I write about humanity’s problems as a species in all sorts of ways in this space, but really if you want to get straightforward about things all we’re ever actually talking about here is a lack of awareness of what’s true and the need to eliminate that lack.

A lack of awareness is the source of all our major problems, whether we’re talking about war, poverty, ecocide, corruption, exploitation, authoritarianism, prejudice, or even much smaller-scale problems like abusive family dynamics or the psychological suffering of the individual.

If there were sufficiently widespread and penetrating awareness of the contributing factors in any of these problems, these problems would cease to exist. All you’d have left would be the odd natural disaster and the inevitability of sickness and death, which would also become far less problematic with the introduction of more awareness.

Yes, from a certain point of view it is true and accurate to say that many of our large-scale problems are due to the fact that humans whose brains lack functioning empathy centers are most well-equipped to manipulate their way into positions of power and influence, and that the amoral nature of capitalism ensures that it will be dominated by those willing to do whatever it takes to climb to the top. From a certain point of view it is true and accurate to say that our problems are caused by the fact that things like war, oppression, ecocide and exploitation will necessarily continue as long as our world is dominated by a system where those things are profitable and human behavior is driven by profit.

But it is also true that underlying every single part of the dynamics I just listed is a fundamental lack of human awareness.

Why are psychopaths allowed to manipulate their way into power and influence? Because people aren’t sufficiently aware that it is happening. Manipulation only works if its target isn’t aware that they’re being manipulated, whether you’re talking about individual manipulation or collective manipulation via propaganda. If people were able to clearly perceive abusive power dynamics, their awareness of what’s going on would render manipulation ineffective, and they would use the power of their numbers to dissolve those abusive power dynamics.

If people were sufficiently aware of what their government is doing, what oligarchs are doing, what banks are doing, what the military is doing, those power structures would be unable to operate in the way that they do, because a sufficient number of people would rise up collectively to stop them. This is why so much energy goes into protecting government secrecy, circulating mass media propaganda, promoting internet censorship and jailing journalists who reveal too much: they are preventing awareness of the truth from spreading so that they can continue operating in the darkness.

If people were sufficiently aware of the horrors of imperialist aggression and of how much military expansionism is costing them personally, they would never stand for it, and they would force it to end.

If people were sufficiently aware of the insanity of stockpiling armageddon weapons on our planet, nuclear weapons would be eliminated everywhere.

If people were sufficiently aware of how aggressively and unjustly they are being robbed by the ruling class, they would use the power of their numbers to take back what was stolen from them and create a more equitable system.

If people were sufficiently aware of what we are doing to our environment and what will happen to us in the near term if we don’t stop, ecocide for profit would cease to be an option.

If people were sufficiently aware of how much wealth, information and freedom is being taken from them every day for no other reason than to benefit the powerful, existing power structures would not be permitted to exist any longer.

If people were sufficiently aware of the way mass-scale narrative control is being used to manipulate the thoughts they think about their nation and their world, those narratives would no longer be imbued with the power of belief.

If people were sufficiently aware of how completely artificial our system of money and economics actually is, they would change it to a system that doesn’t let human beings starve and die for not having enough imaginary numbers in their bank account.

If people were sufficiently aware of the injustices caused by racism, sexism and other forms of prejudice, and sufficiently aware of the humanity possessed by those who are different from them, all the injustices and inequalities caused by those prejudices would dissipate.

If people were sufficiently aware of the cruelty and unsustainability of factory farming, new food systems would quickly replace it.

If people were sufficiently aware of the abusive power dynamics in their nation, in their community, in their family, in their interpersonal relationships, those abusive power dynamics would not be permitted to continue.

If people were sufficiently aware of their early childhood trauma and the inner conditioning patterns which were set in place within them to cope with it, they would heal that trauma and begin moving harmoniously in the world.

If people were sufficiently aware of the way their personal suffering is caused by harmful mental habits arising from false identity constructs, their personal suffering would cease.

All our major problems are caused by a lack of awareness and can be solved by an increase in awareness. This is why fighting propaganda, opposing censorship, protecting press freedoms and exposing the truth of what’s really going on in our world is so important. It’s also why inner work on bringing consciousness to our inner processes is so important. Expanding awareness, both inwardly and outwardly, is the most important thing that a human being can do in this life.

If we had such awareness collectively, our few remaining problems would be easy to address. Without a system where all the resources are sucked away from the most needful for the benefit of the most powerful, the sick could be far more effectively cared for, and natural disasters far more efficaciously responded to.

If we had sufficient awareness of what’s true, in ourselves and in our world, we would have paradise on earth. Psychopathic manipulators would be no more capable of operating in such a world than a predator covered in glowing neon signs and clanging bells would be capable of hunting. All dysfunction would be seen as clearly as a black smudge on a white tile, and addressed just as easily. From there, our potential as a species would be limitless.

___________________________

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85 responses to “All Of Humanity’s Problems Are Caused By A Lack Of Awareness”

  1. As someone who’s worked as a journalist, educator, and animal caregiver, I largely agree with this.

    I know, someone reading this is going to wonder, “What’s animal caregiver got to do with it?”

    I’ve learned that an animal’s behavior is founded in the environment in which it evolved. While there are some exceptions (in nature a cat’s mother will teach their kittens what to attack and eat and what to run away from; this is why an untrained pet cat may not know what to do with a dead mouse), it largely holds true. Dogs will readily eat chocolate, even dark chocolate, even though it’s highly toxic to them. But dogs didn’t evolve in a Hershey factory. If they did, the dark chocolate loving dogs would have either died off or those that could handle it would have been the ones who survived to reproduce.

