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:
“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.
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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.
An excellent, important video was the inspiration for this short post (linked here, below) from a generally lackluster podcast. The musings arising after watching the video, however, I would say are even more important.
The podcast host asked for video ideas at the end of his presentation. Here is my response. I’d take it as a study list for everyone. Buy, borrow or print these texts from off the internet, then turn off your cell phone, computer and TV, and read.
Podcasters, Youtubers, media workers, journalists, activists and intellectuals, take note. If you want intelligent content, fuel or fodder for your own work, or simply a better understanding of what is actually going on, read, reflect on, and discuss the following, I would humbly urge.
Video Ideas: Subjects For Discussions
Necessary Illusions, Year 501and Class Warfare, by Chomsky
Killing Hope, by Blum
Memory of Fire, by Galeano
A Short History Of Progress, by Ronald Wright
The Ecology Of Freedom, by Murray Bookchin
Mutual Aid, by Kropotkin
World As Lover, World As Self, by Joanna Macy
Choosing Reality, by Allan Wallace
Oneness vs The 1%, by Vandana Shiva
Walden, and On Civil Disobedience, by Thoreau
And my own books and articles, as topics of discussion:
Enlightened Democracy The People vs The Elite The Failure of Propaganda What Is Fascism? Sinking All Ships Importing From China When Liberals & The Left Lose Their Minds Why The Left-Libertarians Are Right The Worst Of Both Worlds Flashdrive Revolution The Collapse Of The West And
Slavery Or Rebirth.
– J. Todd Ring, Villa Samadhi, Uruguay, December 18, 2023
Actually, after watching this video below, I have to raise the evaluation of this podcast, from generally lackluster, to spotty, and hit and miss. Sometimes they are excellent, other times the errors and blindspots are so glaringly enormous that it is painful to watch. So much for what’s left of Europe’s “Left”. But the video below is truly excellent.
Climate change is real, but the WEF billionaire-run, corporate-fascist oligarchy is not the saviour of humanity or the Earth – they are the principle devourers of both. We need to be perfectly clear on that.
We do need a Green New Deal, but one that promotes, defends and strengthens freedom, democracy, and vibrant, ecologically sound, robust economies and employment, rather than destroying all of the above, which is what the oligarchs’ eco-fascist plan will do. We need a Green New Deal that is written and created by the people, for the people and the Earth, as I have written about before – not a false “solution” that is created by and for the ruling plutocracy.
What we don’t need is greenwash, social engineering by the corporate oligarchs, and planet-killing, genocidal, neo-Malthusian eco-fascism. It is truly urgent that we become crystal clear on this now. The oligarchs are not our saviours. Do not be fooled. It’s time to take the power back.
J. Todd Ring, December 15, 2023
Post-Script:
Don’t believe the hype. Question everything – especially the corporate-state media, the NGO-industrial complex, and the Davos billionaire oligarchy’s greenwash.
Plant trees, pollinator-supporting flowers and plants, such as clover, buy local, go organic – and above all, think for yourself!
Note this also – and let us learn from our dangerously naive mistakes, not repeat them ad nauseam, until we are all enslaved and the planet is finally dead:
The black arts of social engineering, greenwash and propaganda: Here’s how Greta was manufactured
The Failure Of Propaganda & The Global Awakening:
What has become clear is that a young girl, now a grown, adult woman, Greta, was and is being cynically used as a pawn by the Davos WEF corporate-fascist oligarchs, who seek to use any pretext to subjugate the people and to create a global neo-feudal police state, in which they will live as God-kings, while the people live as serfs or as slaves. What is more tragic is that she appears to know she is being used, and accepts it. Most ominous, however, is the fact that millions of people, and likely, billions, have fallen for the eco-fascist ploy.
But the tide is turning. As it has been said, You can fool some of the people all of the time, and you can fool all of the people some of the time, but you can’t fool all the people all the time. The global awakening is real. The people are waking up. It is not to save the Earth from corporate greed, power lust, infantile ego games, war and empire, and sheer ignorance of misguided ways. The time is now for a Green New Deal that can employ, uplift, empower, catalyze and inspire people around the world, while healing the Earth – and while preserving, and reclaiming, our freedom, our democracy, our dignity, our fundamental and basic human rights, and our common humanity. The time is now.
Greenwash Is Ecoterrorism, Eco-Fascism, and High-Tech, Neo-Feudal, “Green” Imperialism.
Indigenous cultures in the “lithium triangle” of Chile, Argentina and Bolivia are being robbed, subjugated, poisoned and plundered, to make Teslas and cell phones. Corporate-state violence is the continuing norm, in response. Welcome to “Green” Imperialism. This is the primary camouflage, among various other psyops and modes of propaganda and psychological warfare, of the Davos/WEF corporate-state empire’s, Great Reset and Green New Deal. It is eco-fascism – and it is as ecodical, as it is genocidal, imperialist, techno-feudal and fascistic.
Cell phones, tablets, laptops and electric cars are all based in unsustainable, ecodical, extractive, environmental imperialism. No more greenwash.
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Note that I have personally been deeply involved in the environmental movement for four decades, having fund raised and canvassed for Greenpeace and the Western Canada Wilderness Committee, helping to build the Green Party of Canada when it was new to the country, and having written the draft constitution for the Green Party of Peterborough, when it was just being born, in my university town.
My roots are deeply libertarian left, and solidly, deeply green, as well as anti-war, anti-racist, pro-diversity and equality, anti-colonialist and anti-imperialist. I am no right-winger on a rant of corporatist-globalist neoliberal apologetics, that is certain, and undeniably clear.
Nor am I naive, nor inclined to throw the baby out with the bathwater, and smugly and foolishly pronounce all environmentalists as eco-fascists – which is a dangerous and flatly untrue obfuscation, confusion, illusion, and lie, which is being paraded commonly as informed opinion. It is not. It is idiocy and ignorance on the part of many; and sheer propaganda and lies on the part of the globalist corporate-state power elite, and their willing tools and intellectual prostitutes – which includes all of the corporate/state media, the presstitutes, virtually the entire political class of the Global North, and much of the Global South, most of academia, and a great number of “scientists”, “thought leaders”, religious leaders, and pop culture celebrity gurus.
Beware the herd instinct. Question everything – especially authority, your own club, clique, sect, tribe, clan or social circle, and everything you thought you knew for certain.
Question everything. Think for yourself.
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The great majority of Earth’s people now reject fascism, communism and dictatorship, authoritarianism and totalitarianism, imperialism, racism and colonialism, and they lean strongly towards a left libertarian nexus of values, including freedom, decentralization, diversity, equality, ecology and peace. These are also the values and sympathies of the global green movement, at the grassroots. The fact that the big NGOs have now been co-opted and corrupted by their ties with the corporate elite, does not change that fact.
Question everything. The Green Left is back. And it is decidedly libertarian, and on the side of freedom, indigenous peoples, and the people of the world, everywhere.
But having said that, what we need most, is not a renewed, anti-authoritarian Green Left – but a uniting of the people. If you believe that freedom is fundamental, that peace is vital, that fascism, communism, technocracy, neofeudalism, colonialism, imperialism, or any form of tyranny over human beings and life on Earth is an intolerable abomination, and that the Earth we live on and share must be protected and cared for, and not merely plundered, pillaged, poisoned and destroyed, then we are allies – whether you are on the political left or right, rich or poor, urban or rural, or where you come from, or how you look.
A typical account of history is presented in the video linked below, and here are some reflections on it, and on the general practice, or malpractice, of professional historians, and scholars and intellectuals broadly.
As Noam Chomsky has said, the major media portray themselves as free and unbiased media, but the record of their conduct proves the opposite: the major media serve the function of being a propaganda system for the ruling elite. Similarly, as Chomsky has also said, academia presents itself, and likes to think of itself, as centres of free and open inquiry, and honest scholarship, but again, their record shows that, aside from a minority of exceptional and courageous scholars, academia serves the same function as the major media: it serves the role of being a propaganda and indoctrination system for the ruling elite.
Considering these facts, the abuse and misrepresentation of actual history to give greatly distorted historical narratives, and other narratives, also serves the ruling power elite. In both cases, in the media and in academia, and among “intellectuals” generally, there is no conscious lying or distortion involved: aside from a few key people in positions of power and influence, who are conscious liars and conscious propagandists – meaning, intellectual prostitutes – the great majority of scholars, intellectuals, media workers, pundits and “journalists”, are simply deeply indoctrinated themselves. Moreover, they learn early on what can and cannot be said, and how to frame the narrative, so that they keep their jobs, their positions, and are not squeezed out of the propaganda and indoctrination system that employs them.
