Listen to a reading of this article:
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There’s a scene in The Usual Suspects where Kevin Spacey tells the fable of the mysterious Keyser Soze and how he became a crime lord.
“One story the guys told me, the story I believe, was from his days in Turkey,” he says. “There was a gang of Hungarians that wanted their own mob. They realized that to be in power, you didn’t need guns or money or even numbers. You just needed the will to do what the other guy wouldn’t.”
Spacey’s character describes the way the Hungarians came after Soze and his family to take over his drug dealing business, but the viciousness with which they did so was no match for the viciousness they are met with.
“Then he showed these men of will what will really was,” Spacey says, describing the way Soze kills his own family and then wipes out the families and friends of the entire Hungarian gang.
And what’s funny is if you carefully watch the way power moves in the world, you will see that this is pretty much how it works. The most vicious among us are elevated to the top, because all our systems are built in a way which elevates viciousness.
The US empire is able to dominate the world exactly because it has “the will to do what the other guy wouldn’t.” Whenever I lay out my evidence that the US is the most tyrannical regime on earth, I’ll get someone conceding that this is true but arguing that the US only behaves that way because it is the most powerful. Any other government with the power of the United States would behave with the same amount of viciousness or worse, they argue.
And I always tell them that they’ve got it exactly backwards. The US isn’t uniquely vicious because it is the world’s most powerful government, the US is the world’s most powerful government because it is uniquely vicious.
The United States put an exclamation point at the end of the second world war by dropping two nuclear bombs on Japan, not because it needed to (it didn’t), but because it wanted to intimidate the Soviet Union. It then immediately launched into a succession of new wars and strategic operations of astonishing viciousness with the goal of eventually becoming the global dominator. It achieved this at the fall of the USSR, after which it immediately instituted a policy of working to ensure that no rival superpowers ever develop and began working toward “full spectrum dominance” of the land, sea, air, and space. All of the major international conflicts of our day are the direct result of these policies.
None of the people driving the imperial power structure which rules over us are in their positions because of their wisdom or kindness. Oligarchs get to the top of their corporate and financial ladders by being willing to step on whoever they need to step on to get ahead. Military strategists get to their positions by demonstrating an aptitude for military domination. Intelligence officials get to their positions because they understand how to facilitate the interests of the oligarchic empire. Politicians get to the top by displaying a willingness to serve imperial power.
And this principle tracks from the top down through the rest of our entire society. The only valuing system we have for human behavior is money, but what human behavior does money value? Competitiveness makes money. War and militarism make money. Ecocide makes money. Sickness makes money. Finite commodities make money. The entanglement of corporate and state power makes money. Propagandizing people into believing they need more than they have makes money.
What doesn’t make money? Kindness. Collaboration. Peace. A thriving biosphere. Health. Psychological well being. Political transparency and integrity. Decisions made to benefit the whole. Sources of energy that can’t be controlled by the powerful. Abundance. People being content with what they have.
Goldman Sachs asks in biotech research report: 'Is curing patients a sustainable business model?' https://t.co/My7QSINDHc
— CNBC (@CNBC) April 11, 2018
Money has no wisdom. The “invisible hand” of the free market will never value the better angels of humanity.
Pharmaceutical companies have a vested interest in the valuing of treatments over preventions and cures. The arms industry has a vested interest in inflaming hostilities between nations. Ecocidal industries have a vested interest in ensuring that they remain able to rape and pillage our planet without legal intervention while offloading the cost of the consequences to the public. Monopolistic corporations have a vested interest in intertwining themselves with government power to protect themselves from antitrust cases.
Everything we ache for our world to be — the way we know it ought to be deep down in our heart of hearts — is subverted by the systems we have in place, which are all geared toward taking it in the exact opposite direction.
The world will never know peace as long as war is profitable. The world will never know health as long as sickness is profitable. The ecosystem will never thrive as long as ecocide is profitable. We will remain ruled by tyrants for as long as our systems elevate tyranny.
To have a healthy world, we’re going to need systems in place which elevate health instead of viciousness. Until then the gravitational pull of those systems will continually steer us toward dysfunction. Hoping we can move toward peace and harmony without changing those systems is like stepping off a cliff and hoping you don’t fall.
We need to move from competition-based models to collaboration-based models. Systems which value working in collaboration toward the greater good, both in collaboration with each other and with our ecosystem. Until we do, we’ll fall every time.
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109 responses to “All Our Systems Are Built To Elevate Viciousness”
And what of religions’ clandestine role of keeping humanity blindly at each other’s throats serving the purposes of hegemonic oligarchy???
“The liar is a person who uses the valid designations, the words, in order to make something which is unreal appear to be real.
What is the US empire today and what it represents?
What it is – Deception, flattering, lying, deluding, talking behind the back, putting up a false front, living in borrowed splendor, wearing a mask, hiding behind convention, playing a role for others and for oneself—in short, a continuous fluttering around the solitary flame of vanity—is so much the rule and the law among the American society that there is almost nothing which is less comprehensible than how an honest and pure drive for truth could eventually arisen among them. They are deeply immersed in illusions and in dream images; their eyes merely glide over the surface of things and see “forms.” Their senses nowhere lead to the fabricated “truth” percolated through rivers of blood, starvation, poverty, exploitation, genocide in foreign lands; on the contrary, they are content to receive stimuli and, as it were, to engage in a groping game on the backs of things. Moreover, it permits itself to be deceived in its dreams every night of its life. Its moral sentiment does not even make an attempt to prevent this, whereas there are supposed to be men who have stopped snoring through sheer will power. What does it actually know about itself? Is it, indeed, ever able to perceive itself completely, as if laid out in a lighted display case? No, because if it happens you might end up being accused of fabricating conspiracy theories and misinformation.
What it represents – An empire sustained in the indifference of its ignorance by that which is pitiless, greedy, insatiable, and murderous—as if hanging in dreams on the back of a tiger.
Given this situation, where in the world today could the drive for truth have come from?”
Edited from – On Truth and Lies in a Nonmoral Sense
https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.0020106
For those who have a subscription to the New York Times (I don’t).
https://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/13/science/no-time-for-bullies-baboons-retool-their-culture.html
I saved this article under “Dominant Baboons Die”.
The dominant baboons in this study found a pile of diseased meat to eat and deprived all others of access to it.
The Dominant Baboons died, and with them their vicious culture, leaving the subordinates survivors to live without the cultural viciousness of it.
The study followed the persistence of the sharing culture that developed through successive generations.
Yes the viciousness of murderous human culture the may not be so simple terminated.
I don’t see how the Ukrainian situation does not devolve into MAD since the most vicious do not fear death (before dishonor?) and might consider mutual annihilation preferable to living with an “other” not dominable.
MAD longer seems to act as a deterrent.
Coming back from Stop and Shop supermarket today –
1) one small piece of steak – $26,00. It used to be $9,00
2) One packet of cookies – $6,00. It used to be $2,00
3) one pound of bananas – $3,00. It used to be 1 dollar.
