"In many ways, our past experiences have conditioned us to believe that we are less capable than we are. All too often we let the rejections of our past dictate every move we make.We literally do not know ourselves to be any better than what some opinionated person or narrow circumstance once told us was true.Of course, an old rejection doesn’t mean we aren’t good enough; it just means some person or circumstance from our past failed to align with what we had to offer at the time.But somehow we don’t see it that way - we hit a mental barricade that stops us in our tracks.
This is one of the most common and damaging thought patterns we as human beings succumb to. Even though we intellectually know that we’re gradually growing stronger than we were in the past, our subconscious mind often forgets that our capabilities have grown. Let me give you a quick metaphorical example…
Zookeepers typically strap a thin metal chain to a grown elephant’s leg and then attach the other end to a small wooden peg that’s hammered into the ground.The 10-foot tall, 10,000-pound elephant could easily snap the chain, uproot the wooden peg and escape to freedom with minimal effort.But it doesn’t.In fact the elephant never even tries.The world’s most powerful land animal, which can uproot a big tree as easily as you could break a toothpick, remains defeated by a small wooden peg and a flimsy chain.
Why? Because when the elephant was a baby, its trainers used the exact same methods to domesticate it.A thin chain was strapped around its leg and the other end of the chain was tied to a wooden peg in the ground.At the time, the chain and peg were strong enough to restrain the baby elephant.When it tried to break away, the metal chain would pull it back.Sometimes, tempted by the world it could see in the distance, the elephant would pull harder.But the chain would not budge, and soon the baby elephant realized trying to escape was not possible.So it stopped trying.
And now that the elephant is all grown up, it sees the chain and the peg and it remembers what it learned as a baby - the chain and peg are impossible to escape.Of course this is no longer true, but it doesn’t matter.It doesn’t matter that the 200-pound baby is now a 10,000-pound powerhouse.The elephant’s self-limiting thoughts and beliefs prevail.
If you think about it, we are all like elephants.We all have incredible power inside us.And certainly, we have our own chains and pegs - the self-limiting thoughts and beliefs that hold us back.Sometimes it’s a childhood experience or an old failure.Sometimes it’s something we were told when we were a little younger. The key thing to realize here is this:We need to learn from the past, but be ready to update what we learned based on how our circumstances have changed (as they constantly do).“
"Businesses Suffering Big Time for Not Taking Cash"
"I dive deep into why businesses going cashless is causing major headaches and even financial losses. From restaurants in Los Angeles to the iconic Roman baths in Bath, UK, the shift away from cash is hitting hard. You'll hear stories about local laws, the challenges faced by lower-income communities, and even how big retailers like Target are phasing out personal checks."
"I was driving to work the other day, when the song Nothing Else Matters by Metallica began emanating from my radio. It is a haunting tune and far different then their normal heavy metal repertoire. Depending on my current state of mind, certain songs trigger thoughts about the state of affairs in this increasingly warped world and my place in this chaotic spiraling civilization. This song meant one thing to their lead singer and songwriter James Hetfield, but everyone who hears the song relates to its lyrics in a way personal to them.
He essentially wrote the song about being on the road and away from his girlfriend. But, as he explained in later interviews, the song’s meaning grew to encompass much more for others: “It’s about being on the road, missing someone at home, but it was written in such a way, it connected with so many people, that it wasn’t just about two people, it was about a connection with your higher power, lots of different things. I remember going to the Hells Angels Clubhouse in New York, and they showed me a film that they’d put together of one of the fallen brothers, and they were playing ‘Nothing Else Matters.’ Wow. This means a lot more than me missing my chick, right? This is brotherhood. It’s pretty powerful.”
Some might interpret the lyrics to reflect on how difficult and challenging life can be on a daily basis, with adversity and tragedy constantly shadowing our foot steps. The lyrics force you to confront one of the most consequential questions of our time – What really matters? Do we control our own destiny, or are we controlled by greater forces, be they spiritual or earthly? In a tumultuous world spiraling towards civil and global war, with a dementia patient Trojan Horse pretending to run the most powerful country in global history, and a globalist cabal of billionaire oligarchs really calling the shots, do we have any real control over our future? Does anything we do matter?
