Listen to a reading of this article (reading by Tim Foley): It's time for another US presidential race where populist factions on both sides spend a few months angrily decrying the establishment before voting for candidates in the general election who will fully serve that same establishment.
Taking your last paragraph to heart, I realized last evening why I enjoy watering the tiny patch of lawn behind my house. No less than five species of birds drank, bathed, and frolicked in the bounty of clean water, and that tiny connection to their lives filled me with a tangible intangible oneness of being, from which we humans are usually isolated in our techno-bubbles of linguistic chatter. It's definitely not natural avian twitter that depletes my enthusiasm.
Humnakind - the 99+% - are held in an abusive relationship with a <1% Ruling Psychopathy that has completely destroyed the things that connect us to each other with their mastery of gaslighting/brainwashing. It used to be religious or royal edicts that were deployed as control measures, but those mechanisms have been replaced by an ever-tightening techno-totalitarianism that is especially prominent in the West. I remain hopeful that Universe will not suffer such overt evil forever, but we shall see.
Socialism has been purged from the system in favor of sociopathy and this must change. Socialism is an essential part of any reformation . We are after all tribal social beings.
It is worth looking at what Carl Jung has to say about mass psychosis.
I just read a piece on "Redacted" about the FBI having gone into NATO members (and others) computers to eliminate a "Russian" malware program "Snake" and how they are now going to go all out to eliminate all "Russian Disinformation" throughout the world! Of course this means placing their own disinformation on peoples computers and they get to decide who is considered a dissident or is putting out this Russian Disinformation!
Whether you know it or not, your work has an uncanny affinity with the great French thinker, Jacques Ellul, starting with The Political Illusion, and ending with Hope in a Time of Abandonment (l'espérance oubiliée).
In the years I have been following Johnstone, her raw power as a writer has matured into a unique gift for expressing the ineffable in a way that limns both the ghastliness and awestriking beauty of life, without the clutter of cursing and rant that used to mar her work (and still mars mine, ha ha). This post in particular exemplifies both the strength and gentleness she now brings to explaining our moment, and I could not be happier for all of us readers. Absolutely wonderful reading, all my blessing in the bond of peace.
Economic activity gravitates toward the easy payoff, toward the highest return on investment.
We love to get maximal returns on minimal investment. We get involved in ventures designed to enhance us and our group—those we love “more”. We tend to exploit all else. For example, when people are chronically ill we profit from the medicine, the health insurance, the clinics, the surgeries, as well as from the processed food, sugar, tobacco and alcohol that make them sick. Teachers may teach about peace and climate change in school while their retirement fund is invested in oil and war. Company executives may deny climate change at work, but worry about it for their own investments or their own children. All are looking for the greatest return on their investment.
Over time mechanisms of law, conventions and culture develop that acquire resources human and not human. For example: if oil, uranium, zirconium, workers, human ingenuity, people with chronic illness, clean air or clean water lead to return on investment, then they will be acquired, controlled, commoditized, traded and used.
These mechanisms, to acquire and use all resources, human and not human, displace human individuals from necessities and then charge a price for them back. As time progresses individuals find systems in place that default toward loss of land and instead landlords, toward loss of health and instead healthcare, toward loss of community and instead insurance, toward loss of gardens and instead grocers, toward loss of knowledge and instead job training, toward loss of locality and instead transportation, toward loss of wisdom and instead entertainment, toward loss of friends and instead counselors, toward loss of education and instead mechanization, toward loss of love and instead hungry ghosts.
Making the central objection to a Ministry of truth the singing witch cartoon character tapped to lead it was too easy, not enough emphasis was made highlighting how repulsive the endeavor was as a result. It was too easy, too personalized. Which allowed for repackaging without as much pushback by opponents.
As to capitalism, it is as others in history have described, the worst economic system ever devised - except for all the others.
It's true. All the warts of it you describe are real. But the warts on the others are really worse. And absent a provably workable alternative all we can try to do is improve it.
But many of those attempts at improvement have arguably exacerbated the warts. Government cannot improve the condition of the human soul. Attempts to do so, social reengineering is doomed to fail. It represses the human experience, attempts to compel others to obey the will of others are always done at the tip of a spear. That's what government disinfo campaigns an expression of. Words as weapons, sharper than knives, with brute police force to back them up if the human mind rejects them. And human minds always do. Earthly fear-based compliance isn't how the human soul is reformed, reengineered.