4) one dozen of eggs – $6,00. It used to be 3 bucks.
5) bread – $5,00. It used to be $2,00.
I’m certain Biden is holding info to the public about the real economic state of the US. I refuse to believe it is just me struggling to keep the tabs up. Perhaps it is because the middle term election coming that things are not worse, perhaps it is about hiding the shame about losing the economic war created by Joe Biden against Russia, who knows, right.
One thing is certain – we are swimming uncharted economic warfare with unknown consequences coming for all of us.I think Russia will be fine but the rest….
prices around here are a bit lower, but everything has gone way up. got 21/2 lb bananas for 1.35. but meat is a lot more expensive, and bread. and what’s more sometimes you can’t even find any of the product you’re looking for.
Yes, some shelves empty. I never thought we would ran out of peanut butter but it is here. Aldi Foods is my main source but even there things are sour.
Russia – Amongst the lowest energy costs in the world for Russian residents.
“None of the people driving the imperial power structure which rules over us are in their positions because of their wisdom or kindness. Oligarchs get to the top of their corporate and financial ladders by being willing to step on whoever they need to step on to get ahead. Military strategists get to their positions by demonstrating an aptitude for military domination. Intelligence officials get to their positions because they understand how to facilitate the interests of the oligarchic empire. Politicians get to the top by displaying a willingness to serve imperial power.”
In a system like the US system this is basically true, but not quite exactly. Its like the common misunderstanding that evolution produces “better” species. In fact It produces species that are better able to feed and reproduce within a certain niche – a certain set of existential circumstances . “Viciousness” is not the motive of the corporate climbers and backstabbers, PROFIT is their goal..self agrandisement. When the system they exist in begins to reward behaviors that are destructive in the long term, nature will correct its mistake. This correction often results in extinction. The US system is rewarding brutal incompetent parasites.. There WILL be a correction
Live by the bone; die by the bone.
Was it Pompeo center stage? I read he lost a lot of weight lately…
“We’ll call it a draw.” Lmao … As an American, that line always resonated. We believe a tie is anathema to the concept of life itself.
This scene is also perfect representation of the current situation of the Ukrainians. “We are more than holding our own despite being dismembered.”
“In fact, we are about to lauch an offensive!”
Oops. Reply to Pascal. Apologies for any confusion that might arise from mixing Monty Python and Stanely Kubrick.
hey, but the author is leaning towards communism !!!
indeed, the rich are so because they are vicious, not smarter or working harder
I call them “homo oeconomicus psychopatis”
Geoffrey, communist from Belgium
A perfect microcosm of how US hegemony operates is by studying Scientology. They claim to be a religion, but the underlying rot, paranoia and ruthless real estate acquisition is now the cause of its current immolation. The world becomes a giant cult when an empire expects everyone to follow one ideology and surrender their sovereignty.
The days of empire are waning…
“I really do believe that it’s quite striking to see Communist China, neo-liberal Russia, the Islamic Republic of Iran, you know, completely different countries, coming together and I think the two key moments, I think, what unites them is A: they all want sovereignty, second they want their own way to development, they deny any kind of universal ideology that should be imposed on all others, and third, relationships between countries have to be built on International law, only.
That’s what I see the key pillars of the World order that I think is gonna replace, you know, a thousand years of Imperialism, because I really think that this, this last Empire is the last Empire because it’s a model that’s outlived itself, and is despised in most of the countries out there. Very few countries, still you know have some kind of idea about becoming an Empire, mostly because a lot of them tried it and paid dearly. Imperialism is horrible for the country, at first it’s initially beneficial, but then it turns against you and the blowback is terrible. So that’s basically what I hope to see in the future, God willing we won’t have a nuclear war that’s all I can say.
MH: Well this is wonderful; the strength is their diversity.”
https://thesaker.is/the-saker-interviews-michael-hudson-6/
Make it more like five… thousand years of imperialism and I’ll agree with you 100%.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle_Eastern_empires
Radio Free Europe report from the Donbass, title of the vid:
Bodies Of Russian Mercenaries Litter Field After Donetsk Battle With Ukrainian Army
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rF-cyPkmVEY
I can’t even mock this one. There are no dead bodies, there is no field. Just some men dressed in shiny new uniforms claiming they’re are killing Russians that are close by – many of the dead being of the Wagner Group, the Russian mercenary outfit.
Sad music plays, two or three out focus stills are shown of what might be humans lying on the ground, and ends with a uniformed man next to a ditch that looks a backhoe spent 5 minutes digging.
That’s it. That’s the report. Make of it what you will, I personally, am at a loss to explain this, and can make nothing of it. Not even fun.
This morning, the NYT dutifully regurgitated a DoD report claiming the Russian Army is suffering 500 casualties per day, while the Ukraine Army daily losses are in the 100 to 200 range. 70,000 Russians have been killed or wounded since the war began, and the Wagner Group in particular, has been decimated.
Interesting. Two Wagner references in one day. What do I make of this? Wagner is getting under someone’s skin, and are fighting with such surprising effectiveness, that in this war of projection, one side wishes its mercenary forces would occasionally do what they are paid to do, which is for the most part, to consisently win engagments against less highly trained soldiers, at the tactical level.
The casualties figures speak for themselves. Admittedly outgunned by up 10 to 1 in most sectors, it is theoretically impossible to hold one’s own, let alone extract a 5 to 1 one casualty count from your enemy.
We haved move from fantasy to insanity and now find ourselves in the realm of total nonsense, and I for one find this latest development frightening..
Seeing what’s really happening outside Radio Free Europe’s wishful thinking, it looks more and more like:
https://natyliesbaldwin.com/2022/08/eva-bartlett-ukraine-bombed-a-donetsk-hotel-full-of-journalists-heres-what-it-felt-like-to-be-there/
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Here’s a real report from a real reporter.
Thanks for the link. Ms. Bartlett is a fearless warrior for the truth.
Alex Christoforou has the most logical take on the shelling of power plant mystery.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEUrnYDNHzE
It he’s right, and I think he is, then the US is willing to kill Europe dead in order not loose face.
If our desperadoes seriously want a resolution in Ukraine they better take a different tact with some willingness to “give” more towards Russian security concerns than what they likely think will be necessary. Nuclear blackmail as a starting point for “freezing the conflict” probably wouldn’t go over well in Moscow—but what do I know, maybe Putin would assess the ongoing risks, see an opportunity, and play just nice enough to allow the egomaniacs a little space to preen & pose as peacemakers.
Feels like grasping at straws though, doesn’t it?
“Feels like grasping at straws though, doesn’t it?”
Perhaps for the reason this is precisely what we’re doing, grasping at straws? Lmao …
I like the term “desperados.”
We should just change our name, become the United States of Deperados.
Has a nice ring to it, actually.
Violent outlaws, bandits…and now with fading empire the association with the sound of “desperate” makes “desperadoes” work for me. Ha!
https://southfront.org/
The value of money arises from its ability to overcome the state imposed separation of what is needed to live and those whose lives are desperately in need of these things. It’s your money or your life.
