Do You Feel like a Slave?
"At what stage between one and nine, did this become something other than the tale of a slave?"
Robert Nozick
I read an article by Peter Koenig last night, "Slavehood 2017". It's a good rant. I'm seeing more of the alternative writers I've discovered and followed over the years, plus new ones, going on good rants, rants AGAINST THE POWER, telling it like it is, not circling the edges with political bullshit.
"Today we have become all slaves; slaves to the powers of mafia bankster of finance; slaves to the western lie-propaganda; to the lobbies and their giant all dominating corporations – to the war-industry, because we happily believe what we are told about ever-increasing terrorism that needs to be fought with eternal wars; slaves to the environment-destructive hydrocarbon industry; to the pharma-industry; to the Monsanto-ized agroindustry; to senseless consumerism – and foremost – and summing it all up: to greed, endless greed that drives endless growth, nurturing endless competition fomenting adversity, destroying solidarity, instead of amical cooperation for a harmonious human cohabitation."
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/46995.htm
Then again, maybe we've always been slaves, not just today.
God Bless America, man. We're trained from an early age to conform, to believe the illusions, to stay within the confines of the state and the rules and laws that we're told to follow. We accept the systems and processes without questioning them because "that's the way it's always been". Elections, politicians, campaigning, commercials, "just vote!". Everything will be all right it you just vote, you slaves. Select your masters dammit!
In the comments under the Koenig article was a link to a very short video, a summation of "The Tale of a Slave" featured in philosopher Robert Nozick's book, "Anarchy, State and Utopia". Nozick outlines the nine stages of a slave and invites you to imagine yourself as the slave in the story. He poses a deep and sobering question, "At what stage between one and nine, did this become something other than the tale of a slave?"
Another question, when does a slave stop trying for better conditions from his/her master and instead seek freedom?
Comments
Good article and video
The video does a great job explaining how and why we been slaves our whole life but we didn't realize that we were until recently.
I think that many of us here acknowledged that we are slaves, but we don't know how to stop them from continuing to enslave us. Or how to wake up others and show them that they are slaves too and that we all need to quit being divided and come together to fight our way free before it's too late. And time is definitely running out for us. Oklahoma has just passed legislation that makes it illegal to protest against any corporations if people damage their equipment or get in the way of their work. Other states are working on passing this type of legislation. tptb know that we are tired of being slaves and are thinking of rising up and they are getting ready for us. That's why they militarized the police.
As the author wrote "it's more comfortable to believe a lie than confront the truth and we have willingly enslaved ourselves.
I have said many times that the people in my state believe that our military is fighting to defend our freedoms and our country.
In two articles this morning about a soldier who was killed in Somalia and that more troops might be sent to Afghanistan, some people who wrote that we need pull our troops out of the Middle East were told to stfu because the military is fighting to keep us safe from people who want to kill us. They don't bother to wonder why they do want to kill us in the first place. One person wrote that we have to fight them over there so that we don't have to fight them here.
After 16 years the propaganda is still working on them. Those are the ones that we have to wake up.
They also believe that the cops are good people and if someone is shot by them then the persons deserve it because they either broke the law or they didn't do what they were told and that's why they were killed.
Link to the article about anti protest law
https://theintercept.com/2017/05/06/oklahoma-governor-signs-anti-protest...
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
Voting is like driving with a toy steering wheel.
To answer your last question, big Al ...
... when he believes he can survive it.
It's rocket science, isn't it? My funny bone is irritated ...
redacted - because double dummies are no fun /nt ...
Feeling less a slave lately
Haven't used a credit card in almost two months, no longer have any insurance of any kind, and it feels more freeing than I thought it would. Of course, now I'm gonna die without enough money for food healthcare transportation, but that feels okay too at this point.
