The Struggle for Reality

reality.jpg

"Ever eat a rock? Many parts of a rock are edible." Euell Gibbons

This is going to be deep. Because deep times require deep thoughts. D e e p T h o u g h t s. It is the Age for Deep Thoughts.

Um, let's see. Don't worry, I got this. It'll come together, you'll see.

. . . . . .

Ah hell. What is deep anyway? We don't need deep, we need simple talk, plain and simple. Let's get down to "brass tacks". The nitty gritty. Enough of this fooling around, let's get real. This is the age of Getting Real.

I'm all for getting real. Real about this election. Real about our political system. Real about having Hillary Clinton for President. Real about the wars. Real about saying wars and not war. Because really, we the people of the American Empire, are waging wars. Real Warzzzzzz.

Real about this country. Real about the planet. Real about how we all just got Punk'd. Real about Reality. Real reality. That's what we need now. Real reality. Enough of the propaganda. Enough of the lies. Enough of the Kardashians.

I don't like them. They aren't real.

We the Serfs are about to enter a tremendous struggle for freedom, for justice, and for reality. If you don't have reality you can't have any freedom. How can you have any freedom if you don't have reality?

They're evil. We have to understand that. It's a battle of Evil vs. Reality. A Revolution for Reality. A stupendously important battle that will chart the course of this country, this planet and Reality itself. If we don't succeed, Real Reality may never be achieved.

Reality is Truth. Without Truth there is no Reality.

It is time for all good serfs to come to the aid of Reality. Faster. Itistimefora;lgoo/serf'tp come to the ai9 of Reality.

Can we handle the Truth? Can we handle Real Reality?

Only some of us can do this.

[video:https://youtu.be/tjVVjv92JzA]

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Big Al's picture

but nothing now? We could have World War III on our hands but crickets. How is that? What is different now than 2011? Has the election been that much of an impediment to a mass movement against War? Was it the Bernie Sanders effect? Was the Occupy movement organized for a purpose and that purpose doesn't exist now?
These questions and more will be answered next week, same Bat time, same Bat station.

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A lot of emotional energy and Hope for Change went into Bernie's run, just as it did for Obama on 2007. It does more damage when your own side turns on you than when a clear opponent does it. It leads to despair and Hopelessness. Too much doom. Too many possibilities crushed.

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It always seemed to me that I found out about most demonstrations the day after they had occurred or a day or two in advance: never enough time to say, ask for time off from work, get to another state, book a flight, book a room, etc.

October2011.org was an exception. There were articles about it, well in advance. People were posting about it. It had a website. It was organized.Chris Hedges and many other were going to be there. For the first time, I heard about a demonstration well in advance. We were all going to Washington, D.C. to demonstrate. Then about three weeks before it was supposed to start, bam! Occupy Wall Street started in NYC and that was the end of October 2011.

Don't get me wrong: I loved OWS. But, looking back, the timing does seem odd.

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Big Al's picture

You're right. I wrote a diary about it at the time on Daily Kos. I still have the original statement that ended up being deleted. The cornerstone was supposed to be ending the Afghan war, not Wall Street.
I think it was coopted before it started.

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to October2011, as well. Not Wall Street per se.

I know that the great majority of OWS participants acted in good faith, but I still wonder about the timing. Still, OWS did change the national conversation. Boston OWS, in fact, revived Orwell's "99%." Changing the national conversation in a few weeks on basically no money is a feat.

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Big Al's picture

Coopting involves guiding a movement to a preferred place or agenda. A major effort to end the Afghan war might have spurred even bigger changes to U.S. imperialism. Instead we had a few months of railing about Wall Street and everything under the sun, with no real cornerstone demand that could be implemented.

And of course, nothing came of it except a contribution to national conversations that we've been having for 150 years.
Most of the people and the process were a good thing. But it seems to have been steered into a dead end that's never been opened.

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I thought it was October 6. I googled briefly but OWS and the Arab Spring seems to have swallowed up everything protest related.

I am a pacifist, but I honestly don't think I would have contemplated going to DC for an anti-war demonstration. Those occurred regularly where I live. I did find this, but again, I'm not sure anymore of the date in October:

2011

October 16 - The Right2Know March for Genetically Engineered Foods (GMO) to be labeled in the United States. The march left New York City on October 1 and arrived after marching 313 miles to the White House. More than 1000 people participated in the march.
October 15 - Jobs and Justice march to protest poverty, homelessness and high unemployment.[31][32]
November 9–23 Occupy Wall Street protesters march from New York City to Washington DC, to demonstrate at a congressional committee meeting to decide whether to keep President Barack Obama's extension of tax cuts enacted under former President George W. Bush. Protesters say the cuts benefit only rich Americans.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_protest_marches_on_Washington,_D.C...