The moderately desperate will live in denial of the nature of employment as slavery.
The very desperate will make victims of others, like crabs in the bottom of the bucket who will kill to climb out and above the dead and dying, up into the fresh air to be with those whose weight now oppresses them.
Money is the hunter gatherer permit that allows one to hunt in the royal preserve. To hunt in the royal’s preserve without his majesties permission is to become the hunted.
Law without a credible threat of violence is a mere suggestion.
It is the violence of law that gives money its value.
“There is no distinctly native American criminal class save Congress.”
― Mark Twain
The most vicious ruling criminal class always declares itself to be the savior of humanity, a distinction no other will dare deny convincingly with impunity.
This is why Julian Assange will likely die at the hands the holiest empire of this day.
No doubt, other civilizations that came before our time had problems of their own but the advent of Western civilization is a debacle across the globe. We are in the clasp of suicidal vices in the form of diabolic greed, tribal racism, religious fanaticism and a hellish secret society corruption in high place, all as a result of US/UK/European-led world domination over the last hundred years or so. What was meant to give credence to the fact that man/woman is the highly evolved among the species, turns out for real, to be somewhat the opposite. It shouldn’t be a surprise that we are even capable to annihilate all life on earth possibly for millions of years.
>what human behavior does money value?
– pro forma ethics and the wholesale extraction of the stored value of Nature into personal corporate possession
– vulgar positivist-materialist ideology
AKA measuring the value of life by the amount of consumable stuff it contains, with decision making being deemed ‘rational’ on the basis of cost-benefit calculation ONLY.
– Rapacious venality being seen as wise realism
– hoarding of knowledge (institutional and private)
– normalization of war (darwinian Odinism)
– indiscriminate human death as an expense of profitable foreign policy
Your clarity is always a welcome relief in these turbulent times, thanks for the read
Always ‘we need to……….’
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But power does not yield without a demand. Did you forget.
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Would you murder to stop a murder? (I mean the murderer of course). You say you would, but what if you could get someone else to do it 4 you. So you don’t have to stand up and be counted. So you don’t have to put your soul in a compromised territory.
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You would pass the buck in a heartbeat.
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People are weak, You are weak and I am weak. I will admit it. We are all weak.
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When the time comes to stand up for something we can’t wait to sit down.
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‘You just needed the will to do what the other guy wouldn’t.” is a very low bar. Not one hard to get over at all. And you don’t even have to be vicious.
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Would others be as poor stewards of power as the United States is? That answer is yes. The leaders of the United States do not have a monopoly on dominating the emotional weak. Or on being weak themselves.
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The situation we live in is the result of history. Blaming this shitshow of a sideshow carnival on people who did viscous things is a dodge.
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The situation we live in is the result of people being weak and ignorant. All people need to do is stand up with a collective NO. But the No does not happen.
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But the NO never happens. It is only talked about in a passive voice along with generous helpings of ignorance.
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Someone mentioned Braveheart above. Yes Longshanks was a vicious evil bastard. But what about his son?
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Longshanks son, the limp noodle. If Longshanks son was living in modern times there would be an X-Box gamepad in his hand. Imagine the Facebook he would have.
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The vicious are in power because the weak do not stand up and change things.
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Saying pretty please with sugar on top will not free Julian Assange. The smell of burning automobile might, but sorry Julian, sheep do not burn cars.
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Playing the victim is not a good thing.
Neither is civil war, which is what you appear to be advocating.
A million civilians waving AR-15s against a disciplined modern army. Give you one guess who wins.
Taliban did ok, and that modern army may have more qualms about murdering americans. or may not, didn’t stop the Civil War, brother against brother etc.
Taliban are organized and have military training, so not exactly the same thing.
lots of americans have military training, too. as did the Iraqis who eventually kicked us out. the american military has not exactly been unbeatable, and like I say there would be a lot of divided loyalties.
We’re gonna need that training for the revolution.
This sounds right to those unschooled in materialist thought. After all, it makes the bad guys sound like bad guys. But the reality is that the Vietnamese did not win because they were more willing to chop off arms of children; they won because of the objective conditions of the situation. I only cite that example because it was used by another commenter. Objective conditions, those determined by material factors, are what determines historical evolution on a large scale. I like what Caitlin writes, as she does her research and her heart is in the right place; but her basic thesis on this is wrong.
Actually, the Vietnamese won the war against the US because the US people were not willing to annihilate the Vietnamese people. The US military had the capacity and plans for that, but the American people were against it. And the objective reason that the American people were opposed to annihilating the Vietnamese is that they were able to see, through the print and TV journalism of that time, what the war was doing to people. And that is the objective reason for the cocooning of journalists in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars (and also with Ukraine), and the careful filtering of what news is allowed to reach the public, and the fierce punishment of anyone who breaks the rules of that filtering (e.g., Julian Assange, Chelsea Manning, Edward Snowden).
America, a nation founded on the genocide of its native peoples then developed on the backs of slaves and made whole by the imperialist ambitions of its leaders. It reached its pinnacle after WWII when it embarked wholesale on the suppression of reform around the world wanting to keep the world as its oyster so it could be milked time and again for its pearls. It fomented military coups around the world, placing despots who killed their people as if they were ants just so these dictators could continue to allow the exploitation of their land for the nefarious purposes of the MIC. Any competitor was viewed as the enemy and needed to be destroyed. But power has its limits and the lessons of history teach us that no power stays on top forever. The fall is going doubly tragic for the USA. The trainwreck is coming but the public will still believe it was caused by outside forces when it was self-inflicted.
excellent summary. the us has been consistent – manifest destiny, then the monroe doctrine, then profiting off world war 1 debts, and finally being the main event after world war2., then a really pretty fast decline. the greed, the obsessive need to acquire and control everything, has been like a metastasizing cancer. i’m just worried about the size and scope of the trainwreck. dystopian fiction (movies, books) seems to be getting ever more popular.
Yesterday, Danny Haiphong discussed the history of the FBI and the war on American radicalism. We might live in a different world if the US developed a balanced political system which included communist and socialist movements early on. It’s interesting how capitalism always seems to veer fascist. Libertarians believe small cash capitalism would be utopian, but the system is designed to create big, powerful, vicious cash. So, is human nature flawed by the biblical deadly sins or does the system allow the smart and vicious to win and rule? In Africa, China makes cooperative deals while capitalist America bombs and plots coups. Could that be the result of different systems? The humans are flawed argument is easier. Building cooperative, sustainable systems in a vicious environment is extremely difficult.
“Building cooperative, sustainable systems in a vicious environment is extremely difficult.”
Indeed … and well said.
“In Africa, China makes cooperative deals while capitalist America bombs and plots coups.”
The Republic of Congo offered to send China emergency relief aid when an earthquake hit Tibet a few years ago. China immediately accepted, and the Republic of Congo built a brand new school in a village that had seen one reduced to rubble, and all of China celebrated, and continues to celebrate this act good will till this day.
