Guest Post by Caitlin Johnstone
All the old ideas for uprooting the status quo have failed. I point this out not to depress people, but to persuade them to stop twisting on locked doorknobs. The old ideas don’t work, so we need new ones.
The political process has failed. Capitalism has failed. Socialism has failed. Libertarianism has failed. Marx has failed. Populism has failed. Anarchism has failed. I say this not because of any glaring flaws in any of those ideas (in theory any of them could potentially work in an alternate universe), but because we are hurtling towards extinction in the fairly near future, and none of them have saved us.
“But Caitlin!” you may object. “My particular favorite ideology would have saved us long ago if only everyone had gotten on board with it!”
Okay. But they didn’t. And now we’re on the brink of armageddon. That means it has failed. It doesn’t work.
We are well on our way to extinction via climate collapse or nuclear holocaust, and even if we miss those by some miracle we are headed toward an artificial intelligence-led tech dystopia in which our consciousness is permanently enslaved by a propaganda network that is far too advanced for there to be any hope of escaping into truth.
We are witnessing a mass extinction the likes of which we haven’t seen since the end of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago, with some 200 species going extinct forever every single day. The very ecosystemic context in which we evolved is vanishing underneath us. More than half the world’s wildlife has vanished in forty years, and the worldwide insect population has plummeted by as much as 90 percent. Fertile soil is vanishing, and so are forests. The oceans are choking to death, 90 percent of global fish stocks are either fully fished or overfished, the seas are full of microplastics, and phytoplankton, an indispensable foundation of earth’s food chain, have been killed off by 40 percent since 1950. Science keeps pouring in showing that global warming is occurring faster than previously predicted, and there are self-reinforcing warming effects called “feedback loops” which, once set off, can continue warming the atmosphere further and further regardless of human behavior, causing more feedback loops.
Our ecosystem is very fragile and rapidly fading, and the difference between the ability to survive without it and our current scientific capability is the difference between flying and jumping. Which won’t matter if one of the many small, unpredictable moving parts in the steadily escalating new cold war with Russia results in a nuclear weapon being deployed as a result of misunderstanding or miscommunication and sparking off the annihilation of every organism on earth, as nearly happened during the last cold war on more than one occasion.
This is where the status quo has gotten us. All attempts to overthrow it have failed. The time is up, and the results are in.
The political process doesn’t work.
I say this not because the political process can’t work, due to some technical failure in the way it has been applied. I say this because it doesn’t work, as evidenced by the fact that we’re on the cusp of the apocalypse with no signs of steering clear of it. Attempts to uproot the status quo via political engagement and voting does not work.
“But Caitlin!” you may object. “The only reason the political process doesn’t work is because it has been hijacked by corrupt powers with a vested interest in maintaining the status quo! If we can extract those corrupt powers, we can make the political process work!”
Okay. But you didn’t. You were unable to extract the corrupt powers, and now we’re on the brink of extinction. Your strategy has failed.
Capitalism doesn’t work.
I say this not because capitalism can’t work in theory, I say this because it doesn’t work in practice. How do I know it doesn’t work in practice? Because the planet is dying and we’ve all got doomsday weapons pointing at our heads that may go off at any moment. The results are in. Capitalism doesn’t work.
“But Caitlin!” you may object. “What we’ve tried hasn’t been real capitalism! The free market hasn’t been given a chance to solve all our problems, because of the artificial interference and regulations of Big Government. If we can get rid of Big Government, we can solve all our problems!”
Okay. But that never happened. And now here we are at the end of the world, watching our planet ripped to shreds by status quo power structures. Capitalism failed. It doesn’t work.
Socialism doesn’t work.
I say this not because socialism can’t work in theory, I say it because it doesn’t work in real life, as evidenced by the fact that our world is on fire, our time is up, and we are all about to die. Socialism failed to save us. It doesn’t work.
“But Caitlin!” you may object. “Socialism hasn’t worked because it’s never had a chance to work! If the capitalist imperialists would just stop sabotaging socialist experiments, it would thrive and replace the status quo! We’d all be saved!”
Okay. But we’re not. The worldwide populace has not answered the call of socialism in sufficient numbers to overthrow the interests which oppose it, and now we’re at the end of days. The plan was to unite the working class against the elite oppressors around the world and implement socialism, and it failed. It is a strategy which does not work.
Libertarianism doesn’t work.