I disagree with your assessment of OWS, but will leave it at that for now.

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Big Al's picture

Everyone here does I think (disagree). OWS is like Assange, Snowden and Greenwald, you criticize you get ostracized.
Here's what I had:

“October 2011 is the 10th anniversary of the invasion of the Afghanistan war and the beginning of the 2012 federal austerity budget. It is time to light the spark that sets off a true democratic, nonviolent transition to a world in which people are freed to create just and sustainable solutions.

We call on people of conscience and courage—all who seek peace, economic justice, human rights and a healthy environment—to join together in Washington, D.C., beginning on Oct. 6, 2011, in nonviolent resistance similar to the Arab Spring and the Midwest awakening.

A concert, rally and protest will kick off a powerful and sustained nonviolent resistance to the corporate criminals that dominate our government."

And the Pledge:

"I pledge that if any U.S. troops, contractors, or mercenaries remain in Afghanistan on Thursday, October 6, 2011, as that criminal occupation goes into its 11th year, I will commit to being in Freedom Plaza in Washington, D.C., with others on that day with the intention of making it our Tahrir Square, Cairo, our Madison, Wisconsin, where we will NONVIOLENTLY resist the corporate machine to demand that our resources are invested in human needs and environmental protection instead of war and exploitation. We can do this together. We will be the beginning ."

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good faith disagreement. In fact, I can't think of a time that was my reaction to even bad faith disagreement.

I guess I was right about the date. Based on what you have, there was a corporate element, which was also my recollection:

I pledge that if any U.S. troops, contractors, or mercenaries remain in Afghanistan on Thursday, October 6, 2011, as that criminal occupation goes into its 11th year, I will commit to being in Freedom Plaza in Washington, D.C., with others on that day with the intention of making it our Tahrir Square, Cairo, our Madison, Wisconsin, where we will NONVIOLENTLY resist the corporate machine to demand that our resources are invested in human needs and environmental protection instead of war and exploitation.

The bolded stuff and the idea of an American Spring would have motivated me to show up in DC, but not, as I said, a vanilla anti-war demonstration. Not only were we having those locally, but I don't think demonstrations stop wars.

I don't want to re-litigate the eleven years of Vietnam War demonstrations, because that gets the people who participated in them upset for no productive reason. So, I'll just say that, these days, demonstrations don't cause governments to change course. I would have gone to DC not expecting to impact government action, but to show solidarity with other demonstrators.

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last time I was down there a few months back.

They were working on trying to figure out how to get folks that work on the Street like me into their cause.

So I gave a speech about how I live paycheck to paycheck even though I'm a top ten percent wage earner.
They wanted one opening question to use to engage the Wall Streeters. I said "ask them if they got laid off today how many months would they be able to survive before having to move back home into their parents basement"

Then ask them " who makes the rules" and if they don't know explain it is the people with the gold that makes the rules, then ask them " then why are we blaming the poor for the outcomes of the rules created by the rich"

Viva OWS!
.

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Mark from Queens's picture

than protesters honoring the day and renewing their commitment, by about 300%. That's been the way of the pawns of the oligarchy cop brass have operated the whole way with respect, or rather lack thereof, toward OWS. Same tactics of the FBI: intimidate, harass, beat if necessary, arrest or jail. Anything to quell Left Wing dissent calling attention to evil machinations of unbridled capitalism.

My sister and her boyfriend work on Wall St. It's made for some tense situations when we get together, mainly because I refuse to stay silent about it. But she respects me greatly and though I can get heated in my passion she listens. As OWS was happening and I was down there all the time she would almost proudly tell her colleagues that her brother was down there as part of it. I can say this: it's not all rosy in their ranks.

There are a lot of folks working on Wall St unhappy with the way things are (it's weird for me to find myself even taking such a position, even for a second because I loathe that industry with all my heart, but some of this needs to be said). Whether it's out of self-interest or not, they see these outlandish bonuses paid out and don't get it. My sister talks all the time about how she doesn't earn as much as all the men she works with, doing the same thing. The incentives to do bad are everywhere, so it's hard to get folks to do the right thing.

