The life of every terrestrial organism is being threatened with the steadily growing possibility of nuclear war because after the fall of the USSR a few imperialists decided that US unipolar hegemony needs to be maintained at all cost.
I’m growing a uniquely deep hatred for people who scoff at me for saying that nuclear war is a real risk. There’s no basis whatsoever for the belief that what the US empire is doing with Russia and China is safe. Your source is your own cognitive dissonance with the subject.
To be clear, the risk is not that anyone will choose to have a nuclear war, it’s that a nuke will be deployed amid heightening tensions as a result of miscommunication or malfunction, as nearly happened many times during the last cold war. The more tense things get, the likelier such an event becomes. This new cold war is happening along two fronts, with a bunch of proxy conflicts complicating things even further. There are so very many small moving parts, and it’s impossible to remain in control of all of them.
People like to think every nuclear-armed country has one “The Button” with which they can consciously choose to start a nuclear war after careful deliberation, but it doesn’t work that way. There are thousands of people in the world controlling different parts of different nuclear arsenals who could independently initiate a nuclear war. Thousands of “The Buttons”. It only takes one. The arrogance of believing anyone can control such a conflict safely, for years, is astounding.
❖
The “Great Reset” will result in further widening of the wealth gap and more control for unelected oligarchs. Of course it will. Just like all the other steps in capitalism’s inevitable march toward dystopia. This isn’t a deviation, it’s a continuation.
❖
Chortle, chortle, socialism is a pie-in-the-sky fantasy you silly child. Much more realistic to choke our planet to death chasing imaginary currency in an imaginary economy so we can pay to live on the planet where we were born.
❖
“Socialism has never worked,” said the system that created the earth’s sixth mass extinction.
❖
Capitalism is held in place by imagination, compartmentalization, violence, and a huge mountain of survivorship bias.
❖
The unspoken premise of modern capitalism is that the world is about to be saved by union-busting tech billionaires who choose every day not to end world hunger.
❖
Capitalism does not reward innovation in the way our world requires because:
- It constricts solutions to only those that can make money. All the crises our species now faces can be solved easily, but if the solution isn’t profitable it’s rejected.
- Capital buys up competitors’ solutions to shelve them.
- Stress inhibits creative thinking.
❖
Life pro tip: 100 percent of the capitalism cultists who say you “don’t understand economics” are posturing. It’s an empty slogan they’ve been trained to bleat, and if you debate them for a bit you’ll soon find that all they can do is vaguely gesticulate at other people’s ideas which they clearly do not understand. They’re pure bluster.
❖
“I need water.”
Better go find some then.
“All the water’s right there. You’re standing on the hose.”
You’re just jealous of my success.
“No I’m dying of thirst and you control all the water.”
Better pull yourself up by your bootstraps and make some water then.
❖
All the chipper articles and news segments you’ve been seeing in the US mass media about “tiny houses” are really just glorifying the re-emergence of shanty towns in America.
❖
Obama gets a lot of criticism for killing Libyans, killing Syrians, killing US citizens, killing all kinds of people all over the world, but he doesn’t get enough recognition for also killing the anti-war movement.
❖
Imperialist warmongering is by far the worst expression of white supremacism in the world, yet liberals and progressives virtually ignore it. We’ve seen millions of establishment-endorsed lynchings of brown-skinned people since the turn of the century, and it’s accepted as normal.
❖
Progressives who say “We have to work within the Democratic Party because the only alternative would be tearing down the entire system” are so close to getting it.
❖
The dumbest thing about the Democratic primaries was watching all the mainstream narrative managers pretending all the shitlib candidates were different from each other. “Ooh, this one has brown skin, but this one speaks better Spanish! Let’s write ten thousand think pieces about these crucial political differences.”
❖
Rank-and-file Democrats have been trained for four years to only care about foreign policy if a president wants to withdraw troops from somewhere that Russia might arguably approve of. Which will work out nicely for the foreign policy agendas of the Biden administration.
❖
Your favorite artist has great content but shit political opinions because they’re very talented but our society is saturated with establishment propaganda. Hope that helps.
❖
People tell me they like what I say but they wish I’d say it more politely. Uhh I’m trying to help topple a psychopathic global empire here. People who are put off by a little crude language aren’t really my target demographic.
❖
The abusers I’ve known have had an interesting feature in common: they always expect, and feel entitled to, a private space to abuse you in. They get outraged and indignant if you tell others about their abuse, acting like you’ve done something deeply immoral. I say it’s interesting because the powerful people who demand secrecy behave the exact same way.
FYI your abuser is never entitled to a private space in which to inflict abuse, whether they’re a significant other or a globe-spanning empire.
______________________
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 at my website or on Substack, which will get you an email notification for everything I publish. My work is entirely reader-supported, so if you enjoyed this piece please consider sharing it around, liking me on Facebook, following my antics on Twitter, throwing some money into my tip jar on Patreon or Paypal, purchasing some of my sweet merchandise, buying my new book Poems For Rebels or my old book Woke: A Field Guide for Utopia Preppers. For more info on who I am, where I stand, and what I’m trying to do with this platform, click here. Everyone, racist platforms excluded, has my permission 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
82 responses to “Nuclear War, Capitalism, And Other Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix”
Caitlin – your Notes from the Edge of the Narrative Matrix are my FAVORITE! I’m so glad you decide to put these together every once in awhile. I greatly look forward to them (they make great Facebook posts :))
I am making over $9k a month working part time. I stored being attentive to different human beings inform me how much money they are able to make on line so I decided to lok into it. RFd well, it turned into all actual and has completely modified my life.
That is what I do….-!~!~!~!…. Home Profit System
Few people realize that the USA agreed to nuclear disarmament in the 1970 NPT. Our leaders threaten to attack other nations for just thinking about building nukes when the USA is the biggest violator of this agreement. Here is a video I did, but you may have to log into Youtube to watch it as it was recently declared unfit for children. I suspect to discourage people from viewing, perhaps because it mentions Israel’s nuclear weapons.
