Full screen recommended.
Jeremiah Babe, 9/4/22:
"This Looks Like 2008 But Much Worse -
Most Will Lose Everything; The Everything Bubble Has Burst"
Comments here:
So, we rise from the rubble...
Sunday, September 4, 2022
"Evictions and Foreclosures are Going Full Steam Ahead"
Full screen recommended.
Dan, iAllegedly, 9/4/22:
"Evictions and Foreclosures are Going Full Steam Ahead"
"Evictions and foreclosures are growing. There are over 4 million evictions planned for the next 60 days. The foreclosures numbers are growing weekly."
Comments here:
Musical Interlude: Peder B. Helland, "Dance of Life"
Full screen recommended.
Peder B. Helland, "Dance of Life"
Fantasy music for relaxation and meditation.
Absolutely beautiful...
"A Look to the Heavens"
“Big, beautiful, barred spiral galaxy NGC 1300 lies some 70 million light-years away on the banks of the constellation Eridanus. This Hubble Space Telescope composite view of the gorgeous island universe is one of the largest Hubble images ever made of a complete galaxy.
NGC 1300 spans over 100,000 light-years and the Hubble image reveals striking details of the galaxy's dominant central bar and majestic spiral arms. In fact, on close inspection the nucleus of this classic barred spiral itself shows a remarkable region of spiral structure about 3,000 light-years across. Unlike other spiral galaxies, including our own Milky Way, NGC 1300 is not presently known to have a massive central black hole.”
- http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap120325.html
“Are People Really Stupid?”
“Are People Really Stupid?”
by Fred Russell
“On the face of things – judging from the general level of knowledge and understanding, not to mention the intellectual pursuits, of most of the human race – one is tempted to say that the overwhelming majority of mankind lacks the intellectual capacity, the intelligence, to contribute to human progress. And it is in fact a very small elite that has carried us beyond Neanderthal Man, without whom, if the truth be told, we might still be living in caves. It is, in a word, appalling to contemplate the level at which ordinary people use their minds – what they read, if at all, what they watch on TV, the movies they go out and see, and the ease with which they are seduced and manipulated by the technicians of the psyche, namely, politicians and advertisers.
The impression one gets when contemplating these tens and hundreds of millions of people glued to their TV screens for the reality shows and sitcoms or fiddling with their smartphones from morning till night is of complete empty-headedness. This is not to say that such people cannot be shrewd, resourceful, or, for that matter, simply decent. It is to say that at the average level of intelligence displayed by the human race, the great intellectual achievements of mankind seem to be beyond the scope of the vast majority of men and women. But are people really stupid? And if they aren’t, who or what has held them back?
Now one may be inclined to place all the blame for our ignorance on the television producers and gadget makers, but the truth is that by the time they get to us the damage has already been done. All they really succeed in doing is dragging us down a little further. The problem starts in childhood. It starts in the schools with all those empty cells waiting to be filled and no one, not entire educational systems, really knowing how to fill them. In fact, the opposite result is achieved. By the time the child finishes elementary school, unless he is destined to join the intellectual or scientific or economic or political elite and is self-motivated, as the saying goes, he will have developed an aversion to the learning process that will persist for the rest of his life.
It is not hard to understand why. School bores him, and oppresses him. Its premise, fostered in the West by the Church – the virtually exclusive supplier of teachers until fairly recent times, historically speaking – is that as a consequence of Original Sin all men are born evil and must therefore be coerced into doing what is good. The result has been rigidly structured frameworks where teachers hammer away at the captive child until his head is ready to explode. Within just a few years, the public school system thus destroys the natural curiosity of the child and dooms him to a life of total ignorance, dependent, for whatever sense of the world he does have, on second rate journalists, who themselves lack the knowledge, understanding, discipline and integrity to be historians or even novelists and therefore shape his perception like the ignorant clerics of the Middle Ages, raining down on his head a disjointed and superficial body of information presented largely to produce effects, and even this is beyond his capacity to retain.
The man in the street may thus be said to have a great many opinions but very little knowledge, mindlessly repeating the half-truths of “experts” and “analysts” who reflect his own biases and constructing out of them a “credo” of dogmatic views that remain embedded in his mind for an entire lifetime like bricks in a brick wall.
Does it matter? After all, we have all the scholars and scientists we need, and besides, a world where everyone became one would be a dull place indeed. It can even be argued that it is better for the race if progress is opposed, since, judging from its products, it mostly expresses itself materially and economically in an unholy alliance of greed and technology. However, progress of this kind cannot be fought if all that people have on their minds is to wire themselves into this technology, and that is what they will be doing until their minds are engaged in less frivolous pursuits. They are thus doubly victimized, first by the schools, whose methods are not attuned to the temperament and capacity of the average child, and then by the economic elites who control the technologies and consequently the flow of information and whose only interest in the man in the street is as a consumer of their products.