Back to your comment: I like the way you framed it darkle. One must always ask the next question in these scenarios, "follow the money" will lead us to the answers, always.

For the laid-off scenario you used, I would say to them: "why are people being laid off?" Then, "if there's no money to pay them, well, where's the money then?" Keep pressing until the maniacal greed and gaming the system becomes so obvious as to what is driving the layoffs, and everything else.

And yes, the most important truism lost in all of this is what you were getting at about the rules. "The Law" is a Lie. It is written by those with money for an express purpose: to keep what they have and not permit it to be taken away. The wealthy (the financial global elites, corporate CEO's and old-time oligarchs of inherited wealth) employ batteries of lawyers in DC and statehouses to both gum up the works of any regulation being proposed and to sneak in to laws being written, buried under a morass of legalese, typically amounting to thousands of unnecessary pages, little loopholes that allow them to conduct business as usual (read: continue raping and pillaging unabated).

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"If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph:

THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDED
FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
WAS MUSIC"

- Kurt Vonnegut

snoopydawg's picture

anymore.
OWS came together after the banks were bailed out and Obama had just been elected.
The reason why no one is protesting anyone, IMO is because people believe that Obama has been a great president even though the economy hasn't improved that much for many people.
But how many times have you read on DK that he has been the best president since FDR?
And that he has ended two wars and hasn't started any new ones even though the Afghanistan war is still going on and he has sent troops back into Iraq.
They were behind him on the Libyan war for some reason I can't figure out.
They don't say anything about his use of drones, killing 3 Americans without due process or the Syrian war. Except to blame the civilian deaths on Russia.
They have bought the koolaid about the boy in the ambulance, even though many of us know that it was faked.
What has Obama said about the cops killing unarmed people, or the way almost every BLM protest is met by the riot police?
I haven't heard him say anything about the private security guards using dogs on peaceful protesters just like they did during the civil rights protests.
Or anything about the journalists being arrested at the protests beginning with Ferguson and the DAPL protests.
Both he and Hillary said that was one of the reasons why Gaddafi had to be overthrown. He was brutally cracking down on the protesters and arresting journalists.
And now these same people are joyfully going to vote for Hillary whose foreign policy is going to be like Bush's on steroids.
Boy are they going to be in for a big surprise when she privatizes social security, makes people put money into mandatory savings accounts that will be managed by hedge funds even though the profits are so small and the risks are so high.
Then there's the possible war with Russia because she's going to insist on a no fly zone.
Oh well, if that happens then there's a good chance that climate change will be reversed. Just not in a way that humanity will survive it.
I'll keep my bat channel tuned.

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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

Big Al's picture

approved of Obama's job performance (in polls) by 75-80 percent the entire time he's been in office. I think his rating is still around 80% among democrats. Pretty incredible to me and it does say something about the bulk of democratic voters.

I do wonder why many of the people involved in Occupy in 2011 aren't calling for another Occupy of city parks, etc. Something to shake things up. We might be looking at something next spring after Clinton gets her war on.

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lotlizard's picture

Pretty incredible to me and it does say something about the bulk of Democratic voters.

Reality-based, my a—.

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Big Al's picture

Fealty based. Perfect.

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Obama had been elected in November 2008, almost three years earlier. He was inaugurated in January 2009. OWS started almost a year after the horrific (for Democrats) mid term of 2010.

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Lenzabi's picture

People may be protesting, but as happened back in 2011, not all of the protests were covered by the MSM
the Corporate Oligarchs do not want that spread around, so if it does not bleed, it does not read. Look how they are a trying to cover the protests of DAPL up only indy news online has it covered. So even if there were more OWS protests, they would have to be big enough that the MSM could no longer ignore/black out the news.

They left Bernie in a news shadow for months.

What we see on the MSM stations is what they want us to see, not what we need to see for proper information, nor educating ourselves as that could unseat them from power.

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So long, and thanks for all the fish

ggersh's picture

others aren't
http://abcnews.go.com/International/egypt-uprising-jordan-king-abdullah-...

and you're so right they only let us hear what they want us to hear, the MSM is in cahoots, lock stock and barrel with TPTB, I laugh everytime I hear how O has great numbers, cause I don't see it, I laugh when I hear the economy is alright, cause I don't see it

The people of America have a much different reality than those living in WS/DC i.e. Corruptionville

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I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish

"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"

Heard from Margaret Kimberley

Mark from Queens's picture

You mean this?

