How many of people’s mental health diagnoses are really just them struggling to function in a capitalist system that is amoral, destructive, overwhelming, overbearing, unsatisfying, and bereft of meaning?

It’s surely one of the most under-examined questions in the field of modern psychology. People in general and researchers in particular all too rarely think to take a step back from the data they are looking at and consider the large-scale framework within which that data is materializing, and to consider whether there’s anything about that particular framework which is giving rise to the particular data sets they are seeing.

How many of the mental health diagnoses given out are really just people not coping well under capitalism? It’s worth looking into. How many people end up consulting with mental health professionals because they find themselves psychologically unable to keep up with the frenetic corporate pace that’s demanded of them in order to “earn a living”? Or earlier on as children because they are unable to successfully navigate the capitalism boot camp known as school? How many people are given diagnoses, and corresponding bottles of pills, simply because they can’t march to the beat of the capitalist drum?

Beyond that, how many people are pushed into mental illness by the madness of our current system? How many people suffer from very real depression or anxiety arising from the pressure to keep churning out pieces of future landfill in meaningless jobs which serve no purpose other than to turn millionaires into billionaires? How many people simply collapse under the weight of financial insecurity, food insecurity, housing insecurity, employment and insurance insecurity, combined with the effects of  desperate attempts to self-medicate the stress?

Jiddu Krishnamurti quote: It's no measure of health to be well adjusted to...

How many of these stressors are exacerbated by being psychologically pummelled with mass media propaganda day in and day out, artificially twisting your mind into the belief that this is all normal, and that if you can’t keep up, you’re the problem? Telling you that it’s fine and normal for there to be billionaires and empty investment properties while you struggle to keep a roof over your head? Telling you it’s fine and normal for wealth and resources to go toward murdering strangers overseas while you’re forced to choose between medicine and groceries?

And by the capitalism propaganda known as advertising? How is our psychological health affected by a nonstop barrage of corporate messaging informing us that we are deficient, and that there are things we lack which we must obtain in order to become whole? That we’re not beautiful enough, not skinny enough, not fashionable enough, not affluent enough, that we don’t own enough of the top-line items which only the well-off can afford?

I’d venture to say this all has a major impact on our minds. You can have anxiety without being poor, but you can’t be poor without having anxiety. Our competition-based model uses the stress of potential homelessness and death to keep all the slaves turning the gears of the machine, and that stress is now interwoven into the very fabric of our society. It’s so pervasive you have to take a step back just to see it all.

So how best to respond to this depressing situation? How best to avoid drowning in the tar pit of a soulless, nihilistic political and economic paradigm? How to find meaning under a meaningless system which squeezes your psychological wellbeing in order to power its batteries?

Well, that question is much easier to answer. You find meaning under a meaningless system by working to destroy that system.

Do whatever you need to survive, up to and including taking psychiatric medications if you need to, and with whatever remaining time and energy you have left, throw sand in the gears of the machine. Do whatever you can to upset the status quo. Engage in activism. Join a union. Start a union. Start a podcast. Start a Twitter account. Above all, work to spread awareness of what’s really going on in our world, because that’s the weakest point in the machine’s armor right now.

The loose transnational alliance of plutocrats and government agencies which comprises our real government works so hard to manufacture consent because they require the consent of the governed in order to rule; we greatly outnumber them and we can oust their rule if enough of us decide we don’t consent to it anymore. In a western society which must try to at least appear to support free speech, the best front on which to attack such a power structure is on the front of information.

They can’t kill and imprison us all, so if we all awaken to how oppressed we are and to who has been oppressing us, we can use the power of our numbers to kick them out and replace them with a healthier model. The job of the propagandists is to prevent this from happening. The job of you and me is to make it happen.

So help wake people up to the injustices of our system, as many people as you can by whatever means you have access to. Wake them up to the abuses of capitalism. To the abuses of imperialism. To the abuses of mass media propaganda. Learn as much as you can about the madness of our current system, and share what you have learned with as many people as possible.

All positive changes in human behavior arise from an increasing awareness of the underlying dynamics which give rise to them, whether you’re talking about the psychological dynamics underlying the addictive or compulsive behaviors of an individual or the power dynamics underlying the murderous and oppressive behaviors of a globe-spanning empire. If you are looking for meaning, you will find it in the spreading of that awareness.

We absolutely do have the ability to move away from this misery-generating competition-based model that is choking us all to death and replace it with one in which we collaborate with each other and with our ecosystem toward health, beauty, truth, and thriving. If there is meaning to be found in our world, it lies in that direction.

__________________________

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148 responses to “Finding Meaning Under A Meaningless System”

  1. We have a system that persecutes people who are a net cost to the system. Think about how that might be reversed.

  2. What could possibly go right? positive 30 min interview with Starhawk

    Excerpted and revised from the transcript:

    Vicki: What can go right when we do protect our democracy, when we participate to ensure government works for us?
    Starhawk: There have been many times in my life where I’ve called myself an anarchist, not because I don’t want structure or governance, but out of a vision of smaller self-organizing communities based on mutual aid and personal responsibility.

    I believe we very much need structure and effective government actually working to help the 99% of people. I’m hopeful we can have more of this in 2021. I see so many things going right. I have never seen people so politically engaged as they’ve been this past year; more involved in political process, in working for candidates, in helping to fund candidates, in making calls and sending texts. One of my neighbors had a group called The Merry Texters. Collectively, they sent out a million texts in the lead up to the November elections.

    We’re remembering how democracy is like having an old, creaky car. It’s got a working engine–if you maintain it, you know? You can’t just let it run without paying attention to it. You have to check the oil, you have to grease the wheels, you have to get the right kind of gas in it. When you do, it’s very serviceable. There are many ways we could improve our car, fix it up, give it new brakes, maybe it needs a new transmission and so on. We’ve seen again, working with the democracy we have is a whole lot better than crashing and going back to anarchy. This is something which has gone right.

    Vicki: I love your image of democracy as an old, creaky car. When I lived in a communal group, I ended up somehow being the auto mechanic. I sort of sidled backwards into it; nobody else was doing it. I have to admit, I love old engines where you can pop the hood, and you knew something about what it needs. {Bruce was the plumber at an intentional community is this same way. I enjoyed it.]

    Starhawk: To describe democracy as an old car you need to be in relationship with, the need for you to do your part of what keeps it running. If people don’t want people-led democracy, we end up with a technocracy, an autocracy. Like self-driving cars, we’re being disabled, from participation. So I agree with what you’re saying.

    https://www.Resilience.org/stories/2021-03-09/what-could-possibly-go-right-episode-30-starhawk/

  3. I highly recommend Johann Hari’s book “Lost Connections”:
    https://thelostconnections.com/
    I thought it was really interesting how it deeply explored how normal response to pain is pathologized, among other things. There were some things I already knew about how pharmaceutical companies are evil, plus some stuff I didn’t know, including about how “science” is abused to make claims about the safety and efficacy of drugs. It’s extremely well researched and full of citations. I think the most interesting thing to me was how he approached several broad topics and brought them together.

  4. The manufacturing consent video is evergreen, I see.

    The Gravel Institute has been making new short videos specifically to combat PragerU videos. They hope the Gravel videos will get passed around more. It looks like some good sand to throw in the machine. They just put out a new one, “Why America sucks at everything”:

  5. It’s not just about destroying, it’s about bringing something better. Any time you can do something better than the system expects, do it that way.

  6. Plastics… Can’t live with ‘em, can’t kill ‘em.

  7. i have not even finished this…don’t worry. i’m gonna read it ten times before i’m done.
    i gotta send this to every poet i know…way too many heartfelt artists writing love sonnets to bluebirds and butterflies (both dying btw)…when we were hippies and/or deciding if we could handle going to the other side of the fugging moon to kill rice farmers for wanting a mixed economy…..or not. maybe Sweden insead, then they switched to an Eeekoconomic draft, and poor boys signed up for a free college education without legs or not. dead or alive..or not.
    56,000 died over there and we murdered 4 million.
    nice odds i guess some’d say.

    we hated aMerdRica
    i’ll say it. now as i said it them.
    it’s hard to make good living here if you hate da fuggin system!

    but da system is da problem….i won’t clutter up this comments with my poem of that name. it’s on my blogspot. jimmymankind.
    this one damn good, no, great! essay! you and AOC are twins separated by birth…there is talk of her running for Shumer’s senate seat. you might move to CA and take down DiFi.
    go back and b prez of aussie heaven so far away.
    how IS IT down der? rat race or just a series of bloody rugby games? takin’ da pressure off…shootin’ dingoes.

