Generations

Familiar stranger. A paradoxical term I once heard to describe those people who exist in our lives indirectly. A tangible presence as well as an abstraction.

In the Catholic tradition, infants are given an extra set of parents - an antiquated hedging of bets - called "godmother" and "godfather".

My godmother is a familiar stranger.

She has always been a presence in my life though I would be hard-pressed to recall if I have even heard her voice. For some reason, I imagine she sounds like my mother - another Kentucky girl. Growing up in Louisville (pronounced the way a drowning man might sound as he swallows the surface water on the way to the bottom, LEWavll... blub lub...), I like to think the clean air and clean water soften the vocal chords to create that rustic antebellum yodel.

If, in reality, she sounds like she swallowed a box of nails, I wouldn't know.

When my mother tells tales of her past, they invariably find their way back to my godmother, a gal called Bev - so many Kentucky summers ago. I sometimes try to imagine these years. The halcyon days of the late 50's and early 60's - braving the edge of curfew - talking to silver-tongued boys - exhilarating - forever.

A generation removed from my own, the nuances of those times are lost in translation. But the hallmarks of youth, the universal character of it all... these I know. Our childhood years are readily embellished by the vigorous decor of Romance. I know this spell. It is a familiar incantation. Any time I get together with my closest friends, we evoke the spirits of the past as readily and familiar as laughter. My "godmother", a gal named Bev, is the embodiment of this spirit. What a great thing to be.

*****

Carl Jung would say that the very tradition of the godmother is a cultural expression of the dual-mother archetype. This also explains why my sister used to think that she was adopted and had a secret set of parents out there somewhere. Parallel to this, the idea of dual lineage (as seen in examples from Hercules to Christ) is a common social archetype manifesting across cultures and generations.

Ironically, I feel like it is in this collective current of unconscious concepts and ideas and symbols - Carl Jung's ethereal realm of the "collective unconscious" where the spiritual connection of man exists as a part of the universal flow of mysterious entanglement - that my familiar stranger and I are more familiar than strange.

We both have a love of art. Though she is a professional and I am a novice, we both paint.

Art is all about the undercurrents. Symbols. Mood. Perspective. There are very few human endeavors where the subconscious processes harmonize with a conscious act to such a degree. "Art people" can always recognize their own kind -- kindred spirits -- familiar strangers.

So in this way, my godmother, a gal named Bev, has always been a tangible part of my life. In the spirit of brotherhood, sisterhood, and companionship as well as in the spirit of the visionary, the artist, the creative force -- our connections are alive despite the fact that I have never held her hand.

As I Follow Blindly

Popping Bubbles in the Multiverse

Last night was autumn-cool.

The relentless heat of the Texas summer (which is about 9 months out of the year) makes Fall a welcome guest - even if temporary. It was a particularly starry night; the waning crescent moon was barely a scratch of light and the outdoor fluorescent that usually illuminates the place where I stood was mercifully silent. Staring up at the visible stars (the constellation of Orion looms large above my patch of earth this time of year), I settled into a ready pensiveness.

In this familiar posture, I am prepared to mediate great questions - or at least as great as I can conceive. A philosopher in the sandbox. Wrecking castles.

Thousands of years separating each point of light, species born and extinguished - from Brachiosaurus to Barack, from scrolls to smart phones, Stonehenge to the Golden Gate bridge. Amoeba to me.

This night, I could only fathom the surface. Distance and dimension eluded me the way that complex math always does. The calculus phantoms of my limitations.

I experienced a feeling much like the kind that you get when you wake from a dream. I felt the unreality of reality. In a flash it was gone and I was back to staring at the stars of the primal hunter -- signifier of seasons -- pyramids at Giza. As above, so below.

Reality snapped back into place. As did I. Or because.

*****

The seemingly bizarre notion that reality exists as unified quantum field of probability has been advanced by theoretical Physics and the sorcerers of their profession since the unification of electricity and magnetism in the 19th century.

Given the mysteries of quantum entanglement and the so-called "observer effect", it seems hard to deny the role of individual consciousness (or even the Jungian collective unconscious) in actually creating the tangible world -- along with equally tangible Physicists to explain how it happens.

But the nature of scientific pursuit, as dogmatic as it may be (witness the global warming fraud), implies that today's reality becomes tomorrow's flat earth witchcraft.

This perpetual state of development and understanding -- if we are to gleam any principle from its trajectory -- is that there is no end. No final point. No touch down. Everything unfolds and unfolds.

