Distance Yourself From Evil, Not People

The Boycott Big Tech Movement Begins Here

First rule: Question everything, and think for yourself.

Second rule: Don’t support your slavers. (Gandhi, MLK and Thoreau would understand. It’s time for mass civil disobedience.)

Nothing is free. If you want to say no to Big Brother, you have to pay for better tech that itself says no to Big Brother. That means boycotting Big Tech. It’s a transition we need to make. Start by ditching Google. Then Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, Android….

Marco Polo is worth looking into, as well. (A video calling service) They refuse to use annoying ads, and more importantly, they refuse to sell client data or to be part of the new global surveillance state. 

Also of note: There is a new tech company making sleek black phones, tablets and laptops, which are not only built to last three times longer, but are built from the kernel up to be deeply resistant to the new global surveillance apparatus. Sorry the name escapes me at the moment. See the excellent podcast, Geopolitics & Empire, and you’ll find it; along with an extremely important interview with Robert Epstein on why boycotting Big Tech is imperative (my extrapolation).

See also, My Seven Simple Steps, by Robert Epstein, for further resistance to Big Brother.

The MAGATS – Microsoft, Amazon, Google, Apple, Twitter, and the “social media” giant Farcebook – are all deeply embedded and eager partners with the new global corporate police state. We need to begin an exodus away from them, an intelligent social distancing campaign that brings people together, face to face, and in groups for rallies and protests, meetings, conferences and blockades, under freedom of travel, speech and assembly, and distance ourselves from the Big Tech tools of the corporate police state. Now that would be…pardon me, will be…intelligent social distancing. Distance yourself from evil – not from people.

“Social distancing” doesn’t work. The science indicates 27 feet is needed. Six feet is useless – unless you want to sow panic and fear, and divide and conquer the people, which of course is the elite-driven objective, which the lemmings blindly obey.

Masks don’t work, as even the WHO admitted. They do however cut off oxygen to the body and brain, lowering immune resistance as well as functional intelligence – which partly explains the mass insanity and loss of ability to think critically or to use basic common sense reasoning.

Mass quarantine, which is mass house arrest, doesn’t work, as Sweden and Taiwan have proved. In fact, it is causing alienation and economic devastation to soar, which will, if continued, result in surging poverty, sickness and death.

Moreover, this is not the Plague. The global death toll from covid, a new form of the cold and flu family, is under 300,000, while annual death tolls from the flu are 300,000-700,000.

Basic math, anyone?

Think for yourself.

Check the facts. Question everything. You are being lied to. Mass hysteria has taken over.

The covid crisis needs to be understood for what it is: a Davos billionaire oligarch-driven agenda of: 1. Mass distraction, 2. Divide and conquer, 3. Economic warfare, that is, class warfare, of the 1% vs the 99%, and 4. A pretext for a power grab, and the final stage of the 50 year process of neoliberalism, which has been the corporate take-over of society on a global scale, and the merger of business and the state, which as Mussolini said, is the proper definition of fascism.

Where is the left? I hope you are starting to get this right, or will soon. This is a corporate fascist coup.

Of course, to frame the issues in this way will put the 60-80% of people who have become complete lemmings, into total panic, hyperbolic mouth-foaming fervour, and vitriolic hysteria; but it simply must be done.

I’ve explained these issues countless times. Read my blog essays if anything here is surprising or alarming. It certainly should not be. And I am not willing to repeat myself ad nauseum.

The propaganda war is beginning to fail. People are asking questions, at last, and are waking up. The mouth-frothing, screaming, self-righteous, deeply hypocritical defenders of the “new normal” of pseudo-medical fascism, are losing. Keep questioning. Keep speaking the truth. Keep pressing the facts over hyperbole. 

Saddam Hussein did not have WMDs. A giant lie launched a war causing hundreds of thousands of deaths. Now we face mass distortions that will kill millions and enslave billions, if we don’t cut through the illusions, distortions, propaganda, hysteria and lies.