That told me – almost – everything I need know about China and what they’re up to in Africa.
It also told me a little something about the Republic of Congo as well.
I think every word of this is true, except for its central thesis. It may be true that the US is dominant now because of ruthlessness in the past century; but that doesn’t mean that ruthlessness is a special attribute of Americans, or the American ruling class. If China ascends to a dominant position, do you really think they will maintain their benevolent stance with smaller countries? I don’t believe you can say anything about the personalities, tendencies, psychology of any people. Physiology, yes–some tendency toward certain health complications, some differences in skin and hair and eye coloration etc. But I don’t think there are inbuilt differences between peoples in the psychological realm. However, there are sharp differences between the sociopaths, present in any society, and the rest. To say that I expect China, if it attains the dominance the US has now, to behave like the US does now, is to say nothing about “the Chinese character,” I don’t believe there is such a thing. There are cultural differences, yeah. But the arrogance of US culture–the absurd notion of “US exceptionalism”!–comes naturally with the territory of being in a dominant position.
We all know the old line, reflecting older values, used to justify the seduction of a virgin: “It was gonna happen sooner or later, so better by a nice guy like me.” Isn’t this rationale similar to saying that some country was going to dominate the world, so better by a benevolent country like the U.S., or before that, the U.K.? Has it ever been a convincing argument for doing something wrong, that if you didn’t do it, someone else would? And isn’t there always the possibility, however remote, that that someone else wouldn’t? I fully realize, Mary, that you are not making this argument, but your comment nevertheless brought it to mind. IMHO, for what it’s worth, this piece is among Caitlin’s finest, and the comments so far are equally outstanding, including this one to which I’m obliquely responding.
This site has the best comments by far. I think that fact says something good about Caitlin as well.
“If China ascends to a dominant position, do you really think they will maintain their benevolent stance with smaller countries?”
That is a most interesting question. My instinct is to say yes, for the simple reason, they’ve figure it out. On purely pragmatic grounds, they know what will probably work best on planet divided into nation-states when you are dominant power, is to practice the ancient Macedonian concept of being, “the first amongst equals.”
But all that can change at any time. I often wonder are they getting lucky in their leadership post-Mao, or is there something about “the system” that consistently produces the high quality of Presidents and Premiers they’ve had of late.
I don’t know.
I do know, that throughout much heir vaunted 5 (?) to 9,000 (?) year history, although they’ve been rightly credited with not seeking to crush lesser nations for the thrills and spoils, they were not the friendliest of nations either.
In fact, I think it is fair to say, that up until recently, few of their neighbors liked them, and many outright despised them.
But a gifted high speed rail line from one end of your country to the other, can change a lot of minds in a hurry.
All that said, what I like about China is the mystery. I know what the US is about. I also know what the imperial West has been all about for the past 500 years. Death and destruction, and not much else.
On the other hand, it is possible that China could turn out to be the best thing since sliced bread.
You never know, and also, let’s hope so, because China as world’s dominant power is a fait accompli.
I encourage those who are raising objections to Johnstone’s reasoning in this essay to keep a link or a copy and read it again from time to time. There are things our conditioning will not allow us to hear the first time through, or the tenth.
The author is in my opinion precisely correct to say that the power systems which control us encourage viciousness.
I would also point out that fear is the first and deepest driving force behind the greed, envy, lust, gluttony, hate, anger, and vicious competitiveness that many of my fellow commenters mistake for human nature. In humans, these behaviors arise in response to scarcity. Of course, therefore, the first principle of the power systems that herd us is to create scarcity among us. This is why our most deeply impoverished neighbors often exhibit the most visibly feral behaviors; they are the ones most threatened by the imposed scarcity of the control systems at work.
Once you allow yourself to really get this, your life’s work becomes teaching cooperation and stressing the human imperative of ensuring that everyone has enough before anyone gets extra. Nothing wrong with extra… once everyone has enough.
The systems that control us are more fragile than they seem. All that cooperative systems need do to change the world is to succeed where vicious systems fail: in supplying the wants of our people. Time is short.
What good points you make! And I think what you suggest works best on the local level.
Thank you, Mary Wildfire. In my limited experience, what I suggest works only on the local level, and best when like seeks like: the vet who helps homeless veterans get their benefits, the working mom who sets up housing co-ops for single moms, the ex-preacher who guilts funds from the suburbs. What works, works.
Thank you for explaining the term “Its a dog eat dog world”. For too many of us, there is a feral nature just below the surface of civilized behavior.
@Hodgicus: “I would also point out that fear is the first and deepest driving force behind the greed, envy, lust, gluttony, hate, anger, and vicious competitiveness that many of my fellow commenters mistake for human nature. In humans, these behaviors arise in response to scarcity”.
I suppose this is chapter II of your ridiculous sweeping and evidence-free comment down below that there are things your interlocutor’s conditioning prevents him to understand while you of course have no conditioning and therefore understand everything. What a load of pretentious bullshit!
Now, nobody said – and especially not me – that the above-mentioned “seven sins” were human nature. I said they were “metastases of the survival instinct gone awry”. They’re diseases of the human nature. But diseases or not, they’re expressions of it.
As for scarcity, even if I do agree with you that fear is at the root of human behavior, scarcity’s got nothing to do with it. People are just as bad in societies of abundance. What’s triggering fear is the ILLUSION of upcoming scarcity.
This is not your usual quality of comment, friend, and neither was the one I politely critiqued below.
The insult is whiny, the semantic quibble is silly, and your agreement with almost everything I said is kinda superfluous. Hope you have a better day tomorrow, man.
Do you sometimes take a break from pompous sophistry or is it a second nature with you?
Another devastating argument. Dude, you rule.
You’re assuming that people are rational, that is, they would compare strategies and observe that cooperative ones were better. I don’t see much evidence of that.
On the other hand, as I’ve written elsewhere, there are natural limits to sociopathy which tend to reduce its practices in local daily life at least. Sociopaths lack certain brain circuitry which enable most of us to sense other people’s desires and interests and thus inhibit us from overly hostile and toxic behaviors. Thus sociopaths, while they seem to act with a certain freedom, constantly make mistakes which are usually greatly to their disadvantage, and the majority wind up in jail, in hospitals, or dead. However, some are able to restrain and discipline the full exercise of their problem. These we observe in business and politics (and elsewhere), especially at the higher level. Still, the same natural limits will eventually apply. The idea that sociopaths enjoy special powers that render them invincible is simply not correct.
It would be nice if the non-sociopathic portion of the population could better recognize the sociopaths and stop treating them as leaders, examples, and gurus, but apparently our abilities in this regard are limited.
Good analysis of sociopaths and why they do what they do.
Thank you for this clear description.
