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David Avenell's avatar

A man named Krishnamurti daid: “It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society.”

I couldn't agree more.

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David Avenell's avatar

Said.

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Gavin Mounsey's avatar

“When you call yourself an Indian or a Muslim or a Christian or a European, or anything else, you are being violent. Do you see why it is violent? Because you are separating yourself from the rest of mankind. When you separate yourself by belief, by nationality, by tradition, it breeds violence. So a man who is seeking to understand violence does not belong to any country, to any religion, to any political party or partial system; he is concerned with the total understanding of mankind.”

― Jiddu Krishnamurti

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Basil Rathbone's avatar

If more of us paid attention to Krishnamurti we'd be living in the world Caitlin says is ours for claiming if only we'd awaken to it. He could have liberated the world in ways probably no other human ever could have. OK, there have been others, but they've all been saying pretty much the same things. David Bohm, for one. But few give a damn.

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Gavin Mounsey's avatar

I also feel that the trend of modern humans to embrace anthropocentric worldviews is in large part responsible for the depravity, desolation, mass destruction and generally empty existence that most humans are involved with today.

https://gavinmounsey.substack.com/p/the-rise-of-anthropocentrism-bright

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Crixcyon's avatar

The "K" man has much of value to say.

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Ed's avatar

Krishnamurtis is daid? I didn't even know he'd been sick. Just kidding. {/spelling police.}

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Timmy Taes's avatar

I live in Sonoma County, California about an hour north of San Francisco in wine (whine) country.

A: I am surrounded by assholes.

B: I am ruled by assholes.

C: Deserve has nothing to do with life whether man-made or nature-made or God-made.

D: No one gets out of here alive.

E: My new mission in life is to turn beer into urine.

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Bill Rice, Jr.'s avatar

We are also ruled by "leaders" who are either obtuse ... and/or by people who are somewhere on the psychopath spectrum.

And these "leaders" aren't going anywhere.

https://billricejr.substack.com/p/our-world-is-being-led-by-the-obtuse

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Annie Duffy's avatar

@Timmy Taes. You live in a pretty nice place. When you can you might try disconnecting with the aholes and reconnecting with nature. Get out there in the peace and quiet and observe what surrounds you. Take it in. Understand that there is more to living than just being involved with humans. Find some activities that you can pursue in nature. You might run into some people who aren’t in that category. Don’t give up. It’s up to each of us to do this for ourselves

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Timmy Taes's avatar

Annie Duffy: I fell and broke my hip a few months ago. It is not healing. I gimp around with a cane. I've explored Sonoma County for over 20 years. It is beautiful.

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Ned B.'s avatar

I agree, Annie, I live in Sonoma County as well. Sure, we are surrounded by vaxxed-to-the-max virtue-signaling "progressives," but we are also blessed with beautiful parks, beaches and countryside.

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Timmy Taes's avatar

Ned B: See my comment to Annie Duffy above. The parks are nice, but you have to pay to enter. For 20 years I rode my bicycle out in Dry Creek every day. It's beautiful.

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NJ Election Advisor's avatar

Mt. Tam near there? I remember going there to bike ride about 20 years ago and didn’t pay anything.

It was nice then but we could see the changes coming.

Hope that hip heals. Avoid foods and drinks that cause inflammation. Beer is one of them.

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Timmy Taes's avatar

NJ el Ad: I've been to Mt. Tam. The open theater near the top is cool. Great views from there. You didn't have to pay there in the old days. Don't know about now.

Beer is life for me. My four days in the hospital with no beer was okay, but it was boring. I find pharmaceuticals worse than beer for pain or anything else.

But that's just me and my metabolism. Everyone is different. That's what drives me nuts about government and medicine. These Grand-Poo-Bahs think we are all the same.

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Marta Staszak's avatar

That's the spirit Timmy Taes! 😁

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Timmy Taes's avatar

Thanks, Marta Staszak.

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37's avatar

People also unwittingly make it harder on themselves by paying ANY attention at all to the MSM.

People would be MUCH better served looking at what's behind the MSM, like reading up on Edward Bernays for example. Or Rockefeller and how he coopted the medical industry and squelched nutriceuticals and natural health.

