Got it in one, for the vast majority of the hoi polloi, sleepwalking or too exhausted to pay attention to more than the grindstone in front of their noses. Every revolution in recorded history has been preceded by famine or hunger. "Let them eat cake", remember that one? Because they had no flour, of any kind, for bread... Millions of Hangry people will revolt against the system.
Yes but all you have with Count Chocula is a great name and a great description: Counter Narratives of the Wild and Wooly. When are you going to get some content so I can follow YOU?
LOL. In a looong, slow process of picking up steam as a writer. Although I've been on Quora for 6 or 7 years, even there, I have become mostly a reader because of the decline in quality. I have a few problems in getting started with my own substack:
1 — Things are happening so quickly, bad things, that it is all I can do just to keep up with reading, listening, and an occasional comment. Just finished watching Tess Lawrie's interview of Fahrie Hassan, and yesterday ... took time to write a somewhat longish comment regarding Dr. Toby Rogers (uTobian). And then there is my Kindle collection of well over 200 books, only 10 percent having been read, and not digested enough to really integrate with my still evolving mind-set.
2 — That still evolving mind-set is a bit like a YouTube mandelbrot set. I might have mentioned I began serious reading of philosophy as an undergrad ... but that rabbit hole is never ending. That is why I haven't yet responded to your post of the other day. I really like the practicality of that parallel anarchist economy you are suggesting. Some great ideas there. But when I came to your 'babies in the river' analogy ... I came to the edge of the rabbit hole again, thinking about empathy and its limits, and how it has played out for me in Japan as an educator (as opposed to a trainer or teacher). With enough time, unpacking the implications of those river-babies would take me a book — which no one would read. LOL. I still have to find a voice for keeping things informative, but entertaining and digestible.
3 — Currently on a brief summer break now, with things to do and promises to keep ... but soon enough, I will be back to my wage slave job as the token foreigner for public schools in a West Tokyo township. About 6 years ago, I had resigned in protest from a tenured college position ... and Japan Inc. is unforgiving, allowing few if any second career chances. Early autumn will see me in the hospital for removal of a small benign thyroid tumor ... but next spring, I intend on quitting this token-teaching position and concentrating on full-time writing, if nothing else, for therapy.
4 — No family, or real face-face community here, so I have been spending several hours a day forwarding YouTubes and substacks to about a dozen private F.Book groups, anc chatting with buddies ... mostly from Australia. They are more 'family' than my flesh and blood back in the states, who all seem to have bought into the corporate media model of propaganda. Thank god I have a few close friends here in Japan.
Health and circumstances permitting, I will start expanding beyond back-seat driver comments soon, but this eclectic learner is going to have to learn to channel the thrill I got at the immediacy of teaching college kids to the self discipline of writing without instantaneous feedback. This ol' dawg has gotta learn a few new tricks.
So many interesting things, Steven. In terms of Japan, no good deed goes unpunished. Good luck on that thyroid operation.
And in writing, I know what you mean about channeling the immediacy. Even though a handful of people listened to my radio show, it got some response (even when that was outrage ;-) When I decided to pause and write my book, it was almost a decade of talking to myself. But YT and Substack are back to the thrill of conversation, so I know you'll build an audience who'll give you more feedback and focused enthusiasm than the 'back-seat driving' (great phrase) of posting comments.
Last, I woke up thinking about empathy and its limits. I've often thought that it's necessary to develop a level of callous, to harden and strengthen your heart. If you don't, you can't bear witness to the suffering that's being inflicted. You'll have to close your eyes. So closed eyes or a tough skin, that's really the only choice.
Struggling to find a way to begin, I just wrote my first post on substack. My immediate reason is to start connecting with problem solvers like you ... but my long term goal is continuing the joy and therapy of discovery.
It's about 1:30 am here, but that choice between closed eyes and a callous skin sounds like a great segue into a topic of conversation. I've also thought a lot about that. No clear answers. but some great questions.
It's well beyond the witching hour, beginning to nod, and the medication will soon put me into a dreamless sleep. But with no work tomorrow, I will doze off and on with butterfly dreams before making that first thick brew of coffee.
I loved Butterfly Dreams, which I listened to while making breakfast as you were dozing off, and then ate said breakfast while reading your excellent and humble first post. Which I'll link here, since you were too humble to: https://steven45.substack.com/p/in-the-beginning-/.
I think it's going to be a very interesting bus trip you've initiated and I got my (free) ticket to come along for the ride. I've often said I'd go to the ends of the earth for a real conversation and Japan isn't nearly that far!
Hi again Tereza. Just got the mail notification you had read this. I really need to get my substack started. Today, a partially true YouTube about the public heath situation showed up in my feed, I posted a comment clarifying a few things, and YouTube erased it. So I posted it in a comment to Tess Lawrie's latest post where it will remain buried until I start my own page. I guess my first post will be a self-introduction, and then a segue into what I have learned in half a lifetime in Japan. Will get back to you soon about that babies down the river thingm and more. Looking forward to it. Oh, by the way ... my mom and sis are almost next door to you, in Tucson Arizona. Cheers!
The comments format of Substack is a huge advantage. Besides deleting, YT comments are abbreviated and threads buried. One of my other viewers, Jack Sirius, is in Tucson, which came up on my Noam Chomsky is the Problem post, since that's where Chomsky now teaches. He's one of the best-read people I've encountered and posts very thoughtful, considered, long comments. I think you'd appreciate each other.
My rule of thumb was to write (or speak) in order to teach myself something new. That way I could always succeed and it didn't matter if anyone saw it. It's also my rule of thumb in what I watch or read. I just checked out Lee Camp, who I quote in my Six Levels of Reality video, but even though I agreed with what he said, it didn't add anything to my knowledge.
That's why Caitlin and Robert Malone, whose site we conversed on, are people I always read. I agree with them 90%, which makes the 10% an interesting growing point.
My suggestion, just do it and then you can post things that refer to it, instead of repeating yourself. At least that helps me! And I can take comment threads I'm on and get to have the last word on my own site, which is very satisfying ;-)
My only hedge is in limiting this to 'Western' civilization. Living 40 years in Japan now, it is the same ... as I suspect with China, Korea, India, and so on. This may be a consequence, unintended or not, of any populations of scale larger than communities of Dunbar's number or less. There are limits to empathy driven behavior, and the rule-driven behavior that necessarily comes with scale is one of them.
