Caitlin Johnstone

War Is A Rich Man’s Game: Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix

War is always powerful people making up fake reasons for poor people to kill each other. ❖ Capitalism is working great if you ignore how it’s about to destroy our ecosystem and kill everything. ❖ Socialism is the collective’s best self-defense against sociopaths. ❖ In the old days the rulers would kill those who criticized…

Caitlin Johnstone
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War is always powerful people making up fake reasons for poor people to kill each other.

❖

Capitalism is working great if you ignore how it’s about to destroy our ecosystem and kill everything.

❖

Socialism is the collective’s best self-defense against sociopaths.

❖

In the old days the rulers would kill those who criticized the dominant power structure. Now they just make sure such people never ascend to prominent platforms or positions of influence.

And, if that fails, they kill them.

❖

Most of what gets called journalism today is really just advertising. Advertising imperialism, capitalism, status quo politics, status quo mindsets. All this fuss about journalists leaving for Substack and stuff is really just outrage over people leaving the advertising industry.

❖

Imperialists see the American people as nothing more than local fauna who need to be kept from interfering in the business of the empire. That’s why keeping Americans poor and ignorant has so much institutional support; it keeps the local fauna away from the gears of the machine.

❖

Supporters of western imperialism are always wrong because the western empire is always wrong. The western empire is always wrong because imperialism itself is immoral and requires the perpetration of great evils to maintain. It’s really a lot simpler than people make it seem.

❖

The only way to justify support for western interventionist foreign policy is to believe that western interventionism is ever actually humanitarian in nature. The only way to believe western interventionism is ever humanitarian in nature is to be an intellectual infant.

❖

Don’t buy into the narrative that Democrats are resisting leftward movement in order to appease Republicans. It’s so much worse than that: they’re not appeasing Republicans, they’re appeasing their own donors.

❖

One hundred percent of the people who claim the Democratic Party has moved “too far left” think “left” means having pink hair and yelling about gender pronouns.

❖

I don’t “equate” the Republican Party and the Democratic Party. I don’t equate Sauron and Saruman either; they are two separate and distinct characters. But they damn sure work together.

❖

❖

All this ridiculous mass media gushing about the Biden administration’s pathetic, paltry relief package would make the propagandists of the world’s worst dictatorships blush.

❖

People keep saying “It’s better than nothing” about Biden’s pathetic relief package. A roll of nickels would have been better than nothing, that’s not an argument. If I steal a hundred dollars from you and then give you back a dollar, “It’s better than nothing” is not a valid defense of my abusive actions. People are suffering under an abusive system that’s wholly controlled by Democrats. End the abuse.

❖

You can tell how predatory a civilization is by how many other civilizations around the world speak its language.

❖

The thing we don’t say enough about World War 1 is that it was completely meaningless and accomplished nothing beneficial and happened for no legitimate reason at all. The thing we don’t say enough about World War 2 is that it was essentially just a continuation of World War 1.

❖

In a right-wing imperialist civilization that is nowhere remotely close to realizing a leftist revolution, putting a large amount of energy into arguing about who has the best brand of leftism is vapid intellectual masturbation.

❖

Dear rich people, please choose one:

A) End poverty by paying your workers more.

B) End poverty by paying more taxes.

C) Buy the political/media class and use it to keep your wealth and power.

❖

To decide to “put down roots” is a privilege denied to us by the ambitions of landlords and the predatory class. No wonder so few people feel invested in what happens to the country beneath their feet. We are but itinerant workers without soil to plant trees.

❖

Keep in mind when you declare that all humans are predators who are only motivated by competition, you aren’t telling us what we are, but you are telling us what you are. I hate competing but I love helping so I know you’re wrong about me, but you must be right about yourself.

❖

Wikipedia is one of the most aggressively narrative managed parts of the internet, to the point where you can now look at it as essentially the oligarchic empire’s Official Doctrine of Everything.

❖

Joseph Campbell says there is no way you can use the word “reality” without quotation marks around it. In our society the same is also true of the words “democracy”, “liberal”, “freedom”, and “news media”.

❖

The more your oppressors wear you down, the harder it is for you to work up enough energy and entitlement to say no to them. The privileged are not subject to such pressures, and are therefore able to maintain robust boundaries, while the rest of us are too tired to say no.