    1. This guy without legs and throwing rocks against heavily armed soldiers dressed like aliens coming out from a spaceship and and army of drones and F-16, F-22 is the symbol of an extinct nation. None of us could help them. Now under this Pandemic living in a lockdown martial law, you can feel the feeling of being powerless. No god will come to help you. You can only help yourself. How many freedom you are willing to give up till it’s too late? Spread your word. Let the other hear your story and your truth.

      https://www.middleeasteye.net/sites/default/files/styles/article_page/public/main-images/Disabled%20Palestinian%20uses%20a%20sling%20to%20hurl%20stones%20at%20Israeli%20troops%20during%20a%20protest%20at%20the%20Israel-Gaza%20border%20fence%20east%20of%20Gaza%20City.jpg?itok=YgAtyWvU

  8. Roundball Shaman Avatar
    Roundball Shaman

    “Finding Meaning Under A Meaningless System”
    .
    No one should ever find meaning from any system. Systems are just that… systems. They are not and cannot be designed to speak to the unique individuality of each and every special soul born to this Earth. We can seek to learn from systems — if we can — or use them to expand a locked-up personal awareness if we suffer from such. For no worthwhile sense of meaning can come from any system.
    .
    How then do we “find” meaning? We create it OURSELVES. We find it ourselves. We experience things and learn what works and what doesn’t work in our lives. And, in the words of great spiritualists… we FIND OUR BLISS. What a wonderful word — bliss. This is an elevated state of awe and energy and passion and joy. Good luck trying to find all that in any “system”.
    .
    But we live in a world where most everyone around us is trying to sell us Systems at every turn we make. Why are they doing that? Because those individuals benefit in some selfish way from that System. So they need recruits suck in to it. They need to sell others on it. They are trying to perpetuate a System that benefits them regardless and without respect for whether it does anything positive for those they are pushing the System upon.
    .
    Systems are like menu items at a restaurant. See if anything on the System Men appeals to you. Sample it. Try a few. See what tastes good. And then, adapt the dish to your own taste and put your own spin on it. Add your own spices and ingredients.
    .
    Politics? A system. Forms of government? A system. Education? A system. Religion? One of the oldest systems. Racism? Yea, that’s a system too. Cancel Culture is now a system. Many other systems, too.
    All with the objective of putting people in boxes.
    .
    Did the Great Universal Spirit create this magnificent Life out of nothingness just so that we all end up in a bunch of boxes? Or, are we to fearlessly step out of these boxes and find our BLISS? Kind of an easy choice, no?

    1. wrong! please tell me how the nazi system was like a meno option at a restaurant for the jews! get out of here with that individual theory of AYN RANDIAN SELFISH-ME-NESS AND SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST.
      even the lions admit they cannot eat every wildebeest. fake philosophy. you’d let a baby make her own way in life huh? just send it out to get a job and when you gonna change yer own diaper? put the baby on da bench at da bus stop? or are you gonna give to it according to your ability as required by its needs?
      just asking. isn’t it why we have public schools to create a better civilization? so more wiser less ignorant people to run into in our everyday affairs?
      selfish bliss…sounds like an oxymoron to me. do unto others is nicer. and i mean money is our idea our patented trademarked property! and if we wanna print it and give 2,000 a month to everyone over 18 for life we can do it. should do it. take some of the pressure off . create employment. it is human nature to work. work love and knowledge says wilhelm reich ..and me. people love to ponder and fiddle around with ideas. a BMI would create the word best and largest incubator pool of new ideas ever seen!
      all in hope of doing good for others.

    2. The bad news is that there’s no meaning to your life, none, not even the carrying on of your genes; it couldn’t be otherwise. The Good news is that, that gives each of us a chance to choose our own meaning in life ; what a great deal. No popes or ayatollahs required, no politicans, no poet’s or author’s, no parents. Pick your own meaning based on what has meaning to you; it’s your responsibility and your privilege.

  9. I believe with every fiber of my being that if every human being on planet earth were to take some time to undertake to manufacture in their minds a DETAILED image of exactly how people would behave toward/with each other, and exactly how they would organize with each other to produce the necessities of life — both of these for a living-day-to-day basis in an ideal world, these billions of images in billions of minds, in many different languages and from many different cultures, would be, in the most important aspects, PRACTICALLY IDENTICAL.
     
    To illustrate just one example of an important aspect, no matter on what part of the planet we live on, most of us have neighbors with whom we frequently interact to one degree or another. There can be good neighbors and there can be bad neighbors. When we moved into our neighborhoods, or new people moved into our neighborhoods, we “naturally” realized that the first meetings with those neighbors were of utmost importance for the future of those neighborly relations. What was the foundational principle that determined how we would behave during that very first meeting? What principle did we “bet on” that would engender good relations for the future? I’m willing to literally bet my life that every reader of what I’m writing is right now thinking/imagining the exact same thing, to the point that I don’t even have to state it. It’s that self-evident.
     
    Another example. I think that it is equally self-evident that no human being on planet earth enjoys digging ditches or harvesting sugar cane or laying asphalt shingles on a roof , etc. etc. etc. on an extremely hot day. But the “job” of bringing the ditch into existence, getting sugar in the bowl and new shingles on the roof, etc. ad infinitum, MUST SOMEHOW be done. Just exactly HOW and by just exactly WHOM are those things going to be FAIRLY accomplished in the imaginations of the billions of people imagining an ideal-yet-practical world or, for that matter, in the minds of good neighbors who have to build fences between properties or clear debris from the neighborhood after a storm? What is the very first principle that those minds “base their thinking on” that will result in getting the job done while maintaining good relations between people rather than have them deteriorate? Again, I think that that is self-evident.
     
    IMO, although this principle is absolutely necessary to be employed between people who profess to “love” each other, it is also absolutely necessary, but many times much more difficult, that this principle be employed between people who do NOT love each other. In the latter case it must be employed, not out of “love”, but out of pure self-interest, in order to maintain decent-but-never-going-to-be-close relationships – in other words, to maintain “civil” relationships between perhaps distant “strangers” who quite possibly are never going to meet.
     
    So as we all begin imagining an ideal world in which we individuals are not the only inhabitant, is that world going to be all about me, me, me, or is it going to be about us, us, us? Keep in mind that the former has gotten “first world” humanity to exactly where it is today – the edge of extinction by either environmental catastrophe or nuclear war. (And do not fucking tell me that the present situation exists because we have NOT been greedy enough!)
     
    If you have no idea what principle I’m talking about, no need to do or think anything. Just hold on tight to one of the deck chairs (investment portfolio) on our sinking Titanic and pray to your god (hold your rosary even closer, Michel) to come to humanity’s rescue. And Caitlin, you just take the stairways and passageways down into the Titanic’s sleeping quarters, deep in the bowels of the ship, and keep shouting “wake up!, wake up!, wake up!”. And after all the sleeping, dreaming passengers wake up and ask you “what should we do? where should we go?”, just tell them “I can’t decide that for you. You have to look deeply within yourself for that answer. Everyone’s going to find a different way to rescue themselves. No rush. Just take all the time you need.”

  10. Neither capitalism nor communism or socialism are responsible for the problems we see in society. Blame smart, greedy, crony, lying psychopaths at the top of the pile who operate and exploit the system, whether capitalism, or communism or socialism. Also blame scheming bankster crooks who abuse every system to enrich themselves and blame lazy parasites, not genuine disabled people, who live on handouts. People are the problem, not the system. Naïve citizens have all been indoctrinated and those who are not hoodwinked are apathetic or powerless. Read more of this here: http://www.wisdompage.com/2013%20Articles/Molyneaux%20essay.pdf

  11. YES “The loose transnational alliance of plutocrats and government agencies which comprises our real government works so hard to manufacture consent.” Indeed they succeed because they keep the masses hypnotized by propaganda, entertained by TV, and as Karl Marx explained: Farms, miners, factories, and traders pay their worker low wages to maximize Capitalists profits and only increase wages slightly to keep workers above the threshold of economic pain; like the Roman government providing bread and circuses to entertain the masses. Money or wealth is the dominant power (the god) of all states and of capitalists. Who does not love money? This is why the world’s great Liberator Yeshua said that His followers must aim their revolutionary tactics at the monetary system.