Or who the Central Banking Cabal are. But I've found that people would rather pollute their minds with crap on the Lobotomy Box than actually educate themselves, which requires more effort than just plopping down with a bunch of crap food and clicking the remote.

That's a choice however.

I tell people all the time, the reason why history seems to be so boring as they teach it, is because it's false, and therefore it is boring and quite often even contradictory. That if they knew and understood real history, then it would invigorate them, but at the same time it would anger then to action.

Back to Edward Bernays, ... there's a reason why it's called Propaganda and why that's what passes as education.

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bill wolfe's avatar

Re: Bernays: the video skipped over his origin. It was not in capitalism and advertising, it was working for Woodrow Wilson's WW I propaganda project. After understanding mass psychology and propaganda in his WW I experience, he entered US capitalist sphere and coined the word "public relations" instead of the pejorative propaganda. Excellent history of this is the BBS documentary "The Century Of The Self" by Adam Curtis:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DnPmg0R1M04

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37's avatar

Bernays was Zionist sponsored and controlled by Rockefeller in the U.S.

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Patrick Powers's avatar

History: Asshole The Great rules. There's a war, then some other asshole rules. Snore.

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Jinc's avatar

EXACTLY! Thank you Ms. Johnstone!

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gmc's avatar

Speaking of Propaganda, most people don't realize that in 2013, the US passed a law " Extending Radio Free Europe to cover the Western Hemisphere". Radio Free Europe was a CIA Propaganda ops.

This is how the MSM wrote it ---but in Reality it read - " We the USGov now have the right to use Propaganda - Against the Citizens of the USA" signed by B Obama in 2013. At Midnight most likely. And they weren't joking around because as long as the MSM gets their news from the USGov. they can't be sued for the BS content. Sabe' ?

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Third-Eye Roll's avatar

What does a person do when they realize the world they've been living in is insane? It's like growing up in an insane asylum being told by everyone, and believing, it's the normalist of all worlds, only to realize as you navigate it how deranged it all is. It's disconcerting to discover that those few remaining endangered societies that more closely adhere to the real normal (human evolution before it was roped-off and pepper-sprayed) are the ones being systematically destroyed by the ruling lunatics of your own society. It's a bitter pill; disorienting and isolating. Yet this gnawing unease is the norm for Western society, so that people don't see it as a sickness, as an illness that needs curing. Instead, we're told that more of the disease is the cure. Any happiness to be found in such a context has to be based on lies, gullibility and profound ignorance by those still refusing to question it, or by mental and/or physical withdrawal. Perhaps this malaise of awakening is what King Solomon had in mind when he said, "With much knowledge comes much sorrow". The only thing remaining for those traumatized from this rude awakening is to find kindred spirits, close ranks, and comfort each other while working for change, and making your own corner of existence as livable as possible without the internecine squabbling over pedantic trifles (the favorite pastime of liberals).

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Timmy Taes's avatar

Third-Eye Roll: First you have to decide if life is worth living. Second if Humans are always going to be assholes (or at least those who get the power and ruin our lives). Third if you then think it is worth continuing to fight a lost cause.

Look at history. 95% of the time humans have lived in or with slavery and tyrants.

I find happiness in humor. I notice the little things. The human race has come a long way. I won't give up on it.

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Third-Eye Roll's avatar

Thank you for your comment, but the fact that I'm here having this discussion strongly suggests that I consider life still worth living; I never thought it wasn't. I find comfort in the small life of loving family, a few friends, pets and the immediacy of everyday things.

And yes, humor is essential, especially in trying times.

That said, the idea that humans were always slaves and tyrants has been thoroughly debunked (there was never proof of that theory to begin with). It was the advent of totalitarian agriculture around 10-thousand-years-ago that gave rise to oppressive leaders and systems.

Peace to you and yours. :)

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Timmy Taes's avatar

Third-Eye Roll: I was discussing slavery and tyrants since Mesopotamia's first civilization. But tribal societies, at least almost all of the ones I've read about, had slaves. I suppose a chief of a tribe or a tribal council can't be considered tyrants though.

What do you mean by the expression "Totalitarian Agriculture"? Egypt's system? Assyria had independent farmers. Rome had independent farmers as well.

