What side are you on? And are you sure?

I have always been, and always will be, on the side of the anti-fascists and anti-authoritarians. At present, in 2021, that represents about 30% of the people. That may sound like a small minority, until you realize that represents more than 500 million people in the Western world, in North America, Latin America and Europe. And we are growing in number and in strength, and rapidly so. Further, and more important, we are on the moral side, the side of justice, democracy and freedom – and the winning side, as we will see in the end.

As to history, there are obvious parallels from WWII, when we defeated the fascists the first time, 75 years ago, as we will once again.

There are also interesting parallels from further back in time: the republic of Athens vs tyranny, the Roman Republic vs the Empire; and there are parallels in the Renaissance as well.

Ghibelline or Guelph? Blacks or Whites? Dante sided with the anti-imperialist, anti-elitist, and anti-papist, Guelph Whites, and was banished from Florence for it. I would choose the same, and not look back. You don’t sacrifice your principles for the sake of easy conformity, material gain, or illusions of security, unless you want to reap the bitter harvest you have sown. Ethics are non-negotiable – as Dante’s popes found out, when they found themselves in the bowels of the Inferno.

The central problem, and the central dynamic, globally now, is one of class warfare. The richest few hundred individuals among the global banking and corporate elite, are now in control, and their long-standing war on the people, the 99.99%, and on nature and the Earth, is being pushed to its final conclusion. The mechanism of that global class war is primarily three-fold. It is economic warfare; it is a propaganda war; and it is a vicious and ruthless campaign of global psychological warfare. And of course, if you are waging an imperial war, a class war, and a war on the people, then anything that empowers the people needs to be destroyed, including religion, freedom of speech and assembly, freedom of travel, freedom of conscience, thought and belief, freedom of the press, and including liberty, constitutional rule and democracy, themselves. This is what needs to be understood now – and resisted, fought, and defeated.

Remember, the people outnumber the elite, by a million to one. Furthermore, the elite are utterly dependent upon the people, and need the people, but the people do not need the elite. They are parasitic, as well as sociopathic, ecocidal, genocidal, and literally neo-fascist – and they are in no way necessary to the continuance of human life, or human well-being, or the health and future of the planet, but are, in fact, the primary obstacles, and the enemies, of all of these. That means that, we, the people, always have the greater power, as the great Scottish philosopher, David Hume also said. The empire must go, so that the people and the Earth may live. That is the plain and simple truth of it. But to accomplish that, we must defeat the elites’ propaganda war, above all.

Six corporations now control 80% of the major media of the world. And all of them are deeply invested in the Big Pharma criminal drug cartels, which is what they are. Anyone who watches, listens to, or reads the corporate-state “news”, or who thinks they have any remaining credibility, needs their head examined.

(See Chomsky’s, Necessary Illusions, and Manufacturing Consent. And yes, they are available in audiobook and film, for the intellectually lazy, who feel that “book” is a four-letter word. Question more, scroll less.)

As to the major political parties: They’re all neoliberals now. They have all accepted a de facto global government by the international banking and corporate elite, seated at Davos, as something that is either a good thing, or an inevitable thing, which cannot be fought. They have all, therefore, surrendered the sovereignty of their nations, and our democratic governments, to foreign powers, which makes them, by legal definition, guilty of treason. Worse, all the established parties are now cheer-leading for authoritarianism. The Davos corporate elite are in love with the totalitarian model of China, and are now importing it and imposing it upon the West and upon the entire world. The “leadership” of the established political parties, therefore, have either lost their souls, or lost their spines, in the face of a putsch by Davos, while the followers are gullible and docile as usual. Leadership will not come from that quarter.

Further: What’s the point of reading or listening to the faux left, is another good question, when they too have become clueless and befuddled, and can’t spot a fascist coup when it stares them in the face? Again, leadership will not come from that quarter, either.

The leadership must come from below, where, historically, it has always come from.

J. Todd Ring,
October 11, 2021

An interesting footnote: I stayed in a family hotel in Florence, which was a mansion during the Renaissance, where Dante himself stayed. I’d say I’m in good company. If the masses want to stampede across the river Styx into Hades, that’s their choice. It’s not mine.

Sometimes exile is the best option, as it was for Dante – if, that is, you want to preserve your integrity, and carry on the just fight, from stronger ground. Whether you relocate, go off-grid, or stay put, the fight is global, and it will not likely be over soon. This is the fight for the future of humanity. And you have to ask yourself: Are you on the side of the empire, or are you on the side of democracy and freedom? You cannot be on both sides at once.

https://open.spotify.com/episode/5hkiEW7NrPNzjMxktjyRg9…

The God Fetish, the God Phobia, and the Fetish of Words: Or, The Idolatry of Ideology

There are some who will read my writing and think – he’s a dangerous right-winger! But if they read more, they will realize that is obviously untrue. Others will decide I am a dangerous leftist extremist; but if they read on, they will understand that I advocate non-violence, freedom, democracy and constitutional rights – and if that makes me a dangerous extremist in the minds of some, then I would say they are dangerously delusional.

Others will read my writing and declare that, while they may agree with some of it, or maybe most of it, they lose me when I venture into the realm of spirituality or religion. To them I would say, keep an open mind. “There is more to heaven and earth than is contained in your philosophy.”

And then there are the religious fundamentalists, the sectarians, and the religious ultra-conservatives, who will feel that I am dangerously open to foreign, exotic influences. To them I say, I don’t think God has a fetish of names, and He, or She, cares little for our cherished ideologies, dogmas or sects. She is far beyond such narrow confines of little minds.

As the Tao Te Ching says, “Naming is the mother of the ten thousand things.” “The Tao that can be spoken is not the true Tao.”

Keep your cherished ideologies, philosophies, dogmas, theories or beliefs, clubs and sects, if you wish, but hold them lightly, or you will see nothing at all.

As always, “There is more day yet to dawn.”

JTR,
January 10, 2021

Primary Influences

What are my primary influences? Among them I would list these: Thomas Paine, Thomas Jefferson, Buddhism, Taoism, the perennial philosophy, Joanna Macy, Thomas Merton, Joseph Campbell, Martin Luther King Jr., Gandhi and Thoreau, along with the values of the Enlightenment: liberty, equality, solidarity – which I would like to see both defended and preserved, and lived up to, and the sooner the better.

In short, we are our brother’s keeper. But if we fall either to callousness, or to authoritarianism and illusions of control, then there will be hell to pay, for we will make a living hell on Earth. That is the crux of what I believe, and what I have to say. The power is in our hands, as always. It is up to us how or whether we will use it.

There are myriad other influences; I’ve cited them in extensive footnotes and references, bibliographies and reading lists. But these are some of the primary ones. A quick search of my blog for “reading”, “philosophy”, and the like, or the short article, Flash-Drive Revolution, will provide a great many resources, along with my first two published books: Enlightened Democracy, and, The People vs The Elite.

“Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth.”
– Henry David Thoreau

“I fear no truth, and fear no falsehood.”
– Thomas Jefferson

“We have it in our power to begin the world over again.”
– Thomas Paine

JTR,
January 10, 2021

The Definition Of A Warrior

Here is a good working definition of a warrior. Chogyam Trungpa or the 13th Dalai Lama can explain it better. (See, Shambhala: The Sacred Path of the Warrior, and The Bodhisattva Warrior.) I am only a student of the sages, even if, as a scholar, my writing frankly has few peers. Nevertheless, I think the following thoughts are worthy of reflection.

A true warrior commits to compassionate action, for the benefit of all sentient beings, and commits to pursuing the truth, and speaking the truth, to that end. There is no other summary or definition of what it means to be a warrior that I feel has any merit, or at least, any real depth. That includes speaking the truth even when it is unpopular, even when it is dangerous to do so. To do otherwise means that you are not a warrior, nor even, a decent human being, but a hollow shell, a sham, morally bankrupt, and a coward.

When Chomsky said, quite rightly, “If the Nuremberg Trials were held today, every US President since World War II would be hung”, that was an unpopular thing to say, but it needed to be said. The same is true for the covid hysteria. The crisis is real, but widely misunderstood. Worse, the crisis is being cynically used by elites to advance their own agenda, and as always, it revolves around greater power and wealth for themselves – and a good 70-80% of the people are silently acquiescing to the new gospel narrative and the power grab which it covers, or are actively, though unwittingly, aiding and abetting it.

A few people question the official narrative, but not many. Most are either subjugated into unthinking obedience by indoctrination and propaganda, or are cowed into silence, fearing to raise their voices, lest they incur the wrath of the obedient herd. They are cowards, and they are endangering us all, far more than would ever dare to imagine.

Speak the truth. Seek the truth, and speak the truth, no matter how uncomfortable or unpopular that may be; or else surrender to the new normal, of vacuous obedience to power, and docile conformity, even at the expense of your own sanity and capacity for rational thought – even at the expense of your freedom, your dignity, and your soul.

The majority of people are motivated by ego and the pursuit of comfort. They imagine themselves to be moral and decent, but, at least in this decadent age, it is largely a ruse, and a self-deception. They have basically decent impulses, as Chomsky said, but no courage. When their conscience or compassion conflict with their desire for comfort, or to be liked, they choose the latter. But as Gandhi said, “Cowards can never be moral.”

They herd are terrified of being driven out of the herd. The herd instinct makes them strong, in that they naturally tend towards compassion, empathy, solidarity, cooperation and mutual aid; but it also makes the majority cowardly, because they are afraid to risk losing the perceived safety of the herd.

This is why all significant positive change in human society has always come, and will always come, from a small, dissident minority. It was the small minority that led the movements for democratic revolution in America and France, the movement to abolish slavery, to gain universal suffrage, to end child labour and racial segregation, and on and on the list goes. Only when the brave minority, through tireless action, and tirelessly speaking the truth, reach a tipping point in terms of getting their message across to the broader society, do the majority decide, and usually rather quickly, that they are now on the side of the right and the truth, and they join in, as late-comers, in the drive for positive social change.

So, keep up the fight. Non-violently of course. Seek the truth, and speak the truth. There is more day yet to dawn. The revolution has only begun; and so too, the new renaissance.

Freedom and compassion must be united, just as the people must be united, or our future is dark. This is the central principle upon which an enlightened democracy is founded. But in order to achieve that end, we must speak up. We must question more, think for ourselves, and speak the truth, as best we understand it. This will lead us to a better world. Nothing else will – certainly not technocratic plutocracy and fascism, which is what we have now.

J. Todd Ring,

January 10, 2021

#covid, #covid-19, #coronavirus, #propaganda, #Warrior

Rescuing Plato, Rescuing Ourselves

Despite the fact that Western civilization (sic) has greatly venerated and virtually worshipped the ancients of Greece and Rome, in reality, they had little to offer in terms of philosophy. (I will qualify and elaborate on this broad statement in a moment.) That being said, modern philosophy, from Descartes through to the currently fashionable fascism and post-modernism – both of them being based in dangerous nihilistic delusions – is in general a dung hole, and should be suitably flushed, or at least, set aside for a couple of hundred years, until we can see it with fresh eyes.

In that context, it would be most helpful to rescue Plato and the ancients from the memory hole. Though the ancient Greeks and Romans have been overly emphasized, as well as dimly understood, they still have important things to teach us – if we have ears to hear, eyes to see, and, an ability to think critically, and do not simply worship at someone’s feet, or alternately, glibly reject them out of hand.