Other limits might be hinted at in the 'Trolley Car' problem, or in the conformity-authority behaviorist experiments of Solomon Asch, Stanley Milgram, and Philip Zimbardo.
I am not optimistic for those of us not among the privileged few, those within the steep walls of those Bill 'Gated' communities.
I find Japan is especially servile towards all things west, to the point that I heard somewhere some are thankful the US bombed them so they could finally see the light and realize their evil ways.
Some pop hit from the past "Big in Japan" ironically summarizes the attitude.
I can see an argument for that. The institutions of modern Japan were basically copy-pasted from Victorian England and Germany. And Japanese political-business-military interests are more deeply intertwined with the U.S. than China.
I found the song (from Alphaville) and looked at the lyrics. Yeah, entertainers and ex-pats just passing through have a superficially high profile, but not a place in the deeper power structures. I've worked in Japanese academia for nearly 40 years, was one of two foreigners in the country working as a cultural advisor for MEXT (the Ministry of Education), and had a tenured position in a Japanese college. But it is all such a kabuki show of faux-internationalization / westernization.
While there are remnants of the communal culture from pre-industrial times, most of society is rigidly authoritarian, and following Confucian ideas of social engineering. It is one of the most heavily tested and vaccinated countries in the world ... and without mandates. My guess is because a culture of unquestioned compliance to authority is so embedded, and the working class so close to the edge of poverty, that the majority are easily herded by the dark-triad power mongers you can find in any country.
On an individual level, I've found them to be as varied in cultural interests East, West, African. etc. as Western counterparts. Meh ... people are people. I've got to get my substack up and running so I can chat with anyone interested in this.
Cheers, Russian! And great handle you've got there ;-)
you know,....speaking of expat culture......in the old days (pre 9-11 ruination and pre 1997 specifically) they had a saying in Hong Kong...."FILTH: Failed In London? Try Hongkong". (just sharing a joke...not intended as a pejorative or meant to read too much into).
That is true for any country where "white man" is worshipped in one degree or another. Not stressing "white" there, it's also true for some countries where the color of the skin is the same. The former USSR bloc comes to mind, especially in the 80s-90s and to some degree even now.
So yes, not to beat on Steven here, but in many ways going over there for some people from "exceptional" nations is to feel "masterful" again just by speaking good English.
LOL. Although the financial elites had a pampered world of their own, Japan had a comic book equivalence of FILTH among English teachers ... 'Charisma Man', as well as the fashion models who would not otherwise have had a career back in the states.
Your title reminds me that in my senior year of public High School (1974-75), I took exactly one class: English.
The course was titled "Alienated Man - Technological Man".
We read many classics, including: Hiroshima; Slaughterhouse 5; Fahrenheit 451; Fail Safe; Clockwork Orange; One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest; 1984; Vonnegut's Player Piano; Mark Twain essays; (Kubrick movies); Down These Mean Streets; Dutchman and The Slave; The Autobiography of Malcolm X; Black Like Me; Manchild In The Promised Land; Ralph Ellison Invisible Man; James Baldwin (essays); Langston Hughes poetry; and more.
That single class did more to educate me than anything else.
"Welcome my son - welcome to the machine" ~~~ Pink Floyd
Mr. Wolfe, you offer much food for thought. I am astonished, impressed, and saddened by your high school education. The first two adjectives I hope are obvious; I'm saddened because your experience is unique in my experience. I'd like to read the full story someday, but it looks from your substack account that you have more important things to do than write.
I'm certainly no writer - I blog mostly short policy wonk pieces on environmental policy and politics . I also sometimes post photos from my never ending road trip (I live and travel in an old short Skoolie), which I call "wandering the weird scenes inside the gold mine" on Twitter account.
My experience is that Public schools in the 60's were very good - they still taught history and civics (not yet fully unwound to "social studies") and I even had a 6th grade class in "critical thinking" where we would read The NY Times every day (this was during the Vietnam War, so there was plenty of propaganda to critique!). If a public school teacher were to touch on any of this now, they 'd be cancelled, fired or something worse.
Right, they keep us alive to milk us dry - and then they send us to "care homes" where we are anesthetized and imprisoned in beds, lest we move around and break a leg - which cuts back on the bottom line of maximum profit. Government pensions and other funds are heavily invested in such enterprises. I would hazard the opinion that the "vulnerability to Covid of the aged" is a myth: the environment killed /is killing them, not Covid. And that is true of many other age cohorts. But life in retirement is supposed to be the best time of your life, a reward of leisure and freedom of life-style choices after a lifetime of sacrifice working your ass off in a boring job, or raising the next generation.
And the lie saturates everything in this neoliberal system about money, and money procreating more money, unrelated to human needs. It's about monopolies and hostile takeovers and OK, You win - I'm screwed. Even the family home concept is being taken over by real estate cartels that buy off homes, upgrade them and monopolize the market, one area at a time. People living in many cities can no longer afford to live in the goddam city. What is that? Mass insanity?
It is way past time to say no, you can't screw me and then expect me to keep smiling while you're about it.
No more rentier economy, monopoly, exorbitant private profit at public expense, and it always is.
We are the majority: let's have no more of it, especially the smiling cooperative part: denunciation, loud and clear is the order of the day.
COVID was an excellent tool for reducing the drain on pension funds and SS/Medicare, the management had to be botched, Capitalism required it to be so.
Well, it's painful to agree with this, it puts you in the terrible "conspiracy theory" category, but considering the needless suffering and the disproportionate numbers of deaths in what is touted as a great democracy, the US, it's difficult not to agree.
Jay Gould, it's been claimed, captured the zeitgeist: "I can hire one half of the (American) working class to kill the other half." What the author left out was it could have done over and over again, until a circular firing squad could be affected.
Too bad Einstein let the steroid loaded chimpanzees have a nuclear bomb, but what I really find amazing is how they not only outlawed the teaching of Darwin's theory of evolution, but they've even buggered the idea of survival of the fittest... so far.