Here is the summary:
Americans assume that only select nations can legally build and stockpile nuclear weapons. Corporate media and the US Government constantly warn of grave danger if nations like Iran illegally develop nuclear weapons. They cite the 1970 Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, commonly known as the NPT. This is an international treaty to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons, to promote cooperation in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy, and to achieve worldwide nuclear disarmament. This treaty means that Iran and the United States should not have nuclear weapons. Nearly every nation in the world signed the NPT because it promised to eliminate nuclear weapons worldwide. The core purpose of the NPT is to eliminate nuclear arms, not to perpetuate the nuclear monopoly of a few countries.
I really like these epigrammatic articles. Some of the epigrams are great!
Just wish u the best in your continued comments about the possibility of nuke war! As stupid as way 2 many politicos are, u have every right 2 be as concerned as you and more power 2 ya! Of course it is a hard hill 2 climb, and i surely hope you will not just “give up”! I, 4 1 am certainy old enough 2 seriously remember 1945 and “Enola Gay”! WW2 was bad enough, but 2 bomb those 2 Japanese cities that way will be under debate 4 who knows how long. There just simply has got 2 becav”dividing line” over which no one can crawl…I know, “good luck with that! Nevertheless, I do believe the more the world TRULY KNOWS about that absolute abomination, the more the world will see your point of view, and most importantly “WHY”!! TRULY….MORE POWER 2 YA!!! Expat tom
●US Dollar Rain Earns upto $550 to $750 per day by google fantastic job oppertunity provide for our community pepoles who,s already using facebook to earn money 85000$ every month and more through facebook and google new project to create money at home withen few hours.Everybody can get this job now and start earning online by just open this link and then go through instructions to get started……….COPY HERE====►► Read More
“People like to think every nuclear-armed country has one “The Button” with which they can consciously choose to start a nuclear war after careful deliberation, but it doesn’t work that way. There are thousands of people in the world controlling different parts of different nuclear arsenals who could independently initiate a nuclear war. Thousands of “The Buttons”. It only takes one. The arrogance of believing anyone can control such a conflict safely, for years, is astounding.”
`
Sometimes, it helps to be reminded of the obvious. I don’t always see it. Or remember it.
`
There is a mountain of evidence that these planet destroying weapons are insecure, unstable and subject to any number of human errors. There is no excuse for their existence.
`
After reading this article and JMG’s comment below, I remembered the incident at Minot Air Force base in 2007. It was a big deal then. Long since buried in the MSM propaganda hole.
`
I researched it a bit, surprised to find it hadn’t been completely erased from the internet, yet. I even found many more “accidents.” I posted some of them under JMG’s comment below.
`
Here’s another incident from 1980:
`
https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/29945/the-time-when-a-burning-b-52-nearly-caused-a-nuclear-catastrophe-worse-than-chernobyl
`
“Nearly four decades ago, a U.S. Air Force B-52H bomber, armed with eight nuclear-tipped AGM-69A Short Range Attack Missiles and four B28 nuclear gravity bombs, burned for hours at Grand Forks Air Force Base in North Dakota. Years later, despite previous assurances that the risk of a nuclear accident had been low, the director of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, a key U.S. nuclear weapons research and development facility, testified that the incident had actually come very close to being “worse than Chernobyl.”
`
“Stephen Schwartz, a nonresident fellow at the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists and an expert on American nuclear weapons programs, told The War Zone. “In the case of the September 1980 B-52 fire at Grand Forks AFB, it was sheer luck that kept an engine fire from leading utter disaster.”
Thia is maybe the rarest article of yours I’ve read. I copied it and saved it. Everythi g written is true, serious.and likely our end within the next 20 years. Things are REALLY screwed up.
But, I see no solutions in my mind or your writing. That’s because there are none. 3/4ths of.the.country and all its oligarchs ha e been or created the brainwashing content that allows authoritarians to be in favor.. all this will only be accelerated in the next 5 years. Technology has outpaced already and will expo e teally accelerate in the next 5 years. Go to sleep now and.wake up in 5 years and you wont.recognize it if it is still here. Point is, barring a.miracle, if you belei e in that sort of.thing, or a.spontaneous evolution, what exists now has been created and.pro.oted from the beginning of.time and only beco.e.more expert at ensuring the survival of the oligarchy. What..makes.anyone think they can.chane it? The die was cast a long time.ago. I do admit, I love reading a d writing g about it but bottom line is there may be.many different possible routes to the outcome but it’s pretty.much over.
Thomas, I know how you and others feel. I am now almost 58, when I was young and in college though I has a writing assignment. I found a book, ‘Missile Envy’ about nuclear weapons. It was at that young age I knew that we would eventually do ourselves in. Not a great belief to live with throughout your life.
There is an out though and this is why. What is it all about really? It is about ‘POWER’ that is the revelation one eventually comes to at some point in their life. What is power though and where does it come from? My belief it comes from Human Intelligence, at least on this planet at this point in time. So what is human intelligence? It is our thought processes, our rational and logic. It is how we connect the dots, imagine, observe. That is the true source of power here on Earth. It is also the source of conflict, war and the hopeless state we find ourselves in. We have created through our intellect the weapons that will destroy us.
So why is our intellect also a detriment. It is because we live in a world dominated by ‘Individual Intelligence’. We are all individuals. Our brain is a black box (non transparent), operating system tied to ourselves (the individual) and thus bias and limited in perspective. We also make errors (fallacies) honest of not. What does this mean? It means we billions find it almost impossible to consistently reconcile how we individually ‘THINK’. “Ithink this,” “I believe this”. Our world is what we think it is and we all see it differently.
The solution? We just kill each other, set the score back to 0 and start over. This might be OK if we didn’t have nukes, because killing each other is what we have always done and is the only way we really know how to reconcile the large issues or all the little issues.
So why do I believe there really is a solution? Because now due to the advent of the ‘computer’ and the ‘Internet’ we have an alternative to a world dominated by the ‘Individual’ by ‘Leaders’, by those high is ‘Status’
How? Since power is the human mind and the product of human intelligence it simply needs to be expressed in a different way. Still the same source just different. Call it ‘Collective Intelligence’ If you want to read more there are links. I hope you will consider it.
I appreciate Caitlin very much, I wish more people had her fight and insight. Socialism is not the answer though and the reason why is that It still falls into the realm of ‘Individual Intelligence’. Every system need ‘Leaders’ those individuals or groups of individuals who ‘think’ for us. There is the problem. Great power, no transparency, self bias and errors, errors, errors, Same result, same solution, Death and destruction. Just different.