(I like rigour of thought; but I am not a fan of the narrow-minded and blinkered, authority-worshipping, pseudo-intellectual, prickly scholasticism that has come over Western society in these past few centuries since the Council of Nicaea, particularly within academia and “intellectual culture”, and which gilds the mind-forged manacles, as Blake so aptly called them, which we have come to worship in the place of knowledge, wisdom and truth, or any other sensible values. There are glowing exceptions to the general decline in Western philosophy since the Renaissance. Let Montaigne and Etienne de La Boite, rather than Newton, Bacon and Descartes, be considered the foundations of the modern world from hence forth, and we will be on far better and more sure footing. If you insist on a canon, which is always a risky thing to do, but valid enough, and useful, if done with intelligence, let these bright lights be among them: Spinoza, Hume, Emerson, Thoreau, Kropotkin, Aldous Huxley, Alan Watts, Erich Fromm, Joseph Campbell, Allan Wallace, Joanna Macy, Ken Wilber, Rianne Eisler, Murray Bookchin, Noam Chomsky, Morris Berman, Helena Norberg-Hodge, Vandana Shiva, Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Paine, and the writings and speeches of Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. Is there room for democracy, freedom, constitutional rule, human rights, tolerance and diversity, and science and spirituality both, along with philosophy? Naturally, and these things should be considered to be fundamental – which they are. Maybe with a fresh perspective, in this new millennium, we can actually begin to live up to calling ourselves a civilization.)

Aside from Socrates, who asserted little of his own views, but instead urged us to question everything, and Plotinus, who was the last of the ancient philosophers, and the best, there is no single philosophy from ancient Greece or Rome that can, or should, be taken off the shelf and accepted as a complete, ready-to-use philosophy, on its own. Aside from Plotinus, all of them offered defective and confused philosophies, and the best we can do with them, is to take what is valuable from each, and leave the rest behind. That includes Plato and Aristotle, the two most influential of all.

Plato was rabidly anti-democratic, and urged a totalitarian elite rule, by what he called philosopher kings. This should strike any sane person as an extremely dangerous idea, destined to create tyranny and a nightmare society. (My first essay in philosophy, in year one of university, was to rebut Plato’s philosophy of benevolent dictatorship by philosopher kings.) But this idea of wise and benign dictatorship has been glowingly and eagerly embraced by generations of self-deluding elites, for centuries and millennia; just as it is again today, with the Davos/Bilderberg billionaire oligarchs, who literally call themselves the masters of the universe, insanely, thinking themselves to be on a messianic mission to save us from ourselves, through bringing in a benign, highly scientific, technocratic fascism (which Huxley warned us about) – ruled by themselves, of course.

The Western power elite seem clearly to be ruled by a set of delusions elaborated by a bastard hybridization of Plato – the idea that the wise and benevolent ruling elite, as philosopher kings, should rule; Machiavelli – power is the only value, and any means are valid to achieve it; Hobbes – centralization of power is is necessary and good, or, more delusions of self-justifying and self-serving elite rule), Neitzsche – yes, he fell into nihilism, and yes, the elite are nihilists, as well as egomaniacs and sociopaths, as all power-mongers are; post-modernism – polysyllabic psychobabble based in nihilism and relativism), Malthus (yes, the elite are neo-Malthusian, with all the grim horrors that implies), and above all, Spencer (the godfather of Social Darwinism, who put forward the view most beloved by elites ever since: the view that extreme inequality, and extreme concentrations of wealth and power, are natural, normal, and good – the view that the might makes right, and the powerful are justified in devouring the planet, the poor, and everyone else.

*

Aristotle was more sane, with regards to political philosophy, arguing for democracy and equality. But Aristotle leaned toward a materialist reductionist worldview, and hence, was also partially crippled in mind, and not at all to be embraced uncritically.

If, however, we approach philosophy, not as a canon, but as a body of thought, then we can perhaps think critically, and look at what is valuable, if anything, in various works of philosophy, and not be so naive, or unduly deferential and mousy, as to believe that it is impossible to separate the wheat from the chaff, or, heaven forbid, to synthesize and combine the best elements from various philosophies and thinkers.

For example, and chiefly, perhaps, we need to look at Plato and Aristotle more critically, and not simply embrace or reject them, but embrace and reject what is suitable to be embraced or rejected.

If we take Plato’s metaphysics, or ontology, if you prefer the term – which assert a unity of being, echoing the perennial philosophy, to use the phrase of Leibniz, or, the mono-myth, as Joseph Campbell called it – and reject his elitist call for totalitarianism; and we take Aristotle’s very sensible and prescient observations asserting that democracy is best, despite its flaws; but reject his materialist reductionism; and instead, combine Aristotle’s sensible love of democracy with Plato’s metaphysics of the unity of being: then we have an intelligent philosophy, based in the ancients, but not blindly bound to their mistakes, which can guide us well through the 21st century and beyond.

Aristotle, we should note, had the good sense to recognize that both wealth and economic power (which of course inevitably follows from wealth) tend to concentrate in a market-based economy: and if this trend is not checked, and policies put in place to redistribute wealth, then the rich will take over, and it will be a plutocracy, an oligarchy, not a democracy – and democracy will collapse, be eaten alive by the rising oligarchy (then as now), or alternatively, implode under the weight of civil unrest.

Aristotle presaged FDR. Roosevelt understood that if some measure of redistribution of wealth, and some measure of aid and protection for the poor, some degree of intelligent responsiveness to inequality, are not undertaken, then revolution would be the result. He was right. As JFK said, Those who make non-violent revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable. For those who fear or are averse to revolution (I am not one) this sage advice cannot be ignored.

In 2020 we were beset by a new problem, which is really an old problem, in a new form. A crisis is being cynically used by powerful individuals for personal gain. Hardly anything new. (See The Shock Doctrine.)Powerful elites are seeking more power. This is also hardly anything new, but as dangerous as ever – and more dangerous than ever before, because the power of the global elite is now far greater than that of the Nazis, the fascists of the 1930s and ’40s, or any of the kings or emperors of the past 5,000 years. If we cannot learn from history now, at this critical juncture in time, and learn from philosophy as well, then we are indeed headed, and in fact plunging, into an extremely dark and dystopian world.

*

The Stoics deserve a brief mention only, and only because there is a growing new fetish for that grim philosophy of complacency. Stoicism is indeed a grim philosophy. It is the valuing of silent acquiescence and servility as the highest value. How dismal and pathetic. It echoes Confucianism in the East – which is the still-reigning religion, in truth, of modern 21st century China: “Know your place. Shut up and do what you’re told.”

No wonder the Taoists have mocked the Confucianists for over two thousand years – as they should. Stoicism, old or new, as with Confucianism – or the neo-Confucian/Maoist/Leninist/neo-feudal corporatism of contemporary China – deserves to be mocked, and to be rejected entirely.

Of course, even in a sewage pit, you can sometimes find little treasures. It is no different with regards to philosophy. There are elements of Stoic philosophy which are valuable, though the whole is a stinking bog, and a cesspool of the mind. The valuing of inner calm and composure, resilience and inner peace, are of course appealing to many people. But the Buddha offered a sure path to these goals, without the self-castration or self-evisceration entailed in Stoic deference to power and the status quo – whatever that happens to be; and without the perverse worshipping of repression as a pinnacle value, or the deranged notion that anything good can come through the staunch refusal to feel either pain or pleasure, sorrow or joy, or any human feelings at all. No, if you want inner strength, inner peace, inner calm, composure and resilience, there are better places to look, and better approaches to take, than to submit to the eye-gauging and soul crushing philosophy of the Stoics. Buddhism is just one option which infinitely supersedes this dismal quagmire. (Taoism and Liberation Theology are two more, among many.)

Post-modernism, and the ever-fashionable fetish among elites which is fascism – both of which being forms of nihilism – have resurrected the rotting corpse of ancient Sophism. Let’s just say that if nothing matters, in our deluded minds, then the holocaust, and the killing of millions of people, was a perfectly acceptable act, and not a crime of any kind. Of course, most people have a basic sanity, and therefore, they recognize that mass murder is not an acceptable thing, but a horrific and despicable act by deranged and dangerous people who should never be allowed to wield power. The lesson has not yet been learned, however – either by the delusional elite, nor by the masses, who allow them to rule, and allow them to repeat the horrors of history, in ever new and more dangerous forms.

If we, the people, are at all sane – and I am convinced that, despite the mass propaganda and the mass indoctrination, most people still possess common sense and basic sanity – then we will remove the power-hunger elite from power, and restore democracy and freedom, and constitutional rights for all, and immediately.

If we are not so lucid or so wise, then we will simply repeat the worst mistakes of history, all over again, and the bloodshed, and the horror, will be on our hands, and on our conscience, forever.

“The greatest of philosophers have found answers to life’s problems,

not just in theory, but in practice.”

– Henry David Thoreau

Act now.

J. Todd Ring,

January 3, 2021

Further Reading:

(A very short and incomplete list, naturally)

C. Wright Mills, The Power Elite

Noam Chomsky, Necessary Illusions, Year 501, and Class Warfare

Peter Phillips, Giants: The Global Power Elite

Naomi Klein, The Shock Doctrine

John Perkins, The New Confessions Of An Economic Hitman,

and, A Game As Old As Empire

Joseph Campbell, The Hero With A Thousand Faces

Joanna Macy, World As Lover, World As Self

Aldous Huxley, The Perennial Philosophy

Allan Wallace, Choosing Reality

Rianne Eisler, The Chalice and The Blade

Murray Bookchin, The Ecology of Freedom

Erich Fromm, Escape From Freedom

Bertrand Russel, Roads To Freedom

and my own first two books:

Enlightened Democracy

and

The People vs The Elite

Knowledge Is Power. Panic Is Death. Reconnection Is Resilience

Amidst the current global pandemic of fear, what is most urgently needed is perspective.

What must be done? In sum, we must disconnect from a dying system which is sucking the life out of us, out of humanity, and out of the planet, and thereby stop supporting it, stop feeding it, and stop giving it our energy and our power. Power structures only have power when the people give them their power. When the people stop giving them their power, they collapse, as we saw in the Soviet Union and Eastern Bloc. Remember that. That is the key. We must disconnect and decouple from dying, life-destroying systems, patterns and structures of power, and reconnect with community, nature, and our deeper selves. That will radically empower the people, while removing power from the system which feeds off the people and keeps them subjugated and in virtual chains. Only then can we begin to truly heal our world, and heal our communities and ourselves in the process.

Here are some thoughts on how we can make that shift, with the results being greater awareness, greater aliveness and empowerment, greater resilience, and a healing of ourselves, our families, our communities, our society, and the beautiful, fragile, highly resilient planet that is our home.

Belief in technology as salvation, or worse, technocracy as salvation, is a thought pattern stemming from poverty consciousness, scarcity consciousness, inner impoverishment, weakness, delusion, alienation and fear – and the belief that either technology or technocracy will be our saviour, will, I assure you, lead us into slavery, dystopia, and the slow and painful death of our species.

Knowledge is power. Bacon was right about one thing, at least.

People are afraid of wolves, coyotes, snakes, bugs, bears…the flu. Our ability to assess danger rationally in our modern, coroporate ruled, media manipulated, techno-entranced, deeply alienated society, is near zero, it would seem.