I'm a strong advocate for psychedelics. They're the most direct way to help people realise they've been living in a controlled hallucination their entire life. Even if you consider yourself "red pilled" and thus aware of the pernicious system we're forced to live in, without psychedelics you're still only barely scratching the surface on the discovery to greater truth
As the song goes, "I never promised you a rose garden", if you don't like that then you kill yourself and take as many other lives along with you as you can, and that is America in a nutshell.
Not sure that this is indeed the case or even what it would mean even if it were true. Socialism emerged in the wake of capitalism and when socialist regimes were established they did not endure for more than a few generations. Capitalism itself is in crisis across the West, but outside it is often becoming stronger.
IMHO we will see a diversity of systems across the world. Some countries will become socialist. Others will not. Much will depend on China, even more will depend on trends in population growth and resource scarcity. My guess is that many countries will develop hybrid models, blending some aspects of socialism with capitalism.
That's because Capitalist US uses Economic Sanctions against any Nation embarking on the Socialist Path like the US has always done since WWII, to prevent any successful outcome, Cuba being the most glaring evidence.
The Chinese hybrid Capitalist-Communist System designed for the Chinese, lifted over 800,000,000 Chinese Citizens out of dire poverty as poverty in the dying US Capitalist system increases among American Society
We simply cannot be certain how socialism would have fared in the absence of US hostility. There is no escaping history.
China is extremely complicated and I simply do not know enough to comment in detail beyond stating that you are right: it is a hybrid system. The greatest period of Chinese growth/development came after the US and Japanese began investing on a grand scale, outsourcing manufacturing and transferring technology while leaving industrial relations under the control of the CCP. China's great advantage now is that they have retained socialist models in the provision of education, health-care and (sometimes) housing thereby keeping costs low and maintaining Chinese competitiveness. The US, by contrast, has developed its own version of state-capitalism with the financial sector (the leading investment banks) acting as a disaggregated central planning network (as opposed to a classically Leninist single central planning agency).
From what I have heard Yugoslavia had a vastly milder form of communism than the USSR or the others. A friend born there compared some aspects of life there favourably to the West. Amongst other things, she said that the educations system was a lot better (more rigorous) and that standards of living for educated professionals in her home town were higher than in the West (more likely to own holiday homes etc).
Caitlin, when you write, "They give us enough carbohydrate to turn the gears of industry, but they keep us too busy, poor, propagandized, confused and crazy to actually drink from the waters of life," I fear you're being too optimistic. It should be obvious by now that the "power elite" are actually trying to create famine to cull the herd. Or haven't you seen what's happening in Holland and Sri Lanka?
If the capitalists slaughter all us "cattle" in their slaughterhouse of world conquest, then what will they have to eat? Better for us cattle to eat the rich first and save the planet!
I appreciate your writing, Caitlin, and this article is powerful. At the same time, I would interrogate this line:
"We could crush them like an insect the moment we decided to."
First of all: who is we, and who is them? Be specific. If you are going to set up an us vs. them narrative, we need to know who to crush.
My contention would be that statements like these only fuel the machine because they further separation. They set up an enemy class that, once crushed, humanity is then free from. This is a false salvation and history has born this out time and time again.
As you've written before, we need people to expand their consciousness. Part of that expansion comes from letting in an unconditional love that embraces all, even our shadows and enemies. If we are to band together to confront the powers that be (a worthy goal), we must keep the focus on crushing systems, not people. We must hold out the possibility for forgiveness and transformation for the managers of that system, to see them clearly as also being in the thrall of inhuman patterns and structures. It's the only way we'll succeed.
I would distinguish between confrontation (necessary to stop ongoing harm and domination) and crushing. The latter is inherently violent, the former not necessarily so.
Also, it is not necessarily the case that systems are set up and run by people, at least not depending on how you understand "people." Is an ant colony set up and run by individual ants? Or it an emergent process resulting from a complex, dynamic system in interaction with it's environment?
I believe there is something more-than-human at work in the nature and structure of our dominant systems. By that I don't mean aliens or demons, I mean a form of intelligence and agency that exists in the system itself, an emergent property not reducible to individual actors.
In my model of reality, recognition of this allows us to see what our enemy truly is rather than falling for mirages and camouflages. This enables our actions of resistance and confrontation to still affect other people, because as you say people are components of the system, but we without losing sight that the true rulers are systems, not people.
Losing sight of this makes us vulnerable to a new arrangement, a remix of a system built on separation with different people at the helm.
The confrontation is necessarily allowed under "democracies" as the powerful recognize the letting steam out must be allowed. Also to give an appearance of "freedom of expression". As soon as confrontation starts to threaten them it'll be shut down. Crushed if need be. So confront all you want.
If the systems are the way you describe them - and I don't necessarily object - then it sounds like an immovable object to which no amount of irresistible force can be applied. "Deep state" would fall under it, I assume. It does change but only to the degree necessary to maintain its immovability property. Every so called "revolution" eventually turns into that.
Brilliantly said. Thank you. TPTB actually appear to be embarked on the "population reduction" scheme at the moment, as life spans are dropping like a rock in the West (especially the US).
The 'deaths of despair' amongst the white working class are a clear indication that US capitalism is already in a systemic crisis. Rising mortality rates in peacetime indicates that the system may be approaching a collapse. Similar trends in the USSR indicated well in advance that the system there was heading for the scrap heap.
Have you read DEATHS OF DESPAIR by Anne Case and Angus Deaton?
I have a copy, but have yet to read it in full. It is chilling and extraordinary stuff on so many levels. Speaking personally, I get enraged at the indifference of self-styled progressives over this. It (rising mortality) is a tragedy and a crime. And it is not as if the trend data is difficult to understand, certainly when compared to the modelling used for climate change.
As to "progressives", I fear there just aren't many visible. All those who reach media recognition/fame appear to be mere "pseudos". As near as I can tell the last true Progressive was Henry Wallace (VP under FDR) and he was replaced by the first man to deploy nuclear weapons against civilians - Harry S. Truman, product of the KC mob.
Actually, Dennis Kucinich was/is an old school Progressive.
THESE ARE EXPRESSIONS OF AN EQUALLY BLINDED HUMAN MIND LOOKING FOR SALVATION IN THE IMAGE INSTEAD IN THE SOURCE OF ALL EXISTENCE.
