“Albert Camus on Strength of Character and How to Ennoble Our Minds in Difficult Times”

“Albert Camus on Strength of Character 

and How to Ennoble Our Minds in Difficult Times”

by Maria Popova

“In 1957, Albert Camus (November 7, 1913–January 4, 1960) became the second youngest laureate of the Nobel Prize in Literature, awarded to him for work that “with clear-sighted earnestness illuminates the problems of the human conscience in our times.” (It was with this earnestness that, days after receiving the coveted accolade, he sent his childhood teacher a beautiful letter of gratitude.)

More than half a century later, his lucid and luminous insight renders Camus a timeless seer of truth, one who ennobles and enlarges the human spirit in the very act of seeing it – the kind of attentiveness that calls to mind his compatriot Simone Weil, whom he admired more than he did any other thinker and who memorably asserted that “attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity.”

Nowhere does Camus’s generous attention to the human spirit emanate more brilliantly than in a 1940 essay titled “The Almond Trees” (after the arboreal species that blooms in winter), found in his “Lyrical and Critical Essays” (public library) – the superb volume that gave us Camus on happiness, despair, and how to amplify our love of life. Penned at the peak of WWII, to the shrill crescendo of humanity’s collective cry for justice and mercy, Camus’s clarion call for reawakening our noblest nature reverberates with newfound poignancy today, amid our present age of shootings and senseless violence.

At only twenty-seven, Camus writes: “We have not overcome our condition, and yet we know it better. We know that we live in contradiction, but we also know that we must refuse this contradiction and do what is needed to reduce it. Our task as humans is to find the few principles that will calm the infinite anguish of free souls. We must mend what has been torn apart, make justice imaginable again in a world so obviously unjust, give happiness a meaning once more to peoples poisoned by the misery of the century. Naturally, it is a superhuman task. But superhuman is the term for tasks we take a long time to accomplish, that’s all.

Let us know our aims then, holding fast to the mind, even if force puts on a thoughtful or a comfortable face in order to seduce us. The first thing is not to despair. Let us not listen too much to those who proclaim that the world is at an end. Civilizations do not die so easily, and even if our world were to collapse, it would not have been the first. It is indeed true that we live in tragic times. But too many people confuse tragedy with despair. “Tragedy,” [D.H.] Lawrence said, “ought to be a great kick at misery.” This is a healthy and immediately applicable thought. There are many things today deserving such a kick.”

In a sentiment evocative of the 1919 manifesto “Declaration of the Independence of the Mind” - which was signed by such luminaries as Bertrand Russell, Albert Einstein, Rabindranath Tagore, Jane Addams, Upton Sinclair, Stefan Zweig, and Hermann Hesse – Camus argues that this “kick” is to be delivered by the deliberate cultivation of the mind’s highest virtues: “If we are to save the mind we must ignore its gloomy virtues and celebrate its strength and wonder. Our world is poisoned by its misery, and seems to wallow in it. It has utterly surrendered to that evil which Nietzsche called the spirit of heaviness. Let us not add to this. It is futile to weep over the mind, it is enough to labor for it.

But where are the conquering virtues of the mind? The same Nietzsche listed them as mortal enemies to heaviness of the spirit. For him, they are strength of character, taste, the “world,” classical happiness, severe pride, the cold frugality of the wise. More than ever, these virtues are necessary today, and each of us can choose the one that suits him best. Before the vastness of the undertaking, let no one forget strength of character. I don’t mean the theatrical kind on political platforms, complete with frowns and threatening gestures. But the kind that through the virtue of its purity and its sap, stands up to all the winds that blow in from the sea. Such is the strength of character that in the winter of the world will prepare the fruit.

Elsewhere in the volume, Camus writes: “In the depths of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer.” Each time our world cycles through a winter of the human spirit, Camus remains an abiding hearth of the invisible summer within us, his work a perennial invitation to reinhabit our deepest decency and live up to our most ennobled nature.

Complement this particular excerpt from the thoroughly elevating “Lyrical and Critical Essays”, with Nietzsche on what it really means to be a free spirit, and Susan Sontag on how to be a moral human being, then revisit Camus on happiness, unhappiness, and our self-imposed prisons and our search for meaning.“

- https://www.brainpickings.org/

"Every Day..."

“Every day, I saw more evidence about the evils humankind will inflict on their fellow humans to gain or maintain power. What is more, those who choose not to empathize may enable real monsters. For without ever committing an act of outright evil ourselves, we collude with it through our own apathy. If you choose to use your status and influence to raise your voice on behalf of those who have no voice; if you choose to identify not only with the powerful, but with the powerless; if you retain the ability to imagine yourself into the lives of those who do not have your advantages, then it will not only be your proud families who celebrate your existence, but thousands and millions of people whose reality you have helped transform for the better. We do not need magic to change the world, we carry all the power we need inside ourselves already: we have the power to imagine better.”

– J. K. Rowling, Harvard Commencement, June 5, 2008

"The Collective Stupidity That Stops You From Thinking – The Fall of Consciousness"

Full screen recommended.