These things must be born in mind, and understood, or else we have no real understanding of anything whatsoever. Maybe we know the periodic table, or basic geography, or even advanced physics or math, but we misunderstand virtually everything else, if we do not understand – and viscerally understand, as well as intellectually understand – that both the major media, and academia and “intellectual culture”, are, primarily, and overwhelmingly, systems of thought control in democratic societies, to use the phrase in the subtitle of Noam Chomsky’s most important book, Necessary Illusions.
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Here is a fascinating and thoughtful look at the industrial revolution….but, with three glaring problems, errors or blunders:
1. As usual, historians talk about “important” people, when they mean, and should say “influential” or “powerful” people. This is not merely semantic. The words we use have a profound influence on shaping how we view, understand, or misunderstand things. Using the term important instead of simply saying powerful or influential, re-enforces and reifies the hierarchical and elitist power structures which dominate our world, and which should be overcome, as the barbaric, out-moded archaic models which they are. Like the terms progress, evolution, evolved, educated, civilized, savage, heathen, pagan and barbarian, terrorist, freedom fighter, rebel, populist, nationalist, etc., as with the term “important people”, we should use them with thoughtful editorial remarks and reflection, or not at all.
2. A discussion of the industrial revolution with zero analysis of class relations? You are joking, right?
3. How can you talk about the industrial revolution without even mentioning, a) the land enclosures, massive land theft, the mass population displacement created by the land enclosures, and the resulting explosion of an urban destitute population, which provided the critically essential cheap labour; b) colonialism and the mass looting, and mass land theft, of Africa, Asia and the Americas, which provided the necessary capital for the industrial revolution; and c) the mass enslavement of Africans and indigenous peoples in the Americas, which generated further vast wealth for the European and American elite, and which further financed the industrial revolution?
4. Furthermore, how can you possibly talk about the industrial revolution, with a straight face, and pretend to be serious, without even mentioning the fact that, as well as being built upon the backs of the working class common men and women of Britain, the US and Europe, and built on mass land theft in Europe, the Americas and around the world; the entire history of colonialism and neocolonialism, from the industrial revolution up to the present day, has been shaped by a highly conscious and deliberate policy on the part of the ruling elite of Britain, the US, Europe, and their junior partners in crime in Canada, Australia and New Zealand, of de-industrialization and the blocking and dismantling industrialization and economic development in the Third World, the Global South, and in the East, as much as possible? As Brzezinski said, “To hearken back to a more brutal imperial age, we must keep the vassals weak and divided.” That was the very conscious policy of the globally dominant Western elite, for over 500 years, and still is. But such truths are unspeakable in Western academia, or in polite “intellectual” culture.
How about the fact that, at the beginning of the industrial revolution, India produced a superior quality and greater quantity of steel than Britain, or the fact that it was the policy of the British Empire to de-industrialize India, and force India to grow opium, so that the ruling British business elite could use the Opium Wars to flood China with opium, and thereby keep the two great powers of Asia, which were India and China, weak, subjugated, and subservient to the Empire? But again, such plain and honest truths cannot be spoken in polite “intellectual” conversation.
(Beginning in the 1970s China became one of the few exceptions to the policy of the ruling Western oligarchs of keeping the Global South weak and de-industrialized, when the Rockefeller gang decided China would make a good pawn, if industrialized, so that sweatshop labour there could be used to further weaken and subjugate the working class of the West – which of course, has always meant the 99% of the people who don’t live off of their stock portfolios. And the scheme did the job marvelously. But in any case, the general principle and policy architecture of imperial rule, from 1492 to the present, remains the same, in broad outline, despite the occasional divergence; and even the divergences are always motivated by the same underlying motives, objectives and imperatives of imperial power.)
In short, the talk here does a lovely job of examining the tip of the iceberg, while the 99% of the iceberg that is hidden under the water, goes unexamined, and even unmentioned.
And this is called scholarship?
If you want an honest account of history, read Noam Chomsky’s, Year 501: The Conquest Continues, Howard Zinn’s, A People’s History of The United States, Ronald Wright’s, Stolen Continents, Rianne Eisler’s, The Chalice and The Blade, and Murray Bookchin’s, The Ecology of Freedom.
In fact, I would strongly suggest that all professional and amateur historians, and all professional and amateur pundits, and social or political-economic analysts and commentators, do not say or write another single word, until they have read and digested all five. Until then, they are, in all likelihood, simply spreading gross distortions, misrepresentations, half-truths, lies, illusions, and misinformation, without even realizing it.
As a serious scholar of history once said, you should go for the big picture first, then zoom in, to flesh out the details. If you try to do it the other way around, you will most likely misunderstand everything, and in perpetuity.
If you are going to do a history podcast, or teach or write about history – or social commentary, or political-economic commentary or analysis – then you need to at least have a basic understanding of the big picture. If you don’t, then you are doing a very major disservice to everyone, even if you don’t realize it.
As Thoreau said, You should read the best books first; otherwise, you may never read them at all.
J. Todd Ring, October 11, 2021
Post-Script and Video Link:
Order and read the special edition of the New Internationalist, titled, Starve Trek, as well, I would urge, along with the five books listed above. It explains the past 500 years of world history, and explains how the world works at present, in a short, cartoon graphic novel. You can laugh and cry, and then photocopy it, and pass it along to people who still just don’t get it.
Here is the wondrous podcast referred to above, from Wondery – so named, apparently, because if you are able to think critically at all, you will wonder how such drivel can be presented as serious scholarship, or as a remotely accurate account of history. It is neither. It is pablum for the people, laced with morphine and cyanide – like most of the content on the internet, in the media, the “alternative media” (a laughable misnomer, in most cases), or in academia or “intellectual culture”.
Impressive graphics and theme music, though!
Image is everything in our befuddled society. Content, conscience, compassion, truth – these things mean nothing. Image is all. It is the simulation we crave. Reality terrifies us, and from it, we perpetually, and with increasingly desperation, flee.
Who to trust? That is always a perennial question, and particularly now, when not only government, corporations, politicians, and corporate and state media have repeatedly been shown to have lied, grossly distorted or concealed the truth, and engaged in deceitful PR and propaganda; but also, alternative and progressive media, along with the left, the right and the liberal centre, have repeatedly failed, in glaring, very serious ways.
In terms of interpersonal relations and general human interaction, I strongly agree with Alan Watts: “People who mistrust themselves and others are doomed.” Absolutely correct. But we’re not talking about trust in that sense. We’re talking about who to trust for reliable information. I trust people as a rule, until or unless they give me reason not to. But that doesn’t mean I assume everyone is a reliable source of information, vision or analysis. Most people are not.
I also strongly agree with Chomsky, on most things, including his statement that, “The great majority of people have basically decent impulses.” Most people are decent. That does not mean they are reliable sources of information on world issues. Most people simply are not.
So, who to trust, in terms of being reliable sources of information, vision or analysis? I’ve written an article exactly on that topic, on this blog, but I’ll mention just a couple of names here. Again, these are generally reliable sources. That does not mean they are omniscient or infallible. Above all, do your own research, examine things for yourself – and think for yourself.
Top picks for reliable sources:
A very incomplete list – and remember, no one is infallible!
It cannot be stressed enough:
Question everything.
Vandana Shiva (virtually in a class by herself)
Whitney Webb – arguably the best investigative journalist alive, at this moment at least
Glenn Greenwald – a rarely matched journalist of integrity, rivalled only by Whitney Webb, Matt Taibbi, Aaron Mate, John Pilger, and a handful of others
Edward Snowdon – did more for truth, democracy, human rights and freedom than almost anyone in decades
Julian Assange – exactly as I said about Edward Snowdon, the same applies
Noam Chomsky Peter Dale Scott Gerald Celente Max Keiser James Corbett John McMurtry Paul Craig Roberts James Howard Kunstler Richard Heinberg Helena Norberg-Hodge Joanna Macy Allan Wallace Alan Watts Aldous Huxley George Orwell Peter Kropotkin Bertrand Russell Murray Bookchin Rianne Eisler David Suzuki Maude Barlow Margaret Atwood Arundhati Roy Ronald Wright Mathiew Stein Geoff Lawton Erich Fromm Max Weber C. Wright Mills Peter Phillips Herman Daly Michael Albert EF Schumacher Cornel West Naomi Wolf Anthony J. Hall Michael Parenti Abby Martin Matt Taibbi Aaron Mate Joseph Campbell Mathew Fox Thomas Merton Gandhi Martin Luther King Jr.
