By D.C. Sunsets
Where have I been? Tilting at windmills.
I’ve simply realized that no matter how much I refine my grasp of today’s collective insanity (its roots, its enablers, the underlying engine that powers it, and where it leads),
1. No one gives a shit.
2. Neither I nor anyone else can change it.
3. Without details (timing, specifics) neither I nor anyone else has, preparing for what’s coming is for all practical purposes impossible. Every preparation A produces massive costs Anti-A today, and the accumulation of those costs is beginning to crush me.
I’m arrogant enough to believe that I see something that almost no one else sees. I’m also wise enough to know that it just doesn’t matter. No bozo buttons are awarded for being first to fully elucidate a process, and 21 years of being wrong on the timing has taught me that there are actually no benefits even to myself. So far, my insights on this crap have only cost me money, heartache and self-recrimination.
So I try to stop wasting my time typing comments. I’m better off putting in a load of laundry, mowing the grass or reloading some more cartridges.
At this moment, I’m running a video-capture of the VHS recording of my wedding in the background of this web browser. It reminds me in a constant bitch-slap of how much time has passed, how youth drains away no matter how hard one tries to slow it, how nothing I do really affects more than that moment of time, and how I’ve lived my life in a fog of ignorance so profound that it’s embarrassing to even contemplate.
I’m an ant, riding on a leaf, floating down a large river. I can’t change the course of the river, I’m surrounded by other ants who have no notion of the river itself, and who grasp not the meaning of the sound of a waterfall ahead. Or if they do, then ours is a dialog that only goes in circles. I’ve been spinning in those circles since 1993. I’m dizzy, so please stop the ride, I want to get off.
I feel your pain bro.
DC
I think you know how much I respect your writing and opinions. Everyone has burnout at this point but I believe that it is important to prepare mentally and every other way for what is to come. Vigilance and preparedness trumps getting hit by the bus any day.
Write another book while you are off work, you are such a talented writer.
i began my ride as a leaf in the stream in 1990, when our foundations are undermined at some point we well may reach the same place. for me HSF has the only solution, self worth is a daily awareness. my farm died in 1990, nothing has come close to filling that mental void.
That about sums it up for many of us DC. You’re not alone on this one. The reason I suspect many of us post and lurk in this blog is because we feel we are in good company. We see the world burning but know there is damn little (if anything) we can do to change it while still maintaining some semblance of the humanity our parents and the older world, now behind us, instilled in us. And since misery loves company – well – here we are.
So cut your lawn, do your laundry and start a project but remember – we aren’t alone. Just a little isolated. 🙂
Well said FM. I saw a comment on another post lamenting the dwindling comments here. I am “guessing” that readership is the same or even higher, but the willingness to invest mental capital in the form of stating an opinion is in decline. I suspect at least part of the reluctance is related to some particularly nasty STM behavior but mostly, I think we have something akin to PTSD. D.C. may be in a writing slump, but some of us are heartsick over the obvious end of the rule of Law.
If you do not get why Bastiat’s Law matters so much, you do not need to ask.
@Ghost: “I saw a comment on another post lamenting the dwindling comments here.”
It has become futile. We all know the scams: rigged voting, no fence, flooded with creatures from who knows where, endless entitlements, illegal immigration, unemployment stats, health care, bubbles – stock market / housing / car loans / student loans, Neegrows who want reparations, guy’s with cocks in the girls shower, militarization of the police force, you name it. We (us TBP people) have heard it over and over again.
Myself, I’m fatigued, there’s nothing more to say. Maybe another scam / racket I should know about? Why? Since there hasn’t been any progress or resolution – not even the tiniest amount on the current corruption. I really don’t need to know about this any more.
The other zombies out there are the ones who need this info.
Dutch,
I am far newer to the knowledge…and understanding what I
did know. I have been playing detective and researching so
much that I even annoy myself. It was my husband who gave me a stack of books, with a curt order, “read these.”
I am sure he said please. It started for us in 2010.
I never stopped reading, and I know what I need to…there
is a movement to steal/spend as much $ on mischief as humanly possible. The rice bowls of the gov. affiliated are
full to the brim, the excess sold. Meantime, seems there are more people on welfare than not. Great. It really hurts
that gov. has license to murder at will and under false pretenses at that. Actually, all of the crimes are out in the
open, at least most. The rest can be found. Most of us do not want to think about the extent of the corruption in great detail…we know it exists. It all is like a PTSD, and there is more to come.
I don’t know about comments/numbers of, on TBP. I come
hoping for an insight, affirmation, and entertainment.
This is depressing Monday. Summer is over. I need to
figure out a sturdy and effective greenhouse. Anyone have one? Would you share some information if you have it?
Thanks. Northern Wisconsin. And thanks also for the daily
updates as you see them (thanks everyone) because there is some comfort in being of like mind with others.
Last, what book did you write DC?
Suzanna
Susanna, we’re practically neighbors! West central Wisconsin. And Dutchman, I’m a former inhabitant of the Somali run Twin Cities Metro. My husband and I started waking up right before the 2008 election. Beginning with the market crash in 2007. Had the opportunity to move out to “nowhere” and have been here for 4 years. Wouldn’t change a thing, except to wish that all the kids weren’t still in the metro.
Every night at 5 pm, we sit outside and enjoy our amazing view (not one house in our sight) and worry about how to harden our location. Then, we get irate, that at a time in our lives when we should be able to enjoy the fruits of my hardworking husband’s labors, all we do is worry about the future and how to be safe – and how to keep our kids safe.
We are stocked and as prepared as we can be, but guardedly optimistic that maybe the rest of the country is waking up, and come November we can start to get this ship turned around.