    Human beings evolved in small societies. There was virtually no secrecy, and no theft. If someone took your spear, everyone would see you didn’t have it and your neighbor did. Either it would be acceptable to take another’s spear and thus not theft, or they’d make the fool give it back.

    Those behaviors that, in a small tribe, would either contribute to survival–or get seen right away and dealt with–can be blown out of all reasonable proportion in our huge, modern societies.

  2. It is exactly what I thought as a six year old staring out over the pavement and thinking “why is the world as it is?”. Not in those terms but thinking that if we all could honestly share every single human being would be richer in every way than the current single richest person ever can be. I have never forgotten that moment of insight.

    1. Christopher Hall Avatar
      Christopher Hall

      Rob, I’d love to send you a pdf copy of “The Reality Creators” — my email is chris.dancefarm@gmail.com

      Your comment is eloquent and sentimental to me; the book is about why the world is the way it is.

      1. I finished your book Mr. Hall. It’s a tough topic to write. There are many authors who did it before and as far I can remember none of them were confuse, mixing facts and missing points. In this area, for your future writings I strong recommend you have a time studying the book “Hermeneutic Interpretation of the Origin of the Social State of Man and of the Destiny of the Adamic Race” by Antoine Fabre d’Olivet. He spent decades to write this one and in my opinion it’s on the top with more 3 books. If you can understand this book and take it as a future source of reference, you are very welcome in the kindergarten of sociology-anthropology-philosophy. Your purpose in your book is inaccurate in several aspects. Write it again many times as necessary till it’s ready. Or try another area where there are not so many great writers working. I think that’s it.
        Kind wishes.
        Ragnar.

        1. Christopher Hall Avatar
          Christopher Hall

          “If, after mature reflections, they judge that I have been in error, I shall still rely upon the equity of their judgment that they will at least believe in my sincerity which makes it impossible for me to wish to deceive anyone.”

          Fabre d’Olivet

          Thank you for your critique, Ragnar. I have a copy of d’Olivet’s work. I would appreciate it if you could point out a couple of references in my book that you see as inaccurate.

          You mention that understanding D’Olivet’s 620-page book and using it for reference brings me up to kindergarten level — John Stuart Mill’s dad would likely agree with you!

          I have been told in a few recent critiques that my attention to detail and facts is quite good. A prolific writer from the left said in an email the other day:

          “I have read a good deal of it, and I agree with your observations and your concept of the reality creators and your analysis of them. Your book is filled with lots of accurate observations.”

          However, this writer also took issue with my claim that “the vast majority of people are kind and decent, smart and disciplined, moral and compassionate” and listed off atrocities throughout history that I blame the leadership on: the masses are more cannon fodder than warmongers; they do fight among each other, but usually for the scaps of food and justice left behind by the ruling class, etc.

          Your critique is helpful and so very welcome because of the potential for me to address some specific problems.

          Sincerely,
          Chris Hall
          chris.dancefarm@gmail.com

      2. Christopher Hall Avatar
        Christopher Hall

        Ragnar — ( comment below this) — I just read the first 50 pages of D’olivet. Setting aside all his vapid reverence for god, the guy makes up fatuous, nay, ludicrous imaginative tales about “man” that are reductive and retrograde. Utterly lacking in intellectual rigor and needing an editor to hack away at the fat. This, in a 50-page introduction to a 620-page treatise.

        D’olivet says only he can be successful in the topic he writes about (pg 18-19) which is stunning hubris, and then goes on for 30 pages making up phylogenetic biology out of thin air pontificating on mind, body, and soul in a third-rate manner none of the rationalist or empiricist philosophers would ever tolerate.

        Just a quick scan as wikipedia describes him:

        “D’Olivet fell in love with Julie Marcel but decided against marrying her. Her death in 1802, after they had parted, later influenced his philosophical thinking; he claimed that she had appeared to him on several occasions, and he credited her with his theories concerning both the soul’s immortality and Providence.

        D’Olivet would later influence many occultists and new age spiritualists. He attempted an alternative interpretation of Genesis, based on what he considered to be connections between the Hebrew alphabet and hieroglyphs. The discovery of the Rosetta Stone and the subsequent decipherment of Egyptian hieroglyphs that followed would prove much of this particular work technically mistaken. He was declared a non-person by Napoleon I.”

        D’olivet’s life was unremarkable and left behind a body of work none of my esteemed and highly-regarded undergrad or grad school professors ever thought worth mentioning. I’m going to take a hard pass at reading any more of this tripe.

  3. in nature there are no absolutes except air water and life itself–which is nature.
    so let’s be a little more eclectic and tolerant.
    when you are injured unconscious and approaching a cold freezing death wouldn’t you like someone to come and take you to a warn hospital?
    socialists tend to cultivate that. maybe a capitalist makes the ambulance. and maybe the DR works not know if he’ll get paid. and so we ALL pay her.
    maybe we get attacked and we got to go and die for our homes…a capitalist makes the tanks switching over from trucks maybe.
    he likes to help save his marketplace.
    but then he learns the market is even better than trucks because his tanks get destroyed so fast the demand is endless.
    so with his profits he supports some politicians who get us into more wars. and pretty soon the capitalist is a war-mongerier. whereas the socialists stay home and grow tomatoes.
    Most of EU is eclectic mixed economies that extend the idea of human rights to health and education and food and shelter and they rely upon the basic truth that all people like to do something. we are a race of builders and actions, a species of helpers, and a genus of workers…thinkers, restless improvers. and having a little more security ain’t gonna kill anyone. even Sweden has millionaires.
    one of ’em married diana ross.