To me, the lyrics at the top of this article capture my view of government, corrupt politicians, surveillance state spooks, police state thugs, apparatchiks for the bureaucracy, regime media outlets, woke warmongering generals, greedy criminal bankers, far left academics, vacuous hollywood celebrities, and the globalist billionaire Davos scum controlling the world from behind the curtain. I may not care for what they say, but the games they are playing threaten the future for my children, their children, and all future generations yet to be born. I would prefer sitting on a beach, reading a book, and not caring what they do. But I know I can’t sit still and just let them do what they plan to do, without using my platform to warn others.
I’ve been writing articles for the better part of the last sixteen years warning about government debt, the government surveillance state, the military industrial complex, the Fed, the regime media propaganda machine, and the Wall Street cabal, all coinciding with the onset and progression of this current Fourth Turning crisis. Since my views are considered apocalyptic and conspiracy theory driven by most normies, I just keep my views to myself when in the company of coworkers, family, neighbors and friends. They can go to my website if they choose to confront the reality of our dire circumstances.
But, a couple weeks ago we were at the Jersey shore and out with friends I haven’t seen in awhile. We were at a bar in the late afternoon to see a band we like, and I put on my normie persona, talking sports and other non-touchy subjects, while swilling a few beers and listening to 80’s tunes. After the band finished we moved on to another establishment with an outside bar and a band playing. I had a couple more beers and one of my wife’s best friends sat next to me at the end of the bar. She wanted to talk politics, the markets, and the economy. These are the subject areas where I normally just listen and keep my views to myself, but after several drinks I let my guard down.
I proceeded to school her about the coming financial crash, the Great Taking, how the U.S. initiated the conflict in the Ukraine, and how it didn’t matter who got elected, because shadowy globalist billionaires continue to pull the strings. Her retort was that I was saying the same things ten years ago and her stock portfolio is now at an all-time high. She acknowledged my facts were correct, with the national debt at $35 trillion, and interest on that debt exceeding $1 trillion per year, financial disaster should be close at hand. But, to her, nothing else mattered than the fact nothing bad had happened to her so far, so why should she worry.
Then I turned to the covid scamdemic, the national shutdown, the vaccine, the coming bird flu hoax, and how much I despise my government. This is where I may have gotten a little too vehement in my “discussion”, as the others in our group seemed concerned I might have a heart attack, even though they couldn’t hear what I was saying over the music. She was vaxxed and boosted, believed everything the government told her (masks, social distancing, etc.), was appreciative of the government PPP money which kept her restaurant from going bankrupt, and thought Fauci was a hero. If she didn’t know I was unvaxxed then, she knows now.
I loudly declared Fauci to be a mass murderer who should die for his crimes; told her the vaccine had killed and injured far more people than it ever saved; shutting down the country over a flu was the work of fascists; and the entire plandemic was used to steal the 2020 election though mail-in ballot fraud. From her perspective, nothing else mattered other than the fact she had not died from the jabs and her business actually made more money from the PPP program than it would have by staying open. I told her anyone who can’t see the truth at this point is purposely keeping their head in the sand because they don’t want to admit they were wrong.
I didn’t have the heart to point out the serious illness her husband developed after getting the jabs. I can’t prove it was because of the toxic concoction, but he didn’t have it before the jabs. I did tell her that hundreds of thousands of small businesses did go bankrupt because of the government shutdown, and she was lucky hers survived. The PPP program was essentially the government breaking your legs, giving you a wheelchair, and expecting you to thank them for their generosity with your own tax dollars. The illusions spun by the regime media run deep, and normies don’t have the wherewithal to break their mental chains.
I had exhausted my repertoire of unequivocal truths, but realized it was no use in changing the mind of a normie, who had been conditioned and propagandized for decades to believe what she was told by politicians and regime media talking heads. Her discomfort caused by the cognitive dissonance of knowing the current trajectory of the nation’s finances will lead to disaster, but seeing her net worth continue to grow as the markets rise, has led to an overwhelming level of normalcy bias in viewing the world. Millions of people have fallen into this mental trap. It will not be resolved until the economy implodes, bombs are falling on our cities, and warring factions leave chaos and death across our countrysides.