@kittyhawk: Well I’m still a captive in Minneapolis. The Communist / Bike Lane party is very entrenched. Minneapolis actively recruits gays / fags/ lesbos / trans / African’s that don’t know how to shit or use a faucet. The more the merrier. It’s their goal to make ‘normal’ people the minority. While we pay for all this by being ‘normal, working class, citizens.’
Every fruitcake, every 0.001% freak is to be accommodated, at the expense of rational, normal thought/behavior. Not that I think these freaks should be treated poorly, it’s just we don’t have to take it up the ass to accommodate their mental illnesses.
It’s a bizarre situation that one would never think of – even in their wildest dreams.
(Chuckle.) My one book (so far) was embarrasingly “message fiction.”
20 years ago when I was still quite naive, I set out (like a million others) to write the next Atlas Shrugged.
Revolutionary Language (ISBN 1583485880) was first published as an ebook, then self-published (and still available on Amazon) and then in Kindle Format (which is abysmal; the encoding of the file led to disastrous hiccups, ones I keep telling myself I’ll someday fix…)
Websites come and go. At one time FreeMarket.Net was a libertarian/free market site that got some play, and Thomas Knapp (hi Thomas, if you’re out there!) edited and had a “Free Market Book-of-the-Month” award. I think my novel was the only fiction book to land it (January 2000.) I figure that’s about as good a review as I can mention. I wouldn’t know Thomas if I bumped into him on the street.
The book is, in the light of hindsight, too preachy. I have in mind another story that would be purest fiction, no heavy-handed political rants (albeit RL lacks Ayn Rand’s sledgehammer rants…e.g., the 21 page monologue in Atlas…a book I find difficult to read.)
I’d love to write another story. Different characters (although I came to love the ones in RL), different story. I envision a very different take on the zombie genre (not undead, just a genetic cross with something from an earlier occupation of mine.) My goal would be just to tell a story, one about a protagonist who does his best to fulfill his obligations, has an adventure, does things normal people can do, that sort of thing. I’d be inclined to have characters who are actually like real people, in the sense that no young women would be kicking the stuffing out of men twice their size. What intrigues me is to write three or four related novels, each from a different 1st person narrator (the protagonist of each story), but all related by a single character running through them all…where the larger story is that character’s.
Maybe I’ll get the story done…someday. In the meantime I’m remediating all my mathematics via Khanacademy.org. I’m part way through Algebra II, on my way to pre-calc, then integrals, then differentials, then on through calc-based statistics. I don’t have a purpose, it’s just that my formal education presumably took me that far and it was all a sham. I never learned math the way my sons know it (and I can’t aim that high) and I think my own self-image requires I go back and fix that. I figure about 6 months to remediate 4.5 years of math.
PS: My “dc.sunsets” avatar has left some comments in the last year on other sites that would definitely get me the Scarlet Letter R (for racist), so I’m not going out of my way to dox myself under that moniker (although it would take little effort to connect Revolutionary Language with its author, then find me in the phone book where I’m quite listed.) I guess I’ll have to settle for the fact that anyone who comes to my door looking for trouble will most assuredly find it.
I live a little south of you, just outside of Rockford IL.
It could now be titled: Atlas takes it up the ass.
Geez Dutchman……………Coffee all in my keyboard. That was a good one.
Damn it, looks like I picked the wrong week to give up sniffing glue.
“That there is funny, I don’t give a dang who you are.” Larry the Cable Guy.
dc,
I found the book! The reviews were splendid.
New and used books are available…I may ask the
Mr. to order it for me. The premise sounds great,
very now. Timely, even if written a while ago. Thanks
Suzanna
Neighbors abound.
Kittyhawk, hello. I have been as far NW as Hayward!
Dutchman, hello. I have a sis-in-law in St. Paul.
She is very proud of the valiant efforts her church has made with outreach to Somali peoples.
My son might have been killed while in college in
Minneapolis. Weird campus, 4 identical buildings on
each section of the square commons. He moved the
day b4 his roommates were beaten, duct taped and shoved in a closet. Pushers looking for their $, alas,
they had the wrong apartment. Dutch, are your relatives there? Are you in a “safe” part? The city is very dangerous. We in the senior group don’t like getting knocked over.
And dear dc, I would never out you. I am a good detective though. lol You do know what Wisconsinites call the Illinoisans? FIBS You are henceforth forever discluded. My v educated buddy
said, “well, it should be a word.”
Suzanna
East central Communisota is not too bad, as long as you don’t have to go south of Forest Lake, the beginning of Zombie Land. North of there, where I live now, isn’t too bad, but still WAY too many people.
If there were any jobs there, I’d move back to the U.P. A year-and-a-half down here and I’m having really bad thoughts about a lot of the walking dead around here…
@susanna: I’m perfectly safe in Minneapolis. Live on a lake, all is good.
The midwest is really vanilla. Most boring, worst taste in food, than anywhere I’ve ever lived. However it has been very, very good business / income wise.
All the Neegrows are in Norf Minneapolis. They have a shooting gallery up there.
Your sister-in-law and her church – importing Somalis – I can’t think of a more repulsive, self deprecating act. A pox on them!
I don’t understand the ‘affection’ these liberals have for the Somali’s. IMO the Somali’s are the ‘new niggers’.
My comments have dwindled for two reasons:
#1 – Family illness. My wife’s grandfather was just diagnosed with stage 4 lunch cancer. Its her only grandparents still alive. My mother-in-law, wife, and I are all he has to help him. It takes a lot of time. Not bitching, just stating a fact.
#2 – My longer diatribes I’ve started publishing under my own real name. I felt like here I was just yelling into an echo chamber. Not that ya’ll aren’t combative, just that we see eye-to-eye on the big picture. I figured my time was better spent spreading the message elsewheres….so thats what I’ve been doing.