  4. Julius Skoolafish Avatar
    Julius Skoolafish

    “If we had sufficient awareness of what’s true, in ourselves and in our world … our potential as a species would be limitless.“
    .
    But alas – they are never going to allow it be known who was behind 911 (for just one example)
    .
    What the heck …
    .
    • “What am I supposed to do
    • If I want to talk about peace and understanding
    • But you only understand the language of the sword
    • What if I want to make you understand that the path you chose leads to downfall
    • But you only understand the language of the sword
    • What if I want to tell you to leave me and my beloved ones in peace
    • But you only understand the language of the sword”
    .
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRg_8NNPTD8
    .
    Heilung – “Krigsgaldr” featuring Maria Franz

    1. An artistic statement. Beautiful video. I wish I could have had time and money in my youth to go behind the tours of The Band, Creedence, Neil Young, Pink Floyd, Boston, King Crimson, Yes, Bob Dylan and so on in America and Europe.

  5. Final parting words;

  6. Bringing 600Booka into the mix, the trifecta unite over a haunting instrumental produced by TouchOfTrent, a suitable backdrop for the menacing track. “Come run up your blick like you on that, they gon’ challenge you,” spits Durk. “I can’t even cap, I had that MAC, I held a lot of tool.” While brief, King Von closes the session with a welcome verse, though for some, the subject matter of his lyrics might take on a different light given the circumstances of his death. Still, his reflections on his bleak lifestyle was part of what made him such a compelling artist, and “Out The Roof” is a welcome reminder of what he brought to the table.

    Check it out for yourself now, and sound off if you’re enjoying OTF’s new compilation tape.

    QUOTABLE LYRICS
    Who you got? Why you talking ’bout all them bodies?
    Who you shot? Where you at? Why you talking ’bout you gon’ rob me?
    If it’s that, where you at? Steady actin’ like he cocky
    I got out of jail and got a mill’ and took off like a rocket

  7. Consider the Humans are purposely conditioned to be unaware.
    Mercantile interest are strange bedfellows indeed participating in an orgy of greed, while holding the underclass hostage by controlling their minds through the resources.

    Here is a quote from “Weapons of Mass Instruction.”

    “H.L. Mencken, who wrote in The American Mercury for April 1924
    that the aim of public education is not

    “… to fill the young of the species with knowledge and awaken
    their intelligence …. Nothing could be further from the truth.
    The aim … is simply to reduce as many individuals as possible
    to the same safe level, to breed and train a standardized
    citizenry, to put down dissent and originality. That is its aim
    in the United States … and that is its aim everywhere else.””

    “The new dumbness is particularly deadly to middle- and uppermiddle-
    class kids already made shallow by the pressures to conform
    imposed by the world on their often lightly rooted parents. When
    these kids come of age, they feel certain they must know something,
    because their degrees and licenses say they do. They remain convinced
    of this until an unexpectedly brutal divorce, a corporate downsizing,
    or panic attacks brought on by meaninglessness manage to upset the
    precarious balance of their incomplete adult lives. Alan Bullock, the
    English historian, said evil is a state of incompetence. If he’s right,
    then our school adventure filled the twentieth century with evil.
    Once the best children are broken to such a system, they disintegrate
    morally, becoming dependent on group approval.” ~J. T. Gatto

    1. Ragnar The Damn Retired Avatar
      Ragnar The Damn Retired

      The state just require from education in public and private schools and universities what they need to keep the structure going on. Schools, religions, secret societies, police, national guard, army, embassies, mafia are just tools. Without context they are just words. It’s what is required from each one of them what can make them something good or evil. Till the end of this decade, each of you here – not counting me because I’m deadly sick – will have one import rule to fulfill in this context. Good or evil it’s up to you.

    2. “Strange bedfellows” I have a feeling of reading some parts of Macbeth among others. But I guess this is the purpose of this rhapsody. Nice idea.

  8. The idea of becoming successful is the ultimate evil in the Ghetto. It is this mindset that results in people in the Ghetto shaming others from childhood into making sure they never even try to leave.

    https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2021/03/05/coca-cola-whiteness-and-madness/

  9. É exatamente este o problema chave. Não há como termos ou desenvolvermos qualquer autoconsciência significativa, exceto para uma pequena minoria, pois somos criados envolvidos numa mentalidade capitalista. Esperar o que deste indivíduo? Os pobres não querem mudar nada, apenas estarem no lugar dos ricos. Sobra pouco afora o focar do dinheiro…

  10. Ragnar, The Damn Retired Avatar
    Ragnar, The Damn Retired

    Plato said that man lives trapped in a false image of the real. For him, in general we do not contemplate the reality itself, but only the images, which are for the real as the shadow of an object for the object itself. To characterize this fact he created the famous allegory of the cave.

    Bergson tells us that knowledge is processed in what he calls the “surface self” and what is processed in the “deep self”.

    Heidegger tells us about an inauthentic existence and an authentic existence. For him, the common man allows himself to be carried away by a series of superficial questions, by an inconsequential curiosity, which is lost in the knowledge of simple news, without greater demands. Only when man replaces this inconsequential curiosity with anguish, which is the expression of a dramatic perception of human existence, in which man finds himself permanently at a crossroads, in which it is up to him to decide his life (as the same Kierkegaard would say), that man lives his authentic existence.