We could do this all day, with any number of ideologies. Perhaps libertarianism could work under the right circumstances, but attempts to rally the public around it have utterly failed, and now we’re staring down the barrel of extinction. You can object and make excuses, or you can acknowledge that the strategies for implementing your preferred status quo-challenging ideology don’t work, and find new ones.
It’s easy to isolate yourself within a particular ideological echo chamber and create the illusion for yourself that your pet ideology is making progress. Oh look, Russiagate was disproven. Oh look, Jeremy Corbyn did well in those last elections. Oh look, the Democratic Socialists of America gained a few thousand members. But if you step out of that echo chamber and look at the big picture, you see a futile tug-of-war between feuding ideologies with no gains made anywhere near the scale that would be necessary to avert the massive threats on our horizon.
My point here is that we may have found an ideological standpoint that really resonates with us, and that ideology itself may be intrinsically worthy and vastly superior to the status quo. But the strategies for implementing that strategy have failed spectacularly. If you can’t implement your strategy, you’re just diddling cutesy ideas while the world burns. It’s just a nice identity for you to hold onto and make your feely bits feel nice.
“I’m a Marxist!”
“I’m an anarchist!”
No you’re not. You’re an ideological LARPer dressing up in an identity and pretending to change the world, while the world itself tumbles into the abyss.
Again, I say this not to create a sense of hopelessness, but to get people to stop wasting time and energy pushing on locked doors. Stop trying strategies that people have been trying for decades with essentially zero ground gained, and try something else instead. Stop hanging out in your little echo chambers and thinking that anything’s changing just because you are surrounded by people who agree with you. Sure, hold onto your beliefs about what kind of system would most benefit the world if you like, but be acutely aware that those beliefs in our current situation are completely meaningless.
The reality is that as long as powerful people control the dominant public narratives, no ground will be gained in steering our species away from the status quo trajectory that’s killing us, because you won’t be able to awaken mainstream consciousness to what’s going on. The only thing that has any hope of prying the oligarchic hands off the steering wheel is the mainstream public seeing what they’re doing and using the power of their numbers to force drastic change in a wildly different direction. If we can’t make that happen, we’re all just banging on locked doors while the curtain closes on humanity.
We all need to do better. I include myself in this. We need to try new things. Many, many new things. We need new ideas. What kind of new ideas? I don’t know, that’s why I’m telling you. I’m just one woman, and I put as many ideas out there as I can, but it’s not enough. Clearly it’s not enough, because here we are.
In my opinion the obvious way to open up a path for dissident ideas to replace the status quo is to kill the public trust in the stories they were told in school and continue to be told by the mass media about the kind of world and country they live in, but so far that hasn’t happened. My own ideas for advancing that agenda which I’ve been seeding into the world have been inadequate, and so have everyone else’s. So we need more new ideas. Lots and lots of new ideas.
What we’ve tried up until now hasn’t worked, so if there’s anything that might work it’s going to come from a wildly unanticipated direction, from way outside the failed mental processes which have accompanied us to this point. We need to open ourselves to that kind of idea.
That’s basically all I’ve got to offer today. A helpless but sincere plea for humanity to try something new, spat out onto the internet in the Hail Mary hope that it might plant some seeds and loosen the soil for something unprecedented to open up in human consciousness. Sometimes that’s all that we can do.
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The Great Leaving. Walk away. Disengage. Shun. Boycott. Starve it of everything you have, in every way you can think of, every single day.
It, basically, comes down to choices, no? Main street over Wall Street. Local over big box. Organic over processed…
What else?
Oh, yeah. Going Galt. Paying less taxes. Becoming more self-sufficient. Staying out of debt. Finding ways to lower monthly expenses. Converting cash to real stuff. Staying “awake”. Researching and attempting to find weaknesses in TPTB then relaying our perspectives to the like-minded. Watching. Learning. Enjoying every moment. Being thankful for what we have. Reading. Working out. Getting our affairs in order. Mentally preparing for future hardships and loss. Reciting the Serenity Prayer daily. Smiling and laughing more. Not taking ourselves too seriously. Trying to stay humble. Keeping it simple. Not putting off tomorrow what we can do today. Staying positive.
Undeniable,
Your device is undeniably sound!
I try and speak these things to the youth every chance I can.
I fail at many of these but try try again.
Thank you!
Device should be advice….
Damn autocorrect
Absolutely. Especially shun that one spot that guarantees your enslavement: The voting booth.