The Psyche,

"The Collective Stupidity That Stops You From Thinking – 

The Fall of Consciousness"

"We live in an age of endless information - yet true wisdom is disappearing. People talk more than ever, but say almost nothing. Opinions have replaced understanding, and the crowd has replaced the mind. This video exposes one of the greatest dangers of our time: collective stupidity - the fall of human consciousness. Discover how society, media, and the illusion of belonging have hijacked your ability to think for yourself. Learn why questioning has become rebellion, why truth no longer depends on facts but on popularity, and how this mass hypnosis keeps humanity asleep. 

Drawing on the ideas of Schopenhauer, Jung, Plato, and Nietzsche, this video reveals the hidden psychology of conformity and how it disconnects us from our inner intelligence - our soul. More importantly, you’ll learn how to break free from it. If you’ve ever felt like something is deeply wrong with the way people think, this video will confirm what you’ve sensed all along - and show you the way out. Awaken your mind. Reclaim your consciousness. See beyond the illusion."

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Full screen recommended.

Philosophical Vision, 

"The New Mind of the Masses:

 How We Are Manipulated, Deceived, and Divided"

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Full screen recommended.

Steve Cutts, "Are You Lost In The World Like Me?"

"How It Really Is"

 

Dan, I Allegedly, "This Economy Is Breaking Us!"

Full screen recommended.

Dan, I Allegedly, 10/25/25

"This Economy Is Breaking Us!"

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- https://www.youtube.com/

"The Fragility Of The Digital Age"

"The Fragility Of The Digital Age"

by Jeffrey Tucker

"The outage is “catastrophic.” So arrived the message from a server that hosts a service that is important to my life. Seemingly out of nowhere, the world came to an end for a full day until power was restored. What was the reason? I don’t know the particulars but it is usually always the same. An update in one software was inconsistent with another. A line of code got through that didn’t work as planned. Some third-party software stopped communicating with the main server. A cascade of effects followed that messed up everyone’s lives.

This is becoming more and more common. Two days earlier, all the servers hosted by Amazon went down. This wrecked countless social sites, financial services, airline reservations, and banks. Whole industries ground to a halt, and for exactly the same reasons.

Everything about the digital age works great until it doesn’t. Neither you nor I can fix it when it does break. We don’t likely know people who can. We are all vulnerable. Our hands are tied. We can only sit and wait for the administrators of the services to kick the machines, tug on the wires, revert the codes, reboot this and that, and otherwise somehow find out what’s wrong.

I was a server administrator in the early days so I have my experiences with outages. You are staring at black screens. So the mind begins to wander. The problem could trace to one of dozens of possible causes. Or maybe hundreds or thousands. Or millions. The only way to get through it is to be very calm and rational. It’s a process of elimination and that requires disciplined logic. And quiet.

Meanwhile, everyone around you is screaming for a fix. The boss is freaking out. Emails and phone calls are flying everywhere. Online communications are blowing up. It’s like the world is ending. And yet you have to be the clear-headed one, even as the heat is on. When you find out the real issue, it seems perfectly obvious. Then people wonder what took you so long.

Here is the real problem we face. The whole of civilization embraced digital technology as the new shiny object. It seemed like the thing to do. Mostly it worked. But there has been a tremendous neglect of basic principles of engineering such as creating redundancy. When things go wrong, you need a backup plan. In principle, code architects know this. In practice, creating redundancy is the most neglected feature of the digital age, because doing so does not pay the bills.

Think of how centralized the Amazon servers are. Millions of businesses and connections rely on them, and they are mostly very reliable. Indeed, they have a near-perfect record. But the trick is the “near” part. You never know what part will break and when, and what the consequences will be.

The key problem is that the people most affected by breakage are powerless to do anything about it. We are completely at the mercy of the digital masters. And with artificial intelligence (AI) it is even worse. The digital masters are themselves machines that absolutely no one fully understands. When AI starts to break, we are going to rue the day that everyone and his dog threw themselves into this without so much as a thought.

Often I think back to when I was a kid. My brother and I took apart a 1963 Volkswagen Beetle. Yes, I was too young to participate much but I helped. Every piece of the car was disassembled, reassembled, and put back together again. True, it never really started well after that but you could roll it with your foot and give it a kick. The point is that we were able to do it. That is not possible these days.

To be sure, that cannot be the whole standard by which we judge technology. The division of labor is real and meritorious. In a market society, we are always going to take advantage of the ability to cooperate with providers of goods and services that we cannot, even in principle, replicate. That said, surely there is a balance here. Do we really want to live in a world where no one can fix anything? When all the services you need are down and there is no one to call?

Keep in mind that these digital systems control your ability to open your front door, start your car, heat your home, and have access to your money. When they go, you are without a home, transportation, and money. This is a terrifying reality and yet here we are.

More and more, it is not possible even to navigate the world around you without a cellphone. Personally, I cannot stand this. I will always ask for a real menu, use a printed out ticket, and even try to figure out directions to places without the aid of GPS (which is a serious challenge in my case). But doing all of this is essential now that the world is so fragile.

This is hardly my own opinion, by the way. I’m not a lone crank. I’ve spoken at length with top engineers at major companies and universities. They express the same worries. The problem is that no one really knows what to do about it.