One of the best videos drawing out the height of hypocrisy inherent in all American politicians. They're always quick to admonish foreign governments for cracking down on their people. And when giving speeches it looks good for their posterity to use Doublespeak in rhetoric that hides behind what they really see as platitudes about the sacredness of Freedom of Speech and the 1st Amendment, which reads:

"Congress shall make no law... abridging...the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

Fuck these hypocrites.

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"If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph:

THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDED
FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
WAS MUSIC"

- Kurt Vonnegut

ggersh's picture

ya, that's what I meant, and the 4th estate gladly obliges in their servitude to TPTB.

Thanks, for the video, it should played as a PSA hourly on all networks until this election is over.

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I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish

"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"

Heard from Margaret Kimberley

Sure sounds like it. I like the tone. A firm shaken up is needed. Reality based thinking. Free from the spells...

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Yeah, dreams and reality are not mutually exclusive. Think "living the dream". Would add Aerowsmith's "Dream On", but not into heavy metal much. Also, Pink Floyd's "Sheep" comes to mind.

Things are not what they seem

Cheers

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"Living the dream"doesn't quite fit the concept of preferring not to face reality, which was the subject of my prior post. Sheep's imagery is more gory than I was going for. But thanks for your input!

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Lookout's picture

all over the world and our country. Like OWS they are being ignored by corporate media. Just because they aren't in the news doesn't remove them from reality. People are speaking out. It's time to join in the chorus!

Here's a few examples off the top of my head:
The dapl protests in ND, LA, and Houston at corporate headquarters...
Two weeks ago they shut down ALL the tar sands pipelines into the US.
People are in the streets of Brazil protesting their corporate coup.
People stormed Venezuela's congress this week to protest the attempted coup against Maduro.
Over 100,000 marched in Chile protesting the privatization of their pension.
Marches are common in Honduras especially among students.
In Argentina 1000's protested last month.

These are real.

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“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

Mark from Queens's picture

from the Abolitionists all the way up to now with OWS and #BLM, all of them and every one in between took long, arduous and sometimes spiritually draining (and dangerous) commitments that often lasted decades. It's the same the world over.

I believe this fight is probably similar to the one the Socialists of the late 1800's recognized. A battle with the global financial elites, the oligarchy, the "trusts" as they were called, the monopolies, the banks. The best case scenario is a worldwide movement for real socialism, an international brotherhood, who recognize this struggle is borderless and effects every person who frets over his ability to have a roof over his head, food the table, medical attention and a competent society upon which happiness and fulfillment depend. We've seen massive protests in the streets against this, everywhere from the recent mind-boggling Indian protest of tens of millions rising together against neoliberalism to the uprisings in S. America, all over austerity-imposed Europe, the Hong Kong "Umbrella Revolution." I've long thought it will take a cataclysmic event to get the really big worldwide revolution to begin, but it may be more like a succession of uprisings laying more and more groundwork each time.

I've been debating and discussing this with a friend since after Occupy. OWS cracked through the veneer, cleared away some of the fog created by an MSM who just run interference and propaganda through their channels. It took a while to sink in for many in the masses, but that's because they have been so indoctrinated to looking to the MSM for their worldview and as can be expected when it comes to challenging the capitalist construct they did their best to disparage and distract from it. Despite this effort by the MSM it did break through. Everybody now knows the simple slogans of Occupy Wall St, the 99% and the 1%, and the brilliant framing of the discussion thusly. Looking back on it, OWS was another, important step in this long arc.

The main obstacles to me are a lack of recognizing and acknowledging among the populace of who the real villains are. It's not the black masked and hooded Middle Eastern guy with an ISIS flag. It's the well-coiffed, manicured and tanned Wall St banker, in a very expensive 3 piece suit walking around with an air of invincibility. People need to re-evaluate this. The latter are no doubt our enemies and need to be reflexively seen that way in a way that we are trained to see the former.

Until we can convince people here that they're much more likely to be destroyed by an Economic Terrorist of Wall St than an ISIS terrorist in Syria, nothing will be able to coalesce in the significant way that is required.