As we accelerate towards the dark, partially obscured, multi-dimensional climax of this Fourth Turning over the next several years, every one of us will need to determine what really matters. Personally, I have become even more cynical, if that is possible, about the odds of righting this ship. The U.S. Titanic ship of state has already struck the iceberg and is surely going to sink. There aren’t enough lifeboats, and many will go down with the ship. I often feel like I’m just going through the motions, going to work every day, posting articles warning people who already know we are f*cked, and trying to figure out how to survive whatever is headed our way, without becoming too depressed to carry on.
I trust my immediate family, but my trust circle is not wide or deep. I know what I believe; I know what I think is going to happen; I have warned anyone who has been willing to listen; and now it doesn’t matter to me what anyone else thinks about me or my beliefs. Some visitors to my website are outraged when I post commentary and views contrary to what I believe. I have core beliefs about economics, banking, the government, the military, and the propaganda media outlets, but I have an open mind to hear different points of view. I agree with Trump and RFK Jr. on a number of issues, while vehemently opposing their views on other issues. The only politician I’ve every felt perfectly aligned with was Ron Paul, but I also thought he wasn’t mean and forceful enough to succeed.
Does any of the daily drama regarding Biden’s senility or Zelensky’s acting abilities fronting the U.S. war against Russia matter? To me it seems like theater, designed to confuse, distract, and obscure what is really happening behind the curtain, where the real people running this world are plotting their next move in their never ending war on humanity, family, and freedom. With a vast swath of the populace too dumbed down, propagandized into subservience, and sheep-like in their adherence to regime media narratives, does it matter what I say, do, or write? Ed Dowd has little faith in humanity, and I agree with him.
The next four months will be portrayed by the propaganda spewing pundits as leading up to the most important election of our lifetimes. We will be told by the regime media nothing else matters, other than this election. But, does any of this Potemkin village bullshit really matter? Will the course of this country be materially altered depending on which figurehead president is installed by those running the show. Will there even be an election if those really in control believe they will lose power? Would they start WW3 to stop the election from happening? At this point, anything is possible.
The rapidity and degree of decline may be altered by a Trump victory, but with a $35 trillion national debt; $1 trillion annual deficits; $200 trillion of unfunded social welfare liabilities; an open southern border inviting terrorists, drug cartels, child traffickers, and welfare leeches; neocons intent on starting WW3; a lawless surveillance state, and psychotic globalist billionaires intent on depopulating the planet, the president has virtually no ability to positively alter the course of this Fourth Turning. They always drive relentlessly towards a bloody conclusion, and this Crisis will end no differently, with civil and global conflict beckoning.
In my normal day to day existence, interacting with coworkers and shooting the shit with neighbors, I’ll continue to pretend all is well, never opening myself to reveal my true beliefs. My website and my writings are where I can say all the words that really matter. People can choose to heed them or not. I really don’t care. I might be wrong or I might be right, but I’m going to live my life my way, and nothing else matters. What matters to me is what kind of country my children and future generations are left with when this Fourth Turning comes to its bloody denouement. I am haunted by the threat of the Great Taking and a global war with Russia/China destroying the financial system and leaving millions of corpses strewn across the globe.
I can’t worry about the empty vessels of humanity who choose to believe those in control of our society have their best interests in mind. I know that is not true. They have their best interests in mind. The existing system is bereft of freedom, liberty, justice, fairness, and honesty. The corruption runs so deep, and the unholy alliance between corporate interests, the banking cabal, captured politicians, regime media, and unscrupulous bureaucrats, is so all-encompassing, the only way this ends is by the destruction of the system and starting over. At this point, my sole purpose in life is to buck the system, provide a forum for dissenters, rail against the Deep State, and try to maintain my independence, individuality, and integrity.
For people with critical thinking skills and aware of what has happened, is happening, and will happen, the near future appears daunting and filled with terrifying uncertainty. We know a huge portion of society is too ignorant, too distracted by their electronic bread and circuses, and too brainwashed by decades of government and media propaganda, to resist the globalist agenda methodically enslaving the world in electronic chains and totalitarian measures.