I'd be closer to the right-libertarian you describe. Understanding that life is always about tradeoffs. And ties must go to freedom, not control. The human soul is reformed best by heavenly appeals. Capitalism without faith in a higher power than man is the crux of the problems of our time.
The world only knows crony capitalism today, a variant of socialism. The results of trying to improve the warts that have made more of them even worse. The current model bears no resemblance to Adam Smith's vision; it's closer to Karl Marx's. And leaning into Marx's model more isn't an improvement.
Less government interference in free economic activity. More spiritual connection to improve the human soul that will manifest the caring for the rest of God's creation in the natural world we live in and our caring for out fellow man that we seek is how we improve the condition of man. The invisible hand controls better than the hands of man. It's a terrible system. Only the others are worse.
Capitalism serves the interest of the capitalists. Those are the minority. The United States was founded on the rich, you know who owned slaves. My point is that there was never equality. Not when you committed genocide against the indigenous people as well. So history proves capitalism is a lie.
That said, elections are scams because as you pointed out there are no meaningful choices in the United States. Why is it that each year, no matter what happens, we end up with the same problems? Elections are rigged no matter who you vote for. Why are there so many wealthy people supporting Democrats if getting them elected would threaten their power? Likewise with conservatives.
We shouldn't think it is cold to dismiss human suffering, yet all our suffering is self inflicted by creating systems that benefit from human suffering. We have one planet to live on and capitalism is destroying it for short term profit. It has finite resources and we are using them faster than they are replenishing.
The world is not mentally ill. The Euro-colonial powers, led by the U.S., are. They’re leaders most sick. And their population brainwashed.
Outside of that circle though, the leaders and masses of vast majority of the world is awake and does not share the same mindset.
For example look in the Financial Times today, they have an article there describing diamond trade in India as “blood diamonds” because they are bough from Russia.. The article tries to peddle the usual navel gazing Eurocentric narrative of mindless endless war and Russian hatred for the sake of it, but in the article some of the Indians interviewed ask flat out why a dispute between two countries MUST be blown up into a global affair. And if you look at the comments in it many indians there pointing out the same - how ridiculous this is.
So the rest of the world is NOT insane. And not brainwashed. They know this is gaslighting and lies and war for the sake of it.
However look at how much the neo-colonial invest in weapons. The rest of the world is held hostage and cannot combat them.
After reading through the comments, I think it's important to remember that the systemic forces causing us to squeeze the life from each other and our world have not changed an iota since wealth and power first started keeping slaves in pens, thousands of years ago.
What has changed in America since I was a child is the total abdication of the liberal class and its institutions. The purpose of a privileged liberal class is to prevent capitalism from fulfilling its goal of consuming everyone and everything it depends on for life. Destroying the consumer class is not exactly a smart feature of the consumerism system, yet reviewing the past forty years shows that happening quite clearly, from the bottom up. This is because liberals and their institutions have been bought and co-opted into the Commodify Everything creed that is currently hurtling toward train wreck with the throttle wide open and no brake.
I mention this only to point out that there is no good reason to mock or curse pigs for being pigs. Appreciate them for what they are, understand their behaviors, and you may corral them in time. Neither is there any good reason to complain that the pig-keepers have turned the pigs loose to destroy the farm, and now defend their depredations, or at best wring their hands over the inevitability of it all. Pity them for being such slaves to their own short-sighted self interest, no better in effect than the pigs themselves, and maybe you will see how best to change a mind and heart or two.
If I said that I thought the profusion and threats of nuclear weapon were bad, people wouldn't look at me as if I were crazy, they'd agree with me. Then they would say, "Yeah, but what are we gonna do about it?" That's the problem.
What's your take on RFK junior Caitland ? I've followed this guy for 15 years. He has a B.S. proof resume. I would say the establishment needs to nullify him quickly. He's getting a lot of traction, if this turns into momentum he will be unstoppable as long as he is still alive... and if not that will open yet another can of worms the U.S. cannot afford
Taking your last paragraph to heart, I realized last evening why I enjoy watering the tiny patch of lawn behind my house. No less than five species of birds drank, bathed, and frolicked in the bounty of clean water, and that tiny connection to their lives filled me with a tangible intangible oneness of being, from which we humans are usually isolated in our techno-bubbles of linguistic chatter. It's definitely not natural avian twitter that depletes my enthusiasm.
"in our current mind-controlled dystopia the average person is compliant and innocuous."
Just wait until they go hungry. That's when the shit hits the fan.