Choose solidarity and caring *with* freedom; or choose virtual lobotomy, and slavery to a brutal new Orwellian order. There is no third choice, other than in fantasy and delusion.

Remember what Emerson said, “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.” Sane, mature, confident people can admit when they were wrong. Insane, childish, petty, and weak-minded people cannot.

JTR,

May 10, 2020

Post-Script:

Privacy is a misnomer. The entire issue has been mislabelled. Freedom from surveillance and manipulation is the big issue. Vastly more important than privacy is that we don’t cooperate with our slavers: the new global corporate fascist police state. Just say no to Big Brother. See My Seven Simple Steps for important tips, as a starting place. #BoycottBigTech! #BoycottBigBrother 

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

“Unprecedented” – Reality vs Delusion

Every day, 25,000 people die of hunger. Every day, more than 25,000 people die from degenerative diseases caused by toxins, pollution, obesity and poor diets. Nobody is sounding the alarm about these two killers, which dwarf all others. Madness has gripped the world.

Every 100 days, over 5,000,000 people die of poverty and hunger, junk food and obesity. Nobody notices. But a virus kills 200,000 in the same time span, with less than 1/20th of that death toll, and it’s a global panic and hysteria, with a fascist global lockdown, a police state invoked, and global house arrests, as everyone chants the cultish chorus, “unprecedented!”

Unprecedented madness, is what it is. What’s next, the Inquisition?

Watch for it.

Every year a tragic event happens. 300,000 to 600,000 people die globally of the flu. Most are very old, very ill, or immune compromised, but it is still tragic, of course. In 2020 fewer people have died of a novel coronavirus (a new form within the cold and flu family of viruses) than from previous years’ typical flu deaths.

Let me repeat that. Fewer people have died from this new flu, or flu-like respiratory infection, to be precise, called covid-19, than have died this year from the flu, and fewer than the number that die every year from the flu.

More people die in a typical year, year after year, from the flu – yet we did not invoke a global fascist police state, mass global house arrests, sweeping unconstitutional powers for governments, and suspension of constitutional rights and freedoms for the people, in response to the previous 300,000 years of human history, when we faced typically higher death rates from the annual flu.

Simple logic and common sense fails the people, and the intellectuals, alike. Nobody fact checks? Reason has fled them.

Clearly the numbers don’t add up. This is not about public health. It is a power grab, with an extremely exaggerated relatively minor health issue used as the propaganda narrative to justify and cover it up. It is staring us in the face, like the emperor with no clothes, but people can’t see it before their eyes. They are being severely brainwashed, virtually every second, by a truly unprecedented global propaganda campaign. And it is working with unprecedented success.

If the business and political elite were truly interested in human health, the US would already have a universal public health care system; Britain would not be trashing the NHS; Big Pharma would be strictly regulated and monitored, not put in the driver’s seat; poverty, hunger and malnutrition would be eliminated; war would be stopped; toxic pesticides and other pollutants would be banned; and the fast food and processed food industries would be heavily taxed, to drive up their prices, deter their food-like products from being consumed, and fund mass public education on what truly healthy food and lifestyles look like – to make just a partial and incomplete list.

None of that is happening. This is not about human health. It’s about elite power. The Davos set wants it all.

What is unprecedented is a billionaire, Bill Gates, Mr. Pharma, and his billionaire pals at Davos, using their financial control over the World Health Organization and world governments, along with their financial control – or in most cases direct ownership – of the media, to drive an agenda of mass global house arrest, shutting down the bulk of the global economy, knowing it would demolish the global economy, which would cause vast suffering for the 99% and a feeding frenzy and boon for the 1%, and would cause a Great Depression of unprecedented proportions, in what is an act of global economic warfare of the 0.1% against the great majority of the people.

(How are these things not obvious to everyone – not even to the intelligensia?!)

A virus did not do that. A virus did not demolish the global economy. The Davos plutocrats and their political minions took a wrecking ball to the global economy, in order to force a mass restructuring, knowing it would cause mass global death and suffering, but would be a further vast transfer of wealth and power to themselves.