And I would humbly add my own writing to that list as well.
That’s more than enough good sources to figure out what’s really going on, to stay informed, and to form, refine or retain an inspiring vision for a better world.
JTR,
July 17, 2021
Post-Script:
I forgot to mention a few other particularly excellent sources that I go to regularly, or as often as I can stomach checking in on this slow motion train wreck of a collapsing civilization:
David C. Korten
Jeremy Rifkin
Sayer Ji
Gary Null
Dmitry Orlov
Russell Brand
The Sheldrake-Vernon Dialogues (podcast)
Trends Journal – if you choose just one subscription, make it this.
Geopolitics & Empire (podcast)
The Centre for Research on Globalization
All of them are excellent. And of course, none of them are omniscient or infallible.
The fourth of July….I realize only now, that is today’s date, as I finish writing this short reflection. How fitting. Independence Day. Now, let us talk about where real independence comes from.
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The real pandemic, or one of the many that afflicts the modern world, is mass narcissistic regression to an infantile state.
The Branch Covidians will not like to hear it, and will foam at the mouth and quiver in apoplectic rage at the mere suggestion that Covid is anything less than the “unprecedented” greatest plague ever to strike the world – even though the Great Plague of 1348 killed 30-50% of Europe, while Covid, by official numbers, killed less than 1/10th of one percent of the human population globally. But the reality is, there are far greater dangers facing us than Covid; and worse, we have collectively lost our minds, and lost all trace of perspective, in response to Covid. Our hysterical reaction is a far greater danger than the virus itself. If we cannot see that reality, then we really are lost, and are deeply dissociated from reality, steeped in an imaginary world of our own delusions.
All talk of independence, freedom or democracy become idle and futile when the people are shackled by mind-forged manacles, and when they scream in shrill shrieks of moral outrage, in defense of their masters, and their chains, any time someone tries to even mention their shackles and chains. This is the surreal world we live in now. Welcome to the Brave New World.
Soma, anyone? Ah, but they are already stuffed to the gills with that.
Viruses are real, and Covid, by official numbers, killed over 1.5 million people world wide in 2020, in its peak year. But there are much greater dangers than that to face. Air pollution kills seven million people a year. Automobile accidents kill 1.3 million. Poverty and hunger kill roughly 25 million a year. Obesity, unhealthy diets and unhealthy lifestyles kill even more. We would do far more for human health, and in terms of reducing preventable deaths, by eliminating poverty and hunger globally (which would require less than one year’s US military budget) and banning fast food and cars – but nobody cares about reality these days. Hysteria is all the rage.
Furthermore, either nuclear, chemical or biological warfare, or ecological destruction, could easily wipe out all of humanity. All these very real, very present, very grave dangers surround us, and all of them, other than car accidents, dwarf Covid in their gravity and their threat to human life.
But all of these truly great dangers have their roots in deeper problems. There are many such problems, including dualistic delusions, which are the root of them all – and the petty rivalries between nations, which could destroy us all through world war, are rooted in delusions of duality and separateness. The environmental crisis is rooted in a bifurcation of the mind, in dualistic delusions: in the delusion that human beings are separate from nature, that nature is an externality, as it is called in economics, and an externality which can be safely ignored. These are pandemic delusions, and they are killing us, and threatening our very survival as a species.
Another pandemic delusion is the belief that we are powerless. That is what underlies the near comatose state of the great majority of the people – including our business and political “leaders”, who are “leading” us into an ecological holocaust, as well as a darkly Orwellian society. The business and political elite are paradoxically drunk with power, and yet, seemingly powerless to change our course, and avert cataclysm. The 99% who are not among the ruling power elite, or the great majority of them, are drunk with another poison: the illusion of powerlessness. This is the pandemic that can wipe out human existence – not the coronavirus, but the mass delusion of powerlessness.
Another pandemic that is happening around the world, at least in the industrialized nations, is mass narcissistic regression. There are many causes of this sociological and psychological phenomenon, which is by far the greater and more dangerous plague of our time, but it is the profound alienation of modern industrial society – alienation from one another, from nature, from our own labour and creative powers, and from our deeper selves – which is driving the deep inner discontent, that in turn drives obsessive consumerism, materialism, chronic escapism, perpetual distraction, and the fragile and infantile narcissism which these things together engender and create.
What is at root of the global pandemic of narcissistic regression? It is a deep loneliness, a deep alienation and disconnectedness, a hollowness (see TS Eliot), and a hunger that is insatiable, because it seeks nourishment from sources that cannot ever fulfill the hunger. It is a loud baby’s cry: “Me! Look at me! Feed me! Love me! Take care of me! Me! Me! Notice me! I am hungry, lonely, and needy! Look at me!” This is narcissistic regression. It is heart-breaking to watch, and it is pandemic.
Another major driver of the trend towards mass infantilization, and its inevitable concommitant of naricissistic regression, is corporate globalization, neoliberalism and the commoditication of all life on Earth, including human beings, and our own bodies and minds. This constellation of deeply interwoven patterns is hegemonic, globally dominant, and is the latest, and probably the last, empire on Earth; and it systematically degrades and dehumanizes us all, while it simultaneously strips people of their voice, their power, the confidence and their dignity; and it furthmore systematically undermines, destroys, eviscerates and annihilates community, social bonds, families, all human connections, and our connections to both nature and to any kind of inner life, while annihilating all values other than profit, economic growth, power, egotism and consumerism. In that death zone created by the new global corporate empire, it is unsurprising, if not inevitable, that millions of people become desperate, and desperately unmoored, uprooted and untethered, and descend into petty forms of tribalism, in an unconscious but desperate effort to replace the wholesome and life-affirming, life-enriching forms of tribalism and community that we have lived with for virtually all of our 200,000 years on Earth, up until this last flicker of a moment in human history, spanning a mere 500 years; and it is equally unsurprising that mass adiction, suicide, violence, hatred, anxiety and depression, escapism, infantile narcissistic regression, and a sense of desperate helplessness, creeps over the peoples’ minds. This is obviously an enormous set of problems to overcome, but I would say that the short term answer is to reconnect, and to rebuild community; and the longer term answer – which by now means this decade, or very soon after, since we are ecologically running out of time – is to shatter the clay feet, as Daniel said, and to shatter the mould of empire itself, once and for all.
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Another of the major causes of the mass regression to an infantile state, is the authoritarianism which now covers the globe, like a thick, oily black smog. Politically, the Western world has moved from being a set of business-run, corporate-ruled, neoliberal pseudo-democracies, towards what can only be accurately described as corporate fascism.
Among the minority of people who still have a pulse, and who are still capable of independent thought, or critical thought, there is a divergence of opinion as to whether to call what is happening Communism, fascism, technocracy, or something else. But we are mincing words here. All of these terms refer to a system of elite rule, marked by authoritarianism. In all of these cases, the people at the top make the rules, and the people below obey, or else have a jackboot planted in their face. The terms mean little. We are talking about different versions of authoritarianism, and they all amount to pretty much the same thing for the people being ruled over: a boot in the face.
The Davos consortium of oligarchs, which now effectively rules over most parts of the world, is simply trying to consolidate and protect its power: against rising power centres in China, Russia and the BRIC nations; and more essentially, against the rising tide of populist democratic rebellion from within. The PR face being presented is that Davos is trying to save the planet. The reality is that the Davos oligarchs are trying to save themselves. The people and the planet are expendable, as far as they are concerned.
Fascism does not have to come with jack boots and black uniforms. It can also come with a smiling face of benevolence, “sustainability” and “inclusivity”, which is far more insidious, and far more dangerous.
The simple truth is, however, when you treat people like children, they behave like children. If you value freedom, democracy, justice, or even basic sanity, you cannot treat people like children, or else they will revert to behaving like children – which means, you cannot abide authoritarianism, which is always, by definition, paternalistic, and always reduces people to the status of children, if not infants.
We have traded a little liberty, so we think, for a little security, not realizing that we will lose both in the bargain. And what is more, when authoritarianism rises, the cult of obedience to authority also rises. The result is that people become terrified of thinking for themselves, since that would mean questioning authority, which they dare not do. It leaves them, therefore, in an infantile state, where their reason and their ability to think are vacated – by their own refusal to question authority, but instead, to defer all thinking and all judgment to the holy ones on high. The trajectory here is not good. In fact, it is extremely dark.