#3 – Increased community involvement. This is on the back of #2, my wife and I thought the best way to make a difference is to start speaking to others (youngsters and oldsters alike). We try to create a message/image that doesn’t automatically push away liberals, but sort of leads them to a more conservative way of life. Its not easy :/, but it does seem to be working.
Once the family stuff clears up I’ll have time to start creating content again. For now I can only apologize, for I’ve sinned: I have consumed when I should have produced (in this case content).
@TCP: “My wife’s grandfather was just diagnosed with stage 4 lunch cancer”
That’s funnier than I could ever be! Stage 4 lunch cancer – what spell checkers miss.
Could be worse – stage 4 dinner cancer.
Hah, yeah. Its actually mesothelioma. I opted for “lunch” cancer because I thought I was less likely to misspell it.
GOOD CALL
You said very eloquently something that I’ve felt deeply, but have had a hard time saying in my own words. Thank you for that.
I don’t know what to do about it either. I can’t unsee the things I’ve seen, and I feel as impotent about it as you do. But I also can’t resign myself to just go with the flow; I think about my kids, and how I don’t want them to grow up in a world where politicians and bankers are quickly becoming our overlords. I still don’t know what to do about it, but I keep looking for solutions.
The comments you make are important, not only as a coping mechanism and thought organizing exercise but also that they benefit others. For you may be be burned out from all the doom but there are always lurkers who are just now at this late hour finding out that everything they know is wrong.
Profound thought. As in “I woke up this morning and realized the first premise upon which I had based my entire belief system was wrong.”
@DC: Many of us feel that way, when we stop and reflect. We have to live in this society, reality. It’s all about being on automatic, making the next mortgage payment, car payment, car repair bill…. on and on.
I’m 67. In my younger days I was quite accomplished in software engineering. I recognize as I get older, there are less and less goals to attain, or possible to attain. The realization is a downer, that I’m currently mentally dealing with.
The last couple of years, I hung on to the Fourth Turning – but I believe it’s too late – and the ‘fix’ is in – there may never be another Fourth Turning – just constant government manipulation. The government has gotten so large, so encompassing, so all knowing, so all controlling, the Fed issuing debt, and the Treasury buying it. Then there are the ‘voters’ – indoctrinated by government schools, paid for by the promise of more entitlement programs, and the lack of voter id’s – the election will be fixed too – just like Trump said.
We can’t ‘get off’ – but put it in perspective until (if ever in our lifetimes) we may have the power to change it or have our voices heard.
“Where have I been? Tilting at windmills.
I’ve simply realized that no matter how much I refine my grasp of today’s collective insanity (its roots, its enablers, the underlying engine that powers it, and where it leads),
1. No one gives a shit.
2. Neither I nor anyone else can change it.
3. Without details (timing, specifics) neither I nor anyone else has, preparing for what’s coming is for all practical purposes impossible. Every preparation A produces massive costs Anti-A today, and the accumulation of those costs is beginning to crush me.
I’m arrogant enough to believe that I see something that almost no one else sees. I’m also wise enough to know that it just doesn’t matter.”
Yup. Pretty much.
Everytime I get down like that I just look in the mirror and sing:
“Hey dude, don’t make it bad
Just take a sad song and make it better
Remember, don’t let it into your heart
Then you can start to make it better”
Otherwise, we end up ignoring Holden Caulfield’s final admonition as the Catcher in the Rye:
“Don’t tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody.”
Am unsure if I would read advice from Holden anywhere but here.
Especially following the Hey Jude reference.
Am unsure if I would read advice from Holden anywhere but here.
BTW – Welcome back DC. I always appreciated your writing and one comment in particular that you wrote several months ago here (regarding genetics) served as sort of a “missing link” for me that actually sent me off in a different direction on my way to where I am now.
Ripples in the pond. Keep throwing rocks. And keep your surfboard near by…
That’s why I write fiction as well as nonfiction. The latter is the world as it is, the former can and should deal with the world as it ought to be. I’m not saying we’ll see the world as it ought to be in our lifetimes–we won’t–but if all I had to think about and devote my writing to was the world as it is, I don’t think I’d still be around.
Great article, never give up.
I don’t give a flying fuck either. Been saying that for almost a year.
But, that’s why I stick around here, in order to … 1) convince others to not give a fuck, and/or 2) fucken piss off as many people as I can.
Stucky- Your talent has not been wasted, you convinced me and now I too don’t give a fuck.
I just stopped in to take out a big old splinter and decided to eat a couple of deviled eggs my wife made for lunch and a quart sized mason jar full of ice water mixed with maple syrup and apple cider vinegar. Outside the wind chimes are playing an unusually nice little concert with the big leafy heads of the maples singing backup in the breeze. The dogs are out on the grass in the shade sniffing the air, my kids are on their way back home from a trip to Grandpa’s house in NJ and even with a big old oak splinter lodged up under my thumbnail it’s impossible to imagine life could be any sweeter.
The river of life has some gnarly little bends and every once in a while it floods, but overall the ride and the view are priceless. Garden, read a book you’ve been meaning to, go help a friend do something just to spend time with them, eat something you just picked raw, right out of your hand, be nice to a good dog and tell him how much you appreciate his hard work and faithful service.
We’re all going to be alright, I’m sure of it and if not, we’ve got all the time between now and then to do whatever we can to make sure that it’s good for everyone and everything around us if we want to.
In the meantime, there’s this-
Very well written, D.C. I believe that most of us here share your Quixotic lamentations from time to time. I have family and friends that believe I am “tetched” for believing that some sort of socioeconomic collapse lies around the next turn. They tell me that this Fourth Turning stuff is a bunch of tin foil hat mumbo jumbo that I shouldn’t concern myself with. It sometimes reaches the point that I start wondering if indeed they might be correct in their assessment of me. But then I remind myself that they are mostly linear thinkers, and I look around at the signs of instability, and I listen to friends and the media spewing their “official” propaganda and I can’t help but reach the same conclusion, right or wrong, that Barry McGuire so long ago reached. “This whole crazy world is just too frustrating.”
