Listen to a reading of this article (reading by Tim Foley): Jeffrey Epstein, Woody Allen, and Noam Chomsky went out to dinner one night. There's no punchline, that's just something that happened. ❖ Of course, nothing that comes out about Epstein himself will ever be as significant as the
Our entire culture — movies, schoolbooks, religions etc — tells us to always be looking for heroes. Tells us to look outside ourselves for celebrated leaders who will show us where to go. And I just think that's a terrible dereliction of duty — of our duty to find the truth for ourselves.
Most Christian America doesn't fully grasp the Truth in this teaching of The Christ, 'And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God comes not with observation: Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is WITHIN YOU.'
That's where the questioning must start for The Truth to be found!
I always say that in todays world what is being pushed on to our children from an early age is a leadership cult. This brainwashing is especially perverse in the US, where the good guys "tortured some folks", were the only ones to drop atomic bombs... TWICE!... experimented on their own population (800 young pregnant women were given cocktails of radioactive iron to see how that would affect them and their unborn babies), dropped more bombs than all other countries of the world in all of history combined and murdered/Slaughtered millions of innocent human beings while doing so, including children and elderly, employed thousands of Nazis/SS/Gestapo/SD after WWII in their own ranks, in high positions in NATO, the UN or their own security services (that includes the French and the Brits and the new German government after WWII)...
The "Good" guys have succeeded in perfect double speak.
It takes a tremendous level of self confidence to avoid idolizing others as heroes. When we have no confidence in ourselves, we look to others to provide stories that we don't feel qualified to come up with ourselves. Breaking that cycle of dependence on others, or on institutions, is key to helping people realize that they can, if they wish, stand on their own two feet.
Psychopathic control freaks have been ruling the world for way too long. The problem seems to be that normal people don't want to rule anything except their own lives. And that leaves a void for the evil in our midst to gravitate to the positions of power and the places they can make themselves so rich that the average person cannot even fathom. WE JUST WANT TO BE LEFT ALONE! https://courageouslion380.substack.com/p/i-just-want-to-be-left-alone
You’re not my idol, but you and your husband are damn good writers! Thank you for your continued witty, honest and consciousness-raising columns. This one hits the nail on the head, as do most of your publications.
You have called Assange a hero, more than once, with good reason and a couple others. You do good work and are putting ideas out there that oppose the narrative. That's a good thing. Reading your work, I have thought you were a good person...reading this article, maybe you're just not a sociopath. ;) It isn't that we are only taught to look for heroes outside ourselves, we are told not be one. "Don't be a hero, cementaries are full of them."
We aren't taught to think, we are taught to repeat, that's the purpose of propaganda, to have it repeated and believed. "The bigger the lie, the bigger the mass of people to believe it." Here is the thing, with me. Even if I believed every lie the empire told me. I still wouldn't want war with Russia or China. Why? I'd understand the reprocussions of such. In my youth, I believed many lies and some ideologies. Now I believe less lies but keep those ideologies and one of those ideologies was a world were people weren't under an oppressive empire. There was a time I believed the US empire was good, but the ideologies and reality became increasingly contrasted to a point where I found the truth.
You may not be great, Kaitlin, but you represent a more compassionate side of humanity. In your work, you remind me that my views aren't insane. I speak about your article about being ruled by assholes. Put you on a pedastal? No, maybe offer a comfortable seat, I have implied the US would do to you what it is doing to Assange. Torture is wrong and only a twisted mind thinks otherwise. Why would the government go to great lengths to oppress free speech? It doesn't want the truth heard or known.
