSM fake news, and their basic strategy is to divide individuals from the very beginning.
    It is because of repression and believing in their propaganda that we have become divided between conscious and unconscious.
    It is the great work of your so-called society.
    Once we are divided we start becoming weak, we start fighting within ourselves.
    We become split, we become schizophrenic.
    And once split we can never be a master of ourselves.
    The whole effort of the society is to reduce you to efficient mechanisms.
    And vast amounts of money are wasted in order to cripple you, to destroy you, to paralyze you.
    The society does not want awareness.
    Awareness is dangerous for this so-called society, because the society is ill and this society has investments in unconsciousness.
    If people are aware, then what will happen?
    What will happen to all the politicians and their whole great game?
    All the vested interests need a humanity which is not rebellious, which is very willing, almost begging, to be slaves.
    And rather than being free we have decided to be slaves.
    But life does not mean for us to follow another, it is the unfolding of one’s self.
    It is not a process of becoming like another, just a process to be one’s own self.
    A locked down person who is not free to move according to the moment and the situation is by default a slave.
    Welcome to the Fascist New World Order!
    If chains are few, people can endure them.
    But when they are many, people will revolt.
    And the people are revolting.
    As governments continue to destroy their societies, as they continue to destroy the global economic structure, and as they continue to destroy the lives of their own citizens, all in the name of containing a scientifically unproven virus, which in reality is just camouflage for an illegal and un-democratic global control grid reset.
    Governments have been doing so much harm to the individuality of people.
    Behind the name of justice, they are enacting a tremendous conspiracy against the individual.
    All laws, courts and judges, are not there to protect justice, are not there to protect the weak, are not there to protect the victim, they are there to protect the power structure, the establishment, the rich.
    Governments go on committing all kinds of crimes against humanity.
    And their parliaments remain complicit in all these crimes and do nothing.
    Governments go on lying to you about everything.
    They have reduced the whole of humanity into slaves.
    When will the people realize their governments full list of crimes against humanity, and start to prosecute them through the ICC, and according to international law, and finally put them all behind bars?
    When will the people gather enough courage to go against their governments, against all the sociopathic politicians, the criminal oligarchs, the rogue central banksters, the fascist corporations who are all dominating and enslaving the whole world?
    Why is the whole global criminal syndicate so afraid of the people starting to awaken from their enslavement?
    When will humanity be able to live freely without being governed by anybody?
    There is no need of any government.
    Because each government basically means slavery.
    Humanity is a victim of power seekers, of mad people whose only ambition in life is their ego.
    The whole politics is nothing but an ego game.
    If we can live without politicians, and they are not needed at all, we can live without the boundaries of nations.
    Humanity is one.
    We can live as one world.
    Of course functional management will be needed, but politicians running governments are no longer needed.
    Governments should be in the hands of the geniuses, talented people, the cream of the society.
    The governments can be run by simpler, more honest and intelligent people, poets, painters, mystics, dancers, creative people, not criminals.
    In a real democracy what is the need of political parties?
    The real need is to make people more alert, more intelligent, so they can choose individually, and not get impressed by propaganda.
    A real democracy will choose the wise people.
    And they are all around.
    But remember, a person of wisdom is not going to beg you for a vote.
    They are not going to kiss your children and shake hands with you.
    They are not going to act all fake on MSM propaganda channels, so that they appear to be the way you would like your president to be.
    The wise person is not interested, in fact, they will not be inclined to be dragged into this mess.
    You will have to persuade them.
    The whole scene changes, not the politician persuading you, but you persuading someone to represent you.
    This way, more fresh intelligent blood will be coming into the government.
    But remember, real democracy can exist only if all the countries are dissolved.
    With so many countries preparing to fight with each other continuously, of course you have to choose the most cunning politician you can, because you think he will be safer bet.
    You want them to be smarter, more cunning than the Chinese, the Russian, the Iranian premiers.
    Or whoever the current enemy is that your propaganda dictates!
    The same is the situation in every country.
    The wise people remain out of politics.
    It is so dirty.
    And it will remain dirty till nations dissolve and we have one world where there is no question of any war, no question of preparing for war.
    The world needs to be free from all politicians, only then can it be free from top down criminality.
    What is the need for nations?
    Why can’t we have the right to move freely around the earth?
    Without passports, without surveillance, without tracking!
    This is our earth!
    People should have a birthright of free movement around the earth, and one day a birthright to move around the stars.
    We have to dissolve all the boundaries and all the nonsense that exists because of these boundaries.
    Anybody who divides humanity, for any excuse, is unforgivable.
    But the time has come to face the facts, we are also on the very verge of a total global war which could destroy everybody.
    Before that happens, get free of all poisons, nations, politicians, politics, propaganda, divisions, religions.
    Only then will the world will be really pollution free.
    We have to declare our freedom.
    It is not a question of a nation being free, it is a question of every individual on the earth being free.
    Free from all the poisons that the past has left within us.
    It can happen in a single moment of understanding.
    That is the only miracle I know.
    All other miracles are inventions of gullible people, of stupid followers, of cunning scholars.
    But one miracle is part of nature.
    If you can see your potential clearly, then don’t wait for the next moment.
    Do everything right now, drop all poisons.
    And you will see the birth of the new you.

    1. Good thoughtful comments! In the future, please consider not using a mental illness to illustrate. Many use the diagnosis schizophrenic when they actually mean split or multiple personality. An example of schizophrenic is looking into a turned -off TV and seeing the devil in the tv, giving instructions to go harm something. I’ve had foster kids with these diagnosis and they are sad and have low self esteem because they were born that way. Its a downer when they see/hear the media using their diagnosis to illustrate a point.

      1. End Of The MayanD Avatar
        End Of The MayanD

        Everybody is a little bit schizophrenic because the divided mind divides you.
        Then you are divided into the lower and the higher, then you are divided into the conscious and the unconscious, the body and the soul, and so on and so forth.
        The very process of mind divides reality into polar opposites, but reality is one.
        Reality is not two, reality is not many.
        It is not a multiverse, it is a universe.
        It is an organic whole, this existence.
        But the mind basically functions by dividing.
        Mind divides reality into two.
        Only in mind, only in your thought, the division exists.
        Because mind cannot see the one.
        Life itself is one.
        It is not divided anywhere.
        To live in duality is to live a schizophrenic life, and we all live in duality.
        If you are just herenow, the past is not needed, the future is not needed.
        Just this moment, see it, be it.
        If you are present in this moment.
        You are a being.
        You are a one.
        You are blessed.

        1. If you’re referring to the ego mind.
          Its not real.
          Its a false self.
          The universal mind of the Supreme does not divide.

          1. Peace Or Mind? Avatar
            Peace Or Mind?

            The Annual Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded by the Norwegian Nobel Committee since 1901, yet true lasting global peace remains a dream, a hope, a utopia.

            The world is in crisis, which drags us ever closer to the nuclear precipice.

            There remains no choice but to address the fundamental problems of our global dystopia.

            To discover the very roots of it’s unconscious nature.

            Yet until the people begin to realize that the solutions we seek can only be found beyond the intellectual mind.

            Global peace will remain a utopia!

            How many so called world leaders, artists, scientists, academics, politicians, clergy, celebrities, know themselves?

            Or are even aware that they do not know themselves?

            Knowing oneself is intelligence.

            Intelligence comes from seeing.

            Not from the mind, thoughts must cease for your intelligence to be.

            Intelligence is consciousness itself.

            Consciousness, being free of thought, is the door to knowing the absolute, zero.

            It is ever present within us.

            Intelligence is always in the present.

            “By placing the Hubble’s Space telescope orbit outside the distortion of Earth’s atmosphere.

            It has allowed Hubble to take extremely high-resolution images of the universe.

            Many of it’s observations have led to breakthroughs in astrophysics.”

            Uncovering intelligence, from the distortion of mind, allows us to see directly the very nature of reality.

            Fully unlocking the present will release humanity from its entire past of divisions, violence, hatred and war.

            Set Intelligence as a Universal Existential Constant!

            Intelligence is a state of no-mind.

            Our whole structure of education is built not on intelligence, but on intellect and competition.

            Only trying to achieve results in the future.

            Never realizing that intelligence is always in the present.

            Education initiates the fever of ambition and the struggle for power.

            Education does not make you more aware, more conscious.

            It simply fills you with information by increasing the power of your memory.

            Mind is nothing but a faculty of imagination.

            But while the world and it’s leaders remain oblivious to this truth.

            The implications are enormous.

            The intellect without intelligence awake is one of the most dangerous things in the world.

            And we are living under the danger of intellect.

            Because intellect has given science immense power.

            But the power is in the hands of children, not in the hands of wise people.

            Only by knowing oneself, does a person become wise.