So everything is shit. Things always get ‘over built’ – before they settle back into reason. We will eventually have less people, less traffic, less air travel, less shopping, etc.
Nature will work this out on it’s own. May not be in our lifetime, but it will come to some sensible equilibrium.
http://www.criticalcommons.org/Members/brettservice/clips/graduate_clip.mp4/view
Or not. See Herbert G. Wells, “The Time Machine”.
“200 species going extinct every day”
Hogwash, I am a biologist, look into source of that claim.
“Can we really be losing thousands of species for every loss that is documented? Some ecologists believe the high estimates are inflated by basic misapprehensions about what drives species to extinction. So where do these big estimates come from?
Mostly, they go back to the 1980s, when forest biologists proposed that extinctions were driven by the “species-area relationship.” This relationship holds that the number of species in a given habitat is determined by the area of that habitat. The biologists argued, therefore, that the massive loss and fragmentation of pristine tropical rainforests — which are thought to be home to around half of all land species — will inevitably lead to a pro-rata loss of forest species, with dozens, if not hundreds, of species being silently lost every day. The presumed relationship also underpins assessments that as much as a third of all species are at risk of extinction in the coming decades as a result of habitat loss, including from climate change. ”
Rest of article here; —> https://e360.yale.edu/features/global_extinction_rates_why_do_estimates_vary_so_wildly
Look at it this way, 200 per day times 365.25 days a year that’s 73,050.
Yet in an article in Atlas Obscura it states “even after 250 years of professionals documenting thousands of new plants and animals every year, the rate at which new species are discovered remains relatively stable. Somewhere between 15,000 and 18,000 new species are identified each year, with about half of those being insects. However, that number is somewhat misleading: it also includes the correction of taxonomic mistakes, movements from one family to another, and decisions that will end up being overruled in years to come.”
The 200 per day study I looked at was in fact a computer model that examined the species-area relationship, however, boots on the ground science is not mentioned ( they might have actually went out and counted them, beats me but I doubt it).
gone out and counted. fixed it.
Thanx
Nice. Just to be clear, when you said “hogwash” — I totally agree with that.
Msellers,
Im not a biologist but do do research.
Although Johnstone’s number of 200 species going extinct a day is off the mark, it is undeniable that we are living through the 6th wave mass extinction as the link below suggests…
https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/programs/biodiversity/elements_of_biodiversity/extinction_crisis/
1. Chivian, E. and A. Bernstein (eds.) 2008. Sustaining life: How human health depends on biodiversity. Center for Health and the Global Environment. Oxford University Press, New York.
I’m not arguing that species are not going extinct, rather that it is an alarmist statement in the piece that stopped me reading the rest at that point. Keeping up with all the articles and their methods is like killing cockroaches, using the Mark I eyes, ears, and brain yes; Cutting down a forest and making a grassland will drive the squirrels somewhere else or kill them. Which would be a pity, they taste great with dumplings.
I think all the squirrels in New England got killed on the highways and roads in Squirrelmagedon last fall. Last spring squirrels and chipmunks were absolutely everywhere, most I’ve ever seen. This year I have seen one squirrel and no chipmunks at all. And I am out in the woods about an hour and a half a day running the shepherds. Maybe they are extinct? Damn that Global Warming. When the shit hits the fan I was planning on squirrel as a major food source and stockpiled thousands or rounds of 22LR. Well, the lack of those rodents should keep the tick population from spreading so rapidly.
Wow, your eyes must be good. I had to switch from 22 to a 410 thirty years ago.
I’m fine with the scope. Hit them in the head and don’t fill the meat with lead.
Ahhh, I’ve grown use to picking out pellets, course got a couple chipped teeth anyhow.
Alvin!!!!!
It was 70 degrees here in Minneapolis yesterday. Driving down Portland Ave, I can report Porch Monkeys are not going extinct – AAMOF they seem to be thriving.
Yes, often said without any species name. That’s 73,000 a year.
But Caitlin! What we’ve tried hasn’t been real capitalism! The free market hasn’t been given a chance to solve all our problems, because of the artificial interference and regulations of Big Government. If we can get rid of Big Government, we can solve all our problems!
Capitalism ALWAYS works. Even in the darkest days of the Soviet Union, when “financial crimes” carried the death penalty, the authorities were forced to look the other way while the black market provided food and other necessities along with luxury goods. The ability to trade something you have in excess (capital) for something you desire or need more is what has kept people alive for most of history.