BEING EMERSED IN THE HELL OF "SOYLENT GREEN" ONE CANNOT SEE THE WOODS FOR THE TREES ANYMORE.
10Jesus replied, “If you only knew the gift God has for you and who you are speaking to, you would ask me, and I would give you living water.”
(John 4, 10)
34Then Jesus explained: “My nourishment comes from doing the will of God, who sent me, and from finishing his work. 35You know the saying, ‘Four months between planting and harvest.’ But I say, wake up and look around. The fields are already ripee for harvest. 36The harvesters are paid good wages, and the fruit they harvest is people brought to eternal life. What joy awaits both the planter and the harvester alike! 37You know the saying, ‘One plants and another harvests.’ And it’s true. 38I sent you to harvest where you didn’t plant; others had already done the work, and now you will get to gather the harvest.”
(John 4, 34-38)
23But the time is coming—indeed it’s here now—when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. The Father is looking for those who will worship him that way. 24For God is Spirit, so those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth.”
HE never leaves HIS FLOCK - SATAN, THE REBELIOUS HUMAN MIND tries in his arrogance to run away from HIM. But THE HUMAN MIND can never leave THE ALMIGHTY as it is HIS CREATION.
BOWING DOWN IN THE UTMOST HUMBLENESS IS THE ONLY SALVATION AVAILABLE TO HIS CHILDREN.
How much authority has ANY HUMAN MIND over the next breath or heart beat of the vessel it resides in?
Those HUMAN MINDS that mistake GOD FATHER THE ALMIGHTY (for lack of a more accurate description on my part - let me know if you have one)/ REAL EVOLUTION with THE SYNAGOGUE OF SATAN - THE CULT OF THE REBELIOUS UNFAITHFUL HUMAN MINDS TRYING (!!!) TO "OUTSMART" GOD - are not obedient to the will of God but to the whims and directions of other mislead HUMAN MINDS.
Watch MATRIX if you're religiously less inclined out of lack of faith or read FAUST from GOETHE - THE BIBLE would be the ultimate source (as of my understanding) as it is the most ancient - and you might grasp a bit better the idea of God in the sense of THE BIBLE. I might be completely mistaken, but even this possibility is what I believe is the bedrock of FAITH IN GOD THE ALMIGHTY.
And this is only the tiniest layer of what awaits anyone brave enough to
13“Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. 14But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.
Matthew 7; 13-14
and what a comment section will allow to reveal. Don't shy away!
I love Matthew 7! It reminds me of the rich man who asked Jesus what he needed to do to follow Him. He didn’t like the answer: give up all you have and follow Me…I think that’s not just physically, but mentally/spiritually as well (the ego). I think the Beatitudes (Sermon on the Mount/the Lord’s Prayer) are instruction for living a good life and entering the narrow gate…because you love God, not because you get something in return.
There is no other explanation for the splendour, coherence and peace that speaks from this words if THE HUMAN MIND truly surrenders to the message, but the acceptance of the fact, that THE HUMAN MIND is simply a TOOL in the hands of THE PROCESS OF GOD'S CREATION. Despite THE HUMAN MIND'S resistance towards the circular nature of those words. The linear logic THE HUMAN MIND uses to orient itself in THE MATERIAL - THE WORLD is nothing but useless to get any grasp of it.
John 14 - where Jesus talks about the difference between the SPIRITUAL AND MATERIAL (ruler of the world).
THE HUMAN MIND cannot grasp the idea of WISDOM because WISDOM is a result of trial and error, testing all possible combinations. Only God, acting within HIS CREATION the more it opens up to HIM the better HE can direct HIS CREATURES, has access to it and the only task that is left to THE HUMAN MIND is being the most truthful witness possible to HIS PROCESS OF CREATION. No matter what the imagined (by THE HUMAN MIND) outcome.
THERE IS NOTHING ABOUT THIS PROCESS THE HUMAN MIND CAN DO ABOUT IT BUT TO SUCCUMB TO ITS SERVITUDE SOONER OR LATER BEING CONVINCED BY THE PROCESS ITSELF. ANY RESISTANCE TOWARDS HAVING TO TAKE SECOND PLACE IN GOD'S ORDER WILL LEAVE IT WANDERING IN ETERNITY IN ITS OWN CREATED MAZE CALLED HELL.
For many are called, but few are chosen.
Matthew 22; 14
HE chooses and no HUMAN MIND has any knowledge about when, how, where and why forget about any say about the who.
I'm wondering what will change when our bellies match our hearts in starving. Maybe that will wake us up?
Got it in one, for the vast majority of the hoi polloi, sleepwalking or too exhausted to pay attention to more than the grindstone in front of their noses. Every revolution in recorded history has been preceded by famine or hunger. "Let them eat cake", remember that one? Because they had no flour, of any kind, for bread... Millions of Hangry people will revolt against the system.
LOL ... hi Tereza. I see we are following some of the same writers.
Yes but all you have with Count Chocula is a great name and a great description: Counter Narratives of the Wild and Wooly. When are you going to get some content so I can follow YOU?
LOL. In a looong, slow process of picking up steam as a writer. Although I've been on Quora for 6 or 7 years, even there, I have become mostly a reader because of the decline in quality. I have a few problems in getting started with my own substack:
1 — Things are happening so quickly, bad things, that it is all I can do just to keep up with reading, listening, and an occasional comment. Just finished watching Tess Lawrie's interview of Fahrie Hassan, and yesterday ... took time to write a somewhat longish comment regarding Dr. Toby Rogers (uTobian). And then there is my Kindle collection of well over 200 books, only 10 percent having been read, and not digested enough to really integrate with my still evolving mind-set.
2 — That still evolving mind-set is a bit like a YouTube mandelbrot set. I might have mentioned I began serious reading of philosophy as an undergrad ... but that rabbit hole is never ending. That is why I haven't yet responded to your post of the other day. I really like the practicality of that parallel anarchist economy you are suggesting. Some great ideas there. But when I came to your 'babies in the river' analogy ... I came to the edge of the rabbit hole again, thinking about empathy and its limits, and how it has played out for me in Japan as an educator (as opposed to a trainer or teacher). With enough time, unpacking the implications of those river-babies would take me a book — which no one would read. LOL. I still have to find a voice for keeping things informative, but entertaining and digestible.