Unfortunately, there is very little hope that any of this will change. The wrong people control human society and will continue to do so, because they created the model and are the only ones who know how to operate it. The sad truth is that today’s man in the street is neither wiser nor more knowledgeable than a medieval peasant. Calling ourselves Homo sapiens, or even Homo sapiens sapiens, seemed like a good idea once but very few of us have lived up to the billing.”
"Vulcan Guiding Principles"
"Vulcan Guiding Principles"
by Moon
"Ideally, do no harm. Harm speeds up the heat-death of the Universe, and indirectly, your own. More practically, do as little harm as possible. We are creations of a Universe in which entropy exists, and therefore see no way of escape, but we do not need to help it.
Harm no one’s internal, invisible integrities. Leave others the privacies of their minds and lives. Intimacy remains precious only insofar as it is inviolate: invading it turns it to torment. Reach out to others courteously: accept their reaching in the same way, with careful hands.
Do not murder. The spear in the other’s heart is the spear in your own; you are he. All action has reaction: what force you inflict, inevitably returns. The murder of the other is the murder of your own joy, forever.
As far as possible, do not kill. Can you give life again to what you kill? Then be slow to take life. Take only life that will not notice you taking it. To notice one’s own death increases entropy. To die and not notice it increases it less, but still does so.
Cast out fear. Cast out hate and rage. Cast out greed and envy. Cast out all emotion that speeds entropy, whether it be love or hate. Cast out these emotions by using reason to accept them, and then move past them. Use in moderation emotions that do not speed entropy, taking all care that they do not cause others pain, for that speeds entropy as well. Master your passions, so that they become a power for the slowing of the heat-death.
Do no harm to those that harm you. Offer them peace, and offer them peace again, and do it until you die. In this manner you will have peace, one way or another, even if they kill you. And you cannot give others what you have not experienced yourself.
Learn reason above all. Learn clear thought: learn to know what is from what seems to be. This is the key to everything: the truth of reality, the reality of truth. What is will set you free.”
Surak’s concept of cthia, the guiding principle of Vulcan society, as written by Diane Duane in her novel, “Star Trek: Spock’s World.”
- http://www.moonhillproductions.com/
"A Tiny Ripple Of Hope..."
"A Tiny Ripple Of Hope..."
“Few will have the greatness to bend history itself, but each of us can work to change a small portion of events, and in the total of all those acts will be written the history of this generation. It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.”
- Robert F. Kennedy
"Time, Life, and the Roller Coaster"
"Life is truly a ride. We're all strapped in and no one can stop it. When the doctor slaps your behind, he's ripping your ticket and away you go. As you make each passage from youth to adulthood to maturity, sometimes you put your arms up and scream, sometimes you just hang on to that bar in front of you. But the ride is the thing. I think the most you can hope for at the end of life is that your hair's messed, you're out of breath, and you didn't throw up."
- Jerry Seinfeld
○
Full screen recommended.
"Time, Life, and the Roller Coaster"
Remember when you were 10 years old, and summer felt like it lasted forever? Got a little older, not so bad, still plenty of time to do everything you wanted. Someone told me back then that time speeds up the older you get. Being young, and knowing everything as the young do, I of course ridiculed this idea. But guess what - it’s true. Now I view life, and time, as a roller coaster with just one enormous riser. As you climb the beginning towards the top time is slower to pass. At 30 or so you’re at the very top, then you start the fall towards the bottom. Faster and faster you go, as time goes by ever quicker. Weeks and months flash by, and you wonder where it all went, and as you descend ever faster you suddenly realize that somewhere on the tracks below there’s a solid brick wall or some other disaster awaiting your arrival. The only things you don’t know is where on the tracks ahead of you it is, or how soon you'll arrive. So, while you still can, you'd better appreciate even more the things you can enjoy, and the people whom you love and that love you, because the ride isn’t going to last forever...
- CP
"Treacherous Times Ahead"
"Treacherous Times Ahead"
by Martin Armstrong
"I believe that the 2022 election may be the catalyst. Not all people who voted for Trump and/or are Republicans believe that the election of 2020 was rigged. I have been warning for months, that reliable sources in DC, or the Corruption District, have been planning to hand citizenship to illegal aliens before the election to rig the midterms. In addition, they were pushing to indict Trump. Either, but more likely BOTH, may be carried out. I fear this will backfire on them for there will be conservative democrats who will not be happy with handing out citizenship like candy on Halloween.
In Britain, the Indians were generally upset about letting in all the Muslims. They had to show that they not just spoke the language but had the skill set that Britain needed, primarily medical. It seems I have trouble getting in my employees in Europe, the Middle East, and India. I am told I should hire Americans, despite these people having worked for me for more than a decade.