The impulse to just roll over and accept our fate, because nothing we can do on an individual level matters, is unacceptable to me. This Fourth Turning could end badly, with the destruction of the world as we know it, or it could end with a new beginning. I know we might lose this fight, but if we don’t fight we will surely lose. Together we stand a chance, but separately they will win. Resist until your dying breath."
“Passion doesn’t count the cost. Pascal said that the heart has it's reasons that reason takes no account of. If he meant what I think, he meant that when passion seizes the heart it invents reasons that seem not only plausible but conclusive to prove that the world is well lost for love. It convinces you that honor is well sacrificed and that shame is a cheap price to pay. Passion is destructive. It destroyed Antony and Cleopatra, Tristan and Isolde, Parnell and Kitty O’Shea. And if it doesn’t destroy it dies. It may be then that one is faced with the desolation of knowing that one has wasted the years of one’s life, that one’s brought disgrace upon oneself, endured the frightful pang of jealousy, swallowed every bitter mortification, that one’s expended all one’s tenderness, poured out all the riches of one’s soul on a poor drab, a fool, a peg on which one hung one’s dreams, who wasn’t worth a stick of chewing gum.”
- W. Somerset Maugham
o
o
“Regret for the things we did can be tempered by time;
it is regret for the things we did not do that is inconsolable.”
"Everyone thought EVs were the future, but sales are plummeting, and dealerships are getting desperate. A Colorado dealership is offering a Nissan Leaf for just $19 a month, but beware of the hidden costs and restrictions! From acquisition fees to mileage limits, this deal isn't as sweet as it sounds."
"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."
'IDF Targeted Own Soldiers, Civilians Using Hannibal Directive'"
"Israeli Newspaper Haaretz reported that during Hamas's October 7 assault, the Israeli military implemented the "Hannibal Directive," resulting in the deaths of Israeli soldiers. This directive allows the IDF to take drastic measures, including using lethal force against its own soldiers if captured, to prevent their abduction by enemy forces."
"We’re done accommodating you lunatics. It’s time for actual adults to return to the room and supplant the squalling squalor you have inflicted upon us, our economies, our cultures, and our institutions.” - El Gato Malo on Substack
"Imagine: President “Joe Biden,” on the deck behind his Rehoboth Beach house Sunday evening before a most consequential week. He just declared to the nation that only an “act of God” will prevent him from running for re-election. Dr. Jill has gone inside for another martini, extra-dry, no vermouth, no ice, no olive... no glass. Chief advisor, Hunter Biden, just drove into Wilmington “to pick something up,” he said. Chocolate chip ice cream melts in the bowl on “JB’s” lap as he endures another Parkinsonian frozen rapture. His gaze is fixed on the gray-green Atlantic, a blank horizon, much like his current career prospects.
As happens often these days, he slips off to sleep. In his dream, a red phone is ringing.
“Who’s this...?” he says.
“Me, God. Thought it was time you and me had a little chat. You can’t be serious ’bout this re-election thang.”
“I’m defending our democracy. Gotta stay in. Defeat Hitler.”
“Democracy my ass! You channelin’ Hitler yourself a little too much lately. How it is you laid ninety-seven indictments on my dawg DJT? You done George Floyded da man!”
“But... but... the insurrection - ”
“Insurrection my ass! Why you keep sayin’ dat.”
“If you repeat stuff enough, people believe it.”
“Who told you that?”
“Andrew Weissmann.”
“Oh, really? I kicked his ass outa my house more’n four thousand years ago. He ain’t nothin’ but trouble. Who told you to listen to him?”
“Lisa Monaco and Mary McCord.”
“Oh? Them two! Just so you know, I canceled they retirement plan up here with me. They goin’ to the other place wid Weissmann. Now, I got news for you, Joey: Ima have to take yo’ ass out dis election.”
“But why? I’ve accomplished so much. Did you see me at Gettysburg, beating those insurrectionists?”
“I see everything. Didn’t see you around dat day.”
“What about when I stormed the beaches at Normandy?”
“Naw. You was in a playpen, going goo-goo-goo. Look, Joey, here’s the deal: remember you said ‘God bless America’ in all them speeches you made?”
