"Life is hard? True - but let's love it anyhow,
though it breaks every bone in our bodies."
- Edward Abbey
"When I hear somebody sigh, "Life is hard,"
I am always tempted to ask, "Compared to what?"
- Sydney Harris
So, we rise from the rubble...
Sunday, April 14, 2024
"The Sociopath Next Door"
"The Sociopath Next Door"
by Martha Stout
"Imagine - if you can - not having a conscience, none at all, no feelings of guilt or remorse no matter what you do, no limiting sense of concern for the well-being of strangers, friends, or even family members. Imagine no struggles with shame, not a single one in your whole life, no matter what kind of selfish, lazy, harmful, or immoral action you had taken. And pretend that the concept of responsibility is unknown to you, except as a burden others seem to accept without question, like gullible fools.
Now add to this strange fantasy the ability to conceal from other people that your psychological makeup is radically different from theirs. Since everyone simply assumes that conscience is universal among human beings, hiding the fact that you are conscience-free is nearly effortless. You are not held back from any of your desires by guilt or shame, and you are never confronted by others for your cold-bloodedness. The ice water in your veins is so bizarre, so completely outside of their personal experience, that they seldom even guess at your condition. In other words, you are completely free of internal restraints, and your unhampered liberty to do just as you please, with no pangs of conscience, is conveniently invisible to the world.
You can do anything at all, and still your strange advantage over the majority of people, who are kept in line by their consciences will most likely remain undiscovered. How will you live your life? What will you do with your huge and secret advantage, and with the corresponding handicap of other people (conscience)? The answer will depend largely on just what your desires happen to be, because people are not all the same. Even the profoundly unscrupulous are not all the same. Some people - whether they have a conscience or not - favor the ease of inertia, while others are filled with dreams and wild ambitions. Some human beings are brilliant and talented, some are dull-witted, and most, conscience or not, are somewhere in between. There are violent people and nonviolent ones, individuals who are motivated by blood lust and those who have no such appetites. Provided you are not forcibly stopped, you can do anything at all.
Maybe you are someone who craves money and power, and though you have no vestige of conscience, you do have a magnificent IQ. You have the driving nature and the intellectual capacity to pursue tremendous wealth and influence, and you are in no way moved by the nagging voice of conscience that prevents other people from doing everything and anything they have to do to succeed. You choose business, politics, the law, banking or international development, or any of a broad array of other power professions, and you pursue your career with a cold passion that tolerates none of the usual moral or legal encumbrances. When it is expedient, you doctor the accounting and shred the evidence, you stab your employees and your clients (or your constituency) in the back, marry for money, tell lethal premeditated lies to people who trust you, attempt to ruin colleagues who are powerful or eloquent, and simply steamroll over groups who are dependent and voiceless. And all of this you do with the exquisite freedom that results from having no conscience whatsoever.
You become unimaginably, unassailably, and maybe even globally successful. Why not? With your big brain, and no conscience to rein in your schemes, you can do anything at all. If you are born at the right time, with some access to family fortune, and you have a special talent for whipping up other people's hatred and sense of deprivation, you can arrange to kill large numbers of unsuspecting people. With enough money, you can accomplish this from far away, and you can sit back safely and watch in satisfaction. Crazy and frightening - and real, in about 6 percent of the population.
The high incidence of sociopathy in human society has a profound effect on the rest of us who must live on this planet, too, even those of us who have not been clinically traumatized. The individuals who constitute this 6 percent drain our relationships, our bank accounts, our accomplishments, our self-esteem, our very peace on earth.
Yet surprisingly, many people know nothing about this disorder, or if they do, they think only in terms of violent psychopathy - murderers, serial killers, mass murderers - people who have conspicuously broken the law many times over, and who, if caught, will be imprisoned, maybe even put to death by our legal system. We are not commonly aware of, nor do we usually identify, the larger number of nonviolent sociopaths among us, people who often are not blatant lawbreakers, and against whom our formal legal system provides little defense.
Most of us would not imagine any correspondence between conceiving an ethnic genocide and, say, guiltlessly lying to one's boss about a coworker. But the psychological correspondence is not only there; it is chilling. Simple and profound, the link is the absence of the inner mechanism that beats up on us, emotionally speaking, when we make a choice we view as immoral, unethical, neglectful, or selfish. Most of us feel mildly guilty if we eat the last piece of cake in the kitchen, let alone what we would feel if we intentionally and methodically set about to hurt another person. Those who have no conscience at all are a group unto themselves, whether they be homicidal tyrants or merely ruthless social snipers.
