From the mountain top, for now at least

Tectonic Upheaval.

Nothing will be the same. The changes will be more profound than the minor changes in the River of Heraclitus, changing with current and flow constantly--until it's dry. NO thing unchanged. A few richer. Many poorer or dead. Customs broken. Inner workings of institutions made visible like the fallen walls of a London apartment block during the Blitz.

See it all at once. And see really nothing. Look. What are you willing to see? What do you choose to see? What do you allow yourself to see? And to consider? Willful blindness. Preconscious blindness: gaze aversion by choice or by reflex.

We are here. Witnessing the distortion of land so twisted by evil deeds and ignorant harms, do we realize how much things will never revert to the good old days. The good old days are gone for good, gone for bad, gone for ever.

Yes, the mighty are thrown down, while others, standing near them on the higher plane get lifted further. And those who are down mostly get buried in the debris. But some rebound and survive. A few of the lowly then claw their way to a mountain peak not previously existing. The new elite in the making.

It is one thing to climb a mountain purposefully. Quite another experience is the involuntary upward thrusting enforced by crustal rupture, rising and falling. Credit to those who climb. Credit to those who survive. Condolence to those not so fortunate. Life is a lottery. Your number...my number...?

When does the lottery ball go into the chute? But I'm a good little ball, spare me please. Let me roll and tumble more. My time's not up yet. Let me stay at the party longer. Words such as those can only be said by the fortunate, not buried in the rubble. Let me play longer. I got food. I got water. I got desire.

Let me stand. Let me climb.

Look around. Dust, flame, smoke. The view is unclear. Into the grip of Draco or the light of Pericles. Where are we going? The train is off the rails, the twisted, disrupted rails, running so crookedly for so long, bent by the inevitable slow tectonic precursors of this upheaval. At last velocity conquered balance and the motive power is lost, thrown on its side.

Fire bursting from ruptured earthen seams, illuminates the state of things. The light won't last long. We must use the light, while it persists to guide ourselves. Which way to go?

Down the slope of the upthrusted plate? Up the slope to explore further? Or stay at a new plateau, trying to restore what was solid and real only a few weeks ago.

I say climb higher. Appreciate the better view. Mountain tops erode, but stay tall longer than anything else--till the next upheaval. Climb higher. New view. New ideas. Utilize the new view. Learn to know it. Climb higher.

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Alligator Ed's picture

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Raggedy Ann's picture

welcome to the shift. Pleasantry

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"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11

Lookout's picture

In fact I live on it...Lookout Mountain.

I don't know that my view is clearer, but it sure seems I was correct in preparing for collapse. Garden, developing food forest, re-vamped well, and metals instead of stock. Like Dr John Campbell always says, "be proactive not reactive". Better to "do" than be "done unto". My line is, "put your headlights on high beam and look out there as far as you can to plan your path". Of course when things are this foggy only big things are visible....even from the mountain top.

2.5 min
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oehry1JC9Rk]

Whole speech here.

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

Thanks, AE -

Can't believe I never heard of these guys.
Johnny Horton and Nelson Eddy meet The Clash?

Not that I'm not hopeful about those better days ahead - but we're
due for a few rough ones between here and there I'm thinking...

See you on the climb.

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Alligator Ed's picture

@Blue Republic See you on the climb!

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wendy davis's picture

but i'm not feelin' this:

...trying to restore what was solid and real only a few weeks ago.

nor this:

The good old days are gone for good, gone for bad, gone for ever.

when were the good old days? and who were they good for? white folks who had 'chicken in every pot'? and minorities had stone soup?

you seem to be counting on a new great leap forward; maybe there will be, but i admit i'm feeling quite cynical. billy wrote this eleven years ago.

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjLXyqD3lvI]

i used to blast this one before mr. wd and i went down to town to Occupy Mancos at the 4-corner stop on saturday mornings. last time i had any hope that the People might rule one day.

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8KQmps-Sog]

we'll break our asses in the sharing economy coming during the forecast second great depression (if nuclear war doesn't break out first). the penatgon has already sent troops to NORAD under cheyenne mountain.

NORAD monitors US airspace against threats and intrusions, including Russian military aircraft. Northern Command is coordinating the military assistance for the pandemic. they of coure expect retaliation for nuking iran or some other 'great competitor'.

sure, it's all about the pandemic.

i'd say i'm sorry to harsh your mellows, but it wouldn't be quite true. i've been to that mountaintop before... two nights ago i dreamt that julian assange died in belmarsh gitmo, and the announcement came to us as darkly as you might imagine it would.

but i'm glad some of you're feeling like a Lions Rising from their Slumbers...

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Alligator Ed's picture

@wendy davis Nah, wd. I ain't ready to surrender to giant evil teddy bears crushing Gotham. Die on your feet or on your knees. How's it to be, butterfly? Die we will. How and why are yet to be determined,.

Give up now and you might as well crawl into the pine box. Fuck that. I'm going out standing if I have the chance.

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EtN8vgKcpy0]

What's it to be: on your feet or on your knees?

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Pluto's Republic's picture

@Alligator Ed

...and come to Paris and Greece with the rest of the Bohemians. Life is too short to waste it on the debris of derailed evolution.