“We all say that. Anyway...”
“Maybe y’all go through the motions, but I got responsibilities, know what I’m sayin’? I been tryin’ and tryin’ to bless dis land but yo’ bunch making’ it mighty difficult for me. So, news flash: yo’ ass is out de race. Official act from yours truly. Sorry.”
“But... but... that’s... that’s racist!” the President stutters as his dream dissolves in a vapor.
Dr. Jill is shaking his shoulder, rather harshly.
“I heard that! Don’t even dare think of dropping out,” she says. “Or you’ll never get another bowl of ice cream ever again! Do you read me?”
“Yeah, Okay! Okay!” Anyway...”
And so it goes in the twilight hours of our forty-sixth president. At least Rob Reiner hasn’t asked him to step aside. At this point, it looks like nobody’s in a position to save our democracy until and unless they do something to save the floundering Democratic Party. All hands are on deck in our nation’s capital. Congress is even coming back from vacation today. So much desperate chatter is rising out of the Potomac Swamp that it’s like a deadly miasma infecting everyone! What on earth to do now?
There are Plans A, B, C, D, E...Only one problem: they all look like variations on a Chinese fire drill. Let the demented bastard run and hope for the best? Please! You thought the debate was bad? And the Stephanopoulos colloquy was unnerving? Imagine the gaffes and flubs to come in the months ahead. For instance, the convention in Chicago... “Joe B” freezes up for five long minutes at the podium mid-acceptance speech like a defective android in a sci-fi movie... “Joe B” takes a header off the stage at a Midwest state fair... “Joe B” challenges a quadriplegic veteran in a wheelchair to a push-up contest...
Then there is... the Kamala question. Could she, uh, step into the breach, if it... you know... had to be? She comes with a dowry of over $250-million in campaign contributions, which no other candidate has dibs on. Quite a temptation. But the cackling? The vapid word-salad? The record of accomplishment?
Would Hillary even allow that? I said uh-hey (hey), you (you), get offa my cloud! Hillary is lurking so quietly in the background she’s like one of those self-camouflaging bottom-feeder fish pretending to be a rock, with a coy little tendril dangling in front of her garage-size mouth to lure the little fishies in... before... chomp chomp! But, has she plumb worn out her welcome in American politics? Is she a fazed cookie? You can’t help but see a big, bold letter “L” on her forehead lately. She might, arguably, be even more loathed by more voters than Mr. Trump at this point.
Then there’s the idea put out just over the weekend to stage an insta-bliz primary before the August Dem Convention. With the condition of “positive-only” campaigns. Does that mean no Hitler-talk? Can’t wait to see how that works out.
Finally, there’s the novelty solution to this fine mess: “Joe Biden” stays in the race, bumps Kamala, installs Barack Obama in the veep candidate slot, they romp, then somewhere around January 21, 2025, “JB” bows out... and cazart! It’s back to the Good ol’ days with President Obama again! What a play! Genius! You see, the 22nd Amendment only says: No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice. Doesn’t say anything about getting elected veep and then being elevated to president by happenstance. If that doesn’t save our democracy, I don’t know what will.
We’re in for fast-moving developments this week. I’ll update here as necessary."
In business as in war, or in marriage for that matter,
there are no guarantees. Things go awry. Things change.
by Bill Bonner
Bordeaux, France - "Thomas Jefferson visited the Bordeaux area in 1787 and noticed that many of the best wine estates had names such as Boyd... Barton...Dillon... Lynch... and, where we dined last night, Kirwan.
It might have turned out so differently. That is, if the Spanish had been better organized, better informed, better supplied and better captained. At the critical battle of Kinsale, they might have landed their army at the right place... put more men on the job... and had more guns. For that matter, it would have helped if the Irish had been more on-the-ball too. They had three ‘Hughs’ – Hugh O’Donnell, Hugh O’Neill and Hugh McGuire — all rushing to aid the Spanish. But they were too little, too late and no match for the more disciplined English.