True, governments are always standing on the neck of the economy in myriad ways, but saying capitalism hasn’t worked is asinine and completely misunderstands what capitalism is.
Without Capitalism it would not be possible to have factories that churn out cars, aeroplanes, all sorts of products. These cannot be cottage industries.
Yet, I see opportunities.
Global warming; that’s a hoot.
None of those things work because in a broken world we will always have power grabbing, money grubbing, corrupt controlling psychopaths who will do whatever it takes to get to the top and ruin everything.
Even if we try something everyone believes to be new and different the same old problem will rise up like scum from the bottom of a farm pond.
[this wasn’t supposed to be a reply to anybody]
[removed]
Hmmmm, sounds like an indictment of human nature.
Look at the events over the past few years that made our glorious rulers lose their minds. Then do more of those sort of things. They fear a blow back. We need to give them a constant one.
Not just the Great Leaving, but the Great Breaking. Sabotage everything you can, everywhere you can, at every opportunity that presents itself. The worthless ruling class depends on us to not cause problems, we should not accommodate this requirement.
Caitlin is selling bullshit intended to keep us quiescent while sitting on our hands, waiting for that imagined ‘new thing.’
Start smashing stuff instead.
Personally prefer the ol’ Number 6 plan.
If we all just agreed to stopp working for a day or 2 we might get their attention!!
Just as long as no scabs replace us or they don’t replace us with robots first.
What exactly do you think the 30 Million illegal aliens and the millions of legal immigrants are doing? Happily filling in the jobs of Americans too lazy to work who are happy to suck the teat of the welfare state. Sadly we have a welfare state that not only support our worthless obese drug-addled citizens but increasingly illegal alien non-citizens as well……obviously not sustainable. But you go girl and stop working, while you are at stop paying your taxes and voting and otherwise participating……the Good Old Ship of State will just keep chugging right at the iceberg………..the elites will “can kick” until they simply can no longer kick the can down the road.
She’ll be back tomorrow, with the same old story. The only way out of the same old story is to exit the story. But she can’t exit the story, because that’s her narrative. Therefore it’ll always be the same old comfortable story until she’s dead.
None of us can exit the story.
Sartre!
Sounds like a CYndi Lauper tune:
If you were God and about to create the world what would you build? What natural laws would you create? I find a lot of people are very discontent, but I often wonder what ideal they have in mind that would make them happy. I really think that most have no idea what will make them truly happy. Years ago I thought if I could buy a home I would be set and on my way to a happier life. To some degree it did, but it also came with more stress and fear of losing it all.
I do not know if there is a God or not, but when I look at this world I see a horror show and a lot of vanity, and I ask myself, what kind of God could imagine this sort of world? If creation is a reflection of Gods mind, then I would be very concerned about this Gods intentions.
In any event, the vanity is overwhelming at times and very hard to stare at for any long period of time. I really don’t consider my self a nihilist, but the character of this world is screaming nihilism. No matter which way we turn to help our selves, it ends up a failure-pure vanity. IO don’t blame people for all their undesirable qualities because I think it is the character of this world that makes them what they are, and no one here created this environment of pure vanity.
Although I don’t find God’s creation a plus for God’s character, I know that if there is no after life, then we humans and all of life is the most cursed thing this universe ever produced.
A certain wise man that reportedly roamed the plains of Galilee and spoke in parables tried to introduce new ways of thinking and behaving, that reportedly upset the status quo.
He advocated a simple lifestyle, with few baubles and minimum of possessions.
Many people through the ages have struggled to adapt to that advice, especially in modern times, and after falling under organized groups who moulded their interpreted beliefs concerning him.
His presence and influence are a gift.
Similarly, we were given the gift of free will.
We have misused these gifts, and many more. And, unintended consequences, results of poor decisions, are the result of nature’s laws, which cannot be avoided.
Sin: an archery term, meaning to miss the mark.
Also, in the romance languages, a word meaning ‘without’.
As I age, in this chaotic society of hell on Earth, I want less things, and am putting more stock in faith in God, and Hope there’s a blissful experience, on the other side.
“I am not of this world.”
“I go before you, to prepare a place in my Father’s mansion, where there are many rooms.”