We need to turn the next page for humanity, the next evolutionary page and for that to happen we need to end our reliance on ‘Individuals’ and ‘Leaders’. Consider it a type of ‘Socialism of Thought’ because ‘Human Thought’ is the true Power.
https://medium.com/@whmilk/the-value-of-anonymity-in-a-collective-intelligence-c0a003f481b6
https://medium.com/@whmilk/save-the-world-collective-vs-individual-intelligence-69e1353ea9b5
https://medium.com/@whmilk/the-invisible-war-9fb8b2e3dc87
You are absolutely right. There is no hope. And the reason that there is no hope is because there is no hope. As long as the enemy has convinced you that there is no chance for you to have victory, it is deemed true, so just give up and be herded into the FEMA camps. I on the other hand, have a better idea. Since 2015, when I first perceived the plan and treachery of our leaders, I have been informing people by writing books and sending out emails of the results of my research. Shortly after I published EXPOSING THE MONEY MACHINE, I was given access to a letter saying that 60,000 men in green were willing to fight for the people. IN late 2017 a NY Times article informed us that four aircraft carriers and battleships had collided with oil tankers in the open seas. They couldn’t see them? Informing the masses is our best guarantee of our liberties. Granted, all top brass are obedient to their political and rich masters. Not so the grunts and other military men and women who can still think for themselves, who boot camp has not broken the will of. That is the chink in the armor.
“But, I see no solutions in my mind or your writing.”
That’s because 99.9% of the people are wired to not see the real problem. They are obedient to control hierarchies (Milgram Experiments) and so were their ancestors going back millions of years. They cannot think outside of the box – the government box – and therefore constantly make up excuses for the horrible evil that is government. People are true believers – emotional – and very very few are capable of abstract logical thinking in any meaningful way.
Governments of the world, outside of combat deaths, murdered an estimated 260 million people in the 20th century. Add in the combat deaths and the 100 million almost exclusively poor third world victims of malaria that died because of the banning of DDT in 1972, you get about 425 million people murdered by, yes, government. That doesn’t even include the loss of an average of seven years of lifespan through government created poverty
“Just to give perspective on this incredible murder by government, if all these bodies were laid head to toe, with the average height being 5′, then they would circle the earth ten times. Also, this democide murdered 6 times more people than died in combat in all the foreign and internal wars of the century. Finally, given popular estimates of the dead in a major nuclear war, this total democide is as though such a war did occur, but with its dead spread over a century.”
https://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/NOTE1.HTM
As for a nuke war, most of Earth’s low hanging resource fruits have been picked. Coming back will be difficult if not impossible.
https://thebulletin.org/2015/02/what-would-happen-if-an-800-kiloton-nuclear-warhead-detonated-above-midtown-manhattan/
Right on cue…
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/12/30/lethal-levels-radiation-found-damaged-fukushima-reactor-will-have-huge-impact?cd-origin=rss&utm_term=AO&utm_campaign=Daily%20Newsletter&utm_content=email&utm_source=Daily%20Newsletter&utm_medium=Email
This old man will never forget reading, as a young man, these words of E.F. Schumacher: “No degree of prosperity could justify the accumulation of large amounts of highly toxic substances which nobody knows how to make ‘safe’ and which remain an incalculable danger to the whole of creation for historical or even geological ages. To do such a thing is a transgression against life itself, a transgression infinitely more serious than any crime ever perpetrated by man. The idea that a civilisation could sustain itself on the basis of such a transgression is an ethical, spiritual, and metaphysical monstrosity. It means conducting the economic affairs of man as if people really did not matter at all.” Back then, a monstrosity was called a monstrosity. Since then, it’s been called “neoliberalism.”
Malarkey.
It is estimated that as many as 15,000 particles go whizzing through your body every second.
Life came to be in a sea of radiation.
Caitlin Johnstone wrote:
> People like to think every nuclear-armed country has one “The Button” with which they can consciously choose to start a nuclear war after careful deliberation, but it doesn’t work that way. There are thousands of people in the world controlling different parts of different nuclear arsenals who could independently initiate a nuclear war. Thousands of “The Buttons”. It only takes one.
.
.
That could indeed happen. For example:
.
.
“9 November 1979
“A computer error at NORAD headquarters led to alarm and full preparation for a nonexistent large-scale Soviet attack. NORAD notified national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski that the Soviet Union had launched 250 ballistic missiles with a trajectory for the United States, stating that a decision to retaliate would need to be made by the president within 3 to 7 minutes.”
.
List of nuclear close calls
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_nuclear_close_calls
.
.
“Half a century after Kubrick’s mad general, Jack D. Ripper, launched a nuclear strike on the Soviets to defend the purity of “our precious bodily fluids” from Communist subversion, we now know that American officers did indeed have the ability to start a Third World War on their own. And despite the introduction of rigorous safeguards in the years since then, the risk of an accidental or unauthorized nuclear detonation hasn’t been completely eliminated.
.
“. . . General Carey made an admission with serious public-policy implications. He off-handedly told a delegation of U.S. national-security officials that his missile-launch officers have the “worst morale in the Air Force.” Recent events suggest that may be true. In the spring of 2013, nineteen launch officers at Minot Air Force base in North Dakota were decertified for violating safety rules and poor discipline. In August, 2013, the entire missile wing at Malmstrom Air Force base in Montana failed its safety inspection. Last week, the Air Force revealed that thirty-four launch officers at Malmstrom had been decertified for cheating on proficiency exams—and that at least three launch officers are being investigated for illegal drug use. The findings of a report by the RAND Corporation, leaked to the A.P., were equally disturbing. The study found that the rates of spousal abuse and court martials among Air Force personnel with nuclear responsibilities are much higher than those among people with other jobs in the Air Force.”
.
Almost Everything in “Dr. Strangelove” Was True | The New Yorker | Jan 17, 2014
https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/almost-everything-in-dr-strangelove-was-true
.
.
President Muffley: “General Turgidson, I find this very difficult to understand. I was under the impression that I was the only one in authority to order the use of nuclear weapons.”