    Translating these testimonies by Plato, Bergson, Heidegger, in terms of Aristotelian thought, we could, with respect to knowledge, return to the problem of sensitive knowledge and intellectual knowledge, but adding a little more complexity to it.

    Sensitive knowledge, fixed to the image, is always a particular knowledge, and in this way the imaginative path unfolds only in merely informative, associative, factional knowledge, tied to the reproduction of the observed, or composing fabulous plots that history the events.
    Intellectual knowledge, because it is realized through concepts, is not merely private knowledge, but rises to universal apprehensions, which enable a comparative, reflective, and critical knowledge; in this way, intellectual knowledge is fundamentally judicative, evaluative, interpretive, and not merely descriptive or representative.

    When we really think about life, it is not just about remembering the past or imagining the future. It is a matter of judging our participation in existence, and deciding our life according to a conscience, and an assumed responsibility, which effectuates the possibility of existing as free beings, according to the nature of our right, and neither always in fact.

    When children are small, adults ask: – Do you like me? – I like. – How much ?, the adults insist.

    The problem is not “how much”, it is “how”, but the problem of thinking about categories of space and quantity is transmitted from generation to generation. The law of the least effort contributes to this, and we are looking for a physical and external representation of our personal experiences, certain that we express ourselves better only because we find it easier. Thus we build all the problems that are accumulating in our lives.

    Dante, in his Divine Comedy, thinks of existence in literary and even plastic terms. It is not by chance that this work arouses the attention of artists, who wish to illustrate it with their drawings. It is all conceived in scenes, whose description conveys the theme in pictures. And so, he describes life as a road. It was just a literary expression, and there would be no problem. There is a problem, however, and a serious one. We think of life as a road. That is why we are unable to think properly about life.

    To walk in life is not to follow a path previously traced: it is to build your own being in the way in which you take care of your body’s health, you fine-tune your sensitivity, you discipline your will, you exercise your intelligence, and you are all looking for it. of a sense of life that makes us proud of the misery of a perishable animal creature, and at the same time humbly accept the greatness of being rational and conscious, and for this very reason are called to a spiritual destiny, the mystery of which is not given to us to fully discern, but whose perspective we are allowed to wait as the reason for being of everything that exists, of what we love, of what we think, of what we understand and even of what we cannot always understand.

    1. Holdctgat thought. I want to get high and reread it. 🙂

    2. Comorbidity 2024 Avatar
      Comorbidity 2024

      Man must embody truth. He cannot know it. — Yeats

    3. Maybe, certainly true for some no doubt, for my own sanity, however, I prefer to think that we were all souls before we got here. That in the real world there are nothing but ideas, but one idea is just as good as another idea; the proof is in the pudding, as they say, and so here we are.

      1. I got you Lynn, I have some anchors of “sanity” to keep me against my will in this reality, for now.

  11. We make up stories to live by and we are not very good at it. Good in the sense of it keeps us alive but as accurate portrayals of reality? Lets stop kidding ourselves. we suck.

    All our stories are stripped down simplified caricatures of reality. How do psychopaths get in power? They are adept at giving you a story and preventing you from making up your own. The shtick, the angle, or innocuous disarming bullshit with a sweet smell. A radio blast that never shuts up. Call it what you will.

    How do the stories you make up about how the world works compare?

  12. What a shame. Censorship is occurring at this site and I have printed out the proof.
    ~
    Its been good knowing you all…..but internet friends ain’t the same as the real thing.
    ~
    Ms. Rogue Journalist I can prove censorship, and so now I know even more than I did before unless their is an explanation or somebody proves me wrong.
    ~
    My response to Ms. Lynn has been deleted, but I saved a copy and I’ve printed it out. Makes me ponder why I’m spending my time here and now I know what to do.
    ~
    Later those of you who I consider friends – you got what you wanted I suppose. All I had to do was talk about the forbidden subject and sure enough, now I have proof. So much potential down the toilet seems to me…oh well.
    ~
    .

    1. Disregard this post, but I know what I saw and what was there and what wasn’t and you might think I’m making this up and that is your prerogative, but honestly the country of Israel is NOT an instrument of peace and apartheid is apartheid wherever it occurs and my loyalty lies with those who have been subjected to undue suffering.
      ~
      Um Israel, the country thereof, do you have a rebuttal or just more complaining about your past suffering. Cause you don’t get to dish it out just because it occurred to you and that is a most basic lesson of Karma.
      ~
      You get what you give.
      ~
      I’m out of here.
      Later,
      Ken

    2. most likely you are being censored, but not necessarily by Caitlin, I get censored almost all the time, almost everywhere, almost all of it, I think, by kids at low wages, for foreign intelligence agencies. Part of their training for when they become masters of the universe. Try experimenting, see what works and what doesn’t; by doing that you can find out a lot about the powers that be, behind a website. And, even if the site isn’t perfect try to make it work for you. Just as Caitlin just said, ‘everything is imperfect, we have to do with what we have. I will say though, that if Caitlin isn’t cutting it with you, you must be on some country’s watch list. I kid you not, I’m followed 24/7, censorship is the least of your worries if you really want to make a positive impact on the world.