          2. Peace Or Mind? Avatar
            Peace Or Mind?

            For the first time, humanity can be one, no divisions.

            What divides all the religions?

            Just small details, meaningless details, about their idea of god.

            But if there is no god, all those differences disappear.

            Have you met anyone who has seen god?

            You don’t know anything about god, you have only heard about him.

            And you have heard from people who have heard it from people, who have heard it from somebody else.

            The end result of believing, of having faith in a truth that you have not realized yourself.

            It is hearsay.

            https://whenwardisappears.wordpress.com/

            You are collecting all kinds of religious information that seems to be important to you.

            Why does it seem important?

            It seems important because it covers your ignorance.

            It helps you to feel as if you know.

            Yet you have no criterion to judge the true from the false.

            It is mere hearsay, knowledge which is ignorance.

            Unfortunately, ninety-nine percent of humanity belongs to that category.

            You read religious books, but cannot even be sure if the person is talking from his personal experience or hearsay.

            Are you sure that the one whose words you are taking in, whose knowledge you are imbibing, is authentic?

            A belief is not a truth.

            Knowledge is something dead.

            It is created from people who had simply heard from chains of other people who have heard about the innermost reality.

            You have not to believe in a truth.

            Truth overwhelms you.

            Knowing is something alive.

            Organized theistic religion does not have any approach towards truth,

            Because truth is intrinsic in your consciousness, beyond your mind.

            It is not a thought.

            It is not a question of philosophy, nor a question of theological discussions.

            It is a question of deep meditation that leads you beyond thinking, beyond mind.

            When I say there is no god.

            I am not saying that I disbelieve in god.

            Even for disbelief, god has to be.

            I am simply saying there is no god, has never been.

            All definitions are inventions.

            All counterfeit religious values are imposed from the outside.

            It is a programming of the mind.

            All religions have been doing this programming for centuries.

            They are not allowing the person to know the truth.

            They are not allowing the person to be really honest,

            They are forcing values from outside.

            All values imposed from outside never get to your center.

            The only authentic values are those which come from your center and spread outwards, not vice versa.

            That’s exactly the meaning of education: drawing the water out from the well.

            Education means drawing your inner being into expression in your living, your day to day life.

            Your honesty, your love, your compassion, should come from your inner being,

            Not from teachings and scriptures, not from rabbis, imams and priests.

            Those who have taken away your individuality, your freedom, your intelligence.

            In its place they have given you bogus beliefs, which mean nothing.

            Talking about every possible impossible thing they know nothing of,

            Their systems are purely creations of imagination.

            Accepting a personal god creates unnecessary problems which are insolvable.

            Any hypothesis which creates problems rather than solving them is useless.

            In fact, prayer has no way to reach to the truth.

            Because prayer is based on belief in a god.

            You have already accepted a belief.

            Why do you go on talking with yourself in the first place?

            If you observe, then you can find out the cause.

            It is a kind of religious neurosis.

            Nothing is complete in your life, everything is incomplete.

            Not knowing yourself.

            You will not be fulfilled.

            You will not feel content.

            The reality is that you have not tried to change your life, to change your vision, to change your consciousness.

            You have not taken the realms of your life into your own hands!

            You are not a master of your own being.

            The real honesty is not towards the society, towards the church, towards god.

            No the real honesty is a responsibility to your own being, now, exactly where you are, this very moment.

            Because after thousands of years of conditioning,

            You have never known what it means to live moment to moment.

            The only real test is when you have your own experience.

            It needs tremendous awareness.

            You have to be honest to the present moment, not to the past, not to the future.

            Then you have no further need to listen to anyone else.

            Truth is a search, not a faith. It is an inquiry, not a belief.

            An Authentic Religiousness, needs no prophets, no saviors, no churches, no popes, no priests, because religiousness is the flowering of your heart.

            If religiousness spreads all over the world the religions will fade away.

            It will be a tremendous blessing to humanity when people are simply people.

            So my whole effort is to prepare individuals, not groups; and each individual has to be a seeker, not a believer.

            Each individual has to come to his own understanding about life, existence and the ultimate values.

            Those values may be different to you, they may be different to somebody else, it doesn’t matter, but they will have a beauty.

            One humanity is enough.

            And one religiousness is enough.

            Meditation, truth, love, authenticity, sincerity.

            A quality, not something organized.

            The moment organization comes in there is going to be violence,

            Because there will be other organizations in conflict.

  26. We all reside on death-row.
    The only decision left is how to behave.

    1. Behave based on whose, or what, criteria?

      1. You get to decide how you behave. The universe gets to decide the consequences.

        1. Yes, free will. Cause and effect.

          1. No such thing as free will.
            (You are run by your ego mind)
            You behave as you have in the past with ego.So you don’t get to decide until you are free from it ( conscious/aware enlightened)

            1. Please don’t say things like this. It is not helpful.
              .
              In a previous article (https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2020/05/19/dissident-circles-too-often-become-another-nerdy-hobby-group/) Caitlin talks about nerds (eg Buddhism nerds) “arguing in the exact same nerdy ways as people who are really into Star Wars or video games. And accomplishing just as much.”
              .
              The Buddha (for example) taught people how to become enlightened, and the system he taught relies on the conscious application of will. He never taught that there is no such thing as free will. Not because “free will” really does exist. Not because it’s a pointless red herring. But because it’s actually a harmful teaching.
              .
              If you convince someone that there is no free well – that it’s just a playing out of existing patterns – then you may convince that person to stop applying themselves to the necessary practice. And thereby prevent their enlightenment. By propagating this teaching, you are harming living beings, because you are undermining their ability to make a decision to change their lives.
              .
              This is something I feel very strongly about. Please refrain from saying there is “No such thing as free will.” Irrespective of any nerdy dogmatic arguments you can make, it’s a pointless, meaningless and dangerous doctrine to espouse. Furthermore, you personally don’t know it, and can’t prove it. (You need to be able to observe directly the non-existence of free-will. I guarantee that’s beyond your present ability.)
              .
              If you want to emphasise “You behave as you have in the past with ego”, fine. But that is not the whole picture. The only reason Buddhism works is because it’s possible for someone to transcend that conditioning through the application of will – BEFORE attaining enlightenment.
              .
              If you aren’t coming from a Buddhist perspective, it doesn’t matter. Everything I said still applies, make your own substitutions in the above.

    2. If life is a death sentence, then maybe death is a life sentence.

  27. George Critch Avatar
    George Critch

    Real eyes realize real lies;

    Well young lady, we are indeed on the precipice and (for the few that understand) we signed up for it. We are lucky to be here and if we can put our presence in the context that our reason for being is to meet ourself through growth, learning and peeling back the layers to reveal the truth of our existence, will we find happiness. There is an old Hindu saying something like, “ the great mother has shaken great cultures from her back”. This is a nod to the fact that our culture will end as others have and for the same reasons they ended. Any number of things can be labeled as the cause, but basically it is a lack of integrity. Do you think the Romans thought their empire would crumble and dissolve? Or, did the Egyptians ever think that their great structures would someday be covered in sand? How did wooly mammoths flash freeze? As the tundra has melted and revealed these specimens they were found to have fresh buttercups in their mouths. So, yes there is an outlier, a black swan event that awaits this iteration of mankind. What it is, is not clear. How did the planet end up on an axis that is tilted? Uh, how about an asteroid about a mile long hitting the Greenland ice cap about 12,000 years ago (Great Flood story in most cultures). Nobody knows what evidence lies beneath the slime of the oceans of previously great civilizations. Thinking that we are a superior civilization is a problem for man. Fulfilling our personal destiny and living our ideal is easier said than done. But just the realization of the task is a start.
    Happiness is knowing. Knowing that we are not alone in this experience. Knowing that we are separate from the physical body that we temporarily inhabit. Knowing that this dimension is a brief moment. Knowing that much more awaits. Knowing that we are each on a path of self discovery. Knowing that all who we meet may not understand any of this. Knowing that it is our responsibility to assist where we can and resist the temptation to judge. Knowing that the temporal world has limitations. Knowing that living my ideal is my reason for being here. For me, this is happiness. (Never are we more ourselves than when we are helping someone.)

    1. A flash of wisdom in the madness around us, inside us. Greatly appreciated, George. Let us hope that “much more awaits,” because what we can now see looming in “the temporal world” is not only limited but hideous. But then, of course, despite all appearances and seeming certainties, there is that thing about the kingdom of god actually coming on earth. Albert Schweitzer said that of all the things Jesus asked us to believe in, to work toward, THAT was by far the most difficult.

  28. “For better or for worse, we are at a time of great change from which the world will likely never return. We are heading into what is probably the most significant period in human history to date, and it would be wise to pay attention.”

    I agree. But with a focus on politics, I think most people are missing the big picture.