.
General Turgidson: “That’s right sir. You are the only person authorized to do so. And although I hate to judge before all the facts are in, it’s beginning to look like General Ripper exceeded his authority.”
.
Dr. Strangelove — Scene 8 captioned
From Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minot_Air_Force_Base#Nuclear_weapons_incident
“On 30 August 2007, a B-52 took off from Minot AFB carrying six cruise missiles with W-80 nuclear warheads to Barksdale AFB in northwest Louisiana. No base personnel nor the crew knew the nuclear weapons were aboard. This incident received international attention.[19] An investigation found that this was an isolated incident and that only a few people had information on the whereabouts of the missiles. ”
`
“Isolated incident.” Right.
`
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/checkpoint/wp/2018/05/18/air-force-base-that-lost-explosives-were-also-missing-a-machine-gun/
`
“Days after Minot Air Force Base reported that one of its squadrons protecting intercontinental ballistic missile silos had lost a 42-pound box of explosive grenade rounds while traveling on a gravel road, the same base said a machine gun turned up missing in a routine inventory of the facility’s weapons.”
https://www.cnn.com/2008/US/07/24/missile.error/?iref=nextin
`
” Air Force says officers fell asleep with nuke code”
`
“WASHINGTON (CNN) — Three Air Force officers fell asleep while in control of an electronic component that contained old launch codes for nuclear intercontinental ballistic missiles, a violation of procedure, Air Force officials said Thursday.
`
‘The Air Force said the launch codes had been deactivated before the incident, but it was still a violation of protocol, prompting an investigation.
`
“It is the fourth incident in the past year involving problems with secure handling of components of America’s nuclear weapons.’
`
https://www.cnn.com/2013/10/23/us/air-force-nuclear-silo-doors-opened/index.html
`
“In another public embarrassment for the Air Force’s nuclear missile program, two crew members were disciplined earlier this year for leaving silo blast doors open while they were on duty in an underground facility housing nuclear missiles.
`
“The incidents, first reported by the Associated Press, were confirmed Wednesday by the Air Force.”
`
https://www.defensenews.com/smr/nuclear-arsenal/2017/01/06/air-force-secretary-catastrophic-engine-failure-likely-to-blame-for-minot-b-52-mishap/
`
“In a separate interview at Minot Air Force Base that morning, head of Air Force Global Strike Command Gen. Robin Rand offered a similar assessment.”The engine didn’t just fall off. The engine had a failure inside the engine, and it shelled itself,” he said.
`
“The B-52’s eight TF33s are mounted under the wings of the bomber, in pods of two engines encased by the protective structure called the “cowling.” Initial evidence suggests the engine was not lost as a result of being improperly mounted. Rather, it’s likely that an internal problem with one of the engines could have caused the cowling to begin crumbling apart, Rand said.”
No need to worry. If poor maintenance or violations of protocol result in a global nuclear war, there will be an inquiry with recommendations to minimise the risk of another global nuclear war.
Good point, Ian. One nuclear holocaust should, probably, be enough. Thank God for the inquiries and recommendations.
Ian Perkins wrote:
> No need to worry. If poor maintenance or violations of protocol result in a global nuclear war, there will be an inquiry with recommendations to minimise the risk of another global nuclear war.
.
That’s a very important observation.
.
According to Kubrick, just before global nuclear holocaust…
.
President Muffley: “General Turgidson, when you instituted the human reliability tests, you assured me there was no possibility of such a thing ever occurring.”
.
General Turgidson: “Well… I don’t think it’s quite fair to condemn a whole program because of a single slip up sir.”
.
Dr. Strangelove Transcript via Lindley @ ND
https://www3.nd.edu/~dlindley/handouts/DrS.htm
Aha, Ms Johnstone refuses to just ” look the other way ” and shut up. Thank goodness this planet still has people that are unafraid to tell it like it really is. May the heavens always keep Ms Johnstone safe and on point!
First, I want to remark on a recurring problem. There is only one way to enter the reCaptcha. However, I keep getting a notice that it wasn’t entered properly. That has to be a problem in the system, but it does require me to scroll to the top of the comments, to be sure that I’m not duplicating my comment It does that two or three times. Eventually, it changes to ‘It looks like you’ve entered a duplicate comment – whether or not my comment appeared. It’s getting a bit frustrating – and may result in your seeing multiples of my comment. I assure you that the problem does not reside on my end.
I tried again, but my comment had still not posted – and I was told to try again later, because the server was busy.
Now, I have a few brief responses. First, the various candidates in the Democratic primaries were there for one person. To prevent Bernie Sanders from winning the nomination by gaining followers and then turning them over to Biden as they withdrew. However, this time around, Bernie proved to have good ideas, but to be far more a Democrat than and independent. When I saw that he supported Russiagate, I realized completely that he just didn’t understand.
Regarding our corrupt system, I’ve been explaining for years that it can only get worse. Like software that is corrupted and cannot be fixed, I see only two options. Either we continue our slow slide toward complete totalitarianism, or an armed revolution will be needed in order to trash our system and replace it with one that criminalizes the abuses of the current system and that puts the needs of the people first and foremost. Mine would also be one in which political parties serve no real purpose, to the point that most would go extinct of their own accord and any remaining would evolve to be more like a social club. I’m sorry, but I haven’t the time to go into greater detail, but I have a general sense of what it would look like and what it would include.
Of course,t here’s no guarantee that a revolution wouldn’t also result in a totalitarian society, but that’s a risk worth taking – because I don’t see enough people sufficiently motivated to just tearing down the system peacefully.
There are many reasons why capitalism cannot endure indefinitely. Chief among them is the fact, as indicated in today’s column, that the world has finite resources, but capitalism, to prosper and to function, requires infinite resources. Proof that capitalism is in its death throes lies in the response to the current pandemic. The so-called stimulus packages were an insufficient joke. However, even though trillions of dollars went mainly to wealthy corporations that didn’t need the money, what did go to the people was a form of socialism. There was no profit motive to giving away motive – that’s the opposite of what capitalism lives on. But capitalists are the ones making all of the arrangements. That’s why the newly passes stimulus, again, gave a pittance tot he people. Exactly what will $600 do for most people? But, in the end, the politicians, as dictated to by the oligarchs who control them, clearly feel that’s all that most people are worth.