The presence or absence of conscience is a deep human division, arguably more significant than intelligence, race, or even gender. What differentiates a sociopath who lives off the labors of others from one who occasionally robs convenience stores, or from one who is a contemporary robber baron - or what makes the difference between an ordinary bully and a sociopathic murderer - is nothing more than social status, drive, intellect, blood lust, or simple opportunity. What distinguishes all of these people from the rest of us is an utterly empty hole in the psyche, where there should be the most evolved of all humanizing functions."
o
The Poet: William Stafford, "You Reading This, Be Ready"
"You Reading This, Be Ready"
"Starting here, what do you want to remember?
How sunlight creeps along a shining floor?
What scent of old wood hovers, what softened
sound from outside fills the air?
Will you ever bring a better gift for the world
than the breathing respect that you carry
wherever you go right now? Are you waiting
for time to show you some better thoughts?
When you turn around, starting here, lift this
new glimpse that you found; carry into evening
all that you want from this day. This interval you spent
reading or hearing this, keep it for life.
What can anyone give you greater than now,
starting here, right in this room, when you turn around?"
- William Stafford
"Could Be Worse..."
"I'd been in hairier situations than this one. Actually, it's sort of depressing, thinking how many times I'd been in them. But if experience had taught me anything, it was this: No matter how screwed up things are, they can get a whole lot worse."
- Jim Butcher
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"Dig your way out," they said...
Travelling with Russell, "I Went to Moscow's Largest Flea Market: Izmaylovo Market"
Meanwhile, in a sane, civilized society...
Full screen recommended.
Travelling with Russell, 4/14/24
"I Went to Moscow's Largest Flea Market:
Izmaylovo Market"
"What is it like at Izmailovsky Market, Moscow's largest flea market, the site of the largest open air market in Moscow? The Izmailovsky Market is inside the walls of the Izmailovo Kremlin."
Comments here:
These are ordinary people - what do you see?
Scott Ritter, "Iran Has Shattered Israel’s Invincibility; 50 Military Sites Demobilized!"
Full screen recommended.
Scott Ritter, 4/14/24
"Iran Has Shattered Israel’s Invincibility;
50 Military Sites Demobilized!"
Comments here:
Dan, I Allegedly, "Time to Pay the Piper - Financial Ruin Ahead!"
Full screen recommended.
Dan, I Allegedly, AM 4/14/24
"Time to Pay the Piper - Financial Ruin Ahead!"
"Condominiums are a complete disaster right now. You should not buy one and if you own one, you should do everything you can to get out of it as soon as possible. You’re going to see the assessments hit in the coming year that no one will be able to afford. We break it down today."
Comments here:
Adventures with Danno, "Quaker Closing Facility In Illinois! More Job Losses!"
Adventures with Danno, AM 4/14/24
"Quaker Closing Facility In Illinois!
More Job Losses! We're In Trouble!"
"Quaker is closing its doors in Danville Illinois after a massive recall has completely devastated the facility. Job losses continue to rise in early 2024 as this is yet another major blow to the economy!"
Comments here:
Greg Hunter, "Government & Media Pretending Massive Health Crisis Not Going On"
"Government & Media Pretending
Massive Health Crisis Not Going On"
by Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com
"Former Wall Street money manager Ed Dowd is still a skillful number cruncher. His recently updated and wildly popular book “Cause Unknown: The Epidemic of Sudden Deaths in 2021, 2022 and 2023” has been correctly documenting the huge numbers of deaths and injuries caused by the CV19 bioweapon vax. Many are waking up to this crime against humanity, but many remain in the dark because the government and Lying Legacy Media (LLM) continue to cover up the worst murder and disability fraud in world history. Dowd says, “At this point, it’s overwhelming and has become almost comical. This is asymmetric information. So, we have governments and media continuing to pretend a massive health crisis with chronic illness, deaths and disabilities is not going on. The data would suggest otherwise. The data we have made public is free, but some people want projections and decision-making ideas. These are things we might end up starting a business from. I would have never thought we could. This is what asymmetric information does, and the government and the media are suppressing this information.”