3 — Currently on a brief summer break now, with things to do and promises to keep ... but soon enough, I will be back to my wage slave job as the token foreigner for public schools in a West Tokyo township. About 6 years ago, I had resigned in protest from a tenured college position ... and Japan Inc. is unforgiving, allowing few if any second career chances. Early autumn will see me in the hospital for removal of a small benign thyroid tumor ... but next spring, I intend on quitting this token-teaching position and concentrating on full-time writing, if nothing else, for therapy.
4 — No family, or real face-face community here, so I have been spending several hours a day forwarding YouTubes and substacks to about a dozen private F.Book groups, anc chatting with buddies ... mostly from Australia. They are more 'family' than my flesh and blood back in the states, who all seem to have bought into the corporate media model of propaganda. Thank god I have a few close friends here in Japan.
Health and circumstances permitting, I will start expanding beyond back-seat driver comments soon, but this eclectic learner is going to have to learn to channel the thrill I got at the immediacy of teaching college kids to the self discipline of writing without instantaneous feedback. This ol' dawg has gotta learn a few new tricks.
So many interesting things, Steven. In terms of Japan, no good deed goes unpunished. Good luck on that thyroid operation.
And in writing, I know what you mean about channeling the immediacy. Even though a handful of people listened to my radio show, it got some response (even when that was outrage ;-) When I decided to pause and write my book, it was almost a decade of talking to myself. But YT and Substack are back to the thrill of conversation, so I know you'll build an audience who'll give you more feedback and focused enthusiasm than the 'back-seat driving' (great phrase) of posting comments.
Last, I woke up thinking about empathy and its limits. I've often thought that it's necessary to develop a level of callous, to harden and strengthen your heart. If you don't, you can't bear witness to the suffering that's being inflicted. You'll have to close your eyes. So closed eyes or a tough skin, that's really the only choice.
Hi Tereza,
Struggling to find a way to begin, I just wrote my first post on substack. My immediate reason is to start connecting with problem solvers like you ... but my long term goal is continuing the joy and therapy of discovery.
It's about 1:30 am here, but that choice between closed eyes and a callous skin sounds like a great segue into a topic of conversation. I've also thought a lot about that. No clear answers. but some great questions.
It's well beyond the witching hour, beginning to nod, and the medication will soon put me into a dreamless sleep. But with no work tomorrow, I will doze off and on with butterfly dreams before making that first thick brew of coffee.
G'night Tereza!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4BbS9xk_yw
I loved Butterfly Dreams, which I listened to while making breakfast as you were dozing off, and then ate said breakfast while reading your excellent and humble first post. Which I'll link here, since you were too humble to: https://steven45.substack.com/p/in-the-beginning-/.
I think it's going to be a very interesting bus trip you've initiated and I got my (free) ticket to come along for the ride. I've often said I'd go to the ends of the earth for a real conversation and Japan isn't nearly that far!
Hi again Tereza. Just got the mail notification you had read this. I really need to get my substack started. Today, a partially true YouTube about the public heath situation showed up in my feed, I posted a comment clarifying a few things, and YouTube erased it. So I posted it in a comment to Tess Lawrie's latest post where it will remain buried until I start my own page. I guess my first post will be a self-introduction, and then a segue into what I have learned in half a lifetime in Japan. Will get back to you soon about that babies down the river thingm and more. Looking forward to it. Oh, by the way ... my mom and sis are almost next door to you, in Tucson Arizona. Cheers!
The comments format of Substack is a huge advantage. Besides deleting, YT comments are abbreviated and threads buried. One of my other viewers, Jack Sirius, is in Tucson, which came up on my Noam Chomsky is the Problem post, since that's where Chomsky now teaches. He's one of the best-read people I've encountered and posts very thoughtful, considered, long comments. I think you'd appreciate each other.
My rule of thumb was to write (or speak) in order to teach myself something new. That way I could always succeed and it didn't matter if anyone saw it. It's also my rule of thumb in what I watch or read. I just checked out Lee Camp, who I quote in my Six Levels of Reality video, but even though I agreed with what he said, it didn't add anything to my knowledge.
That's why Caitlin and Robert Malone, whose site we conversed on, are people I always read. I agree with them 90%, which makes the 10% an interesting growing point.
My suggestion, just do it and then you can post things that refer to it, instead of repeating yourself. At least that helps me! And I can take comment threads I'm on and get to have the last word on my own site, which is very satisfying ;-)
https://thirdparadigm.substack.com/p/noam-chomsky-is-the-problem
Six Levels of Reality: https://youtu.be/5aVIwLwQBk4
I feel the same.
My only hedge is in limiting this to 'Western' civilization. Living 40 years in Japan now, it is the same ... as I suspect with China, Korea, India, and so on. This may be a consequence, unintended or not, of any populations of scale larger than communities of Dunbar's number or less. There are limits to empathy driven behavior, and the rule-driven behavior that necessarily comes with scale is one of them.
Other limits might be hinted at in the 'Trolley Car' problem, or in the conformity-authority behaviorist experiments of Solomon Asch, Stanley Milgram, and Philip Zimbardo.
I am not optimistic for those of us not among the privileged few, those within the steep walls of those Bill 'Gated' communities.
I find Japan is especially servile towards all things west, to the point that I heard somewhere some are thankful the US bombed them so they could finally see the light and realize their evil ways.
Some pop hit from the past "Big in Japan" ironically summarizes the attitude.
I can see an argument for that. The institutions of modern Japan were basically copy-pasted from Victorian England and Germany. And Japanese political-business-military interests are more deeply intertwined with the U.S. than China.
I found the song (from Alphaville) and looked at the lyrics. Yeah, entertainers and ex-pats just passing through have a superficially high profile, but not a place in the deeper power structures. I've worked in Japanese academia for nearly 40 years, was one of two foreigners in the country working as a cultural advisor for MEXT (the Ministry of Education), and had a tenured position in a Japanese college. But it is all such a kabuki show of faux-internationalization / westernization.