That was at the beginning of the disastrous (for the Irish) seventeenth century. At the end of it they suffered another huge defeat. The Battle of the Boyne was part of a larger war in which James II fought his own daughter and her husband, William III for the English crown. But for the Irish it was a fight to throw off the English and recover the right to own property and practice their Catholic faith.
Again, the Irish suffered a defeat. William had brought trained soldiers from Holland and Denmark (he didn’t trust the English) who proved very effective against the Jacobite locals and their French allies. These two battles - and the wreckage wrought by Oliver Cromwell between them - caused many of the Irish to flee here, to Bordeaux, France... and set themselves up in the wine business.
We came for a wedding. So, we drove from our place in Poitou down a long, twisty road. After a couple of hours, we arrived at the Gironde River and were surprised to find that there was no bridge. Instead, cars lined up to get on a ferry for the river crossing to the Pauillac region on the other side. Already, there was something slightly antique about the ferry crossing, reminiscent of an earlier era.
The land is mostly flat. Not especially attractive. In some places, it seems a little down-at-the-heels, reminding us of rural Sicily or Spain. Canals cut across the fields, partly for drainage and partly to take the wine casks to market. Good grape-growing land is extremely expensive, but much of the land is too low and swampy to plant.
Already, by the eighteenth century, Bordeaux was enjoying a booming business. It boomed even further when Irish entrepreneurs got into the act and John Adams and Thomas Jefferson gave the wine very favorable reviews. Prosperous vintners and wine merchants built their great houses... now on the labels of expensive wines…usually with marvelous stone entryways.
In business as in war, or in marriage for that matter, there are no guarantees. Things go awry. Things change. That’s why it is never a good idea to pay too much for a stock... or a wine estate. For a time, Bordeaux was the leading exporter of wine. Called ‘claret,’ by the English…and still listed as ‘claret’ on the menu at Garrick Club in London…it was shipped to British colonies all over the world.
But then, the colonies began producing their own wine. In bulk. The famous ‘Judgement of Paris’ - a blind tasting of wines from all over the world - proved that California wines were actually as good or better than those from Bordeaux. Australia, Chile, and Argentina also became leading exporters... with their own distinctive products. Bordeaux no longer has the wine market to itself... and many of the leading wine estates are not as profitable as they once were. Still today, amid the sunny shabbiness of the pine trees are some grand and glorious chateaux standing out against the landscape.
A friend, a member of the extended Rothschild family, now resident in New York, got married on Saturday to a girl from Boston. Baroness Philippine de Rothschild died in 2016, but the family still owns a few chateaux in the area, including the Chateau de Kirwan, founded by an Irishman in the eighteenth century, which was the site of the reception.
Weddings and funerals are the key landmarks in our lives. Marriage plants the seed of new life. Death cuts it down. Marriages may fail; death never does.
The peculiarity of this marriage is that it was here in France. Both bride and groom are American. And the service was conducted in English, by a French priest. Perhaps old Bordeaux has found a new business - as a wedding venue. The seventeenth century church - St. Didier - was beautiful... and the bride, advancing slowly down the aisle, flanked by both father and mother, gliding over the smooth stones... with the sun streaming through the large doors behind them... was stunning. Regards..."
"The OFR Financial Stress Index (OFR FSI)is a daily market-based snapshot of stress in global financial markets. It is constructed from 33 financial market variables, such as yield spreads, valuation measures, and interest rates. The OFR FSI is positive when stress levels are above average, and negative when stress levels are below average. The OFR FSI incorporates five categories of indicators: credit, equity valuation, funding,safe assets and volatility. The FSI shows stress contributions by three regions: United States, other advanced economies, and emerging markets."
"'On the Beach' is a post-apocalyptic novel published in 1957, written by British author Nevil Shute after he emigrated to Australia. The novel details the experiences of a mixed group of people in Melbourne as they await the arrival of deadly radiation spreading towards them from the Northern Hemisphere, following a nuclear war the previous year. As the radiation approaches, each person deals with impending death differently.
The phrase "on the beach" is a Royal Navy term that means "retired from the Service." The title also refers to T. S. Eliot's poem "The Hollow Men", which includes the lines:
"In this last of meeting places
We grope together
And avoid speech
Gathered on this beach of the tumid river."