A quick look at the overall casualties from the CV19 vax reveal an unparalleled medical disaster. Dowd explains, “I went before Senator Ron Johnson in February to talk about the ‘pandemic scorecard,’ which is abysmal. Ever since the CV19 vaccine came on, we have had 1.1 million Americans die excessively, 4 million permanently disabled and another 28 million injured. It’s 33 million people who have been negatively affected now. The question you have to ask is why are these institutions not screaming from the rooftops? I think the reason why is, it’s all because of the (deadly) vaccine. It’s all circular, and I think it’s a joke at this point.”
Is the worst over? The short answer from Dowd is no. Dowd contends, “Let’s just look at the disability data. We surged to a new high in June of 2023. We have not gone to a new high since. It kind of backfilled a little bit, but the last two months we have seen back-to-back increases. This is a called a plateauing effect. If it was all clear, I would like to see that number come down. Unfortunately, it’s not. It can start to go back down, or it can have another consolidation and another spurt upward. The bad news is it is plateauing at a new high level. The good news is it has not gone up to a new level, but if it does, we have problems.”
One big problem Dowd has spotted is an explosion of cancers and, yes, you cannot get the truth about this either. Dowd says, “The fact that people will not even say that cancers are on the rise is pretty comical to me. Doctors were reporting it anecdotally, and now we have the data to prove it. This is where we are. In 2022, I said that ‘60,000 millennials died excessively between March of 2021 and February of 2022. That was a Vietnam War.’ That tweet went viral, and Reuters and AP fact checked me and said no, our experts say that’s not true. Now, even the establishment is saying there is excessive all-cause mortality. So, we are now in a stage where cancers are not rising. They are now denying that. The lies are just unreal.” There is much more in the 36-minute interview.
Join Greg Hunter on Rumble as he goes One-on-One with money manager and investment expert Ed Dowd, author of the recently updated book called “Cause Unknown: The Epidemic of Sudden Deaths in 2021, 2022 and 2023”.
Saturday, April 13, 2024
"Biggest Attack on Israel in History: 5 Countries With Thousands of Drones and Ballistic Missiles"
Full screen recommended.
Richard Medhurst, 4/13/24
"Biggest Attack on Israel in History:
5 Countries With Thousands of Drones and Ballistic Missiles"
"British journalist Richard Medhurst reports on the Iranian response to Israel's bombing of the Iranian embassy in Damascus on April 1. This violation of the Vienna Convention (1961 and 1963) went unanswered until today on April 14 The world has watched anxiously in anticipation of Iran's response. Now Iran fires a volley of drones and missiles at Israel, accompanied by an orchestra of similar calibers out of Lebanon, Syria, Yemen and Iraq."
Comments here:
Stipendium peccati mors est, Israel. So be it...
"Prelude To WW III: Israel and Iran At War"
Full screen recommended.
Canadian Prepper, 4/13/24
"Emergency! Iran Destroys Israeli Airbase,
Massive Escalation; Dimona Alert!"
Comments here:
o
Jeremiah Babe, 4/13/24
"Pray For The World, We May Not Come Back;
Brace For WW 3"
Comments here:
o
Full screen recommended.
The Enforcer, 4/13/24
"Iran Launches Attack On Israel, War Declared!"
"The Islamic Republic of Iran is currently conducting a mass missile and drone attack on the State of Israel, with hundreds of Shahed drones, and hundreds of medium range ballistic missiles being fired. Israel, the US, and the UK, have scrambled their air forces to prepare to shoot down the incoming attack. The Israeli doomsday airplane has taken off from it's airbase in Southern Israel, and the Israeli Government has promised mass attacks in return. We will continue to cover more updates as they come in live on air."
Comments here:
o
Full screen recommended.
Canadian Prepper, 4/13/24
"Red Alert! Netanyahu In Nuclear Bunker;
Airspace Closed; Martial Law; Cyberattacks"
Comments here:
o
Full screen recommended.
Richard Medhurst, 4/13/24
"Iran Strikes Israel With Hundreds of Drones and Missiles"
"British journalist Richard Medhurst reports on the Iranian response to Israel's bombing of the Iranian embassy in Damascus on April 1. This violation of the Vienna Convention (1961 and 1963) went unanswered until today on April 14 The world has watched anxiously in anticipation of Iran's response. Now Iran fires a volley of drones and missiles at Israel, accompanied by an orchestra of similar calibers out of Lebanon, Syria, Yemen and Iraq."