*
We should note here that while the majority of people continue to descend ever further into a dissociation from reality, into ever deeper levels of narcissistic regression, and ever deeper into alienation and denial, there is a counter movement in the opposite direction, and it is growing, and growing rapidly and exponentially. I could not give an accurate percentage figure, of course, and it varies widely and greatly based on regions, but it is definitely a global awakening that is underway, even while the majority slide further and further into numbed, dissociative oblivion. It is that brave minority, who value truth above comforting illusions, and who value freedom as well as compassion, who are are best, and only hope, for a future worth living, or in fact, any future at all.
But I digressed into the hopeful side. That is important to note, and to keep in mind; but we were focused here on understanding the problem facing modern industrial society. What can cure this pathological hollowness that leads to a stupor of denial, and a regression to an infantile state?
The answer is not more consumer goods, more entertainment, more ego-fixation, more and better selfies, more clicks on a “like” button, more pats on the head, more status, more fame, more money, more sex, more gadgets and baubles and trinkets. We have tried all of that, and tried it obsessively, ad nauseam, and it has failed. What we need, is to get to the root of the problem, the root of the loneliness, the hunger, the loss of self-esteem, self-confidence and self-dignity, which is the root of all narcissistic regression. We need, in a word, to reconnect.
Reconnection must take place at all four major levels: we need to reconnect with one another, with nature, with our own labour and creative power, and with our deeper selves. And it is the last which is most important, though also most frightening for people accustomed to chronic, habitual, compulsive escapism and distraction, and constant flight away from themselves.
To make the process of reconnecting with our deeper, more authentic selves easier, we might want to start by reconnecting to nature first. That is less frightening for most people, than actually spending time alone with themselves, or even, truly connecting with others.
When we spend more time in nature, we become nourished, in body mind and spirit, and we become more peaceful, more energized, more healthy, more clear-minded, more inspired, more empowered, and more strong. With that renewed strength and vitality, and a little more peace and calm of mind, we can then venture out into the terrifying territory of actually relating to other people – directly, unmediated, face to face, and authentically, without distractions, and without escaping into our cell phones. Then, as we regain our strength, and our basic sanity, through reconnecting with nature and with other people, then we can be brave enough to sit alone in silence and solitude, and reconnect with ourselves.
Or, if you are brave, go straight into meditation retreat, or a solitary wilderness retreat, and reconnect with yourself first – that will heal all other levels, because that is the root of the problem: the disconnection and alienation from ourselves.
The flight into compulsive, constant distraction, escapism, entertainment and consumerism, which hollows out the soul and turns people into fragile infantile narcissists, is driven by a fear of being with others; and even more so, the fear of being alone with oneself. Get comfortable with yourself, face your own dark fears and inner demons, and nothing can frighten you – not even death, and certainly not solitude, or other people.
However we do it, this is what must be done. We must reconnect. If we want world peace, or inner peace, or peace in our families, communities, workplaces or schools, if we want justice, equality, human health or well-being, democracy, freedom, or ecological stewardship and environmental sanity, we must now come to realize that none of this will be possible, so long as we have a society in which the great majority have regressed to an infantile narcissistic state.
First, reconnect; then we can talk about reality, because we have the courage and the maturity, the presence of mind, and the strength of mind and spirit, to deal with reality. At the moment, it is painfully obvious that we do not.
*
Independence is a value to be preserved, not simply mouthed. Independence means more than waving a flag. And true independence requires freedom, it requires constitutional rights, and it requires real, meaningful, functioning democracy – and all of these are under full scale, frontal assault, and they are dying rapidly. If we care about any of these values, or even our own survival, in the face of a rapidly escalating environmental emergency, we must first reconnect with ourselves; reconnect with nature as a source of strength, clarity, inspiration and renewal; and reconnect with one another.
United we stand, divided we fall.
We are now falling, and we are falling because we are divided – divided within, divided from nature, and divided from one another. Reconnect. That is step one.
Now we know what to do. Let us make of this day, and every day, a celebration of independence, of freedom, and of our unity amidst diversity, which makes us strong enough to retain our freedom and our independence – or in the case of the present moment in time: to reclaim them.
It is true that government, big business, and international organizations such as Davos (the World Economic Forum), the IMF (International Monetary Fund) and the ECB (European Central Bank) are the primary architects and joint rulers of our present world – and also the primary obstacles to the changes we urgently need. But it is not enough, nor is it honest, to place all blame with the ruling elite. We, the people, have a share in the responsibility. And what is important to realize is that if we refuse to own that responsibility, we also refuse to own our power.
You cannot be both powerless and powerful. And if you shun responsibility, you are shunning and disavowing your own power. This is another key dynamic in the mass regression to an infantile narcissistic state: as Aldous Huxley and Erich Fromm both understood, people are afraid of freedom, and they are afraid of their own power – they don’t trust themselves. But it’s a package deal. If you refuse any one of the three – responsibility, your own power, or freedom – you disavow and reject all of them.
That seems to be a perfectly fine arrangement for the majority of people: they are afraid of freedom; they are afraid of their own power; and they certainly don’t want to take responsibility – everything is always someone else’s fault. It’s the Republicans fault, or the Democrats fault, or immigrants….or your wife, or husband, boyfriend, girlfriend, co-workers, boss…. As Thoreau said, “The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.” And there is always someone who can be scapegoated for it.
For the majority today, what matters is being comfortable and perpetually entertained. All else is expendable: including democracy, freedom, human rights….their own dignity. No wonder they are reverting en mass to infantile narcissists.
The ancient Greeks understood that freedom only comes with responsibility. You cannot have one without the other. But when the people fear and shun both responsibility and freedom, and forget the preciousness and the non-negotiability of freedom itself, then we are in a dark and dire state indeed. And that is precisely where we stand now. Or rather, we do not stand at all. We cower and cringe, and hide in the shadows, content to watch Netflix and eat cheesepuffs and pizza, so long as we don’t have to shoulder the terrible burden of freedom – which means taking responsibility for our own life, and our own thoughts, views, emotions and actions. Better to bow down to the authorities, and engage in the wishful thinking which we know very well is a self-deceit, and tell ourselves that the people at the top are competent, sane and benign, and they will take care of everything for us. Just give us a soother and put us to bed. Preferably with the TV on.
Democracy means the people share the power. This is the fundamental premise and foundation. Without that, we have elite rule, which is oligarchy, of one form or another; and historically, however well-intentioned that might have started out, it always ends in tyranny, and in a nightmare society. This is the historical lesson of all lessons. This should be taught as Civics or Political-Economy 101. But the majority of people have no sense of history, and now, we are doomed to repeat our worst mistakes – unless we wake up from our collective stupor, and very, very soon.
Democracy means that we share in the responsibility for our communities, our nations, and the world we live in. If we shun that responsibility, then we have no one to blame but ourselves. And worse, if the people continue to disavow their freedom, their responsibility for the communities, nations and world we live in, their power, and their democracy, we will see an Orwellian dystopia that could very well make Stalinist Russia look like a summer picnic at the park.
We should note here, also, that compassion requires freedom. Authoritarianism is rationalized by its claim to be compassionate, for the greater good. It is a lie. It is never compassionate to shackle people in chains, whether physical or mental chains. Furthermore, authoritarianism always ends in genocide. That can hardly be called compassionate. Respecting freedom is intrinsic to true compassion. Furthermore, compassion requires firmness, and at times, ferocity. Jesus did not drive the money changers from the temple with a limp piece of leaf lettuce, but with a whip.
*
Five billion people are living in poverty. Another billion are sinking. The middle class is being eviscerated by corporate globalization, neoliberalism, and the feeding frenzy of the super-rich, under the wealth-extracting assault of a vicious, and highly conscious class warfare. People are under severe stress, their hopes thread bare or gone. We have poisoned our air, water, soil and food with toxic chemicals, and our hormonal balance is shot, due to hormone-disrupting pesticides we are spraying into our food, air and water. We are living with perpetual sensory overload, due to our technological fixation, our “news” and “social media” addiction, and our addiction to constant stimulation, rushing, distraction and entertainment; and simultaneously, we are experiencing the pathogenic and disorienting effects of sensory deprivation, due to our alienation from one another, from nature, and from the living world. In fact, the alienation and disconnection from one another, from nature and from ourselves, which creates neurosis and pathologies, both physical and mental, and creates a kind of sensory deprivation, drives the addiction to chronic hyper-stimulation, which then causes an unrecognized and unacknowledged, chronic sensory overload, creating a numbing of the senses, which creates further sensory deprivation, and further alienation and disconnection, which drives further desperate addiction to hyper-stimulation, escapism, distraction, consumerism, and other surrogates for real life and real connection. It is a negative feedback loop, and a downward spiral, until and unless the cycle is broken, and we disconnect and unplug, long enough to begin to reconnect. All this is taking place while we face a truly existential crisis, and at least unconsciously, or semi-consciously, people are facing existential fear – not only from increasing economic insecurity, but from our continued assault on the Earth that sustains us. Considering all of this, and considering we have seen the social bonds which sustain us weakened, undermined and frayed, I would say that people are holding together remarkably well, all things considered. But what is abundantly clear, is that the avoidance of reality must cease – no matter how understandable it may be.