Meanwhile, outages are increasing even as systems are growing more complex, thus increasing the intensity of consequences. Our lives are ever more dependent on systems that no one controls. This happened recently at the airport when I had a physical ticket but the system listed me as not having fully checked in. Everyone in charge wanted me on the plane but the gods of technology said no. Guess who won the struggle: the machines. I had to miss my flight, leaving me stranded and missing appointments.

That was only the beginning of the problems on that trip. Every single one of them traced to the same source: technology that was not cooperating with the wishes of the employees and the managers of the system. Everyone has stories like this. It is getting alarming. You take for granted that something works. Suddenly and seemingly out of nowhere, it does not work. You never quite recover your sense of security once you face this.

What can be done? Systems administrators can eschew total dependence on clouds and AI and adopt technology more slowly, building in redundancy at every stage. As consumers, we can be more attentive to preparing for the worst by reducing our reliance on digits. I will always choose analog over digital when possible.

A scene pops into my mind when thinking about this subject. It is the cobbler in my neighborhood who is still repairing shoes with machines made back in the 1920s. These machines have lasted 100 years and still get the job done. Nothing today is built this same way. We are on three-year cycles of buy and throw away. This is not a sign of genuine progress but the way the world ends. Stock up on silver dimes and firewood. Meet some real farmers. Go back to physical locks. The time could come when you need them."

- https://www.theburningplatform.com/

"The Rise and Fall of the American Mall - $1.5 Trillion Retail Space Turning to Ghost Towns"

Full screen recommended.

Rise and Fall America, 10/25/25

"The Rise and Fall of the American Mall - 

$1.5 Trillion Retail Space Turning to Ghost Towns"

"Once the beating heart of suburban America, the shopping mall is now disappearing. In this video, we explore The Rise and Fall of the American Mall and how a $1.5 trillion retail empire is turning into abandoned space and fading memories. We begin by examining the retail apocalypse in America, and how changes in technology, e-commerce, and lifestyle are accelerating the decline of once-thriving malls. These centers were once temples of consumption, but now many are empty - ghost towns of U.S. retail.

We dive into the evolution of shopping mall business models, why anchor stores are closing, and how malls failed to adapt fast enough. From suburban growth to urban decay, this is a case study in the fall of physical retail spaces. As American mall foot traffic declines, questions arise: What replaces the mall? Who is buying these properties? And what does it mean for the future of retail real estate in the U.S.?

We highlight shifts in consumer behavior in malls, the impact of e-commerce vs traditional retail, and the role of economic factors like inflation, debt, and changing generational preferences. While some malls are being reinvented into mixed-use spaces, many remain vacant, waiting for revival - or demolition. This is not just about buildings. It's a story about economics, psychology, and society. Understanding why shopping malls are failing in the U.S. reveals more than commercial trends - it reflects how Americans shop, socialize, and spend. Whether you remember mall culture or are tracking retail investment trends, this video helps make sense of the transformation underway."

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The Rise and Fall of Burger King - 

From $18 Billion Empire to 2,000 Store Closures

The Rise and Fall of Pizza Hut: A $5.7 Billion Collapse

The Rise and Fall of Subway: 

The $11 Billion Empire That Crumbled

Snyder Reports, "Days Away From MASS Chaos, Shutdown Hurting Millions"

Full screen recommended.

Snyder Reports, 10/25/25

"Days Away From MASS Chaos, 

Shutdown Hurting Millions"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"Gen Z's Grim Economic Prospects"

"Gen Z's Grim Economic Prospects"

by Jeffrey Tucker

"The generation of young people just starting out in their careers faces an uphill battle unlike anything confronted by their parents and grandparents. For them, the promise of the American Dream is elusive at best. Everything is more expensive. The job market is frozen for pay for which they were hoping. Industry is changing so fast that educational credentials are ever less valuable. There is real panic in the air among them, which is why so many have turned to substance abuse and far-flung hopes of making it rich in crypto or the influencer economy.

A new survey on the expenses faced by this generation has appeared that frames it up in alarming terms-:

• Over 20 years from 2005 to 2025, the cost of all essentials has soared:

• Housing (rent) is up 120 percent.

• Transportation is up 86 percent.

• Education is up 133 percent.

• Groceries are up 79 percent.

• Entertainment is up 100 percent.

• Utilities are up 53 percent.

• Time to save for house down payment has gone from 8 to 14 years.

• The average student debt burden has moved from $20K to $30K.

• The real increase in salaries is 12 percent.

Health insurance these days is a killer of living standards, averaging $27,000 from the business side and that’s without using it. Housing ownership seems largely out of the question. In general, this whole generation has a delayed wealth curve that is 7 to 10 years relative to prior generations. In other words, it’s a lost generation, with a financial challenge that is matched by the trauma of pandemic lockdowns, ill-education, and digital addiction.

Behind all this is a hidden force at work, the dramatic devaluation of the currency over five years. During this time, the dollar lost 25-35 percent of its value, depending on the service or good in question. Salaries simply are not keeping up.

All this began to unfold in 2020 when the Federal Reserve accommodated the wildest spending binge by Congress in American history. The result was debt, which the Fed purchased with newly printed cash, which was then dispersed to the public in the form of stimulus payments.

