And as long as we’re talking status quo here, there are couple of phrases uttered by those opposed to the necessary radical change we need that drive me nuts -
‘The perfect is the enemy of the good’ and ‘we need to be pragmatic in our approach’
No, jackass, there is nothing pragmatic about incremental solutions to catastrophic problems. Get off of the damn fence.
C'noath, Tom. And when those anodyne statements are uttered by our utterly gutless (alleged) political representatives, those in a position to at least say, and even possibly do, something meaningful, it has a dreadfully diarrhoeaic* effect on me. Which is why we've simply got to keep telling the useless fuckers that they're useless fuckers.
*I know. I've bastardised the word, but you get the drift.
Growl. I haven't heard the pragmatic line issued in ways that make my blood boil, but "don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good" is ALWAYS uttered to justify supporting a politician or politics that is NOT good. It's slightly less bad. Democrats have had us voting for the lesser of two evils for three decades, until the party is well to the right of where Republicans once stood.
Great quote. The level of apathy in Western civilization is frightening. It's also by design. From cradle to grave most are spoon fed a steady diet of indifference to what truly matters while being distracted in a myriad of way. Take a look around you and actually make an effort to see how they distract from reality. I would list them some but then very few would actually take the time to look for themselves. They are content to just nod their heads and go on blissfully in their ignorance. Worse yet, very few if any of them take the time to read alternate opinions in publications like this.
"spoon fed a steady diet of indifference". Captures a lot of the daily fare we're fed as what Malcolm would call Master's house Negroes (no skin color requirement necessary for being a house Negro).
Was just having a conversation with family. Told me “Stop Worrying about things you cannot control Luke.” I get that a lot and it always pisses me off. That is the first step to a good brainwashing. If we all sit around and worry about ourselves our Govt would love it I promise.
Couldn't agree with you more, Luke! I am SO sick and tired of people telling me "Stop Worrying about things you cannot control". Like you, it pisses me off to no end!!! Fuck!
There is also a contingent of people who declare themselves superior -- above it all -- because they aren't angry. They use this misplaced righteousness to dismiss people of colour in particular as angry and irrational and unintelligent. Rage is a fire that keeps us alive, it helps us protect the more vulnerable. I will never be shamed for caring about other people and speaking about it in whatever time of voice I choose
It also frustrates me when people use it as a justification for apathy/inaction.
I can't directly do anything about Israel shooting a father digging his kids out of a house hit by a IOF missile. It's physically too far away, and I don't have the training or the means to stop it at that moment.
I can, however, protest and disrupt and organize and do so many things here where I live to make it more difficult for future missiles and future shootings and the ongoing genocide. If my neighbors and their neighbors help too, we could make such a ruckus that the guns would be pointed at us instead of the Palestinians.
The genocide in Gaza is a black and white issue, there are no shades of grey. A soldier pointing a gun at a child and shooting the child is completely, unambiguously wrong - evil. No excuse is acceptable—no amount of brainwashing justifies it — no twisted belief in God’s dispensation nullifies it. In my opinion, a person who attempts to claim neutrality is simply a coward, worse than someone who has chosen the Zionist ideology and is upfront about it.
US Congress not only aids and abets the Ziokill machine, but their campaign coffers are well-funded by AIPAC - what could possibly go wrong with this arrangement?
White Billionaires should face the first consequences. Leave marginalized people alone and just take out the actual threat. Also zionists are worse because they lie about dropping bombs so we protect them while they do genocide
“I don’t do politics” means I support genocide. It means I support war. It means I support injustice and exploitation. It means I support ordinary people getting poorer and sicker while the biosphere dies and the billionaires turn into trillionaires. It means I support our headlong plunge into mass extinction and dystopia."
Exactly, and while they're not doing politics the politics they are doing is possibly making them poorer, live in a less livable area, thinking it's okay for the sea to rise and carve into the earth and destroy homes. Maybe that doesn't affect these non-politics people right now, but you can bet your life they will scream the loudest when it does - "why didn't anyone do anything" forgetting they weren't doing anything until it was too late.
It also means, they expect other to do the work while they wait until it's too late before even looking at what they, deliberately, allowed to go past them.
Slightly hate the word politics (no offense to tou irs not like i son’t say it) only because it reminds me how ineffective it can be when politician’s can lie without facing any punishment. I prefer to call it a facist takeover.