Comments here:
"Walmart Faces Multiple Store Closings As The Retail Apocalypse Aggravates"
Full screen recommended.
Epic Economist, 4/13/24
"Walmart Faces Multiple Store Closings
As The Retail Apocalypse Aggravates"
"Things are going downhill, and they're going downhill fast. Walmart is the biggest supermarket in the United States. According to the official tracking metrics of Walmart's income levels, the annual revenue of this superstore chain is just over 611 billion dollars. So why is Walmart closing its stores? Walmart is facing multiple closures and besides the stores Walmart closed in 2023, a dozen more stores had been considered one of the few lifelines for many communities across the United States.
They are actually beginning to close these lifelines. Patriots, it's time to stock up and buckle down. We, the American People, have been thrown under the bus, stepped on by our elected representatives, and sold out. We're about to face a retail apocalypse like we've never seen before, so get ready."
Comments here:
Musical Interlude: Procol Harum, "A Whiter Shade of Pale"
Full screen recommended.
Procol Harum, "A Whiter Shade of Pale"
Procol Harum performing "A Whiter Shade of Pale"
with the Danish National Concert Orchestra and choir at
Ledreborg Castle, Denmark in August 2006.
"A Look to the Heavens, With Chet Raymo"
“Reaching For The Stars”
by Chet Raymo
“Here is a spectacular detail of the Eagle Nebula, a gassy star-forming region of the Milky Way Galaxy, about 7,000 light-years away. The Eagle lies in the equatorial constellation Serpens. If you went out tonight and looked at this part of the sky – more or less midway between Arcturus and Antares – you might see nothing at all. The brightest star in Serpens is of the third magnitude, perhaps invisible in an urban environment. No part of the Eagle Nebula is available to unaided human vision. How big is the nebula in the sky? Hold a pinhead at arm’s length and it would just about cover the spire. I like to think about things not mentioned in the APOD descriptions.
If the Sun were at the bottom of the spire, Alpha centauri, our nearest stellar neighbor, would be about halfway up the column. Sirius, the brightest star in Earth’s sky, would be near the top. Let’s say you sent out a spacecraft from the bottom of the spire that travelled at the speed of the two Voyager craft that are now traversing the outer reaches of the Solar System. It would take more than 200,000 years to reach the top of the spire.
The Hubble Space Telescope cost a lot of money to build, deploy, and operate. It has done a lot of good science. But perhaps the biggest return on the investment is to turn on ordinary folks like you and me to the scale and complexity of the universe. The human brain evolved, biologically and culturally, in a universe conceived on the human scale. We resided at its center. The stars were just up there on the dome of night. The Sun and Moon attended our desires. “All the world’s a stage,” wrote Shakespeare, and he meant it literally; the cosmos was designed by a benevolent creator as a stage for the human drama. All of that has gone by the board. Now we can travel in our imagination for 200,000 years along a spire of glowing, star-birthing gas that is only the tiniest fragment of a nebula that is only the tiniest fragment of a galaxy that is but one of hundreds of billions of galaxies we can potentially see with our telescopes.
Most of us still live psychologically in the universe of Dante and Shakespeare. The biggest intellectual challenge of our times is how to bring our brains up to speed. How to shake our imaginations out of the slumber of centuries. How to learn to live purposefully in a universe that is apparently indifferent to the human drama. How to stretch the human story to match the light-years.”
The Poet: John O’Donohue, “In These Times”
“In These Times”
“In these times when anger
Is turned into anxiety,
And someone has stolen
The horizons and mountains,
Our small emperors on parade
Never expect our indifference
To disturb their nakedness.
They keep their heads down,
And their eyes gleam with reflection
From aluminum economic ground,
The media wraps everything
In a cellophane of sound,
And the ghost surface of the virtual
Overlays the breathing earth.
The industry of distraction
Makes us forget
That we live in a universe.
We have become converts
To the religion of stress
And its deity of progress;
That we may have courage
To turn aside from it all
And come to kneel down before the poor,
To discover what we must do,
How to turn anxiety
Back into anger,
How to find our way home.”
~ John O’Donohue,
from “To Bless the Space Between Us”
○
“Do not lose heart. We were made for these times.”