  12. [I wrote this in a comment section, on a blog, about eleven years ago. The feeling hasn’t changed.
    Heh, I used to be a lot wordier than I am now.]
    `
    Lately, I can’t escape this feeling that I’m having (living through) some kind of surreal, three ring circus, nightmare from hell.
    `
    The big top is replete with clowns juggling flame throwers on thousand gallon tanks of gasoline, while half the audience is dumbstruck with horror into inaction and the other half is cheering and relishing in the excitement and danger.
    `
    Then there’s the lion tamer. Taunting and mocking the lion and thinking his chair and powerful whip will bend the lion to his will, as it has so many times in the past. But for some reason he doesn’t realize that all that’s in his hands is a twig and wet noodle. The lion knows it.
    `
    In center ring is the tight rope walker with his balance pole. he can’t figure out why he can’t do all the amazing feats he was once able to do and he fights to keep his balance. It’s because in this nightmare, there is a quarter gram of gold attached to one end of the pole and two hundred pounds of useless paper attached to the other end.
    `
    And the ring master? He can’t do a fucking thing because he’s being crushed by the thousand pound elephant in the room.
    `
    Outside of the big top, a huckster is playing a shell game. Alternately hiding one of three things under one of the shells and asking the crowd to guess which shell each is under, after he shuffles them. The crowd is confused and frustrated because after hours (decades) of this, no one is able to guess successfully. The crowd grows angrier and angrier and starts yelling and calling the magician names. The anger turns to hate and the crowd turns on each other.
    `
    In this nightmare, I can’t figure out why the crowd would be so angry over a game. Until I realize that the three things the magician is hiding under the shells are the three things that no one can seem to find anywhere.
    `
    Truth, trust and love.
    `
    There’s a lot happening in this circus nightmare from hell. All kinds of charlatans and snake oil sellers. And a million different sideshows, all vying for attention and a shot at the big top. Some of the sideshows are so horrible, I won’t write about them.
    `
    On the other hand, there are so many sideshows (and people) that are truly magnificent creative and exciting; that deserve so much more attention, but can’t seem to get it because of the nightmare ones.
    `
    Just outside of the chaos of this circus nightmare, barely visible to anyone inside, sits a luxurious trailer, on the side of a hill. In it, are the owners of the circus, drinking whiskey, smoking cigars and enjoying a spectacular view of the landscape and the circus.
    `
    The owners are laughing, counting their money and slapping each other on the backs for all they have accomplished in creating all of this, and their incredible wealth and power.
    `
    Of course, they have long forgotten about the little safety inspector, who told them they can’t locate the circus in this area because it was subject to landslides. They’re not thinking about that little safety inspector, whose job they threatened, stuffed a few bucks in his pocket and sent him away.
    `
    After all they made saved a bunch of money on the land. Besides, they liked the view from the top.
    `
    So, the nightmare is about to end with with a mudslide, washing the entire thing into the sea, with no trace left behind.
    `
    But it does not end like that. Because I snapped my fingers and woke up. Because in my own pollyannish, naive, magical thinking, kumbaya mind, that’s all I have to do.
    `
    Wake up and start trying to find ways, however small they may seem, to contribute to solutions.
    [Peace.]

  13. Susan Mercurio Avatar
    Susan Mercurio

    In the 2980s, I took a sociology course at the University. Sociologists do look at the world around you, unlike pyschologists, who pretend that everything in your mind takes place inside your head.
    I immediately stopped believing in psychology and began taking a broader view of my adaptation.

    1. Susan Mercurio Avatar
      Susan Mercurio

      In the *1980s*

      1. Time travel 🙂

  14. Carolyn L Zaremba Avatar
    Carolyn L Zaremba

    Excellent article, Caitlin. Capitalism is one of the most vicious, inhuman, unequal, death-dealing systems ever devised by humankind. Marx and Engels knew this in the 1840s as the rise of industry turned people into cogs in a machine that killed them, and all to fill the pockets of the growing oligarchy. Nationalism and imperialism rose to a peak between the early 1800s and the start of the 20th century. As the world working class grew, so did the support for socialism.

    Today’s modern oligarchy uses every means at its disposal to brainwash workers into thinking their suffering and struggle are the normal order of things, unchangeable, fixed and permanent. They are no such thing. Turn off your televisions. Reject metastatic advertising. Study history. Educate yourself. Join your fellow workers around the world in rejecting imperialism and the resulting wars.

  15. https://www.johndayblog.com/2021/03/covid-is-endemic-now.html
    We are fatigues from the long crisis of COVID. How long can a “pandemic” last?
    When is the presence of the dread contagion “the new normal”?
    I argue that our world has already passed from the spread of SARS-CoV-2 into a vulnerable and naive population, “Pandemic”, into the situation we have always had with colds and flu, “endemic”.
    COVID is here to stay, no matter where you live.

    I live in Texas, so I like to follow the graphics which the Texas Tribune compiles. Texas has (usually) a mild enough climate that people can get sun on their skins, even in winter. Texas is close enough to the equator for the winter sunlight to cause vitamin-D production. To drug companies, vitamin-D is a competing product. To our bodies it is an essential hormone, with receptors on every cell in the body, that our species lost the ability to make a couple of hundred thousand years ago, when we lived in the tropics, with minimal clothing.
    TexasTribune graphics show the “double wave” of the pandemic, with the first dip in September, peak natural vitamin-D month. The big second wave peaked in mid January, and is fading fast in “cases”, hospitalizations, deaths and the percent-positive rate of tests.
    Few tests are coming back positive these days.
    https://apps.texastribune.org/features/2020/texas-coronavirus-cases-map/

    Texas would be expected to have milder pandemics, since people can be outside more, don’t ride trains much, and get the sunshine vitamin.
    When looking at public health mandates, like lockdowns and masking, people often ignore the differences in the regions and lifestyles. Most people have a political position they want to argue.
    I’m just a public-health guy. I want to help people live healthy lives. I don’t have a product competing in the marketplace.

    Our main defense against the coronavirus family is the innate immune system in our nose and throat area, which aggressively attacks viruses, molds, bacteria and sometimes pollen that we inhale. It’s a mixed blessing for those with allergies. The innate immune system is always ready to go, but it has to keep in training with frequent exposure to non-self things we inhale. This vaccine scientist worries that the current vaccine strategies actually weaken the innate immune system, our main defense, while promoting viral escape from the vaccines. The vaccine targets a viral coat protein, so the virus changes it to look different. He worries that the current vaccination track (business-driven) is making the world more susceptible to future viral variants, and weakening our critical first-line defense systems.
    https://www.theautomaticearth.com/2021/03/mass-vaccination-amidst-a-pandemic-creates-an-irrepressible-monster/#post-70950

    1. Isn’t it true that what they’re peddling isn’t even a true “vaccine” that supposedly provides immunity, but rather an experimental form of gene therapy?

      1. The Pfizer and Merck mRNA “vaccines” are genetic engineering envelopes that were designed to add genes to cancer cells, carrying information to make things in the cancer cells that would stop their reproduction, or bring on cell death. They had experimented a little with this “vaccine” use of the technology, so they threw this together for us.
        Do take 5000 units of vitamin-D daily to support your immune system function, with or without accepting an experimental vaccine.

        Thanks for reading…

        1. It’s a dead end the topic about vaccines.
          In the 50s poliomyelitis vaccine had several complications. Decades later the labs had to compensate thousands of victims.
          This super duper fast covid vaccination to prevent Covid (very much similar to the fast US military campaigns worldwide where they act fast and let the media think about the rest later), it will have the same consequences as poliomyelitis, meningitis, etc vaccination campaigns had. And in war zones is more complicated due to the presence of CIA’s fake vaccination clinic’s.
          In Pakistan, the CIA ran a fake vaccination clinic in an attempt to locate Osama bin Laden. As a consequence, there were attacks and deaths among vaccination workers. Several Islamist preachers and militant groups, including some factions of the Taliban, view vaccination as a plot to kill or sterilize Muslims. 66 vaccinators were killed in 2013 and 2014. This is part of the reason Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only countries where polio remained endemic as of 2015.