Printings of the novel, including the first 1957 edition by William Morrow and Company, New York, contain extracts from Eliot's poem on the title page, under Shute's name, including the above quotation and the concluding lines:
"This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper."
Freely download, "On The Beach", by Nevil Shute, here:
"Although there'd been "doomsday dramas" before it, Stanley Kramer's "On the Beach" was considered the first "important" entry in this genre when originally released in 1959. Based on the novel by Nevil Shute, the film is set in the future (1964) when virtually all life on earth has been exterminated by the radioactive residue of a nuclear holocaust. Only Australia has been spared, but it's only a matter of time before everyone Down Under also succumbs to radiation poisoning.
With only a short time left on earth, the Australian population reacts in different ways: some go on a nonstop binge of revelry, while others eagerly consume the suicide pills being issued by the government. When the possibility arises that rains have washed the atmosphere clean in the Northern hemisphere, a submarine commander (Gregory Peck) and his men head to San Diego, where faint radio signals have been emanating. The movie's all-star cast includes: Peck as the stalwart sub captain, Ava Gardner as his emotionally disturbed lover, Fred Astaire as a guilt-wracked nuclear scientist, and Anthony Perkins and Donna Anderson as the "just starting out in life" married couple."
o
"There are a multitude of fuses affixed to dozens of powder-kegs and little kids with matches are on the loose. I don’t know which of the fuses will be lit and which powder-keg will blow, but someone is bound to do something stupid, and then all hell will break loose. It could happen at any time. One military miscue. One assassination. One violent act that stirs the world. And the dominoes will topple, setting off fireworks not seen on this planet since 1939 – 1945. I can see it all very clearly."
“Can the night sky appear both serene and surreal? Perhaps classifiable as serene in the below panoramic image are the faint lights of small towns glowing across a dark foreground landscape of Doi Inthanon National Park in Thailand, as well as the numerous stars glowing across a dark background starscape. Also visible are the planet Venus and a band of zodiacal light on the image left.
Unusual events are also captured, however. First, the central band of our Milky Way Galaxy, while usually a common site, appears here to hover surreally above the ground. Next, a fortuitous streak of a meteor was captured on the image right. Perhaps the most unusual component is the bright spot just to the left of the meteor. That spot is the plume of a rising Ariane 5 rocket, launched a few minutes before from Kourou, French Guiana. How lucky was the astrophotographer to capture the rocket launch in his image? Not lucky at all- the image was timed to capture the rocket. What was lucky was how photogenic - and perhaps surreal - the rest of the sky turned out to be.”
"We are in the Long Dark now. Both hope and despair are the enemies of our survival. We must live in the awareness that we might not see the light come back, without ceasing to work - with empathy, anger and knowledge - for its return.
We must be here, in the moment, experiencing its fullness (whatever its horrors or joys), yet be elsewhere, removed from the madness pouring in from every side, the avalanche of degradation. We must be here, now, but also in a future we can’t see or even imagine.
We must see that we are lost, with no clear way forward, no sureties or verities to cling to, no roots to anchor us, no structures within or without that will always keep their coalescence in the chaotic, surging flow.
We must live in discrete moments of illumination and connection, pearls hung on an almost invisible string winding through the darkness. Striving, always striving, but not expecting; striving without hope, without despair, without any certainty at all as to the outcome, good or bad.
These are the conditions of the Long Dark, this is what we have to work with, this is where we find ourselves in the brief time we have in this vast, indifferent, astounding universe. As I once wrote long ago, quoting the old hymn: “Work, for the night is coming.”
So do we counsel fatalism, a dark, defeated surrender, a retreat into bitter, curdled quietude? Not a whit. We advocate action, positive action, unstinting action, doing the only thing that human beings can do, ever: Try this, try that, try something else again; discard those approaches that don't work, that wreak havoc, that breed death and cruelty; fight against everything that would draw us down again into our own mud; expect no quarter, no lasting comfort, no true security; offer no last word, no eternal truth, but just keep stumbling, falling, careening, backsliding, crawling toward the broken light.