While there are remnants of the communal culture from pre-industrial times, most of society is rigidly authoritarian, and following Confucian ideas of social engineering. It is one of the most heavily tested and vaccinated countries in the world ... and without mandates. My guess is because a culture of unquestioned compliance to authority is so embedded, and the working class so close to the edge of poverty, that the majority are easily herded by the dark-triad power mongers you can find in any country.
On an individual level, I've found them to be as varied in cultural interests East, West, African. etc. as Western counterparts. Meh ... people are people. I've got to get my substack up and running so I can chat with anyone interested in this.
Cheers, Russian! And great handle you've got there ;-)
you know,....speaking of expat culture......in the old days (pre 9-11 ruination and pre 1997 specifically) they had a saying in Hong Kong...."FILTH: Failed In London? Try Hongkong". (just sharing a joke...not intended as a pejorative or meant to read too much into).
That is true for any country where "white man" is worshipped in one degree or another. Not stressing "white" there, it's also true for some countries where the color of the skin is the same. The former USSR bloc comes to mind, especially in the 80s-90s and to some degree even now.
So yes, not to beat on Steven here, but in many ways going over there for some people from "exceptional" nations is to feel "masterful" again just by speaking good English.
LOL. also see that movie...."lost in translation" ?! bill murray as "gaijin" douche bag. "gaijin" is the japanese slang for "gringo".
I have, long ago. Don't recall much but remember liking it.
LOL. Although the financial elites had a pampered world of their own, Japan had a comic book equivalence of FILTH among English teachers ... 'Charisma Man', as well as the fashion models who would not otherwise have had a career back in the states.
About strange nude man attack on Pelosi: Paul Pelosi was most likely attacked by a male prostitute
An unavoidable conclusion about Paul Pelosi
1. Assailant in his underpants
2. Paul Pelosi knows his name and tells police he’s a “friend.”
3. Assailant asks “where’s Nancy?” to make sure she’s not home.
4. Pelosi takes bathroom break from spat and makes 911 call
Conclusion: This guy was a sex partner or male prostitute!
(sigh) Our taxes at work.
Your title reminds me that in my senior year of public High School (1974-75), I took exactly one class: English.
The course was titled "Alienated Man - Technological Man".
We read many classics, including: Hiroshima; Slaughterhouse 5; Fahrenheit 451; Fail Safe; Clockwork Orange; One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest; 1984; Vonnegut's Player Piano; Mark Twain essays; (Kubrick movies); Down These Mean Streets; Dutchman and The Slave; The Autobiography of Malcolm X; Black Like Me; Manchild In The Promised Land; Ralph Ellison Invisible Man; James Baldwin (essays); Langston Hughes poetry; and more.
That single class did more to educate me than anything else.
"Welcome my son - welcome to the machine" ~~~ Pink Floyd
Mr. Wolfe, you offer much food for thought. I am astonished, impressed, and saddened by your high school education. The first two adjectives I hope are obvious; I'm saddened because your experience is unique in my experience. I'd like to read the full story someday, but it looks from your substack account that you have more important things to do than write.
Thanks. I started and had planned to use the substack account for posting photos, because I don't have to size reduce them as I must for my blog,
http://www.wolfenotes.com/2022/07/steinbecks-western-flyer-is-back-on-the-water/
I'm certainly no writer - I blog mostly short policy wonk pieces on environmental policy and politics . I also sometimes post photos from my never ending road trip (I live and travel in an old short Skoolie), which I call "wandering the weird scenes inside the gold mine" on Twitter account.
My experience is that Public schools in the 60's were very good - they still taught history and civics (not yet fully unwound to "social studies") and I even had a 6th grade class in "critical thinking" where we would read The NY Times every day (this was during the Vietnam War, so there was plenty of propaganda to critique!). If a public school teacher were to touch on any of this now, they 'd be cancelled, fired or something worse.
And yet...
Empires have dominated our known history
Some wake up
Some live fulfilled lives
Some find real love
Some create inspired art and music
Some commit random acts of kindness
Some learn, grow, change
Some know themselves, are themselves, and trust and love themselves
Some work for peace and justice both locally and globally
Some live lives of quiet hope
Right, they keep us alive to milk us dry - and then they send us to "care homes" where we are anesthetized and imprisoned in beds, lest we move around and break a leg - which cuts back on the bottom line of maximum profit. Government pensions and other funds are heavily invested in such enterprises. I would hazard the opinion that the "vulnerability to Covid of the aged" is a myth: the environment killed /is killing them, not Covid. And that is true of many other age cohorts. But life in retirement is supposed to be the best time of your life, a reward of leisure and freedom of life-style choices after a lifetime of sacrifice working your ass off in a boring job, or raising the next generation.
And the lie saturates everything in this neoliberal system about money, and money procreating more money, unrelated to human needs. It's about monopolies and hostile takeovers and OK, You win - I'm screwed. Even the family home concept is being taken over by real estate cartels that buy off homes, upgrade them and monopolize the market, one area at a time. People living in many cities can no longer afford to live in the goddam city. What is that? Mass insanity?
It is way past time to say no, you can't screw me and then expect me to keep smiling while you're about it.
No more rentier economy, monopoly, exorbitant private profit at public expense, and it always is.
We are the majority: let's have no more of it, especially the smiling cooperative part: denunciation, loud and clear is the order of the day.
COVID was an excellent tool for reducing the drain on pension funds and SS/Medicare, the management had to be botched, Capitalism required it to be so.
Well, it's painful to agree with this, it puts you in the terrible "conspiracy theory" category, but considering the needless suffering and the disproportionate numbers of deaths in what is touted as a great democracy, the US, it's difficult not to agree.
Jay Gould, it's been claimed, captured the zeitgeist: "I can hire one half of the (American) working class to kill the other half." What the author left out was it could have done over and over again, until a circular firing squad could be affected.
Too bad Einstein let the steroid loaded chimpanzees have a nuclear bomb, but what I really find amazing is how they not only outlawed the teaching of Darwin's theory of evolution, but they've even buggered the idea of survival of the fittest... so far.
All hail the cockroaches, masters of all once again.