In terms of modern man’s fear of nature, it is, by and large, utterly unwarranted. Respect and alertness are needed – not fear. Nature is far safer than “civilization.”

Despite delusional and misplaced fears, which are pandemic, unless you do something stupid: like keeping food or toothpaste in your tent (bears will investigate anything with a scent that just may conceivably mean edible items), or feeding bears, or trying to pet bear cubs; or unless you’re in grizzly country, rattlesnake country, or polar bear territory, in the desert, British Columbia, the jungle or the far north; your chances of being attacked by dangerous creatures are nearly zero – in the wilderness, that is. 

The city is far more dangerous than the wilderness. Bad drivers can kill you. Even if you’re just crossing the street. Or the smog and pesticides will give you with cancer, or the stress will give you a heart attack. 

Get out of the city. Read Thoreau. Don’t follow the lost herd. Definitely don’t follow the media, the government, the technocrats or bureaucrats, the elite, or the “authorities”.

Think for yourself. Eat organic, lower your stress, exercise, and don’t believe the hype.

Most dangerous of all, statistically, are obesity and poor diets, along with poverty and malnutrition, pharmaceuticals, and cars. Covid is no more dangerous than the flu, the figures now confirm.

0.26% mortality rate for covid-19, compared to 0.1% typically for the flu, so it is slightly higher for covid-19, but still miniscule compared to cancer, poverty, hunger, malnutrition, obesity, death by pharmaceuticals, junk food, or cars. Even bathtub drownings killed more people in Japan than covid-19. Check and verify the figures for yourself. Look at the Italian government study, for a start. (See Trends Journal and GreenMedInfo for further evidence-based information and analysis.) 

Yet the lemmings panic on cue, like Pavolv’s dogs, and stay rigidly in denial of the really big dangers: growing environmental disaster, pollution, war, poverty, obesity, fast food, junk food, pesticides, and fascism.

(See my essays: Importing From China, Any Enemy Will Do, Geopolitics 2020, Trump Says Up, You Say Down… Reality Check, and, Danger & Delusion From ISIS To Ebola)

Don’t be manipulated by fear-mongering media, or elites who cynically use fear to their advantage.

Remember:

Divide and conquer is the oldest and most essential maxim and strategy of control, used by all empires, including the latest: the global neofeudal empire of technocratic corporate fascist oligarchy.

And as we also know, in terms of the corporate-state media and the elite:

If it bleeds it leads.

Necessary Illusions are good for plutocrats.

Manufacturing Consent is the basis of elite-ruled pseudo-democracy.

And any crisis will do for Shock Therapy.

Stay calm, boost your immune system naturally, with real food, omega-3s and vitamins C and D, exercise, sunlight, love and joy – and question everything.

Above all, it’s what you put in your mouth, as in, “food-like substances” which really should not be ingested, along with certain pharmaceuticals and injections, which are the biggest danger.

Get outdoors. Do your own research. And embrace your power.

Real power comes from within – and it is quiet confidence, energy and strength, that does not need to be showy or to boast.

After inner power and inner resilience, comes the power of community, and the power of nature. Build your connections on these three levels, along with a healthy body, mind and spirit, and your empowerment and resilience will grow.

Read, reflect, make time for solitude and nature, build networks of mutual aid, and we will, in the process, heal ourselves, our families, our communities, and our world.

Disconnect first. Then only can you truly connect to others, to the natural world, to your deeper self, or even to reality. Dissociation from reality is the great plague of the modern 21st century world. We are enmeshed and entangled in webs of illusion, and in systems and patterns which alienate us from one another, from nature, and from ourselves. We must, therefore, disconnect from human systems that are, to a high degree, based in delusion and dissociation from reality, in order to better connect to the real world, to ourselves, and to one another.

If you have not yet, then begin now: learn to love books, reading, reflection, solitude and nature; and the nourishing of your body, your spirit, and your mind.

Rediscover your love for others, for community, for the natural world, for humanity, for the Earth, for learning, for creativity, free expression, and for yourself. We all had these things naturally as small children. We have been socially conditioned to lose them, to deny them, and to suppress them. But they can and must be rediscovered – especially now, when our world is in crisis. These are the core things which will heal our world, our communities, and ourselves. Not technocracy, not Big Brother, not plutocratic elites posing as saviours, not technology, not drugs: it is love and wisdom which will heal us and our world. That requires that we disconnect from certain things, and reconnect with others.

Disconnect, listen, observe, read, reflect – these things are critical. Make the time. Nourish your body, and also your mind and your spirit. Then you can reconnect with life in deeper, healthier, more joyful, empowering, and more meaningful ways.

We must disconnect and decouple from the systems, patterns, thinking, organizations, groups and substances which drain our energy, deplete us, divide us, further alienate us, exploit us, degrade us, or make us sick. That generally comes in small steps; although, many have taken great leaps, as have I, many times, and that works too. Sometimes small steps are all that is possible. Sometimes a great leap is required to save our sanity, our soul, or our very lives.

We must examine things for ourselves, question everything, and decide for ourselves what is truly life-supporting, nourishing, or life-enhancing, and what things merely give the illusion of being life-supporting, nourishing or life-enhancing, but in truth degrade, disempower, alienate, exploit or impoverish us, drain us or enslave us. We must unplug, pause, and reflect deeply, in order to even begin to think clearly, or to see what is going on.

Excessive time spent staring into electronic screens, excessive time spent in buildings or cars, the mainstream media in general, the corporate world and corporate culture in general, the fiat money system, the myriad “food-like substances” which are in truth more poison than nourishment, along with the fundamental, root poisons, which are ignorance, greed and hate: these are among the things we must disconnect from, and which literally and figuratively drag us down.

Some things require a complete disavowal and refusal, such as crack cocaine or hillbilly heroine, or other dangerous drugs and other addictions, for people who have succumb to them. I would place the major media and the Fortune 1000 biggest corporations in that category, as well: they are poison, and they are life-destroyers. They must be boycotted and renounced.

Other things, like the internet, the phone or the TV, simply require a more balanced approach, and frequent disconnection, rather than permanent disconnection. (Although, I respect people who choose to eliminate them entirely from their lives, especially TV, and there are good reasons for such a response.)

But I leave it to you to decide what we must disconnect from, either completely or periodically, for greater well-being, quality of life, health, healing, ethical standards, empowerment, fulfillment, the healing of ourselves and our world, and simply for greater aliveness and joy.

There is much entanglement and much debris in our minds and our lives. Clearing our minds and our lives of entanglements and debris, and clearing away physical and mental toxins, is vital now.

Disconnect: We must first disconnect in order to reconnect; and thereby, live and love more fully, and with greater empowerment and joy. Then only, come the revolutionary changes and the regeneration we urgently need.

Reconnect: with others, with nature, and above all, with your deeper self. That is where our true power, liberation and resilience lie. Not in drugs, not in money, not in material things; and certainly not in cynical elites posing as the protectors and saviours of humanity.

A global awakening of humanity is underway, and is growing with accelerating speed. Remember that. The people will triumph. The oligarchs of East and West will fall. Our world will be healed, and regenerated, and the people will be free.

J. Todd Ring,

September 9, 2020

Further reading:

My first two published books:

Enlightened Democracy: Visions For A New Millennium

And

The People vs The Elite: A Manifesto For A Democratic Revolution, Or, Survival In The 21st Century & Beyond

And see my other recent essays:

Flash Drive Revolution

The Death and Rebirth of Freedom and Democracy

Covid Update

Any Enemy Will Do

Importing From China

Sinking All Ships (But Our Own)

Geopolitics 2020

Global Overview 2020

The Certainty Of Death, Or The Death Of Certainties

Also critically important:

The Hero With A Thousand Faces – Joseph Campbell

World As Lover, World As Self – Joanna Macy

Choosing Reality – Allan Wallace

The Protestant Ethic & The Spirit Of Capitalism – Max Weber

The Pathology Of Normalcy – Eric Fromm

The Corporation – Joel Bakan

Brave New World – Aldous Huxley

Brave New World Revisited – Aldous Huxley

Roads To Freedom – Bertrand Russell

Mutual Aid – Peter Kropotkin

The Empathic Civilization – Jeremy Rifkin

The Ecology Of Freedom – Murray Bookchin

The Chalice & The Blade – Rianne Eisler

Wisdom of the Elders – David Suzuki

The Wayfinders – Wade Davis

Stolen Continents – Ronald Wright

Year 501: The Conquest Continues – Noam Chomsky

A Short History Of Progress – Ronald Wright

Collapse: How Societies Choose To Fail Or Succeed – Jared Diamond

Necessary Illusions – Noam Chomsky

Class Warfare – Noam Chomsky

The New Confessions Of An Economic Hitman – John Perkins

The Shock Doctrine – Naomi Klein

The End of America – Naomi Wolf

The American Deep State: Wall Street, Big Oil & The Attack On American Democracy – Peter Dale Scott

Iron Heel – Jack London

1984 – George Orwell

Giants: The Global Power Elite – Peter Phillips

The Power Elite – C. Wright Mills

The New Rulers of the World – John Pilger

A Game As Old As Empire – John Perkins

Escape From Freedom – Eric Fromm

Shambhala: The Sacred Path Of The Warrior – Chogyam Trungpa

The Discourse On Voluntary Servitude – Etienne de La Boitie

Walden, and, On Civil Disobedience – Henry David Thoreau

The Plague: Then & Now

Europe did not respond well to the biggest plague in its history, in 1347-1351, to put it mildly – with anti-semitism, pogroms, scapegoating, witch trials, burning heretics at the stake, torture, self-flagellation, misanthropy, self-loathing, death cults, cultural morbidity and dark obsessions, paranoia, highly dubious medical practices, xenophobia, soaring cultural and religious intolerance, dogma, conformity and group-think, etc.

But, to be fair, the Black Death did kill 30% of the population. Many people were sadly but understandably panicked. We have panicked, in 2020, over what amounts, statistically, to the common flu.

(Nerves of steel, I tell you. Clear-mindedness under pressure – to astounding degrees.)

By comparison, fewer than 300,000 have died globally from covid-19, which is comparable in death rates to the annual flu – with 300,000-700,000 deaths per year. That’s fewer than *one death per ten thousand people* from covid-19, versus *one in three dead* from the Plague.

We have utterly lost all perspective. The people have broadly lost their minds. Mass hysteria reigns.

“The study of contemporary archives suggests a mortality varying in the different regions between one-eighth and two-thirds of the population, and the French chronicler Jean Froissart’s statement that about one-third of Europe’s population died in the epidemic may be fairly accurate. The population in England in 1400 was perhaps half what it had been 100 years earlier; in that country alone, the Black Death certainly caused the depopulation or total disappearance of about 1,000 villages. A rough estimate is that 25 million people in Europe died from plague during the Black Death. The population of western Europe did not again reach its pre-1348 level until the beginning of the 16th century.” – Britannica

One in three dead, vs one in 10,000, or less. Yes, we have lost our minds. The response has no sane or rational connection to the reality.

Orwell would understand, as would Huxley. This is not complicated; but it does require a willingness to fact-check, to question authority, the media, the elite, and the standard narrative.