By the way, I say here to the people of the Third World – the “developing world”, the Global South, where five out of seven billion people and the majority of humanity lives: take a long, hard look at this picture of the “leading”, “developed” industrialized nations. It is not a pretty picture. There are many positive aspects to these societies, and I have focused on the dark side here, but the dark side is very real, and it is slowly killing us, killing the planet, and driving people into sickness and insanity. Is this really what you want to become? Do you really want to become like us? Think again. We must end poverty, yes, most certainly and most urgently. But it is equally urgent that we find a different and better vision of development, growth, progress, the good life, and success. Do not follow the path of the industrialized nations. They are on a collision course with reality, and are headed for collapse. Not even the industrialized nations can continue in their present course. The whole thing, as Canadian environmentalist David Suzuki has said, is a slow motion train wreck: “We’re headed for a brick wall at a hundred miles an hour, and everybody is arguing about where they are going to sit.” That is what happens when a society sinks into the rotting bog of materialism, consumerism, entertainment addiction, vicarious living and chronic, obsessive escapism, and loses the critically essential balance and integration between the individual and the larger community: the society decays from within, until or unless those patterns are corrected, or else, the society simply collapses. Apparently, up to the present, we have been too dim-witted and steeped in a stupor of consumer addiction, entertainment frenzy and denial to realize we are racing with break-neck speed towards a very high cliff. And it is not at all clear that we will change course in time to avert a collapse of our “civilization”. That is the picture of the industrialized North and the West. Don’t follow us. We will only lead you over the cliff. Learn from our mistakes. Find a better way.
The ruling power elite, to use the term of the great sociologist, C. Wright Mills, have become sociopaths. There is no milder term for it. The real rulers, who are the billionaires of Davos, are truly sociopathic – a million killed in Iraq alone, in order to control oil profits, proves it starkly enough, as do myriad other examples; and their loyal minions in government are simply well-paid political prostitutes. Meanwhile, the great majority have succumbed to what Eleanor Roosevelt called, “a sleeping sickness of the soul”. As Thoreau said, they have become wooden. And as the Hopi warned, “When the people become wooden, a great calamity will befall them.”
That great calamity is bearing down upon us now.
The great social psychologist, Erich Fromm, was right: in modern industrial society, “Normal only exists in relation to a profoundly abnormal norm.” The old normal was pathological and delusional. The “new normal” is even more so. And yet, we drift.
We have become what T. S. Eliot described, “We are the hollow men”. The zombie apocalypse has already arrived – and we are it. This is why the millions of dedicated activists, despite millions of small victories, are still losing the battle on virtually every front – in terms of justice, peace, equality, freedom, democracy, constitutional rule and human rights, and the environment: because the great majority have become the living dead, and are numb to the world. They are in a walking coma, and are sleep-walking toward the cliff which fast approaches.
This is the way the world ends this is the way the world ends this is the way the world ends Not with a bang but with the obsessive clicking of a mouse.
The opium and cyanide drip is too intoxicating. They refuse to pull it out of their arms. We are a society of addicts, and it is a perpetual escape from reality, from one another, and from ourselves, which is the essence of our addiction. That addiction is now becoming terminal. We either overcome the aversion to reality, or we will soon cease to exist – and death by addiction is never pretty, never peaceful, but always tragic, and grim. Yet, still, the deathly pall of living death hangs over them, and they remain numb, and in a stupor of denial, and avoidance of reality.
We are hell-bent on entertaining ourselves right into our own self-made armageddon. And we will be numbed to the core, with Netflix and Doritos, when it comes.
This is the stupor we must shake off, and now. Rouse the people, and now. Remind them of their power. Remind them of their better selves.
There is a folk story that is told in Switzerland (my roots are Swiss, English and Canadian), about a fisherman who sat on the end of a pier, happy and content, when one day a man walked up to him, and offered him some free advice (often a dubious proposition, at best). The man said, “Why don’t you buy a fishing boat?” The fisherman asked, “Why would I do that?” The man said, “Because then you could catch more fish.” And the fisherman replied, “Why would I want to do that?” To which the man said, “Because then you could buy another boat, and then another, and soon you could have five boats!” And the fisherman said, “Why would I want to do that?” To which the man responded, “Because then you could catch so many fish, you wouldn’t have to work anymore, and you could just relax.” And the fisherman said, “But I am relaxed now.”
Thoreau observed of modern man – I am paraphrasing here: He has set a very clever kind of trap, with which to catch some great treasure, but caught himself in it instead. There is a saying in Switzerland (I am making a post-script addition to the essay, many days after writing it, and there is a risk I am repeating myself, but I, too, feel too much time-constraint to go back and check! Aren’t we all a bundle of contradictions, as Emerson said?) – in any case, the saying is, “Complicated works too.” But it would be even more accurate to say, complicated works, until it doesn’t. Sooner or later, our complications become our self-defeat. Modern industrial society is experiencing the pain of that slow-dawning realization now.
Chogyam Trungpa was right: we are running in circles, with great speed – the first thing to do, is to slow down. Only then we can be able to pause long enough to reflect. And from reflection, comes clarity. From clarity comes intelligent response. Confusion, delusion, and great speed, are the hallmarks of our modern, technologically-entranced, digitally-fixated industrial society. And that breeds only self-destruction; not clarity or resolve, which is what we need.
Gandhi famously said, when asked what he thought of Western civilization, “I think it would be a good idea.” And he summed up the central problem of the world, very simply and succinctly, when he said, “The world has enough for everyone’s need, butnot for everyone’s greed.” And when asked if he wanted his newly independent India to have the same “standard of living” as Britain, he replied, “It took a whole planet to give Britain its standard of living. How many planets would it take to give India the same standard of living?” We can have a clean, green, sustainable, regenerative and abundant world, if we can learn to share, and to live within our ecological means. But that is not the story the industrialized world wants to hear. That is not acceptable, and so, chronic systemic deceit, self-delusion and lies, become the necessary standard fare.
The former foreign minister of Nicaragua once said, “I have to believe the people of the United States are the most systematically lied to people on Earth. If I didn’t, I’d have to believe they are the most evil.” The United States has taken a lot of criticism lately for its foreign policy, both from within the US and from abroad, for its murderous wars, its coups, its economic and financial terrorism, and its stark imperialism – especially since the million Iraqis were slaughtered in Iraq for their oil. But the same thing can be said of the people of the Western world and the Global North in general. Neocolonialism, and imperialism – killing, looting and pillaging for profit and power – are alive and well, precisely because the culture of denial, and the culture of lies, persists.
The people of the Western world and the Global North are largely silent about the murder and theft that goes on routinely in the name of the global corporate empire, because they are systematically lied to, and have drifted into sleep. It is the same systemic lies, propaganda and deceit, that allows the billionaire corporate oligarchs and their loyal political prostitutes, to now loot and pillage the people of the West and the North, gut them and drive them into the poor house, while destroying their rights, their freedom and their democracy. The culture of lies and the culture of sleep-walking denial of reality, go hand in hand. That is what enables this dying last empire of the new global corporate oligarchy to continue on its rampage a little longer.
The answers are not complicated. The question is, do we have the moral and intellectual courage to face reality, and to deal with reality. If so, then our future is good. If not, then it will be a nightmare, and a living hell.
We are our brother’s keeper. And we are – or now must be, are forced to be, after the mess we’ve made – the stewards of the Earth. If we can accept these simple terms, and live in peace and goodwill, then our future is bright. This does not require a spiritual or moral transformation of humanity. It simply requires that the sleep-walkers wake up. Crisis always brings out the best and the worst in people. For most people, when presented with a crisis, it brings out the best. Which will it be? We can go out, numbed and vacuous, like the living dead, with barely a whimper. Or we can go out in mutual destruction, our fingers around each other’s throats. Or we can behave like men and women, and not as small, neurotic, badly behaved children, and live equitably, sanely, and in peace. Which option will it be? It truly is up to us. Fatalism is a fool’s game of escape from reality. Our future is in our hands. Only a coward or a liar will tell you differently. Make your choice now, and make it wisely.