Viciousness is the ultimate victor, is one of the many myths perpetrated by the greatest empire the world has ever seen. The human capacity to compete is not what separates us from the rest of the animal kingdom. The one trait that humans possess in spades beyond that of others is the capacity to cooperate. Other species do have the ability to cooperate and they do but they never take it to the same levels that humans are capable of doing.
Often the myth is perpetuated by Darwin’s survival of the fittest. Even this is a perversion of what Darwin postulated because Darwin realized that the success of any species was dependent upon interdependence and cooperation. There is no such thing as the sole “hero” victorious over all others that ever survived the forces of evolution.
As Caitlin points out, our only way out of this is through cooperation.
We are brothers in heart and mind, you and I.
“Other species do have the ability to cooperate and they do but they never take it to the same levels that humans are capable of doing”.
Gotta be joking! Seen ants and bees?
Or lionesses on the hunt. They share the dangers … and if the males don’t show up, they share the spoiles.
Female lions are commies.
The brutal are full of energy while good people are often passive. I think it is more a problem of psychology than social organization. What makes us this way? Can we be different on the inside? Can we tap sources of strength that are not our personal egos?
Truer words have never (and I mean NEVER) been written. And this has never been illustrated better than in Braveheart’s scene of the battle of Falkirk with:
1/ the Scottish footmen being betrayed by their own mounted aristocracy that has been bought by the English with some land
2/ Edward Longshanks ordering his archers to strike into the thick of the fray and when his aide objects “I beg your pardon, Sire, won’t this hit our own troops?” replying: “Yeah! But it will hit theirs as well. We have reserves…”
3/ the English reserves, having just witnessed this abject betrayal by their king, rushing into battle regardless
4/ William Wallace finding out that the Scot fleeing along with the English rear guard is no other than Scotland’s heir presumptive, Robert the Bruce.
This is the end of innocence…
Another classic. From Kubrick’s Path’s of Glory. “Captain Nichols, order the 75’s to commence firing on our own positions.” George Maccready, so underrated.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7Mvs5Ic8us
Can you imagine Putin giving such an order? “I know we’ve spent decades digging out of the hole to get to where we are now, on the verge of total full spectrum vicory, still, the order stands. Blow up the plant.”
Can’t remember which movie but the ‘famous’ line ‘GREED IS GOOD’ opened the pandora box.
Oliver Stone’s Wall Street.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVxYOQS6ggk
Poor Oliver, he thought he was making an anti-bankster film, instead it’s been a leading recruitment tool for Big Finance for a couple generations now.
The Death Ride isn’t for profit Ms. Johstone, it is for glory!
In the beginning of this ESMO (Extra Special Military Operation),* I suggested that we will see some Death Rides of one sort or another before this is over. It seemed to me a 100% certainty. Now, what would they look like? Well, that depends on what level of the full spectrum action we’re talking about.
For instance, Azov wasn’t able to perform one down Mariupol way. Their critics would say this is because they were nothing but small time hoods to begin with, all talk and no action, and their fans would defend their action by pointing out, it was only because they couldn’t, as towards the end they had no working vehicles to go on one.
But me personally, I never had much interest in those type of Death Rides. You know, the old “let’s fuel up the tanks for the final time boys, and rush headlong into the enemy’s guns!”
That brigade and division level shit I always found boring. But I’ve always had an electric interest, in the Death Ride of nations, great and small.
Carthage, Germany and Japan in ’45, pretty much every town, city, or petty kingdom Ghengis came across on the great steppe. “Join us, and we will welcome you to our bosum, or be slaughtered to the last creature. Those are your options. What say ye?” And what was always so surprising to me, is how many of these entities chose the latter.
The question was brought up yesterday, would the US actually destory Europe, and by destroy it, I mean kill it dead. Nothing can live, grow or flourish in Europe ever again, and all the folks that live there now, have to move elsewhere.
I don’t think so. Not because they wouldn’t if it served their interests, but in this instance, it does not serve their interests. A broken Europe is good, a Europe that is no longer there, is bad. That’s the calculation.
So, on who’s orders is the plant at Zaporizhzhia being shelled? I don’t know. I doubt it is Zelensky, or any of the other kept Ukraine puppets of the US, but I am quite certain there are elements in high enough places in the Ukraine, who are all favor of performing … a Death Ride for the Ages!
And it they can’t pull it off, for whatever reason, the spectre of the Ultimate Death Ride still looms, doesn it not (?), and yes, I am primarily talking about the United States. I am more than 50 years in to the study of the Death Ride, and I did conclude by the age 14, a conlcusion that hasn’t changed, or wavered even a bit, that of all city/nation-states past and present, the country most susceptible to its charms, is mine.
*Extra Special Military Operation.
Goddamn right it is. 5 reactors and tens of thousands of tons of open air nuclear waste sitting right in the middle of the battlezone, and 8 other reactors with their tens of thousands of tons of radioactive waste, on the battle’s flanks.
I said from the beginning; if the Russians can somehow pull this off, it will rank as one the greatest, if not THE SINGLE GREATEST MILITARY OPERATION OF ALL-TIME, and I wasn’t fucking around.
Dr. John Campbell on the threat that Zaporizhzhia presents, for anyone interested.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8JKoTpKj9RM
The usual stuff throughout most of it. Canned goods, iodine, shut your doors n’ windows, don’t breath, and so one. The only information of real relevance in first 17 minutes of the vid; when the reactor core exploded* at Chernobyl, only 5% of the 192 tons of the radiological elements it contained were released, so basically we’re talkin’ it was a little pinprick, compared to what could happen at a facility that has 10 of thousands of tons of radiological material stored on site that could all become aerosoled, should it have to be abandoned.
And that is the Lesson of Fukushima. When things go wrong at a nuke plant, it may have to abandoned immediately, and once you do that, you will have to abandon the power plant up the road (Fukushima Daini), and then you will have to abandon Tokyo, Yokohama, Nagoya along with the dozen or so other nuclear facilities in the officially designated Greater Honshu Evacuation Zone, and then you would have to do what?
Abandon planet Earth?
Lmao … Maybe.
The last two minutes of the vid are instructive. The question Dr. Campbell asks, in his own inimitable way, is why on Earth did we build these things? He goes on to make the point; if England had had nuclear power plants during WWII, Hitler most assuredly would’ve bombed them. I’m not so sure about that, especially if the 3rd Reich had nuclear facilities of their own, but Hitler’s bombers sure as hell might’ve hit one by accident.
*Exploded, melted down, whatever. I have no dog in that Battle of the Strawmen.
I’m not so sure about the motivations on the Genghis Khan trail. Was it really “Join us, and we will welcome you to our bosom, or be slaughtered to the last creature” or was it “We’ll leave you alone if you swear allegiance to us after our warriors have looted, raped and sold for slaves whatever there is to loot, rape and sell for slaves in that joint” the ISIS way?
As for the death rides, aka ultimate sacrifice, it only happens when people are cornered and the Make a Buck Fairy has turned her back on them.
I think you’re buying to all the anti-Ghengis propoganda!