It requires a willingness to deal with reality. So far, that has been lost by the vast majority. That is the real plague: a plague of the mind. And Blake, as well, would understand that.

Everywhere, “The mind-forged manacles.”

Covid-19 is literally one ten-thousandth as deadly as the Plague – and about as dangerous as the common flu. And yet, people have lost their minds to hysteria, panic and fear. Why? Because they are easily manipulated by fear-mongering governments, elites, and the media.

And they are not only losing their minds and their perspective, but also their democracy and their freedoms, as a result.

Pretty poor showing so far. We have definitely returned to the dark ages.

Witch burning, anyone? How about a nice burning of the heretics, hmm?

Worse, we have all that, in essence, along with a modern technocratic, highly Orwellian police state.

Yes, we are in grave danger. But it is not due to a germ.

In the 1930s, the first wave of fascism arose; and the people recognized it, resisted it, and defeated it. In 2020, we have the culmination of a slow motion global corporate fascist coup – and the people see it not.

Their minds have been high-jacked. The psyops propaganda war has been perfected. And this time, the fascists are winning, while the masses are lost in panic and delusion, over an “invisible enemy” – over a germ.

But it ain’t over ’till it’s over. The people are awakening.

JTR,

May 9, 2020

Moral bankruptcy in a time of “plague”

 

20,000 children die a day of hunger, and nobody notices, nobody makes a peep: outcry is basically zero. But a new strain of the flu (statistically less dangerous than the typical annual flu) scares people into thinking THEY themselves are in danger, and everyone loses their mind. Clearly, we are a morally bankrupt society.

We’ve had an international social, political, and economic order based on mass looting, conquest, rape and pillage for thousands of years – and nobody raises an eyebrow. But a germ comes along that might affect the privileged, affluent regions of the world, and everyone goes insane. 

Again, we are a morally bankrupt society, without question. All pretence of caring for the sick, and ending unnecessary suffering and death, is a joke and a deceit. If we were serious about such things we would end war and poverty. Clearly, we are not serious in the slightest.

6.5% of global GDP, according to the IMF, or five trillion dollars a year, goes to subsidizing the fossil fuel industry. Another two trillion, at least, goes to war, militarism, and the growing global police state. If we were serious about human health and well-being, we would end this mass subsidy to slaughter, planetary destruction, plunder and the police state, and end poverty and war. Clearly we are not serious.

As Chomsky has said, This is a business-run society, whose cardinal value is deceit. That is the problem. Anyone who cares about human health or well-being must first start by dealing with reality.

You who scream your venomous, hate-filled attacks on anyone who questions the new global police state, and in effect beg for your chains: your moral arguments are hollow. You surely, secretly know this, in your heart of hearts; which is why the venom and the screams are so extreme, and extremely insane.

JTR,

May 8, 2020

Flash-Drive Revolution – and – Who To Trust?

An idea for strategy is presented here in extremely concise form – an idea which could be decisive, and critical, to our survival, and our success.

Plus: Who To Trust?

Amidst Protests, Uprisings, Simmering Revolt and Revolution, and A New Renaissance Emerging,

vs

Reactionary Efforts of The Establishment Powers of Entrenched Global Neo-Feudal Corporate Oligarchy To Resist Change, and To Consolidate Their Power, The Question Arises:

Who Can We Trust, Who Is Worthy of Support, and Who Can Put Things Into Perspective?

*

Humanity is experiencing a global awakening, and the birth of a new renaissance, along with the birth pangs of a new, global wave of popular protests, uprisings, and democratic revolutions.

At the same time, and deeply inter-related, there is a deep and growing crisis of legitimacy facing the world’s business and political “leaders” – the elite – along with the media, political and economic institutions, and social systems, structures, institutions and powers broadly.

We are now, in 2020, entering the global showdown phase of that most central conflict: between a global awakening of consciousness and culture, an emerging new renaissance, and a new wave of global uprisings and democratic revolutions; and the elite powers and oligarchies that wish to halt them, and to retain their stratospheric power and privilege, their oligarchy, and their de facto global rule.

It is, in short, a global showdown between the people and the oligarchy – between the people, and the ruling elite.

Public trust in political and business elites has crashed through the floor, and are at historically low levels. Public trust in the media has likewise collapsed.

Pundits, academics and “experts” are now routinely called into question as well – and not surprisingly, when we repeatedly discover hidden motives, blind spots, outright lies or delusions, and frequent alliances with vested interests.

Everywhere, icons are toppling, people are questioning more and more – as they should, and must.

Everywhere, people are re-assessing basic questions, including, who can we trust? Who can be relied upon for generally reliable, as well as honest, thoughtful, and accurate information, and informed commentary and analysis?

Furthermore, who is truly worthy of support, and who is not?

In short, whom to trust, has become one of the central issues of our time, as old orders crumble and slowly die, yet fight to hold on; and a new world is not yet born.

For myself, as a Canadian, and after 35 years and more than 50,000 hours of intensive research, studies and reflection, I can offer a very short and incomplete list of some of the groups and organizations that I feel are most worthy of support, along with the sources of news and analysis that I hold to be most reliable. Remember, though: Think for yourself – and question everything.

Remember also, that good sources and worthwhile groups can be corrupted, co-opted, high-jacked, taken over, simply become lost, or positively go off the rails.

I don’t expect that to happen with any of my most trusted groups or sources, but we do live in strange and unpredictable times – so I would urge we take nothing for granted.

Question everything, and everyone. Trust is good, when it is warranted. It is good to have confidence in something, and in at least some few, as well as in the people and the Earth broadly.

So too, are vigilance, fact-checking, and above all, thinking for ourselves, very good, and essential, things.

*

News and Analysis:

Rocco Galati, Canada’s leading constitutional lawyer, and the Constitutional Rights Centre, which he founded

3,6,9 Media: Podcast founded by Rocco Galati

Vandana Shiva: A one-woman army, speaking truth in a time of global corporate take-over

Stand For Health Freedom: Not anti-vax – anti-authoritarian

The Defender: Podcast with RFK Jr. – also not anti-vax, but strongly anti-authoritarian

300K & The Voters Association of Canada

The People’s Party of Canada: A new federal Canadian political party bringing together people from across the political spectrum to stand united for one single issue of paramount importance: the defense of freedom, democracy, constitutional rule and human rights for all, in the face of a rapidly rising global authoritarianism

Trends Journal: Not even the best of the alternative media compares to Trends Journal for trend forecasting, trend analysis, and weekly news and analysis – and of course the major state and corporate media don’t remotely compare, being the propaganda systems for the ruling elite, as Chomsky has said, and thus, utterly unreliable.

The Shift – Podcast with Doug McKenty

The Last American Vagabond (strange title, but excellent content) – especially with Whitney Webb, who I believe to be, at this moment, the best investigative journalist alive

Geopolitics & Empire Podcast: Quality varies with the guest, but generally excellent, in-depth global analysis here, and from a refreshingly diverse set of guests and a diverse set of perspectives.

The American Herald Tribune: An independent media source that offers fiercely honest investigative journalism, news and analysis – Watch for Anthony (Tony) Hall, Robert David Steele, Philip Giraldi, Piers Robinson and Barbara Honeger in particular

The Corbett Report: Another excellent source of independent research, news and analysis – NOT always right, unsurprisingly, since few people are omniscient, but generally excellent

The Centre For Research On Globalization: Also generally excellent for independent research, news and analysis

21st Century Wire: This source is new to me, but a recent episode (from 2020) of the weekly podcast was so exceptionally insightful, to such a rare level or degree, that I feel I have to list it here, among the best of the best. The host Patrick Henningsen has a level of understanding of global issues and power dynamics, and media manipulations, which is very rare. If one episode can impress me this much, like rare few sources ever do, then I am sure he must do a very good job of cutting through the fog on a regular basis.

John Pilger: Veteran investigative journalist and documentary film-maker John Pilger is a one-man media army. When the world is filled with the sound and fury of all-pervasive propaganda, lies, half-truths and illusions, and the echochamber of elite-spun narratives, which is the major media, seems to drown out all possibility for truth, or even basic sanity, you can count on John Pilger to cut through the fog and the lies and the convenient self-deceptions, to get to the truth, and the real story behind “the news”.

The Empire Files, with Abby Martin: A fiercely independent source of news and analysis, Abby Martin is what an investigative journalist looks like – along with Whitney Webb, Aaron Mate, John Pilger, James Corbett, Jeremy Scahill, Glenn Greenwald, Matt Taibbi, and a handful of others left in the world.

GreenMedInfo: The most reliable, truly evidence-based source on health that I know of – in fact, the only reliable source remaining that I know of, other than Gary Null and RFK JR., now that most health information sources have fallen for the lies and hysteria that are broadcast and paraded, very much like a plague in fact, by the new axis of evil: Big Government, Big Media, and the Big Money powers that rule them both.

*

There are many other groups, movements and organizations in the world that are worthy of our support, of course. And there are a few other sources of news and analysis that are reliable – although, they are now extremely few, and increasingly rare, as well as increasingly censored and suppressed. But with even these few sources, and these few groups, and others like them, there is hope.

Everything is possible, and the future truly is in our hands.

What we do with that power, is entirely up to us.

Please be sure to read the important notes below, as well: sources for big picture perspective, and Flash-Drive Revolution.

JTR,
March 26, 2020

Post-Script:

Sources for big-picture perspective:

To compliment the short list of groups and news sources that I would consider worthy of our trust as well as our support, I would like to add a very short and incomplete list of authors and thinkers that I feel are extremely helpful in gaining clarity in terms of the big picture, and/or, in terms of in-depth analysis.

Again, there are millions and billions of voices out there, but only a handful rise to the level, in my mind, of being generally reliable sources of information, much less understanding and perspective. (Remember, few people are omniscient, to put it mildly. Let’s not expect infallibility. Question everything.)

These, to my mind, are among the best of the best, in terms of voices for big picture perspective, or in-depth analysis, or sometimes, rarely, both. Other people would present a different list. Here is mine. (In no particular order – and again, very incomplete.)

Henry David Thoreau

Etienne de La Boetie

Noam Chomsky

Peter Kropotkin

Bertrand Russell

Murray Bookchin

Rianne Eisler

Howard Zinn

C. Wright Mills

Peter Phillips

George Orwell

Aldous Huxley

Erich Fromm

Max Weber

Alan Watts

Allan Wallace

Joseph Campbell

Joanna Macy

Helena Norberg-Hodge

Vandana Shiva

Jeremy Rifkin

Naomi Klein

John Pilger

Gerald Celente

Michel Chossudovsky

Michael Hudson

Ellen Brown

Max Keiser

Yanis Varoufakis

James Corbett

Caitlin Johnstone

Abby Martin

Matt Taibbi

David C. Korten

David Suzuki

Arundhati Roy

Margaret Atwood

Ronald Wright

Maude Barlow

Paul Craig Roberts

Morris Berman

Stephen Toulmin

EF Schumacher

Gandhi

Martin Luther King Jr.