I don’t know about you who is reading this. But I’m convinced that I’m worth more than $600 and that you are too. Never forget that those oligarchs and politicians use the same brands of toilet paper that you and I do.
Most people have not evolved to the point where they don’t consider other people as being their property.
I have a few brief responses. First, the various candidates in the Democratic primaries were there for one person. To prevent Bernie Sanders from winning the nomination by gaining followers and then turning them over to Biden as they withdrew. However, this time around, Bernie proved to have good ideas, but to be far more a Democrat than and independent. When I saw that he supported Russiagate, I realized completely that he just didn’t understand.
Regarding our corrupt system, I’ve been explaining for years that it can only get worse. Like software that is corrupted and cannot be fixed, I see only two options. Either we continue our slow slide toward complete totalitarianism, or an armed revolution will be needed in order to trash our system and replace it with one that criminalizes the abuses of the current system and that puts the needs of the people first and foremost. Mine would also be one in which political parties serve no real purpose, to the point that most would go extinct of their own accord and any remaining would evolve to be more like a social club. I’m sorry, but I haven’t the time to go into greater detail, but I have a general sense of what it would look like and what it would include.
Of course,t here’s no guarantee that a revolution wouldn’t also result in a totalitarian society, but that’s a risk worth taking – because I don’t see enough people sufficiently motivated to just tearing down the system peacefully.
There are many reasons why capitalism cannot endure indefinitely. Chief among them is the fact, as indicated in today’s column, that the world has finite resources, but capitalism, to prosper and to function, requires infinite resources. Proof that capitalism is in its death throes lies in the response to the current pandemic. The so-called stimulus packages were an insufficient joke. However, even though trillions of dollars went mainly to wealthy corporations that didn’t need the money, what did go to the people was a form of socialism. There was no profit motive to giving away motive – that’s the opposite of what capitalism lives on. But capitalists are the ones making all of the arrangements. That’s why the newly passes stimulus, again, gave a pittance tot he people. Exactly what will $600 do for most people? But, in the end, the politicians, as dictated to by the oligarchs who control them, clearly feel that’s all that most people are worth.
I don’t know about you who is reading this. But I’m convinced that I’m worth more than $600 and that you are too. Never forget that those oligarchs and politicians use the same brands of toilet paper that you and I do.
It was common years ago to see two arch enemie wrestlers eating dinner together after the shiw. Politicians are the same way.
Yes, you have practically said it all in this one post, Caitlin. Trouble is, when we are all ionized, radioactive gas, they won’t have to account for the outcome…totally foreseeable for decades now.
The problem is not capitalism nor nuclear weapons. The problem is fallible, greedy, dishonest, deceiving and cheating people. For more than 70 years, scientists have known that undesirable genes are the root cause of society’s problems. Constitutions, laws, economic principles and regulations etc. partly restrain but do not eliminate evil. Super-wealthy psychopaths own the big banks which instigate and sponsor wars, revolutions and violent strategies which enrich these psychopaths. But Yeshua, whose name means Liberator in Hebrew, explained how we can contribute to the downfall of their evil empire by indirectly precipitating enough conflict, wars and violence to accelerate the implosion of their evil empire. Only the best quality of people will survive the catastrophe and build a new and better civilization for future generations. Yeshua instructed His followers to withdraw financial support for the evil empire, stop cooperating and enabling their crimes against humanity. But we don’t do that because that is too challenging. Even critical analysts, journalists, dissidents, protesters and looter continue to enjoy the benefits of remaining part of the establishment and complicit in their crimes. Yeshua explained everything in detail but for 1700 years the Catholic Church twisted and corrupted His lectures and brilliant revolutionary strategies through translation errors and/or massive censoring of relevant ancient records. The Catholic Church is the mother of abominations, collaborating with governments in fraud, mind control, aggression and oppression. Read more of this here: http://www.wisdompage.com/2013%20Articles/Molyneaux%20essay.pdf
We make excuses when the facts do not agree with our reality. Many years ago they did a large IQ test on all races of people. The asian races had the highest average and black races thr lowest. They called it racist and said the test was biased. Today MIT cannot take people on merit alone because the entiire class would be mostly asian. Men do better than women with mathmatics so they said it was because women were not encouraged to go into that field. This is why I dont trust science results. Now it is acceptable and expected to bend results to fit a desired reality.
IQ tests were originally designed to fit a desired reality, namely that the sort of people funding and designing them were superior. Hence compassion and empathy don’t even figure in their limited concept of intelligence.
My point exactly. Two people do the same actions and one group does better than another. So you come up with reasons for rhe results. Asians are not smarter, they just do better for other reasons than intelligence. Being iintelligent has no bearing on IQ. It just is too hard to accept that genetics and not environment is the main driving force. Blacks have heavier muscle mass and speed thus they dominate physical sports. I can accept that and not insist more asians, hispanics and whites be forced to join professional teams. I accept the genetics. True science prevails. Not this liberal arts bullshit to explain away reality.
If you can’t recognize smart from stupid without test results then you might be stupid.
I’m assuming that those ‘intelligent’ compassionate empathetic individuals really give a rat’s ass about the tens of millions of people killed by their governments.
Most people try to understand reality through their beliefs. A much smaller number try to understand reality through the information in it.
The thing about the threat of nuclear war is this: If you can train your mind to ignore having a gun this big upside your head constantly, then you are terminally immune from dealing with any serious problem, since you can make anything go away by simply refusing to pay attention to it.
We are all victims of a permanent state of mind that says — “don’t bother me.”
“I’m growing a uniquely deep hatred for people who scoff at me for saying that nuclear war is a real risk.”
.
Those who scoff at the real possibility of nuclear war will look differently on that when their flesh instantly turns a rich charcoal color and then…
.
“The ‘Great Reset’ will result in further widening of the wealth gap and more control for unelected oligarchs.”
.
The “Great Reset” is a misnomer. There’s absolutely nothing Great about it. And it’s not so much a Reset as a Great Regret.
.
“Much more realistic to choke our planet to death chasing imaginary currency in an imaginary economy…”
.