Some concern for health that is.

Yet the bleating flock and intelligentsia alike, all blame a virus for the economic wreckage – which is about to make the 2007-2009 Global Financial Crisis look like a child’s picnic – when it was self-evidently a planned demolition of the global economic system. That is a stunning, unprecedented level of propaganda success.

Psyops success of unprecedented proportions, is what that is. No wonder Bill Gates looks like a grinning, gloating ghoul. It’s a feeding frenzy for the super-rich, and a self-coronation, as the 99% are gutted, and liberty and democracy are destroyed.

There is nothing unprecedented about this “pandemic” – other than the hysteria and fascist measures surrounding it. We must get clear on these basic facts.

Our minds have been high-jacked by a psyops campaign of social engineering designed quite simply to consolidate the power of the ruling corporate elite and their political and technocratic minions, and to destroy democracy, freedom and constitutional rule in order to accomplish that goal.

“Unprecedented”. If I hear one more blinkered unthinking idiot utter that word, I think I’m going to throw up on their shoes. What’s unprecedented is global fascism, sheep!

Check the numbers. Compare the death toll to the flu, which is still a higher death toll. The mindlessness and unquestioning blind obedience to authority are almost unfathomable. And yes, it is disgusting, and vastly more dangerous than any germ.

*

There are two great dangers in human society above all. They are: the truly grave dangers posed by power mongers, and by obedient sheep – and the sheep are by far the greater danger. It is the collusion of cowardice which endangers us above all else.

The power hungry few are only dangerous because the docile majority yield up their power to them. Otherwise, the power hungry never rise to anything more than petty tyrants, swindlers and thugs. 

All the truly great dangers are avoided if the people simply embrace their power. But they are taught to mistrust themselves, and that is the root of the problem.

What is unprecedented now, in 2020, is the extent to which the great majority have surrendered and abandoned, and disavowed, their own common sense and basic intelligence, and have blindly succumbed to a propaganda narrative designed to brazenly swindle them of all their remaining power, democracy, rights and freedom, in order to turn the oligarchs in Davos, Wall Street, Brussels, Basel and the City of London into God-kings. That is unprecedented, and that is extraordinarily dangerous.

We are now facing a second wave of fascism; but this time, the people are asleep. That is unprecedented, and that is gravely dangerous. That must change very soon, or freedom and democracy, all our rights and liberties, and the future of our species, will be effectively terminated. 

Think! Think for yourself, and question everything. Then unite the people, and embrace your power; and as Bob Marley said, stand up for your rights.

*

In 2020, the vast majority of people, politicians, governments, bureaucrats, health authorities, business and political leaders, media pundits, academics, activists and intellectuals, across the political spectrum and around the world, have swallowed an elite-manufactured propaganda narrative that has severely misled, deceived, deluded, manipulated, and virtually lobotomized them all, save for a handful of exceptions, dissidents and rebels.

I have never seen anything remotely like it, nor did I expect dissidents, intellectuals and activists to be so easily neutered, intellectually eviscerated, and rendered political eunuchs, serfs and slaves, all spouting the official party line.

The intellectuals of the centre, left and right would be highly prescient, alert and aware, forward-thinking and well-informed as to what is happening and what is unfolding – if this was 1970. But it’s not.

We’ve had 50 years of a slow-motion neoliberal global corporate fascist coup, and it is now coming to completion. But the intelligensia, the left, and the people in general, remain oblivious, as if this was 1970, 1980, or even 1990 or 2000. It is not. This is end game. And the people had better wake up very soon, including their popular “leaders”, or we are doomed to slavery under neofeudal global fascist corporate rule.

Rouse the people, and their leaders, now. The hour is late, and liberty, democracy, and the people, are under full frontal attack.