I tell them to put on a sombrero, don’t speak any English, walk across the border, and no need for vaccines, they will hand you plenty of pocket change and free everything, including a free flight in the middle of the night. All no problem. No language or skills are necessary – just vote Democrats when they call upon you. You will get a green card and citizenship – no worries! You don’t even have to work.
Most people who read this blog already know the truth about the government. What we are missing is the majority. It is the general mask-wearing public because Lord Fauci told them what to do. It is their confidence that needs to be shaken – not stirred.
The LEFT is always ruthless. Just look at all the times in history major civil wars and revolutions have taken place. The LEFT demands no compromise and that will be their agenda. The rumor I hear is that they have resistance to granting citizenship on the Hill. That much is starting to appear in the press. In desperation, Biden will sign an executive order probably with an order of what he wants for lunch.
It would be unconstitutional for Biden to grant them citizenship by executive decree. Obama’s exec order for DACA was unconstitutional and he had no right making it – he acknowledged that fact and did it anyway fully expecting the challenge that never happened. This is the same scheme. Granting citizenship by executive order will be UNCONSTITUTIONAL, but the LEFT never cares about laws. They assumed that they will vote, and the legal challenge will take at best months, so they win because they will count on the Supreme Court not to overrule an election.
I fear that if this RUMOR became true, perhaps this is why my computer is going nuts on civil unrest and international war in 2023. So let’s pay attention to the arrays for this is our only guide. Nobody’s opinion will count much in such a treacherous time."
“Neuroscience Says Listening to This Song Reduces Anxiety by Up to 65 Percent”
“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.
Full screen highly recommended.
Of the top track, Dr. David Lewis-Hodgson said, “‘Weightless’ (above) 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).”
"Finance ‘Guru’ Reveals Financial Collapse and COVID Jab Data"
"Finance ‘Guru’ Reveals Financial
Collapse and COVID Jab Data"
by Dr. Joseph Mercola
Excerpt: "Story At-A-Glance: Edward Dowd is a hedge fund “guru” and former equity portfolio manager for the largest asset manager in the world, BlackRock. Over the past two years, Dowd has courageously come forward to awaken people to the collateral damage of the COVID pandemic.
• A global financial collapse is a mathematical certainty. Dowd predicts the collapse will begin in earnest within the next six to 24 months.
• COVID provided cover for central banks and governments, allowing them to temporarily hide the reality that the financial system is crashing.
• COVID also allowed for the erection of a control system to shield governments and central banks from the fallout from collapsing food, energy and finance systems. It allowed them to restrict travel and introduce digital IDs and central bank digital currencies by linking them together with vaccine passports.
• Insurance companies report a 40% increase in excess mortality among working-age adults during the fourth quarter of 2021. Millennials aged 25 to 44 had an 84% increase in excess mortality in that same timeframe. Since the rollout of the COVID jabs, the number of Americans who claim to be disabled has risen by at least 10%, possibly more.
In this video, I interview Edward Dowd, a hedge fund “guru” and former equity portfolio manager for BlackRock, one of the two largest asset managers in the world, Vanguard being the other. Over the past two years, Dowd has courageously come forward to awaken people to the collateral damage of the COVID pandemic."
View this complete article here:
Must View! Greg Hunter, "Global CV19 Vax Propaganda Means Mass Casualties – Dr. Pierre Kory"
"Global CV19 Vax Propaganda
Means Mass Casualties – Dr. Pierre Kory"
By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com
"World renowned CV19 critical care and pulmonary expert Dr. Pierre Kory thinks the CV19 vax is a “humanitarian catastrophe,” and it is being “ignored, suppressed and censored” through a well-organized global propaganda campaign. This propaganda will be responsible for millions of deaths that have already happened and many more millions of CV19 vax deaths in the future. Dr. Kory explains, “We have data screaming at us everywhere we look. You can start with the life insurance data, India’s data, Germany’s data, and we know people are dying at unprecedented rates. That is one thing. We know that disability is through the roof. No one has seen VAERS (Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System) with the numbers it is screaming. Now, we are seeing buried miscarriage rates and spontaneous abortion rates 70% and up to 90% in pregnant women. We are still seeing propaganda and all of these messages to get your (CV19) shot even though there is no logic to it.
Maybe people are blindly following these instructions and there is no more critical thinking or the control of the information is leading to mass casualties. This is literally a humanitarian catastrophe. We have never seen this. This is a global condition. We have a global catastrophe because the (bad) information has infected almost every country on earth. Wherever you look the data is so ominous. The myocarditis and dropping dead is incessant. It’s from every country in the world. You hear everyday reports of young people doing normal fun activities, like going to the beach or going to the park, and they are dropping dead.”