    The looming bank collapse:
    https://medium.com/the-atlantic/the-looming-bank-collapse-bb89cd78b95b

    American Disequilibrium:
    https://surplusenergyeconomics.wordpress.com/2020/06/15/174-american-disequilibrium/

    Sample of multiple daily impacts from climate heating:
    https://climateandeconomy.com/2020/06/17/17th-june-2020-todays-round-up-of-climate-news/

    Facing Extinction:
    https://www.catherineingram.com/facingextinction/

  29. “For better or for worse, we are at a time of great change from which the world will likely never return. We are heading into what is probably the most significant period in human history to date, and it would be wise to pay attention.”

    What are examples of the “ … great change from which the world will never return”?

    How do you define that “ … most significant period in human history … ”? Isn’t that just a little bit over-the-top-profundity?

    “… it would be wise to pay attention.” Pay attention to what, exactly?

    “But when I look at what people are talking about in my social media feeds, even relatively awake and tuned-in people, I see a lot of chatter about the same-old, same-old. People are still yammering on about the same old electoral politics they’ve been on about for years, still babbling about PC culture being out of control and how crazy some people’s gender pronouns are, still dunking on shitlibs for likes and retweets. Even my own articles I notice get a lot more shares and attention if they involve something that tickles mainstream partisan interests like criticizing Trump or bashing the Democrats.

    “And I just cannot for the life of me imagine continuing to hold such priorities halfway through the year 20 fucking 20.”

    About what should people be concerned or about which they should be talking?

    What should today’s priorities be for people?

    “At this time we need to drastically change our perspectives and seriously re-evaluate our priorities.”

    To what should we change our perspectives and what should be our top priorities?

    Do you not, perhaps, think that you are giving far too much importance to the corporate and social media 24/7, hour-by-hour reporting/commenting that is often aggrandized, molded to fit a point of view, or simply fabricated?

    Do you not believe that, given a day or two, corporate media will have changed their reporting focus to entirely new subjects?

    I think you short-change the intellectual acuity of the public, at least those that still possess a working cognitive function.

    Did you write this article, Ms. Johnstone? Seems a bit juvenile compared to many of your prior contributions.

    1. Well caitlin has alot of company. Countless people living through times of great stress and upheaval thought it was probably the most important time in history. It was for them I am sure but only a cyclic blip for mankind. Personally I didnt mention it because I considered it simply poetic licanse.⁷

      1. For the first time in the history of our species, we are simultaneously facing two looming existential threats: nuclear war and ecocide. And one might add a third, which underlies the other two: global plutocracy/insane, obscene wealth distribution and the power (of the few) and powerlessness (of the many) that inevitably flows from it. If this multifaceted existential quandary–global and species-wide–does not strike you as something new, something extraordinary, a set of seemingly-intractable and pressing problems which we will somehow find a way to surmount, or to which we will surely succumb, then I question whether your eyes are open.

        1. You act like this stuff has never hapoened before. Than God I am not woke to the utter foolishness happening today. So lets address a few of your concerns. Ecologically we had the mini ice age a few hundred years ago where people starved. Eealth distribution has always been one sided in history. The middle class emerged and you think yea. Guess what most of history had no middle class. We could easily move back to that, eg, any third world country. Nuclear war, it has been over our head for 80 years. You are just now finding it an threat. Humanity has been living beside an active volcano tge entire time hoping it doesnt erupt.

        2. Nuclear weapons are a hoax. The “globe” is a hoax. The entire establishment narrative is a big deception, and yet that’s not a big deal really. There are no “pressing problems”, except for those manufactured in one’s mind. Something new? Every moment is new. Questioning whether one’s eyes are open? Only in this current moment can one’s eyes be open. All else is illusion.

  30. Roundball Shaman Avatar
    Roundball Shaman

    “The real way to live life to its fullest is to simply be present for it.”

    What must happen first is that a person WANTS to live to the fullest. For many people today, that just is not on their daily agenda. They either wish to spend 24 hours a day on trivial crap, or finding things to be outraged about, or just trying to survive hostile circumstances. Life is about choices. If you want to live life to its fullest, you will, regardless of how unremarkable your life might seem to others on the outside. If you want to piss your life away, you have that opportunity. Life gives you back what you put out and what you really want.

    “We are heading into what is probably the most significant period in human history to date…”

    The most significant period in human history is the coming Cosmic Fork In The Road when we decide as a species whether we will evolve into a higher life form or we will destroy ourselves in an orgy of destructive weapons explosions and destructive attitudes about each other as humans.

    “Shift toward emphasizing a bigger-picture perspective of what’s going on… Pay attention… this moment in history should ideally cause us to cast aside petty differences and bring us closer together.”

    You are describing how to stop Our Titanic from taking on more water. But you are also surrounded by loads of passengers on board who keep funneling more sea water onto the deck even as our ship is going down. They don’t have a plan to find any lifeboats, and they are actively participating in Our Sinking. And, they are doing their best to interfere with honest and courageous efforts of people who are doing what they can to try to save us and the ship before it disappears into the deep. People are not on the same page today. There is no common goal. Everyone has a different definition of victory. You can’t win a game if you can’t count on your teammates and you don’t agree on what winning is.

    1. 1. Everyone has different definitions of living life to the fullest. For you trivial crap may be fulfi)ing.
      2. Humanity always chooses destruction. Prepare for it.
      3. The common goal of man is selfishness and self interest. Thus chaos.

      1. There is only one “living life to the fullest”.
        It has nothing to do with definitions.
        You are speaking in ignorance for youregoself as a doomporner.
        The goal of man is not selfishness.
        Maybe your goal but not that of human beings.

        1. Man maybe not. Mankind definitely bent on destruction. You call it doom porn, I call it looking at what history tells us about mans propensity for self destruction and the inability to live in harmony with one another.

  31. Why aren’t Americans talking about this?
    #TrumpIsNotWell

      1. One of the original Black Panthers, Larry Pinkney, sees through all the MSM negative info on our President. He is supporting President Trump.

  32. “And, much like the approach of the end of life, this moment in history should ideally cause us to cast aside petty differences and bring us closer together.”

    I would like to hold hands with a few of my fellow beings as we contemplate the unfolding apocalypse, but they are too busy with their usual thoughts to join me……

    1. Hold their hand anyway

      1. Right Glen. In my dreams we are all already in love and holding each other in a cosmic embrace too sacred for our worldly selves to acknowledge….

  33. Charles Andrew Robinson Avatar
    Charles Andrew Robinson

    How you live and relate to life here matters.

    1. Thank you for posting. I listened last night. I recall him on C2C, but I really didn’t listen to him, before. Much appreciated.

  34. Thanks Caitlin. Sound advice we all need to hear.
    The Media keeps everyone in a state of emotional turmoil; and emotion distorts perception just as surely as ideology does. Stay present and open-minded and endeavor not to get triggered into hysteria. Be gentle with yourself and with others.

  35. Blair Schirmer Avatar
    Blair Schirmer

    Speaking of casting aside petty differences, I will be interested to see if the Left is willing to go anywhere at all on the issue of imprisoning men for being too poor to pay child support.
    .
    A quick study (we care so little about these men, except as fodder for private prisons and a veritable child support industry) suggests we jail 200,000 men each year because their average income of $11,000 a year renders them unable to pay court-ordered support.
    .
    And why do we do this? Because various lobbies demand it, and because the Left refuses not only to speak to it, but even to recognize a problem exists.
    .
    Most countries are sensible enough to realize that imprisoning men (and it’s almost always men, who are jailed 8 times as often as women over child support arrears despite more often [66% to 56%] paying the entirety of ordered support) over arrears is extraordinarily counterproductive. Who knows a child whose income situation benefited from adding this charge to dad’s sheet?
    .
    The right probably won’t speak to this. Their answer to most things is more law, more order, more prisons, more prisoners—so, who on the Left might be willing to take this on, even to the point of leading with it?
    .
    Many of the issues now at stake are embodied here. The long waves of anger women feel towards men, generally, and how that divides (and is used to divide) the Left and, to be blunt, drives the young white men who should be natural allies of the progressive movement to the right–where at least they don’t feel despised.
    .
    Private prisons come into play, as does the selective enforcement of laws such that black and brown men, along with poor whites, are the primary targets of support units. We saw that exemplified by the case of Walter Scott, the black man murdered by a police officer in South Carolina, after a stop that was about to lead to Scott’s 9th arrest for child support arrears. Mr. Scott’s example reminds us of how such men often live much of their adult lives in arrears, the threat of arrest and prison, of losing a job, and more importantly losing the ability to see their children for months at a time, always hanging over their heads.
    .
    As far as the Left is concerned, though, this critical issue doesn’t even exist. It should, though. These men, their lives, their children, all matter enormously. Poverty should never be criminalized. That has been the Left’s orthodoxy—and it should be their orthodoxy—for well over a century.
    .
    What happened?
    .