Users and abusers understand this principle as well. Exploitative bosses, abusive partners, overbearing family members, they understand that they can wear you down in myriad ways leaving you too tired to say no to their demands just as well as the imperialists understand it.

❖

The competition model does not work. People competing with each other for jobs and money, nations competing with each other for dominance and resources. It simply is not conducive to the thriving of our species or our planet, as evidenced by our current predicament.

It’s just such a waste of energy. The competition model ensures that the near-entirety of innovation and effort gets lost in the inertia of pushing against our competitors, with only crumbs remaining for thriving. We’d completely eliminate that inertia with a collaboration model, and from there we could use all that free energy to create a beautiful world.

______________________

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61 responses to “War Is A Rich Man’s Game: Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix”

  1. Blah blah blah Avatar
    Blah blah blah

    Imagine a smaller comment.

  2. historicus Avatar
    historicus

    A very interesting perspective on World War II as a global attack on working people may be found in John Spritzler’s book “The People as Enemy, the Leaders’ Hidden Agenda in World War II.” (Black Rose Books, 2003)

    War is the elite’s most effective tool to suppress dissent, in this case the now all but forgotten worldwide working class rebellion that resulted from the Great Depression. The needless total mobilization imposed on their populations by the belligerent powers was calculated to rekindle nationalism and to facilitate the denunciation and suppression of the millions actively resisting the ongoing further consolidation of elite power.
    ~
    The “good war” myth is the founding narrative of the military-industrial complex and its associated propaganda machine, which together finally overwhelmed our fragile republic. As long as they get away with their lies, liars have no reason to stop lying.

  3. Bufffalo_Ken Avatar
    Bufffalo_Ken

    So I guess this was intentional, and sorry for my lack of formal education at a premier university, but the political compass was missing it’s green box. I’m in the middle of that box, so wish me well. I wish you well as well, and in fact here is a quick poem.
    ~
    Dr. Suess’s books, some of them, have been cancelled.
    Dr. Suess we must all know had some nefarious agendas.
    Dr. Suess thought green eggs and ham were funny, but did you
    consider all the dyes and chemicals it took to make them eggs and ham?
    Well wake up why don’t ya, that is why we at the Ministry of Cancel have decided
    Dr. Seuss needs to be cancelled.
    ~
    A “who” crying out from afar was heard to say – when will the cancelling end?
    And then the who was cancelled.
    The end.
    ~
    Meanwhile, the Ministry of Cancel remains on the loose, but I heard a crow in the distance and it said, something fixing to change. That’s what the crow said to me.
    ~
    BK

    1. John Day Avatar
      John Day

      As a left libertarian (I took the political compass test) I was missing, too.
      I wonder if left libertarians will ever amount to anything in this world.

  4. Michel Bélisle Avatar
    Michel Bélisle

    “War is always powerful people making up fake reasons for poor people to kill each other.”

    You are right… but people never learn. Because the same powerful people will tell poor people to lower their pants to receive a redeeming vaccine and the poor people will trust them.

    We must be in the return of the days of Noah just before the return of Jesus. Decadence is everywhere.

    Keeping my Rosary on hand!

  5. Luke Avatar
    Luke

    Everone commenting on here needs to realise that they spend all their time spouting nonsense. Listen instead. Read. Not Twitter. Not comment threads. Books. Old ones that have stood the test of time. Your knowledge is superficial and therefore worthless. Your comments just add to the spectacle of the swirling pool of bull. You live in it. You think you have context and depth because you have never questioned yourself seriously enough. Enlightenment is realising that you are so full of shit that the true miracle is that you don’t burst.

    1. Lloyd Avatar
      Lloyd

      Luke (“Light, Lucifer”) may be right, however, true wisdom seeks neither truth nor context nor depth but humor. All of mankind’s knowledge is superficial. To realize that is enLightenment, and with that we have gone full circle. Seriously? IMHO God bless archetypes.

  6. Carlton Meyer Avatar
    Carlton Meyer

    Thanks for breaking the American cultural rule by proclaiming World War II was not a good war. Over 400,000 American were killed along with millions of civilians around the world, leaving the world worse off!

