Sunday, December 13, 2009

"THIS IS MY MAP"

From Jenna Orkin:

Collapse
Drug money 'saved banks from crisis'
JO comment: To the tune of $352 billion.
MCR Comment:
December 13, 2009 -- This is my map. I made it. And I paid for it.

All I have ever wanted to do was give it away.
Euros become currency of drug cartels (from Vantage Point)
Global sovereign debt to hit $49.5 trln-Moody's (from Rice Farmer)
The biggest threat for 2010 – countries going bust (from Rice Farmer)
Mother of all carry trades faces an inevitable bust
House Approves Sweeping Financial Reforms
House Passes Trillion-Dollar Spending Bill
Financial reforms could shrink Fed's role
Bailout Program Extended to October: Geithner
Unemployment Decline an Illusion, Financial System Collapse Ahead (from Rice Farmer)
Coming Collapse of Municipal Bonds; States, Cities Dig Deeper Holes (from Rice Farmer)
The boomer meltdown
Falling Dollar Pushes Manufacturing Out of Europe
It's time to give up the dream of home ownership
House 'flipping' makes a comeback
Brown and Sarkozy call truce to declare war on banks
Statement of Ron Paul Introducing the Free Competition in Currency Act
Goldman Sachs played bigger role in AIG trades: report
No Cash Bonuses for Goldman Sachs
Volcker Warns Bankers They've "Been Inadequate"(from Vantage Point)
Obama's Big Sellout by Matt Taibbi (from Vantage Point)
“What's taken place in the year since Obama won the presidency has turned out to be one of the most dramatic political about-faces in our history. Elected in the midst of a crushing economic crisis brought on by a decade of orgiastic deregulation and unchecked greed, Obama had a clear mandate to rein in Wall Street and remake the entire structure of the American economy. What he did instead was ship even his most marginally progressive campaign advisers off to various bureaucratic Siberias, while packing the key economic positions in his White House with the very people who caused the crisis in the first place. This new team of bubble-fattened ex-bankers and laissez-faire intellectuals then proceeded to sell us all out, instituting a massive, trickle-up bailout and systematically gutting regulatory reform from the inside.”
Passion Fades for Obama, the Perfect Poster Boy
Obama's Mortgage-Fix Program is Doomed to Fail (from Vantage Point)
New Yorkers at risk of losing homes surges 85% in month of November (from Rice Farmer)
Canadians taking on record levels of debt (from Rice Farmer)
McDonald's: $1 breakfast

Asia
North Korea currency change sparks panic
North Korea hints ready to return to nuclear talks
Is China’s capital spending bubble about to deflate?
Will Japan Default? (from Rice Farmer)

Europe
Greek debt hits 300 billion euros
Will Greece go the way of Dubai?
Icelandic bank in SFO probe
Taxpayers face £2 trillion unfunded pensions liability (from Rice Farmer)
Debit card Christmas
Shoppers will put £23bn on plastic this year, up 4pc, says Barclays.
Jobless claims up more than expected 'Severe cuts' in public services revealed
Germany to Borrow Much More in 2010, Report Says
Germany is poised to borrow around 100 euros billion more next year, a newspaper reported on Thursday, signaling that Europe's largest economy is on course to break the EU's deficit rules -- and the extent of the financial headache facing the new center-right government coalition.
S&P Sees Spain’s Debt Rising to 80-90% of Economic Output (from Rice Farmer)
Spain Says Adios to Xmas as 19% Jobless Hits Spending (from Rice Farmer)
Strange light in Norwegian sky sparks mystery
Russian nuclear missile test fails, visible in Norway

Intelligence
Blackwater Guards' Alleged Role in Secret CIA Raids
Blackwater 'operating at CIA Pakistan base'
Brussels Gives CIA Power to Search UK Bank Records
Google expands tracking to logged out users
Yahoo Policies Re Selling Emails to Law Enforcement
U.S. Military Joins CIA’s Drone War in Pakistan
Lawmakers Want to Bar Sites From Posting Sensitive Govt. Docs
Terror police to monitor nurseries
An e-mail leaked to The Times shows that officers believe that nursery-age children should be checked for signs of extremism.