Peter Dale Scott

Anthony Hall

John McMurtry

Michael Albert

Chris Hedges

Cornell West

Piers Robinson

And my own writings, I would humbly submit:

my essays, here on my blog, along with my first two published books:

Enlightened Democracy: Visions For A New Millennium

and,

The People vs The Elite:

A Manifesto For Democratic Revolution,

Or, Survival In The 21st Century & Beyond

Both are available on Barnes & Noble and Amazon (though we should boycott the latter)

*

Flash-Drive Revolution:

As I have said before, and others have begun to say as well: censorship is increasing. The elite are scared – scared of change, scared of losing power. They are cracking down – especially on freedom of speech, and on dissent, as well as freedom of travel and freedom of assembly. (“Papers please.”)

I would urge people to begin backing up important texts, images, posters, data sets, videos, films, art and music that can be used in the fight for a better, freer, more just and clean, green, democratic world – and now.

Many of the best and most important writings, for example, are in the public domain. Others, like myself, are offering their work for free distribution.

Like most writers, I feel I am spiritually, intellectually, and culturally rich, but I am financially poor. Naturally I would like people to buy my books. But I certainly did not become a writer or a philosopher for the money. So, whether you do or not, and I ask that you do buy my books (mainly for my childrens’ sake); what is far more important to me is that the ideas and the writing be shared.

So, buy one copy, then share a digital copy with everyone you know, please. Hard copies, ebooks and audiobooks will be available for purchase, and I will also make electronic copies available for free, via Project Gutenberg, Librivox, my youtube channel and my blog.

Please take this document above, and my first two books, if you find them useful, and save them to a USB flash drive, along with other public domain writings you feel are  valuable or important  -Henry David Thoreau’s essay, On Civil Disobedience, for example, along with the UN Charter of Human Rights – or whatever you find relevant to the task at hand: and share them widely, everywhere.

These essays in particular I would encourage you to share, among others, from my blog:

Six Founding Principles Of Good Government

The Myth Of Progress – Pricking The Bubble

The Decline, Decay, Death and Rebirth of Democracy and Freedom

The Maxims of Empire (And the Maxims of Liberation)

The Failure of Propaganda

Decentralization & Localization, Or Collapse

Paradigm Shift

From Bankers Ruling The World, To The People Ruling The Bankers

along with several essays on mass digital addiction, the media, renaissance, enlightenment, and freedom of speech

If freedom of speech and dissent continue their current trend towards being censored and shut down, we will need alternative means of communicating. A Flash-Drive Revolution, sharing information and ideas freely, hand to hand, world-wide, by-passing the internet completely, could circumvent the oligarchs, and beat them. I think it is important, and it could imperative, and decisive. And I think we should begin right away – right now.

250 MB or even 1 terabyte USB flash-drives are becoming cheap. Use them. Bypass the closing down of society and free speech – while we still can.

Vive la revolution! For a just and free, clean, green, democratic society, and a better world for all.

And remember, We, the people, are the world’s other superpower – the greatest superpower.

Embrace your power now.

Let’s go.

Consider that the revolution has begun.

JTR,
March 26, 2020

With minor additions made in April 2021 – and an important note:

Some of the journals, organizations, individuals and media outlets listed above as being among the best, are no longer reliable, or have frankly become either addle-minded, or corrupted and co-opted – though it is hard to tell which it is – as was confirmed in 2020/2021: and that includes some of the vanguards of the progressives and the left. Where is the left in 2021? Largely lost, deeply befuddled, deluded, and profoundly confused. Question everything – and everyone. It is more imperative than ever.

Shatter the illusions of division, embrace diversity, and unity in diversity, and transcend the old partisan battle lines of conformity, hostility and group-think which divide us. Prioritize! Separate long term ideals from short term necessities – and uniting the people is the greatest and most urgent necessity of all. If we do not unite the people now, or very soon, we will all be slaves – make no mistake. Forget or at least temporarily set aside old notions of right and left. It is now the people vs the oligarchy. If we fail to understand that, we fail to understand everything. Do not be fooled by confused or deceitful narratives that divide us. Don’t succumb to fear, paranoia, or mistrust. But do question everything, and think for yourself. Above all, trust yourself. We build from there, or from nowhere.

*

Epilogue:

The following section of the original article, I just now removed. The groups and organizations I had mentioned, were doing excellent work, up until Covid-1984 hit, and the slow motion, global corporate-fascist coup began its final phase of completion. At that point, in 2020, most of the Left, seemed to have drunk the Kool-Aid, swallowed the official narrative, and most ominously, became either silent about the sudden rise of authoritarianism, or actively cheered for it. To this moment, as I write, most of the Left, along with most of the moderate Right and the centre, remain lost in a fog, and have no idea what is going on. That is giving them the benefit of the doubt. With some groups, NGOs, political parties, politicians and other individuals, they have simply sold their souls, and have jumped on board with the Davos-led fascist coup. So, here is the (partial) list of groups that I did support, up to early 2020. Assuming they still have a soul, maybe someone else can talk some sense into them. I have tried, and so far, they are deaf to reason, as well as to evidence. If any of them has come out in strong defense of civil liberties, human rights, constitutional rule and freedom, and in strong opposition to the “new normal” of police state authoritarianism, without me noticing, then they have my apologies. There is too much happening, far too fast, for me to babysit organizations that should know better than to support fascists.

Groups I (did) feel are most worthy of support, and news and analysis sources I have found to be among the most reliable:

This is what I wrote about them in the original article, in early 2020, before it became clear that they had lost all perspective, and lost their bearings:

A very short and incomplete list, focused primarily on Canadian groups and organizations

Idle No More: The Canadian indigenous rights group that has transformed the environmental movement, positively fused the indigenous rights movement to the environmental movement, and brought non-violent direct action into the mainstream – where it belongs, and must remain, until the job is done, and we live in a just and free, clean and green world.

The Council of Canadians: Canada’s leading citizen organization: building grassroots activism for a clean, green, just and free, peaceful, democratic society

The Canadian Centre For Policy Alternatives (CCPA): Canada’s leading progressive-left think tank, and one of the best in the world; publishes the journal, The Monitor

The David Suzuki Foundation: The leading environmental group in Canada, along with Idle No More and others. Founded by the most trusted person in Canada, according to a nation-wide poll: environmental scientist David Suzuki.

Here are the news and analysis sources that I listed in early 2020 as reliable, but which I no longer believe to be reliable at all. They still do excellent work on certain select issues, and often on many issues, but they are out to lunch with regards to the biggest issue of all, which is that we are now in the midst of a global corporate-fascist coup. How they fail to see this, is hard to fathom. I think my essay, Trump Says Up, You Say Down, explains a great deal. Now, they don’t dare to admit they were duped, and were wrong. Let the world burn to the ground, rather than have me admit I was wrong, because my ego is more important than the fate of humanity or the Earth, seems to be the unconscious driver of their psychology. And yes, that is a scathing critique, but any group or individual who consciously or even unwittingly supports fascism, deserves that scathing critique completely.

The Monitor: In-depth analysis from the Canadian Centre For Policy Alternatives

Canadian Perspectives: News and analysis from the front lines of the grassroots movements for democracy, justice, sustainability and peace – from the Council of Canadians

New Internationalist: Clarifying the real story on the biggest issues in the world for many decades now, NI is a rare gem, both as a journal, and as a grassroots networking organization, and also, as a publishing house. Or so it used to be, prior to 2020.

Z Magazine & Z Net: News and analysis, in-depth commentary, activism, networking and solidarity for social change: Z Net is a giant David, or army of Davids, in the global movement for a better world. It’s now being censored and suppressed, like many other sources and individuals that speak the truth, but it is alive and strong, and you can find them. And you should.

Stick with the best sources, in general, I would urge. But do read widely, discuss widely, and think for yourself, always.

JTR,
September 2, 2021

The Certainty Of Death, Or The Death Of Certainties

 

It’s amazing to me, to see, even in thoughtful writings, even in exceptionally thoughtful writing, which is as far above the norm as the moon is from the bottom of the ocean, that even there, certain cultural constructs of the mind, certain prejudices or pre-formed and unquestioned assumptions, certain axiomatic, ideological presumptions and certitudes, are passed along without thought – as if the author were merely remarking on the sky being blue, and everyone knew it, of course, so such notions need no argument or support, but are taken as fact. These ideological constructs and presumptions are castles made of sand, but the authors, including most of the better thinkers and scholars, and virtually all people at all times, assume them to be as certain as the law of gravity. The blind, unconscious, unquestioning assumption of ideological constructs is almost shocking – at least when it is seen in otherwise intelligent people and otherwise intelligent writings. Concepts such as progress, development, civilization and civilized, freedom and liberty, democracy, evolution, or “evolved”, are tossed about with utter casual manner, with no rigour, no questioning of their actual meaning: meaning, in practice, their meaning has no meaning; or worse, and more commonly, their meaning means precisely the opposite to what it is presumed to mean. Orwell understood these things well. The fact that the vast majority, including the vast majority of intellectuals, do not, is very dangerous indeed, to say it mildly.

Fascism, war, slavery, cultural arrogance, and a culture of blindness, ignorance and shared delusion, the death of democracy and freedom, ecological holocaust, and the collapse of civilization (sic), are the likely results, the almost certain and inevitable results, and soon, if we do not begin to question far more, and assume far less.

Fortunately, all such concepts, ideological constructs and cultural certitudes are now being called into question. And none too soon. Our certainties are quite literally killing us. They are also a prison, and shackles and chains, of our own making. Let us shatter them now. It is time.

JTR,

February 1, 2020

 

Post-Script:

See my essay, Fundamentalism and Relativism, in my first book, Enlightened Democracy, for further reflections on the middle way between extremes, which represents basic sanity. Also, watch for my new book, The People vs The Elite, which is being released now.

Get ready for some exciting, but possibly quite turbulent times. The proverbial shit is about to hit the fan. And as usual, that will have both positive as well as negative consequences and implications around the world.

The Decline Of The US Empire & The Rising Star Of Mexico

I’ve written extensively and in depth, for decades, in two published books and over a thousand published articles, with tens of thousands of references, on the rapidly shifting state of the world, the causes and major factors and historical unfolding of these changes, what it all means and entails, and what we must do about it. The following brief set of thoughts is the most concise possible summary of just one facet of these great, global tectonic shifts, which are now underway and accelerating fast. That is: a few brief, pithy thoughts on Mexico, the rising star of Latin America, in comparison with the declining and collapsing US empire and broader Western world.

Of course, no one should take my words as unquestionable gospel truth – nor take anyone’s word on anything: examine things for yourself; question everything. Think for yourself. These words should spark fresh thought, and begin a quest for truth and understanding, or galvanize and reaffirm such a quest. Provocative statements should spark thought and further the quest for truth, not curtail it. Let us bear that in mind always.

Amidst the US and Western media making its usual suspect and dubious pronouncements of “facts”, almost all of which are sheer propaganda, the actual facts, the truth, will sound shocking to some people. That is to be expected. The Western media is owned and controlled by the same oligarchy that seeks a consistent agenda around the world: divide, demoralize, disempower, dispirit, distract, loot, pillage and subjugate the people, by means of both propaganda and force, in order to further consolidate, protect and expand the power and wealth of the richest 1%. Of course the major media presents a make-believe image of the world, in order to camouflage the criminal actions of the elite, while deceiving the people into supporting, or at least docilely acquiescing to, the same criminal actions of the ruling oligarchy. How could we expect anything else of them?