    Here is some insight:

  7. Roundball Shaman Avatar
    Roundball Shaman

    “You can tell how predatory a civilization is by how many other civilizations around the world speak its language.”
    .
    And the language that is spoken most often and the loudest across the Earth for most all the Years? MONEY. All other languages are just warm-up acts for what always runs the World.
    .
    “The thing we don’t say enough about World War 1 is that it was completely meaningless and accomplished nothing beneficial and happened for no legitimate reason at all. The thing we don’t say enough about World War 2 is that it was essentially just a continuation of World War 1.”
    .
    And the thing we don’t say enough about World War 3? We won’t say anything because no one will be left alive to say anything.
    .
    “‘Joseph Campbell says there is no way you can use the word ‘reality’ without quotation marks around it. In our society the same is also true of the words ‘democracy’, ‘liberal’, ‘freedom’, and ‘news media’.”
    .
    In fact, there is no word one can rightfully use AT ALL without really needing to put quotation marks around it. Words mean only what one thinks they do at that moment in time. And moments in time never last. And meanings change. And intent changes. And people change and begin to hear words differently. And in times like today, many do not want to hear them at all. And some today are all too busy trying to erase them completely.

  8. Some One Avatar
    Some One

    Orwell: “Political language is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.”

    Protest Music: War (In The Name of God):
    https://seaclearly.com/2017/08/26/protest-music-war-in-the-name-of-god/

  9. Frank Thompson Avatar
    Frank Thompson

    Perhaps the coverage we are seeing lately of repression in Myanmar is part of a propaganda push to justify a regime change war halfway around the world, again. What does the USA rely on from Myanmar? Opium, for one thing.

    OMG, they killed 50 protestors in Rangoon (or however it is spelt these days). How horrible! But when Israeli defense forces gun down Palestinians and bulldoze their houses, no outrage. Because Israel is already part of the empire’s power structure.

  10. Ishkabibble Avatar
    Ishkabibble

    I think that the proposition that human imagination is one of the most, if not the most, powerful forces on planet earth can be proven by very easy arguments. I’m typing on one right now and you are able to read what I’ve typed through/on another.
     
    Imagine first that every human being outside of US borders suddenly ceases to exist and that the “nation” called the USA expands to encompass the entire surface of planet earth.
     
    Imagine that the present whatever-you-want-to-call-it system in the US in which the vast majority of wealth and LARGE-SCALE capital equipment is owned by a microscopic percentage of human beings for their own astronomical profit REMAINS THE SAME.
     
    Imagine that both “labor” (the working class) and “management” (the ruling class, or Elite) can “organize”, as they supposedly can in our present “democracy”. But now, because nobody is alive outside of the former US borders, the owners of large-scale capital equipment no longer have the option to move their capital equipment to other former nations on the planet where there used to be desperately poor people who were “willing” to work for food, water and a place to sleep on the factory floor.
     
    Imagine that US environmental, labor, etc. regulations apply, now, everywhere on planet earth (again, because the US is the only nation on planet earth).
     
    Just exactly HOW are the roughly 333 million “Americans” going to “go it alone” when America’s presently-designed economy needs a great number of “immigrants” each and every year from now to eternity?
     
    Just exactly WHO is going to buy all of the “excess” natural resources, oil, farm products, manufactured goods, etc. that a small percentage of working Americans can very efficiently produce, but can no longer “export”? NOBODY.
     
    To have available the relatively small amount of warm-weather items that America now imports, Americans will venture forth to those places, AS AMERICANS, and produce and send those products “back home”. Naturally, those American workers working on other parts of the globe outside of FORMER US borders will be paid a wage that also applies to the rest of the American “labor market” and, again, the American regulatory framework will also apply to those workers and facilities and places of production, as well as those workers being able enjoy America’s social benefits.
     
    ALL of the work that is presently being done in America by “temporary foreign workers” and other temporary workers who harvest crops, put roofs on houses, cook food in restaurants, take care of the elderly in nursing homes, etc. will have to be done by Americans who will be paid by other Americans.
     
    Automobiles, trucks, TVs, toilet tissue, etc. will now have to be produced by Americans, for Americans. In other words, absolutely any thing and any service that Americans need/desire will have to be produced by Americans and, again, Americans will have to pay these other Americans to do that — enough payment so that these hard-working Americans will make enough “profit” to “save” enough money to be able to “retire” when they inevitably become physically decrepit.
     