JO Comment: My kid would have been in Gitmo by the time he was two.
Anarchists Arrested in Copenhagen
"[P]olice made a large number of pre-emptive arrests under a controversial anti-hooligan law."See if you can find any indication in this article of how the authorities knew that the people they were arresting were anarchists. Drug money UN adviser says $352bn in criminal proceeds was effectively laundered by financial institutions

Divide and Conquer
New Report Finds Racism Prevalent Across Europe
Window on Eurasia: Neo-Nazis Are a Threat to Russia, Polish Analyst Says
FBI: 19,000 Matches to Terrorist Screening List in 2009
Dallas/Fort Worth named to Top 10 terrorism target list (from Rice Farmer)

Climate Change
'Copenhagen Is About Doing As Little As Possible'
Interview with US Economist Dennis Meadows.
Who will dare mention population growth?
Danish document causes storm at Copenhagen climate negotiations
Leaders of the Rich World Are Enacting a Giant Fraud
Next year forecast to be hottest on record
Britain faces future of food shortages
...and water shortages. No longer will the gentlemen in pin-striped suits have to carry umbrellas.
Quake Threat Leads Swiss to Close Geothermal Project
Head of California's Cap and Trade Offsets Program: It's a Scam (from Rice Farmer)
Rice prices soar on supply shortages (from Rice Farmer)
Philippines Has Fewer Rice Offers, Prices Gain 30% (from Rice Farmer)
Mediterranean as Indicator
“In terms of biomass and production, the Mediterranean is basically impoverished,” Mediterranean Sea Saved by Monumental Flood
Saving Fish is Possible, Unless They’re Past the Tipping Point
Climate Change Caused Radical North Sea Shift
Ocean Dead Zones May Be Worse Than Thought
Coral climate crisis puts 250 million at risk: U.N.
Superpower is ready to feed the world
New Google Innovation to Help Scientists Monitor Deforestation
Same Editorial Runs in 56 Newspapers
Soros: leaders have it wrong on climate change
Billionaire investor suggests IMF use gold reserves to back green loans.
The official diet to save the planet
Eat less meat and dairy, says report which acknowledges that shrinking of food industry is likely An Arctic economy in limbo: One of the world's biggest pipeline projects on hold; unclear if it will ever break ground

Factbox: Planned Arctic gas lines
Lessons from a 'model farmer'
Giant iceberg heading for Australia

California green jobs growing
Climate Conference Data Raise Fears of China Property Bubble (from Rice Farmer) )

Technology/Science
Wireless Brain-to-Computer Connection Synthesizes Speech
A Whole Industry is Waiting For a Pandemic (July)
Neuromarketers claim that brain waves reveal what consumers want

29 comments:

I'll get it for you said...

hey, I finally saw collapse!!! It was very hard to find, buried way down, and i am very happy it was made, but the people i watched it with just refused to believe that their way of life was ending. so we couldn't get too deep into it. Denial is strong!!!!

LeoBro said...

I can't wait to see Collapse on Friday here in Seattle.

Does Mike mention Transition towns in the movie, like he does in the book? If so, would it be appropriate to hand out fliers for our group (Sustainable NE Seattle)?

Brendan Carmody said...

another review of Collapse at "Ain't It Cool"
a very mainstream Independent film review website

http://www.aintitcool.com/node/43342

F.Kamilov said...