Anyone with a modicum of economic knowledge could foresee the problem. This was not like the quantitative easing of 2008 which deployed an accounting trick to keep the new money locked up in bank vaults. The monetary expansion of 2020-2023 resulted in hot money on the street, which translates directly to higher prices and a lower purchasing power.

Click image for larger size.

There are many ways to represent the impact on income but consider what has happened in the world center of markets for a century, New York City. What we see is a picture of massive disruption over five years, to the point of absolute calamity. Real median household income is lower now than five years ago. Many businesses were driven out or died completely. Some of the most productive residents left.

Click image for larger size.

The reality on the ground is worse than it seems. The city is unaffordable for any regular income earned by a young person. Even worse, the physical conditions of the city have deteriorated dramatically. If you haven’t visited in 20 years, you will likely find the place unrecognizable. The same can be said of many U.S. cities, the very places where young people once depended upon for career starts.

All the political winds in D.C. right now are demanding lower and lower interest rates so as to make servicing the new debt more affordable. The problem with this strategy is that artificially lowered rates send distorted signals to industry. The message is borrow, expand, build in leverage or get wiped out by the competition. At some uncertain point in the future, the pattern breaks as consumers are completely tapped out.

The economy cannot operate as a perpetual motion machine. Prosperity cannot be maintained by endless cycles of fakery, with fresh money fueling higher financials and rewarding people on the other side of the divide. Anyone with a million in the bank can sit back and live off the proceeds forever while young workers just starting out can hardly pay the bills. This is combustible, politically and culturally.

What is the solution? As with every inflation in history, the first step is to stop the money printers. That is easier said than done simply because the entire financial system today is addicted to debt finance which in turn depends on a Fed forever cranking out the fiat. The fear here is that the fix will be worse than the disease.

Today, it is widely accepted that inflation should run hotter than it has normally been in the entire postwar period, so between 2 and 3 percent. Many suspect that the Fed has quietly changed the target to 2.5 percent. There is plenty of evidence that this is true, in which case there will be no real solution forthcoming.

The latest CPI data is running hot at 3 percent, further suggesting the possibility of a second wave. This would be a disaster, sealing the fate of a generation. Meanwhile, there is no mystery about the cause: it’s the money printing!

Click image for larger size.

It was four decades ago when I graduated from college without a thought about a job, debt, or paying the bills. I wasn’t irresponsible. These were not issues my generation confronted. We just assumed that if you had skill and will, everything else would fall into place. You found a place to live, worked hard, and everything worked out.

We had no idea at the time that we were living in a rare moment of history. Low inflation, low unemployment, high growth, freedom and ebullience all around. Now that moment is entirely gone, replaced with anxiety that is mutating to panic and despair. Old people don’t care much because they are doing just fine - perhaps the last American generation that can count on being comfortably well off.

The only way that Gen Z can battle this problem is by a big change in spending habits. The same survey cited above reports that young workers are spending on average $300 per month on restaurants and bars. Maybe that doesn’t sound like much but simply changing that habit - cooking at home instead of throwing away money on expensive dining - would make a big difference.

A major problem here is that Gen Z needs to change its expectations, all of which are rooted in class fears fueled by social media nonsense. They have to be at the right spots, wear the right clothes, live in the best places, and drive fashionable cars. These are extremely powerful psychological pulls. Corporate finance is there to seem to make it all possible for a while.

In the last three years, myriad companies have sprung up to give cash advances by linking one’s bank account on the spot while shopping. The fees are high because they are not classified as interest, and they evade regulatory controls. What these companies are doing is exploiting class insecurity and pillaging the people who can least afford it.

The only real solution here is the traditional value of frugality. It’s possible to buy groceries from less-fashionable places, dial back amenities in apartment living, buy used clothing from online marketplaces, and forgo vacations and entertainment. You can cut the bills, with the goal of having zero debt. This is the only way to live as a young person if you have any hope of building a secure future.

Economic headwinds are leaning hard against Gen Z and this has produced a kind of demoralization. Nothing works as it once did. Policymakers and parents can help but the ultimate solution is going to come down to a change of priorities."

- https://www.zerohedge.com/

"If The Economy Is Good Why Does It Feel Like Everything Is Falling Apart?"

Full screen recommended.

Michael Bordenaro, 10/25/25

"If The Economy Is Good Why Does

 It Feel Like Everything Is Falling Apart?"

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Adventures With Danno, "Shocking Prices At Walmart"

Full screen recommended.

Adventures With Danno, 10/25/25

"Shocking Prices At Walmart"

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Full screen recommended.

Travelling with Russell, 10/25/25

"Why Is There Still A 

German Supermarket in Russia?"

"I discovered a German-owned Supermarket in Moscow, Russia. Why is a German Supermarket in Russia in 2025? With such extensive sanctions imposed on Russia, how is this supermarket still open and trading? Let's find out together."

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"Alert! Russia Declares 'We Are At War with USA'; Troops Deploy Near Venezuela; Tomahawks Soon"

Full screen recommended.

Prepper News, 10/24/25

"Alert! Russia Declares 'We Are At War with USA';

 Troops Deploy Near Venezuela; Tomahawks Soon"

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"NASA's AI Just Decoded Messages From 3I/ATLAS - The Truth Is Horrifying"

A Terrifying Must-View!