And what is this "broken light"? Nothing more than a metaphor for the patches of understanding – awareness, attention, knowledge, connection – that break through our darkness and stupidity for a moment now and then. A light always fractured, under threat, shifting, found then lost again, always lost. For we are creatures steeped in imperfection, in breakage and mutation, tossed up – very briefly – from the boiling, chaotic crucible of Being, itself a ragged work in progress toward unknown ends, or rather, toward no particular end at all. Why should there be an "answer" in such a reality?
What matters is what works – what pulls us from our own darkness as far as possible, for as long as possible. Yet the truth remains that "what works" is always and forever only provisional – what works now, here, might not work there, then. What saves our soul today might make us sick tomorrow.
Thus all we can do is to keep looking, working, trying to clear a little more space for the light, to let it shine on our passions and our confusions, our anger and our hopes, informing and refining them, so that we can see each other better, for a moment – until death shutters all seeing forever."
“In the mechanisms we have been discussing, the individual overcomes the feeling of insignificance in comparison with the overwhelming power of the world outside himself either by renouncing his individual integrity, or by destroying others so that the world ceases to be threatening. Other mechanisms of escape are the withdrawal from the world so completely that it loses its threat (the picture we find in certain psychotic states), and the inflation of oneself psychologically to such an extent that the world outside becomes small in comparison. Although these mechanisms of escape are important for individual psychology, they are only of minor relevance culturally. I shall not, therefore, discuss them further here, but instead will turn to another mechanism of escape which is of the greatest social significance.
This particular mechanism is the solution that the majority of normal individuals find in modern society. To put it briefly, the individual ceases to be himself; he adopts entirely the kind of personality offered to him by cultural patterns; and he therefore becomes exactly as all others are and as they expect him to be. The discrepancy between “I” and the world disappears and with it the conscious fear of aloneness and powerlessness. This mechanism can be compared with the protective coloring some animals assume. They look so similar to their surroundings that they are hardly distinguishable from them. The person who gives up his individual self and becomes an automaton, identical with millions of other automatons around him, need not feel alone and anxious any more. But the price he pays, however, is high; it is the loss of his self.”
- Erich Fromm, “The Fear of Freedom”
Freely download “The Fear of Freedom”, by Erich Fromm, here:
“A person who has not been completely alienated, who has remained sensitive and able to feel, who has not lost the sense of dignity, who is not yet "for sale", who can still suffer over the suffering of others, who has not acquired fully the having mode of existence - briefly, a person who has remained a person and not become a thing - cannot help feeling lonely, powerless, isolated in present-day society. He cannot help doubting himself and his own convictions, if not his sanity. He cannot help suffering, even though he can experience moments of joy and clarity that are absent in the life of his "normal" contemporaries. Not rarely will he suffer from neurosis that results from the situation of a sane man living in an insane society, rather than that of the more conventional neurosis of a sick man trying to adapt himself to a sick society."
- Erich Fromm, "The Art of Being"
“If other people do not understand our behavior - so what? Their request that we must only do what they understand is an attempt to dictate to us. If this is being "asocial" or "irrational" in their eyes, so be it. Mostly they resent our freedom and our courage to be ourselves. We owe nobody an explanation or an accounting, as long as our acts do not hurt or infringe on them. How many lives have been ruined by this need to "explain," which usually implies that the explanation be "understood," i.e. approved. Let your deeds be judged, and from your deeds, your real intentions, but know that a free person owes an explanation only to himself - to his reason and his conscience - and to the few who may have a justified claim for explanation.”
- Erich Fromm, "The Art of Being"
“It is naively assumed that the fact that the majority of people share certain ideas and feelings proves the validity of these ideas and feelings. Nothing could be further from the truth. Consensual validation as such has no bearing on reason or mental health.”
- Erich Fromm
“It is naively assumed that the fact that the majority of people share certain ideas or feelings proves the validity of these ideas and feelings. Nothing is further from the truth. Consensual validation as such has no bearing on reason or mental health. Just as there is a "folie a deux" there is a folie a millions. The fact that millions of people share the same vices does not make these vices virtues, the fact that they share so many errors does not make the errors to be truths, and the fact that millions of people share the same forms of mental pathology does not make these people sane.”
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