What a bunch of pussiefied losers .Clint Eastwood was right .Good Lord in Heaven.
And if you need a friend ,get a Cat.
Stucky , you lie !!! You care just as much if not more than anyone on this site.Damn .
When the commander is forced to retreat and must leave a rearguard to hold off the enemy’s advance, he takes volunteers for a last stand. They get their pick of weapons, whatever medical gear can be spared and one instruction: hold this place until relieved. Both they and the commander know that the situation is hopeless, the position cannot be held and the only reason they are there is to buy time, precious time, for the remainder to regroup, dig in downstream and stop the enemy before he reaches the civilians.
Whether this is a last stand or not, I will hold these positions until relieved or overrun, and if necessary my bones will attest: Here died a man, protecting his own, from the hordes who would ravage them. Here I stand, for I can do no other. Molon labe.
James,
that was beautiful. And appropriate. And PERFECT.
James- “Here I stand, for I can do no other”
To this simple mind there could be no finer epitaph. Well said, Sir.
Well said James! Do not go gently into that good night.
It’s not the size of the dog in the fight, rather the size of the fight in the dog.
James,
May i share the bunker with you, metaphorically of course.
I felt that I had been awakened to the coming storm early in life. Now at age 52 I had felt tbat I was as prepared as anyone can be to survive and thrive. I have a beautiful wife to share the homestead and a son well prepared to carry on the line. Then life shows up to tell you who is boss.
And it aint us.
Now I find that I am going to be left behind to let others make it. When I found out I was so pissed. Briefly thought of a grand gesture which would cause a whole bunch of people I love to change names but I worked through that. Now at peace and a lot of it is that same I DONT GIVE A SHIT attitude. I find the less I care the less certain ideas hurt.
Fuckit. Life is terminal. Enjoy it while you can
HSF,
Thank you for the lift. I will admit I have never been happier in
my personal life. I have a good dog but am postponing a second.
My husband bought an ocean worthy sailboat 6 weeks ago…I have
enough to think about without a puppy. The Mr. just acquired a
free carload of K-5 homeschooling books for our young family
neighbors. Trunk, backseat, and passenger seat full. I promised
my ancient lilac bushes a thorough clean up and pruning, and am only half done. See? I have plenty to keep me busy! I have never felt as good as I do in this rural setting…I often feel fantastic and bursting with thanks to the power of good.
Thank you HSF…you are just the right prescription.
Free notice to all diabetics: Stop eating manufactured bread,
crackers, chips, and so forth. Pasta and rice and potatoes?
Substitute for the bread and in small side dish portions. Stop
Stop Stop drinking soda, especially the diet soda. Start with that.
If you haven’t blown your pancreas (isles of langerhans) to bits,
there is a >50% chance of complete recovery. Former diabetic
special nurse. Okay?
Hello Susanna! HELP. I had gestational diabetes with both kids. Now Scoring 125 – 130 fasting, since I started taking my blood sugar in late July this year (I was feeling really bad in the mornings, fatigued, didn’t want to go to work etc) I haven’t seen my doc yet but I know I am diabetic for sure. Cut down on carbs (not totally) Salads for lunch and dinner with some pecans and walnuts. Anyway, after reading Karl Denninger’s prescriptions, I beleive this is not terminal. But I need strategy!
It is worth saying again, a re-hash.
dc. I know what you mean. A prophet is never recognized as such in his own land.
A belief system has momentum in its own right. What is the belief system in America today?
That you will be taken care of by government, that there is a free lunch, that consuming without producing is a viable life right along with free speech.
While you feel that your comments are for naught and are falling on deaf ears, I have a different opinion on the matter. Even tho it seems that you are powerless in changing anything or being recognized for seeing a reality that is about to be fulfilled, I believe that your comments are effectively changing the consciousness of the Nation. Even if one family takes your comments to heart and is saved by taking proactive action, isn’t it worth all the work and angst that you are feeling? I think it is.
Change is like an avalanche. New ideas are like snowflakes building up on the mountain of man’s consciousness. Here a little, there a little, until the final snowflake falls and the face of the mountain is changed in a twinkling of an eye. Which snowflake was responsible for the avalanche? It’s impossible to say, other than they were all responsible.
So, take heart in that your comments, like snowflakes, are creating the foundations of change, change that’s as irreversible as that last snowflake that triggers an avalanche.
A little leaven here, a little leaven there and pretty soon the whole loaf is leavened.
One of the best quotes I ever read was one that Hardscrabble posted here in a comment. HSF said it was paraphrased from somewhere and I don’t remember where – but here it is:
“History appears to be a raging, bloody river, choked by the bodies of innocents and tyrants alike, but most of it is lived high upon its banks, where people tend gardens, raise their children and whisper to one another in the darkness.”
Amen. And you could never convince me that intellectual watering holes like TBP here don’t make a difference. No matter how small.
Remember: Your fences need to be horse-high, pig-tight and bull-strong because every path has a few puddles and we must always keep skunks and bankers at a distance. We should live simply, love generously, care deeply, and speak kindly. And never pick a fight with an old man. If he is too old to fight, he’ll just kill you.
You nailed the answer in your very own post:
“nothing I do really affects more than that moment of time”
Such has it been for every sentient meatbag to walk this tiny blue dot.
All any of us have are moments, make the most of them. Just like our very own “Hardscambles” does. Be kind and be happy now, in the moment, because it is the only time you can be.