The rising star of Mexico – and the declining, now collapsing, US empire and broader Western world: in a nutshell – a thesis to be corroborated or disproved, not simply skoffed away because it does not fit comfortably with our comforting delusions:

The reality is that Mexico, with the leadership of its new president, AMLO, is far more democratic, far more free, and far less corrupt, than the US, Canada, Britain or Europe. The corporate-state media won’t tell you that, of course, because they are deeply corrupt, functioning as a propaganda system for the ruling corporate oligarchy. If this is surprising to anyone, it means you need to read more, question more, and turn off the mainstream media. Now.

Question more. Assume less.

JTR,

February 7, 2024

P.S.:

Today I move to Mexico. At midnight I fly.

Worth watching:

Also worth watching, as more food for thought:

with my response to Ben Norton, on the video below:

My response:

Excellent as usual, Ben. Do have a look at my own work, as well. It’s all over the web.

Search:

J. Todd Ring:

Enlightened Democracy

The People vs The Elite

And much more…

On WordPress, Substack, Rumble, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and Amazon.

More food for thought:

And here is another excellent video short, with the excellent Mexican-based journalist, John Ackerman:

Also excellent:

And another important video short:

Another important video, with the excellent Mexican-based journalist, Kurt Hackbarth:

And here is Kurt Hackbarth, interviewed on one of my top sources, Geopolitics & Empire, with the venerable Hrvoje Moric:

(See you in Mexico, John, Kurt, and Hrvoje!)

Intellectual Self-Defence: Time For A Reading Sabbatical

To be brief:

The obsession with quantity and volume has to end. More is not always better. Quality matters most. But people in the 21st century are addicted to endless entertainment, distraction, empty and largely useless talk, and endless amounts of “news” and commentary. Unless we step back, pause, reflect, and do some serious reading, all of this endless flood of information is, quite simply, worse than useless – it is blinding, and it is a distraction. It is utterly counter-productive and simply self-defeating.

I would say that no one should be reading, watching or listening to “the news”, in any form, from any source, until they’ve at least read Chomsky’s Manufacturing Consent, and Necessary Illusions. Without that course in intellectual self-defence, they are simply far too easily manipulated, lied to, propagandized and deceived. Turn off all media and all electronics until you’ve read these two books, at a minimum. I would also frankly add my own, Enlightened Democracy, The People vs The Elite, The Collapse Of The West, and Slavery Or Rebirth; along with Henry David Thoreau’s, Walden, and On Civil Disobedience; and Vandana Shiva’s, Oneness vs The 1%.

It’s time for a reading sabbatical. Turn off the media and all electronics – and read.

JTR,

February 6, 2024

Here is a case study in propaganda, aka, “journalism” and “the news”:

The Death Of Materialism & The Rebirth Of The World

The Newtonian-Cartesian paradigm, or world view, of atomistic, dualistic, mechanistic reductionism, is a very recent, 400 year old delusion, a recent blink of the eye, and is now crumbling as an ideology, world view or paradigm. It is also by no means “scientific”. The evidence now refutes it. It is detritus, delusion, dogma, now refuted by quantum physics – and therefore, a thoroughly unscientific, lingering, but slowly dying, quasi-religious pseudo-science, clung to by dogmatic secular fundamentalists. Stop calling it scientific.

*

We could say, of course, that the 400 year old paradigm, or way of viewing the world, which is materialist reductionism, did have some degree of validity and usefulness – and that is true, of course. It divided the world, *in our minds*, into myriad, ever smaller pieces, giving rise to an explosion of knowledge about the way natural phenomena arise, change, and pass away. But knowledge is not understanding, much less wisdom. And dividing the world in our minds has ultimately proven disastrous – nay, catastrophic – leading us toward the brink of self-annihilation, while destroying and despoiling life on Earth at ever increasing speeds, and while producing great and increasing conflict, strife, alienation, inner hollowness, a terrible loneliness, sense of meaninglessness, and an insatiable hunger to fill the resulting inner void, leading to endless consumerism, materialism, escapism, addiction, voyeurusm, vicarious living, perpetual restlessness, anxiety, depression, mental illness and compulsive entertainment addiction, thereby accelerating the downward spiral, into further alienation, hollowness, and insanity. Clearly, this must change.

The world view of materialist-reductionism could also be described as a mental map, which all theories, dogmas, paradigms, philosophies and ideologies are. Some are more usrful or more destructive than others. Nazi idrology is incredibly destructive. Materialist reductionism, which is foolishly still referred to as “science”, is only slightly less destructive – and perhaps even more destructive.

Moreover, aside from usefulness versus destructiveness, a mental map, philosophy, paradigm or world view can be assessed based upon its degree of relative accuracy, in its ability to accurately describe the nature of reality. By that measure, as well as being incredibly powerful, in ways that have in some senses been useful and beneficial, and simultaneously, in other ways, being incredibly destructive, the materialist-reductionist paradigm has, of course, some degree of accuracy or validity. We know what molecules and atoms are, how metalurgy works, etc. But its accuracy is severely limited, as a mental construct, lens, map, or way of viewing the world. What we can call this Newtonian-Cartesian paradigm, which is atomistic, mechanistic, dualistic, and materialist-reductionist, is in some measure accurate, useful, and valid. But it also grossly distorts our perception of reality, life, the cosmos, and the nature of being and reality.

Imagine if you wanted to travel the world, and you had to choose between a map made in ancient Greece in 500 BC, and a map made in the 21st century using satellite imagery. Which one would be more accurate and more useful? Clearly the 2,500 year old map had some accuracy, validity and usefulness, but it was extrenely limited, with enormous blind spots, and enormous distortions of the real world. Well, our maps are outdated, once again. And the mental map which is the Newtonian-Cartesian, materialist-reductionist paradigm or world view, is now worse than outdated and obsolete – it must be abandoned, in light of the now mountainous and undeniable evidence, and it must be abandoned now, before our extremely distorted view of the world, destroys us all. Fortunately, this is exactly what is in the process of happening, as we speak.

*

A paradigm shift is underway. And the awakening has begun. Now, perhaps, we can begin to combine knowledge with wisdom, thereby saving ourselves from a self-made hell on Earth, and a self-generated final oblivion.

Reality is non-dual. Being is One. And thou art that.

But don’t take anyone’s word on things. Examine things for yourself. See for yourself.

Question everything. This is the path to enlightenment – and to a new renaissance, and a rebirth of our world.

JTR,

February 3, 2024,

Villa Samadhi,

Uruguay

(See Thomas Kuhn, The Structure Of Scientific Revolutions; Joseph Campbell, The Hero With A Thousand Faces; Aldous Huxley, The Perennial Philosophy; Alan Watts, The Book; Joanna Macy, World As Lover, World As Self; and Allan Wallace, Choosing Reality.)

A Trump Presidency In 2025: Fascism, National Rebirth, Or Civil War?

Let me start by saying that I speak from the libertarian left – meaning, I fiercely believe in freedom, compassion, voluntary mutual aid, decentralization, and the sovereignty of individuals, communities, and nations.

(Anarchism, I would urge, but only, “when men are prepared for it”, as Thoreau said – simply a better government, until then. See Henry David Thoreau’s, On Civil Disobedience, and, Why The Left Libertarians Are Right.)

The problem is not the people – neither black, white, brown, Christian, Jewish, Moslem, right or left. The problem is the ruling power elite, the oligarchs. And what’s more, the great majority of the people globally, now understand that. This is the crisis of legitimacy which the frantic elite are trying to curb with censorship and fascism; and which the people need to capitalize and act on, and now, before their prison state is fully built. DO NOT DELAY. WE MUST REMOVE THE OLIGARCHS FROM POWER NOW. THE ALTERNATIVE IS SIMPLY TOO BLEAK AND TOO DIRE TO CONTEMPLATE.

*

Let me also say that what is critical now, is to unite all people, right or left, who are anti-authoritarian. First, we must defeat the Davos-WEF/Blackrock communist-fascist billionaire coup that is underway and which is accellerating and escalating fast. We either unite the people now, or we will all be slaves. After defeating the new totalitarian oligarchy, then, with democratic power rightfully returned to the people, where it belongs, then we can debate and discuss all other issues – once our freedom, constitutional democracy and fundamental human rights are safeguarded and secured.

Thirdly, I must say in advance, I am not a Trump supporter, but I do think he is far less dangerous than the Wall Street/BlackRock /WEF/billionaire-controlled neo-con Republicans, or their siamese twins in the Davos/BlackRock-controlled neoliberal Democratic party.

As to Trump bringing fascism, two points:

First, he was already president – and it didn’t happen. The fear-mongering is delusional, deceitful, and hollow.

Secondly, and more important, fascism is already here. Anyone who thinks the US, Canada, Britain or Europe, are still liberal democracies, is living in a dream world. Listen to Gerald Celente and Rocco Galati, and read my essay, What Is Fascism?

Fascism is already here. You’d have to be living under a rock, or wildly delusional, not to see it.

*

Now, to condider what the likely Trump presidency in the US, in 2025, might actually mean, fairy tales and bogey men set aside:

First of all, could Trump win? Well, the fact is that roughly a third of the people in the US believe that he could and will save the country – they are his strong supporters. But another 20% or more, now feel that the Democrats have become so rabidly authoritarian, globalist, thoroughly in bed with big money, and deeply corrupt, not to mention war-mongering, that there is likely to be another 20% of independents, swing voters, and former Democratic voters who would support him over any “Democratic” candidate, other than RFK Jr. – who I believe is running as an independent, and who is sadly unlikely to win, due to the corporate stranglehold over the “election” system.

(RFK Jr. has adopted an indefensible stance on Israel and Gaza, yes; however, he would positively challenge the totalitarian drift that has been accelerating and intensifying since the Bush/Cheney regime and the Obama regime, which was not stopped or reversed by Trump, and which has been intensified and accelerated under the Biden regime. For that reason, he would be infinitely better than any conceivable “Democratic” candidate, or any “Republican” candidate, including Trump. But sadly, he is unlikely to win, yet.)

That makes an essy potential 50% of the popular vote for Trump, quite conceivable in the next US Presidential election, meaning, a virtually ensured victory for Trump.

Unless there is massive election fraud, again, which is now a bi-partisan tradition, in the new corporate-owned police state of the banana republic of the USSA – and election fraud is not just possible, but probable; unless a fair election can happen, and Trump is, secondly, not assassinated, or, thirdly, undemocratically blocked from running in the election: a Trump Presidency in 2025 is likely. Of course, civil war would avert that – and the plutocrats and their minions are fuelling that great evil as best they can. Don’t fall for the trap!

*

So, if Trump is not undemocratically blocked from a likely presidential win in 2025, what could we expect from a second Trump presidency?

Well, look at his first term as US President. What did he do? The shory answer is: nothing. He didn’t destroy the nation, or destroy democracy, nor did he usher in fascism – Cheny and Obama already did that. Nor did he do much of anything else. He was a dud, a class clown, sadly to say, a distraction, a non-event.

To Trump’s credit, he broke the news to the world that an unelected and rabidly anti-democratic Deep State does indeed exist, of course.

He also broke the news to the lemmings that the legacy media are instruments of propaganda and fake news, which anyone who has read Chomsky, or has been awake, already knew.

He raised the topic of fascism in the public mind globally – fascism which *is not a threat, but a present reality (!)*, which he did not bring in, but which his fore-runners, and other political prostitutes in the US and beyond, already did.