Know your enemy, and know yourself, and you will be victorious in a thousand battles, said Sun Tzu, the unrivaled master of strategy. Well, it would appear that the people do not understand themselves, for they do clearly do not trust themselves, and have no confidence, but bow down before the elite, and roll over like trained poodles. Nor do they or their popular leaders and intellectuals understand the enemy. That too, is undeniably clear.

The only enemies, in truth, are ignorance, greed and hate. But, that being said, there are opponents: individuals and groups who stand in the way of a better, freer, greener, more just, and yes, healthier world. The principle enemy in that sense, far and away, and with no comparisons, is the ruling oligarchy or cabal of corporate elites, and their servile political minions, dupes and hirelings. And the business elite, the plutocrats, are led by a cabal of their own, mainly bankers, Big Oil, Big Pharma and Big Tech, who are truly sociopathic, and who are quite simply fascist: they are in love with power. This is nothing new; nor is it particularly surprising. It is, however, extremely dangerous.

To under-estimate the global power elite now would be disastrous – in a tragically unprecedented, cataclysmic, and horrific way. But that is precisely what the people, and their leaders and intellectuals, are busy doing. Never before have they been in greater danger; and never before have they failed to recognize or understand the real danger, so thoroughly and completely.

Wake them now.

Echoing and accepting the elite narrative, that a virus caused a global lockdown, and a virus destroyed the economy, hands them victory in their fascist coup by propaganda war. Stop handing your slavers their power! You are imprisoning yourselves.

What would Jefferson, Gandhi or Martin Luther King Jr. say to us now? I am sure they would say, “What are you waiting for? Unite the people, and stand!”

JTR,
May 3, 2020

Post-Script:

The left better wake the fuck up, to put it starkly and most frankly. Here is a prime example. Ann Pettifor, along with Michael Hudson, Ellen Brown, Max Keiser and a few others, clearly understands finance, banking, money and economics, at least to a high degree. She clearly does not understand politics, and, like most intellectuals, and the great majority of the people, radically misunderstands what is going on with coronavirus 2020. This is what is truly dire – not a germ, not even elite power games. Good-hearted Ann needs to go back to square one and understand politics, sociology, class, and above all, the systems dynamics and machinations of the global power elite. Most intellectuals are failing utterly in terms of grossly and dangerously misunderstanding what is going on with the corona event, so she is not alone. She illustrates my point perfectly here:

Ann Pettifor on Coronavirus Capitalism – YouTube

See also:

Peter Hitchens: We’re destroying the nation’s wealth – and health

Piers Robinson – Geopolitics & Empire Podcast

Medical Martial Law – The Corbett Report

The Boiler Room with TruthStream Media

21st Century Wire

Global Research

Giants: The Global Power Elite – Peter Phillips

The New Rulers Of The World – John Pilger

The Shock Doctrine – Naomi Klein

Necessary Illusions – Noam Chomsky

Escape From Freedom – Erich Fromm

and

Gerald Celente – The Herd Mentality

along with some of my other essays:

Importing From China: A Virus? Or A Totalitarian Social Model?

Any Enemy Will Do

Sinking All Ships

Geopolitics 2020

The Death and Rebirth of Democracy

Flash-Drive Revolution

And more than a dozen others on my blog on this topic.

Never surrender. It ain’t over ’till it’s over.

And download, save and share all of these references. Censorship is rising fast.

The Maxims of Empire

(And the Maxims of Liberation)

There are at least six known, central maxims which all emperors understand and employ, which have been used for millennia by the elite in order to control, rule over, and generally fleece and rob, oppress and exploit the people. They are:

1. Divide and conquer: keep the people separate.

2. Bread and circuses: keep the people distracted.

3. Necessary illusions: keep them fed on lies, half-truths and illusions which rationalize and support the elite agendas of the emperors.

4. Sow dependency on the great benefactors and saviours – which means, of course, US: keep the people believing that the ruling elite are not simply self-serving parasites, rentiers, and sociopathic plunderers and slavers of the people, but their great liberators and most desperately needed protectors, even messiahs – their only salvation from certain doom.