Too funny. I just watched the movie: Mongol, The Rise of Ghengis Khan, and the whole focus of the film is about what a great family man Ghengis was. Put it this way, there has never been a more forgiving husband if the film is any way, historically accurate..
It was a really good movie, actually, and believable, believe it or not.
Mongol armies moved fast, that was their calling card, so laying seige to every Tom, Dick and Harry kingdom would’ve been counter-productive.
Better to negotiate on occasion.
That said, one of my favorite quotes attributed the Ghengis went something like this: The greatest pleasure a man can take, is to kill all the enemy’s men, rape all the enemy’s women, sell all the enemy’s children into slavery, and take all the enemy’s dogs for one’s own.
“I think you’re buying to all the anti-Ghengis propoganda!”
With all due respect, I’ve never been much into buying into propaganda. It just happens that a good friend of mine was a fan of Genghis like you, so I studied the guy up close and personal and came out of that study with the notion that Genghis was a pretty cruel bastard. Your last quote seems to confirm this. His destruction of Gurganj especially, in 1221, during the Mongol invasion of Central Asia, is considered by historians one of the bloodiest massacres in human history.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Gurganj
Which doesn’t mean he couldn’t be a family loving man. Hitler liked dogs and little children.
And I won’t even elaborate on your quoting a… movie to lecture me about propaganda since I always like a good laugh and this provided one for which I’ll be forever grateful amigo :o)
I beg to differ. The west pushed Russia inrto this conflict. Zelensky is a thug. There is no doubt in my mind where every atrocity and lie is originating in this conflict including shelling nuclear power plants.
Um, what? Does everyone have reading comprehension issues today?
Did I mention Russia, other than to say their military operation is a fine one?
I have written at least 20 comments on this blog, going back to Day 9, and including 5 or 6 in the last two days, where I have pointed out that the idea the Russian Federation would shell, rocket, or any other way attack their own posititions is the single stupidest narrative in the history of stupid narratives.
I am also on record in this blog, going to Day 3, and many dozens and dozens of times since, that the Russian government not only had the right to invade Ukraine, they had an obligation to their citizens to do so, and if Vladimir Putin wasn’t up to the task, it would’ve been the duty of every officer in the Russian Army to gut him, and throw his pieces in the Volga.
Is my position a little bit clearer on these matters?
Reply to Pascal:
Where did you EVER get the idea I was fan of Ghengis? Holy crimminy.
Anyway, in the movie, Ghengis fulfills a pledge he makes to a Buddhist monk, who befriends him in the years when Ghengis was a slave, and who also knows the destiny that awaits him, and decades later, when he is the Khan, he commands his army to leave untouched the great Buddhist temple at such and such.
In fact, I think the main message of the movie is, if the world wasn’t such a cruel and hostile place, men like Ghengis would prefer to be one with all things, rather than to become the despoiler of entire regions.
@Max: Question: “Where did you EVER get the idea I was fan of Ghengis?”
Answer: Likely at the same source that made you think I was “buying to all the anti-Ghengis propoganda” :o)
Well that would be me I guess?
I was being flip, I didn’t know this would get serious.
For the record, my view of Ghengis Khan is, his set of warrior/statesman skills were remarkably similar to those of Alexander the Great. Just like young Alex, unless you were his prime military target, his goal was to incorporate, not butcher. But, if you didn’t want to be incorporated, or, after incorporation, you caused trouble, then you would be butchered in the most efficient manner possible.
Both men were well rounded martial geniuses, which meant, unfortunately, they were as efficient in the butchery as they were on the battlefield.
And unsurprisingly, what both excelled in above all, was logistics, or in today’s parlance, the full understanding and then synchronization of every facet of multiple, multi-layered, just-in-time supply chains.
@Max: I can live with that except that contrary to Alex, who seems to have fought battles fair and square and wasn’t known for slaughtering civilian populations, Genghis, by today’s standards, would be considered a war criminal of the worst order and would have been sentenced to death in Nuremberg after only a few seconds of reading the charges :o)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genghis_Khan#Negative
“So, on who’s orders is the plant at Zaporizhzhia being shelled?”
~
So there were two separate incidents of shellings at Zaporizhzhia 3 days apart last week. If the first incident was an accidental miscalculation or someone gone rogue, then what was the second incident? And what was it Thursday—five to ten shells?
Obviously there’s no logic in Russia being the perpetrator—and even if Russia positioned and used military hardware at the facility to “shield” it from retaliation (as the propaganda goes), well, the reality still persists that shelling the plant is a no-no. Yet, seems it’s happening on purpose.
~
I understand the ultimate dangers involved, but when talking about people who seem to like playing with fire it seems all bets are off. Could our desperadoes think it possible to create a limited mess to “change conditions”?
~
Funny guy, that Zelensky. Still shoots his mouth off about Crimea. And now he says the only way for the power plant to be “safe” is for Russia to leave the territory and allow his boys back in. That’s some serious fantasy. And the question remains: if Russia would (according to Zelensky) willingly shell a nuclear power plant (the electricity from which they plan to use in Crimea just to the South) under their control, why wouldn’t they shell it while it was under Zelensky’s control?
I guess in Western Narrative World, nothing has to make sense.
“Could our desperadoes think it possible to create a limited mess to “change conditions”? …”
Excellent question.
My contention is, Washington is charge, they issue the orders, so if the shelling is being carried by “official Ukie fources,” maybe or maybe not filtered through the intermediary Zelensky, then that means that yes, my country is either looking to kill Europe dead, or are so foolish as to believe you can dance on the surface of the sun and not get burned.
Personally, I think it is a rogue element doing the shelling (and the cutting off of the power, we shouldn’t forget that possibly more important factor), rogue in this case meaning, a powerful faction in the Ukraine governmental superstructure, that despises Zelensky and his Puppet Masters, has taken to issuing its own set of orders to different military groupings and formations, and it’s one that doesn’t give a fuck at this point if the plant, and Europe, have to be written off permanently.
In other words, Death Riders.
And yes exactly, why is Russia shelling a plant they plan on stealing?
If your supposition is correct (and I can’t argue persuasively one way or another right now), then our desperadoes best be getting a lid on that particular roguishness in snappish fashion.
Agree. One of the reasons I think its vital to understand what the stakes truly are.
If people keep hearing that the worst case scenario is another Chernobyl, then I really can’t blame them for not giving a rat’s ass who is doing the shelling or who is giving the orders.
I can blame the media though, who is once again, through sheer negligence, is at the heart of this mess.
Reply to Pascal;
“Hitler liked dogs and little children.”
Mark Felton just posted this 5 hours ago.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sN6zPcP0zAQ
When I first saw it, I was like, no way! Then I saw the time stamp.
Still, what a coincidence.The vid starts with Hitler hanging out with kids and ends with puppies running around at his feet.
One thing I’ll say on the Fuhrer’s behalf, I never got that creepy vibe when he was around children. Unlike our Creepster-in-Chief.