I'm a strong advocate for psychedelics. They're the most direct way to help people realise they've been living in a controlled hallucination their entire life. Even if you consider yourself "red pilled" and thus aware of the pernicious system we're forced to live in, without psychedelics you're still only barely scratching the surface on the discovery to greater truth
As the song goes, "I never promised you a rose garden", if you don't like that then you kill yourself and take as many other lives along with you as you can, and that is America in a nutshell.
ah yes, the Machine.
it becomes more and more obvious now that those in power no longer bother to pretend they aren't tyrants who are not beholden to any citizens.
Socialism is the future of humanity
Not sure that this is indeed the case or even what it would mean even if it were true. Socialism emerged in the wake of capitalism and when socialist regimes were established they did not endure for more than a few generations. Capitalism itself is in crisis across the West, but outside it is often becoming stronger.
IMHO we will see a diversity of systems across the world. Some countries will become socialist. Others will not. Much will depend on China, even more will depend on trends in population growth and resource scarcity. My guess is that many countries will develop hybrid models, blending some aspects of socialism with capitalism.
That's because Capitalist US uses Economic Sanctions against any Nation embarking on the Socialist Path like the US has always done since WWII, to prevent any successful outcome, Cuba being the most glaring evidence.
The Chinese hybrid Capitalist-Communist System designed for the Chinese, lifted over 800,000,000 Chinese Citizens out of dire poverty as poverty in the dying US Capitalist system increases among American Society
We simply cannot be certain how socialism would have fared in the absence of US hostility. There is no escaping history.
China is extremely complicated and I simply do not know enough to comment in detail beyond stating that you are right: it is a hybrid system. The greatest period of Chinese growth/development came after the US and Japanese began investing on a grand scale, outsourcing manufacturing and transferring technology while leaving industrial relations under the control of the CCP. China's great advantage now is that they have retained socialist models in the provision of education, health-care and (sometimes) housing thereby keeping costs low and maintaining Chinese competitiveness. The US, by contrast, has developed its own version of state-capitalism with the financial sector (the leading investment banks) acting as a disaggregated central planning network (as opposed to a classically Leninist single central planning agency).
I was born in Yugoslavia -- a FAR more humane and community-oriented society.
However, Serbian supremacy made Yugoslavia toxic for other nationalities... -- unfortunately
From what I have heard Yugoslavia had a vastly milder form of communism than the USSR or the others. A friend born there compared some aspects of life there favourably to the West. Amongst other things, she said that the educations system was a lot better (more rigorous) and that standards of living for educated professionals in her home town were higher than in the West (more likely to own holiday homes etc).
About strange nude man attack on Pelosi: Paul Pelosi was most likely attacked by a male prostitute
An unavoidable conclusion about Paul Pelosi
1. Assailant in his underpants
2. Paul Pelosi knows his name and tells police he’s a “friend.”
3. Assailant asks “where’s Nancy?” to make sure she’s not home.
4. Pelosi takes bathroom break from spat and makes 911 call
Conclusion: This guy was a sex partner or male prostitute!
Caitlin, when you write, "They give us enough carbohydrate to turn the gears of industry, but they keep us too busy, poor, propagandized, confused and crazy to actually drink from the waters of life," I fear you're being too optimistic. It should be obvious by now that the "power elite" are actually trying to create famine to cull the herd. Or haven't you seen what's happening in Holland and Sri Lanka?
If the capitalists slaughter all us "cattle" in their slaughterhouse of world conquest, then what will they have to eat? Better for us cattle to eat the rich first and save the planet!
I appreciate your writing, Caitlin, and this article is powerful. At the same time, I would interrogate this line:
"We could crush them like an insect the moment we decided to."
First of all: who is we, and who is them? Be specific. If you are going to set up an us vs. them narrative, we need to know who to crush.
My contention would be that statements like these only fuel the machine because they further separation. They set up an enemy class that, once crushed, humanity is then free from. This is a false salvation and history has born this out time and time again.
As you've written before, we need people to expand their consciousness. Part of that expansion comes from letting in an unconditional love that embraces all, even our shadows and enemies. If we are to band together to confront the powers that be (a worthy goal), we must keep the focus on crushing systems, not people. We must hold out the possibility for forgiveness and transformation for the managers of that system, to see them clearly as also being in the thrall of inhuman patterns and structures. It's the only way we'll succeed.
The systems are set up and run by people. How do you crush one without confronting people behind them?
As to the language Caitlin uses - I find it mostly a rhetorical device. No practical application is possible there.
I would distinguish between confrontation (necessary to stop ongoing harm and domination) and crushing. The latter is inherently violent, the former not necessarily so.
Also, it is not necessarily the case that systems are set up and run by people, at least not depending on how you understand "people." Is an ant colony set up and run by individual ants? Or it an emergent process resulting from a complex, dynamic system in interaction with it's environment?
I believe there is something more-than-human at work in the nature and structure of our dominant systems. By that I don't mean aliens or demons, I mean a form of intelligence and agency that exists in the system itself, an emergent property not reducible to individual actors.
In my model of reality, recognition of this allows us to see what our enemy truly is rather than falling for mirages and camouflages. This enables our actions of resistance and confrontation to still affect other people, because as you say people are components of the system, but we without losing sight that the true rulers are systems, not people.
Losing sight of this makes us vulnerable to a new arrangement, a remix of a system built on separation with different people at the helm.
The confrontation is necessarily allowed under "democracies" as the powerful recognize the letting steam out must be allowed. Also to give an appearance of "freedom of expression". As soon as confrontation starts to threaten them it'll be shut down. Crushed if need be. So confront all you want.
If the systems are the way you describe them - and I don't necessarily object - then it sounds like an immovable object to which no amount of irresistible force can be applied. "Deep state" would fall under it, I assume. It does change but only to the degree necessary to maintain its immovability property. Every so called "revolution" eventually turns into that.
I remember you accused JBP of being "miserable" at some point.
Get him to read this article, it would surely cheer him up (!) :-)
Brilliantly said. Thank you. TPTB actually appear to be embarked on the "population reduction" scheme at the moment, as life spans are dropping like a rock in the West (especially the US).
The 'deaths of despair' amongst the white working class are a clear indication that US capitalism is already in a systemic crisis. Rising mortality rates in peacetime indicates that the system may be approaching a collapse. Similar trends in the USSR indicated well in advance that the system there was heading for the scrap heap.