    1. Modern day version of debtors prison. We are not enlightened just have more technology. Most people can use a phone but unable to do simple arithmetic. Ignorant as rocks just like 300 years ago.

  36. Check this out for a reality check; did anybody ever really believe that wealthy whites ever gave a damn about blacks other than negatively?

    https://mailchi.mp/96c0d7a102e9/americas-own-color-revolution?e=0181570ac1

  37. I found your article contradictory. You encourage presence, but in the same context you list highlights from the ongoing media drama that’s scripted to keep us anxious, divided, and feuding.

    “20 fucking 20” [cute], “Standing on a precipice together”, “no idea what the plunge will look like”

    Anger, worry, fear. Is divvying out these perspectives helpful?

    “Pay attention. Big things are happening right now, and it would be a damn shame to miss them.”

    What big things? Pay attention to what? Miss what? Whatever the media machine throws into the public feeding trough each day? Turn off the TV, radio, and mainstream websites. Ignore the establishment narratives, and certainly don’t follow them on a daily basis. One’s own moment-to-moment experience is far more relevant than any of that crap. I like your housekeeper example.

    “The real way to live life to its fullest is to simply be present for it.”

    Yes!

    1. Jesus says constantly to WATCH which is to be alert, AWARE – “What I say unto you, I say unto All, WATCH!”. Mark 13

      3 And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?

      4 And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you.

      5 For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many.
      6 And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.

      7 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.

      8 All these are the beginning of sorrows.

      9 Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name’s sake.

      10 And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another.

      11 And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many.

      12 And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.

      13 But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.

      14 And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.

      15 When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:)

      16 Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains:

      17 Let him which is on the housetop not come down to take any thing out of his house:

      18 Neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes.

      19 And woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days!

      20 But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day:

      21 For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. SUCH AS WAS NOT SINCE THE BEGINNING OF THE WORLD TO THIS TIME, NOR EVER SHALL BE AGAIN – the Kingdom of God begins at the soon Second Coming.

      22 And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened.

  38. 20 “fucking” 20.

    I love that!

  39. I think we are on to something here…

  40. “And, much like the approach of the end of life, this moment in history should ideally cause us to cast aside petty differences and bring us closer together.” As I approach my life’s end, having been here for more than 70 years, I wonder whether I’m watching not only the end of my life but that of human civilization, perhaps the species itself, perhaps even the entire world. When the ravages of the post-Covid depression have finally set in, when formerly working class/middle class people by the untold millions are left hanging in the wind while the rich and powerful bail out only themselves, THEN the ultimate question will be posed to humanity, to the human spirit. Can we come together, rise up, and overwhelm the PTB, bring into being governments that work for us, for everyone, that aren’t merely masks for plutocracy…or can’t we? Something new and beautiful, some socioeconomic order both humane and ecological, is suddenly straining to be born. Will we find ways to unite in the effort to bring that new, struggling (mode of) being into the world, or will we continue to squabble with each other, pit one form of ignorance against another, as the baby dies in the birth canal?

  41. If politics is the art of the possible, then radicalism must be the capacity to imagine new possibilities.
    .
    “A map of the world that does not include utopia is not
    worth even glancing at. For it leaves out the one country at
    which humanity is always landing. And when humanity lands
    there, it looks out, and, seeing a better country, sets sail.”
    .
    You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.
    .
    In economically advanced democracies, whose universities teach some sort of Enlightenment tradition and technocratic specialty, societies often do not share in common—and do not teach—certain important cultural cores. These cores, which I think of as modules, include personal conflict resolution (how do we disagree? how do we apologize?), personal finances (how do we spend our money? how luxuriously should we live? how much should we save?), personal fitness (how do I maintain my body? what athletic skills should be practiced to promote health and strength?), and emotional or spiritual growth.
    .
    These cultural modules are important because they address large parts of day-to-day life and overall lifestyle. They are also important because each module or chunk of teachings/practices can be fairly extensive, and hard to derive from scratch. Individuals, and entire societies, may take a long time to rediscover some of these helpful practices. Fortunately for those of us bred in educational systems which run light on these cultural modules, there are lots of gurus around which are not too hard to discover. By taking a guru here and a guru there, you can form a complete personal culture, a complete lifestyle. My point is not that any of these teachers represents the last word on the topic, though sometimes their acolytes seem to think so, and though it might seem so when you’re reading the firehose of information for the first time. My point is just that each teacher has assembled a rich set of advice and tips. Combining them generates many ideas and crossover habits, and putting them into practice will keep you busy for a long time.
    .
    Rolling your own culture in this way is in general a good idea, I think. Even if you come from a background that includes teachings or traditions which address each of these areas, contrasting advice may suit you better or at least provoke greater reflection. And if you do not come from such a background—the secular elementary and university system for instance—you likely will be able to find a more thoughtful approach than whatever your default is, saving you years of flailing.
    .
    Although rolling your own culture is a good idea in general, doing so leads to a few follow-on problems. First, rolling your own requires a lot of work. Discovering ideas and concepts, understanding them, comparing them, trying them out, carries significant costs in time and energy. This can take years. Many people lack the time and energy—or intellectual bandwidth if we’re being honest—to accomplish this task. By God you had better have figured out something that works for you before your business hits a rough patch or you lose a family member or your partner gets cancer, because you won’t be able to figure it out after that. Some communities with a complete worldview contain these teachings as a package deal—both a feature and a bug of such communities. As a feature, a comprehensive and integrated set of teachings saves most ordinary people years (or generations) of search and testing. As a bug, some of the teachings may be pathological or simply not individually suited.
    .
    Second, the individual modules may not fit together very well. One could imagine a university-level course on lifestyle design. Our lives and cultures are, by and large, slipshod, ramshackle constructions, bits of this and that tacked together. We select from the available chunks and try to fit them together into a coherent whole—an education here, a job there, a box to live in, entertainment to pass the time. These available ‘life parts’ tend to be black boxes in whose design we have little say. They may not fit together into a satisfying whole at all—the boat they make may not float. I do not think this kind of problem is one that individual imagination is powerful enough to solve. Even the most imaginative among us will tend to build a monstrosity instead of a life.
    .
    The third problem resulting from rolling your own culture is more serious and more interesting. One definition of a community is the place you can bring all of your self to, the kind of space held up as an ideal in Robert Putnam’s classic, Bowling Alone. With a close friend, or at a traditional church, you can talk about your bad leg, your struggles or success at work, how your love life or lack thereof is going, and your newest hobby. There is no compartmentalization. That’s a community. By contrast, industrialized or post-industrialized economies are systematic. You can talk about your strength training at your gym, your bad leg at your physical therapist’s, your emotional life at your psychologist’s, and your career with your mentor—assuming you are lucky enough to have some or all of these. Your self becomes splintered among these locations and communities.
    .
    One common solution is to choose one of these categories in which to invest your identity. By emphasizing one lifestyle category over others, you can find a lot of fulfillment among other like-minded people. However, finding a group that shares even a few of your cultural modules becomes a significant challenge. Sometimes lifestyle teachings select against each other. Sometimes some modules cluster together, such as libertarianism and the Paleo diet, and those clusters do aid in finding friends and community. Modules that cluster together or that select against each other can be set to one side for the moment. In general, as a simple matter of probability, because we now roll our own cultures, the increasing diversity of the modules of these cultures decreases overlap between the sub-communities of the modules, and decreases the chances of finding many people who share several modules with you.
    .
    A true community, where you bring all of your self, forms in the overlapping portion of the Venn diagram of many cultural modules. Traditional communities propagate themselves and preserve themselves precisely by maintaining that overlapping region. As that Venn center shrinks, so does the number of true communities.
    .
    “People have always had selves, but selves have not always
    had to carry the burden of supplying meaning to life in such a
    far-reaching fashion.”
    .
    As society has become simultaneously secular and atomized, community has become harder to come by. Community forms largely around shared culture of one sort or another, and with less cultural overlap, communities shrink. As cultures become atomized or nonexistent, our languages for communicating meaning to one another, for crafting meaning together, have a shrinking shared vocabulary. And as crafting meaning together becomes harder, the result is also poorer than received meanings from history.
    .
    What is to be done?
    .
    https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2020/05/30/18833392.php

    http://www.mediafire.com/file/k1omyaf0r73shvk/Twenty-Twenty-four.pdf/file

  42. Yes ” We’re all standing on a precipice together and we have no idea what the plunge will look like”.

    What to do ?
    My personal answer goes as follows :

    1. Since a few decades already I try to reconcile my subconscious visions with my conscious certainties.
    This means traveling the path of increased consciousness.