Bringing forward our previous discussion of "police states" and CCTV cameras, it used to be thought - nay, touted and shrieked - that our bad old Soviet Union was "totalitarian" (and a crashing bore for consumerism). In many respects it may have been, but it didn't have the profusion of surveillance gadgetry I mentioned. Some typically clever person will then chime in, again in the old "Reader's Digest" vein - saying that the Soviets didn't possess the technological prowess for that. Perhaps. But even so, it was nowhere near what the "free (-wheeling) democratic West" is now becoming. Neither did it have the levels of social delinquency and hooliganism found now, especially among the youth, in the industrialised world. And it was one huge country - the largest - a massive Eurasian superstate with all the attendant ethnic and cultural complexities, the "husbanding" of which is a major headache only in itself, not to talk of its economic and infrastructural development and maintenance.

That aside, most of what is spurned off the cuff as "totalitarian" nowadays will - as the resources that power modern civilisation diminish and its follies multiply - be considered as necessary and commonsense measures. In this respect the "Stalinist" steps Putin is taking are just what the doctor ordered, and show that this wise man knows his job. Of course, many tough authoritarian state regimes of the 20th Century have been casually labeled with the Stalinist epithet, thereby misrepresenting it. But one would do well to learn from old Uncle Joe's book, which is the manual for survival in extreme crises. He prevented the Russian population and the fledgling Soviet state which he built up overnight, from being decimated by the swift Nazi hordes having both the fanatical will and technological resources at their disposal for their "grand" purpose. No Tsar, Lenin or Trotsky could have done that. Such wimps would have been easy fodder for Hitler and Himmler. It may seem very ironic, (in particular, to some verbose individuals who pose as religious guides on this blog's message board) but if seen in an overall historical and indeed philosophical perspective, then Stalin was "God's" answer to Hitler - and not his brother dictator as many "experts" nowadays hasten to lump him as, for the consumption of the John Doe types. Nastiness is certainly nasty, but more often than not there is a healing secret behind such bitter medicines! Only the wise can appreciate this...

MCR said...

Transition Towns didn't make the cut. Will people please understand that I did not make the movie. I have no control over what's in it and where it gets shown. I am not mailing out free DVDs. I'm trying to cover the January rent... again.

Yes, by all means, bring info on Transition Towns to Seattle screenings. These will be my last public appearances on the sbuject ever.

MCR

Robert said...

8/20/2009

Winchester® Ammunition was recently awarded a contract by the Immigration, Customs and Enforcement (ICE) division of the Department of Homeland Security to supply a maximum of 200 million, 40 cal. rounds over the next five years.

“Winchester has a proud tradition of providing high quality ammunition to our nation’s law enforcement agencies,” said Dick Hammett, president, Winchester Ammunition. “No matter if they’re protecting our block, our city or our borders, each special agent is an invaluable resource and we are committed to giving them the best products available.”

The load selected for this contract is a 135-grain, hollow point designed for the office of Field Operations of Customs and Border Protection. It will fall under the Winchester® Ranger® line of products.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

The paragraphs above were taken from a press release from the Winchester Co. website. Obviously it's no kind of secret information.

If they were going to actually use that much ammunition over the course of five years that would mean firing an average of 76 rounds per minute around the clock for five years. It also represents an allocation of 10,526 rounds per ICE employee.
I wonder what is up here?
Is this simply normal government procurement proceedure?
Are they anticipating a major rumble on the home turf?
Are they trying to thwart civilian hoarding of ammo?
Stockpiling in the face of "peak lead"?
I dunno. A very interesting question.
Hopefully brighter minds than mine can yield answers.

toner deeski said...

Another water main broke in another city...
http://blogs.sfweekly.com/thesnitch/2009/12/sf_water_main_rupture_symptoma.php

Here's a less reassuring thought: A 100-year-old water main burst over the weekend, flooding SoMa with millions of gallons of water. It required neither an earthquake nor a misplaced jackhammer to give up the ghost, but simply died of old age. And this pipe was not on the city's list of pending replacements -- meaning there are older and more vulnerable pipes in service still.

pstajk said...

"Denial ain't just a river in Egypt." - M. Twain

LeoBro said...