Yes! Agree!
Have you read DEATHS OF DESPAIR by Anne Case and Angus Deaton?
I have a copy, but have yet to read it in full. It is chilling and extraordinary stuff on so many levels. Speaking personally, I get enraged at the indifference of self-styled progressives over this. It (rising mortality) is a tragedy and a crime. And it is not as if the trend data is difficult to understand, certainly when compared to the modelling used for climate change.
Have not... Will look for it!
As to "progressives", I fear there just aren't many visible. All those who reach media recognition/fame appear to be mere "pseudos". As near as I can tell the last true Progressive was Henry Wallace (VP under FDR) and he was replaced by the first man to deploy nuclear weapons against civilians - Harry S. Truman, product of the KC mob.
Actually, Dennis Kucinich was/is an old school Progressive.
IMHO it is not about the individual, but the pressure the government is under. The worst politicians will make concessions if they have to.
Here is the book. https://www.amazon.com/Deaths-Despair-Future-Capitalism-Anne/dp/069119078X/
Here is a lecture by Anne Case (“The Great Divide: Education, Despair and Death,” April 5, 2022). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGncR6J98jc
Ordered! Thanks.
WE, THEY, US, THEM
THESE ARE EXPRESSIONS OF AN EQUALLY BLINDED HUMAN MIND LOOKING FOR SALVATION IN THE IMAGE INSTEAD IN THE SOURCE OF ALL EXISTENCE.
BEING EMERSED IN THE HELL OF "SOYLENT GREEN" ONE CANNOT SEE THE WOODS FOR THE TREES ANYMORE.
10Jesus replied, “If you only knew the gift God has for you and who you are speaking to, you would ask me, and I would give you living water.”
(John 4, 10)
34Then Jesus explained: “My nourishment comes from doing the will of God, who sent me, and from finishing his work. 35You know the saying, ‘Four months between planting and harvest.’ But I say, wake up and look around. The fields are already ripee for harvest. 36The harvesters are paid good wages, and the fruit they harvest is people brought to eternal life. What joy awaits both the planter and the harvester alike! 37You know the saying, ‘One plants and another harvests.’ And it’s true. 38I sent you to harvest where you didn’t plant; others had already done the work, and now you will get to gather the harvest.”
(John 4, 34-38)
23But the time is coming—indeed it’s here now—when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. The Father is looking for those who will worship him that way. 24For God is Spirit, so those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth.”
(John 4, 23-24)
God The Father is my refuge.
HE never leaves HIS FLOCK - SATAN, THE REBELIOUS HUMAN MIND tries in his arrogance to run away from HIM. But THE HUMAN MIND can never leave THE ALMIGHTY as it is HIS CREATION.
BOWING DOWN IN THE UTMOST HUMBLENESS IS THE ONLY SALVATION AVAILABLE TO HIS CHILDREN.
I believe being humble and obedient to an "all-knowing father" is what got us here in the first place.
How much authority has ANY HUMAN MIND over the next breath or heart beat of the vessel it resides in?
Those HUMAN MINDS that mistake GOD FATHER THE ALMIGHTY (for lack of a more accurate description on my part - let me know if you have one)/ REAL EVOLUTION with THE SYNAGOGUE OF SATAN - THE CULT OF THE REBELIOUS UNFAITHFUL HUMAN MINDS TRYING (!!!) TO "OUTSMART" GOD - are not obedient to the will of God but to the whims and directions of other mislead HUMAN MINDS.
Watch MATRIX if you're religiously less inclined out of lack of faith or read FAUST from GOETHE - THE BIBLE would be the ultimate source (as of my understanding) as it is the most ancient - and you might grasp a bit better the idea of God in the sense of THE BIBLE. I might be completely mistaken, but even this possibility is what I believe is the bedrock of FAITH IN GOD THE ALMIGHTY.
And this is only the tiniest layer of what awaits anyone brave enough to
13“Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. 14But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.
Matthew 7; 13-14
and what a comment section will allow to reveal. Don't shy away!
I love Matthew 7! It reminds me of the rich man who asked Jesus what he needed to do to follow Him. He didn’t like the answer: give up all you have and follow Me…I think that’s not just physically, but mentally/spiritually as well (the ego). I think the Beatitudes (Sermon on the Mount/the Lord’s Prayer) are instruction for living a good life and entering the narrow gate…because you love God, not because you get something in return.
ABSOLUTELY!!!
There is no other explanation for the splendour, coherence and peace that speaks from this words if THE HUMAN MIND truly surrenders to the message, but the acceptance of the fact, that THE HUMAN MIND is simply a TOOL in the hands of THE PROCESS OF GOD'S CREATION. Despite THE HUMAN MIND'S resistance towards the circular nature of those words. The linear logic THE HUMAN MIND uses to orient itself in THE MATERIAL - THE WORLD is nothing but useless to get any grasp of it.
John 14 - where Jesus talks about the difference between the SPIRITUAL AND MATERIAL (ruler of the world).
THE HUMAN MIND cannot grasp the idea of WISDOM because WISDOM is a result of trial and error, testing all possible combinations. Only God, acting within HIS CREATION the more it opens up to HIM the better HE can direct HIS CREATURES, has access to it and the only task that is left to THE HUMAN MIND is being the most truthful witness possible to HIS PROCESS OF CREATION. No matter what the imagined (by THE HUMAN MIND) outcome.
THERE IS NOTHING ABOUT THIS PROCESS THE HUMAN MIND CAN DO ABOUT IT BUT TO SUCCUMB TO ITS SERVITUDE SOONER OR LATER BEING CONVINCED BY THE PROCESS ITSELF. ANY RESISTANCE TOWARDS HAVING TO TAKE SECOND PLACE IN GOD'S ORDER WILL LEAVE IT WANDERING IN ETERNITY IN ITS OWN CREATED MAZE CALLED HELL.
For many are called, but few are chosen.
Matthew 22; 14
HE chooses and no HUMAN MIND has any knowledge about when, how, where and why forget about any say about the who.
I believe being humble and obedient to MAN is what got us here in the first place.
I wonder how Catholics consider Pope. Hopefully as a man but it often doesn't look like it.
PSALM 46
Thanks to the Lord for HIS WISDOM!