    2. I also try to search for useful knowledge to decipher what’s going on around me.

    Useful knowledge helps getting a big-picture perspective of the whole reality in which I’m a very very very tiny particle indeed. Mastering that big-picture quietens my daily life and helps me “seeing” the things happening around me. I then try to reconcile what I see with the big picture in my mind. This reconciliation helps me to increase my useful knowledge as well as refining the big picture in my mind.

    Once mastering this exercise it becomes daily routine.

    My big picture goes as follows :

    1. The Governance-world has reached a stage of chaos which soon is going to peak and a new phase of order will slowly emerge. What this means is that the center of gravity of the economy-world is shifting from the USA to East-Asia with Beijing at its core.

    Western big capital holders and their servants are mad with rage at this pespective but they are divided between — the nationalists who want to dictate through force how their citizens should behave, — and the internationalists who, as rats, are jumping over board their sinking national ships. Watching this spectacle I’m struck by the general state of madness attained in Western societies and more particularly in the US.

    2. The multiple side-effects of Modernity are ravaging the habitat of living species. In our present age of Late-Modernity these side-effects are converging and initiating interrelations among them that are completely outside of our human capacity to understand and forecast. The principle of precaution would want humanity to take a pause and think about how our societies could possibly live sustainably. But I think that under the present Western model of “axioms of civilization” and Christian, or Christian derived “worldview”, our daily culture can only add more madness to what is already a mountain of madness.

    3. I think that humanity’s last chance of surviving its present predicament lies with the Chinese. I think that their “axioms of civilization”, + the animistic and pragmatic “worldview” shared by all Chinese, could help their nation to drive the world onto a radically other path from where the citizens of this earth could possibly be sharing a common destiny built from the perspective of an ecological worldview.

    1. i had a 30 year old chinese friend that emigrated to the United States. I asked him why he came. He said there was more opportunity to make a decent living and live better in America. This spoken by someone raised in China and lived in America for 5 years. Now I think he would have a much better grasp on what was pertinent and real. The chinese have way too many people to care about to help anyone. They want to do business with the world and pretty much want to be left alone. The west wont do that so things will now get interesting.

  43. Its hard to keep any healthy internal perspective when a great deal of the resources in the world are being used to assault our health, freedom, sanity, and survival.

  44. This is a brilliant on point post, Caitlin. Not much more to be said, though I personally found it interesting that you posted on this subject of being fully aware and PRESENT in the NOW and experiencing it to the fullest, as I’m in the process of putting together a course of exercises directed at just that point as the basis of all of all of our powers to succeed in life.

    Well done.

    Roger

    1. Would you mind a very brief direct definition of what bring aware and livinging the Now means. I find it to be overused underexplained, trite and overused.

      1. I am going to respond to that question, Khatika, even though you might have wanted Roger to answer. His name links to a website which explains where he’s coming from.
        .
        First, I agree that the expression is underexplained, trite and overused.
        .
        Second, my definition will not be very brief.
        .
        “aware and living in the Now”
        .
        Because it’s trite and overused, it means different things to different people.
        .
        For some it just means enjoying living, being spontaneous, being hedonistic, etc. Sort of a cliche for when times are good, you don’t feel burdened by responsibility or duty and you don’t have any worries. May be a sign of good fortune rather than wisdom or growth.
        .
        Sometimes it is a call to psychological healing. For example, to short-circuit anxiety, remorse, or any number of other chronic emotional states, you can turn your attention to just what is here at this very moment. It turns attention away from the drama in your head, and it gives you a chance to discover that reality itself is not that bad, and not that complicated.
        .
        Sometimes it is related to personal empowerment. Appropriately focused awareness can lead to an understanding of the relationship between your projected emotional/mental states and the external or underlying reality. In this way, you can become more effective in the real world, whilst being clearer about your true motivations and goals.
        .
        But the deeper meaning, and I believe the original meaning, comes from various Eastern religious traditions. Probably Buddhism, maybe Taoism.
        .
        In Buddhism, living in the Now is code for being enlightened. It means being free from Delusion, or realising Emptiness. It can only happen one moment at a time.
        .
        Some believe you can practice living in the Now, but I don’t think it works like that.
        .
        Freedom from Delusion (if only for a moment) can only be attained from the realisation that comes from specific practices, called Wisdom Practice. I will give a brief explanation of that practice soon. Awareness of actual reality is a key component of that practice. Another component is awareness of what you are doing and why. Together these two are called Mindfulness.
        .
        Many people when they try Wisdom Practice won’t succeed. This is because their mind isn’t clear enough, nor disciplined enough. To clarify and discipline the mind requires a second kind of practice called One-Pointed Concentration. Also called Tranquil Abiding or Meditation (another trite and overused word). To do this, choose an object (often recommended are the sensation at the entrance of the nostril, or the experience of unconditional love). Focus attention on this object alone for a period of time. Success at this practice can result in specific changes of consciousness, accompanied by bliss, peace and so on. This practice will not lead to enlightenment, its purpose is to clarify and discipline the mind. Some people get hooked on the bliss and peace, and don’t return or progress to the Wisdom Practice.
        .
        Many people when they try One-Pointed Concentration find it difficult. This is because their psychological state is too disrupted. Or their life is too disrupted. To counter this requires a third kind of practice called Moral Discipline. In the west, there are also some very useful psychological therapies that can used. Again, this practice will not lead to enlightenment, its purpose is to make One-Pointed Concentration easier.
        .
        So the only practice that leads directly to enlightenment is Wisdom Practice. Let me describe the generic practice of realising emptiness. This is a practice, and its purpose is to realise emptiness.
        .
        Select an object currently experienced in your immediate reality. Recommended are concrete physical objects like this desk, this cup, this body. Other more subtle objects are consciousness, space, time, delusion etc, but these are pointless for beginners. Other objects like your self, your thoughts or your emotions are also possible but may be difficult for a beginner. In any case, you need to be able to observe the object without judgement and without getting drawn into it’s drama.
        .
        You need to directly perceive the object as a mental construct. Not imagine it, or talk yourself into it, but directly perceive it. You don’t have to bring it into being – it’s already there. Just like you directly perceive the colour of a cup as visual sensation, or the sound of a bird as sound sensation, you can perceive the cup itself as an object which is a mental construct. One way of working towards this is to focus first on the purely physical sensations of colour/form, sound, touch etc and then notice the mental constructs which are not themselves physical sensations. (Close your eyes. The colour goes away, but the “cup” stays. With eyes closed, touch it with just the tip of a finger. You only experience a single point of contact, but somehow you sense the whole object.) It took me several years of daily practice to get to the point where I could perceive mental constructs directly, so don’t assume this will be quick. It isn’t hard work, but it helps if you are interested and patient.
        .
        When you are able to definitely perceive the object as a mental construct, turn your attention to the certainty that the object exists in reality. As in “of course this cup exists!”. The name for this is “self-grasping ignorance”, or ignorance of “anatta”. Typically this doesn’t look like a belief, it looks like a self-evident truth. It isn’t. It’s another mental construct. It is “the object to be denied”. Keep focusing on the certainty that the cup really exists until you see that it is a mental construct, and that it is not a truth in reality. Just perceiving it can be enough. That is the realisation of emptiness. Congratulations. Typically with the first realisation of emptiness comes a conceptual certainty that this obviously applies to all objects without exception. That is a conceptualisation and is not true realisation of emptiness. Nevertheless, from the first true realisation of emptiness you now know (conceptually) what is going on and how liberation comes about. This is why in the Theravada tradition a Stream Winner is said to have perfect faith, amongst other attributes.
        .
        With repeated practice and realisation (known as familiarity with emptiness), you can operate in daily life (for shorter or longer periods of time) with this realisation manifested. That is known as living in the Now.
        .
        Very few people actually attain realisation of emptiness, but it’s probably within anyone’s capability if they so desire.
        .
        So now you have these different possible meanings, you can start to guess what people might mean when they say something like “being fully aware and PRESENT in the NOW” or “experiencing it to the fullest”.
        .
        If you do this practice, and especially if you get to the stage when you are perceiving mental objects directly, this shows you the level of clarity and awareness that could be described as “being fully aware”. I am not sure I would ever describe it as “experiencing it to the fullest”, this sounds more like inspirational cheer-leading – from someone who still believes in the objects they experience.