As Jim P has often said, it all comes down to finding ways to communicate this to the masses, in an era when, as the Intercept says, "Indians Staged One of the Largest Strikes in History, But No One on U.S. Cable News Covered It." What can we do, in an age of social media which offers personal communication on a scale previously not possible, to offset and circumvent this main obstacle? These amazing developments must be amplified. People need to see it, then see themselves in the uprisings, which then inspires them to participate.

Remember, we are primates. And monkey see monkey do. If we're not seeing these uprisings, these amazing displays of human solidarity, these inspiring and courageous gatherings of egalitarianism - when we turn on the tv, pick up the newspaper, turn on the radio, etc - then to most people they may as well not have even happened or exist. Most of all we must remember we are social beings and all have a sense of empathy. Those qualities must be brought out, for they are the core elements of the massive protests bubbling just under the surface here and all over the world waiting to be coalesced the next time in an evermore bigger way until it becomes the way.

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"If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph:

THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDED
FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
WAS MUSIC"

- Kurt Vonnegut

I am not sure we all have a sense of empathy, though. Sociopaths and psychopaths don't, do they? In any event, I see less and less real evidence of empathy in the White House, Congress and state houses and more and more evidence of greed and personal ambition. Else we'd have had Medicare for All or, at the very least, a strong public option. Supposedly, rates for Obamacare are increasing by 118% in some places next year. Not that health insurers showed much empathy before Obamacare.

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PriceRip's picture

          I have asked several times, "What one thing can we do?", to the sound of crickets.

          Every time, every damn time, a coherent movement begins to build, something or someone decides it is time to push for some other "more important" agenda.

          The last time, it was all the distractions as the very large rallies for Bernie were becoming a thing.

          Herding kittens . . .

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Big Al's picture

I remember saying the same thing myself years ago. If we could just accomplish one thing, maybe that could lead to the next. Then all of sudden we've got 15 general demands with no way to act on them.
Right now would be a good time to stop the war with Syria and the upcoming one with Russia.
But . .

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PriceRip's picture

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might be? I don't.

I can think of lots of things, like bombarding our respective state houses to go back to paper ballots or at least to get machines to give receipts; to change ballot access laws. Bombarding networks and their sponsors re: opening up debates. Forming left right coalitions around issues, like potable water. And so on. But I can't pick just one. Not yet, anyway. Unless it's raising money. But, how do you do that without knowing what you are raising it for?

I also have some ideas about what that one thing is not, not now, anyway. It's not forming a new party and it's not amending the Constitution, both of which the left often seems to think is (a) doable; and (b) Step One.

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PriceRip's picture

          That was supposed to be step one back in the day. Maybe step one could be "everybody vote for Jill". Action is needed now! Why bother quibbling about details that divide our efforts when there is an obtainable goal in sight. Why bother quibbling about the past when there is an obtainable goal in sight. I really do not give a shite what anyone might prefer when there is an obtainable goal in sight. As my daddy would say, "Shit of get off the pot!"

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Exactly! If everyone unified to support the only non-TPP/corporate coup-supporting candidate, the landslide would be too big for cheating to plausibly 'pass as a done deal', especially with enough active peaceful protest and obvious rejection of any cheated-in candidate intended to squelch the last chance at democracy and survival.

Edited for punctuation.

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

Big Al's picture

All the other stuff should be up to the people.

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Do you mean an honest vote that gets counted honestly?

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Big Al's picture

I mean a new political system that is actually democratic. The one we have isn't. Seems to me the first thing we need to do is give power to the people and take it away from the rich. Nothing else can really get done until then.

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we go to war or whether we borrow more from China? That happens to be my understanding of the word "democratic," but most use the word differently.

I am not being willfully ignorant here, I'm just trying to make sure I understand your meaning.

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Big Al's picture

allows the people to directly vote on things like we do in many states. But generally, we know we live in an oligarchy or even a plutocracy (I prefer the term plutarchy), not a democracy, so isn't that what we should be trying to get first?
I've thought a lot about the "issues" and what we should be demanding. Many go with demands such as single payer healthcare, ending U.S. imperialism, ending the Afghanistan war, taxing the rich, legalizing the weed, whatever, but aren't those all things we want our politicians to do? We're demanding our politicians enact policies and programs for us when we don't live in a democracy. Everybody seems to be so concerned about democracy, let's get that first, then we can do all the other stuff. What do we want? That's the tough part. I want to end the wars, end wealth inequality, etc., but I think we have to change/remove the power structure first in order to do these things.