  13. After leaving my previous job 11 months ago, I’ve had some good luck to learn about this website which was a life-saver for me… They offer jobs for which people can work online from their house. My latest paycheck after working for them for 4 months was for $11600… Amazing thing about is that the only thing required is simple typing skills and access to internet.

    Read all about it here……. Jobs App

  14. Editor’s Note: I did not have time to dig into where Ben Rhodes had a conversion, if that is what happened, on Israel. All political people in ALL administrations continue the national scandal of bending over and grabbing a fence rail when asked to by the Israelis.

    They have been conditioned to do so, which makes it not entirely all of their fault. We have security organizations that are supposed to protect America from foreign intelligence penetrations. Sadly, an exception is made for Israel, one which has extended for decades and has resulted in great damage to the United States, which VT’s archives has volumes of articles.

    But that said, those security organizations are led by political appointees, and whose budgets are in the hands of Congress, which also has been penetrated by Israeli intelligence for decades, to the point of the Israeli lobby writing legislation it was passed and just handing it in, like the Lord of the Manor instructing his kitchen what he wants for dinner.

    American media, of course will not feature this huge travesty for the same reason that it also has been substantially penetrated, where over the last two decades the situation evolved from ‘heavy Lobby influence’ to many media organizations being purchased by Israeli Lobby people and even Israeli intelligence itself by the simple use of a cut out purchaser.

    What Rhodes has done is something that is not supposed to be feasible, a career suicide move, or worse. Maybe he has had a come to Jesus moment. We shall try to look into this deeper as, if he has learned how to escape the heavy hand of the Lobby, others may want to do the same. Color me curious… Jim W. Dean

    1. So Lynn, there is a lot speculation there based on just what I have read, but sadly it is plausible, and in fact, seems likely to me.
      ~
      One thing that I think just about everyone can agree upon just now is that the country of Israel is NOT an instrument of peace. As I already said elsewhere: What sort of God would want that?
      ~
      And it should also be stated unequivocally so that there is no confusion: The country of Israel and Jewish faith are NOT, NOT, NOT one and the same. Once some folks realize that, they might also realize that some zealots who have been and remain fixated upon WAR need to be kicked out of positions of authority and the sooner the better for the sake of all of us cause it could be a great irony that a “People” who suffered so were represented by a country that decided because of that suffering everybody must die! All of us.
      ~
      That is the world we find ourselves in and let me repeat one other thing: I can’t think of one GD good thing that has come out of DC for about 45 years. So guess what quantum change is on the way and it is part of the reckoning and praise the Lord for that.
      ~
      BK

      1. Ragnar, The Damn Retired Avatar
        Ragnar, The Damn Retired

        Big K! Let me tell you something about gods and leaders. They care nothing about people like us. While our words don’t have an impact, of course. We are minority. It takes at least 10 years for a badass blog like this to stand on the top. Caitlin for sure has something to say to everyone. Otherwise I would not be here. I never was a loser in my lifetime and neither of you should think less of yourselves than a winner for being here. Feeling resonance and affinities with these amazing writings. Make no mistake, all these comments means a lot for everyone here. Well, let’s not count advertisers and spammers, you know what I mean. I’m pretty sure this space here is already gaining attention. Sooner or later, someone from Australia or USA or UK will make a poll asking to the people if they trust in what Caitlin writes in her blog. But in order to get there, everyone should spread the word. That’s how you become relevant to politicians, lawmakers, SEO experts, advertisers, etc.
        Peace and love.

      2. I’ll only reply to your last sentence; It’s a well known saying that your closest friends are your worse enemies, but the opposite is also true, your worse enemies can be your best friends. I’ve read enough of your comments to know that you’ll know in a heartbeat why that would be so.

  15. If you keep an open mind you appreciate all types of humor.
    ~
    This amusing article can be read here:
    The Trial of Winnie the Pooh by James Howard Kunstler!
    https://kunstler.com/clusterfuck-nation/the-trial-of-winnie-the-pooh/

    1. Damn – that was riveting. I wonder if Winnie the Pooh can appeal?
      ~
      I’d advise him to get out on bail if there is any possibility of this……
      but probably not is what I heard. It is all too no avail.
      ~
      Winnie the Pooh died in jail a sad and lonely death for no reason besides what?
      ~
      and the cancel culture continues to swallow anything it encounters. It is a BLACK HOLE. That is what it is thought Winnie the Pooh when he took his last breath.
      ~
      BK

  16. Michel Bélisle Avatar
    Michel Bélisle

    About lack of awareness, this article below is a good example:

    https://www.garydbarnett.com/the-tyranny-continues-seemingly-without-resistance/

    With awareness, there would be more than only one future possible for the people. But so far, it seems there is only one future possible indeed and everybody knows what this future is. It is to lower our pants to receive a vaccine that will make the future into something wonderful, capitalistic brutes tell us.

    Decadence is everywhere. The end of the world must be very near.

    Keeping my Rosary on hand!

  17. Wow!!! You’re really getting good; unfortunately, we only have our own injured and imperperfect selves to work with to make that change. The French Revolution was a disaster, the U.S. under went a silent coup in the 60’s with mass assassinations, the so-called, ‘take back America failed coup of January 6, was nothing more than an entrapment sting operation of the original 1960s coup to further consolidate their stranglehold on America.

  18. comorbidity 2024 Avatar
    comorbidity 2024

    IF
    “A lack of awareness is the source of all our major problems”…
    $
    THEN
    All X are Y…
    $
    https://psychology.wikia.org/wiki/Absolute_thinking

  19. Why do people believe in god? Why do people thank soldiers and veterans for their “service”? Why do people vote Dem or Rep?
    They’ve been brainwashed by a global criminal syndicate. It’s mind control.