Thanks, Mike. I didn't mean to imply that you should have talked about Transition Towns, or that you had control over the cut. I'm looking forward to seeing you there this Friday!

Hotspringswizard said...

And the list keeps getting longer! Why its a one stop shop for doom info for sure :-) Gaaaaaah, as my friend Freeacre at the Trout Clan Campfire would say. All this bad JU JU reminds me of those humongous tidal waves in the recent movie 2012. I feel like that scientist and his family from India ( I think ) who missed their pick up to the Arks and were standing on that high mountain as the 1500 meter high wave rose above them.

Where's a good rock I can hide under! Mr Wizard make it all go away!

Oh well, it is what it is and we have to deal with all these dire changes as best we can. Great job Jenna and Crew on the list that looms larger it seems every week!

At least I can talk about all this stuff with my bro, since we are on the same page when it comes to all this FUBAR worldwide meltdown info.
I tell my mom about it all to what extent she will listen, but she's a lover of Faux News as her source of " real info " about whats going on in this ol world and I can see that she gives little creedence to much of what I try to tell her about. I think to myself since she is in her mid 70's anyway, what could she do anyway about what coming. She's got multiple schlerosis which is a real challenge to deal with in itself.

Well I gues I have to blame it all on Mr Ruppert, and his damn graphs in Rubicon, chapter Petroleum Man, showing population and the oil world production bell curve. After seeing that its been downhill ever since. Gaaaaaaah :-)

agape wins said...

The action on this Blog is moving so fast, the thought activity so progressive that I can not keep up, I am thrilled!
Where do I begin, I am way behind in my response To F. Kamilov, but I see no major conflict, I am Waayyy behind on my reading--Destiny calling/getting in the way, What say?

Again I will just point the way, as gamedog would say, OregonSurvivor, Think "Outcast", there are at least 4 meanings to Rouge, We have pushed aside several Dangerous Entities/Nations/people, & there are Wackos, with the ability to Nuke us all.

F. Kamilov, There was work on packages/devices which did no structural damage, but Radiated "higher Life forms" to Death.
I think that will never happen, Chernobyl, could have been a test, but, any how/way, if or not; the Accident proved it was as bad as
"The old way". National Geographic recently did an article about what the area is like today, Billions to Reclaim if ever,I suspect they have decided on Disease/Pandemic, as the most cost effective, form of warfare! You know of the book Guns Germs & Steel?
Jared Diamond almost says that is what we can expect, I have a book review filed somewhere, The reviewer came to the same
conclusion i(small) did!

Gamedog had some reflections on "Urban Heat Islands", I like "Bubbles", he is on the right track, He wanted MY "thoughts"!!
We each of is in a "Bubble" as was the "Bubble Boy", what works in my Sphere may be a killer in yours, I see a lot of constructive
Brainwork here. Remember you can prove anything if you are given enough figures to manipulate/sort/ignore, I have a book which
describes how Graphs can be drown using the same figures to show opposing results, I'll have to look it up.

Much more later, Amae, Namaste

agape wins said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
gamedog said...

This information might be useful someday, file it away in-case of ill winds, tho it sounds good soil building practice anyway. A quote from the "Humanure handbook" (free download pdf) Chapter 3 Microhusbandry page 58.

"An Austrian farmer claims that the microorganisms he introduces
into his fields have prevented his crops from being contaminated
by the radiation from Chernobyl, the ill-fated Russian nuclear
power plant, which contaminated his neighbor’s fields. Sigfried
Lubke sprays his green manure crops with compost-type microorganisms
just before plowing them under. This practice has produced a
soil rich in humus and teeming with microscopic life. After the
Chernobyl disaster, crops from fields in Lubke’s farming area were
banned from sale due to high amounts of radioactive cesium contamination.
However, when officials tested Lubke’s crops, no trace of
cesium could be found. The officials made repeated tests because they couldn’t believe that one farm showed no radioactive contamination
while the surrounding farms did. Lubke surmises that the
humus just “ate up” the cesium.70"

v said...