Full screen recommended.

RevVolt, 10/24/25

"NASA's AI Just Decoded Messages From 3I/ATLAS -

 The Truth Is Horrifying"

"NASA’s secret AI program has just decoded strange signals coming from the interstellar object 3I/ATLAS, and what it uncovered is nothing short of terrifying. The data transmission - once thought to be random cosmic noise - has revealed structured patterns and language-like sequences that suggest intelligent origin. Insiders are claiming that the decoded messages contain warnings about planetary cycles, energy disruptions, and something approaching our solar system that defies known physics. NASA has refused to release the full transcript, but leaked portions describe a message so unnerving that several scientists allegedly walked away from the project entirely. What NASA’s AI found changes everything we thought we knew about space - and who might be watching us."

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Full screen recommended.

Michio Kaku, 10/24/25

"3I/ATLAS Was The Scout. This Is The Fortress"

"Something enormous has entered our Solar System and it’s not just another comet. SWAN R2. Astronomers and NASA are stunned as this object, SWAN R2, dwarfs everything we’ve seen before. Michio Kaku, the mind behind the 3I/ATLAS investigation, now calls it “the fortress.” Could SWAN R2 be connected to 3I/ATLAS or something even more mysterious? From alien engineering to cosmic intelligence, this could rewrite what we know about space and life beyond Earth. Join me, Michio Atlas, as we explore this cosmic mystery that has scientists and maybe even civilizations watching us back. SWAN R2 isn’t just an object… it might be a message."

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Full screen recommended.

Michio Kaku, 10/24/25

“3I/ATLAS Just Sent a Warning 

Signal That Put NASA In Panic Mode” 

"Something unprecedented just happened in deep space - and NASA isn’t ready for it. Astrophysicist Michio Kaku has revealed new data suggesting that 3I/ATLAS, the mysterious interstellar object speeding through our solar system, may have just emitted a signal unlike anything we’ve ever detected before. NASA scientists were reportedly caught off guard, as monitoring systems picked up a strange pulse pattern moments before the object changed trajectory. Now, Michio Kaku says this could be a cosmic “warning” - or a natural phenomenon we still don’t understand. Is 3I/ATLAS trying to tell us something? Or are we witnessing the first real contact event in history?"

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A Summary Comment: So they've just discovered a second 3I/ATLAS, named 3I/ATLASII, identical in every way and entering the solar system on the exact same vector and speed, with unverified but strong indicators of 2 more identical objects incoming from further out. Additionally there are 9 objects around 3I/Atlas, in perfect formation alignment surrounding 3I/ATLAS, which may be a scout ship for a larger fleet arriving in strength. The 2 known 3I/ATLAS vessels will connect in the orbit space near Venus on November 1. If all are verified and have the same escorts we'd have 4 3I/ATLAS vessels and 36 escort vessels. Each of the escort objects generate 20 gigawatts of energy. The incoming enormous C/2025 R2 (SWAN) mothership is 100 times the size of I3/ATLAS, and is generating 10,000 gigawatts of energy. (Earth's total global nuclear power capacity totaled 396 gigawatts, with 439 reactors operating across over 30 countries as of July 2024. An Earthly nuclear power plant generates 1 gigattatt at full power.) As the astronomer/physicist Avi Loeb states, if 3I/ATLAS is the "scout" ship SWAN is the "fortress" mothership to which 3I/ATLAS is sending reports. My guess is that it was the sudden massive energy signatures of using the atomic bombs in the 1940's that caught their attention. Their purpose unknown, all conjecture at this point, but data repeatedly verified. What does all this mean for Humanity, for you and me? If Humanity has a future... We shall see... We can't fight, and there's nowhere to escape to. - CP

o

"I can never look now at the Milky Way without wondering from which of those banked clouds of stars the emissaries are coming. If you will pardon so commonplace a simile, we have set off the fire alarm and have nothing to do but to wait. I do not think we will have to wait for long." - Arthur C. Clarke, "The Sentinel"

Apparently our waiting is over...we are not alone.

Jeremiah Babe, "The FED Is About To Turn The Money Printers Back On At Full Speed"

Full screen recommended.

Jeremiah Babe, 10/24/25

"The FED Is About To Turn The 

Money Printers Back On At Full Speed"

We've got a lot of not-so-good economic news today for America, as the US national debt just exceeded 38 trillion for the first time. The debt has reached its "blowout" phase where new trillions will be added every 30 days in the near future.

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Debt to the penny.

- //fiscaldata.treasury.gov/datasets/

"The 7-Stage Collapse Pattern: Spain, Britain, USSR... USA Is At Stage 5"

Full screen recommended.

Economy Rewind, 10/24/25

"The 7-Stage Collapse Pattern: 

Spain, Britain, USSR... USA Is At Stage 5"

"For 500 years, a pattern has destroyed every global superpower that followed it. Spain collapsed in the 1600s. Britain lost its empire by 1954. The Soviet Union disintegrated in 900 days. Three empires. Three complete collapses. All following the exact same seven-stage sequence. And the United States has already completed five of those seven stages.