Dr. Kory is actively trying to find treatments for people harmed by the CV19 vax, but that is not the biggest problem he faces. Dr. Kory says, “People are being told things (like getting CV19 booster shots) that are putting them at grave risk. I don’t know how to combat a global technological propaganda instrument. We have never had that before. I don’t think we have ever had the same messages and the same stories being shot out 24/7. I have been saying this for a while, and the world has gone mad because of unrelenting propaganda and censorship. We have never had this much power and this much propaganda, never the same story being told to the entire globe at the same time and the same lie.”
Dr. Kory says, “Not only no more shots, but I would say we need a national cry to stop the vaccine campaign. It’s not going to start in America because this is the United States of Pharma.” This is why cheap, effective drugs such as Ivermectin are being banned here in America and around the world. Dr. Kory says, “We are at war here. You cannot have Ivermectin in the marketplace. It threatens the vaccine, Paxlovid, monoclonal-antibodies and Remdesivir. Ivermectin is a drug that is the biggest financial threat to the biggest market in pharmaceutical history.” There is much more in the 49-minute interview.
Join Greg Hunter on Rumble as he goes One-on-One with Dr. Pierre Kory, one of the top pulmonary and Covid Critical Care experts on the planet, who is co-founder of the Front Line Covid-19 Critical Care Alliance (flccc.net) and author of the upcoming book “The War on Ivermectin.”
○
Related, very highest recommendation:
○
"The Most Honest Three Minutes In Television History"
Full screen recommended.
Strong Language Alert!
"The Most Honest Three Minutes In Television History"
Why America is NOT the greatest country in the world, anymore.
From the 2012 tv show "The Newsroom." 10 years later
it's much, much worse, as you well know, don't you?
"Prep Your Pantry, Stock Up Now! Not Good! What's Coming? Food Shortages!"
Adventures with Danno, 9/4/22:
"Prep Your Pantry, Stock Up Now! Not Good!
What's Coming? Food Shortages!"
"In today's vlog we are stocking up the pantry as prices on groceries are going up all around the country. We will discuss some ways to save money as we stock up for the future! It's getting rough out here as stores seem to be struggling with getting products!"
Comments here:
Saturday, September 3, 2022
Canadian Prepper, "I Can't Believe it's Happening..."
Canadian Prepper, 9/3/22:
"I Can't Believe it's Happening..."
Riots are starting, civil unrest, the next Manhattan project is underway in USA, Nuclear deal failing will have global implications, Russia's Medvedev issues most dire warning to date, China responds to sale of $1.1 billions in arms sales, War is coming to Taiwan strait sooner than expected, smart meter AC remote regulation, 39 million under heat advisory, droughts ravage every continent, Europe braces for winter of rage, steel plants closing due to energy hyperinflation, quantum supercomputing arms race, nuclear power plant goes offline, climate chaos, Russia suspends ALL gas to Europe, and thats only the half of it! BUCKLE UP!"
Comments here:
"Get Your Money Out Of The Bank Before They Take It; Credit Card Rates Explode; FED Destroying Money"
Jeremiah Babe, 9/3/22:
"Get Your Money Out Of The Bank Before They Take It;
Credit Card Rates Explode; FED Destroying Money"
Comments here:
"U.S. Inflation And The Hard Times That Are Coming"
"U.S. Inflation And The Hard Times That Are Coming"
by ConspiracyForever
"Inflation is a monetary phenomenon of too much money chasing too few goods. It’s the result of the Wall Street owned and operated Federal Reserve’s money printing madness. Since the 2008 financial crisis, trillions of dollars pumped up stock prices to the make super-rich and rich interests throughout the West and elsewhere richer than ever. Since the 2008 financial crisis, trillions of dollars pumped up stock prices to the make super-rich and rich interests throughout the West and elsewhere richer than ever. Corporate bosses also used Fed created money for large-scale stock buybacks to elevate their valuations.
Since Russia’s liberating SMO began, hegemon USA-dominated Western regimes exacerbated things by imposing unparalleled numbers of sanctions on the Russia Federation. While adversely affecting its economy, European nations were more greatly harmed. US policymakers didn’t consider how largely self-sufficient Russia is able to withstand the impact of Western sanctions.
Besides seeking to cause maximum harm to its enterprises and people, the Biden regime wants European economies adversely affected to benefit corporate America. That’s how predatory capitalism works, exploiting other nations and vast majority of people everywhere to benefit the privileged few.
The latest US CPI showed inflation to be higher than expected. It’s not the phony year-over-year 9.1% reported on July 13. As calculated pre-1990 before the formula was rigged to appear much lower than reality, it’s around 17.3% - the highest level in over 75 years, what’s unlikely to ease any time soon.