Believe me, I’ve tread down the same nihilistic path your post describes. I enjoy neither the journey nor the destination.
We’re only here a short time. Maybe only oblivion awaits, maybe something more.
Either way, the answer is EXACTLY the same…enjoy the moment you have…then enjoy the next one…repeat as long as you can. 🙂
“nothing I do really affects more than that moment of time”
One of my favourite movie quotes…
“Quis nos operor in vita refero in infinitio.”
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Maybe from time to time our “moments” can have more of an impact than we know….
Yay, though I may be a six legged insecta riding dessicated leaves upon rapid rivers there is nothing to stop me from waving about my metasoma to the ignorant ants on the sodden banks and signaling, “Wake. The. Fuck. Up.”
Everybody is worn down to a nub , that is anybody with a shot glass of common sense that can see even a glimpse into the future things are going to be bad “REAL BAD”
You are correct no one gives a shit , why should they , Hillary is on the way with the FSA Free Shit Army
It never gets better.
Everyone has his or her demons. Well, except HSF. He may actually be free of that crap (and if so, he has my great respect. I keep waiting for him to collate his columns and release them in a book. IMO they would belong in the same high category as the Little House on the Prairie series.)
I did not expect to be out of work this young. Well, maybe that’s wrong. I “expected it.” I just didn’t expect it. You know the difference, intellect vs emotion. I have zero interest in doing what I did before (schlepping drugs to docs is wrong for me on too many levels to list. I did it out of pure survival for 17 years and no longer need it to survive.) So I have some difficulty embracing my situation.
As for the larger picture, I know that I err when I pay attention to the larger picture. (grin)
Think of it this way: When a person gets killed in some makes-the-news way, what I almost invariably discover is that I’d never have been on the path that led that person to their demise. NEVER. So what do I learn from that story? Nothing.
I don’t hang with stupid people.
I don’t go stupid places.
I don’t do stupid things.
I think that means that most of the data available from “the world” is irrelevant to me.
Each of us spends each day drowning in data meant to either:
1. Make us unhappy because the people dumping the data on us are unhappy and misery loves company, or
2. Make us unhappy because they hold out what they’re selling as a means to ameliorate our unhappiness.
The common denominator is that everywhere we turn, our political, cultural and commercial data stream is intended to make us unhappy. If we let it.
The masses of people cannot escape this. That’s why it’s called, “the masses.” People who attempt to discern–for themselves–how they should live and then attempt–the best they can–to live that way, they are what Nock called “The Remnant.”
I’m of the opinion that we are of the Remnant. I’m also of the opinion that whatever the future brings, the path will be less rocky for us…as long as we let ourselves accept that. It’s easy to focus on the negative when you’re hyper-aware it exists. I struggle with that like a lot of people. But I do sincerely believe that happiness is a choice.
I do find that I’m happier when I realize that, just because the majority of the kids who show up in my wife’s 4th grade class are complete savages, whose parents are dysfunctional savages, and that a future where such people constitute a substantial percentage of the populace promises some really rough sledding, it doesn’t mean we’re doomed. My kids aren’t doomed, and my grandkids aren’t doomed. We’re bright people. We’ll figure it out as we go.
All of us are alive today because our ancestors survived when times got REALLY tough and culled other families, root and branch. Smart, aware, people who aren’t afraid of “RealTalk(TM)” will do okay. Of that I’m relatively sure.
BTW, Suzanna, your mention of a sailboat has me super envious.
@DC: “Damn it, looks like I picked the wrong week to give up sniffing glue.”
Well being from Philly, you can see the ‘huffers’ – their preferred intoxicant is silver/gold spray paint – all over their face. Huff it by spraying in a paper bag. Lot’s of Puerto Rican’s huff on the roof of apartment buildings – then fall off. Obits read: fell from high place.
You’ll be OK, after not taking yourself too seriously. If you can get laid, it will make it better, quicker.
dc
I wish i had the Mr.s permission to tell the story.
The website had the boat for sale and one hour later the Mr.
agreed to send the $/earnest $. She is a beauty. And the price?
Fantastic, less that 1/2 what I thought he’d have to pay. The couple had a blog, pics, video. They expected to wait and wait and maybe
have to get a broker involved…and they were still reeling from their
decision to sell when the Mr. called. It seems it was destined and it was so lucky!
The Mr. can do anything on a computer…and he could phone you up in real
time and you can ask about the boat, the website and so on. No doubt he will bring this up as he reads the blog. I got v mildly
chided for my telling of God’s visit to me. Well, it happened.
I just shared it. Tell God I told you and see what happens. lol
Do you want to talk boats w/ the Mr.?
Darn, I need to edit. The purpose of my call was to give an idea
about your next book. Unless Andy died, write about him and the others. They could have moved from the city, gone rural
and have adventures. Look out for bears (trail cams) and see
the deer eat all the extra apples…and so on. Their neighbors
could be farmers and homeschoolers, and just friendly country
people. Oh-oh…no tension in that. Either write it for preteens,
or introduce tension. Editors fee waived.
See that emotive silly talk above? I am embarrassed.
Sorry.
Proof positive why a woman can not be a prez. At times,
we women, will revert to 5 year olds. And go on and on,
saying any silly thing. Well, speaking for myself. Other
women may be poised at all times. LOL
@DC… My fave? ” I’m of the opinion that we are of the Remnant. I’m also of the opinion that whatever the future brings, the path will be less rocky for us…as long as we let ourselves accept that. It’s easy to focus on the negative when you’re hyper-aware it exists.”
That glue quote was from the movie Airplane. I saw that flick when it first came out and never forgot that line. Classic. But today the filmmakers would have been sued because some kid would have sniffed their Elmer’s and suffocated when their nostrils stuck together.