Revolution is the only solution. It take's collective actions on all sides of the spectrum to end planet wide destruction. I hate having to describe myself as a democratic socialist and not just pro-feeding people.
"One ring to rule them all, and in the darkness bind them." These are those times. What is the one ring? AL Especially the panopticon that Palantir is building. The bastards know the time is coming when they try to seize it all and even those who "don't do politics" are forced into resistance, and they are preparing. They hope the ring will give them the power to kill all serious opposition, render the survivors as slaves or ragged refugees struggling for survival in the ravaged world they're building And they may succeed. But resistance NOW is not futile, it's fertile--and begins with blocking ANY more data centers anywhere.
Bertolt Brecht: The worst illiterate is the political illiterate. He hears nothing, sees nothing, takes no part in political life. He doesn't seem to know that the cost of living, the price of beans, of flour, of rent, of medicines, all depend on political decisions. He even prides himself on his political ignorance, sticks out his chest and says he hates politics. He doesn't know, the imbecile, tht from his political non-participation comes the prostitute, the abandoned child, the robber and worst of all, corrupt officials, the lackeys of exploitative multinational corporations.
Made sure always to engage my students with Brecht - over the years they performed "The Caucasian Chalk Circle," "Mother Courage," "The Threepenny Opera"... the students never had a problem engaging with those texts ...it was their parents...
That said, try walking round Safeway (Woolies in Oz) and screaming out Hey guys, do something about Gaza! As you well know the masses walk around like zombies. The MIGO look, the fart in the lift, the shock of being confronted with something that isn't football, or Taylor Swift, or tonight's teevee special.
I write a political Substack. I always face the question: Am I preaching to the choir? If so, what is the point?
But there is always a point: To continue being beautiful and to continue speaking the Truth.
And then trust.
Keep on doing what you do, Caitlin. You are beautiful.
That is why I opted to not write posts. Enough of you are already expressing the truth. I go out and physically talk to people in the store, malls, streets and anywhere else I go. I give them links to RT, Substack, Southfront and several others in the hopes they will let their curiosity check it out and thus educate themselves. It does us no good to sit in our little circle and write about it if we can't get people to read it other than ourselves. Open face to face discussion is necessary to succeed in getting heard.
I write Fearless Arts Substack which puts out new and original ideas. I have a vision and a plan on how to move forward.
I also talk to people. I am respectful, I keep it brief and I have a gentle tone of voice. That said, and as noted above, it is not easy to get people to listen.
To be alive is to be political... You are always "of the people" even if you don't think you are. Those who refuse to take sides during a genocide aren't for the oppressed and dying. They're for the killers. It's better to take a definitive side if you don't want to be labeled a heartless monster like the Zionists are.
But I think also one pays a price unconsciously - that you may not even be aware of - when you accept evil as a norm. Your view of life and your own life becomes degraded and cheap. Your personal fate can play an important role as well.
I was - on several occasions - reprimanded by my Admin for "introducing politics" into my classroom. A classroom full of 15/16/17-year-olds, working with (among many others) "Hamlet," "Macbeth," "Mother Courage"...as if these were not political texts, as if the very act of teaching were not a political activity (who writes the curriculum? who decides what is "appropriate"?)...used to make me crazy...
Welcome to the parade. Is it not remarkable, the pressure parents can bring to bear? And in my experience the College did not provide any support at all - quite the contrary...
Belief in good government, is similar to religious belief. It's all faith because there has never been good government.( Never will be) And there is no proof of an after life!. You have but one life, that is Now! So live it.. Like Rush - Free Will-" If you choose not to decide, you still have made your choice". Those who vote , who play the game have nothing to complain about. Those of us who refuse to vote or be part of the game have every right to complain and to resist by any any means.
I'm not sure about the *only* one life assumption. I think there is a good possibility consciousness does go on in some manner. I don't base my leaning toward this on any theological texts, but the last 30+ years of NDE scientific research. Which is credible and now well established worldwide.
Ruled by billionaires is even worse than ruled by government. No regulations, no laws - the criminals and the exploiters will win everytime. Sure - it's great for the super rich, but for everyone else - it stinks.
That's what all of us need to take into consideration. They just can't jail all of us, they can't declare us terrorist if we're the 99%.