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Yes, we live in a plutocracy, but I'm not sure how we fix that before we fix a corrupt voting system. In fact, I'm not sure how we fix it, period.

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How about defining democracy as having a government of, by and for the people, with equal rights, treatment and opportunity for all?

And the welfare of the people and country could be a paramount concern to that government, with their right to the pursuit of happiness also guaranteed and enforced?

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

state. Then, IMO, you should consider voting for the lesser evil between the two older political parties, namely, Trump.

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PriceRip's picture

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Very low tolerance for bs, but I haven't noted that in you.

I don't live in a swing state, so I will be voting for Stein. So, there's that.

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dnf5HnW8C4E]

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PriceRip's picture

          I know we can make progress. The key is to work together on specific well defined goals upon which we agree. I have seen this strategy work (on several occasions) in Nebraska, one of the most politically contentious places I have known.

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More and more, I want to know how to work for outcomes I'd like, rather than how to work for a party.

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PriceRip's picture

          it might be interesting to describe a few of those situations and see the c99% response. I will need to work out how to provide context efficiently so as to make the scenarios readable.

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most of what you post is way over my head.

All I know is, I will never covet a penthouse again. Other than that, I have no clue.

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And I second your emotion. Voting for evil has never worked for anyone so far, and the choice of a real alternative to evil has become rare as a result.

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

PriceRip's picture

          Political palaver tends to be cyclical, cynical, cryptic, et cetera. Sometime ago I figured out how to be effective in my actions and break the cycle of despair that can drive one to the abyss. I detect much despair as I read articles here.

          To me the current situation, vis-à-vis the election, represents an awesome opportunity. I am a bit perplexed that few people (if any) can see this Reality. So many times we have had this sort of opportunity, but only recently has the technology gotten to the point that we could actually accomplish the task at hand.

          If it is true that so many actually feel disenfranchised and that it is time to act, then all we need to do is act.

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YESSSSS!!!!! Thank you! So simple and yet so hard for some to understand... learnt helplessness, I suspect...

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

What's the difference between the two? It's not as easy to know as one might suppose. Every day in every way, people practice the art of deception. If we want to have something, or get something, or do something, we often need to deceive in order to create the reality we desire. Using camouflage, the hunter deceives his prey, so to feed his family. When the bloodhounds are on your trail, you want them to be barking up the wrong tree. Deception is simply a technique - there's nothing inherently evil evil in it. Though it can be, and often is used maliciously.

We live in a competitive world, where the substance of reality is changing from one moment to the next. Truth may be eternal and timeless, but it usually appears to us in disguise. And raw reality is often indigestible - it tastes better after it's been cooked and seasoned. On the other hand, if you monkey with it too much you can end up with something like industrially-processed spam. Which is pretty much what the corporate media have been trying to spoon-feed us.

In order to get anything majorly accomplished, people need to cooperate. That's the bottom line. They need to agree... on some goal, or objective, or principle... something that can be clearly defined, commonly understood, and mutually desired. Whatever happens will be real enough. We need to determine what kind of reality we desire, and then try to devise a way to make it real.

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native

Big Al's picture

From one person to how many it takes, there needs to be a goal.
We'll never agree on it.

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Well, at least for those caring about the public interest and their own lives, you'd think we could universally agree on wanting a government which cared about and wanted predominately the same things that we did - including survival - rather than government the public constantly fought - literally for survival - without ever getting anywhere, so that people unnecessarily suffer and die. That pretty well leaves voting Green - for survival.

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

Bob In Portland's picture

Six weeks before the assassination of JFK someone appeared at the Soviet embassy and the Cuban consulate in Mexico City claiming to be Lee Harvey Oswald. This person was photographed by secret CIA cameras and taped on the phone by CIA wiretaps. This man wasn't Oswald, didn't look like him at all, but his impersonation seemed to create an illusion that this "Oswald" was trying to contact the Russians and Cubans for an escape route after the assassination. A fellow named Kostikov in the Russian embassy was supposedly the man who directed Russian assassinations in the Western Hemisphere. Since this "Oswald" wasn't THE Oswald it meant that someone was trying to create a legend about the real Oswald wanting to kill JFK.

But two Oswalds equal one conspiracy.

All of this is known. Books have been published about it.

Let's talk about reality. Who wanted to remove JFK? Not the Russians or the Cubans. Now, if you commit the biggest crime a country can suffer, the death of the head of state, what do you do? You take the power, you block discussion, both in the court of public opinion and in the actual courts. You withhold evidence of your guilt. If you are a criminal enterprise you kill witnesses.