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IMAGINE if you woke up the day after a US Presidential Election and headlines around the the world blared, "The Majority of Americans Refused to Vote in US Presidential Election! What Does this Mean?"
Alligator Ed's picture

@Pluto's Republic Please, please, that if you decide to go that you tell me. Then we shall go together, dog and alligator. Shucks. How long you think that travel ban is gonna last? I don't wanna go in cold weather. You know, it's a genetic thingy.

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wendy davis's picture

@Alligator Ed

what you mean by 'on my feet or on my knees', of course. if by on my feet you mean: by any means necessary' as we've discussed earlier, then 'on my knees as a keyboard warrior'. but then i'm already on my knees metaphorically, needing two crutches outdoors. so there's that a well.

i'm pretty much ready to die, but the only way i'd harm another is in defense: then, with my hands...easily, which i've stupidly done many times, but not to the death, of course.

but please, please do tell me 'which good old days' you've alluded to.

dunno whether or not to bring this from glen ford (balack agenda report) i'd taken to my current post on the new $483 corona virus package. but:

Diseased System in Shut-Lockdown: Never a Better Time to Fight for Socialism, april 23, 2020

If growing misery among the masses is what made revolutions, the Lords of Capital would have been deposed from their ruling perches long ago. But human beings do not spend their lives tallying cumulative assaults on their well being and dignity, and ruling classes are expert at blaming despised Others, foreign and domestic, for the ills of society. History shows us that economic crises do not become political crises that seriously threaten the ruling order until a critical mass of people come to the realization that the system itself is rotten, unbearable and incapable of meaningful reform. They must not only hate the rulers, but also hate the rulers’ system of governance more than they despise domestic Others and “threatening” foreigners. Otherwise, the Lords of Capital will simply find another face to represent their interests, defusing popular disconnect.
.........................
The people’s level of consciousness determines whether an economic crisis becomes a political threat to the rule of the rich. As Frederick Douglass said, “The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.” There are tipping points in history, although correctly identifying them is easy only in hindsight. Economic collapse, famines, natural disasters and, especially, wars have most often served to tip the mass consciousness from solemn sufferance to rebellion, at least among the most volatile sectors of the oppressed.
..................................
Socialism became the dominant ideology of the oppressed, including the most active Black strugglers and intelligentsia in the United States. It was the revolutionary Black nationalist and socialist movements that made the Sixties a period of political change and profound danger to domestic racial capitalism and U.S. imperialism, causing the rulers to impose a counterinsurgency-type system of Black Mass Incarceration. At the same time, a Black Misleadership Class was cultivated -- bound to the Democratic Party -- to manage the increasingly Black cities and to limit Black politics to that which is acceptable to the Lords of Capital.
..............................
In this time of incomparable economic and health crisis the real Left, small as it is, must make the case for socialism and the overthrow of rich man’s rule. At the beginning of this article I wrote:” History shows us that economic crises do not become political crises that seriously threaten the ruling order until a critical mass of people come to the realization that the system itself is rotten, unbearable and incapable of meaningful reform.”

I believe that such a critical mass exists, right now. Not enough to make a revolution, but more than enough to start the process.

the graphic at the top:

which signifies to me his earlier #DemExit/#EnterGreen. but what he means by 'a revolution is anyone's guess.

anyway, RL chores are callin' my name.

signed,

#OnMyKneesKeyboardWarrior

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Alligator Ed's picture

@wendy davis These are the admonitions which, I being a wretchedly-certified practitioner of the healing arts owe as a fiduciary duty to my coterie of adoring patients. To wit and forthwith, dear wd, that the aforesaid comment and any attached attachments do not in any way imply or suggest a medical course of treatment. Nor will I be held liable for mal-diagnosis, either erroneous or omitted, when the provision of advice is proffered. Thus, in the case of your stinging critique of my failure to note your pathologic knee joints (patello-femoral as well as the more usual femoral-tibial arthritides). Therefore, the lack of information about inability to ambulate unassisted, would substantially effect any statements made or implied by said physician, vitiating any diagnostic failure of commission and / or omission.

Thus, the avalanche of pertinent factoids with which you showered me, may lead me to more revision of the original question: on your feet or on your knees? Please send x-rays and physiotherapy evaluations to me so that I properly make any suggestions regarding orthopedic disabilities which may be present.

Thank you for your kind attention to this admonition.

Verbiage crafted by Alphonse Alligator, attorney-in-fact to Alligator University

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wendy davis's picture

@Alligator Ed

total of what you got from my lengthy comment and Qs, i kindly suggest that you can kiss my grits.

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Alligator Ed's picture

@wendy davis

Kiss 2
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Kiss 3
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Man in love

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wendy davis's picture

@Alligator Ed
in addition, you had to mock & embarrass me for my disability publicly. phooey on that shit, doctor gator.

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wendy davis's picture

who used to claim she was the Voice of Occupy:

Mutual aid: “When the system fails, the people show up”, April 22, 2020, roar magazine

Across the US, mutual aid initiatives provide basic goods and services while building community, resilience and collective power that could outlast the pandemic.

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