        2. Thank you! I’ve been taking Vitamin D, zinc, quercetin and turmeric and will continue to do so!

    2. Mr. John. Answering you question about “How long can a “pandemic” last?” Till everyone accept the “new rules” about social gathering, covid passport, vaccines, covid bracelet (being in study to put in practice on USA but since the people still have guns maybe they will wait a new law about guns to implement that).

      1. Thanks Ragnar. It was really a question about definitions. This thing is everywhere and will never go away, so our owners need another, suitable crisis, very soon (I think). People are already ignoring it pretty broadly in Texas, and spring break is about to start. I think 60% of people in America have already been infected, based upon the number of infections running about 6 times the number of test-proven “cases”. Most people don’t have it badly enough to get tested, or have other reasons to avoid testing. This herd is getting permeated, already. That’s why counts are falling, not the “vaccines”.
        IMHO

    3. I heard somewhere that Vitamin D can be stored in our bodies for about six months (unlike Vitamin C which we can’t store). So if you get enough sun exposure in summer, the Vitamin D will last you through the winter. Do you know if that’s true?

  16. Nazi Healthcare Revived Across the Five Eyes
    A Eugenic Solution for the Baby Boomer Demographic Time Bomb

    Matthew Ehret
    4 hr ago
    1
    “The ill-conceived `love of thy neighbor’ has to disappear, especially in relation to inferior or asocial creatures. It is the supreme duty of a national state to grant life and livelihood only to the healthy and hereditarily sound portion of the people in order to secure the maintenance of a hereditarily sound and racially pure folk for all eternity….”

    -Dr. Arthur Guett, Nazi Director of Public Health, 1935

    The words spoken by Dr. Guett 85 years ago should send shivers down the spine of anyone following the radical transformations of healthcare policy now underway within the Five Eyes zone of influence.

    As many people are now aware, embedded within the $1.9 trillion COVID relief package is a $40 billion program to revive and expand the corpse of Obama Care’s enrollment protocols and the worst aspects of State directed medical resource allocation for the most vulnerable (and financially burdensome) of society. While few details have been unveiled beyond a mass expansion of enrollment into the plan on a revived healthcare.gov, several red alarms have been raised which began with the appointment of Obama-care architect Ezekiel Emmanuel to Biden’s COVID task force last year and the re-ascendency of hives of cost-cutting behaviorists to positions of power.
    LOL I make no comment because I’ve already witnessed this in the waiting rooms at hospitals of young shooting victims being denied medical services because getting shot is the victim’s fault.

    1. Eugenists have finally taken control. The sick, the poor, the old must go. Nazi Health 101. Contribute or die. The state has no use for you. Jyst as in Germany prople cannot believe or refuse to see it hapoening. Just like today.

    2. Yes, Mr. Lynn. Looking to the picture, we are In this together, divided forever.

  17. Keep it up, Caitlin. When right wing nut jobs and assorted failed humans flock to your site to drop absurdities and dung on the message board you know you’re doing good work.

    1. Gemmeabreak –
      ~
      how about some specifics versus innuendo or is that above your IQ level?

      1. My IQ is 125. It’s above my pay grade that answer.

      2. My IQ is 135. My patience for fools is around 50. Get bent.

        1. Gimmeabreak – already been and you are behind.
          ~
          Catch up if you can, but your chances are slim.

        2. Holy cow! How could I never thought about that… patience for fools… I guess I will moderately downgrade my IQ to 115 after that and set up my patience for fools around 25.

    2. Cause what you are saying is a perfect example of mother fucking god-damm piss me off worse even then the Colonial Pipeline spill Cancel Culture bunch of fucking bitches trying to screw everything up kind of attitude that sort of sets me off.
      ~
      Get my drift?

      1. It’s not a drift. It’s a Tsunami. Glad I’m not your enemy.

        1. Whatever Ragnar. Just settle down will ya.
          ~
          Your friend,
          BK

    3. That was awesome; judging by the reactions here you’re doing some good work yourself.

      1. Hm. Elaborate John Knox if you don’t mind. Who are you referring to and could you be a bit more clear in your text.
        ~
        Otherwise, hard to know what you are trying to communicate.
        ~
        Ain’t that really the problem.
        ~
        Too much innuendo, and winking on the side leads to the end of all of us cause those who try to group others into pigeon holes are the ones who are the cause of so much trouble these days. Seriously, let there be detail in accusations and such. This is why “social media” on such a large scale is a scourge, which is also why Facebook, a monopoly, needs to be split up and then take Google down next.
        ~
        Go study some of Craig Murray’s site, I can’t post there no more cause I was banned, and see the wisdom he has and how he is at the tip of the topic of the day. I learn lots there even though I’ve been banned. I was told there might be amnesty, but I doubt it, but I still check it out and read there to learn what I can.
        ~
        It don’t matter. Search around and it is easy to get to the bottom of it. So, if your response was to “Gimmeabreak” (who deserves none), as the indentation suggests, then I know what side you are on. The cancel culture side seems to me unless you prove me wrong. Group up with each other and disparage those with other views all you want, but you must know, eventually you will be wrong, and then you will get what you gave. You will be cancelled. Simple really if you give it some deep thought.
        ~
        Talk is cheap and please, prove me wrong. Otherwise, well it is obvious to me, and I’m sure you could give an impetuous flip.
        ~
        BK

        1. I didn’t have to use names, and neither did gimmeabreak. Maybe the nut jobs already know who they are.

    4. My main problem with this right off the bat is the words “failed humans”.
      ~
      That tells me all I need to know about your judgmental ass.
      ~
      Cast the first stone if you think you are so great and don’t expect me to ever give you a break.
      ~
      BK

      1. Good point.

  18. I would suggest that the plebs emphatically walk away, withdraw consent, build small scale systems of local sustainable production. Abandon consumption and embrace humble productivity including loved ones and trusted neighbors in cooperative enterprise. It’s very simple, and, difficult at first. I’ve been at it since the seventies and just now hitting my stride. The whole eddiface is dependent on the inertia of tremendous mass. Fragment, use unique simple technology and small group social structures. Embrace modest levels of wealth and be generous to your clan.

    1. Yeah. Me and EF Schumacher and maybe even Newton Finn agree 100% with this Scott.
      ~
      Thankyou for your words of wisdom.
      ~
      BK

    2. It sounds a solid beginning. An alternative. There are more. Use your imagination. It’s the only thing really free in this world. No one can take it from you.

      1. I don’t need nobody to tell me anything I already know.

      2. Big R – I think you are fixing to miss that ball cause looks to me like it is on a downward trajectory and will slide under the glove.
        ~
        Get you a better image why don’t ya.
        ~
        Plus, that fielder looks old to me. Too old for that kind of desperate attempt to catch a ball.
        ~
        I play a mean game of bridge and just like my sweety I suffer no……oops just got a text. Got to go. I’ll be back.
        ~
        :
        BK

        1. I know. By the way, that pic remember my team: New York Mets. Always trying. We will get there.

    3. Yea and if you get something positive going, the degenerates will come and take it all. Just like Stalin sending Russian troops to the Ukraine to take their entire wheat harvest and let 7 million of them die that winter. And people wonder why the Ukraine is hostile toward Russia today.

  19. The author suggests we not participate in the meaninglessness of our culture and yet uses Facebook, Twitter, Patreon, Paypal, and her computer. In order to be sane, we have to not participate in this culture ; we have no alternative to this culture and therefore we grow insane. That’s the conundrum. A few of us, however, have a memory of life before capitalism grew into obesity and we can dream of that again.