Those are three giant victories for the people – one of them being inadvertant.

He also defeated the sovereignty- and democracy-killing TPP; and renegotiated NAFTA, with slightly, but at least significant, improvements.

He did not dismabtle or even seriously criticize the police state apparatus created by Cheney and Obama.

He did not defund the military industrial intelligence complex, nor reign it in.

He did not end the empire or the imperial wars.

He did not end routine surveillance of all people globally.

He did not abolish the CIA, or the Nazi-named and equally fascist Department of Homeland Security, nor clean up the FBI, nor close Guantanamo, nor the 1,000+ US foreign military vases, nor the CIA torture centres and black sites.

Nor did he stop the gutting, looting and evisceration of the middle class, or halt the skyrocketing rise in inequality.

Trumps response to covid was likewise disastrous, and even worse than mere inaction – far worse than simple negligence and inaction. Trump unleashed Fauci, complied with the WHO and CDC, all of whom are essentially owned and controlled by the Big Pharma drug cartel, and went along with the mandates and lockdowns, with the result being a further gutting of the middle class, the destruction of millions of small businesses and a loss of millions of jobs, and worst of all, a further rollback and undermining of freedom, democracy, human rights and constitutional rule – and a further, accelerated, warp speed slide towards a biomedical police state.

Bravo, Trump. He thus powerfully aided and abetted the long-standing and accelerating trend towards globalist neo-feudal technocratic communist-fascist oligarchy – exactly as Bush, Cheney, Obama and Biden have done. Some messiah that is.

Let’s also not forget that Trump ran on a non-interventionist, peace-seeking platform in 2014 to 2016, which won him the reluctant support, even from much of the (then) anti-war left. But more recently, Trump has given unrestrained support to Israeli aggression and genocide, while saber-rattling with even more dangerous rhetoric about China, both of which show his slide into a pro-war, pro-interventionist stance, both of which risking global nuclear war. This man is extremely dangerous, not because he would bring in fascism, which has already happened, but because he, like the Democrats, and the Republican establishment, could get us all killed in a new world war.

And the list of failures, negligence and criminal complicity with the plutocracy and the military industrial complex goes on.

*

So, maybe saying Trump did nothing in his first presidency is too harsh. Certainly, he neither saved nor destroyed the country, although, like Clinton, Bush, Cheny, Obama and Biden, he did far more to destroy it than to aid it.

As I said many years ago, Trump was, and is, a distraction. Real change did not come from his first term as president, nor is it likely to come from him in 2025, if he does become president again. A giant windbag of a distraction – that’s all Trump is, in my view. He’s a game show host. What did you expect?

So, Trump is not going to save the nation, nor make America great again. Nor is he likely to destroy the nation, or bring in fascism – the bipartisan tag team of Republican neocons and Democrat neoliberals, in the twin parties of Wall Street, already did that. The country is in ruins, democracy is dead, and Trump will not fix it, nor is he likely to make things very much worse than they already are. He would instead, be another false messiah, another false populist, like Obama – a figure head of a collapsing nation and empire, being devoured by plutocrats, while ” elections” and “presidencies” distract the people and lull them to sleep with false hopes. Hope comes from the streets, now more than ever, and from nowhere else.

So, Trump will not bring fascism – that’s already here. Nor is he going to save the nation. There is a third possibility, however far worse, even, than lulling the people to sleep, while the nation is plundered, enslaved, devoured and destroyed, by an escalating corporate-fascist class war. What a second Trump presidency is likely to bring, is civil war – not one started by him or his supporters, but by his fanatical “democratic” and “liberal” opponents, orchestrated by the same neo-fascist Deep State military industrial Wall Street complex that has been devouring the nation, the people, and the democracy, with intensifying speed.

A second civil war in the US would not simply kill three quarters of a million people, horrific as that was. It would be a long, protracted, bloody stalemate, spanning decades, if not geberations, killing millions and leaving the country in ruins. That is the likely fallout if Trump is elected without an overwhelming public mandate.

Only one thing could possibly prevent a civil war in the wake of a second Trump presidency: an overwhelming landslide victory, with the clear supoort of a large majority and cross-section of the people. How can that be achieved, assuming RFK Jr. cannot likely win, leaving a Trump presidency in 2025 likely?

Vivek says he wants a landslide victory for Trump. He hints at and intuits danger if it is not a landslide. Andhe is right. A narrow victory for Trump would tear the country apart. A landslide win for Trump, despite Trump, could begin the healing and rebirth of the nation, by bringing together the people, after a long and increasingly bitter divide.

If Trump is strategically intelligent – a possibility, but doubtful – he would immediately do this:

Offer the Vice Presidency to the centre-left, small d democrat, Robery F. Kennedy Jr.

Offer the position of Secretary of Health (whatever it is called in the US – I, being Canadian, do not know) to Bernie Sanders, with the bold policy of cutting the Pentagon budget in half, and finally creating a universal public health care system for the US, like the more civilized nations have had for decades, using the hundreds of billions of dollars saved from the murderous and monstrously bloated military budget of the imperial killing machine.

Appoint Catherine Austin Fitts as Secretary of the Treasury, with a bold policy of defunding Wall Street, BlackRock, the big banks, Big Pharma, Big Tech, Big Agra and the the WHO, and ending all corporate subsidies, channelling the hundreds of billions of dollars saved per year into local econonic development, infrastructure, small business, co-ops, entrepreneurships and new start-up enterprises, to kick start the economy into high gear and provide good jobs for all – as a start. An audit of the Fed to follow immediately, of course, with a clear plan for its abolition.

Vivek speajs well, so find him a role, as well, perhaps as Press Secretary to the new President of the United States.

Do that, and a democratic landslide would result, with a clear and irrefutable mandate from the people – meaning, it could not easily be toppled or overthrown, and civil war would be unlikely.

But Trump is no 4-D chess player, nor a grand strategist. However, if someone can get his ear, he has shown he can at times be receptive to good ideas.

Make it so, i say.

*

Paradoxically, a Trump presidency could save the nation, despite Trump – but this is the only way I see that it could happen. Otherwise, my 2008 prediction for the US, Powderkeg USA, is likely to be fulfilled, with civil war ahead.

– J. Todd Ring,

February 1, 2024

From the rural counttyside of free and democratic Uruguay – a successful nation, not a collapsing neo-feudal police state run by Davos

A Canadian philosopher in exile from my now fascist homeland.

My writings, books, articles, and tens of thousands of references, can be found on:

WordPress

Substack

BlogSpot

The Nolan Chart

Rumble

Spotify

YouTube

Facebook

Twitter

Amazon

Indigo

And

Barnes & Noble

Defeat The Fascists! Unite The People Now!

The anti-authoritarian grassroots left and right are uniting – at last, as I’ve been urging for decades; and which is absolutely necessary, if we are to halt and reverse our current trajectory toward globalist corporate-fascism.

Listen carefully to the interview with Russell Brand, from the libertarian left, talking with Tucker Carlson, from the anti-authoritarian conservative right – then read my book, The People vs The Elite; and Vandana Shiva’s book, Oneness vs The 1%.

“Governments colluded to shut down and destroy Russell Brand. This is his first interview since that happened. Watch it when you get a minute. It’s one of the most brilliant explanations of the modern world you’ll ever hear.”

You can easily find the interview in a two second *non-Google(!)* web search. (Boycott Big Tech. Use DuckDuckGo, Rumble, Substack, Telegram, Puri.sm, ProtonMail and Brave, instead.)

We MUST unite the people now. This much is critical. It is the key.

The answer to Divide and Conquer, is Unite and Liberate. And we must do it now.

JTR,

February 1, 2024

A Sinking Ship On Fire: The Dismal State Of A Civilization (sic) In Slow Motion Collapse

(Written this morning as an open letter to a fine independent journalist)

Patrick, I found you on 21st Century Wire and was very impressed. Before I listen to this TNT talk on Rumble, and get a glimpse of your focus now, or foci, I want to say what comes to mind:

The thought was:

Dear Lord, I hope this isn’t too focused on the US. US politics are so sickeningly dismal and boring – like the politics of the country of my birth, Canada: nothing much ever happens that is positive in any big way, other than the watermark event of the truckers’ protest. Other than grassroots local action, not much of positive note ever happens in US or Canadian politics. It’s like watching a slow motion train wreck, or watching the Titanic go down.

Fortess North America – as the ruling power elite call it themselves (see my essays on the SPP) – as well as being one gulag under Davos, is now a sinking ship on fire, with the captain, crew, and the great majority of the passengers, all completely insane. Focusing on that is like slowing down on the highway to gawk at a multi-car pile-up collission, with bodies and body parts and flaming debris scattered about the road. What’s the point? Lend aid, or man the lifeboats, but don’t expect a change of course!

As the world’s leading cultural historian, Moriss Berman has said, It’s too late. It’s collapsing. It’s going down. And it’s now unstoppable. Trying to change the course of the US or North America, or the broader Western world now, would be, as Berman said, like trying to turn around an aircraft carrier in a bathtub.

The ship is going down. Leave now. Or if not, batten the hatches, and brace for impact.

The new renaissance that is now emerging, and the hope for the world, is no longer centred in the US, Europe, or the West. It’s in the Global South. That’s where the action is. That’s where the hope is. The US, Canada, Britain and Europe, sadly to say, are now plunging fast into a neo-feudal Dark Age. Get the fuck out now.

And who cares what clown is “elected” as El Presidente in the new banana republic of the USSA? The chance of real, significant positive change coming from that office is extremely small – slim to nil, as Doug Casey says, and Slim’s out of town.

It’s the collapse of the Roman Empire all over again. Berman, Jane Jacobs and others were right: it’s a Dark Age ahead for the former “First World” nations of the sinking ship that is “The West”.

Leave now. The hope is elsewhere.

JTR,

February 1, 2024

Villa Samadhi,

Uruguay

Socialism, Capitalism, Corporatism, & The Future Of Humanity: Ideology vs Reality

A few thoughts on the recent, very thoughtful and interesting discourse and debate, between Professors Brookes and Wolff, linked in the video below:

To Professor Wolff:
Bravo – brilliant crystalization.

To Professor Brookes:
Great respect for your human decency and moral sentiment of basic justice and compassion, certainly, but are you not aware of the famous quote from Mark Twain? “There are lies, damned lies, and then there are statistics.”

Unconscious ideologues unconsciously pick narratives and statistics that suit their cognitive and emotional bias, their ideology, filtering out discomforting statistics and facts, perspectives and evidence, unconsciously, like dogmatic religious fundamentalists, to suit their ideological bias. In short, your stats are bogus. Statistics are easily and routinely fudged, distorted, fabricated or manufactured to suit ideological or policy preferences. (See Shadow Stats, for an example of that obvious truth.) More to the point, read the Davos Report, by Oxfam. Five billion people lost a trillion dollars in the past four years alone, while the richest eight individuals on Earth now control more wealth than the poorest half of humanity – and the three richest men in the US now control more wealth than the poorest half of Americans.

(Who do I trust more, by the way, the most respected international development organization on Earth, Oxfam, or a professor from the Kennedy School, which was founded by the same Rockefeller clan that founded the WEF as the leading centre of the Western oligarchy? Not a difficult choice. But that is an aside.)