    Here’s the most important question of all. WHO is going to play the role of “enemy” that is necessary to maintain the need, the justification, for the present economically-necessary military industrial complex? Answer: NOBODY. How are the tens of millions of people either directly or indirectly employed in that MIC and all of the government “security apparatus” going to be “employed” after the disappearance of those “threats to national security”? (How are they going to behave, what are they going to do, in order to literally survive, especially those living in the large cities?)
     
    How much is the above arrangement (again, an arrangement in which only Americans inhabit the planet, and in which the vast majority of wealth and large-scale capital equipment is owned by a truly microscopic percentage of the population of America for their own astronomical profit) going to “cost” average Americans? Will/would average Americans be able to “afford” that system, that arrangement?
     
    NO, they would not!
     
    When I recently asked my brother in law why the American government finds it necessary to import vehicles, TVs, etc. from other countries, his reply was that “if they were produced by Americans in America, they would be too expensive”. (This coming from a man who hired a temporary foreign worker to give additional care to his elderly mother who was ALREADY living in a nursing home).
     
    So now to my point. Just as it is for a large percentage of Americans now living in our present multi-national globalized world, Americans living in an America-only world could NOT “afford” what they need and what they want under the present economic arrangement in which the vast majority of wealth and large-scale capital equipment is owned/controlled by a microscopic percentage (and getting smaller by the day) of the population for their own astronomical profit.
     
    THIS is why under the present economic system desperate slave labor is needed to provide what Americans need.
     
    THIS is why when the US Elite “conquers” other nations’ military forces, it does not make those “nations” new States of the USA; and instead installs in those places puppet governments made up of, essentially, US State Department employees who bleed their citizenry and their land-mass dry of anything valuable, to be used by the US Elite as a means of obtaining ever more “profit”.
     
    THIS is why Americans can not afford to have enough children to maintain the present population and, therefore, immigrants of a certain economic status have to be imported from other nations (usually the ones being bled dry by US corporations) into America each and every year from now to eternity.
     
    THIS is why “trade agreements” such as NAFTA between international corporations are needed to exploit the most desperate people on the planet for the greater benefit of a much smaller percentage of the population.
     
    Again, what Americans desperately need TODAY is an economic system in which ALL Americans, not just a microscopic percentage, own/control LARGE-SCALE capital equipment COLLECTIVELY, and collectively provide the LABOR (by “divvying up” the necessary labor among ALL citizens) to operate that large-scale capital equipment.
     
    By providing THEIR labor to run THEIR capital equipment, farm THEIR land, take care of THEIR sick and elderly, etc., ALL Americans will have EARNED the right to consume all of the goods and services produced by THIER large-scale capital equipment and THEIR labor. In other words, ALL Americans will get to “profit” from THEIR large-scale capital equipment and THEIR labor, not just a microscopic (and getting smaller by the day) percentage of the American population for their own astronomical profit.

    1. Frank Thompson Avatar
      Frank Thompson

      Interesting. But I should say it would be easy enough for the elite to whip up an enemy or two. You might have “socialist” revolutionaries trying to organize an independent government on the sugar and banana plantation formerly known as Cuba, or Jamaica, etc. You might have an independence movement in the American state of Vietnam. Or a Cotton King in the historical territory of Egypt. Etc.

      No, I see a problem inside your thought experiment with assuming that America would ever run out of enemies to rationalize a security state.

      1. Bufffalo_Ken Avatar
        Bufffalo_Ken

        This is what I think is gonna happen and I hope it does.
        ~
        Either “America”, you know, the US of a, will have a Constitutional Convention or it won’t.
        ~
        If that don’t happen, this hypothetical thought experiment won’t matter because America as we know it will split up before it causes more harm to the rest of the world. Split up or go down with everyone else in the “big splitting” of humanity.
        ~
        Just being honest here, I already have 5 states in mind that I think should join together. Plus, as I’ve said elsewhere, the big state of TX needs to be split up into 5 as well. Maybe the 5 entities of the split up TX and the 5 states I have in mind – here they are: NC, VA, WV, TN, KY – could sort of join up and for a bit of a new confederacy for the sake of peace. I have a serious map of this whole thing already in my head. In fact, it includes other places such as Ireland and Scotland and maybe even Wales.
        ~
        What you think about them apricots – is it the raving of a mad man? Should it be cancelled just like Dr. Seuss’s books have been? Are “we” so afraid of better ideas and change that we will all go down for the sake of the few? I’ve placed my bet and I plan on winning!
        ~
        BK

        1. Frank Thompson Avatar
          Frank Thompson

          Dr. Seuss was n’t cancelled. His estate decided to quit publishing some of the books. Are we now in support of mandating copyright owners to publish the works they own?