I used to think I'm Too poor to retire and too young to die, but now I realize nobody is too young to die in Sonoma County. The new strategic priority is for 1000 homeless by 2022. Yep, that's the five year goal, due to circumstances stated in another comment I just made here about our state's state of "democracy". e.g.:Once a crusader against big money, Gov. Brown is collecting millions
Thanks Jerry, who reeks now too just like all the rest. I'd rather have a dead fish for governor. What seems to escape most minds is the real condition our condition is in, I don't know why the bubble is so thick and hard. Except money, so there I went and talked myself in circles again. Get money out of politics, then let's talk.
Peace
is there a modern underground railroad?
Where would one go to escape the global slave system?
That's why I started this homestead 30 something years ago. At least it is a spot where I can pretend to be free.
Enjoyed the article and clip, Al.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
hmm, I don't believe the modern underground railroad
can run on, under or around the internet. May be I didn't understand the meaning of your wording of "this homestead" correctly, thinking you meant the homestead as being a place on the intertubes, like here at C99p.
I feel nowhere are you less underground than on the www. I never understood since 1996 when I first got to know the www as a "web", or a "net", why most people saw it only as something transparent, connecting and freedom of speech enabling tool for the masses" furthering democracy. There was little thought or talk about the fact that a "web" or a "net" is very useful to catch and herd people to advance the intentions and goals of those people, who "throw out the net". Like a fisherman would do, in order to feed himself and make a profit selling his catch of fish.
Now we all fidget like a fish caught in the "net" gasping for water.
If there is no escape, then I think people have the urge to destroy that what enslaves them, so that they can rebuild another structure. It would occur, if the www were so "kaput" and destroyed that the 99 percent would suffer under the consequences so much, that they start to revolt en masse, go bi-polarly into violence and or depression and destroy what they need themselves for survival.
That's what all the fish in the net fear, to be pulled out of the water and thrown out of the net to stink and rot in the open air.They prefer to hang inside the net and under the water, just to survive. Who would be so mean and arrogant to blame the poor 99% of fish-people for that?
Hello
Homestead in this case refers to a little self-sufficient farm.
The underground railroad refers to the escape route of slaves from the south to the free states of the north.
I guess my point is we can't go anywhere in the world to escape the global corporate slavery imposed on the world's people. Years ago I moved out to my place thinking I could escape, but the reach of the system is long.
I assure you that you understand English much better than I do German! Hope things are going well for you across the pond. Any news on the French election over there?
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
thanks, sorry for not thinking about the
obvious meaning of "homestead". I am slow... and the underground railroad at least I got right...
I ride the underground metro system here in Germany all the time....
I will start following the results in France in three hours when the first exit polls come in. I have voted today in my
fatherhomeland's state elections for the first time in 69 years. Just because I had to vote at least once in my life after all.Only reason I don't feel as much like a slave...
Is that I'm still being paid by the DOD for services rendered.
Honestly, I feel a bit like a Roman "Freedman". Not a Citizen, but there's at least a bit of respect and courtesy given by government, other folks, and institutions.
I of course have no aspirations to join the "Citizens" of our country. (Read: Wealthy)
The irony of it is that if I hadn't been mentally and physically destroyed by the war, The Citizens would be demanding that I continue to be a slave.
aaaand, I'll toss in the best recent commentary ever on the nature of slavery. Yes, it's from a video game, but it's the only place that the MSM doesn't get to dictate the message completely.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oG25S51qJQQ]
I do not pretend I know what I do not know.
Money has always seemed a very mysterious thing to me.
The mechanisms by which money is created, allocated and exchanged seem almost byzantine in their complexity. Money's relation to actual value seems murky and variable, at times almost whimsical. And it's far from clear how value is being defined.
I suppose money might be considered a universal solvent, as practically anything one can conceive of can be translated into almost anything else, by using money as an intermediary. Which makes it a very handy tool indeed. But what is money, in and of itself? A symbol? A language?
A demonstration of faith perhaps, but faith in what? In the ability or willingness of people to honor the debt it is meant to represent? Maybe money is simply a way of exchanging debt -- when somebody gives you a dollar, it means they owe you a dollar, like an IOU, and they haven't actually given you anything of substance.
If this is so, then when people amass billions of dollars, what they actually possess is an enormous quantity of debt... no?
native