“
”
Did Pharaoh have free will when God said he would hardened his heart so that he would refused to let Gods people go? Why did God do that? Was it so he could prove he was God by killing a lot of people? Why not prove you are God by healing everyone and softening their hearts? It doesn’t make sense to me. If he would heal us all we would surely love him as he wishes. Moreover, God claims there is nothing impossible for him and he also said his mercy is with boundary, but apparently there seems to be limitations or something getting in his way, because he has had enough time to intervene and fix this mess. Of course, if past is prologue I’m pretty sure I don’t want God’s solution to this problem. The last time he said he regretted he had made man and flooded the earth kill almost every man woman and child. Moreover, how does an all knowing God find any room in his mind for regret?
What part of free will did I use to arrive in this world, and why was I given the door prize of original sin? What did I do? I can’t feel guilty because I have no recollection of my death sentence crime.
Jesus may not be of this world, but he was the chief architect, as I read it. Years ago I would have never voiced these thoughts because I was educated and raised by nuns and priest, but they are legitimate points, and if they offend God, then whats new? All my good works are as filthy rags, according to God.
But as I said, There is only one thing that can perhaps justify all this unwarranted struggle, vanity, and death-a blissful afterlife. Outside of that the best I can hope for is to die painlessly, but I doubt that is possible.
You silly rabbit. God originally created this world and mankind perfectly. Their free will and disobedience cursed this earth and their progeny into our current state of existence while hurdling at warp speed towards complete self destruction.
We cannot fix it or ourselves by ourselves. That is why we and it need a redeemer. Why we need Jesus. By God’s grace through faith in Jesus. It’s actually all quite simple.
The problem with all of these gurus and systems (both religious and secular) is that they are always hectoring people to behave against their nature. Their (unfounded) assumption is that there is Some Other Way that the world “should” be.. and that other way is never The Way The World Really Is. But that common belief in progress, human perfectibility, or at least a chance for perfection in some afterlife, is also part of human nature and part of The Way The World Is, although it only ever leaves us suffering and eternally dis-satisfied and disappointed with our systems, our families and friends, and ourselves.
To accept The Way The World Really Is, and to feel no need to change it or to change oneself, is really pretty darn hard.
Sure. When one feels some sort of pain or distress, one wants to find a way to alleviate it. Make the experience better. And I also agree, one cannot stare at the true nature of this world for too long. But I think it is worth mentioning that it isn’t only religion that rejects our true nature. Look at all the secular laws we have. The main business of government is to curb what they declare is “bad” human behavior.
I look at nature and I see a lot of things that I think are awful and immoral, but if i were to interfere with it, I could cause a mass extinction event, which would be an act in and of itself immoral. For some reason all of the immorality is what makes it work as it does and has for millions of years. Of course it is not all bad from my frame of reference either, but it certainly isn’t paradise.
The only thing in this world that seems to find itself constantly under judgement is we human beings. No one judges a lion that takes down another animal. No one judges the cat that toys with a horrified mouse. That’s ok. However, if we humans do not reject our nature we are persecuted and hounded and labeled evil.
As we can see, the human race has had it nice because we did work at changing our nature, but we are facing some serious problems trying to maintain this standard and it is not going to end well when it reaches a head. Much the same as a volcano, the pressure is slowly building, and I suspect, as with any other animal in nature, we fooled around too much with our real nature and may now face extinction for trying to make this world what it isn’t.
In the end I really don’t know and perhaps that is the crux of the problem. We just don’t know.
Well, that’s why I said, “..both religious and secular..”.
What in nature do you think is “immoral”?
Sorry I didn’t see it for some reason.
Well first, let me be clear. For me, I view morality as a subjective experience. There is no morality particle. So what I find subjectively immoral will not necessarily agree with what you may find subjectively immoral. But for example I find it immoral that I have to kill something in order to eat and live another day. It is unjust. But I have to eat. As I said one can’t stare at it too long so it is just one of the things that I put in the back of my mind and pay no attention to it, as most people do. There are so many other things, for example there is a wasp that lays its eggs inside of a caterpillar and when they hatch they eat their way out. Its a horror show.
I find this site pretty interesting, for those who hew towards the philosophical:
martinbutler.eu
It is a nice site. The people are nice.
“The reality is that as long as powerful people control the dominant public narratives, no ground will be gained in steering our species away from the status quo trajectory that’s killing us ….”
Caitlin, let me give you some actual reality …… it is this way now, is has ALWAYS been that way in the past, and will always be that way in the future …. from Egypt’s first ever Pharaoh to America’s Pharaoh, Donald Trump.