But this charade didn't end. Americans still cannot address a crime committed fifty years ago without being accused of being a "conspiracy theorist."

Now, if you are part of a criminal enterprise that took over the US, what would you do after you succeeded in the coup? Well, you need a continuation of the lie, or the enterprise you built will be exposed. How do you do that? Well, you must continue to have people in places of power to continue the enterprise. In the late sixties the intelligence wing of the US government initiated a great war against those who might be a threat to the status quo. There was COINTELPRO by the FBI, but there was also surveillance being performed by the CIA, ONI, Defense Intelligence Agency et al (Carl Oglesby's RAVENS IN THE STORM documents the extent of this infiltration). So what happened to all these spies?

Here's a thought: John Kerry was a member of the most exclusive club in the US, the Skull and Bones Society, and yet was active in the anti-war movement when he returned to the US from Vietnam. He continued to be active during the seventies and eighties, not quite exposing the scandals of our webs of government. Fifty years later he is directing US wars across the world. Did he change or was he always there, functioning as a "modified limited hangout" for the grand enterprise running our government?

Throughout the last half of the 20th Century there have been politicians who can be identified for blocking investigations into government criminality. From Ford on each President has covered up and/or failed to prosecute the crimes of former presidents, even when on its surface it would seem to benefit one political party or another. Back to reality for a second. Same team, different team?

In a book about the Clintons written in the nineties (I believe off the top of my head it was PARTNERS IN POWER) Bill's classmates in England believed that he was CIA. Curious, no? Clinton hadn't been so much against the Vietnam War as against being drafted, but he certainly was in a position to monitor the anti-war movement over there. Well, we know that intelligence agencies were recruiting college students to infiltrate anti-war groups. A smart, political animal such as Bill was a valuable asset.

Meanwhile, a Goldwater Girl, who before and after never seemed very concerned about our wars and the consequences of them, went to BOTH the Republican and Democratic conventions in 1968. After that H. Clinton seemed to be in the right place at the right time, if she were an intelligence asset. She observed Black Panther trials in New Haven, Connecticut. One summer she worked at the law firm in Oakland, California that was working on the defense of the Black Panthers. We know that the Panthers were probably the biggest target of COINTELPRO. A few years later she was on the Democratic counsel for Watergate, dealing with the removal of another president. She was in the perfect place to observe and report back to the CIA about what the Democrats knew about Nixon, and what they suspected about the CIA. (Bob Woodward, the ace reporter for the Washington Post and author the most noted book on Watergate, had only years earlier had a top secret clearance in the Office of Naval Intelligence; his boss, editor Ben Bradlee, in the early fifties, had worked out of the CIA offices in Paris, trying to convince our allies that the Rosenbergs were guilty and should be executed.)

When Bill's politics and allies took him to the governor's office in Arkansas, there was an offloading of cocaine from Latin America into the US in Mena Arkansas. You will recall Hasenfus. Southern Air Transport (a CIA shell company) flew planes south into Latin America with arms for the contras, and flew back with planeloads of cocaine. Clinton apparently had no interest in investigating it, either as a governor or as a president. Barry Seal, an operator whose history goes back to David Ferrie and Oswald in New Orleans, through arms running and drug running, used to brag that he had GHW Bush's direct phone number, and that he carried a get out of jail free letter from Clinton. In case you think that I'm picking on the Democrats, the federal attorney for that area of Arkansas at the time was Asa Hutchinson, who performed his duties there without looking into Mena. As a reward he was Dubya's first drug czar.

Suppose you are a college student who wants a career in politics and you were offered an intro into politics by the people who have seized the government; wouldn't working with those conspirators offer the most logical way to follow your dreams of personal power?

Was the Clintons' marriage one of convenience for their share of power or simply a romance on the Yale campus? The Clintons have been part of the post-assassination conspiracy to continue the control of the US government by the CIA and the people allied to the CIA: mega corporations, the oil industry, weapons manufacturers, corporations making money around the world.

Trump undoubtedly is connected to power. But he isn't the power. I don't think he was ever intended to win, the people who willed their intentions in 1963, or their inheritors, want their people running things. Clinton was supposed to win in 2008, but Obama, also connected to power, was more popular. Now it's Hillary's turn.

Now, back to your reality....