What are the answers we are waiting for? I would say they are the ones that we learned, or were have supposed to have learned, in kindergarten: share, cooperate, clean up your mess, and don’t be greedy. If we actually applied these simple principles in our lives and in our society, the world would be transformed, and healed, in short order. The simplest answers are usually the best answers. We over-complicate just about everything. Moreover, we avoid the simple solutions, because they are the most challenging. They’re also generally the only solutions that work. We’d rather create complicated daydreams, than take simple steps to rectify the problems – and we become lost in our hyper-complex daydreams and schemes, because they are our soother, our pacifier, as well as our principle reality-avoidance mechanism; and so, our schemes and daydreams and gross over-complications, turn to nightmares of our own creation. This is not the way ahead. This is the route into ever an deeper quagmire – a quagmire of delusion, of tyranny, and of self-destruction. As Thoreau said, “Simplify, simplify.”
*
The challenges facing us are great, and the stakes could not be higher. However, despair, while understandable, is something we cannot afford. Giving up, continuing to avoid reality, indulging in wishful thinking, waiting for the government or someone else to fix the problems, or shrugging our shoulders: any and all of these responses amount to an act of soulless cowardice and moral bankruptcy. We must find our inner strength, and the strength of our unity, once again, and now.
Together, we have great strength. We have all the strength, talent, ingenuity, ideas, and resources, that we need to face and overcome the challenges that lay before us. What we do not have, is time to waste, or time to perpetuate our escape from reality, any longer.
Thoreau remarked over a century ago, that the plague of the modern world is that, “The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.” And he went on to say, “…but it is uncharacteristic of wisdom to do desperate things.” Why are we in such a desperate rush, and in such a desperate rush to do, mainly, desperately useless, trivial and destructive things? We need to pause, take a breath, reflect deeply, and own our power. Thomas Paine was right in 1776, and it is equally true today: “We have it in our power to begin the world over again.”
What we need, is not a high-tech solution. It is not a Big Brother or big government solution. What we need, is that tipping point inwardly, spiritually, psychologically and culturally, that moves us from an unacknowledged sense of powerlessness and despair, to firm and utter resolve, to dawn in our minds and hearts, and very, very soon, if not now.
We can do this. We can face these challenges together. But we must reconnect in order to do that. We must reconnect with one another; with nature, as a great balm and restorative tonic to our spirits; and with our own deeper and more authentic selves. The answer is not more distraction. The answer is more reality. End the flight. Embrace your power.
J. Todd Ring, July 4, 2021 S.D.G.
Acknowledgements and Afterword:
There are far too many acknowledgements to list here, from a lifetime of studies, research and reflection, and many, many thoughtful and important discussions with a great many people; and I have listed my major sources and references many times before, in any case. But I must give thanks here to the host of the truly world-class podcast, Geopolitics & Empire (who is so humble that I have yet to hear him give his name, and which is also not mentioned on his website). It was he who came up with the terms, Branch Covidian, and Covid-1984, which very accurately describe what we are living through and experiencing now.
I would urge everyone to read, at least, Chomsky’s, Necessary Illusions, and Class Warfare, and to give a listen, with an open mind, to the Geopolitics & Empire podcast. You may not agree with everything that every guest says, nor do I, and nor does the host; but it will be thought-provoking, you can be guaranteed, and it will broaden your mind. In fact, it is very refreshing to hear very diverse people from very diverse perspectives; and what’s more, to be reminded that despite our differences of opinion, there are still a great many good-hearted, thoughtful and intelligent people in the world.
Infantile narcissistic regression may be the disastrous norm and the trajectory of the great majority of the people at present, as Aldous Huxley, for one, would surely recognize, but this too shall pass – and an awakening of humanity has already begun. Moreover, know that the American Revolution was started by a single man – Thomas Paine. Not even Jefferson, Washington or Benjamin Franklin wanted revolution, until Thomas Paine published his slim little book in January of 1776. By July 4 of that same year, the revolution was launched. And it was launched by just a handful of men and women. Despite the grim state of things, it only takes a small dedicated group of individuals to change the course of history. As Margaret Meade said, in fact, that is all that ever has. Never forget that fact. And as Yogi Berra said, and I am fond of quoting, “It ain’t over ’till it’s over.”
A few resources for overcoming the illusion of powerlessness, along with nihilism, mass formation, propaganda, indoctrination, group-think, despair, narcissism and infantile regression:
Dr. Mattias Desmet
Dr. Robert Malone
Rocco Galati
RFK Jr.
Gabor Mate
Brene Brown
Kelly Brogan
Sayer Ji
Piers Robinson
Robert Epstein
Joanna Macy: Active Hope; Coming Back To Life; and, World As Lover, World As Self
Paulo Friere – Pedagogy of the Oppressed
Russell Brand – Revolution
Henry David Thoreau – Walden, and, On Civil Disobedience
Etienne de La Boite – The Discourse On Voluntary Servitude
Max Weber – The Protestant Ethic and The Spirit of Capitalism
Erich Fromm: The Pathology of Normalcy; and, Escape From Freedom
Rianne Eisler – The Chalice and The Blade
Murray Bookchin – The Ecology of Freedom
Joseph Campbell – The Hero With A Thousand Faces
Jane English, transl. – The Tao Te Ching
Jane Hope – Introducing Buddha
The Dalai Lama – A Flash Of Lightning In The Dark Of Night
David Schiller – The Little Zen Companion
Kahlil Gibran – The Prophet
Robert Frost – The Road Not Taken
Ken Wilber – No Boundary
Alan Watts: The Book; The Way of Zen; Tao: The Watercourse Way; and Psychotherapy East and West
Lex Hixon – The Mother of the Buddhas; and Coming Home
Aldous Huxley: The Perennial Philosophy; and, Brave New World, and Brave New World Revisited
Marvin Meyers, transl. – The Gospel of Thomas
Jon Kabat-Zinn: Wherever You Go, There You Are; and Full Catastrophe Living
Robert Bly – Iron John
Cheri Huber: The Depression Book; and There Is Nothing Wrong With You
Judith Herman – Trauma and Recovery
Vandana Shiva – Oneness vs The 1%
J. Todd Ring (myself):
Enlightened Democracy
The People vs The Elite
and my forthcoming book,
All Hell Breaks Loose: Global Geopolitics 1945-2045
My own books synthesize the best of these source materials above, along with thousands of other excellent sources. I would urge people to begin there. Order them now on Amazon or Barnes & Noble – or better, call or visit your local independent bookstore, and order them today.
We should remember that the cult of authority, the cult of obedience, and the cult of conformity, are profoundly anti-intellectual, anti-science, anti-empirical, and anti-democratic, as well as extremely dangerous. And these three cults now reign supreme across the Western world, as Western societies close down, having imported the authoritarian model of Communist China, and turn to fascism and a new police state, and a new Inquisition. Some critical thought is urgently needed here, or we will live in a hybrid of the nightmare worlds envisioned by Huxley and Orwell. We are already neck-deep into that quagmire of a rotting bog. We had best lift our heads, and get our bearings, before we are buried alive by our own blindness and self-eviscerating, self-enslaving illusions.
*
“Expert” and “expertise”, of course, are among other terms that are heavily loaded with cognitive, connotative and emotional bias. It would be better not to use them at all.
The people who were considered experts in science before the time of Copernicus, for example, were certain the Earth was the centre of the universe, and the cult of authority which the terms “expert”, “expertise” and “authority” insidiously inculcate in the mind of the listener or reader, further cemented that illusion, and other illusions and delusions that were and are far more dangerous.
The “experts” who were the scholars, academics, political elite, business elite, aristocracy, monarchies and clergy, all said and fervently believed, for hundreds of years, that slavery is normal, natural, and perfectly ethical and acceptable, and that slaughtering, enslaving, banishing or stealing lands and possessions from “savages”, “heathens”, “pagans”, or indigenous peoples of the Middle East, Africa, Asia and the Americas, was not only perfectly moral, but was God’s will.
The term “expert”, thus, leads us into an unconscious and unthinking deference to authority, whereby our minds, critical thought, conscience and compassion, are frequently and routinely checked at the door, and forgotten.
There are, therefore, few words that are as diabolical in their unintended consequences, as a result of the hidden bias, and cult of authority, or cult of obedience, that it represents, and inculcates, perpetuates and spawns, as the term, “expert”. No thinking person, I would therefore argue, should ever use it.