5. Psychological and economic warfare: keep the people weak, and preferably in debt bondage, afraid, isolated, and demoralized – never let the people unite; and even more importantly, never let them realize their power.

6. Elitist fantasies and other cultural supports for empire must rule the public mind: Promulgate and promote ideologies, philosophies, paradigms, cultural attitudes and worldviews that support elite rule, oligarchy over democracy and freedom, and elite agendas that allow for the continued pillaging and subjugation of the people and the planet. The rabidly anti-democratic Plato, Machiavelli, and Hobbes, along with authoritarianism, militarism, along post-modernist nihilism, neo-Malthusianism, social Darwinism, racism, sexism, xenophobia, and – above all – classism, an alienating and isolating, atomizing ethos of narcisistic consumerism, materialism, egocentrism, selfish individualism, misanthropy, cynicisn, fatalism, conformist pseudo-individualism and digital escapism, instant gratification,  technocracy, neoliberalism, corporate globalization, globalism and corporatism, are a few that, among others, are core.

Any real resistance to tyranny, injustice and oppression must sooner or later come to understand these principles of empire, or else remain forever subjugated.

Our responses should be clear enough from this.

*

Maxims of Liberation

In case the conclusions from the former principles are not clear, we can say the following.

These are a few of the central maxims of liberation:

1. Unity in diversity: unite the people. And it must be a unity amidst diversity, or else it is not truly uniting the people; and moreover, any other form of unity will not last, but will collapse.

2. Bread and roses: uplift the people with a reminder of the central challenges of the time, and the courage to confront them directly.

3. Necessary awakenings: speak the truth and expose lies. It is true that the truth shall set you free. Cutting through lies and illusions, therefore, is the central revolutionary task of liberation.

4. Sow empowerment: both individually and also collectively, both materially and psychologically, uplift, inspire and empower the people. Above all, awaken people to their fundamental unity, and to their power.

5. Economic warfare: unleash the power of the many united. With that, liberation from any and all fetters, tyranny and chains, can and will be won. What does that mean? It means the 99.9% vs the 0.1%. And this is how we defeat them, in order to achieve a greater equality, justice, freedom and peace, and in order to secure real democracy; and most urgently, to secure a viable future for humanity on this Earth.

The latter can take on many forms, including: community economic development; sensible, green and just national economic development; building resiliency at all levels; debt cancellation; a fair tax system; rejection of neoliberalism and corporate glbalization; abrogation of unjust and anti-democratic “trade” or other agreements; a tax on currency speculation; nationalizing central banks; serious anti-trust action, and the breaking up of monopolies and cartels – especially the big banks, big media and big tech; and co-op movements, co-op banking, buy local movements, small scale farmers’ movements; along with boycotts, divestments, strikes, move your money campaigns, shareholder activism, and blockades.

6. Democracy and solidarity; not oligarchy and globalism: What we need is internationalism within democratic federations, not corporate globalism or globalization; or what has been called globalization from below. In short, we need citizen-based participatory democracy, not elite rule, or rule by corporations, technocrats, oligarchs and plutocrats, or billionaires and their minions.

7. Revolution. Serious change is urgently required for the continuation of human life on Earth. This requires a systems change, not mild reforms. Systemic change requires the removal of the corporate oligarchy from their current position as de facto rulers of the world. In sum, the change needed is from oligarchy to citizens’ democracy and self-government. And by now, that means, and requires, revolution.

This is, of course, an incomplete list, but it is a good foundation, and a very good start.

We should remember as well, that while Che may inspire some, and Adam Smith may inspire others, it is Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. who are our better guides.

Above all, we must realize this:

There is no time to spare. These principles will help us. But we must act now.

 

JTR,

April 11, 2020

Importing From China: A Virus? Or A Totalitarian Model Of Elite Control?

Someone prescient once said, “Those who would sacrifice a little freedom for a little security, deserve neither, and will lose both.” We would do well to remember those words now.