– Clarissa Pinkola Estes
"What Keeps You Going..."
“What keeps you going isn’t some fine destination but just the road you’re on, and the fact that you know how to drive. You keep your eyes open, you see this damned-to-hell world you got born into, and you ask yourself, ‘What life can I live that will let me breathe in and out and love somebody or something and not run off screaming into the woods?’”
- Barbara Kingsolver
“Neuroscience Says Listening to This Song Reduces Anxiety by Up to 65 Percent”
Full screen recommended.
“Neuroscience Says Listening to This Song
Reduces Anxiety by Up to 65 Percent”
By Melanie Curtin
“Everyone knows they need to manage their stress. When things get difficult at work, school, or in your personal life, you can use as many tips, tricks, and techniques as you can get to calm your nerves. So here’s a science-backed one: make a playlist of the 10 songs found to be the most relaxing on earth. Sound therapies have long been popular as a way of relaxing and restoring one’s health. For centuries, indigenous cultures have used music to enhance well-being and improve health conditions.
Now, neuroscientists out of the UK have specified which tunes give you the most bang for your musical buck. The study was conducted on participants who attempted to solve difficult puzzles as quickly as possible while connected to sensors. The puzzles induced a certain level of stress, and participants listened to different songs while researchers measured brain activity as well as physiological states that included heart rate, blood pressure, and rate of breathing.
According to Dr. David Lewis-Hodgson of Mindlab International, which conducted the research, the top song produced a greater state of relaxation than any other music tested to date. In fact, listening to that one song- “Weightless”- resulted in a striking 65 percent reduction in participants’ overall anxiety, and a 35 percent reduction in their usual physiological resting rates. That is remarkable.
Equally remarkable is the fact the song was actually constructed to do so. The group that created “Weightless”, Marconi Union, did so in collaboration with sound therapists. Its carefully arranged harmonies, rhythms, and bass lines help slow a listener’s heart rate, reduce blood pressure and lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol.
When it comes to lowering anxiety, the stakes couldn’t be higher. Stress either exacerbates or increases the risk of health issues like heart disease, obesity, depression, gastrointestinal problems, asthma, and more. More troubling still, a recent paper out of Harvard and Stanford found health issues from job stress alone cause more deaths than diabetes, Alzheimer’s, or influenza.
In this age of constant bombardment, the science is clear: if you want your mind and body to last, you’ve got to prioritize giving them a rest. Music is an easy way to take some of the pressure off of all the pings, dings, apps, tags, texts, emails, appointments, meetings, and deadlines that can easily spike your stress level and leave you feeling drained and anxious.
Of the top track, Dr. David Lewis-Hodgson said, “‘Weightless’ was so effective, many women became drowsy and I would advise against driving while listening to the song because it could be dangerous.” So don’t drive while listening to these, but do take advantage of them:
10. “We Can Fly,” by Rue du Soleil (Café Del Mar)
9. “Canzonetta Sull’aria,” by Mozart
8. “Someone Like You,” by Adele
7. “Pure Shores,” by All Saints
6. “Please Don’t Go,” by Barcelona
5. “Strawberry Swing,” by Coldplay
4. “Watermark,” by Enya
3. “Mellomaniac (Chill Out Mix),” by DJ Shah
2. “Electra,” by Airstream
1. “Weightless,” by Marconi Union
I made a public playlist of all of them on Spotify that runs about 50 minutes (it’s also downloadable).”
"You Finally Find What You're After..."
"When we're headed toward an outcome that's too horrible to face, that's when we go looking for a second opinion. And sometimes, the answer we get just confirms our worst fears. But sometimes, it can shed new light on the problem, make you see it in a whole new way. After all the opinions have been heard and every point of view has been considered, you finally find what you're after - the truth. But the truth isn't where it ends, that's just where you begin again with a whole new set of questions."
- "Grays Anatomy"
"Few Things..."
"If your view of the world is that people use reason for their important decisions, you are setting yourself up for a life of frustration and confusion. You’ll find yourself continually debating people and never winning except in your own mind. Few things are as destructive and limiting as a worldview that assumes people are mostly rational."
- Scott Adams
○
"And I Ask..."