The wealth is being sucked up by the top 1%, while poverty grows and inequality skyrockets – and we are now clearly moving into an era of corporatist monopoly capitalism and neo-feudalism, as a result. Worse, the oligarchs know this will be unpopular and will provoke popular uprising, which is why they are now resorting to fascism. See my essay, The Failure Of Propaganda & The Resort To Fascism.

In short, the facts disprove your tired, old, trickle down, rising tide, Polyanna / Dr. Pangloss, neoliberal apologist view – and it’s so obvious and undeniable to the people of the world, that popular unrest is rising fast.

Moreover, the power elite know that the propaganda war has been lost – which is why they are now resorting to fascism, censorship, the criminalization of free speech, and sheer force of repression. (See my essay, mentioned above.) Your arguments, Professor Brookes, are not only hollow and unsound – they have already failed. And both the people and the ruling power elite know it.

I’m sure Professor Wolff will rebut and refute your self-evidently falacious argument very well, but I was so appalled by the contrast and contradiction between your apparently sincere moral sentiments, and your dubious apologetics for neo-feudal corporatist capitalism, that I had to pause the video of the debate to make this note.

Given the choice between sociopathic power-mongering corporate-fascists, which is what the billionaire WEF oligarchy represents, and naive, well-meaning ideologues on the other hand, clearly the latter are preferable and better – but not in the least satisfactory or sufficient.

Failing grade as an economist or political analyst, I must say, as a researcher in political-economy and philosophy for four decades now, myself, and I am sorry to say, my brother.

Read the Davos Report, along with Michael Hudson, please – and listen carefully to Professor Wolff, I would humbly urge.

In sum, listening to a thoughtful, intelligent, broad-minded scholar or thinker is like a breath of fresh air. Listening to an ideologue, if you must, is like razor blades run down your spine. And of course, you can’t have an intelligent conversation with an ideologue, no matter how hard you try, because they are dogmatic fundamentalists to their core – their minds have turned to stone. It’s like talking to a brick wall. You’d be better off talking to a fence post, or a clump of Earth – and they are pretty much on the same intellectual level. (See Thoreau on that: Walden and On Civil Disobedience.) This is what most of academia, the media and “intellectual” life represents in modern society. It is by and large a dead zone, a wasteland, a desert, as TS Eliot knew so well.

Socialism, capitalism, or something else? How about we start with a basic open-mindedness, questioning and humility. Until then, all talk is futile.

Think for yourself. Question everything.

By the way, the libertarian socialist model that Profession Wolff presented here, or one version of it, rooted in grassroots economic democracy, workplace democracy and worker cooperatives, is decidedly not theoretical. Are you unaware, Professor Brookes, of the centuries-old co-op model, which is now wide-spread in the US and around the world, which is very successful, and growing fast? Are you unaware, ignorant, that is, of the Spanish Revolution, which was largely anarchist, libertarian socialist, and which very successfully ran an advanced, modern industrial society, while under the extreme pressures and duress of fighting a war against the fascists, and their Communist and “liberal” Western oligarch supporters? And are you likewise ignorant of the Mondragon Co-op in Spain, which was founded by two brothers only a few decades ago, and which now has become one of the biggest and most successful corporations in all of Europe? Giving you the benefit of the doubt, and assuming you are not a conscious liar and propagandist, one must conclude that you are, quite simply, stunningly ignorant of the facts of history and political-economy, both.
Response?
My apologies for the ferocity. It is nothing personal. It is simply a matter of 99% of the eight billion human beings on Earth being suffocated, squeezed, held down, boot on the neck, exploited, preyed upon, bled dry and degraded, or worse, by a predatory and parasitic, truly vampiric system of neo-feudal corporate empire. This has to change. And the time is now.

J. Todd Ring,
Author of Enlightened Democracy
And
The People vs The Elite

And yes, I am philosophically aligned with the grassroots populist libertarian left, with a strong admiration for Thomas Jefferson, Voltaire and Thomas Paine, the founders of liberal democracy, as well.

Give me FDR, Kropotkin, or Thomas Paine, and I will be thrilled, or at least, greatly relieved. But if we continue on our current trajectory, it will be dystopian in the extreme, with neo-Malthusian techno-fascist oligarchs at the helm, and a boot on the face of humanity, and far worse, for a long time to come.

Time to cut the bullshit, to put it frankly – and now.

JTR

The debate that sparked these thoughts:

Oh, Canada: A Funeral Dirge – And A Prayer

Travelling the world recently again, I am struck by the staggering ignorance among the great majority of people in the world, as to what Canada is like today. All of them, with rare exceptions, seem to think this is 1974. They think of Canada as a rich, First World country, with peace, prosperity, beautiful nature, democracy and freedom, a civilized country, with constitutional rule and human rights for all. That was true in 1974, to a large extent, and for some time afterward. It is not true today. Of this list of positive traits, only the beautiful nature remains. All the rest has been destroyed – and the vast Boreal forest is being clear cut and burned as well, while the fisheries, waters and soils are being strip-mined, eroded, despoiled and laid to waste. These are sad, tragic facts, but they are nevertheless true. This is what decades of corruption has wrought upon my people.

People need to realize that Canada, like the US and UK, with Europe quick to follow, after 50 years of neoliberal globalization, de-industrialization and class warfare, is now a collapsing Third World fascist police state. I am Canadian, and a scholar on these issues for four decades. I do not speak lightly or off the cuff. These are the facts, whether people want to deal with reality or not. There are many billionaires and rich people in Canada, but the fact is that poverty and inequality have skyrocketed, as the middle class is steadily wiped out, and the bottom 80% of the people are now sinking economically. This is not 1974. This is 2024, and my Canada, is long gone.

When the Canadian people tire of being ruled by plutocrats and kleptocrats, then it can become a wonderful, prosperous, democratic and free nation once again. At present, all these things are gone and have been destroyed.

How long will the people suffer in silence? Not much longer, I pray.

JTR,

A Canadian in exile,

January 21, 2024

Trump Hysteria

“Imagine, being so gullible, that you believe the world’s largest media corporations, are there to help you understand the world, rather than mislead and propagandize you.”

 - Glenn Greenwald

Fortunately, the spell is starting to wear off, at least for the growing majority of the people.

*

Trump did little good in his first term as US President, and much that was bad – but he didn’t turn the US into a fascist police state: Cheney, Obama and Biden did that.

I am no Trump supporter, but the establishment political elite of the two dominant US parties are far worse and far more dangerous.

Trump may be terrible, but it is the twin party machines, both run by Wall Street and the Deep State, that are truly fascist.

The hysteria over Trump is not only profoundly hypocritical, delusional and deceitful. It’s an absurdity in the extreme.

Lesson: Turn off the mainstream media, permanently.

JTR,

January 17, 2024

Renaissance, Resistance & Revolution

In terms of social movements, the Left is dead, for the time being, at least in the formerly industrialized, formerly “leading”, “developed”, First World nations of the (North-) West. The reason it is dead, is because it has been seduced into supporting authoritarianism, and has thereby been co-opted by the fascist corporate oligarchy, ruled by the Western business and political elite. (See my essay, When Liberals & The Left Lose Their Minds.)

What’s left, then? The major centres of resistance to the global corporate-fascist coup, are now in the Global South, the Majority World, where 80% of the world’s people live.

Meanwhile, the North-West corner of the world, that is, North America, Britain and Europe, is rapidly becoming a collapsing Third World, communist-fascist police state, and a deeply Orwellian corporatist technocracy – one gulag under Davos.

Awakening and resistance are growing globally, however, and with exponential speed – including in the North-West region of the world. But it is now the fact that the global awakening and resistance are strongest in Latin America and the Global South.

That being said, I think the strongest and grestest hopes for real, positive social change, are now coming from a loose coalition or constellation of forces, above all, from Indigenous movements, the global peasants movement, and a myriad of generally complimentary and synergistic popular social movements: including the ecovillage movement, the voluntary simplicity, nomad, permaculture, organic and homesteading movements, the anti-authoritarian right, which not only exists, of course, despite the messaging of the technocratic faux-left propaganda blitz, but is growing fast – and the anti-authoritarian left, which still exists and is also rapidly growing; along with the anti-authoritarian and decentralist currents within the environmental movement, which 40 years ago were predominant, but which are still alive now, and are resurging fast; and along with the natural health movement, and the many threads of the global freedom movement.

All of this should be seen as signs of hope. Moreover, it should be viewed within the wider context, which includes the major tectonic historical changes which are now underway: including a global paradigm shift, the emergence and rebirth of a multipolar world, and the decline and fall of the corporate-state oligarchy and empire of the North-West, formerly and foolishly referred to as “Western civilization”, “the Western world”, or “the West”.

As the global tectonic shift accelerates, in all of these ways, the rebirth of the world will begin to emerge, and become more and more visible, and in time, undeniable.

In historical terms, the world is changing and shifting now in extremely rapid ways. Some trends are ominous in the extreme. Others are deeply hopeful, liberatory and enlightening. In the short term, which side predominates in our personal lives, depends largely on how we choose to live, and even more so, on where we place ourselves, with some regions becoming increasingly dystopian, while other places experience freedom, a renaissance, and a rebirth.

In the longer view, however, we can say with certainty that no empire lasts forever. All empires fall. And the Western corporate oligarchy, which has now mutated into the new billionaire-ruled communist-fascist empire, is collapsing now, slowly, but with accelerating speed. In its death throes, it is a wounded, montrous predatory beast, extremely dangerous. But it is dying, nonetheless. And the plutocrats know it. That’s why the billionaires are resorting to the desperate measures of fascist totalitarianism, while building bunkers as fast as they can.

(See my essays and books: The Failure Of Propaganda, Sinking All Ships, Importing From China, The Worst Of Both Worlds, The Global Tectonic Shift, The Collapse Of The West, Slavery Or Rebirth, Enlightened Democracy, and The People vs The Elite.)

A new day is dawning for humanity. A new world is indeed being born. But like all births, there is pain. Keep a long term perspective – and never surrender. There is, as Thoreau said, more day yet to dawn.

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The hope doesn’t come from corporate-communist China, by the way, as many people on the Left naively have come to believe. That is simply another example of large currents of the Left temporarily losing their minds – in the same way that much of the Left supported the Soviet Union, from 1917 into the 1950s, until the New Left of the 1960s reverted to the Left’s original heritage and roots, which are fiercely libertarian; and in the same way the neo-Maoist “Left” now, today, unwittingly supports the totalitarian corporate-fascist coup, that is presently underway. Idiocy by any other name would smell as foul – and still does.

China is a totalitarian police state. End of story. It may help defeat and dethrone the globally dominant, but rapidly collapsing Western technocracy, or corporate-fascist empire, but it is certainly not the hope for the world.

Supporting China is no different from supporting the neo-Maoist wokesters – or supporting Stalin. Totalitarianism is demonic egomania, and tyranny, utterly unacceptable and intolerable under any circumstances – just as the new corporate-fascism of the Western oligarchy is utterly intolerable.

Hope lies, as always, with the grassroots, with the people. It is we who will save and liberate ourselves, together – and no one else.

The world is changing. And it is the people who have the greater power, as always – and it is leadership from below, from millions of points of light, which is where our true hope lies: now, more than ever before.

JTR,
January 17, 2024,
Villa Samadhi,
Uruguay