Humnakind - the 99+% - are held in an abusive relationship with a <1% Ruling Psychopathy that has completely destroyed the things that connect us to each other with their mastery of gaslighting/brainwashing. It used to be religious or royal edicts that were deployed as control measures, but those mechanisms have been replaced by an ever-tightening techno-totalitarianism that is especially prominent in the West. I remain hopeful that Universe will not suffer such overt evil forever, but we shall see.
Thanks for your voice CJ.
Important points well made!
Socialism has been purged from the system in favor of sociopathy and this must change. Socialism is an essential part of any reformation . We are after all tribal social beings.
It is worth looking at what Carl Jung has to say about mass psychosis.
I just read a piece on "Redacted" about the FBI having gone into NATO members (and others) computers to eliminate a "Russian" malware program "Snake" and how they are now going to go all out to eliminate all "Russian Disinformation" throughout the world! Of course this means placing their own disinformation on peoples computers and they get to decide who is considered a dissident or is putting out this Russian Disinformation!
Whether you know it or not, your work has an uncanny affinity with the great French thinker, Jacques Ellul, starting with The Political Illusion, and ending with Hope in a Time of Abandonment (l'espérance oubiliée).
In the years I have been following Johnstone, her raw power as a writer has matured into a unique gift for expressing the ineffable in a way that limns both the ghastliness and awestriking beauty of life, without the clutter of cursing and rant that used to mar her work (and still mars mine, ha ha). This post in particular exemplifies both the strength and gentleness she now brings to explaining our moment, and I could not be happier for all of us readers. Absolutely wonderful reading, all my blessing in the bond of peace.
Return on Investment
Economic activity gravitates toward the easy payoff, toward the highest return on investment.
We love to get maximal returns on minimal investment. We get involved in ventures designed to enhance us and our group—those we love “more”. We tend to exploit all else. For example, when people are chronically ill we profit from the medicine, the health insurance, the clinics, the surgeries, as well as from the processed food, sugar, tobacco and alcohol that make them sick. Teachers may teach about peace and climate change in school while their retirement fund is invested in oil and war. Company executives may deny climate change at work, but worry about it for their own investments or their own children. All are looking for the greatest return on their investment.
Over time mechanisms of law, conventions and culture develop that acquire resources human and not human. For example: if oil, uranium, zirconium, workers, human ingenuity, people with chronic illness, clean air or clean water lead to return on investment, then they will be acquired, controlled, commoditized, traded and used.
These mechanisms, to acquire and use all resources, human and not human, displace human individuals from necessities and then charge a price for them back. As time progresses individuals find systems in place that default toward loss of land and instead landlords, toward loss of health and instead healthcare, toward loss of community and instead insurance, toward loss of gardens and instead grocers, toward loss of knowledge and instead job training, toward loss of locality and instead transportation, toward loss of wisdom and instead entertainment, toward loss of friends and instead counselors, toward loss of education and instead mechanization, toward loss of love and instead hungry ghosts.
Making the central objection to a Ministry of truth the singing witch cartoon character tapped to lead it was too easy, not enough emphasis was made highlighting how repulsive the endeavor was as a result. It was too easy, too personalized. Which allowed for repackaging without as much pushback by opponents.
As to capitalism, it is as others in history have described, the worst economic system ever devised - except for all the others.
It's true. All the warts of it you describe are real. But the warts on the others are really worse. And absent a provably workable alternative all we can try to do is improve it.
But many of those attempts at improvement have arguably exacerbated the warts. Government cannot improve the condition of the human soul. Attempts to do so, social reengineering is doomed to fail. It represses the human experience, attempts to compel others to obey the will of others are always done at the tip of a spear. That's what government disinfo campaigns an expression of. Words as weapons, sharper than knives, with brute police force to back them up if the human mind rejects them. And human minds always do. Earthly fear-based compliance isn't how the human soul is reformed, reengineered.
I'd be closer to the right-libertarian you describe. Understanding that life is always about tradeoffs. And ties must go to freedom, not control. The human soul is reformed best by heavenly appeals. Capitalism without faith in a higher power than man is the crux of the problems of our time.
The world only knows crony capitalism today, a variant of socialism. The results of trying to improve the warts that have made more of them even worse. The current model bears no resemblance to Adam Smith's vision; it's closer to Karl Marx's. And leaning into Marx's model more isn't an improvement.