  20. It’s not a lack of awareness, it’s a lack of empathy. People are certainly aware of the cruelty, evil and violence that surrounds us, unless they are brain dead. They tolerate it until it is at their door. Then it’s too late.

    1. Well BTB, I don’t entirely disagree, but let me tell you a story of something that really happened to me yesterday (3421) late in the afternoon.
      ~
      I was taking a shower so that I smelled a little better for my sweet honey who had just spent a day dealing with little kids. Suddenly, I hear an aggressive knock on my front door – blunk, tap, blonk, blonk, blonk, BLUNK..…. which is near the bathroom shower, and it was atypical enough to get my attention that I got out of the shower naked and cracked the window.
      ~
      I said to the fellow there – “do you need some sort of acknowledgement for the package you are delivering”, but it turns out I was wrong. This hostile knocking fella wasn’t delivering a package, no apparently he wanted to sell me something. Before he had a chance to tell me what he wanted to sell, I told him I was not interested, and that was his moment to depart, but he chose to escalate the conversation with me. Bad choice when you are on somebody else’s property and you are uninvited if you want my opinion.
      ~
      Cutting to the chase, he high-tailed it out of there after a bit of discourse, and I let him know how wrong his behavior was as he backed away. Still, the mother fucker cut through my yard and then was loitering there and gesticulating and such. My wife saw his angry ass out the window and affirmed to him that we were not interested.
      ~
      All I can say is – he is lucky I didn’t put a pullet inbetween his eyes and it would have been my right to do this cause he was hostile, aggressive, on my property, loitered there after being told to depart several times, and he was threatening both to me and to my wife. If I wasn’t naked I would of chased his ass down and then it could of been a real man-to-man contest in the metaphorical ring, but it wouldn’t of been a metaphor when I killed his ass with my bare hands. Oh well, it didn’t go that way, and I suppose it is for the best, but I wouldn’t even tell this story if it didn’t turn out that he did the same sort of thing to a another neighbor of mine I just talked with. I’m thinking I’m going to talk to some more neighbors and we will figure who sponsored this big mistake.
      ~
      Some of us know how to defend ourselves and we will, so take solace in that!
      ~
      Peace,
      BK

  21. Of course you are right Caitlin….. in theory. In actuality human beings are all at different levels of awareness. In my opinion the differences exist mostly on account of their soul level or soul development. Like children in a schoolyard…some are in the fist grade and others are in the final grade. The one is not superior to the other, just a little older or younger.

  22. “Why are psychopaths allowed to manipulate their way into power and influence? Because people aren’t sufficiently aware that it is happening. Manipulation only works if its target isn’t aware that they’re being manipulated, whether you’re talking about individual manipulation or collective”

    People are very often aware about those they manipulate, what I found that those that can are often admired, because they are presented in our cultures as role models, being the “successful” ones, those who push ahead whatever it takes. hey are admired for their audacity to at least skirt or even break the bounds of the law and decency, morality and ethics.

    Most Americans and the population in other western countries still admire the capitalist system, are envious of those and see them as leaders to be followed and even in China, a so called “socialist nation “, the capitalist idea of wealth accumulation and exploitation is alive and well.

    And like those that adhere to the dogmas of religion but are aware of irreconcilable contradictions, the logically nonsense, the unevidenced premises, unverifiable claims, fallacies and simply false explanations in light of science many are still unable and unwilling to confront their beliefs in the social/political realm.

    Be it the claims of the USA being a democracy when all the mechanism are there to hide a ruling oligarchy, be it the claim of a democratic EU when all this is a system to further neo liberal asset stripping and the primacy of the market.
    Pushing austerity to further push the old principle of accumulation of wealth without restrictions, destroying what once were societies that at least took rudimentary care with social programs of the weakest members and supplied a system of health care that at least permitted one to keep ones power to work and sustain oneself and family without incurring bankruptcy.
    All that is in the open, visible by those that at least dare to look, people being aware of the problems but unwilling to challenge the “system”..or sometimes trying like the Yellow Wests but failing in the end because too many still prefer to sit on the sidelines or even supporting the suppression.

  23. Great column for its clarity about the most important thing – how we see.

    1. And it’s pretty funny to watch the right wingers get mad.

  24. Very very nebulous article. We each have our own awareness. Atheists and Christians as an example see the same world differently. As for the rest lets reduce peoplee and society to a simple form. Take the primitive American Tribe. They had a Chief as leader. Everyone did as he said. They has a Shamsnistic person who they listened to and obeyed. These two probably worked closely together. They were not capitalistic but were territorial, attacked other tribes and took them as slaves. They also attacked and killed strangers. Not all but many. Some tribes were peaceful others warlike. Each tribe had thrir own awareness. You imply we all need the same awareness. Great so does the US government. So does China. Get on board Caitlin. Which boat do we board again, Cherokee, Huron, Apache…..

    1. Twaddle. You’re confusing ‘awareness’ with ‘ethos’ and actually don’t know the meaning of either. A tribe with a chief and a shaman that they didn’t freely discuss and choose is not aware, it’s merely submitting to the prevailing ethos.