This documentary traces the collapse pattern across three superpowers and five centuries - from Spain's silver wealth that bankrupted the richest empire on Earth, to Britain's pound that lost reserve currency status within decades of two world wars, to the Soviet Union that went from superpower to non-existent in less than three years. Each believed they were exceptional. Each believed the pattern wouldn't apply to them. Each followed the sequence to total collapse anyway. The seven-stage pattern is identical across all three empires: 

Stage 1 - Military Overextension,

Stage 2 - Currency Debasement, 

Stage 3 - Debt Spiral, 

Stage 4 - Loss of Productive Capacity, 

Stage 5 - Social Decay, 

Stage 6 - Loss of Reserve Currency Status, 

Stage 7 - Collapse. 

Spain completed all seven stages between 1590 and 1670. Britain completed them between 1914 and 1954. The Soviet Union completed them between 1945 and 1991. And the United States is currently at Stage 5, with clear warning signs of Stage 6 emerging.

This isn't speculation about some uncertain future. This is pattern recognition across 500 years of documented history. Three empires followed seven stages. All three collapsed completely. The United States has completed five stages and is showing early signs of stage six. The math is unsustainable - $38 trillion debt growing by $2 trillion annually, interest payments exceeding $1 trillion, no political will to address it. The pattern says Stage 6 and 7 are inevitable. The only question is timing. History doesn't predict the exact date, but it shows the sequence with absolute certainty. Understanding where we are in that sequence determines whether you prepare or get blindsided."

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Musical Interlude: 2002, "Greater Than The Sum"

Full screen recommended.

2002, "Greater Than The Sum"

In Ancient Greece, philosopher Aristotle (384–322 B.C.)

wrote “The whole is greater than the sum of the parts”

"A Look to the Heavens"

“Here is one of the largest objects that anyone will ever see on the sky. Each of these fuzzy blobs is a galaxy, together making up the Perseus Cluster, one of the closest clusters of galaxies. The cluster is seen through a foreground of faint stars in our own Milky Way Galaxy.

Near the cluster center, roughly 250 million light-years away, is the cluster's dominant galaxy NGC 1275, seen above as a large galaxy on the image left. A prodigious source of x-rays and radio emission, NGC 1275 accretes matter as gas and galaxies fall into it. The Perseus Cluster of Galaxies, also cataloged as Abell 426, is part of the Pisces-Perseus supercluster spanning over 15 degrees and containing over 1,000 galaxies. At the distance of NGC 1275, this view covers about 15 million light-years.”

- http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap110712.html

Chet Raymo, “Tyger, Tyger Burning Bright…”

“Tyger, Tyger Burning Bright…”

by Chet Raymo

“Divinity is not playful. The universe was not made in jest but in solemn incomprehensible earnest. By a power that is unfathomably secret, and holy, and fleet.” You may recall these words from Annie Dillard’s “Pilgrim at Tinker Creek.” There is nothing intrinsically cheerful about the world, she says. To live is to die; it’s all part of the bargain. Stars destroy themselves to make the atoms of our bodies. Every creature lives to eat and be eaten. And into this incomprehensible, unfathomable, apparently stochastic melee stumbles… You and I. With qualities that we have - so far - seen nowhere else. Hope. Humor. A sense of justice. A sense of beauty. Gratitude. But also: Anger. Hurt. Despair. Strangers in a strange land.

Galaxies by the billions turn like St. Catherine Wheels, throwing off sparks of exploding stars. Atoms eddy and flow, blowing hot and cold, groping and promiscuous. A wind of neutrinos gusts through our bodies, Energy billows and swells. A myriad of microorganisms nibble at our flesh.

We have a sense that something purposeful is going on, something that involves us. Something secret, holy and fleet. But we haven’t a clue what it is. We make up stories. Stories in which we are the point of it all. We tell the stories over and over. To our children. To ourselves. And the stories fill up the space of our ignorance. Until they don’t. And then the great yawning spaces open again. And time clangs down on our heads like a pummeling rain, like the collapsing ceiling of the sky. Dazed, stunned, we stagger like giddy topers towards our own swift dissolution. Inexplicably praising. Admiring. Wondering. Giving thanks.”

- http://blog.sciencemusings.com/

◆

“The Tyger”

“Tyger! Tyger! burning bright

In the forests of the night,

What immortal hand or eye

Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

In what distant deeps or skies

Burnt the fire of thine eyes?

On what wings dare he aspire?

What the hand dare sieze the fire?

And what shoulder, and what art.

Could twist the sinews of thy heart?

And when thy heart began to beat,

What dread hand? and what dread feet?

What the hammer? what the chain?

In what furnace was thy brain?

What the anvil? what dread grasp

Dare its deadly terrors clasp?

When the stars threw down their spears,

And watered heaven with their tears,

Did he smile his work to see?

Did he who made the Lamb make thee?

Tyger! Tyger! burning bright

In the forests of the night,

What immortal hand or eye

Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?”

- William Blake

"Why Nihilism Is Taking Over Modern Society"

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The Psyche, 10/24/25

"Why Nihilism Is Taking Over Modern Society"

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o

"We work in the dark. We do what we can to battle the evil that would otherwise destroy us. But if a man's character is his fate, it's not a choice but a calling. Sometimes the weight of this burden causes us to falter from the fragile fortress of our mind, allowing the monster without to turn within. We are left alone staring into the abyss, into the laughing face of madness."