"Humanity is a parade of fools,
and I am at the front of it, twirling a baton. "
- Dean Koontz
"The Great Taking"
"The Great Taking"
by Jim Quinn
“At the point where the illusion becomes too expensive to maintain they will just take down the scenery, they will pull back the curtains, they will move all the tables and chairs out of the way, and you will see the brick wall at the back of the theatre.” – Frank Zappa
Excerpt: “In the past few years, you have been living within an escalating hybrid war. Globally, we have witnessed overt media control and propaganda campaigns; censorship, including arrests of people speaking in public; monitoring of all electronic communications and physical contact tracing; brutally enforced lock-down and masking requirements, with people being beaten, handcuffed, and arrested, even in their homes; suspension of healthcare services and weakening of healthcare systems; invasive testing requirements for employment and travel; forced quarantine of travelers; and coerced quarantine and “vaccination” of the healthy, general population.
Governments dropped all pretense of democracy and were emboldened to open despotism. There were no functioning checks on this power. The courts provided no effective recourse to the public. Governments broadly abused fundamental human rights using as justification prevention of the spread of infectious diseases, which are, in truth, a great many, ever-present, and continually evolving. And so, this justification, if allowed to stand, assures the end of democracy and installation of openly despotic government.” – David Webb, "The Great Taking"
Full article here:
o
Full screen recommended.
"The Great Taking"
David Webb exposes the system Central Bankers
have in place to take everything from everyone.
Hat tip to Jim Quinn and
The Burning Platform for this material.
Adventures With Danno, "Massive Sale At Kroger"
Full screen recommended.
Adventures With Danno, AM 4/13/24
"Massive Sale At Kroger"
"My fun experience at Kroger showing off all the great deals and sharing with you all the different things I bought! As prices continue to rise, shop with me and find many ways to save a few dollars"
Comments here:
"The Wages of Perpetual Fear"
"The Wages of Perpetual Fear"
by Paul Rosenberg
I’ve gone on for a long time about fear making humans stupid, and even about it being a weapon and a brain poison. But I’ve also wondered at times whether people would hit fear-fatigue… that point where people have simply had enough and walk out from under it.
As it turns out, however, I was a bit optimistic on fear fatigue. I’ve been reading Robert Sapolsky’s newest book, "Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best And Worst", and was disappointed to learn what the best new research shows on the long-term application of fear. (Or, in the academic terminology, sustained stress.)
My disappointment, however, was soon tempered by two things: I gained information on how fear poisoning works. That human neurology is immensely variable, that there are exceptions to everything, and that if the whole picture were actually as dark as the most troubling findings, we’d have devolved into nothing but murderous monkeys long ago.
I barely need to say this, but 2024 has been The Year of Fear. I’m a bit amazed by the extent of it. There is a certain appeal to soaking up all the fear stories in normal times – our ability to look evil in the eye makes us appear vibrant – but 2024 has pushed far beyond that level. What we’re encountering is much more than simple fear porn, and there are certain outlets (including websites) that I can only describe as obscene. This is more destructive than people realize.
What Perpetual Fear Does To Us: I’m going to quote from Sapolsky, who is one of the better neuroscientists of our time. I’ll edit a bit to simplify and to remove the brain-area references, and will follow the passages with a few elaborations. “During sustained stress, we’re more fearful, our thinking is muddled, we assess risks poorly, and act impulsively out of habit, rather than incorporating new data.”
Under a long stream of fear (like scary headlines), our thinking breaks down. Let me put that very simply: You may be very bright in essence, but when you consume hours of fear every day, you become stupid. And please understand: This is biological. Your brain operations become those of a stupid person. (And yes, I’m using “stupid” very unscientifically.)
Also bear in mind that fear works. The people selling fear on TV, web pages and social media are being rewarded for it. They have become, using my terms loosely but not unfairly, drug dealers, selling damaging material that people become dependent upon. Moreover, these are professionals. Social media companies are fully aware that their business models depend upon people being addicted to them. They are careful to keep them addicted. The fears people consume, then, are coming to them from people who are cashing in from it.
“Stress weakens connections that are essential for incorporating new information that should prompt shifting to a new strategy - while strengthening connections with habitual brain circuits.” In other words, fear locks you into your habits and your previous choices. It literally diminishes the brain pathways that allow you to change your mind. This is serious, and I suspect that you’ve seen examples of this already.