      1. The prevailing ethos is what dominates regardless of awareness. That is the problem. Everyone can be aware with competing ethos and all problems would still exist. Awareness does not solve problems nor make people even want to solve them. That is the great fallacy. Dang, thanks for reminding me why I hated psychology in school and thought philosophy was interesting to discuss when we were high but basically useless. My Inorganic Chemistry teacher summed it up quite nicely. Liberal Arts degrees are a waste of time and money. Anyone can pick up a book and learn it on your own.

        1. Oh also, political science majors had an intensity even then of taking interest in how politics worked. Little did I know then they were our future psyxhopaths in charge.

  25. Let me get this out of the way first. Though it will likely fall on deaf ears as it usually does, I’m so sick and tired of “capitalism” being blamed for every evil. All economies are capitalist. If you own a shovel you are a capitalist. The shovel is you’re capital that you may invest in production. The differences being who controls the capital. Currently, the bank cartel and its oligarchic minions control most of it. Which isn’t capitalism by the above mentioned incorrect definition of such.
    The awareness of truth is not an end game. It’s an ongoing enterprise. We are constantly exposed to new information, some of which may alter our perception of truth. The failure to be aware of truth lies in refusal to acknowledge new information that might dispel one’s current concept of truth. Similar to a religion that refutes and resists any and all arguments against it. A fundamental of such search for truth is highly dependent on how one evaluates new information. By the source, reasoning, level of censorship, or whatever filter one uses. Your concept of truth is never the final concept that refutes all others forever. That would be like pretending that this is the final meal you will ever need to eat.

    1. So true. Capitalism have many evils by the way it is used today but it is also the dead horse socialists like to beat or blame for all of todays problems. Under communism everyone worked for the State on collectives. Each persons labor wad shipped off to be unequally distributed. People soon learned that they had no incentive to work. Thus the tiny plots of land they could use for personal food ended up producing more food together than the collective farm. You are either working for yourself to improve your lot in life, capitalism, or you are a slave where your labor goes to others. We have invented a new system today. On the series The Expanse, the Martians called them Takers. Those on guaranteed basic income.

      1. Wrong, wrong, wrong. Both of you are wrong.

        To say that ownership of a potential means of production = capitalism is just dumb. Capitalism as we know it arose around 500 years ago and if owning a shovel makes one a capitalist then they weren’t actual feudal lords at all, just capitalists.

        Capitalism isn’t free enterprise any more than It is feudalism. It isn’t Conflating those two is just wrong and misleading. Capitalism is, by its structure, an exploitative enterprise as one who owns the means of production contracts others to realize that production and extracts value from the process. Under capitalism, rather than work for a government (which does not preclude ‘working to improve your lot in life’) they work for a bank while an employer keeps shares of –often the vast majority of– the fruits of their labor.

        Your statement that ‘everyone worked for the state on collectives’ along with the propaganda-rubbish that follows is utter crap. Many, even most farms were collectivized until the program was cut, but many did not. There were also markets that the government took very little interest in.

        Both of you need to educate yourselves before speaking. I’d recommend videos by Richard Wolff. He’ll give you whatever info you need to understand the reality in a very accessible format.

        But, you aren’t interested in the reality, are you?

        1. Our definitions of capitalism define our perspectives and realities. However you want to frame it, socialists ignore human nature. Sime people would love socialism and others capitalism. Others would rob both systems blind. You are not on high moral ground here but neither am I.

          1. So call it the profit system – the profit motive is when you get as much as you can and give as little as you can and the hell with justice. Such a system is evil where it begins long before you get to its misuse. In the social sense it means you use a person for your own benefit and only give back what is necessary to use that person not what that person might deserve. That is also evil where it begins. So much energy has been wasted dressing this evil up as efficient, noble, man’s best etc. Bui the rotten hollowness of Capitalism still has that same stench of rot and death.

    2. “All economies are capitalist…..If you own a shovel you are a capitalist”

      I guess you are in need of an education about the historical development of economies before spouting such typical right wing nonsense.

      BTW – Marx appreciated clearly the role of capitalism to push society from the rentier feudalism that towards the capitalist way of production and organizing work. What Marx analysed were the contradictions that are pervasive in the capitalist mode of production, i.e. the collective socialist mode of industrial production and the individual extraction and accumulation of capital.
      Other contradictions were the fact that through accumulation of capital in a few hands competition would be slowly eliminated.

      Today we have the fact that we are back to a rentier capitalism that is accumulating wealth through purely financial means without the creation of goods.

      1. The pendulum apparently swings both ways over time and social development.

      2. I have extensive education about the development of economics, and I’m far from “right wing” though you are apparently “left wing”. Tell me one single economic thing that can be done without capital, and how it can be done without it, and I will point out at least one instance where capital was indeed involved. Your labor is capital, whether the gains from investing it are yours, or your boss’s , or your government’s, or distributed among any combination. Who controls those gains, and so your capital, is the only difference between one type of economy and another.

        1. Csnnot reason with a socialist. It has become dogma with them. What they advocate is simply not functional. All societies which they refuse to acknowledge fall on the same spectrum. Just like politics, societies are a mixture of many economic models.

          1. Indeed, what they call “capitalism” in no way resembles a free market economy. It’s a predatory economy, with the bank cartel and its oligarchy the apex predator. Unlike socialism, wherein the state is the apex predator. It defines the value of one’s effort, strength, talent, skill, etc. as equal to the value of any and all others. Except for the value of those “more equal” than the rest. The only way to force such is for the state to take possession of all capital, and redistribute it as it pleases. Most often pleasing itself. There are abundant other comparisons, but unlike some, I’m no here to write a book.