It’s not “Putin’s price hike” as the fake Biden and those propping up his illegitimacy falsely claim. Inflation has nothing to do with Russia’s liberating SMO. As establishment economist Milton Friedman explained long ago: “Inflation is always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon, in the sense that it is and can be produced only by a more rapid increase in the quantity of money than in output.”
And this from Friedman: “If you listen to people in Washington, (they’ll) tell you that inflation is produced by greedy businessmen, or it’s produced by grasping unions, or it’s produced by spendthrift consumers, or maybe, it’s those terrible Arab sheikhs who are producing it. None of (the above) produce inflation” because they don’t have a money-producing printing press like the Fed."
As long as there’s most money printed than things to buy, prices are pressured to rise. The way to cool inflation is by slowing the rate of money creation. Things have gotten so out-of-control in the US, UK and EU that most likely a stiff protracted economic downturn alone can get inflation under control.
According to analyst Doug Casey, annual US deficits are from one to two trillion. The only way to finance them is by selling excess debt to the Fed. And the only way it can do it is by continued money printing in amounts needed. The Fed is the only major buyer of US debt - notably since the Biden regime confiscated around $330 billion of the amount held by Russia.
The handwriting on the wall should have been apparent much earlier earlier. Nations concerned about being treated like Russia and others thinking they may be targeted one day are selling US debt, not buying it. When the Fed buys government debt, “it monetizes (it) by crediting the federal government’s accounts with commercial banks with newly created dollars,” Casey explained. Currency inflation pushes prices higher.
The fault is home-grown. When it occurs, currency depreciation is economically devastating. The rich can handle adverse economic and financial conditions. Ordinary people are harmed most.
Fed chairman and Treasury secretary Yellen are wrong. Current US inflation isn’t “transitory.” It’s deep-seated and not easing any time soon. Casey believes it became “a permanent structure.” “The state needs…massive (amounts of money creation) and credit to feed itself and its minions.”
Deep-seated inflation isn’t going away easily or soon in the US, UK or EU. Hard times getting harder will be the bane of ordinary people throughout the US/West for some time to come."
"Sometimes I Wish I Had A Car"
Full screen recommended.
St.Petersburg - Me, 9/3/22:
"Sometimes I Wish I Had A Car"
"A week ago I had to go to my bank and as usual I was using public transport. I don't have a car, so I often use busses or mini busses. And of course I use metro very much. Metro is the most convenient means of transport, especially if you live in the city center. However there is a problem. I don't have metro in my area."
Watch that video and then compare it with what you see where you live and experience daily. This is reality, it's not staged, this is their life. Look at the streets and buildings; look at the people, what they wear, their physical appearance, activity; the cars and trucks; the public transport, the cleanliness and order. What's it like where you live, Good Citizen? And what do you think of those people? Then look at this...
Full screen, if you dare...
Anything to say? Feeling proud?
- CP
"Banks Are Not Releasing Deeds to Paid Off Mortgages"
Full screen recommended.
Dan, iAllegedly, 9/3/22:
"Banks Are Not Releasing Deeds to Paid Off Mortgages"
"This is a sign of the times. Banks are taking your money for mortgage payments and when you are lucky enough to pay off your mortgage they are not giving you the deed. We are seeing this from one of the four major banks. Are the big banks in trouble?"
Comments here:
"Curveballs..."
"Just when we think we figured things out, the universe throws us a curveball. So, we have to improvise. We find happiness in unexpected places. We find ourselves back to the things that matter the most. The universe is funny that way. Sometimes it just has a way of making sure we wind up exactly where we belong."
- "Dr. Meredith Grey", "Grey's Anatomy"
"The Deadly Gaze in the U.S"
"The Deadly Gaze in the U.S"
by Mark Sashine
"The cat then hugged the mouse and purred, 'I love you to death.'"
- Old Turkish saying.
"Several years ago in one of my articles I wrote that the U.S. behaved toward Iraq like a rapist who, after raping a woman, tells her to clean herself because of her disgusting appearance. I was expecting a barrage of comments, but, instead, I got silence. In the U.S., however, silence doesn't mean assent; it means a deliberate ignoring.
In my research to understand that pattern of brain passivity, I several times stated my perceptions directly into the faces of my fellow Americans. Whenever I did that, the reaction was the same. The person would look sideways and say nothing. I tried to catch that frozen gaze on the person's face, and, when I managed to do that, I recognized it as a gaze I hadn't seen for a very long time. It was the gaze of a bully from my childhood. You can sometimes notice such a gaze in dogs. It is the deadly gaze.