The problem of finding a "good government" is one that has troubled mankind over the millennia. The American experiment in government, with all of its faults, has been the best one so far, but it's been going downhill since the early 1900s.

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Third-Eye Roll's avatar

By "totalitarian agriculture" I mean the near total dependence on farming for the feeding of civilizations vs. earlier hunter/forager societies. Nomadic and semi-nomadic tribes didn't have the luxury of stockpiling possessions or foodstuffs because they were regularly on the move, following the herds and seasonal flora. Thus, there wasn't the need for totalitarian rule by the leader or elders. As one Native American Chief (I can't remember which) responded when Indian chiefs were compared to white leaders "If I made my braves do things they didn't want to do, I wouldn't be chief for long." Even in the settled traditional Native American tribes and other indigenous communities, wealth and power were, and remain, much more evenly distributed than in any civilization.

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Timmy Taes's avatar

I remember that quote by the American Indian Chief. Russel Means named his organization "American Indian Movement" because he preferred the term "American Indian" to "Native American". I'm not sure why.

It's true that nomadic societies don't have tyrants and don't stockpile goods to any great degree. But then again nomads are limited in the possible size of their tribe. The nomadic American Indians were no saints. They had slavery. The Comanche specialized in torture. Everyone was afraid of the Comanche.

It's true that today our societies are nearly totally dependent on Big Ag and the transportation industry to bring us our food. If I was young I'd buy a small piece of land and do my best to grow all of my own food. I already make my own beer.

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Third-Eye Roll's avatar

Making your own beer, what more do you need? lol. ;)

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Doris Wrench Eisler's avatar

The old saw, liberally indulged in by psychiatrists and psychologists was that if you didn't "fit in" to society, the obvious conclusion was there was something wrong with you: there couldn't possibly be something wrong with society. That was assumed to be obvious. What was obvious but ignored was that it represented vested interests, and the establishment. They were all obviously accessories before and after the fact. Modernity has its drawbacks, but skepticism isn't one of them.

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Third-Eye Roll's avatar

Skepticism is the antidote to modernity.

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Doris Wrench Eisler's avatar

It's the antidote to all kinds of bullshit - but modernity is just the accumulation of at least 2000 years of stupid, cruel thinking and unworkable, destructive ideas. And some people think the problem is anti-traditionalism. And they're feted and celebrated for that stance.

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Starry Gordon's avatar

Well, _some_ people believe in it!

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Jo Waller's avatar

This is what Marx said would happen to capitalism - the worker's conditions would get worse and worse and real wages would go down and down - a revolution would be inevitable and a state were the proles owed the means of production would ensue- perhaps with a bit of class consciousness and awareness practice of the workers own subjugation from Luxemburg and a bit of violence from Lenin thrown in.

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Jo Waller's avatar

The means of production would now involve us all owning robots and the algorithm?

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Landru's avatar

That is a real question and the answer was needed 20 yrs. ago. The more you read Marx the future is revealed. The scary thing to me, nuclear war seems to be the population control of choice by all political parties of the NATO nations. Truly Creative Destruction the necessary evil of Capitalism.

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DomeLord's avatar

The answer to the question is that WE own these robots. They are part of our common cultural inheritance. While hordes of boffins through the ages worked on technology, we toiled in the fields for their food, we worked in textile factories to provide them with clothes, we built their homes, we mined mineral resources, and so on. Those with large stockpiles of [imaginary] money might think robots belong to themselves but they can blow such mental deficiencies out of their trousers. Our ancestors generally worked to make a better life for all of us. The gates to a Golden Age of Leisure are still there open to us but the illegitimate Money Power is trying hard to squeeze them shut thereby trapping us into these banksters wet dream of permanently enslaving all of us.

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CTheo's avatar

We should AT LEAST own Chat GBT, it’s pulling its inventory from all of us as it is!

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Jo Waller's avatar

I've never heard of it, but I think I get your meaning!

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Kun Bela's avatar

" Imprison the fifty richest bankers and there will be no more war on Earth. Henry Ford "

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Landru's avatar

Ford should have ended to quote with, " and me"

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Andrew Thomas's avatar

I laughed out loud four or five times. Bravo. I feel so much better just from that five minutes.