READ THIS!!!!!!

Mexico: Widespread Theft of Oil by Drug Traffickers

GrTz,

V

OregonSurvivor said...

I think you meant rogue... Sorry, couldn't resist.

4 Definitions of
rouge:
1. Any of various red cosmetics for coloring the cheeks or lips.
2.a reddish powder, chiefly ferric oxide, used for polishing metal, glass, etc.
3.Canadian football.
–verb (used with object)
4.to color with rouge.
–verb (used without object)

Interestingly, most interpretations of the word "rogue" are derogatory. One wonders why a politician would think that this is a positive characteristic:
1. a dishonest, knavish person; scoundrel.
2. a playfully mischievous person; scamp: The youngest boys are little rogues.
3. tramp or vagabond.
4. a rogue elephant or other animal of similar disposition.
5. Biology. a usually inferior organism, esp. a plant, varying markedly from the normal.
–verb (used without object)
6. to live or act as a rogue.
–verb (used with object)
7. to cheat.
8. to uproot or destroy (plants, etc., that do not conform to a desired standard).
9. to perform this operation upon: to rogue a field.

–adjective
10. having an abnormally savage or unpredictable disposition, as a rogue elephant.
11. no longer obedient, belonging, or accepted and hence not controllable or answerable; deviating, renegade: a rogue cop; a rogue union local.

(definitions above lifted from dictionary.com)

Just having fun with words, no offense intended.

Sanyu Estelle Nagenda said...

Hello Everyone,

Just watched Collapse and joined the site.

Very captivating watch, and the information is a lot to chew on. I appreciate all the thought and care that MCR has put into his cause; as well as appreciate all the rest of us whose cause is intertwined with his!

I was wondering what any of you might think of this:

http://sanyusays.blogspot.com/2009/03/nagendas-theory-concerning-gravity-of.html

In terms of what MCR stated about our species changing/evolving its state of mind.

I'll be around the blog :)

Sanyu

Sebastian Ernst Ronin said...

@ Kamilov (et. al.)

"The death of one soldier is a tragedy. The death of one million solders is a statistic."

-Papa Joe

Somewhat a propos for the times.

BTW, for any who bother plodding through the entropic noise of FB:

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=109346073811#/group.php?gid=109346073811

Steven Langbroek said...

Dear Mike,

I've just finished watching Collapse, and have seen several years ago your speeches on 9/11 and several other subjects.

I think you deserve more love then you've gotten in your life, from what I understand in the interview. I hope you can stay from despairing, and that initiatives such as the Transition Movement (http://www.ted.com/talks/rob_hopkins_transition_to_a_world_without_oil.html) and the work by William McDonough (http://www.mcdonough.com/cradle_to_cradle.htm) will keep your hope afloat, in the same way sales of the DVD / Book will keep you paying your rent.

In the meanwhile, people of my generation (i'm 24 now) refuse to shut their eyes, and are making preparations for the end of our paradigm. For one i'm setting up a blog for the people that have my absolute and unconditional love, where I gather the information that has led me to my conclusions in hope that they'll come to the same conclusions. I hope to start making preparations for the transition as early as March next year (i'm gonna help build the lifeboats, so to speak :) ), with as much beloved ones as possible. I'm not going to try to convince them, merely hope they'll draw the same conclusions I have based on the information given to me.

In the meanwhile, is there any way for us to help you pay your rent, other than buying the DVD (I want to help YOU, not the people that made the DVD). I hope you can find a way to get in touch with me.

Best, and all the love you deserve,

Steven, The Netherlands

MCR said...

For STEVEN -- Yes, I still need some help as I won't see any income from film or book for months. You can go to Paypal and enter mcrfinaid@gmail.com. It would be greatly appreciated.

And thank you so much for your message. I am open to receiving all the love that is sent... in deep gratitude.