          1. Frank Thompson Avatar
            Frank Thompson

            IANAL, but I believe the current copyright statutes in the USA extend 95 years. It was much c=shorter in the past, but the heirs of Walt Disney, George Gershwin and others whose works were still commercially viable prevailed on Congress to grant them a longer term so that they would be able to continue to live off of their ancestors’ work.

            Consequently, in the future, the works of Theodore Seuss Geisel no longer being published will pass into the public domain and anyone will be able to publish them with neither permission from nor compensation to the author or his heirs.

            A minor hiccup considering that the books are still available in public and private collections.

          2. Buffalo_Ken Avatar
            Buffalo_Ken

            Point taken Frank. You are anal.
            ~
            My point is why did the estate of Dr. Seuss even think they needed to do this?
            ~
            Absolutely bf’d ridiculous and I’m sick of it and so would Dr. Seuss be.
            ~
            BK

    2. Khatika Avatar
      Khatika

      Not sure to answer any of your questions but I will be imaging myself on the beach in tahiti.

      1. Bufffalo_Ken Avatar
        Bufffalo_Ken

        I’m imagining myself just where I am at now. That is the beauty of it!
        ~
        ah to see the sunset over the dam…….oh yes, I see it.

    3. Blah blah blah Avatar
      Blah blah blah

      Imagine a smaller comment.

  11. Khatika Avatar
    Khatika

    Caitlin, really a good article except for a couple statements already commented on but we all have our own viewpoints.
    Especially liked your comments on war at the start. I would add old rich people. Also loved your reference to Tolkien. Have read the Lord of the Rings a few times over the years each time with great pleasure. Book is way better than the movie.

  12. Bob H Avatar
    Bob H

    John, maybe this is the answer to your prayer… “You” already are a unique expression of Universal Mind. Actually, the “I”/the sense of self/the personality is just a fabrication, a conceptual construct. I has no inherent existence and can never awaken. “You” as an expression of Universal Mind are already awake.

    Here is a transcription of a dialog between Advaita teacher Francis Lucille and a seeker that I have found helpful…

    https://www.dropbox.com/s/5vofbejweoo3u08/Take%20the%20Unlimited%20Path%20-%20Francis%20Lucille.docx?dl=0

    PS: I really enjoy your blog and thank you for all the time and effort you put into is.

    1. Khatika Avatar
      Khatika

      Universal mind is God no matter what labels we put on him. God wants obedience. God is the center of the universe not man. God is love. You either have faith or not.

      1. pasha Avatar
        pasha

        It does not seem to occur to you that “God wants obedience” and “God is love” are mutually exclusive statements. Thanks for exposing the intellectual vacuity at the center of theism.

        1. Ian Perkins Avatar
          Ian Perkins

          I wouldn’t go so far as to call them mutually exclusive, but an omnipotent god sure has a lot to answer for!

          Roger Waters, What God Wants
          https://youtu.be/YRWRRBX3TB0

          1. Gregory Herr Avatar
            Gregory Herr

            As I read Pasha’s comment that tune came to mind. What God wants God gets God help us all!
            Good album with title track Amused to Death (hat tip to Neil Postman), It’s a Miracle, and Three Wishes.

        2. Bufffalo_Ken Avatar
          Bufffalo_Ken

          Obedience and Love are NOT mutually exclusive, but I get your sentiment.
          ~
          Usually love don’t demand anything….in fact, love….true love is unconditional.
          ~
          Still, obedience and love are not mutually exclusive. If one chooses to be obedient in free will, then that is a form of love is what I would say. I’m sure the obedience has bounds and goodness gracious me, I sure hope it does cause why would you love anyone who wants you to do anything harmful, and so that is the moment when obedience needs to give way to a better love.
          ~
          BK

          1. Gregory Herr Avatar
            Gregory Herr

            If, perchance, “obedience” essentially results in an “inclusiveness” within a framework of “love” (as I think Khatika would have it), then God “wanting obedience” might be an understandable form of “love” given the “circumstances” (which may be essentially “moral”, but that’s another subject).
            ~
            “and so that is the moment when obedience needs to give way to a better love”
            nice touch