That only works with the few who are willing to lead the dumbed down masses.
There was a reason why Hitler-Germany killed the communists first - they were the real threat for the capital ruling class that we know today as the Epstein-class.
it's not as big as a book. imo, it comes down to getting organised to take control, in lenin's case by starting a nationwide newspaper to win the hearts and minds of somewhat isolated struggle(r)s. 'do politics' , if you wish. the current ruling class has read lenin (and more) and frequently uses the tactics and strategies.
Hearing Neil Peart quoted just made my day. I trust you're following along as they make their way across America, grounded and energized by the remarkable Anika Nilles...
"If you don't stand for something, you will fall for anything".
--Malcolm X
And as long as we’re talking status quo here, there are couple of phrases uttered by those opposed to the necessary radical change we need that drive me nuts -
‘The perfect is the enemy of the good’ and ‘we need to be pragmatic in our approach’
No, jackass, there is nothing pragmatic about incremental solutions to catastrophic problems. Get off of the damn fence.
C'noath, Tom. And when those anodyne statements are uttered by our utterly gutless (alleged) political representatives, those in a position to at least say, and even possibly do, something meaningful, it has a dreadfully diarrhoeaic* effect on me. Which is why we've simply got to keep telling the useless fuckers that they're useless fuckers.
*I know. I've bastardised the word, but you get the drift.
Growl. I haven't heard the pragmatic line issued in ways that make my blood boil, but "don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good" is ALWAYS uttered to justify supporting a politician or politics that is NOT good. It's slightly less bad. Democrats have had us voting for the lesser of two evils for three decades, until the party is well to the right of where Republicans once stood.
Great word. I’m having it
Feel free, Rosie.
Humans love rationalizing taking the easy way out.
Great quote. The level of apathy in Western civilization is frightening. It's also by design. From cradle to grave most are spoon fed a steady diet of indifference to what truly matters while being distracted in a myriad of way. Take a look around you and actually make an effort to see how they distract from reality. I would list them some but then very few would actually take the time to look for themselves. They are content to just nod their heads and go on blissfully in their ignorance. Worse yet, very few if any of them take the time to read alternate opinions in publications like this.
"spoon fed a steady diet of indifference". Captures a lot of the daily fare we're fed as what Malcolm would call Master's house Negroes (no skin color requirement necessary for being a house Negro).
Most have bypassed spoon fed and are blissfully and voraciously sucking through a straw. Plastic straw, mind you.
Was just having a conversation with family. Told me “Stop Worrying about things you cannot control Luke.” I get that a lot and it always pisses me off. That is the first step to a good brainwashing. If we all sit around and worry about ourselves our Govt would love it I promise.
Couldn't agree with you more, Luke! I am SO sick and tired of people telling me "Stop Worrying about things you cannot control". Like you, it pisses me off to no end!!! Fuck!
me too!
Me three.😢😪
Here's another: Why are you so angry! This from a woman in LaLa Land LA
Yes, this is the one that pisses me off the most. My answer is, how can you not be angry?
I was always taught in therapy that denial is a quick, easy coping mechanism to avoid my anger. The LA woman's judgment spoke a thousand words.
Absolutely........she avoids talking politics because she knows nothing. Definately the end of 30yrs of friendship!
Anyone who isn't angry right now is living under a rock.
There is also a contingent of people who declare themselves superior -- above it all -- because they aren't angry. They use this misplaced righteousness to dismiss people of colour in particular as angry and irrational and unintelligent. Rage is a fire that keeps us alive, it helps us protect the more vulnerable. I will never be shamed for caring about other people and speaking about it in whatever time of voice I choose
It also frustrates me when people use it as a justification for apathy/inaction.
I can't directly do anything about Israel shooting a father digging his kids out of a house hit by a IOF missile. It's physically too far away, and I don't have the training or the means to stop it at that moment.
I can, however, protest and disrupt and organize and do so many things here where I live to make it more difficult for future missiles and future shootings and the ongoing genocide. If my neighbors and their neighbors help too, we could make such a ruckus that the guns would be pointed at us instead of the Palestinians.
I can try to do that at the very least.
My tolerance for people who are geopolitically ignorant is microscopic and getting smaller every day. They are a large part of the problem in murica.
The looming energy crisis is about to smack the geopolitically ignorant right in the mouth.