And we are most definitely in the process of losing both, as we speak.

But maybe we aspire to be very healthy, germ-free slaves?

*

A friend said to me the other day, “Do you think China has 700 million people under lockdown for no reason?!”

I replied by saying:

China has been a police state for over fifty years, at least since the start of the “Cultural Revolution” in 1966 – the Chinese government prefers lockdown, for reasons of control: any pretext will do.

The thought of China taking such drastic measures to contain this latest virus surely makes many people assume that the virus must truly be terrifically dangerous. Surely China would not take such drastic or draconian measures if it were not. But we just explained why the Chinese government prefers totalitarian control measures, under any and all circumstances – and any crisis, real or imagined, will do for creating the justification for authoritarian measures. (Disaster capitalism is a globalized game endeavour.)

The entire assumption that the danger must be real if the government response is so extreme, simply falls apart upon examination, or the slightest critical thought.

China now has 600 million security cameras for 1.2 billion people – one camera for every two people, and with ever growing, soon to be total surveillance.

China now has a system of social credits, incorporated into its social control system, which is plugged into its surveillance system, and its economy. If you spit on the sidewalk, or jaywalk, are involved in one of the thousands of protests occurring every day, or, heaven forbid, criticize the government, then, low and behold, you find that you are refused for loans, mortgages, even the purchase of a train ticket. (And Facebook is working hard to introduce a similar system for the West. Good ole’ Zuck.)

China has gone headlong, and willfully, into a very consciously totalitarian system of extreme authoritarian control. What the Chinese government does, should not be taken as a good model for our policies, responses or behaviour: China is a police state.

Not only are China’s actions frequently and utterly unacceptable in a free society; but its actions are frequently motivated, not by concern for public health, for example, but by simple control.

*

What we should be more concerned about, is not the import of a few germs from China, which, so far, are much less dangerous than the flu: but the import of a totalitarian social model which would make Orwell cringe in horror.

But, then again, we in the West now have our own brand of technocracy, corporate fascism, and Orwellian oligarchy. It’s called the ECB, the Fed, the military-industrial-security complex – or simply, the corporate police state.

We needn’t import anything from China, as far as authoritarian social models go. In fact, the elite from East and West might want to swap notes. And I’m sure that Western and Eastern oligarchs have, and are, busily sharing notes.

After all, the Chinese authoritarians are our business partners now. A shared hatred for democracy and freedom, which is common, and nearly universal among the ruling classes of both East and West, simply seals the pact.

China has embraced neo-feudal corporatism. The West has embraced corporatist neo-feudalism. One is the mirror image of the other. The former has the bureaucratic elite in charge of a corporate capitalist economy; the latter has the corporate elite in charge of the bureaucratic and political-state powers. But although they have different inflections, both represent the merger of business and the state, which, as Mussolini said, is properly called corporatism, which is the proper term for fascism.

So, welcome to the Brave New World, germophobes. Wash your hands before kissing the ground before your masters, please.

*

De-industrializing the Western nations, and offshoring production to China and other low-wage regions, was astronomically profitable for the Western business elite. But, it destroyed the middle class at home; destroyed and gutted domestic consumer market demand, thus destroying and hollowing out the economy, which is now ready for implosion and collapse; caused inequality and poverty to soar; has led to a growing backlash and rising social tensions, as well as right-wing pseudo-populist movements of demagoguery and scape-goating (think Trump and co, and even worse); and with the resulting social, economic and political tensions about to erupt, either into revolution, or civil war, as a result. Good plan.

This has been truly great leadership, for the past 50 years. Now, we are reaping the harvest.

Short-sighted would be one word for it. The destruction and collapse of the United States, and the entire Western world, brought on by the greed and egomania, and power-lust, of the Western business and plutocratic elite, would be a more precise and detailed description.

In any case, to import China’s model of authoritarian, Orwellian, and totalitarian social control – based on the full and active cooperation of the new tech giants, and the Western corporate and governmental powers, is, quite simply put, disastrously insane.