Truth is ever-expanding. Because we are.

Without us, the universe is merely a field of superpositions and probabilities. Reality is always moving with us... Because we make it.

When I was little kid, I can remember thinking for a time that whenever we would drive, the moon would follow -- keeping pace with my dad's old V.W. Even when I realized this was not the case, I used to pretend it nonetheless.

Philosophers, scientists, thinkers throughout the ages have speculated as to the nature of reality. What is this thing called life? What is the material world? What is the metaphysical world? What is man?

But these questions imply an answer. And an answer implies an end.

There is no end. That is the answer.

Bowl of Dust

"If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face -- forever." ~George Orwell

Based on our current trajectory, the future is as bleak as any dystopian nightmare envisioned by Orwell. We have become a society where each is beholden to the next through the metrics of debt, imperialism, and what we are told is the "common good".

We have decided to silently accept the sacrifice of personal liberty for homeland security.

We have quietly funded a robust military empire and encouraged the profit schemes of the war machine.

We have capitulated to the ever-pervasive and invasive surveillance society as well as increasingly authoritarian modes of control.

We have time and again sanctioned the authority of the state to exercise force on our behalf -- whether it be the confiscation of wealth through taxation or the violation of private property through regulation.

We have accepted the principle that a proactive government, as long as it is called a "democracy" and cloaks itself in the guise of "freedom", is at liberty to invade every aspect of our personal lives as quickly as it will invade a foreign country.

We have accepted that terrorists are out to get us. We believe the lie of 9-11 as well as other events fabricated or manipulated for the purpose of control. We accept the cultural Psi-Op being run out of the CIA, NSA, and Pentagon as reality.

The fairy-tales are real.

Because they are less painful.

We blindly believe that there is still an America to believe in. Sorry. It is gone. It was long ago co-opted by the militant forces of control and subjugation.

Eventually, blogs like this - criticizing the folding fist of tyranny -- will be deemed "hate speech" or some other form of "terrorist" rhetoric.

Over and over in my head I repeat the wisdom of the famous German thinker, Goethe...

None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free.

None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free.

None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free.

The sinister beauty is all around us. An elegant sociopathic design.

Wake up.

Vigorous Control Through Vigorous Fear

An insightful essay delivered by the amazing Mr. Corbett.

Watch Me Implode

"I had a dream of the open water;

I was swimming away out to sea.

So deep I could never touch bottom...

What a fool I used to be." ~ Neal Peart

When I watch the news, I see the propaganda machine at work. The paradigm of reality is established. Norms. Modalities. Moralities. Constructs. Limited vision based on fabricated schisms: Glenn Beck versus Chris Matthews; CNN versus FOX; Sarah Palin versus Hilary Clinton; conservative versus liberal.

But when it's time to beat the drums of war -- all media harmonize. When it's time to propagandize the phony war on drugs -- all media share a common chord. None will investigate the Federal Reserve banking scheme. None remember the constitution or serve to protect individual liberty. None will question the nightmare police state taking hold in America. They capitulate to their corporate and governmental lords and promote the agenda of the elite. Maintaining the false dichotomy through fear and the exploitation of ignorance.

Swine Flu today. Financial collapse tomorrow. Weapons of mass destruction today. Terrorist plot tomorrow. On and on - the machine it turns.

When I watch network television programming, I realize that programming is not said without an understanding of irony. I see the revelation of the method. It is as sinister as it is transparent.

Once the illusion is shattered, it is shattered for good.

*****

Life is as ethereal as it is tangible. It is as majestic as it is stark. And we are damn lucky to be here. To be alive and aware at this moment -- the near mathematical impossibility of it all... and yet here you are. Here we all are.

Now clock in. Spend your life in a cubicle or office. Never take vacations. Exhaust the most productive years of your majestic life obeying rules and abiding institutions.

Or not.

We give up so much of our humanity in pursuit of media-driven cultural illusions. We accept as fact so much of the fabricated reality created by the mass media establishment. We are well-contained and in our place.

****

Enter the world wide web.

The Internet is the last bastion of free expression and discourse left in the "civilized" world. Would it be a conspiracy to assert that the elitists who have been able to control the flow of information since time immemorial have an active interest in transforming the free Internet into a glorified version of cable TV? Would it be a conspiracy to argue that the globalist masters who run this fabricated reality scheme have a vested interest in maintaining control over humanity -- obscuring the limitless potential of human development (free energy and other liberating technologies) by declaring it classified as a matter of national security? Are we being lied to about everything?