The Boy With the Deadly Gaze: He was transferred to our school when we were in the 5th grade, so most of us were about twelve at the time. That was the age when a teenager "grows out of his uniform," as one teacher said. Of course, in Russia at the time, we didn't have cell phones or the Internet; we didn't even have good clothes. Most of us wore uniforms: greenish-gray pants and jackets for boys, white blouses and brown skirts for girls. We were the "young pioneers," and each of us had a triangular red tie, symbolizing equality, fraternity and liberty, as well as the sacrificial blood of the martyrs of the Revolution. The strict collective code of honor included studying hard, helping other people to learn, helping the weak, and respecting society by behaving properly. At the same time, every teenager of our time lived most of his or her life on the beat, and we learned the unwritten "street rules' by experience. As an overweight kid, I had a tough time.
No matter what happened between us kids, the worst possible thing you could do was to rat on your peers to adults. We had our rules, though: It was a shame for a boy to hit a girl and for a girl to instigate a fight. It was a shame to hurt someone weaker than yourself, unless that someone had asked for it. And it was a shame to tease old people and to torture animals. Not that we were perfect: We smoked, drank (sometimes with tough health consequences), stole things, fought ferociously and cruelly, cheated on homework and exams, lied repeatedly, and disturbed the peace. But I could say we were honorable. The bully wasn't, however. We saw this from the start.
He was a tall, lanky, blondish boy with a strange, sticky voice. When he talked, it seemed the words came out of him in slow-motion. We noticed his voice first, because it was full of sh*t. He used profanity as a primary way of communication. It was kind of like the way movie characters talk these days. We all used bad words, but coming from him they sounded exceptionally dirty. He had two followers who looked very much like him, though not as repulsive, and this unholy triad roamed the school hallways and nearby streets night and day. Nobody knew where he lived; it seemed as if he could appear and disappear at will. You could go out for groceries and bump into him. He would then perform his ritual of pretending to be your friend, pawing you, especially if you were a girl, then complaining that you didn't appreciate him, so he had to hurt you for your own good. All that would usually end with some really dirty thing, like throwing your groceries on the pavement and stomping on them, throwing stones at your pet, or lighting a match near a girl's skirt so that it created a huge hole in the only uniform she had - etc, etc.
While his goons laughed their ears off, he never laughed. Instead, his frozen smirk seemed to become more like a mask and his expressionless gaze would get uglier than ever. Sometimes he would force a kid to do something dirty to others; he called it a coalition. That wouldn't last for long, however, because you could never satisfy his perverse appetites. Eventually, he would discard his temporary allies and hurt them even more. At that time, I didn't know about moronic evil, or such terms as "sadism." If had known about them, I would have recognized the pattern in the bully. But I was a bookish boy, and I recognized him instead in references I encountered to the Hitlerjugend and the SS. The bully was like them. In books about the Nazi culture, the training of young children that deprived them of a social conscience was described in gory detail. One of the main goals was to develop in them a sense of total indifference to, and contempt for, "others" - the inferior beings, whether animals or humans. The children were also pushed to have fun hurting people. In that context, our own bully was a "natural."
People noticed his behavior and tried to change it. Teachers warned him repeatedly, and the pioneer organization threatened to take away his tie (a very tough public punishment). One day, when he had been caught in some bad action, he put on quite a spectacle, promising to change and become a better person. To the kids who were his victims, though, this was a disgusting sight. We all knew he didn't mean it. The smirk was there all the time.
That's when those of us who had been hurt by him decided to take the matter into our own hands. On that rainy evening, we took off our red ties after school as usual, but we didn't go home. Instead, I went to intercept the bully, leaving the others ready to back me up. He was at his usual place and called me to approach, but I told him to f&ck himself, and when he started toward me in his deliberately menacing posture, I ran. Then the bully, accompanied by his two allies, followed me down the street and into the dark stone passage, through the cast-iron gates. Those gates were usually closed, but this time they were open. Right after they passed the gates, I reached the end of the passage, where the exit gates were closed. And at that moment a screeching sound told us that the entry gates were also closed. I stopped and looked at them. Then the shadows along the passage walls came alive and the enemy triad found itself surrounded, with nowhere to run.
As we presumed, the two butt kissers betrayed the bully in a second. We pushed them away, threw a blanket over him and started hitting. At that moment, we forgot that he was always bragging about carrying a knife. But, in this circumstance, he was lucky not to have one; if he had been carrying a knife, the enraged kids would likely have killed him with bricks. We knew this was our day. The deal between us was that we would stop punishing the bully when he began to cry. But he didn't cry. For some time we could only hear ourselves, our own animalistic rage. Suddenly, however, we heard a howl. He howled like a wounded beast in a paroxysm of helplessness and desperation. Then we stopped. We opened the gates on both sides and left in silence. None of us felt any satisfaction. We were just tired and empty. The one girl among us saved our souls that evening. When we all stopped to go our separate ways, she took out our red ties, which we had given her for safekeeping, and neatly put a tie on each of us. Then she smiled at us all and vanished into the darkness. The burden was lifted. We knew we had done the right thing.