I agree with everything said here in general terms about the finding out the truth for oneself without putting people on pedestals and turning them into idols. But on the specifics: Did Chomsky have dinner with Epstein *after* the latter's conviction for sex offences? Because if not, it seems to me that he did nothing wrong, as far as we know. And even if he did know and went out to dinner with him anyway, what that means what exactly? It means that he did something that is wrong, very wrong, and that he is imperfect (assuming he didn't believe Epstein to be innocent of the charges). But if you didn't already assume he was imperfect, then you have a problem, the kind that is described here in this piece by Caitlin Johnstone. And what does this *not* mean? It most certainly does not mean that everything he has done for so many years in speaking truth to power and in educating so many about the nature of power has been without value. It does not mean that at all. Also, the comparison with the Dalai Lama and Bernie Sanders seems to lack sense of reality. These latter two gentleman have not really contributed anything really meaningful, it seems to me, toward justice and peace in the world - at least, I don't think so. They are little more than "idols", it's true (I used to think Sanders was genuine, but it seems to me now that he was probably always something of a phoney). Noam Chomsky is very different. He has spent decades speaking out against oppression and injustice, shining a light on the crimes of the United States in particular. And none that is undone by any foolishness or lack of judgment in his dotage. Let's not put people on pedestals or create idols - I agree - but let's also refrain from casually contributing, by association or insinuation, to the character assassination of a fundamentally decent and morally courageous human being.
I confess, I am what Caitlin is writing about. I am a person who put all hope in Bernie Sanders. I met someone on an experiment who said with our shared politics you need to know Bernie Sanders, this was in 1993. After reading and communicating I wrote an email (AOL ha) asking Bernie to run for president which I had heard that was the thinking and wanted to agree. I door knocked, fund raised and donated like many, I maxed out TWICE. As I have written here, I was mentally damaged when Bernie onstage at the South Carolina debate said " Joe Biden is a friend of mine and he would make a great president". That moment I canceled my Our Revolution membership because that kind of revolution I didn't want to be part of. I too know who Joe Biden is from his record and public speeches. I no longer support political candidates other than friends who I know ( we shall see now that they are in office). People like me continued this fraud Caitlin writes so brilliantly about. Kshama Sawant if she kills what little hope I have it will be devastating. Do all leaders fail us or do we need leadership as Chris Hedges claims? All successful movements have a spokesperson? Workers Strike Back.
Our entire culture — movies, schoolbooks, religions etc — tells us to always be looking for heroes. Tells us to look outside ourselves for celebrated leaders who will show us where to go. And I just think that's a terrible dereliction of duty — of our duty to find the truth for ourselves.
Most Christian America doesn't fully grasp the Truth in this teaching of The Christ, 'And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God comes not with observation: Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is WITHIN YOU.'
That's where the questioning must start for The Truth to be found!
"Cultural suicide is a tradition well-established in history." --John Ralston Saul, Voltaire's Bastards.
I always say that in todays world what is being pushed on to our children from an early age is a leadership cult. This brainwashing is especially perverse in the US, where the good guys "tortured some folks", were the only ones to drop atomic bombs... TWICE!... experimented on their own population (800 young pregnant women were given cocktails of radioactive iron to see how that would affect them and their unborn babies), dropped more bombs than all other countries of the world in all of history combined and murdered/Slaughtered millions of innocent human beings while doing so, including children and elderly, employed thousands of Nazis/SS/Gestapo/SD after WWII in their own ranks, in high positions in NATO, the UN or their own security services (that includes the French and the Brits and the new German government after WWII)...
The "Good" guys have succeeded in perfect double speak.
Chomsky was never that great. He believes in the conspiracy theory that JFK wasn't killed by the CIA.
For the same reason it is best to avoid team or tribe, or all short-circuit critical thinking.
It takes a tremendous level of self confidence to avoid idolizing others as heroes. When we have no confidence in ourselves, we look to others to provide stories that we don't feel qualified to come up with ourselves. Breaking that cycle of dependence on others, or on institutions, is key to helping people realize that they can, if they wish, stand on their own two feet.
Psychopathic control freaks have been ruling the world for way too long. The problem seems to be that normal people don't want to rule anything except their own lives. And that leaves a void for the evil in our midst to gravitate to the positions of power and the places they can make themselves so rich that the average person cannot even fathom. WE JUST WANT TO BE LEFT ALONE! https://courageouslion380.substack.com/p/i-just-want-to-be-left-alone
You’re not my idol, but you and your husband are damn good writers! Thank you for your continued witty, honest and consciousness-raising columns. This one hits the nail on the head, as do most of your publications.
Outsourcing our own wisdom is a bad idea.