Less government interference in free economic activity. More spiritual connection to improve the human soul that will manifest the caring for the rest of God's creation in the natural world we live in and our caring for out fellow man that we seek is how we improve the condition of man. The invisible hand controls better than the hands of man. It's a terrible system. Only the others are worse.
Capitalism serves the interest of the capitalists. Those are the minority. The United States was founded on the rich, you know who owned slaves. My point is that there was never equality. Not when you committed genocide against the indigenous people as well. So history proves capitalism is a lie.
That said, elections are scams because as you pointed out there are no meaningful choices in the United States. Why is it that each year, no matter what happens, we end up with the same problems? Elections are rigged no matter who you vote for. Why are there so many wealthy people supporting Democrats if getting them elected would threaten their power? Likewise with conservatives.
We shouldn't think it is cold to dismiss human suffering, yet all our suffering is self inflicted by creating systems that benefit from human suffering. We have one planet to live on and capitalism is destroying it for short term profit. It has finite resources and we are using them faster than they are replenishing.
The world is not mentally ill. The Euro-colonial powers, led by the U.S., are. They’re leaders most sick. And their population brainwashed.
Outside of that circle though, the leaders and masses of vast majority of the world is awake and does not share the same mindset.
For example look in the Financial Times today, they have an article there describing diamond trade in India as “blood diamonds” because they are bough from Russia.. The article tries to peddle the usual navel gazing Eurocentric narrative of mindless endless war and Russian hatred for the sake of it, but in the article some of the Indians interviewed ask flat out why a dispute between two countries MUST be blown up into a global affair. And if you look at the comments in it many indians there pointing out the same - how ridiculous this is.
So the rest of the world is NOT insane. And not brainwashed. They know this is gaslighting and lies and war for the sake of it.
However look at how much the neo-colonial invest in weapons. The rest of the world is held hostage and cannot combat them.
After reading through the comments, I think it's important to remember that the systemic forces causing us to squeeze the life from each other and our world have not changed an iota since wealth and power first started keeping slaves in pens, thousands of years ago.
What has changed in America since I was a child is the total abdication of the liberal class and its institutions. The purpose of a privileged liberal class is to prevent capitalism from fulfilling its goal of consuming everyone and everything it depends on for life. Destroying the consumer class is not exactly a smart feature of the consumerism system, yet reviewing the past forty years shows that happening quite clearly, from the bottom up. This is because liberals and their institutions have been bought and co-opted into the Commodify Everything creed that is currently hurtling toward train wreck with the throttle wide open and no brake.
I mention this only to point out that there is no good reason to mock or curse pigs for being pigs. Appreciate them for what they are, understand their behaviors, and you may corral them in time. Neither is there any good reason to complain that the pig-keepers have turned the pigs loose to destroy the farm, and now defend their depredations, or at best wring their hands over the inevitability of it all. Pity them for being such slaves to their own short-sighted self interest, no better in effect than the pigs themselves, and maybe you will see how best to change a mind and heart or two.
Who was it that said socialism is
for the wealthy elites and capitalism for the rest.
Mental illness the rabid kind that Westerners are afflicted by is a result of their departure from all things good and wholesome, fair and just.
As stated previously:
Spiritual collapse always precedes an empires’s collapse.
The further a civilization drifts from God the dumber and degenerate it becomes.
In the 1960’s that spineless Supreme Court ruled that God’s name should be removed from public schools.
And this void was promptly filled with great delight with...
well just take a good for yourself and see today what replaced God.
50 plus years and we have generations of people who have no knowledge of God.
We have become for all practical purposes a heathen nation as oppose to having been a predominantly Christian one.
Buckle up and find you a safe place all you who know God and fear His displeasure for American is now finding out what it means to “reap what you sow”
If I said that I thought the profusion and threats of nuclear weapon were bad, people wouldn't look at me as if I were crazy, they'd agree with me. Then they would say, "Yeah, but what are we gonna do about it?" That's the problem.
What's your take on RFK junior Caitland ? I've followed this guy for 15 years. He has a B.S. proof resume. I would say the establishment needs to nullify him quickly. He's getting a lot of traction, if this turns into momentum he will be unstoppable as long as he is still alive... and if not that will open yet another can of worms the U.S. cannot afford
Let’s build a decentralized 4th branch of government that really isn’t part of government at all. It is 100% built and run by the people.
https://open.substack.com/pub/joshketry/p/lets-build-a-4th-branch-of-government?r=7oa9d&utm_medium=ios&utm_campaign=post