    1. Jehr – I’m dreaming right now.
      ~
      Do you play bridge? If not, learn it if you enjoy some good harmless fun across the table.
      ~
      Look – I’ve said this to Tired and No Longer Active, and I respect TANLAR a lot, but the reality is the current setup was not defeated via boycott – oh no, all we had to do was abscond their means, and then turn them into a tool we could use for our own purposes, and I don’t know about you, but I like tools. I’m an engineer. Engineers BUILD.
      ~
      So all you ladies out there – if you want a good husband to last a lifetime, find you an Engineer – you’d be amazed at what we can build.
      ~
      Peace,
      BK

      1. Oh and you gents…..I mean you must know……Engineers come in both genders, so there you go. Find you one if you can, but let me tell, them lady engineers are cagey.
        ~
        I doubt it would of worked for me if I married one of them, but it might have been fun for awhile. Still, I only wanted to get married once so I chose a grammar school teacher. She suffers no fools.
        ~
        Jeepers Creepers – it drives one crazy and I know I’m not one alone in this sentiment with all the unnatural social distancing. Suggests something is amiss, and guess what, that is what we used to abscond away with the “loot” and put it up somewhere for safe keeping.
        ~
        Now the world if fixing to change because the Seed has been planted. Many times. The pendulum is swinging back and this time there will be buffers in place, and then guess what?
        ~
        It will be fruits and bounty for everyone.
        What could be better than that?
        ~
        Thanks Kropotkin and Ms. Joyner for all you taught me and I’m still learning cause that is the other thing about engineers – we love to learn.
        ~
        Peace,
        BK

    2. And before social media.

  20. I agree. It has radically altered the world we live in and will determine our reality going forward and not in a good way. More lives have been devastated by the lockdowns than by the virus itself, which has been distorted and lied about to an unimaginable degree. Can’t believe thinking people are falling for it. It will make it even more difficult, if not impossible, to ever resist and get rid of this sick system of control we live under.

    1. BTB – look, you must not have much experience in the “corporate” world.
      ~
      All I can say to you is consider it an “opportunity”. Consider it a blessing.
      ~
      Eff the concept of all of “us” getting aligned, but at the same time you can’t deny.
      ~
      Resistance from the middle is irresistable!
      ~
      Get with the game BTB and stop being a downer.
      ~
      I’ll tell you this, the next generation will have even better ideas and they are tired of the BS.
      ~
      Get with the game – the times are fixing to get BETTER – Yep. You heard it here – right here, right now. The times are getting better for all of US!
      ~
      Peace,
      BK

  21. I applaud this article. Here let me make an effort – cut and past from elsewhere (close by).
    ~
    Council House Fight – it was a Massacre.
    Tejas will NEVER be forgiven and needs to be spilt up into 5.
    Not kidding.
    ~
    BK
    ~
    Here is a link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Council_House_Fight

    1. Yeah, I know. I would be a fool if I thought there’s nothing else to learn. I’m always learning. I like to read. I could have had enough talent in my writings to become a writer. Turns out, I’m not. It doesn’t mean I’m not trying till today. The same can be applied to my garden of broken flowers. Anyways, let’s move on. Have a good one.

      1. Ragner – Let me kindly point out the message above you sent me is unnecessary.
        ~
        1. We both agree, there is more to learn. No need to say it again.
        2. You seem to be rambling about being a writer – not a good sign.
        3. You got some broken flowers. Join the club
        4. You can move on if you want, but I’m holding my ground.
        ~
        Do you see how unnecessary your message was, so kindly, what was your point. I’m sure you could turn it vice-versa, and that might score you a point or two, but the reality I’m responding to your pointless message, and so the question is – will you respond to mine?
        ~
        I could give a crap about IQ, but this cancel culture shit has gone nuclear and the bitches better back off.
        ~
        BK

        1. Well, you know, I like to mess around. You and Ms. K are my favorite victims. It’s kind of trying to nudge a lion with a short, dry branch, you know. Then I just have to have room enough to run for my life.

          1. I hope you’re fast cause lions are. And their short-area burst is pretty impressive.

  22. Living under a capitalist system is like being ruled by the Tasmanian Devil cartoon character, just a whirlwind of destruction and insatiable appetite. So much of our natural resources are wasted in manufacturing planned obsolescent products, wasted in not using more durable, multipurpose materials like hemp, wasted in not providing clean water to all in order to lessen potential for disease… just a total mismanagement of our planet.

    Rather than making the obvious changes, new markets are created, like private security (riot gear) firms that depend on social instability, weather modification programs that ensure profits for the disaster capitalists. A system that profits from an unraveling society is a just a vulture picking at a carcass, no need for intelligence, just secrets, lies, bribery and use of force. The devolution of governance is fascism.

    The capitalists have long given up on the world and believe in something called “lifeboat ethics”.

    “Lifeboat Ethics”, or scarcity-thinking, is the dreadful underlying philosophy driving this Great Fascist Reset. The Theranos crowd (I call them that because they are gung-ho over a disasterous idea) is willfully ignorant, galloping full steam ahead in the wrong direction precisely because it will cause the most death and injury.

    The new efficiency of fascism is inefficiency. Ignore ozone therapy and other long-proven healing treatments, ignore real solutions, ignore the innate intelligence of life itself. This is what is causing such mental INJURY… and the most injured minds are those condoning this anti-life existence.

    “The man who wrote one of environmentalism’s most-cited essays was a racist, eugenicist, nativist and Islamaphobe—plus his argument was wrong.

    Fifty years ago, University of California professor Garrett Hardin penned an influential essay in the journal Science. Hardin saw all humans as selfish herders: we worry that our neighbors’ cattle will graze the best grass. So, we send more of our cows out to consume that grass first. We take it first, before someone else steals our share.

    This creates a vicious cycle of environmental degradation that Hardin described as the “tragedy of the commons.”

    And he promoted an idea he called “lifeboat ethics”: since global resources are finite, Hardin believed the rich should throw poor people overboard to keep their boat above water.

    To create a just and vibrant climate future, we need to instead cast Hardin and his flawed metaphor overboard.”

    https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/voices/the-tragedy-of-the-tragedy-of-the-commons/?fbclid=IwAR3IFS-Cfx-mi70urzznygJ5RQiNsq_BaraETOhAOCpFHIGamjeQxUOeIDk

  23. Capital rules all…always has and always will. Religion seems to be the only worthy adversary, although it often cooperates given the right terms. Keep fighting it if you enjoy it, but don’t delude yourself into thinking it will change or that you’re obligated. It’s all a web of lies…be content if you’ve figured it out…now opt out as much as you can and seek love and beauty where you can find it.

    Rules for rulers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rStL7niR7gs

    1. Yes, of course it is a web of lies. They know it. It’s what keep up the whole building of War on terror (to steal oil and gas), War on drugs ( political and military influence, natural resources), Nord Stream (to avoid EU independence in oil and gas from oil and gas robbed by USA on Middle East) and many others fronts. The Five Eyes controlling all your personal and business emails, VPN services, social media. The truth is the arch enemy of the USA empire. No country in this world can start anew while they have control using bribery, military intervention, press media to eliminate local resistance. It’s not about Joe Hidden, Boris J, Macron and all puppets presidents. It’s about those who sponsor the dragon. They are the people’s enemy.

      1. This mail address is not mine but I know it doesn’t exist for years. It’s called Permanent Record . This is why it still showing a pic. Do a test with inactive email address you used in the past and deleted. See it for yourself.

        1. Ragnar – seems to me you are losing something with all these new images you are putting out there. I don’t think that is an advisable form of communication cause it seems “sly”. Why don’t you just stick with one. The first one you had was the best in my opinion.
          ~
          Looking forward to some future duplicate bridge cause that is where you separate the babies from the adults.
          ~
          Peace,
          BK

          1. Great BK! Yeah, I know. But it’s worth a shot as an exemplification. To debunk you need to showcase. About that game of bridge, I’m working on it. I’m not going to play as a fresh rooster with you and Ms. K. I wanna crush it, LOL.