  45. Sound advice, I spend a good deal of my time ‘inside my head’ as ex-wife and girlfriends have said. Even as a kid I was often too preoccupied with what was going on inside my head than to go out and play when other kids called for me to play out.
    It’s the whole ‘live in the moment’ thing.
    I am now paying attention to the big things, but there is nothing I can do about it…..the signs are saying that war is coming, a big one. This will put coronavirus into perspective.
    I suppose my issue is that I dislike the media picking what we must read, watch or listen to. I for example don’t like listening to the radio in the car….I want to control what I listen to, not have some shock jock do it. Same with TV, I hate ad and so got out of the habit of watching when I lived in America….the habit has not come back in 20 years.
    I like to reading so I get my news etc from the internet, and instead of watching TV I go to bed early and read good quality novels.

    1. I find what’s going on in my head to often be a lot more interesting that what’s going on in the world immediately around me and certainly in the media. A plague — well, there have been a lot of them and they usually work out in the same way. A war — same thing. A financial crash, well, we’ve seen a lot of them. The really remarkable thing is that highly social, communicating, potentially intelligent animals, to wit, human beings, don’t see these things coming and prepare for them, nor do they want to deal with them when they arrive, except through hysteria and violence. For instance, if Americans had practiced social distancing, masking, and a lot of indoor ventilation, we’d be long out of the woods with COVID-19 as South Korea,Taiwan, New Zealand, and several other countries are, and a hundred thousand people who just had unpleasant deaths would be still alive. But instead we turned it into a political and culture-war issue, where wearing a mask shows you have insufficient machismo. Even our learnèd authorities were too stupid to give those people who would listen to them the correct facts. At least the ghosts in my head aren’t _that_ dumb.

  46. Stephen Morrell Avatar
    Stephen Morrell

    What if the vast majority were united to struggle for a simple program of concrete demands for the basic things needed to live, which in the big picture everyone, everywhere in the capitalist world, really needs. And in opposing these self-evidently sensible demands, the rulers eventually resort to brute force to try and squash the struggle for them. And what if after all that, it dawns on the majority that the rulers will never allow ordinary humans, who after all produce all their wealth, to eke out a decent living or even have the means for basic human survival? Only then will the majority of the population seriously consider taking the last measure left to them: overthrowing the tiny minority of rulers who show themselves thoroughly and psychopathically capable only of maiming, ruining and killing as many as it takes to maintain their rule.
    —-
    Here’s a short list of common-sense demands for things needed by everyone, in every capitalist country, but which the capitalist class ultimately can never grant:

    1. Free, decent healthcare, education, housing, clothing, food and water;
    2. Free 24-hour childcare;
    3. A sliding scale of hours to share the work around with no loss in pay;
    4. A sliding scale of wages that keeps pace with inflation;
    5. Decent, fully paid sick leave and holiday leave;
    6. Decent retirement benefits that don’t leave retirees begging for part-time work because their pension fund was pillaged by the employers;
    7. Expropriation of the rapacious banks and other monopolists caught robbing the population blind;
    8. Major capital works programs to rebuild decrepit infrastructure, paid at union wages;
    9. Factory and works committees, subject to the majority rule of the enterprise workforce, to regulate working and safety conditions and to control production;
    10. Factories or other enterprises that declare bankruptcy are taken over by said workers committees;
    11. Organised mass mobilisations with armed, integrated workers militias to defend protests, strikes, occupations, picket lines and working class and black neighbourhoods against fascists, cops, the national guard and the private armies of the ruling class.
    —-
    Nothing in any of this mentions ‘revolution’, but in the course of struggle for these basic demands the word ‘revolution’ increasingly will be ‘mentioned’. Is it possible to win over the majority to supporting such demands, splitting away the Trump voters, the Sanders voters and everyone else desperate to break free of the current political dead end? Of course it is. There’s nothing at all ‘utopian’ in the demands above, and if we were sending colonists to Mars tomorrow, demands 1 & 2 would be par for the course. The remainder are to clean up the mess back here on earth.
    —-
    This is the big picture and partly reflects the approach taken in “The Death Agony of Capitalism and the Tasks of the Fourth International — The Transitional ProgramTransitional Program” (1938). [see here: https://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1938/tp/tp-text.htm#mt%5D
    —-
    “If capitalism is incapable of satisfying the demands inevitably arising from the calamities generated by itself, then let it perish.”

    1. Male bovine fecal matter. There is no such thing as a free lunch. In spite of your communist blathering, what you call “capitalism” is now nearly completely devoid of free enterprise, and far more resembles exactly what you prefer, with the unfortunate side effect of giving psychopaths control. Free enterprise has elevated more people to a higher standard of living than any other economic construct in the history of the species. While it is seriously degraded by edicts from on high, whats left of free enterprise has created a system in the West that makes what they call “poverty” a high standard of living in nations with other economic constructs.

      1. Stephen Morrell Avatar
        Stephen Morrell

        So when has this mythical ‘golden age’ (more like a minute or an hour) of ‘free enterprise’ held sway in the capitalist economy? Was it in the 18th or 19th centuries? In the real world of business the aim is not to be competitive. Being competitive is the means to an end: to eliminate the competition, which is the objective of all businesses. In its aggregate capitalism evolves toward monopoly, as has occurred historically. Monopoly capitalism is also the natural outgrowth of technological development that requires capital investment well beyond the capacity of a single individual ‘free enterprise’ capitalist.

        Of course monopoly capitalism represents economic planning to the nth degree but restricted to a single corporate entity and its market, and subject to the command of a board of directors. Socialism merely takes planning beyond the corporate gates to society at large and replaces the board of directors with a workers state of soviets and communes to run the economy as a whole. Is it so difficult to understand that this is the next logical step for human economic and social development, that planning ought to go beyond the corporation? No, it still appears to be a mortal sin against the gods of capital to even think that economic planning should ever extend beyond the exclusive interests of the capitalists themselves.

        But of course I’ve completely and carelessly forgotten the ‘gotcha’ argument of all reactionaries, ‘We’ve tried that experiment before’. (Who the ‘we’ here is an interesting question by itself, but let’s leave that aside). The issue purposely avoided of course is that when an experiment is conducted it’s left to play out under expected or ideal conditions and the results compared with controls. It’s just funny how with the post-capitalist ‘experiments’ which have occurred that they’ve been undermined and sabotaged by sanctions, threats of war and all the rest by imperialism. Almost if the ‘experiments’ were never allowed to produce results that might exceed those in the ‘controls’. Funny that, but in the real world such practices are called scientific fraud.

        Just one small example of one of the ‘failed experiments’ that might make good ol’ patriotic Americans worshipping at the altar of capitalism feel a little embarrassed: Cuba with its limited resources but planned use of them, crippling ~60-year US sanctions and blockades, and despite its bureaucratic rule, now has a life expectancy at birth greater than or equal to the richest country on earth. Poor, sanctioned-to-death Cuba.

        The capitalists have been gorging on a free lunch since capitalism’s advent. That’s what profits are all about. Now they’re being given free dessert by the good graces of socialistic measures for them, and them alone. So I’m afraid that you’re failing to see the true source of the male bovine excrement.

    2. The world has bankrupt itself trying to do just that. Add to that excessive defense spending. No there would not be enough to go around even if we disbanded the police and military. Bloated oppressive government comes from people wanting government to provide it all. Typical flawed socialist thinking. Also we are reaching a tipping point as far as world population goes. Nature, mechanics, people will soon thin the herd somewhat.

      1. The first to be “thinned,” assuming our herd survives to engage humanely in that process of sorting out old and bad ideas from new and good ones, will be those who, for example, have utterly no concept of fiat money (with us ever since the gold standard was dissolved), how trillions have just been created out of thin air to bail our the plutocrats, how additional trillions could be spent to bail out both ordinary people (including the poor and marginalized) and our precious, irreplaceable planet. Inflation, which is too much money chasing too few resources, will pose no substantial problem given all of the available resources readily available to meet pressing human and environmental needs. And YES, there are concrete proposals being put on the table to facilitate this transition from an economy that works only for the rich to one that works for all of us and for Mother Nature, she who nourishes and sustains all living things.

        http://macroncheese.com/nationalizing-payroll-and-the-right-to-a-job-with-pavlina-tcherneva?link_id=0&can_id=178b737266e52f9dd959e82826a58c9f&source=email-macro-n-cheese-podcast-labor-pains-with-tschaff-reisberg&email_referrer=email_834722&email_subject=macro-n-cheese-podcast-pavlina-tcherneva

        1. As long as what errantly passes for money is controlled by psychopathic monsters as it is now, there is no escape without passing through a period of extreme deprivation. Money can be printed. Wealth cannot. Although printing money is a quite effective tool for the process of transferring wealth from those who create it to those intent on stealing it, AKA the bank cartel and their Psychopaths In Charge servants whom far to many look to for support.

        2. when the herd is being thinned people could careless for mental meanderings. All they do is run and try to survive. It amazes me how people assume whatever discourse can overcome it all. Mental meanderings only occur when you are safe secure, well fed and have too much time on your hands.