The genocide in Gaza is a black and white issue, there are no shades of grey. A soldier pointing a gun at a child and shooting the child is completely, unambiguously wrong - evil. No excuse is acceptable—no amount of brainwashing justifies it — no twisted belief in God’s dispensation nullifies it. In my opinion, a person who attempts to claim neutrality is simply a coward, worse than someone who has chosen the Zionist ideology and is upfront about it.
And a US Congress that aids and abets that is also evil.
US Congress not only aids and abets the Ziokill machine, but their campaign coffers are well-funded by AIPAC - what could possibly go wrong with this arrangement?
White Billionaires should face the first consequences. Leave marginalized people alone and just take out the actual threat. Also zionists are worse because they lie about dropping bombs so we protect them while they do genocide
Like button wouldn’t work. So LIKE your comment SW.
Such an excellent post, Caitlin! Thank you.
"“I don’t do politics.”
Okay well politics is doing you.
“I don’t do politics” means I support genocide. It means I support war. It means I support injustice and exploitation. It means I support ordinary people getting poorer and sicker while the biosphere dies and the billionaires turn into trillionaires. It means I support our headlong plunge into mass extinction and dystopia."
Exactly, and while they're not doing politics the politics they are doing is possibly making them poorer, live in a less livable area, thinking it's okay for the sea to rise and carve into the earth and destroy homes. Maybe that doesn't affect these non-politics people right now, but you can bet your life they will scream the loudest when it does - "why didn't anyone do anything" forgetting they weren't doing anything until it was too late.
It also means, they expect other to do the work while they wait until it's too late before even looking at what they, deliberately, allowed to go past them.
Good points, Davina.
Slightly hate the word politics (no offense to tou irs not like i son’t say it) only because it reminds me how ineffective it can be when politician’s can lie without facing any punishment. I prefer to call it a facist takeover.
Revolution is the only solution. It take's collective actions on all sides of the spectrum to end planet wide destruction. I hate having to describe myself as a democratic socialist and not just pro-feeding people.
Frodo: I wish the ring had never come to me,
I wish none of this had never happened.
.
Gandalf: So do all who live to see such times but
that is not for them to decide. All you have
to decide is what to do with the time given to you.
.
~Fellowship of the Ring, #Film #2001
"One ring to rule them all, and in the darkness bind them." These are those times. What is the one ring? AL Especially the panopticon that Palantir is building. The bastards know the time is coming when they try to seize it all and even those who "don't do politics" are forced into resistance, and they are preparing. They hope the ring will give them the power to kill all serious opposition, render the survivors as slaves or ragged refugees struggling for survival in the ravaged world they're building And they may succeed. But resistance NOW is not futile, it's fertile--and begins with blocking ANY more data centers anywhere.
A good analogy.
Bertolt Brecht: The worst illiterate is the political illiterate. He hears nothing, sees nothing, takes no part in political life. He doesn't seem to know that the cost of living, the price of beans, of flour, of rent, of medicines, all depend on political decisions. He even prides himself on his political ignorance, sticks out his chest and says he hates politics. He doesn't know, the imbecile, tht from his political non-participation comes the prostitute, the abandoned child, the robber and worst of all, corrupt officials, the lackeys of exploitative multinational corporations.
Made sure always to engage my students with Brecht - over the years they performed "The Caucasian Chalk Circle," "Mother Courage," "The Threepenny Opera"... the students never had a problem engaging with those texts ...it was their parents...
Wow! Thank you! Wonderful quote.
Amazing quotation thank you
Now that is profound, & I, unfortunately, had never heard of Brecht until this moment. That’s a pity.
George Orwell knew this. His well known quote:
.
In our times, everything is politics.
.
The Greeks and Romans:
Qui tacet consentire videtur.
By your silence you consent.
.
That said, try walking round Safeway (Woolies in Oz) and screaming out Hey guys, do something about Gaza! As you well know the masses walk around like zombies. The MIGO look, the fart in the lift, the shock of being confronted with something that isn't football, or Taylor Swift, or tonight's teevee special.
I write a political Substack. I always face the question: Am I preaching to the choir? If so, what is the point?
But there is always a point: To continue being beautiful and to continue speaking the Truth.
And then trust.
Keep on doing what you do, Caitlin. You are beautiful.
.