The vast majority of any population in any epoch are Followers. The narcissistic, ego driven, lunatic, psychopaths among us — you know, “leaders” — know this and will exploit the pussified populace forever and ever. Amen.
So, what “new” thing can you suggest which can actually overcome this flaw in humanity? You said “I don’t know.” Neither do I.
Testify, brother.
Exactly.
I thought it was the Joos? Is it just me or has there been a decline in jew hatred over the last month or so.
It’s just you.
In order to slay a monster one has to become one. So we will never really get rid of monsters. Reality demands there be no void in that position.
Extinction, Stucky, then begin anew, as Nature always does.
You know what really works? Guns launching bullets. Buy a vibrator and get your ovaries off for a couple of days to get your mind back in order. I dont see how you can call ideas dissident as it condemns them by using “dissident” like the fucking political officers of the commie party would say it lol.
Existential crisis much?
To paraphrase the old bumper sticker:
If you’re not in an existential crisis, you’re not paying attention.
It is one thing to be in existential crisis. She may be the female equivalent of Mike Snyder. If she is just now realizing the scam system, she is going to be in a real world of hurt when she decides to ride the fence instead of picking a side and moving in one direction. May be lost in any direction, but it is a hell of a lot easier to find way when you arent running in 360 directions. Dead reckoning land nav will probably work with societal collapse too.
Caitlin – any economic system won’t work if corruption is not rooted out aggressively. Capitalism is the best choice because it aligns with human nature best. Term limits, capital punishment and the revolving door from government to private sector would go a long way to helping.
I think AOC is an example of what we will get without professional politicians. Have you ever felt that you were in between a rock and a hard place?
Every day
Society has not tried voluntarism yet.
Oh, that is coming!
Forced volunteerism and a universal basic income.
Dont forget the compulsory enforced leisure either. It comes with the package.
The Soviets did that. They shot anybody that didn’t volunteer.
Voluntold coming soon.
Bottom line is that most people are content with their position and potential in this fucked up kleptocracy, and will be for a while longer. Mr. Smith said that “There is a lot of ruin in a nation” and he had no idea about how big a pile the US has t run through before we are at the bottom. There won’t be any change until the existing state of affairs is completely unpalatable for a lot more people than it is now.
Nothing can or will work because man is basically corrupt not good.
That is why Jesus alone must soon return to fix it.
To fix us.
It’s sadly a very difficult or more honestly impossible pill for most so called or self proclaimed good people to swallow to admit the biblical truth that we are ALL by our sin nature selfish and corrupt beings incapable of saving ourselves and in need of a redeemer greater than or beyond ourselfs both individually and corporately.
You lost me at climate collapse. Lol. Climate collapse. Whats that? No climate at all? Fuckin retarded.
BILLY GRAHAM’S SON IS TELLING THE SAD TRUTH
He said Traditional America is gone and there can’t be a peaceful return.
Human nature eventually destroys every endeavor, no matter what the system label.
That’s why we are now in the End Game.
Only one endeavor will prevail, and it sure isn’t ours.
Choose your path wisely.
One thing is certain. Paranoid schizophrenia is NOT the answer.
Drats ; you’ve dashed my redoubt, Kara
Here’s one thing that would work….take the vote away from single women…
shiny-happy pollyanna.
Global warming is happening even faster than estimates!! Bull shit! The mestimate are wrong alright but we are cooling. Anybody that prints that crap makes anything they say suspect. Johnstone is lucky that Admin doesn’t censor bullshit.
If he censored bullshit, him and TMWNN would take turns commenting on each other’s posts.
This was a very cold winter here, but the national weather service says that for the entire season, the continental U.S. was 1.2 deg warmer than average !!
In response to Caitlin’s “cri de coeur ” I propose the foundation of The Cocktail Party, whereby the best of every system is utilized and all bad components discarded.
For example; barter is a fine way to transact business on a small scale such as at flea markets and farmers markets. Global , hyper-finance capitalists on the other hand, and other such scum suckers including central bankers, get placed into deep deep coal mines for the duration.
Career politicians get also placed into those deep coal mines while government becomes short-time part-time exercise like jury duty.
Justice returns as the police become peace officers, due process is hastened, and convicted criminals are punished as appropriate including capital punishment.