      2. Stephen Morrell Avatar
        Stephen Morrell

        The US ruling class is already bankrupt and is bankrupting society at large to be kept afloat by unprecedented money printing and other socialistic measures for the rich. And some of the demands listed above have been met already by countries far poorer than the US, particularly universal healthcare and free education.

        Various estimates put the bill to end homelessness in the US at $35-50 billion, with less amounts to follow annually; similar amounts to provide free education annually; to forgive the student debt of ~$1.5 trillion (a one-off, and debt forgiveness incurs no extra spending); the net savings of universal healthcare are estimated at ~$1-3 trillion over 10 years (with higher taxes more than offset by elimination of exorbitant private health insurance, and outrageous hospital and big pharma imposts). And so on.

        These sums don’t even reach the ~$5 trillion recently doled out in the CARES Act to the plutocrat parasites who’ll never pay it back, and come nowhere near the amounts that routinely have been given to the banks and other corporate parasites since 2008. On top of that, expropriating the capitalist class would inject unimaginable amounts of wealth into the economy, the extent of which we only have inklings of when reports occasionally leak out of $30-50 trillion held in offshore tax havens.

        However, the ruling class will never grant any of the above demands if they impinge on their profits. So please keep repeating the ‘How will you pay for it?’ mantra, when the same question can never ever be asked about affording the ‘socialism for the rich’ that’s been rampant for decades. And please keep up your valiant efforts in helping to maintain the economic, social and political deathtrap that many more are now realising they’ve been ensnared in for way too long.

        1. “So please keep repeating the ‘How will you pay for it?’ mantra, when the same question can never ever be asked about affording the ‘socialism for the rich’ that’s been rampant for decades.” Thank you, Stephen, for saying quite plainly and directly what has been happening right in front of our eyes. The rich and powerful have known about fiat money ever since it sprang into existence in the early 1970s, thanks to Nixon’s final erasure of what had been left of the gold standard. Ever since, money on the federal level is created ex nihilo merely by the making of congressional spending decisions. To date, those decisions have involved lining the pockets of plutocrats and fighting criminal wars. OUR TASK, that of “we, the people,” is to finally wise up and DEMAND that a good bit of that fiat money, trillions of it for starters, now be spent into existence to save both people and planet while there’s still time.

    3. Steve: You lost me on the first two items with the word “free”. Not defending the oligarchy, but it defies natural law to expect/demand such things as 24 hour childcare to be “free”. There is something to be said for personal responsibility in any society.

      1. Stephen Morrell Avatar
        Stephen Morrell

        Sorry Eric, I should have said free at the point of service. Nothing is ‘free’ as such. The childcare workers would still need to be paid, etc. It’s a matter of redirecting the social surplus to provide and pay for services that benefit the majority. In the example of childcare, not disadvantaging anyone in their work or career, either financially or time, simply because they have children. Universal healthcare at the point of service is a clearer example that’s been implemented in many parts of the world.

  47. “At this time we need to drastically change our perspectives and seriously re-evaluate our priorities.”
    “… curious, not hung up on tired old mental narratives…”
    “…he real way to live life to its fullest is to simply be present for it….”

    My small world has been full of change of perspectives, as a permanent re-evaluation of priorities.
    A rebel since 1984 when I refused to accept the perspective a medicated full life. I was only 47.
    A re-evaluator of several so-called healthy lifestyles that I have practised through the years.
    A sceptic all along, with respect to religion –medicine included. The latter was followed with full adherence by my friends.
    As an octogenarian, I’ve achieved the joie de vivre my friends could not experience. They lived long lives with frailty, with aged carers, paramedics and hospital workers.
    They lived pleased with indulgence as I did during the first half of my life, but died with a painful physical and mental lack of purpose and direction.
    On of them was a doctor, whom I visited in South America. He was proud of his smoking habit. He died three months after my return to Australia.
    Those who were more or less independent, died with lots of kilos to spare, as well as living-rooms overcrowded by an array of medications.
    Covid-19 is now that choosy enemy who has a clinical eye to choose those poly-medicated individuals who are living a longer breathing life as proclaimed by medicine.
    Health is beautiful, and should be a priority in these troubled times. No one wants to hear about it. To some extent I don’t blame them.
    Health cannot be studied in universities. Only medicine can. Health has just a confusing bunch of self-proclaimed experts.
    Only the school of hard knocks includes health in its curricula.
    After all, there is abundant healthcare around. What? That is medicalcare with a very attractive name. It’s all you need if you’re a believer.
    That is the care that applies ventilators with their necessary coma-inducing anaesthetics. Yeah, not nice.
    For those who have dedicated their existence to be able to afford the best medical insurance money can buy, what I write is blasphemy. I know.
    Health, the true one? How dare I? Gough (Whitlam) forbid.

    1. Well said, Ariel, from a soon to be septuagenarian. I, too, have noticed the “clinical eye” of the Covid-19 pandemic and its unpleasant reveal that the so called miracle drugs of modern times more often than not prolong breath but do not prolong life.

      1. Thanks BOB H.
        To receive a comment is for me a strongly felt achievement.
        Being an intelligent one as yours, gives me a double satisfaction.

  48. Lili-Ann Berg Avatar
    Lili-Ann Berg

    Being at the end of life in “20- fucking -20” makes me rather disinterested in the whole bloody charade and wish I could change place with the little black and white bird singing its tiny heart out on a flowering branch outside my window.

  49. I feel a presents of an unbelievable power, and I’m not even religious. What ever it is? It does not give a shit about the constructs of turds or their ideas. It is much like a child picking up a shell at the beach; or an empty gourd; look at it..maybe shake it. The occupants can only pray that it puts them back down gently on the sand.

  50. “What’s been most striking to me is just how one-sided the rules are when Americans take on their own government…. It has been dismaying to learn the extent to which rules and laws shield the government from accountability for its abuses—or even lawbreaking…. It’s been a long and frightening lesson…. The rules seem rigged to protect government lawlessness, and the playing field is uneven. Too many processes favor the government. The deck is still stacked.” — Journalist Sharyl Attkisson
    This rational article, Ms Johnstone, can be read here:
    The System Is Rigged: Qualified Immunity Is How the Police State Stays in Power
    By John W. Whitehead
    https://www.rutherford.org/publications_resources/john_whiteheads_commentary/the_system_is_rigged_qualified_immunity_is_how_the_police_state_stays_in_power

  51. Well spoken, Caitlin. Thanks for the reminder. What is going on is amazing, and now is the time for more consciousness, and coming together for what’s next….and not sweating the small stuff.

  52. It is said that change occurs when the fear of staying the same gets bigger than the pain or fear of facing the unknown of the change itself.
    Thich Naht Hanh

  53. Benjamin Wilson Avatar
    Benjamin Wilson

    Brilliant Article, Caitlin.

  54. Most people cannot see the big picture or spot trends until iti s too late. I will mention a few big trends I see coming.
    1. Coronovirus scare is causing people to retreat into smaller groups. Countries will restrict borders travel and tourism will diminish in the years ahead.
    2. Migrant workers are critical to food production and thry have been restricted. Food shortages and famines are coming.
    3. The sun is going into a solar mininum. Over the next decade it will get cooler with shortened growing seasons. Less food.
    4. When resources grow scarce war erupts. Expect various wars to break out over rhe next ten years.
    5. America is destroying the petrodollar. Its preemminence as the world reserve currency is approaching an end. Not regime change but an empire crumbling from within.
    6. When it gets colder and less food means pandemics erupt.

    These are the big trends not based on my opinion but historical records of sun activity, empires falling, etc. Get ready. Hustory does repeat over and over. Notice I didnt mention politics or racism, that is meaningless when you are sick hungry and cold or being bombed in your homes.

    1. You must be privileged, by skin color, class, or too much leisure time is spoiling your emotional-relational acuity, if you dismiss racism so glibly.

      The principal trend i see in all the contractions and attempts by those in power to repress the 98 percent of “others” is the old patriarchal cult of Big Men anthropologists have shown dominating the planet since agriculture led to war and militarism led to the myth of gender (note: the mass of media sales pitches and major team sports are bent on reinforcing a perversely self-destructive gender striving to be “more manly,” “more feminine,” more desirable by those one desires or imagines one is entitled to expect pleasure or adoration from). Entitlement to endless permutations of pleasure, comfort, or simply uninterrupted conveniences with never a disagreement or frustration, despite injustices all around you is insanity, yet it is what keeps most of us on the treadmill of selfpity and resentment, or exhausts us in struggles to protect our endangered beloveds from the ruthless pursuers of infinite wealth. We need a real Green New Deal, capping the wealth any one can own or control at single-digit millions. Without conscious political consciousness and reciprocal accountability, we deserve whatever happens to us; democracy IS dissensus, so yearning for tranquility is escapism. Caitlin’s right we are blessed to be alive now. But it means we work harder than ever to repair damage we’ve done, stop those who are continuing the damage, so we can return this precious planet to generations unborn from whom we borrowed it, but with interest, meaning with wild areas, with gardens galore, less masculinist strutting about, arms reduction, better listening always better listening…

      1. when what I have mentioned comes to pass you wont even think about racism. You will be too busy trying to stay alive. Of course you will also be one of the first to be swept away because you can not see the train coming until it is too late.