    2. John Day Avatar
      John Day

      Thanks Bob

      🙂

  13. JWK Avatar
    JWK

    “Socialism is the collective’s best self-defense against sociopaths.”
    Really? Where exactly has it ever been successful doing so, outside of groups of people who voluntarily and unanimously consent to living by such standards? If consent is not unanimous, does it not require the very same threat of violence to force “consent” as any other form of government/economy? Does not the state’s monopoly on violence create the fertile breeding ground sociopaths and psychopaths flourish in? Does this not result in every single form of government eventually saturated with them? Reduce the matter to the personal level and things become quite clear. The guy across the street has determined you should live by his standards. You reject them. He insists you must. You refuse. He discovers you don’t have one, and pulls out a gun and puts it to your head, and asks “how about now?” So exactly how does having the “correct” guy across the street change that dynamic?
    Without competition we may well still be living in mud huts, and may not have discovered agriculture yet. Where competition runs off the rails is when its replaced with predatory cannibalism. At what point does “I think I can make a better product at less cost than he is” become a bad thing? “I can make more money off my product by eliminating my competition” is cannibalistic. not competitive. And cannibals are largely running the economies of the world. They don’t compete, they attempt to destroy competitors.

    1. Khatika Avatar
      Khatika

      Fully agree. Good comment. Pesky reality interfering with all those altruistic ideas.

  14. dana Avatar
    dana

    hi, i have no idea how to say to people so engrained in believing that only capitalism works and socialism absolutely doesn’t. it is the same old argument. left vs. right. i live in costa rica where there is a good democratic socialist party with an excellent representative that is thinking of running for president, again. he can’t win cuz the constant propaganda gets barfed everywhere that we will become like cuba and venezuela. soooo tired of people glued to the corporate media and believing this shit. and i am shit at articulating a decent argument against their shit. ugh!!!

    1. Khatika Avatar
      Khatika

      Everything has good and bad. Peoole support capitalism because for better or worsevit raises the standsrd od kiving for most people. Not rich or sometimes even middle class but some. The poir will always be there no matter what system we have. Venzuela is the poster child to scare people about socialism but no one mentions it was caused to collapse by the US. Any system properly run will work. Key word properly.

      1. JWK Avatar
        JWK

        “Any system properly run will work.” Wow! I could write an essay on that sentence. Since this is Caitlin’s web site, I’ll try to keep it short. Works for whom? Those who create wealth with their blood sweat and tears, or those who steal it, like governments and corporations? Both capitalism and socialism steal at least a portion of it. Who would one look for to properly run the system? A genius saint with extensive economic education, and not those stupid MMT guys coming out of the Ivy league schools who think you can print money out of thin air that equals wealth, who also has a well built ethical and moral foundation. Those people are NOT looking for a job running a government. They don’t qualify because of their ethical and moral foundation. Which is why I’m opposed to any government that depends on force to function, other than to keep people from hurting each other, aside from defending themselves or their non-stolen property.

        1. Khatika Avatar
          Khatika

          All modern economic systems fail due to corruption by those in charge. It is not the system but the people running it.

          1. JWK Avatar
            JWK

            That’s because all modern economic systems are founded on fantasy, for the purpose of being corrupted. Fiat currency is used expressly for that purpose. Rewarding debt and punishing saving through inflation. The common man is encouraged to destroy their wealth.

  15. Ian Perkins Avatar
    Ian Perkins

    Joseph Campbell says there is no way you can use the word “reality” without quotation marks around it.

    And now we have augmented reality, which should absolutely be augmented “reality” by any standard definition. It’s not reality that’s augmented, it’s images on a screen.

    Pedantic semantic hair-splitting? Or are we being urged to see reality as whatever pap our screens are showing us, while our lived experience, if we have any left, is dismissed as an extraneous delusion?

    1. Skip Scott Avatar
      Skip Scott

      A very interesting book to read is Benjamin Lee Whorf’s “Language, Thought, and Reality.” It is a collection of writings from the 30’s that studies languages that are fundamentally different (ie. Hopi, Mayan, etc) and shows how the structure of the language effects perception itself. I studied him in college along with Neil Postman and Marshall McLuhan.

  16. Ludwig Watzal Avatar
    Ludwig Watzal

    Caitlin, since the Korean War, all US wars have been waged against people of color!