The weirdest thing I’ve seen Hitler do when he was around kids, he would give em the old double of pinch of the cheeks, but that was still in vogue when I was kid. Thankfully I believe that old timey tradition has gone out of style? I hope so, my cheeks still hurt.
But the Biden hair-sniffing thing, that’s just pure molestation.
Caitlin,
Do you remember the scene from Apocalypse now where colonel Kurtz tells Sheen of the village children?
“The US had gone into a ‘friendly’ village and inoculated all the children, the VC then came a chopped the arms off the children and piled them up as a warning not to deal with the US troops. The colonel said ‘These men were not monster, they had families and children of their own, the strength to do that to these children, the will to be able to do that!’ and at that point the colonel knew that the VC would win.”
Just like the crusaders, (and police, and eco warriors and feminists, and ‘The View’) the people who carry out this viciousness are not ‘monsters’ but they have a set of values and beliefs that are monstrous. The mistake that ‘we’ make is thinking that logic and reason can make any impact on these people. It can’t.
The worship of Mammon, of money and material things, is so deeply ingrained into the western psyche, that talking of any other values is a waste of breath. 80% of Westerners are beyond any hope of redemption. They purport to follow a religion of “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter heaven.’ and yet allow thousands to starve and freeze in the streets. A religion where their ‘Evangelists” have three private jets and live in mansions with air conditioned kennels for their dogs, whilst preaching that the followers must send their last dollar to further the ‘Work of the Lord’.
People who can honestly believe that it is OK for billions of people to die now, because in the year 2,500 the sea might rise 20 ft.
You cannot argue or debate with such people. They have no objective base for their beliefs nor can they see the that there is no base.
“I am constantly haunted by a quote from Harry Overstreet, who wrote the following in his 1925 groundbreaking study Influencing Human Behavior:
“Giving people the facts as a strategy of influence” has been a failure, “an enterprise fraught with a surprising amount of disappointment.”
One cannot overcome a lifetime of indoctrination, or even the first 7 years of sitting in front of TV cartoons and advertising, (“Give me the child for the first seven years and I’ll give you the man.” ― Jesuit maxim also attributed to Aristotle) and then expect a saint.
Sadly I cannot see any answer. ‘We’ are not willing to kill them but they are perfectly willing to kill us to obtain their ends. Like the VC, they will win.
There’s no answer if you ask me. Thirty years ago, I read a series of books by a clinical psychologist called Helen Wambach that literally changed my life. As a scientist living in a materialistic society, she thought the belief in reincarnation was pure superstitious bullshit and went on a crusade to destroy it scientifically. She interviewed some 5,000 people under hypnosis about their previous lives and she came out of it saying: “I don’t believe in life after life. I KNOW there is a life after life” because the people she interviewed told her things under hypnosis that they couldn’t possibly have known, like this guy who’d never been to Baltimore and told her that, in his previous life in the XIXth century, when he was a kid, he saw his father kill his mother and bury her in the garden of a house there under a window. To make a long story short, she had the place dug where the guy had described his mother was buried and they found the skeleton of a woman dating back to that period. Can’t make that stuff up!
Asked what the point of incarnation was, she said her conclusion was that it was a longing for emotions – that the soul can’t experience in the ethereal world where it lives between incarnations. People get incarnated on Earth to experience emotions. I know it sounds pretty crazy but is it by chance that you’ve got these video games where an avatar of yourself is a player and puts you in situations where you’ll experience emotions and how do we explain the success of horror movies – which I personally can’t stand but there’s a large public? And BDSM? And rows and brawls and battles?
There’s a couple of videos on YouTube where she explains some of that stuff. They’re not as good as her books (especially because the sound is not very good) but it will give you an idea if you’re looking for possible answers:
PS: Not even mentioning corporate media news dealing exclusively with emotions as a direct acknowledgement of this phenomenon.
Reincarnation of what, though? I asked a Buddhist monk this once. “If the self is empty, what can be reincarnated? If the self is not empty, where is it?”
The same problem can be rephrased in Western materialistic scientific terms, which produces more verbiage, but it remains the same.
Probably you will not find the answer digging up someone’s garden, but who knows? The universe is a strange place, and not at all what we think it is.
Is this a way of saying that there are things we know, things we don’t know, things we know we don’t know and things we don’t know we don’t know?
Please define the difference between a nice guy executing a monstrous agenda and a monster. I see no difference.
I did not say that they executed a monstrous agenda, I said, “they have a set of values and beliefs that are monstrous.”
If you believe that it is wrong to kill, then you do not commit murder ; unless you are told by some other that joining an army and marching to kill others is a patriotic thing to do.
In traditional African society there are “Witch smellers” who go around and “smell out” witches. Once these witches are identified then they are immediately killed to protect the tribe from the evil that these ‘Witches’ will bring. The killers are doing it for the admirable and worthy reason that it will benefit society as a whole. As they did in Salem.
Millions of young men are mutilated each year and many die through the ritual of Circumcision. The whole concept is monstrous, yet the people carrying out the ritual are in the eyes of almost everyone virtuous and good people.
I could add vaccination, prescription of medicines, incarceration, all of which are monstrous n their execution even if benevolent in their concept.
Take for instance the cutting off of a thief’s hand, is it more or less monstrous than locking them up for many years?
Muruwah :
The President said. “I question why we have schools. If I were to take a child of six or seven and have them sit at a table in a factory for seven hours a day and then make them work two more hours at home, sewing buttons on shirts or labels into trousers, the world would, quite rightly, be up in arms. But force them to spend that amount of time in memorising some dates about ancient battles and to repeat the dubious claims of the victors, and such abuse is lauded as being ‘Education’.
Your ‘religion’ is my atrocity, and your ‘atrocity’ is my civilisation.
US Empire’s plan to destroy itself:
The Lima Agreement (Destruction of Industry & Farming In Western Countries)
The Lima Declaration, 1975
Citizens of Western developed countries who are wondering why they are losing or have lost their industry need look no further than the Lima Agreement where it all started. De-industrialization of the Western world and making money for the global elite, ie. bankers, controllers of the media, Council of Foreign Relations (CFR), Fabians etc., are the same people who are behind globalization, third-world immigration and the destruction of European countries.
The full title of the Lima treaty is “Lima Declaration And Plan Of Action On Industrial Development And Co-Operation.” The treaty was signed in 1975 at a convention of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization, in Lima, Peru. It is an international agreement to wind down national manufacturing in developed nations and transferring the manufacturing capability to developing nations.
The Lima treaty sets the policy which has, for over 30 years, encouraged corporations to build themselves into globalist multinationals. It only benefits these corporations and their international banking elite.
http://www.covenersleague.com/legal-politics/item/236-the-lima-agreement
To have a healthy world, we’re going to need systems in place that account for human nature: pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, wrath & sloth.
Until we do, we’ll fail every time.
Human nature is nothing more than human conditioning. The self-destructive systems in place conditioned some of the human race to exhibit those traits, especially found in those who benefit the most from it.