Want to go to war? Well I am still considering how to reduce the protection bidness to what is necessary not how much can be stolen and provide medical treatment instead of building another aircraft carrier battle group or “bring them moar Democracy” to SHitholistan or Somalia.
And every day time is set aside for a siesta and later the cocktail hour. One may certainly have tea time instead or cicchetti or tapas as one pleases, but time off and time out is the critical component for making a better world.
Happiness is the grand goal of the Cocktail Party cause life is way to short to make it harder than it has to be.
I’ll be working on fleshing out some of the other particulars over the next little while; meanwhile I am going to fix myself a nice vodka and cranberry juice over ice to celebrate a fine Spring day and also that the trailer running lights are now repaired.
Cheers.
“Will you get a move on, I haven’t got all night”
Marvin in Sin City
I couldn’t. It was too depressing. Have you tried Wellbutrin or Zoloft? When my mom got terminal cancer those helped a bit with the depression. I SHOULD have read the rest prior to commenting, but early on I saw a fatal flaw and felt I could safely eject. The fatal flaw was your desire? or expectation? for some economic system and/or government would be able to solve all the problems created by millions of different individuals who all abdicate their duty to the society they choose and are allowed to live in. There will NEVER be any magical economic system or a sweet blend of just the right amounts of government to take the place of personal responsibility and morals. Things are just in freefall now because religion is MIA, otherwise the decent would be a little slower. I blame social media. You should too. Every idiot (such as myself) now gets to voice their stupidity, which has the tragic consequence of actually reinforcing it, especially if they are the people who NEVER go back to read and respond to what people say about their input. They never even know if there was a small riot that set off because of their comment, because they check it off in their head as “damn wise” right away and cruise on pompous the rest of the day. There is NO utopia and NEVER will be, which is why the 3 major monotheistic religions all promise a utopian paradise AFTER life on this shithole ends! Consider this purgatory. Hedge your bets and start going to Church. I get the distinct impression this is a cyclical thing humans have experienced a time or two in the past and it always has ended the same way despite trying things like creating a historical record of major fuck ups that ended civilizations. Living isn’t really rocket science either and until the 20th century we really were doing quite well. I’m far from a religious person and haven’t been to church in about 15 years, but I can’t deny the wisdom contained in the Bible, especially in Genesis. It’s subtle but there’s definitely a warning about progressive ideas ruining everything as they pervert the purpose God had in mind when he created certain things like woman. The way the creation of man and then woman is described, with God creating man from the earth and then after commenting that woman can’t and should never be equal to man, God creates her from man’s rib (fun fact: the author of that part of the Bible was damn lucky because of all the human bones they could have said God used to create woman from man, the rib is the only one in the human body that grows back – how did they know that back then?!) along with the whole episode with Eve and the snake and her inability to exert some self-control, thus damning us all with “original sin” for stealing the apple God told her not to touch are very specific warnings about liberalism, arrogance of humans, women’s inequality in society compared to man as a necessity for success of child raising, as well as helping curb the impact of the female’s tendency to abandon logic and default to emotion in stressful conditions (recall that the white male you gleefully tear apart today is the only sex and race that provided the input on how this country should run and things sure were doing fine until EVERYONE got an equal say and things turned to shit due to the mistake of wanting to be nice and declare all people are created equal – WRONG and that’s NOT what that quote refers to! People are very very unequal. Now that it’s all turned to shit I couldn’t help pausing to notice how apocalyptic things are starting to feel, so I tried to pin when the tide turned and what cultural changes took place immediately beforehand? Well, post WWII is when we peaked in my opinion, but I am a huge fan of natural law, so I follow my instincts, trust stereotypes to do their job to warn me of dangers and also think homosexuality is a birth defect and not something cool (duh! you can’t do the one fucking thing we are all hardwired from the factory to do – reproduce!) and instead of ruining civilization for all of us by insisting on equality for everyone always or some such retardation, that really only served as a useful excuse for government to reach further and grow larger (if Dems could feel anything but outrage that would probably have made them feel happy), we should have just given homos a hanicapped pakring placard and said, “tough break but at least you don’t have to save up for your kid’s college.” So, I’d personally love to go back to men bringing home the bacon, women raising the children and instilling morals and a sense of duty in them, no one PROUD and LOUD to be gay or trans or WTF? and we all quit letting Democrats demonize things like our ability to stereotype – tools God gave us to survive a harsh environment!
Is there any way to unread this shit?