You can say, well-read, erudite, well-informed, highly aware, and there, at least, you are making known your view of that person explicitly, as being at least to some degree subjective and open to question, and deserving investigation. But when you use the term “expert”, for most people, all thinking stops immediately, and they simply accept as an unquestionable fact, whatever the supposed “expert” says is true – even when he or she is lying, distorting the truth, or more often, simply mistaken, in small, or more frequently, in gross and severe ways – and so, we all follow the pied piper, either into propaganda, which is pervasive, or into self-deceit, denial of reality, and illusion, which are more common still.
Drop the loaded language of these biased terms, I would argue. Speak with power, passion and persuasion, when it is called for, but do it with precision and with honesty. There are at least several terms which should be generally avoided, for exactly these well-defined reasons.
Of course, the term conspiracy theory is another such term that is so heavily loaded with emotional, cognitive and connotative bias, as to preclude any rational or critical thought in the minds of most people. It is akin to being accused of being a Communist during the McCarthy hearings, or being accused of being a witch during the Inquisition. All that is required is for the accusation to be hurled, and the mob responds with an impulse to run away with hands over their ears as fast as they can, if they don’t decide to immediately attack, and burn the heretic at the stake, as a zealous and fanatical minority always do. No thoughtful person should therefore use the term. It bears repeating.
We are at the beginning of a global awakening and a new renaissance, but all such positive changes have their regressive and reactionary backlash. We stand at the brink of either a new Renaissance, or a new Inquisition. So far, the Inquisition is winning. But the longer trajectory is towards a Renaissance, an awakening, and a rebirth. This is the context which is critical for us to understand.
“Conspiracy theorist” is now a term akin to being accused of being a terrorist, a Communist, or a witch. Only the deceitful and the dangerously ignorant can possibly use such a term.
(See my previous essays on science, and on conspiracy theory, for further elaboration.)
Simply use the term theory, which is neutral, instead of the loaded term, conspiracy theory; then people can actually look to the evidence and logic of the theory to evaluate for themselves whether it is wholly or partially true, or not. That is the empirical approach, and hence also the scholarly, intelligent, and scientific approach. Because the term conspiracy theory undermines any use of logic, reason or recourse to evidence, it is categorically anti-empirical, anti-intellectual, and anti-science.
Another interesting note: Cordoba, the greatest city of Europe while most of Europe was still under the thrall of the Dark Ages, had running water, sewers, fountains, 70 libraries, public baths, beautiful architecture, churches, synagogues and mosques, and street lights, in the 8th century. The City of London in 1605, during the Gun Powder Plot, still had no street lights. But all that has been swept aside, because the actual historical facts did not fit the desired official narrative. When the facts conflict with the official narrative, it is not the narrative that is changed to fit the facts, but the facts must be altered to fit the narrative. And so it begins again today, but not simply with a re-writing of history, which is dangerous enough, but with the death of science, democracy, and freedom itself.
The official narrative is always right, and can never be questioned – and never you mind the facts, your common sense, and do not even think of looking at the actual evidence. Authority is always right, and must always be obeyed, and never questioned. Does this sound like the Inquisition? It should, because it is essentially the same pattern, being repeated again. Orwell and Huxley would roll in their graves.
Welcome to the Brave New World, where you will be told what to do, where you can go and where you cannot, what you can say and what you cannot, and even, what you can and must think.
In the generally well-made history documentary, 1,000 AD – A Tour of Europe (a History Time, YouTuber video linked below) at just 13 minutes in, there is already one giant, elephant-sized error – a common one, which is almost universal among historians of the West. Examining this one common, seismic scale, nearly universal illusion, propounded by nearly all Western historians, colleges, universities and history books, will not only enlighten us, but hopefully, and even more importantly, encourage people to think for themselves, to question everything, and to not be so utterly vulnerable and susceptible to commonplace illusions, propaganda or group-think, which pass for informed, educated, scholarly opinion, or worse, for facts.
Do not assume that YouTube videos are reliable sources of information, even if they sound authoritative and are visually well-made. Likewise, do not assume your history books, history teachers, or history professors, or your bookish intellectual friends, know what they are talking about. Generally they get the details right, though often not; but they almost invariably cannot see the forest for the trees – and they radically mistake and misrepresent the bigger picture or larger narrative, as a result of their own indoctrination, naively, and out of simple ignorance and delusion, or commonly shared illusions. This, we call being “educated”. (See Chomsky on the media, indoctrination and thought control, and on education.)
While the German kings of the Holy Roman Empire are portrayed in the documentary in generally positive, even glowing terms, as rightful emperors of Europe, and heavy focus and attention is given to them; meanwhile, a scant few seconds is devoted to Andalusia, where, we are told, by stark contrast, “a brutal tyrant” ruled (unlike the German kings, who were, of course, righteous and holy), a place in southern Europe where, in the 8th century, under Moorish/Islamic rule, the Spanish Renaissance had begun – the Renaissance which pre-dated the Italian Renaissance by *500 years*, and which was the true beginning of the Renaissance in Europe; a place and time where the spirit of “convivienthia”, or living together peacefully, was the motto and the norm, where the Islamic, Christian and Jewish people lived together in a very tolerant and cosmopolitan culture, where the exchange of ideas flowed freely – which is always what brings about a renaissance – and in Moorish Spain, where a Renaissance had begun, the people lived in general peace, while the warring tribes and nations of the rest of Europe were perpetually at each others’ throats, and living like barbaric savages, by comparison. But, as is the norm in history, cultural bias and massive distortions of historical facts and the true historical narrative, are passed off as informed and scholarly, objective truths.
The people of Andalusia, in what is now southern Spain, in the 8th-11th century began the Renaissance that, over the span of 700 years, swept slowly across a reluctant and recalcitrant Europe, which in general clung to the ways and beliefs of the Dark Ages, and clung to their habits of warring, perpetual bigotry, division, hubris and hate, authoritarianism and narrowness of mind. But this fact, of the real origins of the Renaissance, has been swept from mind in European history, because the true founders of the Renaissance, the people of Andalusia, had the wrong skin colour and the wrong religion. They were darker of skin, and worse, they were ruled by Islamic governments.
The Renaissance is commonly said to have begun in Florence, Italy, with the patronage of the Medici banking family. Firstly, the Medicis didn’t come to power in Florence until the mid-1400s. The Italian Renaissance, which began in Florence, began in the 1200s, and was inspired by St. Francis, not the Medicis – and it began two hundred years before the Medicis even rose to power. The Medicis funded Renaissance artists, to be sure – but only after the Renaissance had been flourishing for two centuries. They were late-comers, who wanted to claim the glory for themselves – as all elites, in their tendency toward hubris and egomania, tend to do.
St. Francis, in turn, was inspired by Hildegard of Bingen, the 12th century German mystic, theologian, philosopher, composer, musician, doctor, healer, polymath and activist. So we should rightly view St. Francis and Hildegard of Bingen as the true founder of, first, the German Renaissance, which began in the 12th century, and the Italian Renaissance, which began shortly afterward. But that doesn’t fit with the official narrative, of the triumph of secular humanism and the rejection of a spiritual world-view, so that has also been unacceptable. But the humanism of the Renaissance was not a rejection of spirituality, but rather, an enlivening compliment to it, which was meshed and fused with spirituality.
How many giant, glaring errors of historical omission and distortion can we have with regards to one single, albeit pivotal, era of history, which are taken as objective, scholarly, indisputable historical fact? A shocking number, with a shocking, and mind-numbing gravity to each, is the true answer.
Wikipedia, that bastion of utterly unreliable information, which frequently if not typically is simply a source of gross distortions and misinformation, says of the Spanish Renaissance that it spread from the Italian Renaissance, and came in the 14th and 15th centuries. The fact is that the Spanish Renaissance began in the 8th century, and spread to Italy, giving birth to the Italian Renaissance, and not the other way around. Never rely on Wikipedia for anything. And do question everything.
We can and should, and must, trace the origins and the birthplace of the Renaissance back to its beginning, naturally, if we are true scholars, and not merely pseudo-intellectuals, mouthing the confused and deeply distorted narratives that we have been indoctrinated into accepting as the veritable word of God on the matter. And the real origins of the Renaissance in Europe, which transformed Europe, and brought Europe out of the Dark Ages, were in Spain, in Andalusia, in the 8th century, 500 years before the Italian Renaissance got going.
History is written by the conquerors – and we all lose by losing the real story, the fuller story, the more honest story. It is high time we reclaimed the bigger picture. And by we, I mean humanity, in all its wondrous diversity.