- Fox Mulder, "X-Files"

“He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself

 does not become a monster, when you gaze long

 into the abyss the abyss also gazes into you.”

- Nietzsche

o

Freely download “Beyond Good And Evil”, by Friedrich Nietzsche, here:

- https://ia803401.us.archive.org/

"U.S. War Warning: This Will Hit Your Wallet Hard And Fast"

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Snyder Reports, 10/24/25

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"The West Conquers Itself"

"The West Conquers Itself"

By J.B. Shurk

“Divide and rule” tactics are as old as human conflict. Instead of building consensus among the members of a tribe or nation, rulers exacerbate grievances that exist between social groups. By doing so effectively, a military or political leader with only minority support can maintain control over a much larger group of people who refuse to work together. Julius Caesar used this strategy to conquer Gaul. The Ottoman Empire ruled over a great number of tribes using the same technique. The British Empire controlled the Indian subcontinent in much the same way. Turning potential enemies against one another enables an otherwise insufficient force to seize and preserve power.

Modern Western politics is an endless “divide and rule” operation. Rarely do political leaders speak in terms that will unite strong majorities of their peoples. Even more rarely do they speak of their nations as families or articulate ways for everyone to get along. Instead, they divide society into groups of “oppressors” and “victims” and explain to anyone suffering why it’s someone else’s fault.

In parliamentary systems across Europe, there are so many political parties that national leaders rarely have majority support. Floating political alliances often produce legislative results that the public could never have predicted. For many years, I have regularly asked European friends and associates whether they view their national identity as more important than their European Union identity. I’ve asked them point-blank, “Are you willing to give up national sovereignty for a single, continental government?” Every single time - regardless of how pro-E.U. the person is - the answer is the same: “My nation comes first.”

Regardless of those expressed personal feelings, the European Union barrels ahead toward a single super-state. What started out as a post-war trading bloc exercising few real powers has grown into a continental government with its own currency, president, debt, and growing budgets. If the Eurocrats can successfully use the Russia-Ukraine War to scare member-states into action, there will soon be a single European military force. WWI ended several historic empires on the continent. WWII ended German dreams of a pan-European empire. Eighty years later, a single European empire looks all but certain.

How did that happen? Well, it certainly didn’t come from a Europe-wide referendum in which the half a billion citizens were asked whether they would agree to dissolve national borders and elect Ursula von der Leyen as president. It came from steady incrementalism over many decades, during which local divisions were used to the political advantage of one overarching European government. Don’t like your national government or local representatives? Put your faith in the European Union, and all your problems will disappear.

There’s a reason the European Commission spends so much money on “democracy” movements within the borders of member-states: It has a vested interest in riling up the locals and diluting anti-E.U. sentiment. These days, European Union officials tell the continent’s inhabitants that to be “anti-E.U.” is to be “pro-Putin.” Europeans who prefer national sovereignty are dismissed as “dangerous nationalists” who spread “Russian disinformation.” It’s a cynical yet effective way to build a European empire.

In the United States, two major political parties generally vie for power. This means that a majority of citizens usually supports the elected president. It does not mean, however, that the “divide and rule” dynamic is any less pervasive. When discussing current events in the United States, corporate news talking heads are stuck on endless repeat: racism, white supremacy, Christian nationalism, Islamophobia, homophobia, transphobia, fascism, and hate. Everything that news corporations publish is meant to turn Americans against one another.

Why would international corporations spend so much time working to divide Americans? Because if American citizens are busy calling one another “racists” and “bigots,” then they’re not paying attention to how the federal bureaucracy is spending trillions of dollars in taxes. We watch Republican and Democrat members of Congress call one another vile names leading up to an election, and then we watch those same politicians laughing with one another once they’ve been handed another term in office.

Republican and Democrat senators don’t despise one another. They despise the American taxpayer who might object to whatever new spending boondoggle they have planned. If you can keep Americans at one another’s throats, then nobody notices how many wars are being funded; how many corporate donors are being rewarded; or how much wealth is being transferred from middle-class households to “non-governmental” organizations, family foundations, foreign countries, and other profit-chasing special interests.

As for the vast federal bureaucracy that acts as a permanent government in the United States, it benefits when Americans are too busy yelling at each other to notice what its members are doing. The CIA, FBI, IRS, and EPA, and the hundreds of other agencies, departments, and governmental bodies that enforce their will upon ordinary Americans, prefer for voters to waste all their energies screaming about pronouns and historic grievances. While the politicians divide voters by relative “victimhood,” the permanent bureaucratic government rules over the people with little opposition. While the politicians speak about “democracy,” America’s unelected bureaucratic empire grows.

For several decades now, European and American officials have used mass illegal immigration as the primary engine for their “divide and rule” operations. The politicians justify their open border policies as humanitarian efforts to assist foreigners escaping oppression. They even insist that Western nations are responsible for those claiming “asylum” by blaming “global warming” on Western capitalism and calling waves of unvetted migrants “climate refugees.” All of that is just propaganda for the corporate news institutions to cycle on loop.