We are importing a dark age. And everyone is worried about a few bugs.

Smart thinking.

JTR,
March 9, 2020

Coronavirus Update – Panic or Propaganda? Both? Or Simply Mass Insanity? All The Above

As of today, the mass media hype and hysteria over the latest exotic virus continues to spread, unabated. In its wake, mass insanity is spreading nearly as fast. Let’s step back, and look at the figures, to try and gain some much-needed perspective.

As of today, 3,200 people have died of the coronavirus globally. For perspective, that is 1/200th of the annual death toll from the flu, and a statistically zero percent of the DAILY death toll from both poverty (hunger) and obesity (poor diets).

The flu kills 650,000 a year. Hunger and obesity each kill over 20,000 people a day. The corona virus has killed 3,200.

Let those figures sink in.

Do we have reason to be concerned? It is possible. New viruses could pose serious dangers. This one has an 80% infectious rate and a 15% mortality rate, I believe. That is serious, but far from the Black Death, the Plague that hit Europe roughly 600 years ago, and killed 30-50% of the population. Could this be “the big one” – the virus that is a once in 500 year epidemic? Possible, but extremely unlikely.

Are the CDC, WHO, governments and major media reliable sources of information? Do we really have to ask that question? Both the CDC and WHO have been effectively taken over by the ruling corporate oligarchy in general, including Big Pharma, as have the majority of governments – certainly in the US, Canada, Britain and Europe. And six corporate empires control all the major media in the world – all of them in bed, one way or another, directly or indirectly, with Big Pharma. And all of them interested in a grand narrative of fear, with a clear strategy of divide and conquer. Anyone who takes his or her information uncritically from any of these sources needs their head read.

We should remember that the global pharmaceutical market is roughly on par with Big Oil, fossil fuels, and illegal drugs – each worth roughly $1 trillion a year. That is a very big trough, indeed; and we should never underestimate the power of greed – or power lust, which is even more dangerous, and ever-present, in every generation, of course.

Does anyone remember the Patriot Act? Or the military industrial complex? Or the war machine? Or the corporate take-over of virtually every government, along with the major media, the global economy, and the global financial system? Now there are some things to keep you up at night. Things to be deeply concerned about.

Re-read Orwell. And Chomsky. Perspective is critical.

From what I can see, I’d hasten to avoid lending the latest virus hype legitimacy, myself; because it looks like a psyops program, from what I can see: sow fear; divide and conquer; get the people ready to accept a lock-down – for their own protection, of course; feed the slow-motion corporate-fascist coup.

Do you disagree? Don’t be too quick to dismiss such a possibility. Look at the undeniable growth of a new global surveillance and police state, along side the equally undeniable corporate take-over of the economy, the financial system, the major media, and most political systems and governments of the world, along side the seemingly vast exaggeration of actual virus dangers. Occam’s razor would lead to the conclusion I just made, as the most likely explanation. We don’t know yet, but it is more plausible and more likely than this virus being as dangerous as it is being presented. The official narrative seems wildly out of sync with the facts. It should make us question, at least.

The known facts indicate that this latest virus represents a fraction of the danger of the flu. That may change, but it is the present reality.

The known facts therefore indicate, at this time at least, that we should be far more concerned with the ongoing, slow-motion fascist-corporate coup, which has clearly been in play since at least 2001 and the start of the “war on terror” – which has everywhere been a war on freedom, truth, and democracy, and a rationale for building a global surveillance system and police state.

Just how slow on the uptake are the masses anyway? I trust that at least a growing minority are paying some attention to what is really going on, or we are in far deeper trouble than being “plagued” by an exotic bug that is far less dangerous than the flu.

Anyone for mass quarantine?

How about voluntary (“”) house arrest? Ah, but that has already begun. The psyops war is working quite well, even if basic sanity among the people is not.