You have called Assange a hero, more than once, with good reason and a couple others. You do good work and are putting ideas out there that oppose the narrative. That's a good thing. Reading your work, I have thought you were a good person...reading this article, maybe you're just not a sociopath. ;) It isn't that we are only taught to look for heroes outside ourselves, we are told not be one. "Don't be a hero, cementaries are full of them."
We aren't taught to think, we are taught to repeat, that's the purpose of propaganda, to have it repeated and believed. "The bigger the lie, the bigger the mass of people to believe it." Here is the thing, with me. Even if I believed every lie the empire told me. I still wouldn't want war with Russia or China. Why? I'd understand the reprocussions of such. In my youth, I believed many lies and some ideologies. Now I believe less lies but keep those ideologies and one of those ideologies was a world were people weren't under an oppressive empire. There was a time I believed the US empire was good, but the ideologies and reality became increasingly contrasted to a point where I found the truth.
You may not be great, Kaitlin, but you represent a more compassionate side of humanity. In your work, you remind me that my views aren't insane. I speak about your article about being ruled by assholes. Put you on a pedastal? No, maybe offer a comfortable seat, I have implied the US would do to you what it is doing to Assange. Torture is wrong and only a twisted mind thinks otherwise. Why would the government go to great lengths to oppress free speech? It doesn't want the truth heard or known.
"Jeffrey Epstein, Woody Allen, and Noam Chomsky went out to dinner one night. There's no punchline, ...."
Come on! There has to be a punchline.
I agree with everything said here in general terms about the finding out the truth for oneself without putting people on pedestals and turning them into idols. But on the specifics: Did Chomsky have dinner with Epstein *after* the latter's conviction for sex offences? Because if not, it seems to me that he did nothing wrong, as far as we know. And even if he did know and went out to dinner with him anyway, what that means what exactly? It means that he did something that is wrong, very wrong, and that he is imperfect (assuming he didn't believe Epstein to be innocent of the charges). But if you didn't already assume he was imperfect, then you have a problem, the kind that is described here in this piece by Caitlin Johnstone. And what does this *not* mean? It most certainly does not mean that everything he has done for so many years in speaking truth to power and in educating so many about the nature of power has been without value. It does not mean that at all. Also, the comparison with the Dalai Lama and Bernie Sanders seems to lack sense of reality. These latter two gentleman have not really contributed anything really meaningful, it seems to me, toward justice and peace in the world - at least, I don't think so. They are little more than "idols", it's true (I used to think Sanders was genuine, but it seems to me now that he was probably always something of a phoney). Noam Chomsky is very different. He has spent decades speaking out against oppression and injustice, shining a light on the crimes of the United States in particular. And none that is undone by any foolishness or lack of judgment in his dotage. Let's not put people on pedestals or create idols - I agree - but let's also refrain from casually contributing, by association or insinuation, to the character assassination of a fundamentally decent and morally courageous human being.
suggesting that Chomsky molested kids is kinda out to lunch ...don't you think...?
I've admired people over the years, but none were a hero nor heroine. All my "hero's" so to speak are dead.
Navy Biden - say her name! https://yuribezmenov.substack.com/p/say-her-name-navy-biden
I confess, I am what Caitlin is writing about. I am a person who put all hope in Bernie Sanders. I met someone on an experiment who said with our shared politics you need to know Bernie Sanders, this was in 1993. After reading and communicating I wrote an email (AOL ha) asking Bernie to run for president which I had heard that was the thinking and wanted to agree. I door knocked, fund raised and donated like many, I maxed out TWICE. As I have written here, I was mentally damaged when Bernie onstage at the South Carolina debate said " Joe Biden is a friend of mine and he would make a great president". That moment I canceled my Our Revolution membership because that kind of revolution I didn't want to be part of. I too know who Joe Biden is from his record and public speeches. I no longer support political candidates other than friends who I know ( we shall see now that they are in office). People like me continued this fraud Caitlin writes so brilliantly about. Kshama Sawant if she kills what little hope I have it will be devastating. Do all leaders fail us or do we need leadership as Chris Hedges claims? All successful movements have a spokesperson? Workers Strike Back.