caucus99percent

free-range politics, organic community

Does your mind feel like a pin cushion, similar to being stuck like a voodoo doll by invisible forces intent on stealing your free will? Does it feel like every day there's a new assault on your sanity, a new way to divide yourself against yourself and against each other? Do you feel confused about what is right and what is wrong, like old sociological taboos are now acceptable and what was once unthinkable is now subliminally admissible? Do you feel like you're being led down a menacing alleyway in the dead of night, in the midst of an archetypal dream where you need to run from some danger yet your legs don't work no matter how hard you try. Do you feel intimidated about saying the wrong thing to the point where you don't even want to think those thoughts? Do you feel like you have three legs of which only one can go forward but two will then step back? Do you pine for the old world order of just a few short years ago, that was chaotic in and of itself but now seems idyllic and much more manageable compared to the mass confusion of this nascent new world order being thrust upon us?

Do you feel helpless and hopeless? Do you want it all to just stop? If so that is exactly the raison d'etre for the incessant and ubiquitous propaganda and gaslighting we've been bombarded with by the media for many years now. It's been ever present in our lives since birth but has recently been taken to a whole new level of full spectrum mind control.

Why? Why have the societal paradigms shifted so much in the near term and what may the consequences be in the long term?

Ludus Latrunculorum

Hope everyone had a great holiday! I have not been in the mood to do much news/media reading in the last week so... how's about we learn about a game? One that proceeded, and perhaps in part gave birth, to chess?

Ludus latrunculorum was a very, very popular game amongst soldiers, and probably everyone else of the 'lower' classes, during the late Roman Republic and the Roman Empire. There is archaeological evidence for the game (here's a fairly recent find of a game board), consisting of the game boards and the pieces. There is a written evidence of the game, basically mentioning it being played by soldiers and others. But sadly, no writer discussed the rules of the game or how it was played in any detail.

A Ludus Latrunculum game board found after it was reused as flooring at the Roman fort of Vindolanda in Northern England from Archaeology.org

Don't have a lot to talk about as we are getting ready to go south (as rainbirds do) and catch some warmer weather for a few weeks.