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DomeLord's avatar

The megalomaniacs have gone further than that these days. Stress is a killer and I believe it has been weaponized as a very useful tool to help attain depopulation à la WEF. Stress is never mentioned on death certificates. It stultifies, weakens, & renders us sickly & wide open to an early death from a variety of preventative causes. Corporate media pumps up stress from every possible direction. I'm relatively immune since, apart from references in social media, I don't partake of any offerings from TV or the wireless. In fact I'm becoming steadily more acquainted with *my* own mind. So please don't do what I say but do as I do. With maximum catharsis, throw your TV away & start your new life where you are much more in charge! Bon voyage!

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Landru's avatar

A duel FU to the empire, cut the ComCast cable. Save that money and invest in Caitlin and like minded writers/podcasters. It's like being on holiday : )

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Jinc's avatar

Eliminate the assholes and rule oneself with anarcho-capitalism!

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JackSirius's avatar

In my experience, anarcho-capitalists overwhelmingly emphasize capitalism, not anarchism. This is easy to prove: Just put one in charge of a business or project—which seems to be their goal in life—and you will find that the line separating an anarcho-capitalist from becoming a tyrant (aka “murderous pschopathic asshole”) is razor thin. I tend to be skeptical of hyphenated ideologies. For example, Neo-liberalism…which, btw, is based on the illusion that anarcho-capitalism is a form of anarchism.

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Starry Gordon's avatar

I disagree somewhat. The overwhelming desire of most of the anarcho-capitalists I have encountered on the Net (going back in USENET days, the 1980s) is not to found a business or make a profit or be an asshole, but to post on social media copying tedious unimaginative pro-capitalist rhetoric.

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jamenta's avatar

The poor are even worse off now than when Feudalism was the system of choice by the assholes in charge. Why, you might ask? Well back a number of centuries ago, it was a commonly held belief under Feudalism that your class was your Fate, born a Serf or born an Aristocrat, this was not something you were held responsible for - and thus poverty was not something you necessarily need be ashamed about - it was simply preordained for you.

But in today's world, not only if you are poor you carry the burden of soul crushing poverty, but you are then blamed for your own poverty - and you are meant to believe the system and the assholes in charge have no hand in your poverty. We are all to believe in the meritocracy myth of the Capitalists and Warmongers in charge.

Poverty is the worst form of violence. Ghandi.

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jamenta's avatar

You guys a tag team here?

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Feral Finster's avatar

Start liking it. If The Iron Law Of Oligarchy has any truth in it, we're just reverting to the mean, and today's oligarchs have tools that would make Ivy Lee or Goebbels weep hot salty pony tears of envy.

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YesXorNo's avatar

Success is waking up to a new day and looking forward to acting, not in a theatrical sense but in a doing sense (though contributing to performing a play would be just fine and dandy).

What can I do today that makes me feel good, which helps those around me, which contributes to the communities in which I live? Know also that the more you do this not only the better you feel but the more you inspire others to find their own joy and validity in similar actions. Its a feedback loop of love and it starts with the smallest of things.

Hold a door open for someone. Pick up something that an old or injured person has dropped. Thank someone for the smallest kindness. Smile.

I'm very playfully serious about smiling. It is the most natural and trivial of things and it speads joy. Hey, why not make a game of it? For one week count the number of smiles you get each day from persons you do not know. Just the smallest of positive reponses counts, for you have suceeded is spreading happiness. Can you get two? Or, heaven forfend, THREE smiles from strangers in a day!

Now, if while reading this you had a little smile, dont click the heart button. Instead, create a smile in a stranger. Approach the activiity like a child; its not a mission, its a game for the fun of it.

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bill wolfe's avatar

More evidence that US Empire managers are getting desperate: NPR featured a spinmeister from Brookings Institute who spewed drivel to downplay the rise of China.

When asked about economic competition, he straight up lied by saying that no new China led economic block was arising (like during Cold War 1), ignoring massive evidence that exposes that lie. On military conflict, he claimed Biden's role was to deescalate rising tensions via personal calls to Xi, again contradicting lots of conflicting evidence about US military provocations and Biden's warmongering rhetoric.

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