JTR,
March 5, 2020

For greater perspective, see my earlier essays: Danger and Delusion, and Reality Check

Fantasy and Indoctrination: Rough notes on a few fantasy novels: part one

New Spring, The Novel:

The Wheel Of Time: In The Beginning – Robert Jordan (so the cover says)

(Lord of the Rings films and Terry Brookes Shannara novels got me hooked on epic, high fantasy – and no, I have no slight embarrassment about that. I think too much. Sometimes, I just want a novel that washes over me, where I can rest my mind and NOT think. Like looking at gardening magazines, or taking a hot bath, or a sauna, fantasy novels relax my mind – but only if they are well-written, and only if the content is not overly disturbing, or disgusting, of course, as it occasionally is; such as in this case.)

If Tolkien is the grand master of fantasy (I have not read him yet, sadly, but know his story-telling of course, and it is brilliant), Terry Brookes is one of his best, shining students. This novel, however, doesn’t remotely come close to the master or his protege, it seems to me. It reads like a book written for 12 year old pre-teen girls in a rich girls boarding school. I am now at page 111, and it seems to me there have been 96 pages of filler – very boring filler, at that. Dull, with a capital D, is the first thing that comes to mind, in describing this book. Extremely dull. Master of banality, maybe – not masterful fantasy, or even mediocre fantasy. D for dismal, as well as dull, I would say.

The character development is slow, plodding, and dull. The dialogue is pre-teen banal drama, and extremely dull. The setting is, at times, a bit more interesting, but rarely. Mainly it is absent, and thus, entirely dull. And the plot is plodding, and more like a barely moving bog, than a quietly meandering stream, much less a river.

Far worse than the dullness of the writing style, however, is the content. This is a book filled with feudalism and authoritarianism – and the ideology and mythology of feudalism and authoritarianism firmly upheld – with obedience to authority, knowing one’s place, pride of place, all-pervasive consciousness of status, class and caste, cheerily accepted arrogance of those in high places, and cheerily accepted condescension, if not disdain, for the common folk below. The ethos consistently conveyed is that hierarchy, inequality, feudalism, authoritarianism and elite rule are natural, inevitable, right and good – and so, an attitude of superiority among the higher classes is presented as natural, normal, right and good; and extra privileges, along with great wealth and great power, is to be expected for the elite, naturally, along with an attitude of superiority, because, of course, they are superior – as everyone rightly knows.

So yes, whether it was intentional or not, this book acts as a good system of indoctrination for rich girls and boys who are being groomed to rule over others – and for the lower ranks and classes to accept such inequality, hierarchy, and unequal power and wealth, as normal to life.

Wonderful! Let’s all return to medieval times, in the worst sense of that period, and return to feudalism! How grand that would be!

(And that is exactly where we are heading.)

And of course, fittingly, the book is also filled with infantile, or at best adolescent, ego games and power games, scheming and manipulation, by characters of all ages and levels of status, especially the “higher” classes, and this is also presented as natural, normal, inevitable, perfectly acceptable, unavoidable, intelligent behaviour, necessary and good. Machiavelli would approve, with a sly, sickening grin, as would Thomas Hobbes. Orwell and Jefferson would roll in their graves.

This book seems to be a “prequel” to the original series that was written by Robert Jordan, and presumably, and apparently, this book was not written by him, as he had died earlier. Hopefully, the original series, written by Robert Jordan, and not a team of writers using his name, is a far better quality of writing, far more engaging, far more interesting, and above all, is not steeped in the ideology and mythology of authoritarianism, feudalism, classism and elite rule.

(After this disaster of a novel, I will try the first book of the original series, and hope it is far better, in terms of both content and style.)

I don’t know whether I can finish the book. I hate not finishing a book, even if I strongly dislike it. But this book is both dismally dull, and thoroughly disgusting in its ideology. A book filled with obvious racist and sexist ideology, or chocked to the gills with graphic, gratuitous violence, would be no worse than this. It is not only dull, it is revolting.

Bring me some Dickens, or Ursula Le Guin! Before I throw up!

JTR,
March 5, 2020