            1. Good luck I reckon, but so far the signs suggest you have a lot left to learn.
              ~
              BK

  24. Mike McDonnell Avatar
    Mike McDonnell

    Why do so many people with half-baked ideas congregate here on Caitlin’s blog? She herself is a thoughtful, careful and caring person, so what is the attraction of coming here and writing the intense, but wrong, things I see here? Wouldn’t it be better if we acted as grownups and commented on the gist of Caitlin’s offering of the day? I, for one, am grateful to have found such a fine person as Caitlin, and I think what she has to say is important to think about. If you do not agree with her, then go read people you do agree with. She has a message, basically, of peace and love. Let’s appreciate and extend that message. Sometimes, when I read these comments, Yeats’ phrase “the worst are full of passionate intensity” occurs to me. Let’s not be like that.

    1. You are offended by varied viewpoints. It is called debate and discussion. A lost art in our cancel culture. This forum is not an echo chamber which makes it intellectually stimulating to hear frim so many varied people.

    2. Frank Thompson Avatar
      Frank Thompson

      There are among the regulars here some of the lunatic fringe, that is sure.
      Many do not disagree, but seek out this space to reinforce their delusional faith. I simply do not engage them for I remember that faith is more sure than reason.

      1. I seek out nowhere to be delusional, but I listen to what anybody has to say as long as they can say it in good faith. If you listen well you learn so much and you mainly learn how to get better.
        ~
        If they pull out a metaphorical gun and start blowing away with harmful intent, then obviously that gets out of control quickly. Consider the link I posted above, and honestly, with empathy, try to imagine what you would have done if you had been there and how you would have felt after the dust settled and blood soaked into the ground – the blood of the innocent. My guess is that you would have felt like shit regardless as to what you wanted. That is why it was a travesty and a massacre, and riddle me this for eff sake – haven’t we had enough massacres yet?
        ~
        So this place is special because a certain audience is attracted to the discussion and some have the courage to speak up and some have even more courage to defend their principles. Courage, like anything else, is on a spectrum.
        ~
        My high school didn’t have a debate team and probably that is for the best cause if it did, I might of turned into a meaner person than I already am.
        ~
        You know what – I’m seriously happy today. I’m fixing to go back to my sanctuary on the River….one of the oldest rivers in the land…….funny how things work out sometimes.
        ~
        Does somebody here have an attitude? If so, look into the mirror. I hope you ain’t some effing puppet.
        ~
        Peace,
        BK

      2. So thats why you wontvtalk to me. 🙂

  25. Hey! Leave that Linux penguin out of your example. It’s smack dab in the middle of the illustration, exactly where it shouldn’t be. (Also the Ubuntu logo on the bottom.) Linux is providing people a free opt-out to commercial computing software in desktop computing. Linux isn’t part of the problem, it’s part of the solution.

    Pick your images more carefully.

    And if you have a machine that uses Apple, Google or Microsoft OS? You are part of the problem. You can start with that and switch to something that isn’t a behemoth crushing crushing personal computing and using you as their personal plaything to be bought and sold.

    1. Man I agree with this to an extent, but for fuck sake Linux doesn’t seem to have reached “critical mass”, but maybe this could change, and then if it did, then hell yeah.
      ~
      I agree though. Be careful with the images you use to present your “message” cause if they are not well though out, then they will eventually be ridiculed.
      ~
      Nice comment JC. For what its worth – which I will never know, and I can live with that, cause who needs such a large-scale presence everywhere. If you think you need that now, let me be the first to tell you that you are FUCKED!
      ~
      Peace,
      BK

      1. Linux and FOSS (Free and Open Source Software) don’t need “critical mass”. It needs to be used and promoted by those who care about the future of privacy, choice, and freedom in computing.

  26. Caitlin, what is your ‘alternative’ system? the Socialist system produces many of people’ with mental health diagnoses who struggle to function in a Socialist system that is amoral, destructive, overwhelming, overbearing, unsatisfying, and bereft of meaning.

    Alberto

    1. Of course you just invented that assertion and pulled it out of your ass.

      Yes, secure, equitable societies drive people insane. How fucking dumb.

  27. Andy Greenhouse Avatar
    Andy Greenhouse

    Caitlin! Great article. Your ideas here are firmly grounded in logic. I had reached many of the same conclusions myself recently. Especially with all the medications.

  28. Another important article! Capitalism = a great deal more suffering and death = more mental illness.

    Biggest lie = the only choice is between Capitalism and Socialism as mostly practiced. Yugoslavia did very well under Socialism and was done in after Tito died by a combination of interethnic contempt and I believe Western financial forces. The sight of an economy that could do so well without a greed-based system like Capitalism was a hazard to all Capitalism propaganda.

  29. “they require the consent of the governed in order to rule”
    And the consent of the governed to be ruled. Completely ignoring extensive human history of societies NOT being ruled. Which histories aren’t written because the rulers don’t want us to get the idea they are the dangerous, damaging, superfluous, distributers of death they are, and how little we need them at all. Create a ruling hierarchical system, and the necessary government to enforce such rule at gun point, and rest assured, before long it will be largely populated by a gang of psychopaths. Sane people do not desire holding a gun to their neighbors heads and forcing them to do this or not do that, unless their neighbor is trying to do so to them. Although far too many are quite willing to abdicate such power to the gang of psychopaths in favor of their preferences. Failing to understand, or not wishing to, that by granting the power, one is as guilty as those using it.

    The “Manufacture of Madness” by Thomas Szasz, first published in 1970, presents an intriguing concept of the field of psychology. Equating it to the Inquisitions and witch burnings. Psychology is a vaporous thing, backed by few facts, and with little, if any, definitive symptomology of any of the maladies proposed to exist. “Disease” manufactured out of thin air.

  30. There is a school of psychotherapy that fully takes into account the effects of the social and economic system we find ourselves within. It is based on the “givens of human nature” and called the human givens approach. Examining well-being from a biopsychosocial perspective not only helps us to understand the many reasons why people struggle with mental illness, but gives us clear pointers for what to do about it.

    1. The capitalist system didn’t fall from Mars, though. The problem of what to do about it has to encompass its history and genealogy. In other words, ‘We have met the enemy, and he is us.’ Us, and our evolution, about 9/10 of which seems to have consisted of small bands fighting one another when not scrabbling for acorns and worms. It’s comparatively easy to see and talk about the faults of capitalism, fascism, feudalism, monarchy, and so forth; the problem is replacing them constructively.

  31. You’re describing ‘positive maladjustment’, a refusal to fit in with a very sick society. It’s one aspect of ‘The theory of positive disintegration’ by Kazimierz Dabrowski, a brilliant psychiatrist who lived through tyranny and who tried to make sense of the differences between very low quality and very high quality human beings.

    QUOTE

    ‘…. positive maladjustment: a lack of adjustment to the world as is, guided by our vision of what ought to be which turns us into eternal misfits, “guests of reality,” to use a title of Par Lagerkvist’s story.

    Positive maladjustment is always rooted in universal human values embedded in our conscience and gives rise to our protest, internal and external, against the inhumane status quo. Sometimes this protest can take a form of non-cooperation and/or silence, or even mental illness, but it is still positive and expressive of better mental health than unreflective adjustment to what is. Jiddu Krishnamurti reminded us that “It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society.”

    Positive disintegration may start with positive maladjustment, which then awakens other developmental dynamisms such as guilt, shame, astonishment with oneself, disquietude with oneself, subject-object in oneself, and others that create the basis for transcending our biological and social limitations through personality growth.’

    medium (dot) com/@Elamika/our-positive-disintegration-beacbb47bd20

  32. So true! Magnificent article.
    I used to be someone reasonable healthy and an average happy person before this pandemic. In the last 15 months I became someone else without realizing my transformation to someone unhappy, depressed. I have four medications for daily use now to keep me attached to this insane reality. I’m seeing everyone bend the knee to this heavy new way of living as I did. They are sick like me and they don’t know it. I can’t remember how I used to have adorable moments in pubs drinking a beer. I can’t remember how I used to like to walk in malls. I can’t remember how I used to hug people. All what I see is a different reality filled with fear, depression, anxiety. I feeling the best of me dying slowly. And I’m seeing the same in everyone else. Are we faded to have a shit way to die under this inhuman way of living? Are we pushing ourselves too hard to fit in a new reality which will end up being our grave? I don’t know. My thoughts used to be sharp and now they are blunt. I don’t see sane people. All what I can see is everyone being proactive towards the end. Forgive my viewpoint. I’m writing from the middle of this hurricane of my reality and I cannot get out.