“Under sustained stress we process emotionally prominent information rapidly and automatically, but less accurately. Working memory, impulse control, decision-making, risk-assessment and task shifting are impaired.” Again, prolonged fear locks people into whatever path they’re already on. And again, this is biological. The brain circuits are directly affected. Still…
From everything I’ve written above (and there are other nasty effects like domestic violence), it would appear that we are doomed; that our neighbors who’ve drunk deep from the river of fear are brain-locked, and so long as the fear stream continues (there doesn’t seem to be an end in sight), they will get more and more rigid in their biases, and that violence will continue and increase. And for some people all of the above will be true. Fear destroys in the most direct way: biologically.
Still… biology is never simple, and especially on the human level. While the things above are generally true, there are always exceptions; sometimes a lot of them. And it is those exceptions that have saved us, time after time. The wages of perpetual fear are polarized and locked minds. And that leads to knee-jerk opposition, violence and murder. We’re seeing that now and we stand to see it for some time. The world, it seems, has become addicted to fear. And yet, many of us refuse, and this is a long way from over.
There was a party in my neighborhood two days ago: Music, talking, playing, laughing and so on. It was the first joyful noise I’ve heard in public for a long time. Life finds a way, and especially human life."
The Poet: Anne Sexton, "Courage"
"Courage"
"It is in the small things we see it.
The child's first step,
as awesome as an earthquake.
The first time you rode a bike,
wallowing up the sidewalk.
The first spanking when your heart
went on a journey all alone.
When they called you crybaby
or poor or fatty or crazy
and made you into an alien,
you drank their acid
and concealed it.
Later,
if you faced the death of bombs and bullets
you did not do it with a banner,
you did it with only a hat to
cover your heart.
You did not fondle the weakness inside you
though it was there.
Your courage was a small coal
that you kept swallowing.
If your buddy saved you
and died himself in so doing,
then his courage was not courage,
it was love; love as simple as shaving soap.
Later,
if you have endured a great despair,
then you did it alone,
getting a transfusion from the fire,
picking the scabs off your heart,
then wringing it out like a sock.
Next, my kinsman, you powdered your sorrow,
you gave it a back rub
and then you covered it with a blanket
and after it had slept a while
it woke to the wings of the roses
and was transformed.
Later,
when you face old age and its natural conclusion
your courage will still be shown in the little ways,
each spring will be a sword you'll sharpen,
those you love will live in a fever of love,
and you'll bargain with the calendar
and at the last moment
when death opens the back door
you'll put on your carpet slippers
and stride out."
~ Anne Sexton
"There Is Always The Hope..."
“What happens to people living in a society where everyone in power is lying, stealing, cheating and killing, and in our hearts we all know this, but the consequences of facing all these lies are so monstrous, we keep on hoping that maybe the corporate government administration and media are on the level with us this time. Americans remind me of survivors of domestic abuse. This is always the hope that this is the very, very, very last time one’s ribs get re-broken again.”
- Inga Muscio
It won't be...
Dan, I Allegedly, "It’s Getting Bad - Now Zoos Are For Sale"
Full screen recommended.
Dan, I Allegedly, AM 4/13/24
"It’s Getting Bad - Now Zoos Are For Sale"
"Zoos for Sale: Is now the time to invest in wildlife parks? Amidst in an economic downturn, with even zoos hitting the market unique opportunity of owning Zootastic or Aloha Safari Park."
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"Israel's Catastrophic Defeat - The IDF Won't Survive a War w/ Hezbollah or Iran"
Larry C. Johnson, 4/13/24
"Israel's Catastrophic Defeat -
The IDF Won't Survive a War w/ Hezbollah or Iran"
"Larry C. Johnson is a veteran of the CIA and the State Department’s Office of Counter Terrorism. He is the founder and managing partner of BERG Associates, which was established in 1998. Larry provided training to the US Military’s Special Operations community for 24 years. He has been vilified by the right and the left, which means he must be doing something right."
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o
Full screen recommended.
Hindustan Times, 4/13/24
"'Don't F**K With Us Or Else...': Iran Threatens
U.S. Forces With Attacks Over Potential Israel War"
"Iran reportedly sent a message to the Biden administration to stay out of Iran's war with Israel. Three U.S. officials told Axios that Iran sent a message to the U.S. through several Arab nations. As per the report, Iran warned of attacks on the U.S. forces if it helps Israel against Tehran."
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