      3. So call it the profit system instead of Capitalism. The profit motive is when you get as much as you can and give as little as you can and the hell with justice. Such a system is evil where it begins long before you get to its misuse. In the social sense it means you use a person for your own benefit and only give back what is necessary to use that person not what that person might deserve. That is also evil where it begins. So much energy has been wasted dressing this evil up as efficient, noble, man’s best etc. Bui the rotten hollowness of Capitalism still has that same stench of rot and death.

  26. One can be fully aware of the nature of predators and yet remain helpless to not fall prey, however, both prey and predator alike remain food for parasites. Where then is the actual top of this food chain? Upon careful and honest consideration which of these three “Ps” would one place highest on the evolutionary scale? As to empathy, human beings fall well behind the average dog in such respects.

  27. But the post I wrote yesterday, Caitlin, to make you and others aware of the similarities between extreme Right to extreme Left politicians, you did not publish

  28. Excellent piece, Caitlin! For a new postcapitalist paradigm, more people should become aware of Alasdair Lord’s book, “The Tao of Sustainable Development”. His insights seem quite comprehensive and possible to me, at least. https://www.alasdairlord.co.uk/

  29. Knowing this, he said to them, ‘Why are you talking about having no bread? Have you no inkling yet? Do you still not understand? Are your minds closed? You have eyes: can you not see? You have ears: can you not hear? Have you forgotten?’ – St. Mark 8:17-18 (REB)

  30. You omitted an important word Caitlin. Self.
    Self awareness is divining the Love and Truth of our existence.
    Everything else is accumulated ignorance.

  31. Charlotte Ruse Avatar
    Charlotte Ruse

    “All Of Humanity’s Problems Are Caused By A Lack Of Awareness” resulting from a remorseless purposeful agenda to deceive, manipulate, alienate, and confuse the world’s population to sustain the necessary “social controls” for continuous psychological, physical, and economic exploitation.

  32. Have you watched Adam Curtis’s new documentary Can’t Get You Out of My Head: An Emotional History of the Modern World?

    He posits change is impossible due to the conflict between individualism and collectivism.

    I don’t feel any amount of awareness can change that. We live in the age of the individual.

    1. Exactly. When some one says you need to become aware that is just doublespeak for saying you need to think like I do.

      1. We need to stop being individualistic.

        This, unfortunately, is impossible.

        It’s a hopefully quick, but probably slow ride down folks.

  33. I hear you, Ms. Johnstone, and respectfully have to keep my different opinion.
    All of humanity’s problems are caused by coercive governments. (To be more precise, all of humanity’s problems are caused through coercive governments by crony capitalists who always control them.) The solution then, to me, is eradicating coercive government.

    1. And replace with what?

      1. “All economies are capitalist…..If you own a shovel you are a capitalist”

        I guess you are in need of an education about the historical development of economies before spouting such typical right wing nonsense.

        BTW – Marx appreciated clearly the role of capitalism to push society from the rentier feudalism that towards the capitalist way of production and organizing work. What Marx analysed were the contradictions that are pervasive in the capitalist mode of production, i.e. the collective socialist mode of industrial production and the individual extraction and accumulation of capital.
        Other contradictions were the fact that through accumulation of capital in a few hands competition would be slowly eliminated.

        Today we have the fact that we are back to a rentier capitalism that is accumulating wealth through purely financial means without the creation of goods.

        1. Marx like all such writers get their ideas hijacked and twisted by those who use them.

    2. What you say is not different to what Caitlin said. I can only presume you did not understand what she wrote.

      1. Thsts what happens when you read such articles that are nebulous. Everyone comes away with their own reality.

      2. Oh, I understand. That is kind of my point. She and anarcho-capitalists/voluntaryists have different solutions. Ours will work.

  34. Christopher Hall Avatar
    Christopher Hall

    So clearly stated…”If people were sufficiently aware of what their government is doing, what oligarchs are doing, what banks are doing…” and so forth.

    For a book-length discussion on this very topic, there’s “The Reality Creators” available by email (I’ll send you a pdf from chris.dancefarm@gmail.com)

    or by visiting my Facebook page and finding a link to buy it for the price of a cup of coffee:
    https://www.facebook.com/christopher.hall.1029

    1. Gimme a summary of your book in 25 words, President of the Market Farmers. From a small town in Vermont to another small place in Connecticut. Then California and now Oregon. What a journey for an artist!

      1. Christopher Hall Avatar
        Christopher Hall

        The book critiques the minority who run society the way a farmer runs a livestock operation and calls for the goats to live like deer.

      2. Christopher Hall Avatar
        Christopher Hall

        The book compares the ruling elite to farmers who run livestock operations and calls for the goats to live like deer.

        1. Okay. Send me one pdf as freebie, please. eivor69@protonmail.com

  35. Magnificent, Ms Johnstone, magnificent in every way! This article brings moisture to my eyes because it is so powerfully true. May the heavens bless and keep you!

  36. Humans are of no benefit to the planet

    1. Then you are undoubtedly eager to be the first one to exit, right? No life form is of any benefit to the planet, which is a ball of rock. Life forms affect each other, beneficial or otherwise. Some of us are beneficial to others, some are detrimental. The latter including any gang of Psychopaths In Charge, regardless of their falsely professed political philosophy.

    2. I guess that is why Mars is so peaceful and tranquil.

    3. Humans are actually the flower of the Earth.

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