You’ve got to hand it to These Clowns. Convincing the whole world that Monopoly money is real money and getting us to trade away our lives in pursuit of these worthless pieces of paper.
.
“Capitalism is held in place by imagination, compartmentalization, violence, and a huge mountain of survivorship bias.”
.
Organized religion, “The Science”, and many marriages are also held together by the very same things.
.
“All the chipper articles and news segments you’ve been seeing in the US mass media about ‘tiny houses’ are really just glorifying the re-emergence of shanty towns in America.”
.
This is all part of a major campaign to lower people’s expectations of Life, and for themselves. If They convince us that we aren’t worthy of Nice Things, then there’s more Nice Things for Them and we are less of a pain-in-the-ass to these self-deluded fools.
.
“The dumbest thing about the Democratic primaries was watching all the mainstream narrative managers pretending all the shitlib candidates were different from each other.”
.
They ARE different. Each would bring in with them a different crowd of Grifters and incompetent egomaniacs.
.
“People tell me they like what I say but they wish I’d say it more politely. Uhh I’m trying to help topple a psychopathic global empire here. People who are put off by a little crude language aren’t really my target demographic.”
.
No one “does” polite in a street fight. That’s what we’re in right now, despite most people being dumbed down and gazing intently and endlessly at a small box in their hands that tells them what to do and what to think and what not to do and what not to think. They can’t be bothered to participate in a street fight. They have all those texts to send right now. And all those other people to shame and troll to further the ends of Empire.
.
“The abusers I’ve known have had an interesting feature in common: they always expect, and feel entitled to, a private space to abuse you in…. powerful people who demand secrecy behave the exact same way.”
.
That’s because these Deviants honestly believe that they OWN you. You are THEIR PROPERTY. As such, They can do whatever They wish with you because you are Their’s. It’s also a standard form of expressing self-deification of and for Them. Same basic idea in both situations.
Scoff scoff 🙂
You’re conflating captialism with monopoly. They are not the same. Monopolies form by government assistance or central banking. That’s not capitalism it’s fascism. Can you name one just one corporate monopoly who rose to where they are without ZIRP or other government assistance?
Capitalism has risen to where it is with enormous government assistance.
Feudal societies granted no political power to nascent capital. Modern governments explicitly enable capitalism, from legally recognising intellectual property through managing inflation to mopping up its ‘externalities.’ Without this massive government assistance, capitalism would never have become our dominant mode of production.
Nor does Caitlin’s “Capitalism is held in place by imagination, compartmentalization, violence, and a huge mountain of survivorship bias,” for example, sound like she really only means monopoly.
In relation, yes, the elections are rigged. 2000 was clear. But, when nothing was done by the Democrats (refusing to fight even with proof) after the undeniable “clarity” of what happened in 2004/Ohio, that was the point of everything being cemented:
Ohio 2004 Election Case Study:
https://freepress.org/article/ohio-2004-election-case-study
“On Election night, GOP-controlled Miami County announced a total turnout of 31,620 votes, with a majority of about 66% favoring George W. Bush. Later, the Board of Elections added nearly 19,000 votes to the total, about 13,000 of which went to Bush. The second tabulation gave John Kerry precisely the same percentage of the vote as the first one, another virtual statistical impossibility.”
While you arouse yourself with porn fear and masturbate to abstractions, they laugh at you from their graves.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EnPGuX_VkAASSyR?format=jpg&name=900×900
I’m onboard with everything Caitlin says…but this: “The ‘Great Reset’ will result in further widening of the wealth gap and more control for unelected oligarchs. Of course it will. Just like all the other steps in capitalism’s inevitable march toward dystopia. This isn’t a deviation, it’s a continuation.” While there’s little doubt that the Great Reset will start this way (indeed, it’s already happening), I have a strange yet strong sense, a counter-intuitive intuition, that the Great Reset will not END this way. Likely because she must swim in cynicism to do her excellent work, Caitlin IMHO is missing something of vital significance in this unprecedented historical moment. Crucially important things are just BEGINNING to happen for the first time in the 70-plus years I’ve been here. Politicians and their economists in nation after nation are realizing the fiat nature of modern money and thus are directly funding their citizens in various ways to tide them over the pandemic (albeit only in piddling amounts, so far, in my exceptional nation). Billions of individual human beings have been forced to come to grips with their mortality, an essential fact long repressed by cultural death denial. A massive, global effort to come up with vaccines and treatments is now bearing fruit, which bodes well for restoring confidence in our ability to address far larger, much more daunting issues like the environmental collapse we’ve all been watching, helplessly, from the gerbil-wheels we’ve had to spin to eat. I could go on, but either you get it or you don’t. If you don’t, then Caitlin speaks for you in language easy and natural to understand. But if you do get what I’m trying to say, if you’ve also got that strange yet strong sense that something new is afoot, then keep your eyes peeled for an evolutionary leap into previously unimaginable territory–if not the good, the true, and the beautiful, then at least the more decent, the more honest, the less ugly. Most importantly, hold fast to the only thing that can see us through all of this, that same thing which has seen us through one existential crisis after another, that thing which brought us down from the trees and through the millennia to this pivotal point: BELIEVE, MY FRIENDS, AGAINST ALL ODDS, IN THE HUMAN SPIRIT.
“BELIEVE, MY FRIENDS, AGAINST ALL ODDS, IN THE HUMAN SPIRIT.’
‘
I greatly appreciate, and embrace, your sentiment here, though I’m afraid I’m not so optimistic about the great reset.
`
I’m with Caitlin on this:
`
“The unspoken premise of modern capitalism is that the world is about to be saved by union-busting tech billionaires who choose every day not to end world hunger.”
`
Peace.
“Socialism has never worked”
Actually, it’s worked very well where it’s been tried. But invariably it fails, because it’s always corrupted by those with the most to lose: the oligarchs, the spooks, the MIC.
Correct. Just as Stalin was the gravedigger of the Russian Revolution. Trotsky predicted that and he proved correct. Most western governments have a vested interest in maintaining that Stalinism represented socialism. It did not. Stalinism was Stalinism, not Marxism. The people Stalin murdered were Marxists. They were the people who built and carried through the Revolution. Stalin had to get rid of them because they were witnesses to his not being very important during the revolution. They were the people who could prove him wrong so they had to go.