    1. Khatika Avatar
      Khatika

      Not everything is about race. WW1 and WW2 was basically the west at war with itself. After that they solidified and waged war on the rest of the world. Regardless of race.

  17. Lynn Avatar
    Lynn

    You’ve been woke, but this time you really seem woke. I disagree with you though that the the 1st and 2nd wars were for not. Both wars were planned before the 20th century ever began, and over than it would have been nice if those wars could have been dragged out over many more decades than they did last, both wars were a huge success otherwise. Of course, not so much so for us consumables, to put it in business terms, but since when does the garbage get a say in how it’s disposed of?

    America, with the possible exception of Israel, is the most evil , violent, and corrupt nation on earth , and even by its own admission, Chicago is the most corrupt city in that nation, and quite possibly the holder of the title of the other two qualities.

    I can’t help but notice that King Von, just like Jesus called out his disciples at the last supper, was betrayed, was killed, and following his internment in his resting place, returned walked the earth once again. I have no doubt then that just like Jerusalem and the Temple, were destroyed soon after, so too will Chicago, and the den of thieves that run it.

    I have no doubt that if King Von’s grave was to be exhumed as was that of Jesus’s tomb, it too would be found to be empty. But, of course it never will be because that would prove that the adherents of Judaism are by necessity believers in the righteousness of evil , murder, theft, and all the other corruptions possible of the soul.

    Just in my heart ❤ and the signs of the times, I see nothing but death in the forecast for its inhabitants and the near total destruction of the city.

    1. Ian Perkins Avatar
      Ian Perkins

      That seems unduly hard on Judaism. Quite a few Jews oppose Zionism, supported Corbyn, and so on.

      1. Alan Ross Avatar
        Alan Ross

        Just like a serial rapist is “unduly hard” on the women he rapes. Anti-Semitism is another form of mental illness that eventually causes death to some of its targets. It arises from the same evil desire in a person that causes people to be racist, sexist, fascistic, homicidal, etc.

        1. Ian Perkins Avatar
          Ian Perkins

          Many Zionists work hard to conflate Zionism, Judaism and Israel. I’d like to think LYNN’s comment results from such confusion.

  18. ron campbell Avatar
    ron campbell

    “The only way to justify support for western interventionist foreign policy is to believe that western interventionism is ever actually humanitarian in nature. The only way to believe western interventionism is ever humanitarian in nature is to be an intellectual infant.”-Ms Caitlin Johnstone
    ~
    That Ms Johnstone is a mega-statement fit for bumper stickers and billboards everywhere!

    1. Khatika Avatar
      Khatika

      My bumper is not big enough to fit a sticker that big

      1. Skip Scott Avatar
        Skip Scott

        My bumper sticker says: “My sentiments are not for public display.”

        1. John Day Avatar
          John Day

          My bumper sticker still says:
          “TULSI 2020”

  19. Don Avatar
    Don

    ALEX,
    Your using Socialism as a scary authoritarian word completely & deliberately misunderstanding as the “right” always does to keep their wealthy owners happy.

    “Call it democracy, or call it democratic socialism, but there must be a better distribution of wealth within this country for all of God’s children.” — Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

    I find it odd that Ocasio-Cortez, Omar, Pressley and Tlaib are seen as the “far left” when they’re just fighting for things that, well, pretty much every other developed country has had for years.

    Here’s a short Reminder of what we the people & MLK really mean by “radical, extreme-left agenda” or “Socialism”.
    ✅ Medicare for All
    ✅ A Living Wage & Labor Rights
    ✅ K-16 schooling, aka Public Colleges
    ✅ 100% Renewable Energy
    ✅ Fixing the pipes in Flint
    ✅ Not Hurting Immigrants
    ✅ Holding Wall Street Accountable

    1. Ian Perkins Avatar
      Ian Perkins

      Holding Wall Street accountable doesn’t sound like socialism to me. More like allowing capital, via markets, to continue running the economy and making decisions about what investments are made, with the possibility of having to justify itself after the fact.