Yeah, I knew the first one was from Lloyd Bridges’ character in Airplane. I was just referring to how funny the comment preceding is was, and I didn’t want to plagiarize the nasally shooting of a drink on the keyboard.
Airplane: When movies were actually still funny on purpose, instead of now where they’re so stupid they’re hilarious. (My fav: some 105 lb actress kicks the crap out of a 200 lb man. I wonder how many dumb-ass girls are stupid enough to buy into that crap, and then are crazy enough to incite an animal that can, if he simply relaxes his restraint a little, break her neck in about 5 seconds. I’m relatively certain that most women now grossly underestimate how dangerous men really are…including the “all men are rapists” idiots, who don’t seem to realize that they’d never be allowed off their backs if their beliefs were correct.)
“My fav: some 105 lb actress kicks the crap out of a 200 lb man”
My wife took a self defense course. A lot of it was good info, like your best defense is to AVOID shitty situations, and run first always. Stuff like that.
Anyway, she wanted to show me all the hold breaks and stuff she learned. I’m 6′ 235lb. She’s 5’5″, and 140ish. She got a rude awakening.
My mother is a black belt in take your dough (tae kwon do). When I was about 19 she got pissed at me and threatened to whip my ass. My brother and I just looked at each other and laughed. She assumed her standard starting “TKD” stance and said, “I can take you.”
Long story short, it turns out she couldn’t.
Women should take self-defense courses, but the most effective part of the course is the deescalation, profiling, travel in packs, common sense part.
Bonus points if your self-defense course doubles as firearms training.
The part where you knock a guy out who is an order of magnitude bigger, faster, stronger, and more aggressive? Ignore that part. Its dangerous.
you-all are no doubt talking about that crappy star wars movie. The woman beat up all the men, and dragged the others around by the nose. I am 105#!! I did always go for
the rebels though. As I got smarter, it became very high IQ
rebels. Finally snagged one, and he is a keeper. My husband
is kind and good and brilliant. And he played ice hockey and
Rugby and drove across the country on his big motorcycle
in the rain. Testosterone city. Fabulous man.
We are both lucky wives, susanna.
Patience has run out and we are tired of this stuff. We know it is coming but not when, this is the lull before the storm. Good luck all. Above all else be armed.
Yep, I feel like stopping the world and letting it melt.
Beyond burn out.
Hub is starting to get angry. Both with me – apparently trying to warn him caused it, but somehow buying fire insurance doesn’t cause fires – and with our deteriorating cash flow in the business. But he’s bought $1500 worth of silver, is otherwise 100% invested in stocks and real estate.
I quit commenting often for a few reasons. One is I decided to find happiness and better health. The other is that between the macro, and my micro, focusing on the corrupted, polluted and sick was totally harshing my mellow.
But there are still a few here I deeply care for, and I have a pressing need to hear truth to combat the propaganda my hub exposes me to daily, so I haven’t totally disappeared.
Hugs, focus on gratitude and service to others, that’s helped me a ton
Very nicely said – and apropos to my own life. I wish I had been more awake prior to 2008 but it is what it is.
I have committed to learning and creating – am in the process of making slip-covers – and studying the metaphysical.
I suspect our “psychic abilities” have been even more suppressed and occulted and that in itself might be the big secret!
I have discovered a guy – Gordon White – a “chaos magician” who interviews all sorts of interesting folks – fun to listen to his MP3’s while sewing.
http://runesoup.com/
Howdy Padna’s!
The great thing about DC’s post is that it hits at the frustrations we all share. All of our journeys, all from different paths and starting points, have led us here…the bright red dot on the directory of the Cantdoshitus Mall of America. We want to help, but the simple fact is the world is filled with the sheep, wolves, and sheep dogs. The sheep will never see the threats, the wolves won’t stop coming, and dogs get tired, regardless of the gratitude of the sheep we have been able to save along the way.
What I have seen in my 50+ years on this orb is the ascendance of emotion to displacing logic, reason, and comparative analysis. On my island of misfit toys, I have a PHD in behavior psychology who adds quite a bit of color to my base observations. He for example, wouldn’t ask a special forces solider suffering from PTSD “How do you feel?”, he would be more likely to ask “How did you have the restraint not to kill everything that moved?” His insight has helped me, ever since I got started wondering about the human condition after watching “The Day After”, when I was completely perplexed as to how someone facing a nuclear war, would focus on making the bed, ignoring the threat around them, at the expense of their children/family. As we discussed over many large meals, is that 80% or so of the population creates their own world view, and can not accept those things that are “outside” their ability to cope. They will freeze, in some form, make the bed, or whatever allows them to avoid reality.
Here we are, in the 20%, beating our head against the wall, wondering why those around us can’t see the forest from the trees. Many of the people we try to educate are intelligent folks, but yet are dismissive of our warnings. But regardless of their education, intellectual capabilities, or belief system, they simply lack the skills to correctly overcome their mental entrenched protective exoskeleton. Not surprisingly, after a while, our pack of dogs gets tired. The beds get made.
If you need to recharge your belief system, you have to venture into what I call “The Worst Generation”, these annoying millennials. In the belly of the beast, you will have a great opportunity to make a difference. For example, I went into a high school class in a poor part of town to give a talk. I asked the teacher for the last 5 minutes to talk about time value of money. In that 5 minutes, I asked a the classes “how many of you think they can retire a millionaire?” No more than 2 raised their hand in each class of 40. At the end of the 5 minutes, all raised their hands, including gang-bangers, ho’s, and us back of the room smart-asses. It was very rewarding. Find your class, find your individual, in the brainless donuts of that generation you can fill your energy again.
If not, you can always help me with my lollipop shows in Mexico (my current retirement plan).