MCR

Unknown said...

Kamilov, careful what you wish for. Law and Order exist in a balance with personal freedom, and as <a href="http://www.monbiot.com/archives/2009/12/14/this-is-about-us/?utm_source=feed”> George Monbiot recently wrote </a>

“The [Copenhagen] summit’s premise is that the age of heroism is over. We have entered the age of accomodation. No longer may we live without restraint. No longer may we swing our fists regardless of whose nose might be in the way. In everything we do we must now be mindful of the lives of others, cautious, constrained, meticulous. We may no longer live in the moment, as if there were no tomorrow.”

Our freedom must be restrained. Gasp. Will Americans go willingly to a constrained world in which their whims are definitely not attainable? What must be will be. And this suggests authoritarianism.

And yet ... and yet ... we still have choices to make. Cooperation and restraint are necessary, but we can go voluntarily, with adequate foresight and a sense of common purpose, and perhaps avoid worst-case dictatorship. 21st century Americans are not early 20th century Russians, after all. Those people were used to authoritarian government and were facing a known enemy dedicated to the eradication of what joys and options they possessed. So the dictator was an easy road to follow.

Americans are used to voluntary association. We need to encourage this tendency by consciously making as many intelligent, voluntary adjustments as possible. We are already seeing victory gardens, local currency, CSAs, transition towns and similar projects making good headway. Because time is so short, the crying need is for accelleration.

Those who will not do what is necessary, when they have the chance, will be sorted out by necessity when the time arrives. We do have choices to make, still. And work to do.

Jeff said...

The news this week is almost impossible to keep up with,I think the gas that was on the pavement just got a match thrown on it.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/6819136/Gulf-petro-powers-to-launch-currency-in-latest-threat-to-dollar-hegemony.html

F.Kamilov said...

Eyeballs, my outlook on the future of humanity isn't at all pessimistic! Infact, I believe that our future is a glorious and shining singularity, a lot like Utopians and New Agers do. And it is nearby. But there are some seamy things that will be unavoidable before that - and also needed to enable it: a transitory totalitarian/"Fascist" phase of world governance is inevitable - lasting for one or two generations; this will, as I see, be a benevolent dictatorship of enlightened purpose to reform and reeducate. It will be needed to clear up and rectify a lot of what is preventing Humankind's proper future. Then it will go to its grave. But we need SPIRITUAL AND CULTURAL transformation before that is possible.

I'm sorry to say that the future which I see for America is very bleak, if at all there is one. Disappointing, considering all the promise only it had - and which it has squandered. And I don't mean any possible political disintegration or seccesionism, but total physical destruction and obliteration. That is because your governments aren't intent on backing down from their criminal rape of the rest of the globe and their support of the rulers in other societies who rob them for a living (like Pakistan); and your people prefer a "freedom" that is very farfetched and dependent on a surfeit of resources being available. Even before the discovery of oil and all that it brought civilisation, the huge, virgin American West gave the European pioneers and settlers the same heady feeling of "freedom" and immense power to be exploited and had, even though most were very religious, and were very abiding by the laws that they made for themselves. But things are not the same anymore. Your country can't even return to its blissful pre-1945 isolationism - a huge, content continent, all within itself. Not now. The only things your people are interested in is retaining their "dream" of a lifestyle and its creature comforts together with its unreasonable "freedoms", which are otherwise impossible and unsustainable - a fact which even diehard Americans like MCR have proven and acknowledged. They care naught for little else. If your freedoms were something normal to humanity, we would be having them too - all over.

Sebastian Ronin: Yes, Joe did say that - but in what context and for what reason? And lots of truths are unpalatable.

Agape: No, I don't really think that Chernobyl was an attempt by the Soviet TPTB at reducing their population! It was simply a nasty nuclear accident, that is all. If this were to be a method of population control, it would be very gruesome, messy and inconvenient. Think of something better!

gamedog said...