– J. Todd Ring, Author of, Enlightened Democracy, and, The People vs The Elite February 28, 2021
Find my books and essays on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, WordPress, Patreon and Minds.
As I say, the history documentary referred to above and linked here below is generally well done, but glaring errors of massive implications must be pointed out and corrected.
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Important Reading In History – The Clearing of the Fog:
Year 501: The Conquest Continues – Noam Chomsky
Stolen Continents – Ronald Wright
A Short History of Progress – Ronald Wright
The Ecology of Freedom – Murray Bookchin
The Chalice and The Blade – Rianne Eisler
Mutual Aid – Peter Kropotkin
The Wayfinders – Wade Davis
The No-Nonsense Guide To World History – Chris Brazier
A People’s History of the United States – Howard Zinn
The CIA’s Greatest Hits – Mark Zepezauer
Blowback: America’s Secret Recruitment of Nazis and Its Disastrous Effect on US Foreign and Domestic Policy – Christopher Simpson & Mark Crispin Miller
Writings of J. Todd Ring 
On The Use & Abuse Of History
Posted in Uncategorized with tags Chomsky, historiogtaphy, history, illusion, indoctrination, media, misinformation, political economy, political philosophy, political science, political theory, politics, politics of illusion, propaganda, social analysis, social commentary, social philosophy, social psychology, social theory, sociology, thought control, Zinn on October 11, 2021 by jtoddringA typical account of history is presented in the video linked below, and here are some reflections on it, and on the general practice, or malpractice, of professional historians, and scholars and intellectuals broadly.
As Noam Chomsky has said, the major media portray themselves as free and unbiased media, but the record of their conduct proves the opposite: the major media serve the function of being a propaganda system for the ruling elite. Similarly, as Chomsky has also said, academia presents itself, and likes to think of itself, as centres of free and open inquiry, and honest scholarship, but again, their record shows that, aside from a minority of exceptional and courageous scholars, academia serves the same function as the major media: it serves the role of being a propaganda and indoctrination system for the ruling elite.
Considering these facts, the abuse and misrepresentation of actual history to give greatly distorted historical narratives, and other narratives, also serves the ruling power elite. In both cases, in the media and in academia, and among “intellectuals” generally, there is no conscious lying or distortion involved: aside from a few key people in positions of power and influence, who are conscious liars and conscious propagandists – meaning, intellectual prostitutes – the great majority of scholars, intellectuals, media workers, pundits and “journalists”, are simply deeply indoctrinated themselves. Moreover, they learn early on what can and cannot be said, and how to frame the narrative, so that they keep their jobs, their positions, and are not squeezed out of the propaganda and indoctrination system that employs them.
These things must be born in mind, and understood, or else we have no real understanding of anything whatsoever. Maybe we know the periodic table, or basic geography, or even advanced physics or math, but we misunderstand virtually everything else, if we do not understand – and viscerally understand, as well as intellectually understand – that both the major media, and academia and “intellectual culture”, are, primarily, and overwhelmingly, systems of thought control in democratic societies, to use the phrase in the subtitle of Noam Chomsky’s most important book, Necessary Illusions.
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Here is a fascinating and thoughtful look at the industrial revolution….but, with three glaring problems, errors or blunders:
1. As usual, historians talk about “important” people, when they mean, and should say “influential” or “powerful” people. This is not merely semantic. The words we use have a profound influence on shaping how we view, understand, or misunderstand things. Using the term important instead of simply saying powerful or influential, re-enforces and reifies the hierarchical and elitist power structures which dominate our world, and which should be overcome, as the barbaric, out-moded archaic models which they are. Like the terms progress, evolution, evolved, educated, civilized, savage, heathen, pagan and barbarian, terrorist, freedom fighter, rebel, populist, nationalist, etc., as with the term “important people”, we should use them with thoughtful editorial remarks and reflection, or not at all.
2. A discussion of the industrial revolution with zero analysis of class relations? You are joking, right?
3. How can you talk about the industrial revolution without even mentioning, a) the land enclosures, massive land theft, the mass population displacement created by the land enclosures, and the resulting explosion of an urban destitute population, which provided the critically essential cheap labour; b) colonialism and the mass looting, and mass land theft, of Africa, Asia and the Americas, which provided the necessary capital for the industrial revolution; and c) the mass enslavement of Africans and indigenous peoples in the Americas, which generated further vast wealth for the European and American elite, and which further financed the industrial revolution?
4. Furthermore, how can you possibly talk about the industrial revolution, with a straight face, and pretend to be serious, without even mentioning the fact that, as well as being built upon the backs of the working class common men and women of Britain, the US and Europe, and built on mass land theft in Europe, the Americas and around the world; the entire history of colonialism and neocolonialism, from the industrial revolution up to the present day, has been shaped by a highly conscious and deliberate policy on the part of the ruling elite of Britain, the US, Europe, and their junior partners in crime in Canada, Australia and New Zealand, of de-industrialization and the blocking and dismantling industrialization and economic development in the Third World, the Global South, and in the East, as much as possible? As Brzezinski said, “To hearken back to a more brutal imperial age, we must keep the vassals weak and divided.” That was the very conscious policy of the globally dominant Western elite, for over 500 years, and still is. But such truths are unspeakable in Western academia, or in polite “intellectual” culture.
How about the fact that, at the beginning of the industrial revolution, India produced a superior quality and greater quantity of steel than Britain, or the fact that it was the policy of the British Empire to de-industrialize India, and force India to grow opium, so that the ruling British business elite could use the Opium Wars to flood China with opium, and thereby keep the two great powers of Asia, which were India and China, weak, subjugated, and subservient to the Empire? But again, such plain and honest truths cannot be spoken in polite “intellectual” conversation.
(Beginning in the 1970s China became one of the few exceptions to the policy of the ruling Western oligarchs of keeping the Global South weak and de-industrialized, when the Rockefeller gang decided China would make a good pawn, if industrialized, so that sweatshop labour there could be used to further weaken and subjugate the working class of the West – which of course, has always meant the 99% of the people who don’t live off of their stock portfolios. And the scheme did the job marvelously. But in any case, the general principle and policy architecture of imperial rule, from 1492 to the present, remains the same, in broad outline, despite the occasional divergence; and even the divergences are always motivated by the same underlying motives, objectives and imperatives of imperial power.)
In short, the talk here does a lovely job of examining the tip of the iceberg, while the 99% of the iceberg that is hidden under the water, goes unexamined, and even unmentioned.
And this is called scholarship?
If you want an honest account of history, read Noam Chomsky’s, Year 501: The Conquest Continues, Howard Zinn’s, A People’s History of The United States, Ronald Wright’s, Stolen Continents, Rianne Eisler’s, The Chalice and The Blade, and Murray Bookchin’s, The Ecology of Freedom.
In fact, I would strongly suggest that all professional and amateur historians, and all professional and amateur pundits, and social or political-economic analysts and commentators, do not say or write another single word, until they have read and digested all five. Until then, they are, in all likelihood, simply spreading gross distortions, misrepresentations, half-truths, lies, illusions, and misinformation, without even realizing it.
As a serious scholar of history once said, you should go for the big picture first, then zoom in, to flesh out the details. If you try to do it the other way around, you will most likely misunderstand everything, and in perpetuity.
If you are going to do a history podcast, or teach or write about history – or social commentary, or political-economic commentary or analysis – then you need to at least have a basic understanding of the big picture. If you don’t, then you are doing a very major disservice to everyone, even if you don’t realize it.
As Thoreau said, You should read the best books first; otherwise, you may never read them at all.
J. Todd Ring,
October 11, 2021
Post-Script and Video Link:
Order and read the special edition of the New Internationalist, titled, Starve Trek, as well, I would urge, along with the five books listed above. It explains the past 500 years of world history, and explains how the world works at present, in a short, cartoon graphic novel. You can laugh and cry, and then photocopy it, and pass it along to people who still just don’t get it.
Here is the wondrous podcast referred to above, from Wondery – so named, apparently, because if you are able to think critically at all, you will wonder how such drivel can be presented as serious scholarship, or as a remotely accurate account of history. It is neither. It is pablum for the people, laced with morphine and cyanide – like most of the content on the internet, in the media, the “alternative media” (a laughable misnomer, in most cases), or in academia or “intellectual culture”.
Impressive graphics and theme music, though!
Image is everything in our befuddled society. Content, conscience, compassion, truth – these things mean nothing. Image is all. It is the simulation we crave. Reality terrifies us, and from it, we perpetually, and with increasingly desperation, flee.
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