I am ACEIV
DC, nice post! You’re not alone. I’m ready for aliens to beam me up and get me off this rock.
you said:
“Each of us spends each day drowning in data meant to either:
1. Make us unhappy because the people dumping the data on us are unhappy and misery loves company, or
2. Make us unhappy because they hold out what they’re selling as a means to ameliorate our unhappiness.”
I honestly don’t look at the data as intending to make us unhappy. It’s just data I sort through to keep myself informed. Although TBP does become sort of an echo chamber, those of us that inhabit it form a wall of sorts. As others begin to wake up and turn away from the status quo looking for something that reinforces their increasing suspicions, they’re drawn here by the same things that drew us and we form a wall that begins and ends with cold, stark truth.
Despite the doom of it all, preparing for what is coming happens in many ways. Physical preps, monetary preps and the often overlooked mental preps. Without even realizing it, knowing the truth prepares you in ways that will allow you and I to keep our heads while everyone around us is losing theirs. Beyond that, I don’t make any preps that I wouldn’t ordinarily make in better times. Upon reflection I’ve found that I’ve always been more or less prepared for anything life threw at me and those preps basically extended my options. Though the magnitude of change may be bigger, I expect my preps to do the same in the coming calamity.
Perhaps it’s time with my telescope that keeps me from losing my mind. My telescope is a time machine of sorts that helps me keep things in perspective. It’s hard to look at the enormity of our Universe and not be humbled even when faced with whatever is headed our way. To be honest, I’m eager to see what the trigger will be and what direction all this bullshit takes us. It’s both exhilarating and scary to be standing on the precipice of the momentous change headed our way. I can’t wait to get my licks in! It’s the waiting that kills me!
Keep living your life, stay informed, help those looking for truth and find some good in everything that comes. What else can you do?
Anon above was I.
Thank YOU! I had forgotten that we still need to the telescope out of storage.
You are so right… that will help a lot.
Thanks for all the insight in these posts, have been feeling the same way the last few weeks. Glad I’m not the only one, it can be lonely. Thanks to all, keep the faith.
Welcome to wisdom. When the Oracle said that Socrates was the wisest man in the world, Socrates responded that he was wise only in the sense that he knew that he knew nothing while others were confident they knew something when they in fact knew very little, if anything at all. You are now a Socrates. Too bad it takes such a long time to understand how little we know. On the other hand once you identify how little you know, you now at least have the possibility of learning something about the things that are really important.
My view of my knowledge problem is this metaphor:
I stand in a vast, darkened warehouse, whose volume is the sum of all knowledge.
My own knowledge is the flashlight in my hand, and it illuminates a small circle within that warehouse of unseen and unimaginable vastness.
When I obtain more knowledge, my flashlight gets brighter. The paradox is this: As I can now see more of the floor of the warehouse, my perception of its actual size just grew by an order of magnitude. I can’t see its walls or ceiling, but I recognize that while I now know more than I did, the fraction of total possibly knowledge I possess just shrank.
The more knowledgeable I become, the less of all knowledge I know.
We are always ruled (especially in a “democracy”) by people who fail to grasp this paradox.
Most of the fear & loathing that the prepper type people feel traces its origins back, one way or another, to excessive govt. spending. The spending in turn traces its origin to excessive debt. Which in turn traces its birth to the auction in Washington we call a Congress. IF ya’ want some future more comfortable than hiding in the boonies with a .22 waiting for one rabbit per week then some credible plan to shut down the spending is a place to start. This was a comfortable and civilized country before the gigantic spending began, it could be again.
CONgressmen spend 90% or more of their time obtaining funding for their next election. Every aspect of their “work” is subsumed by using the spending power of Congress to “buy” more campaign funds.
The USA doesn’t need to tax in order to spend.
Read that twice if you don’t already understand why. Now read it again.
Since August of 1981, interest rates have fallen on long term debt. Every bond that was issued rose in capital value with every decline in rates. This meant that simply buying debt was tantamount to having a money tree in the back yard.
For 35 years.
This meant that there was ZERO pushback on Congressional hacks behaving like 18 year old sailors on shore leave, loose in a whorehouse with a no-limit credit card. For 35 years Congressmen could sent money to Lockheed-Martin (and get campaign donations), to Rainbow Push (and get campaign donations), to Solyndra (and get campaign donations), etc., etc., etc.
Welfare checks. Obamaphones. Cash for “green businesses.” Cash for new weapons systems. Cash for Israel, Saudi Arabia, the EU, Japan, Iran, Syria, Honduras, Albuquerque, San Francisco, the City of New York, and on and on and on.
NO LIMIT CREDIT CARD. Because the “credit card company” got wealthier just by sitting there with an Ocean of Debt, because each decline in interest rates caused the cash value of the Ocean to rise.
Until rates begin to rise in earnest, the single most important signal that this 50 year lurch into collective insanity is finally over, there will be no sanity found in Washington DC. Insanity pays too well.
I had a clarity of vision the other day. Sometimes I see clearly what is going to happen if certain decisions are made or actions taken. Usually it relates to business decisions. I cannot ever remember one of them to be wrong. I wrote an article to post here on TBP about this latest one. Then tore it up.
For instance, I foresaw the stock crash of 2008 clearly just before it happened. I dumped every stock I had, and told everyone I knew to do the same. Not a single soul listened. Not one. And believe it or not, I am known as a smart guy and astute businessman. Not one person listened. That is why I tore up the article.
Here is the vision. If Clinton is elected, it is going to be monumentally, historically bad. Not a little bit bad. But incredibly bad. I cannot overstate this. Take action now. Now. Right fucking now. I am.
Do it now.
Edit: and by bad, I do not just mean economically. I mean really bad. This vision/insight chilled me physically. Never had that happen before. I mean the shit will hit the fan if she is elected.