Sebastian, can you explain this apparent paradox in your mission statement?

3./ the rise of the North American White Nationalist Movement as the historically positioned and privileged social demographic to initiate, develop and carry to victory the North American Secessionist Movement.

DISCLAIMER: Please note: This group is not racist

I must admit, all the time I've been reading your secessionist posts, I never associated it with "white supremacists". I must have been way off assuming it was a freedom movement, akin to "freemen on the land" as offered by Mary Elizabeth Croft, or the Canadians Robert Menard, Winston Shrout.

Cheers

Gustav said...

New GEAB is available:

Spring 2010 – A new tipping point of the global systemic crisis: When the slip knot around public deficits is going to strangle Western states and their social security systems

To all on this blog, including the creators: - I AM GOING CRAZY, trying to get a DVD of CoLLapse online.

I am now willing to send money in an envelope to one of you guys, so you can send me back the damn thing! I need to see it, but more importantly, I need to show it to my loved ones! ASAP!

Can/will anyone here help me?

If anyone of you has allready bought the copy online, can you PLEEEEEEASE send me the link or post it here on this blog.

I love you all, and I apreciate the work MCR and JO hav done, - BUT I AM STILL GOING CRAZY!!!

...

Well, crazier, at least :)


Namaste.
Gustav,
Slovenia

bartonbythesea said...

Has anyone seen this floating around?

Rice Farmer?

http://www.infowars.com/fox-news-covers-mass-drugging-of-society-with-lithium/

RanD said...

These words came together with the words of (in alphabetical order) Agape Wins', eyeball's, F.Kamilov's, and Hotspringswizard's recent posts in mind. Here's hoping our FTW family in general will enjoy them.

RanD's Source of Words - #22

Ruthie and I (David) see ourselves foremost as members of life, itself, not merely as residents of planet Earth who are citizens of the USA living in so-&-so state & county nearest to whatever city(ies). Thus our religion is life, itself. From this perspective we are open to using the whole of existence -- and therefore literally every thing it contains -- as source of our knowledge and our words thereof. This (as we've previously pointed out) logically makes the whole of existence our "God", which God we love, worship, and draw from with utter abandon.

Adopting this stance has made it evident to us that everyone else -- in principle -- also approaches, enters, and interacts with existence in exactly this same way (despite whether anyone else realizes this is so). Thus, all that might separate RanD from others in this regard is merely that R & D fully consciously have it in mind that this is the way it is, in principle, for us all -- wherever one lives, whatever one's sex, or age, general situation and corresponding perception of reality notwithstanding.

During the course of seeing things this way we've also learned that one who does not expand one's mind/consciousness to recognize oneself as an integral if infinitesimal component of the whole of existence, specifically, cannot but at best semi-consciously live in and interact with a world which is no greater or better or more accessible than the one constituted by one's otherwise decidedly self-constrained sphere of options. So then, from this it is fair to say that R & D never stop analyzing and never willfully close our minds (except perhaps to some extent when sleeping, and even then regularly find our minds operating as free agents self-producing informational imagery linked to waking life) to whatever our lives present us with.

Consequently, being fully consciously willing to accept openness to understand all of which the human mind is capable of being aware has evinced to us exactly why & how the only real threats to our otherwise ever better well-being are those things which we would close our minds to. And that realization has affirmed to us precisely both why & how "denial" is but a willfully/sillily self-imposed threat to bettering oneself!

Granted, everything of which the human mind is capable of being aware can initially seem an overwhelming volume of information to mentally deal with. And if so, what then besides closing one's mind to being "overwhelmed" or acknowledging the implications wrought of accepting that existence is not destined to soon cease existing? Reasoning and choosing are but common ingredients of everyday intelligent living.