That is why I opted to not write posts. Enough of you are already expressing the truth. I go out and physically talk to people in the store, malls, streets and anywhere else I go. I give them links to RT, Substack, Southfront and several others in the hopes they will let their curiosity check it out and thus educate themselves. It does us no good to sit in our little circle and write about it if we can't get people to read it other than ourselves. Open face to face discussion is necessary to succeed in getting heard.
Good point. I do both.
I write Fearless Arts Substack which puts out new and original ideas. I have a vision and a plan on how to move forward.
I also talk to people. I am respectful, I keep it brief and I have a gentle tone of voice. That said, and as noted above, it is not easy to get people to listen.
Each in our own ways, we do what we can.
"Okay well politics is doing you."
To be alive is to be political... You are always "of the people" even if you don't think you are. Those who refuse to take sides during a genocide aren't for the oppressed and dying. They're for the killers. It's better to take a definitive side if you don't want to be labeled a heartless monster like the Zionists are.
But I think also one pays a price unconsciously - that you may not even be aware of - when you accept evil as a norm. Your view of life and your own life becomes degraded and cheap. Your personal fate can play an important role as well.
"Silence is complicity."
I was - on several occasions - reprimanded by my Admin for "introducing politics" into my classroom. A classroom full of 15/16/17-year-olds, working with (among many others) "Hamlet," "Macbeth," "Mother Courage"...as if these were not political texts, as if the very act of teaching were not a political activity (who writes the curriculum? who decides what is "appropriate"?)...used to make me crazy...
Doing this as a teacher cost me my job, just not for that reason of course but I had parents complaining, or so they told me...
Welcome to the parade. Is it not remarkable, the pressure parents can bring to bear? And in my experience the College did not provide any support at all - quite the contrary...
As John Lennon put, if you're not part of the solution you're part of the problem.
He got that from JC Crawford of the White Panther Party.
I hadn't heard of the white Panthers, but I live in Australia, which is more or less Murdochistan - such things are not spoken of.
But I'm not really bothered about who said it first. It still makes sense.
Yes, but I think it was Eldridge Cleaver.
Belief in good government, is similar to religious belief. It's all faith because there has never been good government.( Never will be) And there is no proof of an after life!. You have but one life, that is Now! So live it.. Like Rush - Free Will-" If you choose not to decide, you still have made your choice". Those who vote , who play the game have nothing to complain about. Those of us who refuse to vote or be part of the game have every right to complain and to resist by any any means.
I'm not sure about the *only* one life assumption. I think there is a good possibility consciousness does go on in some manner. I don't base my leaning toward this on any theological texts, but the last 30+ years of NDE scientific research. Which is credible and now well established worldwide.
Ruled by billionaires is even worse than ruled by government. No regulations, no laws - the criminals and the exploiters will win everytime. Sure - it's great for the super rich, but for everyone else - it stinks.
You can't vote your way out of it and that's by design.
The tricky question remains - what's to be done?
Lenin wrote a whole book about it but no one wants to read it.
A year ago the UK saw the largest pro palestinian marches ever - result: Non.
So what are we willing to sacrifice for the actions that are need to be taken?
So many of those marchers in Britain were jailed. Then Starmer came out with" Those who support Palestine are terrorists!
That's what all of us need to take into consideration. They just can't jail all of us, they can't declare us terrorist if we're the 99%.
That only works with the few who are willing to lead the dumbed down masses.
There was a reason why Hitler-Germany killed the communists first - they were the real threat for the capital ruling class that we know today as the Epstein-class.
Yes. I have made this point before.
Correct about communists.
it's not as big as a book. imo, it comes down to getting organised to take control, in lenin's case by starting a nationwide newspaper to win the hearts and minds of somewhat isolated struggle(r)s. 'do politics' , if you wish. the current ruling class has read lenin (and more) and frequently uses the tactics and strategies.
Hearing Neil Peart quoted just made my day. I trust you're following along as they make their way across America, grounded and energized by the remarkable Anika Nilles...
"Exit the warrior..."
A French saying I heard from John Stockwell.
"Those who do not do politics will be done."
James Baldwin said it about the Angela Davis case: ""If we know and do nothing, then we are worse than the murderers hired in our name".
I'm totally not happy about any of what's happening. The question is how to deflect it all???
Jack Daniels?
😆
tee hee