Human response times to potential first strike nuke attacks will increasingly be deemed insufficiently slow, and AI systems will aquire higher levels of autonomous control. Beware the bug.
Surely the real bug is potential first strike nuke attacks, and not, as you seem to be saying, the question of who or what responds to them, as if any sensible response is possible to a nuclear attack.
And since you can’t have an attack without one side or another being first, it boils down to a potential nuke attack. Which boils down to their having nukes in the first place, since without them there’s no potential for their use, but with them there always is.
I love what you say and am glad you are not polite about it. Keep up the good thinking.
In an abusive relationship it’s all about maintaining the system in order for the experience to continue. In a global system, leaving is not an option. There’s two possible courses of action. The first is to acquiesce and become other than that which you are in service of the abuser. You can see that happening right now in the lesser elites and upper castes as they attempt to position themselves to survive with their overly large share of the pie intact. It holds true for the the bourgeois and their more moderately portioned large share. The second course of action is to fight. One does not attempt reason with a psychopathic monster. The risk is always that this time the abuser will kill you. It is worth considering that you are being killed slowly by the life of abuse and that the disassociative compensations which have deformed your life don’t really work anyway. It is also very possible that your abuser will kill you one day even if you do cooperate. Fighting back is not a boxing match with rules and rounds and referees. That is how the abusers teach you to define resistance. It’s the Thunderdome.
It is a typical power structure of the powerful oppressing the weak. Animals do it and so do humans. Aka alpha dog.
I don’t think many vertebrates practice war and slavery, except human beings. This fact suggests that war and slavery are Evolutionarily recent social developments and that humans could choose to organize themselves in different ways. Or if they cannot do so now, that may be due to an unfortunate genetic deformity which gives rise to sociopathy with such frequency as to generate such numbers of sociopaths as to make a more rational choice currently impossible. It’s not hard to imagine a sequence of events in which the more sociopathic nations, tribes, gangs, and individuals kill each other off, reducing this genetic predisposition to the vanishing point. A general nuclear war, for example, would eliminate the more aggressive powers not only as powers but possibly as living communities, leaving the meek to inherit the earth, as promised.
The meek, if indeed their communities are meek and not just lacking power, would inherit little more than the earth, and radioactive scorched earth at that. Not quite what the good book promises.
I have had a try, but I seriously find I can’t imagine a way our genetic predisposition to war might be eliminated by sociopaths killing each other off. Not unless they agree to only kill each other and then keep to their agreement, which I also can’t imagine, or unless the more aggressive powers are so because of their genes, which I equally doubt.
Wars take far more toll on the meek than on those who start them, so if there are genes for meekness, wouldn’t more war select against them?
That said, it would be fun to see our sociopathic leaders forced to fight each other to the death in a televised contest with no rules whatsoever, other than only one survivor being permitted. Move over football and mixed martial arts, half the world would be glued to their screens every Saturday. Who says politics and sport don’t mix?
That is an unprovem assumption since oppression and slavery has been the staple of most civilizations. Either you kill and enslave your enemy or become their slave. Wasnt it the apache indians that had no word for friend.
Yep… global scamdemic, nuclear war, biospheric poisoning and emerging Corporate Feudalism.
Welcome to the 21st Century folks; it’s likely to be a rough ride for a while.
I agree with much of Caitlin’s criticisms, but then she goes off on this tangent of either or between socialism and capitalism. A false dichotomy. We gain no benefit from having psychopaths in charge, regardless of which “philosophy” they proclaim. Once again I will point out that capitalism is not a political philosophy. It is the means by which ANY economy functions. Without capitalism there is no economy. Capital is another name for wealth, without which we don’t eat. The possession of tools to raise food is capitalist, even if it’s a commune that possesses them. If by “capitalism” she means free market, we haven’t had such a thing for more than a few years, ever. Some psychopath gains control of it and turns it into an oligarchy. Just like they do with socialism. There is no such thing as good government. The instant they proclaim the authority to hold a gun to people’s heads and force them to do this or not do that, and to confiscate their wealth and deliver it to another party, they turn into nothing more than a well armed gang. One that welcomes psychopaths into its ranks. Psychopaths that are a constant threat to do insane things. Instigating nuclear war for instance.
So don’t call it capitalism. Call it the profit system. It is where you work and some parasite takes what you have produced, and gives you a fraction of its value. So don’t call it socialism. Call it economic justice. Justice is when you get what you give.
Good, Alan. What you suggest could really make a difference and end these sterile debates
” Without capitalism there is no economy. Capital is another name for wealth.”
Historians and economists use the word capitalism to refer to social and economic relations that have taken hold in the last thousand years. They would emphatically not claim that previous societies lacked an economy, a means of producing and distributing goods and services.
And capital is often defined as something like resources invested for expansion. Wealth can be, for example, a wealth of food, with no intention of using the food to expand an enterprise or an economy.
Do you not use your possession of food to expand your opportunity? Like maybe doing something else besides trying to acquire it? All of us invest property to serve our interests, whether needs or wants. Including those who lived before money was invented. If you make a spear, you have capital. A thing you invest in food.
Historians and economists use “capitalism” to describe systems because it makes an easy target of any system they dislike, or an excuse to praise one they do. Not to mention that these two particular disciplines contain some of the largest fabricated departures from reality of any other.
Great post Caitlin. One note. Reset being very real, the whole planet’s nations, except for possibly one or two latin American or African nation like Burundi, has leadership complicit, being bought or bullied into it. Just look at all the nations demanding the wearing of useless masks. Nuclear war is not so likely, as contrary to media propaganda, all leaders are on the same side. But nuclear war is an option in case a nation wants out- or people everywhere rebel. It is just a guarantee that the elite will have their way.
“To be clear, the risk is not that anyone will choose to have a nuclear war.”
If by nuclear war you mean a war in which nations unleash their entire nuclear arsenals, you’re probably right. Such a scenario was called MAD, for Mutually Assured Destruction, even before we knew it would probably cause a ten year nuclear winter.
If we take the term to mean the use of nuclear weapons against an enemy, I’d disagree. The development of low and variable yield nuclear weapons seems to indicate their use is being considered. And Clinton’s hacked emails reveal that she and her advisers believed Israel might use nuclear weapons against Iran unless the US ‘dealt with’ Iran first.