With all due respect, you’ll never find prouder than an illiterate cunt in a world’s butthole, sex maniacs generally come from the plebs as well as robbers and thieves (Wall Street being just the place accessed by the greediest – and smartest) and you only have to look at people in the street to realize that gluttony is not linked to wealth. Same for rows in parking lots. The “seven deadly sins” mentioned above, which were defined by the Desert Fathers in the early days of Christianity, are part and parcel of human nature as metastases of the survival instinct gone awry.
With more respect than this particular comment of yours is due, Pascal, please consider that your conditioning is interfering with your ability to hear critiques of your conditioning.
“please consider that your conditioning is interfering with your ability to hear critiques of your conditioning”.
How can anybody with even half a brain come up with that kind of nonsensical sophistry?
So you are saying that you can condition a tiger to be a house cat or a wolf to watch over your little children. There is human nature. Rising above it is the task put before us.
Re human nature, please see later comments by allen and hodgicus, and share your thoughts.
Couldn’t agree more with you. A glance at the values and principles of the co-operative movement speaks of a far better future for ourselves and our children. https://www.ica.coop/en/cooperatives/cooperative-identity There are already one billion of us world-wide who are already members of a co-op of some description or another. Co-ops are to be found in all sectors of human endeavour. The task we face is to replace the competition paradigm with the co-operation/collaboration one. This requires a campaign to raise the awareness of the real choice we actually do have as regards our future. Notice that corporations infest the WEF. Only by banding ourselves together in co-ops can we challenge and overcome their irresponsible power. https://cdn3-blog.p2pfoundation.net/wp-content/uploads/RadicalR.png Who knows, we also might even be able to create an interest-free currency within nests of co-ops so the real insanity of the [imaginary] money madmen can be safely dealt with!
But they’ve got weapons of mass obstruction like the newly boosted IRS, the FBI mafia cops, the no-knock SWAT teams, the CIA jackals and the captured judges only to happy to send you to a private prison for jay walking for kickbacks :o)
Nice essay, but this phone being as it is I’m not going to rewrite my reply, but the thing is, is that I think the thing is finally here, because the world that you just so accurately described, I think is just about to die. What should never have happened in that world, just did, and those who subscribe to that world as a means to heaven are about to experience a snapped kite string. That world is on its death bed, where it should have always been.
Check out ‘The Nutmeg’s Curse’ by Amitav Ghosh! 2021
Your article, Caitlin, sums up the state of the human race well. What we have today is a direct result of the failure of the masses to understand what is going on, and to then react and enforce controls on governments and corporations.
It is not that the masses can’t exert control – history shows us that it can happen under certain circumstances, usually dire, but that those circumstances need to be very severe and beyond any doubt.
We, as the masses, generally don’t act with enough force until things are really really bad. This time it might be too late.
People are capable of understanding what’s going on, and the implications IF given the real indisputable facts. But, of course, this never happens because governments and complicit media and corporations work hard to obscure the facts and mislead the people. The Romans used this principle of ‘divide and conquer’ well, and proved that it worked with information just as well as with force.
But until we find a way of revealing the hard cold irrefutable facts to a sufficiently large number of people around the world, nothing will change. We will continue to bury our heads in the sand, find excuses, misinterpret the facts, and fall for the ‘official’ narratives.
Excellent article. You just explained why the US will be the first to use nuclear weapons during WW3. Their people are expendable as long as they win. Killing 100 million Americans is an acceptable price for victory.
There won’t be victory. When the last nuclear head on both sides has been shot, even if the neocons have spent the exchange in bunkers in the Rockies, they’ll only inherit a devastated planet where nothing grows, that provides no entertainment or healthcare and where no one in his right mind would want to live. I doubt there can be any satisfaction in that even for the most psychopathic mind and that even it can think that far.
We need to turn to indigenous tribal people to show us the way. They know how to successfully practice collaboration-based models–this is what sustained their tribes for thousands of years. We need the competition-based model to be retired FOREVER.
The Vatican, the City of London, Israel??? I have a feeling that those running the show are from all around the world.
The strong, healthy, masterly types confidently impose their values on the world directly. The weak, by contrast, seek to “impose” their values in a more cunning, roundabout way, by making the strong feel guilty about their health, strength, egotism, and pride.
Creating tables of values, imposing them on people, and judging the world according to them, is one noteworthy expression of the will to power.
Have you heard about Western Destiny? PanEuropean unity? What about no more right or left but biological aspects? Yea, there are freaks everywhere. Unfortunately for the vast majority these knuckleheads – the minority of all minorities – are always in an eternal recurrence to stay in positions of power due to unknown reasons for common folks.
The empire exercises power over other people both by benefiting them and by hurting them. When the empire hurts them it makes them feel the power in a crude way—and also a dangerous way, since they may seek to revenge themselves. Making someone indebted to the empire is usually a preferable way to feel a sense of the empire’s power; It also thereby extend its power, since those it benefits see the advantage of being on its side. It seems causing pain is generally less pleasant than showing kindness and even suggests that cruelty, because it is the inferior option, is a sign that one lacks power.
““your real self lies not deep within you but high above you.”
Causing pain seems pretty pleasant for the sadist, as illustrated by some Ukies’ vids – like those two Ukies shooting a Russian POW in both knees while laughing and leaving him to die. Unfortunately these deranged people live among us in peace time as well as wars where they only become more visible. On a side note, vodka and Captagon-like amphetamines probably help.
I still remember the Neo nazis crucifying and burning alive young Russians in Odessa. Dozens watching that scene and mocking the ones screaming for help from god to save them. “Where is your god?, “We will wait till your cinders become ashes for your god”. Those infamous “bloody plains” have seem worst things for centuries. Edward Longshanks would be an amateur in cruelty compared to them.
True. Perhaps this is why we do not know who exactly rules the USA, they cover up their viscousness with the layers of government.
Because the billionaires sometimes complain about the US government, I thought maybe it was trillionaires who are in charge. But, the google search insists there are no trillionaires living right now. I wonder if this how they cover up, or? Could it be some kind of super pacs, or secret societies as others pointed out, or groups of billionaires – I would like to know who are the most vicious people living among us, or maybe in some other locations where the mega rich prefer to live rather than the USA. The quality of life in the USA is not that great compared to other countries, so I am going to guess that people who rule the USA do not even reside here. Which would explain why the US government does not care about American people.
I think your logic is flawed. True, the US isn’t a great place to live–for the majority. But the billionaires have their own little enclaves where they control the quality of life. And I doubt the rulers care about the people anywhere, beyond what is necessary to stay in power. The US government has perfected complex propaganda operations to the point where they can constantly fuck over the people, who might perhaps throw them out in the next election, ha ha ha, by voting in the “other” party, here nothing changes.
This seems 100% correct, in the novel 1984 the main character got a similar social explanation form his torturer at the Dept of Love who said it hardly mattered whether he was told the truth or not given that he was most likely finished as a person, describing history as a continuous boot to a face over and over and over again forever.