And so it eventually does come back to the fact that, realistically speaking, all one does really need to focus on is what one perceives as being pertinent to oneself, and of course does not necessarily include trying to absorb every single grain of detail of what is no doubt the immeasurable quantity of existence's continuously rearranging mental-physical-spiritual minutia/criteria. Just the same, once gained, it is near impossible to ignore the paramount realization that we humans indeed are integral, if ridiculously minute, components of this all-encompassing whole of existence from which we're continuously being produced, maintained, and sustained to do exactly what we're doing.

Forthcoming: The Goodies of Good Words - #23

Unknown said...

Kamilov, I don't know if you've spent much time in America, but it's far more diverse than you acknowledge. True, we have a vast bulk of media-hypnotized consumers who are variously armed with pop-guns, beleiving in all kinds of simplistic racial and religious dogma, obese, addicted to various things... BUT ... we also have quite a great deal of critical thinking, many people who understand and live with nature (in the sense of forests, organic farms, the sea) and a lot of cooperative spirit in spite of our individualism.

The main problem, as I see it, is that these characteristics are all mixed up in people: Mormons with good disaster preparedness, obese PhD researchers, and good-hearted, cooperative people who are sadly impoverished. America's collective task is to face its own demise as a nation, gather together the best of what we have, and suppress our tendencies toward whimsical destruction of our own and each other's opportunities.

The human-per-acre ratio is very good in America, and not everything has been destroyed. This is also true of Canada and Mexico. Only mass immigration that increased the North American population by say, 200%, could really constrain future progress.

The dynamo age of American gluttony, based as it was on the exploitation of non-renewable resources in North America and abroad, is definitely over. But a liveable society can be sustained at a much less energy-intensive level, and I agree that this will be a positive, rather than negative development. If we who see the need fulfill it, that is.

The American Empire cannot last, but the complex of opportunity available on the N. American continent is unlikely to be lost. And many positive elements of American society, of which you may not be aware, will likely make the future of human Life on that continent worthwhile. I suspect this will be true in Russia as well, and possibly throughout South America and much of Asia. Maybe even Africa.

Up to us, I guess.

Unknown said...

BartonByTheSea:

Lithium is a rare mineral, located almost entirely in the Andes Mountains. It is currently the best hope for improved storage of electricity by solar and wind generators. Therefore, I do not believe mass addition to the human bloodstream would be considered prudent, even if T(evil)PTB could overcome public outrage.

Sebastian Ernst Ronin said...

gamedog, Hitler worship, 14-88 salutations, etc. belong in the realm of juvenile political wet dreams. Fortunately, they are such a fringe that the possible damage to be done to the New Right (and even there we have clashes) is fairly easily contained, though by no means guaranteed. Let's face it, Nazi uniform drag queens/cross dressers are not exactly about to make an impression on the contemporary political psyche. However, they can be put to very good use by adversaries.

Your automatic, knee-jerk claim of “racism” misses the mark, as it does all too frequently with liberals. Standing up in defence of one’s race need not imply so much as a single iota of hatred. The lunatic fringe, as noted above, comes with the turf. If you are not of the opinion/perception that the Occident is facing racial genocide, then I would simply suggest that you have not yet probed deeply enough into geopolitical meta-layers and sub-layers. State-sanctioned political correctness and multiculturalism constitute a type of psychological AIDS. Occidental Nationalism probes the spirit, the core, the essence. It probes deeper than the surface colour of one's skin. Although the latter is important, it is merely the visible tip of the iceberg. Until such time as the spirit is set free, how is it possible for the body to follow?

It's a wild, wild world out there in the cosmos of realpolitik. It is quite easy to get lost inside the maze of questioning and determining who is playing whom and to whose benefit/advantage. The same challenge applies equally to the Peak Oil Movement and to the NAmerican Secessionist Movement. With the addition of the Occidental Nationalist Movement, the triad is complete. (Note, as the Peak Oil Movement has no real political identity or strategy, it has been folded into and under the latter two.)

BTW, FYI the Mission Statement has undergone some re-writes.

http://www.facebook.com/#/group.php?gid=109346073811