Yes. It's a conspiracy, alright. And a nasty one at that. It goes to the very core of human freedom and potential. Mankind is never liberated by its governments or institutions. It is only enslaved by them. They know no other purpose. Those in control of the levers and gears of manufactured consent fear nothing more than the light of truth. Illumination.

The false reality matrix of controlled culture and the media propaganda machine are threatened by the Internet and all that it represents.

Is it too late? Is the genie too far out of the bottle? For the sake of free humanity, let us hope.

With Osiris On Our Side

When I was a young boy I took my first communion. Being from a Catholic family, I was brought up to believe in the Christian God and His son who is also God and the ethereal presence known as the Holy Ghost who also happens to be God.

The idea of the Trinity was a perplexing one. My young mind had difficulty hammering out the logistics of it all.

Moreso - the idea of the brutal and bloody sacrifice of a deity was a wretched one -the idea of immaculate conception was an intriguing one -the idea of Noah and his arc was a ridiculous one -the idea of Moses destroying the cow-worshiping Jews who followed him to Mount Sinai was a frightening one -and the idea of going to church in order to sit/stand/kneel while surrounded by a citadel of stained glass depicting the Crucifixion and Resurrection was a tedious one.

I was taught to believe in priests and popes and churches and sin. I was taught that the benevolent creator of the universe was watching. And when I committed sin, I injured God.

As a child, being properly taught to fear an entity who had nearly destroyed all of humanity through flood (along with many rogue factions of Adam's descendants through organized warfare and genocide -- sucks to be a Canaanite), I decided that when it was time to engage in my first act of confession -- I would come clean.

The sins of an entire decade on earth went something as follows:

Sometimes I don't listen to my mom and dad. Sometimes I say bad words - like shit and goddamn (I remember actually saying them). Sometimes I get mad and fight with my sisters. One time I stole something from the store. And one time I told God that I hated him.

I was told to say a certain number of Hail Mary's (I think it was thirty -but I wouldn't bet) and to listen to my parents and to stop fighting with my sisters and to stop taking things that don't belong to me.

Here's your receipt. Come again.

As I got older, our mandatory Sunday service became less and less frequent. I'd like to think that my mother and father found it as dull and uninspiring as I did. More likely, they were too busy and too tired raising three kids while working full-time and keeping afloat during the bum years of the early 80's.

Either way, I'm glad that we finally limited our church visits to the obligatory Thanksgiving mass when my very Catholic grandmother would visit from Virginia. Maybe we'd go on Christmas eve. During high school - almost never.

Now - only when a niece gets baptized or goes through the same Communion process as the rest of the fold.

I never eat the bread. Even though I could. Technically.

Yet I still believe in a spiritual force, or sublime system, or transcendent ocean of consciousness called "god". I still hold to a strong moral code. And when I meditate at night just before drifting off into the ether, I know such lovely pictures!

Men who credit God for their greatness, from my point of view, have it all wrong. They are great only because they are themselves the subjective expression of that which we call God.

That force, that unified field of consciousness, is filtered through the human body and manifests as individual perception. But separateness is an illusion of the bio-mechanical body suit which we wear. Our three-dimensional experiences and observations of reality are limited to the mechanical possibilities and limitations of the human mind. There is much more to perceive than we are capable of perceiving.

If I am wrong -- then I hope the answer is reincarnation. I want to come back as an Egyptian Pharaoh. Or Henry David Thoreau.

"All goes onward and outward, nothing collapses,

and to die is different from what any one supposed. And luckier."

~Walt Whitman

Page 9,001 Subsection B4

Are the nuances and subtleties somehow apart from the principle of things? Freedom and servitude. Liberation and subjugation.

I have often been accused of lacking nuance in my geopolitical view - a sin against the complex machinery of the globalist leviathan. After all, who needs principles when there are so many layers of carefully contrived nuance to consider?

I have likewise been accused of wanting to do away with revered and "vital" institutions - such as the vampire Federal Reserve system - instead of reforming from within. Working to refine layer upon layer of nuance for the sake of sustaining the unsustainable.

Perhaps my disdain is mostly true. And reasonable.

It's all bullshit slight-of -hand, I say. Tricks! -- The nuanced position is always hidden up the sleeve.