The bully didn't come to school in the morning. The two others came, but they knew nothing of him. Eventually, we heard that his parents had transferred him to a special school for kids with psychological problems. We never saw him again and, for some reason, the bullying among ourselves also stopped entirely. None of us wanted to be like him, ever. We had all grown up.
When as a parent you introduce shame to your child, you do that by appealing to the child's sense of empathy and of self-preservation. Those are connected in a thoughtful human. Empathy tells you that you inflicted something on another person that you would not like to be subjected to yourself. And the sense of self-preservation tells you that the same kind of hurtful action could be directed toward you. Those realizations make you feel ashamed of your actions: you see them as not only mean, but also stupid. A person with no concept of shame, who sees the world only as an object for self-indulgence, is the bad seed. Such a person belongs in an asylum. We have such people at the highest levels of power in the U.S. It is bad enough if one person is shameless. But what if this disease were to spread through the entire nation?
Our Gaze at the World: I have been living in this country for 33 years now, and through all those years we have been at war, either directly or indirectly. Here are the places I remember since Y1989: Iraq, Kuwait, Somalia, Panama, Sudan, Kosovo, Lebanon, Haiti, Iraq again, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria, and now a proxy war in Ukraine. In all these cases, we had our fun. We killed a lot of people after leaning on them, pretending to be their friends, and proclaiming our love. In all these cases, we denied any atrocities and vehemently called ourselves the best people in the world. In these cases, too, as well as in numerous cases before, we forced other people into a "coalition" with us.
Yet, NONE of these cases produced any positive outcome. In fact, we considerably worsened the world economy and devastated political structures, creating chaos and misery whenever we went. Those are the facts, and they are indisputable. If it wasn't for that insane gaze of ours, all of us here in the U.S. would be on our knees begging God's forgiveness. Instead, we are going to celebrate Labor Day after we've destroyed anything that even remotely resembles honest work for honest pay. We are truly unbelievable, and my little psycho-bully would fit in here very nicely. He would be in charge of some important department, and the media would be calling him "Slow, but Smarty, Mike," or whatever his ugly name was. The presence of the bully here has become so obvious that every morning I am afraid to see his face on TV. Sometimes the bullies come back, courtesy of Stephen King. They eat their breakfast, send their kids to school, and then proceed to spread their deadly love over other people, leaving dead bodies behind.
Americans are sick, and that sickness overtook them in the 20th Century when they benefited immensely from other people's miseries in two World Wars. Since that time, they have felt superior to other people and that feeling culminated in the BOMB. Not only do we have the BOMB; we actually used it and got away with it. Nobody threw a blanket over us and kicked us bad. Our hubris rules supreme. Our religion tells us that we are the freest, the smartest, the most righteous people on earth, and thus all our actions toward others are GOOD. We claim the right to dominate others, because we indulge ourselves and believe we are by default the ones who deserve it. Do you recognize the logic? It is the logic of a shameless, bratty toddler. There is no real love there, just self-adoration. We behave like a child who is "asking for it," and anyone who is at least a half-wit should become very worried indeed. Humankind is not very different from a middle school, and eventually the shadows will separate from the walls. Do we really want to risk being exposed?
I Am Not Fair: I concede that I am not entirely fair in comparing the whole American nation to a psycho kid from my childhood. There are plenty of good people in this country, and I have no right. No, I have every right! This is my home. Diversity: the real display of it is not in food, drinks and flowers. It is in the historical, generational experience, in the memory of the heart. I have an obligation before my people here to report a dangerous, maybe even fatal, psychic disease - a disease that once consumed the whole German nation and is now in full swing in America. I don't want to run again, panting and sweating into that dark passage. It is the light I seek, and in the light we fight. I am not fair. I am in love and I want to protect this beloved country of mine. In this battle I take no prisoners. It is easy to get cured. Just put the damned psychos into an asylum, where they belong!"
- http://www.opednews.com/
"A Look to the Heavens"
"These three bright nebulae are often featured in telescopic tours of the constellation Sagittarius and the crowded starfields of the central Milky Way. In fact, 18th century cosmic tourist Charles Messier cataloged two of them; M8, the large nebula left of center, and colorful M20 on the right. The third, NGC 6559, is above M8, separated from the larger nebula by a dark dust lane. All three are stellar nurseries about five thousand light-years or so distant.