Miscommunication or malfunction have nearly led to nuclear exchanges, but I don’t think it impossible that one nation or another will choose to use these weapons.
They already use “depleted” uranium in ammunition. It is responsible for continuing severe health problems and birth defects in current and former war zones.
Depleted uranium isn’t nuclear, except insofar as it isn’t fully depleted. It’s used because of uranium’s high density (their excuse), or as a means of using the uranium left after producing fissile material (my guess – it’s only 1.6 times as dense as lead, IIRR). Its health effects may have nothing to do with radioactivity, but be due to uranium’s chemical effects.
I’ll try one more time, since Ms Johnstone brought up Socialism, again.
If the people who basically began implementation of Marx’s Socialism (namely Lenin) said that the goal of Socialism is Communism, are you suggesting that Communism is the goal for us in the western world?
The last time I wrote that question, I had many responses that IGNORED the direct question. This causes me to question the ideology if no one is willing to logically explain the dilemma I see.
I saw points that suggest that word meanings are different for everyone. That no one has really ever tried the ‘real Socialism”. That I need to understand the difference between Big S and little s Socialism. Etc, etc, etc.
Can ANYONE answer my direct question without misdirection and obfuscation?
Your question isn’t one that can be answered simply. The meanings of socialism and communism have been disputed by socialists and communists for at least a hundred years.
To add to my comment below, you ask, “If the people who basically began implementation of Marx’s Socialism (namely Lenin) said that the goal of Socialism is Communism …”
Marx did indeed say communism was the goal of socialism, but he vehemently opposed many socialists of the time who disagreed, and was equally opposed by them.
Many marxists question whether Lenin began implementing Marx’s ideas. Even Lenin acknowledged he was modifying and adapting them, while others would say he abandoned them. Marx saw socialism as a possibility in advanced capitalist economies, which Russia in those days was not. Lenin thought it possible to take another route to socialism in Russia, one which Marx did not think possible.
And Marx’s goal was communism, little c, which involves going beyond the state. Capital c Communism, such as in China, North Korea or the USSR, has never claimed to have eliminated the state, while many would say these nations are or were antithetical to the idea of communism, little c.
So your question is by no means as direct and straightforward as you think. It rests on various assumptions that are hotly debated by socialists and communists themselves. It’s a bit like asking someone to give a simple answer to the question “Is freedom the goal of the West?” Freedom to? Freedom from? Free individuals or free societies? Etc etc. It’s not that people want to obfuscate and misdirect (though some might); it’s that these words have no single, fixed meaning on which their proponents can agree, never mind their opponents.
That should read “To add to my comment above.”
STEPHEN MORRELL directly answered your question in his detailed historical and political observations near the top of the comments to Caitlin’s prior post. It doesn’t get any clearer than that. As for “the goal for us in the western world,” the goals are as numerous and divergent as the people or groups of people who engage in such abstract thinking. Speaking personally, I like the goal of achieving a radically egalitarian, post-capitalist/monetary economy that focuses on meeting essential human and environmental needs–a Bellamy-type society which some would call communist despite Bellamy’ rejection of that label. But, again, that’s just me.
To be fair, BUELAHMAN’s question was whether Caitlin is “suggesting that Communism is the goal for us in the western world,” and STEPHEN MORRELL wasn’t even claiming to speak for her. And while his comment may seem clear to you and me, it’s undeniably long, and quite possibly fairly impenetrable to anyone coming at these issues from ‘the other side.’
To be even fairer, Ian, let me quote BUELAHMAN’S comment above: “Can ANYONE answer my direct question without misdirection and obfuscation?” Not just Caitlin, who only rarely and intermittently involves herself in the comments to her blog, but also her readers like Stephen, you, or me.
True.
Saint Barack, don’t forget the Occupy movement that he also crushed on behalf of the status quo.
Brilliant, love your articles.
Human sacrifice is often believed to have been performed by primitive sadistic societies in the distant past, when in fact they take place on a massive scale on a daily basis in this day and age. Close to 30.000 people a day die from food and water deprivation, not for lack of food and water, but simply, because it’s not ‘profitable’ to give what the earth naturally produces in abundance. And it makes a lot more sense to destroy crops to avoid the prices dropping on the stock market. When these decisions are made, human sacrifice is implicit and endorsed.
Love your insight, don’t ever stop.
While it is very popular to name capitalism a demon, it is not accurate use of the word.
Capital risked for possible gain involves people free to make a choice among many choices. This is free and virtuous exchange.
Those capitalists who combine with the force of government for gain become fascists as they use government to subsidize, regulate or disallow.
Please read “Honorable Business” by Dr. James Otteson. I would be happy to provide you with a copy. -. Marty
Capitalism is a form of the state, in which those who possess the means to dominate and exploit a working class in an industrial situation also come to act as a ruling class. It’s not a local business arrangement.
Indeed–that’s capitalism (neoliberalism) in a nutshell.
We tell our kids to be careful near a road, or at the beach, and our teenage children to drive defensively, but here we are, ‘mature’ adults, blinded by consumerism and social media, staggering around near the precipice of self destruction.
“Unequivocal 9/11 Nukes” > principia-australia(.)org > VeteransToday
Able to vaporize tall buildings in seconds. Shocking miniaturization of
nuclear weapons and their prolific use by psychopaths.
I do not fear nuclear war from an accident or miscommunication. When it comes it will be deliberate. India/pakistan is a real possibility. The next will be the US. I see them dropping a small tactical nuke on Iran just to show dominance as they fade from a unipolar position. Similar reason used for dropping the Atom Bomb twice on Japan.
Censorship in its many new complicated forms becomes ubiquitous. Not a happy new year.
“..Stress inhibits creative thinking.”
definitely – that is why the oligarch promote it – stress literally lowers our IQ.
There are five domains of social experience that your brain treats the same as survival issues:
• Status
• Certainty
• Autonomy
• Relatedness
• Fairness
If any of these is threatened, it’s harder for us to think clearly.
From a great book called Your Brain at Work by David Rock.
That Rocks.
I have been taking more aspirin lately.