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Big Al's picture

No doubt about it. Thanks for that. That's what I'm talking about.

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Bob In Portland's picture

Essentially, the Clintons' job has been to move the Democratic Party to the right. The fascists that the CIA imported into the US in the early fifties under the Congress For Freedom cover later became part of Nixon's, then GHW Bush's Ethnic Heritage Foundation. With the arrival of Bill Clinton in the White House the US foreign policy seemed to back all sorts of European fascists and Nazis. The Ustashi and radicalized Muslims in Yugoslavia, the Green Arrow in Hungary, the OUN-B in Ukraine. While this was a part of secret US strategy from the end of WWII, and while CIA assets became Republican assets, in the 90s the Cold War 2.0 became bipartisan with the Clintons. It still confuses Americans of all stripes who have been trained in a world that can only be good and evil. But look at the results.

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Big Al's picture

Infuriating. We're governed as a criminal enterprise, basically a mafia. You know your stuff. I'm more of a generalist relative to history, I keep up with current geopolitical happenings.
Rock on man with the reality lessons. I think what drives me more now than anything is justice, bringing the psychos and socios doing these crimes to justice and stopping their killing and other crimes. Removing them from power, changing the system to prevent them from killing all of us. I don't know if its possible but we need to try.
As I said in the essay, Truth is reality.

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Bob In Portland's picture

As through history, a regime's ability to stay in power requires a control of what is the commonly accepted reality. In ancient Egypt the Pharoah was a god. People who slaved building the pyramids didn't do it for exercise. They didn't want to starve, be kicked out, or more likely, be killed. Death is a powerful motivator. The emperors of Rome became kind of gods, but Caesar's assassins certainly knew better. As Europe fragmented into kingdoms the kings and queens weren't considered gods because God and his son were removed to a different dimension of sorts. But they ruled by the grace of God, which is pretty close to the original. If you were deposed your grace apparently ended. These mythologies of gods and designated representatives of god are pretty consistent around the world in all cultures. That's why our flag is always wrapped around God. People still claim to know whose side God is on. Television evangelists tend to oppose civil rights because of God, unto slavery. The politicians they attack are not God-fearing, like, say, Reagan, the Bushes and their ilk. Our politicians still invoke God when starting wars.

This has gone on in human history ever since the first agricultural civilizations. Someone controlled the keys to the granary, and there had to be an explanation for the inequality that the system maintained. Why does one guy get fat, get carried around in a bejeweled litter and have the power to wage war and have life or death power over others, while the others regularly starve, slave away their lives building symbols of a pharoah's greatness or get to die in a battle chosen by his leader to make him and his inner circle richer?

You see, the royal scam (if you will) is an integral part of human society. If you want to defeat it you have to get enough people to identify how the game is fixed before someone can tip over the table. When Jesus, a wise man (or a myth constructed on the lives of wise men) flipped over the tables of the money changers at the temple, he became the enemy of the state.

When Danny Casolaro (INSLAW) found out about the concept of making backdoors for all computers, he was eliminated. Casolaro died for our internet, where our monitors can know what porn sites you visit but can't seem to track down who bought ISIS all those white Toyota pickup trucks. Bobby Kennedy was a danger to the coup and could never be allowed to be president.

There are lots of people who died for our incuriousness, or our fear.

I think that the first step is for vast members of our society to recognize the 1963 coup and to recognize that the illegitimate government that grew out of it is still in power. When I've mentioned any of this at other sites (Salon, Slate, Booman Tribune, Left Coast, Balloon Juice) I have been banned. People who live in The Lie, whether they are political junkies or today's class of scribes (like in Egypt) know not to rock the boat, and while many may have good intentions they know that they are in charge of a part of the propaganda machine and some things should not be allowed to be said. Thomas Frank pretty well described the scribe class in LISTEN, LIBERAL. The Clintons have moved the scribe class into The Lie. I would expect that most don't even understand their connection to The Lie, but in order for them to thrive and prosper my kind of thinking must be censored.

It will take brave people to stand up to The Lie. I'm not sure that there are enough people with enough power and understanding to do the job. So I tell you. Now it's your turn. I'm getting old. One way or another I won't be around too much longer.

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is absolutely correct. The 1963 coup-and-cover-up has been ongoing. And the perpetrators have largely controlled the principle levers of US power ever since then. What's remarkable is that so few people are willing to honestly evaluate the ample evidence of this criminal hstory.

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native