The expansive M8, over a hundred light-years across, is also known as the Lagoon Nebula. M20's popular moniker is the Trifid. Glowing hydrogen gas creates the dominant red color of the emission nebulae, with contrasting blue hues, most striking in the Trifid, due to dust reflected starlight. The colorful skyscape recorded with telescope and digital camera also includes one of Messier's open star clusters, M21, just above the Trifid. "
"We All Know..."
"We all know that something is eternal. And it ain't houses and it ain't names, and it ain't earth, and it ain't even the stars... everybody knows in their bones that something is eternal, and that something has to do with human beings. All the greatest people ever lived have been telling us that for five thousand years and yet you'd be surprised how people are always losing hold of it. There's something way down deep that's eternal about every human being."
- Thornton Wilder
"Feeling Overwhelmed: Breathing into Order"
"Feeling Overwhelmed: Breathing into Order"
by Madisyn Taylor, The DailyOM
"Always know, the Universe works in perfect order and you are never given more thank you can handle. Sometimes we may feel like there is just too much we need to do. Feeling overwhelmed may make it seem like the universe is picking on us, but the opposite is true: we are only given what we can handle. Difficult situations are opportunities to be our best selves, hone our skills and rise to the occasion.
The best place to start is to take a deep breath. As you do, remind yourself that the universe works in perfect order and therefore you can get everything done that needs to get done. As you exhale, release all the details that you have no control over. The universe with it's infinite organizing power will orchestrate the right outcome. Anytime stress begins to creep up, remember to breathe through it with these thoughts. Then, make a list of everything you need to do. Note what needs to be done first, and mark the things others may be able to do for you or with you. Though we often think no one else can do it correctly or well, there are times when it is worth it to exhale, let go of our control, and ask for help from professionals or friends. With the remaining things that feel you must do yourself, take another breath and determine their true importance.
Sometimes they are things we'd like to do, but aren't really necessary. After taking these quick steps, you will find you have a plan laid out, freeing you from frenzied thoughts circling in your head. With calming deep breaths, you are now free to focus more fully on our priorities. Herbal teas or flower remedies along with wise choices about caffeine and food can help keep us from becoming frantic too. But with nothing further from us than our breath, we can breathe in our best intentions and let the rest go with an exhale. Keeping ourselves centered and breathing into and through life's challenges helps us learn what we are truly capable of doing, and we will find we have the ability to rise to any occasion. Remember you aren't being picked on, and you are never alone."
Chet Raymo, "Seeing"
"Seeing"
by Chet Raymo
"There was a moment yesterday evening when the elements conspired to evoke these few lines, spoken by Macbeth:
"Light thickens,
And the crow makes wing to the rooky woods,
Good things of day begin to droop and drowse."
The fading light. The crows gliding down the fields to the trees in Ballybeg:
"Light thickens,
And the crow makes wing to the rooky woods,
Good things of day begin to droop and drowse."
It's all there, in those few lines - the mysterious power of poetry to infuse the world with meaning, to anoint the world with a transforming grace. One could spend an hour picking those lines apart, syntax and sound, sense and alliteration. The t's of light thickening, tongue against the teeth. The alar w's making wing. The owl eyes of the double o's. The d's nodding into slumber - day, droop, drowse.
The poet Howard Nemerov says of poetry that it "works on the very surface of the eye, that thin, unyielding wall of liquid between mind and world, where somehow, mysteriously, the patterns formed by electrical storms assaulting the retina become things and the thought of things and the names of things and the relations supposed between thing." It works too in the mouth, in the physical act of speech - tongue, teeth, those d's gliding deeper into the darkness of the throat.
I stand in the gloaming garden and the black birds glide, down, down to Ballybeg, and I marvel that with so few syllables Shakespeare can - across the centuries - teach me how to see."
The Poet: Paul Laurence Dunbar, "We Wear The Mask "
"We Wear The Mask "
"We wear the mask that grins and lies,
It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes,
This debt we pay to human guile,
With torn and bleeding hearts we smile,
And mouth with myriad subtleties.
Why should the world be overwise,
In counting all our tears and sighs?
Nay, let them only see us, while
We wear the mask.
We smile, but, O great Christ, our cries
To thee from tortured souls arise.
We sing, but oh the clay is vile
Beneath our feet, and long the mile.
But let the world dream otherwise,
We wear the mask! "
- Paul Laurence Dunbar
"What Are The Facts?"
"What are the facts? Again and again and againwhat are the facts? Shun wishful thinking, ignore divine revelation, forget what the stars foretell, avoid opinion, care not what the neighbors think, never mind the un-guessable verdict of history - what are the facts, and to how many decimal places? You pilot always into an unknown future; facts are your single clue. Get the facts!"
- Robert A. Heinlein
And always remember...
"When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains,
however improbable, must be the truth."
- Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, "Sherlock Holmes"
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)