    1. Quit listening to media off all kinds. I too find myself interacting less in public as well because it is just so depressing how people are acting. I refuse to participate in this mask wearing hand sanitizing culture. Take up something relaxing like gardening, bird watching, etc. There is so much more to do than socializing at the pub. Honestly things have changed and people hate change. Extreme change will even traumatize us. Taking a lot of medication for this will only make it worse in my opinion.

    2. Don’t apologize. Your feelings of sadness and depression are actually normal. It was hard enough to try and survive under capitalism alone, but this new “normal” is truly insane. It is leading us into a world of complete submission. The really sick thing is that a lot of people are okay with it.

  33. We have not had a free market since 1913. What we call capitalism today is a corrupt version, corrupted by 107 years without a free market to control it.

    1. Referring to what we have now as “capitalism” is a bastardization of the word. What we have is oligarchy, which embodies both government and economics. Both working to the same end. To keep the 0.1% fat and happy regardless the cost to the 99.9%.

    2. When has there ever been a free market anywhere, outside of flea markets in church parking lots? Certainly not in any stage of any large community I’ve observed.

  34. Yes, Ms Johnstone, the ” rat race ” that the owners and the masters have us peons stewing in is very bad for our mental and physical health. Stepping back and away from it can be very perilous too. I abhor the deaths ” our system ” causes here in the U.S.A. as well as overseas; but my fellow citizens prefer the coma that they are in because it enables them to ignore what they are a part of. The looming financial implosion will force many peons ” awake ” and they will be very angry. What that anger eventually causes is unknown, at this time , but it is not going to be pretty.

  35. Go Vegan via vegetarianism.
    Plant a veggie garden (food can be grown in pots, or join a local food growing co-op).
    Take up a musical instrument.
    Walk every day.
    Meditate.
    Turn the idiot box OFF.
    Join a library.
    Buy a dog (dogs can be vegan).
    Hug often.
    Laugh often.
    Make Love.

    1. Perhaps you were, but I was not born bipedal, with excellent binocular vision, and an opposable thumb so I could graze. Likewise the dog with its predatory equipment.

      1. I doubt you’re using those features to get your food!

        1. I did until old age stopped me from doing so. Not exclusively, but quite actively. I have always looked upon hunting as spiritual act. To immerse myself in the fact that all life feeds on death, even vegetarians. Hunting brings that fact into a brilliantly bright light. I always blessed the game I killed, and thanked them for their energy. Lest you panic over me killing an animal, please be aware that the natural cause of death in the wild is to become ill, injured or malnourished, and while in that weakened state one gets eaten, quite often alive. Personally, I would prefer being shot.

    2. I’m not vegan, but thank you for this positive, solutions oriented comment.
      `
      Keeping in mind, and working to hold accountable those most responsible for the problems our planet faces, more like this, please.
      Peace.

  36. Per this: “… struggling to function in a capitalist system that is amoral, destructive, overwhelming, overbearing, unsatisfying, and bereft of meaning?” — I can’t see how this is unique to (your one-size-fits-all bete noir) capitalism, given the USSR and other socialist paradises’ forced imposition and extensive use of propaganda and intimidation.

    If peoples (ever!) got a valid perspective on their actual (vs. gaslighted) contexts, we wouldn’t be in this global mess – but with families, schools/cultures historically manipulated for their total control with a growing soft/hard armamentarium, there is only one cure – which you implicitly suggest: cognitive dissonance to damage the control matrix. Individuals who have escaped from Plato’s Cave need to be exemplars.

  37. You dont need to destroy the system. If enough people opt out, the system will collapse. Of course that is not going to happen. You are not going to change the world so stop trying. Change yourself instead, that is a big enough task for anyone.

    1. I can’t imagine that is complete until one (at least) attempts to reach out and influence others. And there is this by GBS:

      The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.

      1. George Bernard Shaw was an enthusiastic self avowed racist eugenicist.

        1. Frank Thompson Avatar
          Frank Thompson

          Sir, that is not an argument against any of his ideas, but only a statement that you disagree with some of his conclusions.

          1. It makes me question the wisdom and validity of his statements and conclusions. Him being crazy and all. I have heard the above quote often, and I argue that the reasonable man tries new things, and when they don’t work he drops them. The unreasonable man will too often kill themselves in the effort to make his idea work, regardless of its repeated failure to do so. Quite often dragging others down with him.

            1. Actually, the whole discussion without reguarding George Bernard Shaw’s world view, would be to say lay down let the Evil one take over. No doubt there are many of those here; wherever there is wisdom and empathy Evil comes running to snuff out the flames of love and hope.

      2. If you transform yourself first, you will naturally be a source of transformation to those around you. Reaching out is Jehovah Witnesses going door to door which is not transformative. Learning to llive a holy and selfless life is leading by example which is transforming.

    2. The world is constantly changing. The world I see around me now is radically different from the one I was born into some decades ago. I think anyone not in a coma can look around and see at least minor changes they have brought about in their environment.

  38. Janet Zampieri Avatar
    Janet Zampieri

    I don’t know how you can keep going on like this without discussing the big Covid psyop!

    1. Covid isn’t a psyop, it’s a very real virus which has absolutely devastated everyone I know who’s gotten it. One friend in New York got it a year ago and is still extremely fucked up from it. I don’t want to get it; if I get the long-tail version it will almost certainly mean I won’t be able to write anymore. It’s a big deal. The risk is that the very real virus will be and is being used to advance real agendas of the powerful which harm our interests. I have written plenty about these risks. Just because some indie media figures focus exclusively on Covid doesn’t mean everyone should.

      1. “Covid isn’t a psyop, it’s a very real virus which has absolutely devastated everyone I know who’s gotten it.”
        What level of divorce from reality is this? The vast majority of people have no symptoms, you just choose to focus on the few that have it bad. By doing that you help enable and strengthen the most powerful tool of control in the arsenal of the system you so energetically fight against.

        1. I just said in plain English that everyone I know who’s gotten it has been devastated by it. If you disagree with that indisputable fact, the one who is divorced from reality is you.

          1. I personally don’t know anyone who has been killed by the US army in Iraq so by your logic it is an indisputable fact that the US has killed no one there.

            1. That’s one of the dumbest comments anyone has ever made on this website.

              1. “Taking psychiatric drugs”

                Wow, in some cases thathat is spectacularly self-destructive

            2. You’re obviously a fool who needs to just shut the hell up in public.

            3. The real question here is do you know everyone that Caitlin knows? Her group of known people may be more susceptible to viruses than your group of known people, and let’s not loose sight of the fact that medical care in the English speaking world are owned or otherwise controlled by the Holy Mafia. And, may therefore have been medically murdered just because they knew Caitlin.

            4. Wow! I have 2 friends from Iraq who would love to hear your statement.

      2. You remind me of the eco warriors who never mention war and the military industry as a polluter. It is a giant (polluting) industry whose entire product generates pollution on use and the effect from it is the destruction of infrastructure which will take huge amounts of resources and pollution to rebuild.
        The capitalist system is bad because inequality etc. but if a virus comes up we should all give up our rights and freedoms and become slaves else we might die or cough or something. Who was it that said ‘if you are not willing to die for your freedom you don’t deserve it’?

        1. comorbidity 2024 Avatar
          comorbidity 2024

          Oh please. You have to know what you’re getting here by now. She’s consistent. Oligarchs and Empire are evil when she says they are, then angelic when she says they are. It’s just more MSM, atheist religiosity, all-or-nothing (splitting), Humpty Dumpty… Take your pick.

          Throw her a few bucks a month out of your entertainment budget and enjoy the decadence. The comment section is full of those who think electricity comes from a hole in the ground. It’s a hoot and a half.

          1. Lol. Thanks for that.

            1. Well, some electricity _does_ come from holes in the ground.

          2. LOL, but in fact it can, and often times had devastating effects in early telegraph set lines, especially those running north/south because this planet’s magnetic field runs east/west which generates an electric potential between the two ends.