In reality, the endless arrival of foreign migrants supplies endless possibilities for manufactured social division. How do you “divide and rule” a Christian nation? Relocate millions of Muslims into the country and lecture the native population on “white supremacy” and “Christian nationalism.” Celebrate “oppressed” cultures and condemn Western civilization as “imperialist,” “patriarchal,” and “racist.” Accuse all those who love their country’s history of being “hateful bigots.” Redefine traditional values as forms of “hate” and then criminalize “hate.” Mass illegal immigration has become Western governments’ preferred “divide and rule” currency.

All of this engineered division within Western societies does raise an important question, though: If there is nothing left to unite us, how will we ever defend ourselves from civilizations that wish us harm? If Western citizens see their neighbors as enemies, how will they ever work together to fight back real enemies? Or do Western governments plan on dividing us until there is nothing left and America and Europe can just be handed over to Islamic conquerors and Chinese communists?

If submission to foreign powers is not the goal, then Western leaders need to throw their “divide and rule” playbooks in the fire and find ways to unite Western citizens once again. Western self-hatred has one outcome: Western immolation. If we do not rediscover the ties that bind us, we will be scattered to the wind. If we do not remember how to honor our ancestors and our cultural history, those who do cherish their history will one day conquer us. The European Union can scream about a looming Russian invasion all it wants, but it will not matter if other civilizations are allowed to invade its member-states. At some point, Western nations must stop manufacturing division. If they don’t, they will perish, and it won’t much matter who is ruling then."

- https://www.americanthinker.com/

Judge Napolitano, "INTEL Roundtable w/Johnson & McGovern - Weekly Wrap 24-October"

Judge Napolitano - Judging Freedom, 10/24/25

"INTEL Roundtable w/Johnson & McGovern -

 Weekly Wrap 24-October"

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o

Dialogue Works, 10/24/25

"Amb. Chas Freeman: It’s Collapsing!

 Israel Faces Its Worst Moment Yet…"

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The Daily "Near You?"

Fort Smith, Arkansas, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

The Poet: Czeslaw Milosz, "Hope"

"Hope"

"Hope is with you when you believe
The earth is not a dream but living flesh,
That sight, touch, and hearing do not lie,
That all things you have ever seen here
Are like a garden looked at from a gate.
You cannot enter. But you're sure it's there.
Could we but look more clearly and wisely
We might discover somewhere in the garden
A strange new flower and an unnamed star.
Some people say we should not trust our eyes,
That there is nothing, just a seeming,
These are the ones who have no hope.
They think that the moment we turn away,
The world, behind our backs, ceases to exist,
As if snatched up by the hands of thieves."

- Czeslaw Milosz,
"Hope", from "The World"

o

"What If?"

"What if you slept?

And what if,

In your sleep

You dreamed?

And what if,

In your dream,

You went to heaven

And there plucked

A strange and

Beautiful flower?

And what if,

When you awoke,

You had the flower

In your hand?

Ahh, what then?"

- Samuel Taylor Coleridge

"Brace For A Shortage Of Everything That Will Freak Americans Out"

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"Brace For A Shortage Of Everything

 That Will Freak Americans Out"

"A shortage of everything is coming, and people are getting ready. Grocery prices jumped 50-70% already. Farmers are losing their farms. The food supply is breaking down. And millions of Americans sense something much bigger is approaching. This video shows you what's actually happening right now and what to do about it. Real preppers teaching what to stockpile, medical knowledge that could save your life, how to stay safe when systems collapse. Not panic - just preparation. From depression-era essentials to understanding antibiotics, from tracking real price explosions to staying invisible when neighbors get desperate. This isn't about bunkers. This is about being ready for food shortages, economic collapse, and mass scarcity. Things that are actually coming."

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"How It Really Is"

 

"Live All You Can..."

"Live all you can; it's a mistake not to. It doesn't so much

matter what you do in particular, so long as you have your life.

If you haven't had that, what have you had?"

- Henry James

"No EBT, No Food: The Fuse Is Already Lit"

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"No EBT, No Food: The Fuse Is Already Lit"

"Millions of Americans rely on EBT cards to feed their families - but with the government shutdown, that safety net could vanish overnight. What happens when the system stops working? Will people adapt… or will chaos unfold? In this video, I talk about what an EBT halt could mean for everyday Americans, why it’s more than just a budget issue, and how this moment could become one of the largest social experiments in modern history."

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Adventures With Danno, "Items at Aldi Everyone Should Be Buying Right Now!"

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Adventures With Danno, 10/24/25

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Dan, I Allegedly, "Get Ready for Sticker Shock - Your Wallet Won’t Survive 2026"

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Dan, I Allegedly, 10/24/25

"Get Ready for Sticker Shock - 

Your Wallet Won’t Survive 2026"

"Sticker Shock Alert: Your health insurance costs are about to skyrocket in 2026, and it's a nightmare we all need to prepare for. In this video, I discuss the alarming rise in premiums, why many of us are experiencing sticker shock, and how it’s affecting individuals across the country. From my own experiences with insurance and healthcare to insights from industry professionals, this is a wake-up call everyone needs to hear. Whether you're navigating Obamacare, Medicare, or private insurance plans, the challenges are real, and the costs are staggering."

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