  55. Martin Wolterding Avatar
    Martin Wolterding

    I agree completely with you Caitlin. Over the past decade, I’ve been increasingly vocal about the looming collapse in everything familiar to us all. Yet, now that I believe it has begun I find myself painfully reluctant to dwell upon the ramifications and consequences of the changes I see in my life and the lives of those I care about. My brain which understands these implications is apparently at war with my heart which fears these changes.

    1. The sooner you come to terms with it the sooner you can begin what little you can to improve your chances of survival.

  56. Thank you for this. I agree fully with the thrust of this article. The difficulty with point 1. is that, as you say, it is very difficult to get a handle on what the big picture actually looks like. Guy, above, has a point here. Being attentive, as you say, is the answer but drawing conclusions about long term trends is difficult while history is playing itself out. I am reminded of Zhou En Lai’s alleged comment when asked what he thought of the French Revolution: “It’s too early to tell!”.

    1. excellent. “Too early to tell” is a good comeback to all futurists, though we do need to recognize the Cassandras whose sensitivity is keen enough to lay out some obvious scenarios and proffer precious ideas about effective coalition building and no-nonsense intolerance for arrogant dominators bending law and violence to maximize their exclusivist privileges…

  57. Your logic is sound, Ms Johnstone, but ” the masses ” are headed in the other direction. Instead of ” the bigger picture ” their only concerns are with ” the petty positions ” dangled in front of them by the MSM to keep them divided as much as possible. The owners and the masters want us at each others throats so we never think about what they are doing to us and this planet.

  58. Great article. All the huge changes and chaos can feel overwhelming, and coming back to the present moment, what is in front of us right now, is all the more important. Keeping our own personal zone nourished and whole, despite the state of the world around us. I’ve found meditation has been hugely helpful to develop these skills. Thank you for speaking up about this.

  59. Amen sister! I am excited to have found a conscious journalist writing from the perspective of the big picture truth. These are times like no other. Everyone has the opportunity to evolve if they choose to. Articles like yours will open hearts and minds. Keep the faith!

    1. There is the big picture truth in our heads as our conciousness evolves and the big picture reality which is much much harsh and cruel. Two people are starving to death. One is mentally evolved the other not. One fights it creating mayhem as he robs and steals in an attempt to survive. The other calmly accepts their fate. Humanity is somewhere in between.

  60. Note: Photo of first-year Mexican Avocado orchard, weekend farmer, Mrs. weekend farmer, and distant vegetable garden in background at link: http://www.johndayblog.com/2020/06/widespread-collaboration.html

    If we are conquered and ruled when we are divided, might we be able to have some freedom in a unity born of cooperation and negotiation?
    What are the relative costs of a negotiated cooperation compared to a subservient division under autocracy?
    “Freedom isn’t free”, of course, but what might be the costs to us?
    How would we begin the process of negotiating a cooperative society?
    Is it possible to revive social structures described in our laws as actually functioning entities?
    Can they function at current scales, or would social groups need to be vastly smaller?
    Are there any gross disparities feeding the owners at the expense of citizens, which might be ended to free up resources for a cooperative social project?
    The “exorbitant privilege” of creation of currency, devolved to banks, private banks, but the system of fractional reserve lending, is the major support for the system of elite control which we now “enjoy”. Not corrupt enough in it’s very essence, it has had to become more corrupt through layering and leveraging of debts to keep flows of wealth open to the elite class, even as actual wealth has dried up throughout the “real economy”.
    As the real economy involutes with the shove of coronavirus wave #1, there are competing-elite scrambles to take control of the physical levers of power, the military and police, as well as controlling food, fuel, water, electricity and information flows. The battles are mainly on Facebook, Twitter, radio and TV so far.
    I propose Public Banking in the public interest in this coming reset, but I got it from Ellen Brown.
    Here is Ellen Brown explaining banking-in -the-public-interest last November, before we were aware of the current crisis (which arguably began in September). “Green New Deal” was trending then.

    The Bank of North Dakota has helped keep the wealth local, rather than being extracted by globalists. Whoever first uses created money gains the most benefit. Whoever gets the interest from created money will inevitably own everything, if the system does not reset. We are entering another reset. It’s important to stimulate local economies this time, not extract wealth and life from communities. If the interest goes to the public, to the local commons, supporting schools and infrastructure, then economy can thrive, rather than be bled dry by parasitism.
    We would not need a whole lot of cooperation to make the move to public banking, with profits going to local and state governments. Reducing bonded debt on cities, counties and states would benefit their economic health and reduce their tax rates.

    1. Yes, universal financial fraud, corruption and oppression will continue for as long as elite globalists control the finances of the world and through financial control they pay secret agents to bribe and blackmail top politicians, leaders in the military, secret agencies and religion; or they assassinate those who resist. Money is power and money is the root of all kinds of evil because nearly everyone loves money more than anything or anyone else.

  61. Thank you. Once again, you nailed it.

  62. One of your best, Caitlin!

  63. One problem is that, almost inevitably, we are experiencing these world-changing events almost entirely online. In fact, in a profound way, these events are world-changing because they are artifacts of our McLuhanesqe interconnected interactive world in which billions of people in all parts of the world are participating psychically and in real time. What exactly does it mean to “be present” in this. Certainly it’s different from when John Reed was rushing around in Moscow during the Russian Revolution collecting the first person experiences that allowed him to write “Ten Days That Shook The World.” So how exactly do we live in the year 20fucking20? Online? Offline? In the streets? On Twitter? In what direction lies sanity?

    1. Seems to me that “here and now” is “here and now”, regardless of how it’s mediated to our awareness or lack of it. This piece strikes me as a call to attention, nothing more or less.

      1. I don’t disagree. Yes, a call to attention. But the scale and volume and velocity of what is available to us in the “here and now” is overwhelming. With so much competing for our attention and so much hidden in the onslaught, deciding how and where to direct our attention is no small challenge. I don’t know the answer. Perhaps that’s why we have artists.

        1. “With so much competing for our attention and so much hidden in the onslaught, deciding how and where to direct our attention is no small challenge. I don’t know the answer.”
          .
          There is no answer, it’s a skill you are developing.
          .
          “With so much competing..” It is helpful to be aware of the tendency you have to be distracted by your own thoughts. Step back from them. For a few moments every day, pay attention to physical sensations and nothing else. Develop an awareness of how emotions tie into thoughts, and experience those emotions, without getting sucked into them.
          .
          With separation and clarity, you can more easily decide what is worth paying attention to, and understand how it relates to you as an individual.
          .
          This is from a Theravada Buddhism perspective:
          .
          Here and now is only that which you personally perceive through your own senses, and the thoughts and emotions that flow from that. That in itself is of a volume and velocity that is beyond the ability of the conceptualising mind to handle. Full enlightenment is when you allow that experience to unfold without reservations, whilst at the same time understanding that the concepts arising are just manifestations of the mind, not of so-called “reality”. In particular, here and now does not encompass the stuff that’s happening on the other side of the world, or in the news.
          .
          The final stage of enlightenment in this Theravada model happens when you become “liberated from distraction”, which means you no longer feel compelled to pay attention to the thoughts and concepts being thrown up by the mind. (You are also “liberated from torpor”, which means you no longer feel the desire to escape from those thoughts either).
          .
          In the meantime, deciding how and where to direct attention is a personal choice. If you are unaware, then you will get driven about by (amongst other things) the pressure of the culture – online or otherwise. If you are aware, you can make conscious decisions about what is worth your attention and what isn’t. Again, this is a personal decision.
          .
          The time to develop these skills is BEFORE you have need of them. If you feel overwhelmed, then you have need of them. Start now.
          .
          Hope this helps. cheers, Glen.

    2. The path of personal peace tranquility and sanity lies offline.

  64. You’re probably right Caitlin, but then maybe most of the people are suffering from attention deficit disorder, after all; wouldn’t that be be the case for a colony of termites? Each doing its own thing, mindless of the bigger picture, but yet just like a swarm of locusts it accomplishes great destruction! If a Venus Fly Trap can count, and it can, doesn’t that pretty much prove that in God’s VB eye, that humans are little more than blades of grass?

Leave a Reply to Tired and no longer active revolutionary Cancel reply

Trending