Lipoh,
I’ll go with your vision. I need to do more prep anyway.
Damn you Llpoh, I keep trying to resist the urge to buy another gun.
In all seriousness, I understand the chill of your fears even though I attribute my own to a less personal object. If Clinton wins, it will mean the Phase Change I’ve expected for some time is not yet here. Consent will remain, at least for a bit, and the exponential rise in political insanity will continue redoubling until consent finally is withdrawn. Under Batshit Crazy Hillary (and her foreign-power handlers), this could absolutely move the world toward a nuclear war. These people are every bit as stupid, self-assured and zealous as was Woodrow Wilson. Imagine the series of miscalculations and stupid political posturing that led inexorably to World War One, only with ICBM’s.
llpoh said:
“Here is the vision. If Clinton is elected, it is going to be monumentally, historically bad. Not a little bit bad. But incredibly bad. I cannot overstate this. Take action now. Now. Right fucking now. I am.”
If Hitlary gets elected it could just the right kind of bad at just the right time to turn the herd. I still think TPTB shot their wad about 10-20 years too early so I don’t fear a Hitlary win as it could be just what we need to shock the minority needed to effect change into action or at the very least into KNOWING that the system will not fix itself.
IS – and there you have why I did not post the article. I hope you are right.
We at TBP all know things are going to be bad. But what I am seeing now goes far beyond anything I ever considered. All the issues will come together to make a monumental disaster.
My vision now is that a Clinton win will be destructive beyond belief. No herd turning. More like world-wide herd slaughtering. Truly. Maybe I am old and cranky.
Dammit, LLPOH. Folks were doing their best to cheer up old DC. Have you not read that it’s impolite to mention the rope in the house of the hanged?
You probably sent DC into an apoplectic relapse.
Cheer up, DC. The bitch intends to take up the scepter before croaking and leave Huma as her appointed heir. This is why it is important to ditch the sexting Weiner right away.
Sharia law will be imposed and all will be well in the new Amerika Akbar. Many will go under the cleansing sabre, to say heads will roll, they will be stacked to form the wall so ached for by Amerikans.
It truly will be time for breakfast in the new land of the croissant et etoile.
Relapse. That’s a good one….
I see this year’s election as nothing more than a signal (among many.) The Trump Phenomenon is a signal that we may FINALLY be nearing the Phase Change.
Unfortunately, I subscribe to the notion that Clinton is Plan A and Trump is one of the other Plans of which I speak (no idea which one will follow Plan A once Phase Change occurs.) As long as there is no overt signal that Social Mood has changed, Clinton will win. She is the inertia candidate.
Having said that, recall a little history. Nixon was reelected in a landslide (the stock market was in a major rally, and that favors incumbency and inertia.) Markets topped, began to plunge and he was driven from office in ignominy over a “crime” that is insignificant compared to what Clinton has admitted to in public.
If she is elected, I do not think there’s enough life left in this paradigm to last her first term. (Yes, I’ve been horrible on timing, but I’m still sticking with this view.)
When Phase Change occurs, no new data will suddenly appear. What happens is that the Mass Mind simply re-interprets old data under new perceptions. It is entirely possible, if not probable, that Hillary Clinton will (if elected in November) go from the Oval Office to Federal Prison.
Llpoh
I will heed your advice.
I haven’t had the disturbing vision that you have had but I do sense something bad is going to happen. People keep showing up dead in news that oppose that woman and nothing happens. Nothing.
Things can only get worse when she has her finger on the button. She is going to end up trying to bluff the Russians or Chinese. The only shovel ready projects then will be digging graves. Her only problem will be finding people to dig the holes.
Well this is a fine kettle of fish, where are the Trumpeteers to assure us that there is a superhero on the way to save us all from this evil? Maybe we should all believe that a higher power than the Donald or the Hillbeast will dictate our future.
Bea, i try not to cheerlead too often, i am more than content to sit back and let it play out. And i am happy with the way it is playing out so far. But let’s go with mr llpoh’s scenerio. Hillary wins. Almost too scary to imagine. I’ve said before, were that to happen, i’ll never post on the internet again. Because it won’t be more of the same. The PTB will know how close they came to a total reset. They know the peasants are stirring restlessly, and that will be dealt with harshly and quickly. This really is a win-lose election. Trump wins, maybe we get some change for the good. That’s what i count on. Hillary wins, and i’m as scared as llpoh, and i don’t scare easily, nor, i imagine, does he. The good news is, Trump is a great candidate, with a level head and an alpha male level of intelligence and confidence. Hillary is a horrible candidate, a walking dead corruptocrat with very little enthusiastic support. She has to be dreading the debates. She can only duck and hide until then. Debate prep can’t help her. Trump has right on his side, facts on his side, and is much quicker on his feet. My advice to all, take a deep breath, and don’t get too wound up for the next couple of months. This should turn out fine. And then, just like in the case of brexit, everything is possible again.
Star- What debate? When was the last time you saw a debate. They have shitshows they call debates but seriously, this is a sample of how it will go:
Shill talking head- Mr. Trump, what can you do to convince women in America that you are not a sexist pig?
Shill talking head- Ms. Clinton as you are the greatest driving force for women in America today, what will be your first act to elevate black lesbian women to their rightful station in the workplace?
The title of this post reminds me of the scariest experience I ever had on a roller coaster. I was at King’s Island and there was this ride that I simply couldnt fit into. I was too tall for it. When the clamps came down over my shoulders the pain was excrutiating. I’m like “get me the hell out of this thing”. I didnt know if I was going to be able to get out in time. But I did end up getting out. The rides themselves are not nearly as scary as the thought of having to go through one while feeling like you’re being crushed.