    2. Khatika Avatar
      Khatika

      Medicare for all…..mediocre health care for all. The rich will still pay cash for better care.
      A living wage and labor rights…tried that corrupt unions. Mcdonalds is not a career.
      Public colleges….not everyone is smart enough for college so they dumb them down and teach a bunch of useless courses.
      100% renewable energy…..your ignorance on the subhect is showing. It is not possible.
      Fixing the pipes in flint….some places like love canal should just be abandoned when we destroy them.
      Not hurting immigrants….open borders is a nation and culture killer.
      Holding wall strreet accountable…. bankers have always run things. This new digital currency is governments attempt to break free of them.

      1. Skip Scott Avatar
        Skip Scott

        Medicare for All still leaves you holding the bag for 20% of the bill. Even 20% can make you broke in no time. Medical mistakes are the third leading cause of death in the USA. Diet and exercise goes a long ways for most folks to avoid the doctor’s office in the first place. I haven’t seen a GP in 15 years.

  20. John Day Avatar
    John Day

    A recurring and extremely difficult problem is that we, as a successful Apex-Predator species, repeatedly exhaust our food and resource supplies. We eat up out life support systems, whatever they are.
    The Apex-Predators of the apex-predators consume our numbers back down by getting half of us to kill the other half of us every 60-80 years, sooner if necessary.
    We can’t just leave them behind, since they are the only thing keeping us alive by repeatedly killing us.
    In a system based upon selfish and competing interests, this is the logical outcome.
    We can’t actually declare that system over, because it automatically re=asserts itself the next time a whole lot of people are hungry and looking death-by=starvation in the eye.
    I’m not being snide, negative or defeatist. I’m struggling with this.
    The only way “out” that I can see is what Jesus, Buddha and others have advocated, transcending the mechanistic physical paradigm, through directly knowing Universal Mind.
    Oh, my that is easy to say.. There are a thousand hard and back-slippery steps. Supposedly despairing at the impossibility of your efforts can boost you to awakening.
    I’m working on it, and praying for guidance.

    Bedtime now…
    http://www.johndayblog.com

    1. Khatika Avatar
      Khatika

      Fully agree. Good comment.

      1. John Day Avatar
        John Day

        Danke shoen !
        Gesundheit!
        https://www.wisdomlib.org/definition/khatika

    2. Bob H Avatar
      Bob H

      John, maybe this is the answer to your prayer… “You” already are a unique expression of Universal Mind. Actually, the “I”/the sense of self/the personality is just a fabrication, a conceptual construct. I has no inherent existence and can never awaken. “You” as an expression of Universal Mind are already awake.

      Here is a transcription of a dialog between Advaita teacher Francis Lucille and a seeker that I have found helpful…

      https://www.dropbox.com/s/5vofbejweoo3u08/Take%20the%20Unlimited%20Path%20-%20Francis%20Lucille.docx?dl=0

      PS: I really enjoy your blog and thank you for all the time and effort you put into is.

      1. John Day Avatar
        John Day

        Thanks Bob,
        I read that.
        I mostly agree, but I disagree that if you don’t know something, then nobody knows it.
        Making arguments is different from knowing.
        I’m good at those same arguments.
        I can give a pep-talk on a good day.
        I only “know” whatever I know, though.
        John-waiting-for-it-but-doing-stuff-too

    3. Bufffalo_Ken Avatar
      Bufffalo_Ken

      Man you statue – your wisdom is appreciated.
      ~
      All I can offer up is sometimes it helps to sleep on it.
      ~
      Your friend,
      Ken

      1. John Day Avatar
        John Day

        Thanks Ken,
        I lived in Kamakura, Japan for the last 3 years of high school.
        The Daibutsu is my home-boy.
        It has been a very long time since I got to visit.
        Your-friend-in-one-part-of-Texas
        John

  21. Alex Avatar
    Alex

    “Socialism is the collective’s best self-defense against sociopaths.”
    (!)
    Really? History does not reflect this.
    Maybe in mercifully small doses – and not the leitmotif for big, overbearing central governments.
    — Hitler’s Germany (national socialism), the USSR, Mao’s China, Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge — and a handful of others – make it seem less than appetizing as a political system.
    — And, with Orwells’ and others’ stories (fictional and real), we really s h o u l d understand (by now) that communism/socialism is the ideal for aristocrats/plutocrats to sell utopian ‘workers’ paradises’ to the downtrodden/desperate – while they and their nomenklatura remain in control: ‘some are more equal than others.’

    1. Khatika Avatar
      Khatika

      Please dont confuse thing with facts. It pops the dream.

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