            1. Love it. We go from covid to electricity in a single thread.

              1. Yes, we are all different individual-s!
                https://youtu.be/KHbzSif78qQ

          3. Hear Hear!
            Everyone should adopt at least one vent Shaman. The comments alone are worth the birdseed.

        2. Actually military pollution and environmental destruction is discussed quite a bit, but with all the choices we have of what to read you probably haven’t stumbled upon that discussion yet.

      3. Madame Caitlin,
        Some notes on COVID for you to chew on:
        — the parentage of this bug is much in doubt as layers of obfuscation about funding, ultimate source; it reminds me that when they finally solved the origin of the 911 Anthrax: it could only have come from Ft. Detrick – so finely was it milled.
        — a bug with a 99.9 % recovery rate is not the black death; I have not heard “bring out your dead.”
        — And reports are literally asking ‘where is the flu?’
        — The timing of its arrival along with simulation events like Event 201 suggests a coordination with the WEF’s Great Reset, and the impending debt-fuelled melt-down of the world central banking cartel.
        — highly recommend John Rappoport’s scathing takedowns of this charade (nomorefakenews.com).
        — Do we know the probability of (any of) the conveniently-arriving mutant strains’ occurring naturally?
        — Do we have any assessments/traces of the original/mutant strains’ paths through given countries?

        1. Each of our reactions to Covid are vsried to mine on on end never wearing a mask unless I must to see a doctor etc and continuing myvlife as if it didnt exist to thosecwho stay shut in wearing a mask in their house. Accept it for what it is. You either choose to live in fear or not.

          1. Frank Thompson Avatar
            Frank Thompson

            My aunt and uncle were diagnosed with COVID-19 and died of it a couple of weeks apart in November. I believe their doctor.

            Wearing a mask is not to protect you so much as to protect others from being infected by you, who may be shedding the virus unknowingly if you have been exposed. Anyone wearing a mask in their home when no one is visiting is not acting rationally.

            Incidence of influenza has been drastically reduced this year because of the COVID precautions, so we are not spreading it like we would be if schools were open, if a large percentage of people were not distancing and/or wearing masks in public, if restaurants and sports venues were crowded, if many people were not telecommuting instead of going to the office every day, etc.

          2. Frank Thompson Avatar
            Frank Thompson

            “You either choose to live in fear or not.”

            Some people who smoke cigarettes for decades never get lung cancer. Some people who have never smoked do get lung cancer. But they tell us that a person’s likelihood of getting lung cancer multiplies if they smoke cigarettes. Would it be “living in fear” if I were to have decided to quit smoking in order to try to avoid contracting lung cancer? I think not. It was, rather, a rational decision to lower my risk and increase the likelihood I would have a longer and healthier life. I may still get lung cancer, maybe because I smoked regularly for 15 years, maybe not.

            Your anti-mask position seems analogous to kids who start smoking and smokers who will not quit. They are not going to live in fear, they will do whatever feels better at the time. They are free. But they will also be more likely to die gasping for air, as are you, your fellow COVID denialists, and those around you.

            1. I dont deny its existence. I just refuse to participate in this insanity. First you wear a mask to protect yourself. Well if it works then you are protected and it doesnt matter what I do. Now you say everyone else is a potential typhoid Mary and must conform. What is amazing is that you dont even realize how illogical and insane the whole argument sounds. Do as you will just dont tell me what to do.

      4. The strangest things are the FLU has disappeared – the symptoms for COVID are EXACTLY the same as for any other KILLER flu ( Spanish – Hong Kong )

        Iran – China and Russia were devastated with it – coincidently being the primary enemies of the ZIO/US !

        The KILLER version could easily be released using something as simple as a squeeze ‘atomiser’ !!

        COVED19 virus has NEVER been isolated – therefor a ‘vaccine’ is not possible !

        A ‘vaccine’ is meant to protect you for LIFE !!

        Russia and China have actually developed a FLU shot – that protects you for TWO years – then you have to get another one !

        People that are stupid enough to take an experimental mRNA vaccine ( a science the average person would not understand OR have a FUCKING clue about ) – basically – DESERVE what they get for being dumbed down to the point of stupidity !

        1. I have always thought humanity was truly an ignorant unwashed mob but even I am amazed that overnight they got 99% of the people to put on a mask indefinitely.

      5. So tell me Caitlin, how have you determined this is caused by a virus, and not the ongoing chemical pollution of the planet being largely ignored in favor of “climate change”, or some other “unknown” factor? Because some “experts” and “officials” who have been wrong more than right, and are in the employ of the oligarchy said so?

        1. It amazes me how people will yell liar and propaganda but selectively believe the same system selectively. Common sense is suspended. Any sane person would question Covid deaths when the common flu has disappeared. Covid is flu. They just gave it a new name.

          1. The test used to detect it is woefully inaccurate, and the symptoms are quite common. Not to mention that overall deaths from all causes in the US exceeded prediction by about 36k last year. Not the published COVID death toll of 400k. With the added effect of liquor sales going up 500%, that isn’t a typo, deaths from the restrictions may account for that 36k.

            1. I have seen the fear in peoples eyes behind their masks. Reason holds no ground with such people. I wonder if they will ever remove the masks.

    2. I agree. It has radically altered the world we live in and will determine our reality going forward and not in a good way. More lives have been devastated by the lockdowns than by the virus itself, which has been distorted and lied about to an unimaginable degree. Can’t believe thinking people are falling for it. It will make it even more difficult, if not impossible, to ever resist and get rid of this sick system of control we live under.

      1. This is a modern version of the way people reacted to the Black Death in the middle ages except without the body count.

  39. Capitalism and art as a mirror onto Capitalism

    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=luU7F7lvvjk

  40. You are right and there are psychologists who study just that. At one time we had a social psychologist to help the students, due to the local culture that involved violence on an unprecedented scale. Our society is sickening and its not just incidental, but intentional genocide perpetrated for fun and profit. Rather than me giving you concrete examples, watch your own local news, and how reporting on crime takes on entertainment value.

  41. Capitalism destroys mental health not only from the results of capitalism, ie endless war, the hamster wheel of trying to stay economically afloat, the working conditions of overworking, lack of benefits, authoritarian bosses and constant threat of stability from losing your job and/or not being able to pay your bills, but the value system is also destructive to mental health, the robbing presence and attention with marketing and advertising, the lack of peace from endlessly stimulated desire, the constant barrage of the messages that you’re not good enough, you’re not happy, you’re not settled unless you’re buying more and more of the latest profit generated scheme. The tenants of ever increasing consumption are at odds with the be here now of a peaceful mind.

  42. ISBN 978-0374173227
    The Weirdest People in the World

    How the West Became Psychologically Peculiar and Particularly Prosperous

    Joseph Henrich

  43. evator! Goin’ up!

    In the gleamin’ corridor of the 51st floor
    The money can be made if you really want some more
    Executive decision, at clinical precision
    Jumping from the windows, filled with indecision

    I get good advice from the advertising world
    Treat me nice, party girl
    Coke adds life where there isn’t any
    So freeze, man, freeze

    It’s the pause that refreshes in the corridors of power
    When top men need a top up long before the happy hour
    Your snakeskin suit and your alligator boot
    You don’t need a launderette, you can take ’em to the vet!

    I get good advice from the advertising world
    Treat me nice, party girl
    Coke adds life where there isn’t any
    So freeze, man, freeze

    Coca-Cola advertising and cocaine
    Strolling down the Broadway in the rain
    Neon light sign says it
    I read it in the paper, they’re crazy
    Yeah, suit your life, maybe so
    In the White House, I know
    All over Berlin, they do it for years
    And in Manhattan
    omin’ through the door is a snub nose forty four
    The barrel can’t snort, it can spatter on the floor
    Your eyeballs feel like pinballs
    And your tongue feels like a fish
    You’re leapin’ from the windows sayin’
    “Don’t give me none of this!”

    Coke adds life, advertising world
    Treat me nice, party girl
    Coke adds life where there isn’t any
    So freeze, man, freeze

    Hit the deck

    The Clash …

    1. You always see political power as top down but what about bottom up patriotic support for war? Websters defines patriotism as “devotion to and vigorous support for one’s country’ which describes the average citizen’s attitude and aren’t countries competitors and isn’t war a form of competition? I hold every American of voting age responsible for their nations horrendous crimes against others.

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