Rather than "doing away" with these institutions, I would like to see our species render them irrelevant. Outgrow them. Transcend them. Corrupt politicians and bureaucrats, corporate vultures and financiers -- we are responsible for their power because we perpetuate the institutions they use to subdue us. .

We are responsible for the Orwellian society they have conspired to create. Our weakness. Our Fear. Our gullibility and distraction. We make the prison ourselves. We live in it without protest or concern. Without question. Obedient to the last.

"...BE the change you want to see in the world," said Gandhi.

In the end, all that you can control are your own actions. Your thoughts. Your feelings and intention. To whom or what you choose to submit. Again, to whom or what you choose to submit. Be the change.

Nothing outside of you exists.

Freedom - as with slavery - is a state of mind.

Bring Back Henry David Thoreau

Disobedience is the true foundation of liberty. The obedient must be slaves. ~Thoreau

*****

Because all unique expressions of truth by the individual are necessarily subversive, the machinery of society and culture as well as our malignant and onerous institutions actually abhor the individual.

The holy monuments of society require conformity and submission. Sacrifice. Your life blood. Soul. Spirit. Essence.

Watch Television. Play video games. Work. Eat. Sleep. But whatever you do, don't think. Don't stare too long. Stop short. Don't take the inner-journey. Only concern yourself with the material world. Acquiesce to the ruling class. Focus on celebrity. Dream of riches. Take vaccines. Die.

******

Bring back Henry David Thoreau.

Would You Like Fries With That Dimethylpolysiloxane??

When I first began exploring the GMO/ Fluoride/ Aspartame/ Monsanto rabbit hole, I was actually somewhat skeptical. Despite significant research into the New World Order agenda and the Illuminati network of secret societies as well as the occultism involved in their ritual and traditions - I was not quite ready to believe in the "soft kill" hypothesis i.e. the slow poisoning of the masses through the machinery of science. Of course, that was then. This is now.

It is time for a new environmentalism. An environmentalism that is more concerned with the chemicals being put into the food and water supply. An environmentalism more concerned with the disturbing cocktails used in our vaccines and medications. An environmentalism that looks to the lingering chemtrails criss-crossing the skies and demands answers. An environmentalism that is based on human health and harmony. A real environmentalism. Not the current environmental stasi bent on controlling everything from the temperature of your home to the contents of your refrigerator. How and when you flush the commode. Where you can fish.

The new environmentalism should not be concerned with asserting influence in Washington solely for the purpose of using the hammer of governmental force against property rights and individual sovereignty. It should concern itself with truth. Education. Enlightenment.

The largest polluters are governments and corporations. Not Joe Blow running his AC at 72 degrees during the summer. Yet the brunt of the assault of today's environmental movement focuses on the destructive power of the lowly masses - not war machines or GMO foods. This must change.

It's time for a real environmentalism to emerge.

******

Deep Breath, Exhale

This week I turned 38. A who-cares? figure to be sure. It's not like one of the biggies - 21, 30, 40, etc - where the prospect of staring down another decade or finally being able to buy a beer at the pub infuses the day with an inherent sub-text. But 38? Whatever. All I am doing is staring at 40.

The average life expectancy of a male living in the US is right at 76 years-old; being 38 means I am at the statistical mid-point of my life. Half gone, and if I am lucky, another 38 to go. If I were unfortunate enough to have been born a citizen of Mozambique, I would only have about 3 years left to live - life there being a brutal struggle unimaginable to my Western experience - so I consider myself statistically and geographically fortunate to say the least.

I have been told, and I think that the evaluation is mostly fair, that I still act a bit like a twentysomething - my fondness for crass, potty humor and a relaxed disposition that my father calls "above the fray" or "out there" as my sisters may say - speaks to both my assets and to my flaws.

According to the Jungian-based Myers-Briggs Typology test, I am a Healer Idealist. INFP. Introverted, iNtuitive, Feeling, Perceiving. Those who know me would consider it especially ironic that Aldous Huxley and George Orwell are listed as having the same personality type.

The Keirsey evaluation of this personality type states that "Idealists, as a temperament, are passionately concerned with personal growth and development. Idealists strive to discover who they are and how they can become their best possible self -- always this quest for self-knowledge and self-improvement drives their imagination. And they want to help others make the journey. Idealists are naturally drawn to working with people, and whether in education or counseling, in social services or personnel work, in journalism or the ministry, they are gifted at helping others find their way in life, often inspiring them to grow as individuals and to fulfill their potentials."

Sounds good. I'll take it. Better than some of the others. Though they never tell you things like - you're lazy or difficult to talk to or overly conceited or any of the other common character flaws... fortune-cookie compliments are never without merit and much more enjoyable to hear.

Sadly, INFPs only make up about 1% of the population according to the Keirsey scale. It seems that the agents of natural selection have been plotting against the proud Idealist. Weeding us out. Favoring personality traits better fit for the post-apocalyptic shit-hole our rulers have been creating.

The governing forces of Nature seem to understand that modern times are not the times for idealism. Realism is what will save the species. Idealism is a luxury for later.

"Tough times demand tough talk..."

These same forces could always conspire to produce far fewer personality types geared towards power and domination - these people are mostly dicks anyway. We would do much better without them. Of this, I am certain.

--Perhaps after our society implodes we will learn to rid ourselves of these central planners and the vampire machinery they create. Or maybe I can just keep hoping that Darwin will do it for us.

Oh well, happy birthday, 38. Wake me when I'm 40 and it's July of 2012 and the dollar is worth dogshit and the History channel keeps running non-stop documentaries about the Mayan calendar and the coming apocalypse. Now that's a birthday to remember!

Nibiru.

*******

In honor of my father who contributed significantly to my existence, I close with the following quotes:

Individualism regards man -- every man -- as an independent, sovereign entity who possesses an inalienable right to his own life, a right derived from his nature as a rational being. Individualism holds that a civilized society, or any form of association, cooperation or peaceful co-existence among men, can be achieved only on the basis of the recognition of individual rights -- and that a group, as such, has no rights other than the individual rights of its members. ~Ayn Rand

The philosophy of collectivism upholds the existence of a mystic (and unperceivable) social organism, while denying the reality of perceived individuals—a view which implies that man’s senses are not a valid instrument for perceiving reality. Collectivism maintains that an elite endowed with special mystic insight should rule men—which implies the existence of an elite source of knowledge, a fund of revelations inaccessible to logic and transcending the mind. Collectivism denies that men should deal with one another by voluntary means, settling their disputes by a process of rational persuasion; it declares that men should live under the reign of physical force (as wielded by the dictator of the omnipotent state)—a position which jettisons reason as the guide and arbiter of human relationships. ~Leonard Peikoff

ANTIDOTE 3

The amazing Glenn Gould's interpretation of Bach's "Chromatic Fantasy":




Why not? Ali G:



Just Breathe:



Here's one I made with the help of Animoto.com:

Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

The War On Drugs Is A Fraud

Is this sorry state the condition of man -- or is man merely being conditioned?

There is no greater testimony to the power of fear-driven propaganda than the willingness of so many Americans to submit to the so-called "war on drugs". Despite costing countless lives and billions in tax-payer debt, this heinous war continues with no end in sight.

In a 1791 letter, Thomas Jefferson stated: I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it.

This concept applies readily to the war on drugs: I would rather tend to the problems caused by addicts and addiction than to the absolutely heinous destruction wrought by sadistic and predatory street gangs, foreign paramilitary drug cartels, dangerous underground black markets, urban decay, senseless acts of violence and crime, endless cycles of poverty and oppression -- all manifestations, symptoms, and results of drug prohibition.

Since mankind is incapable of creating a Utopian society, I would much rather live in a Dystopia based upon excessive freedom than in the Orwellian nightmare we see unfolding before us today.

In our society, people can eat handfuls of doctor-prescribed Oxycontin or Adderall; they can ingest massive amounts of caffeine; they can literally drink themselves into fucking oblivion. But they can't take a bong hit? Sniff powder? Inject opium? What's the fucking difference? Where is the logic?

The most significant difference between a joint and a Vicodin is the vested interests of the institutions running the scam.

Pharmaceutical companies have a vested interest in controlling the pills that make us happy. CIA and black ops have a vested interest in secretly funding covert and clandestine operations. The prison industry has a vested interest in a steady influx of drug offenders to harden and institutionalize. The SWAT teams and DEA agents have a vested interest in raiding homes and exercising the force of corrupt law.

This is the tyranny of institutions over men.

Meanwhile, US troops, our own brothers and sisters, are being ordered to guard the opium fields in Afghanistan. It is necessary, they say, that the peasant farmers are able to cultivate the narcotics that end up on the streets of America -- just don't get caught selling, buying, or using the shit or you get to spend time in jail and suffer the consequences of institutionalized hypocrisy. Like our freedoms, you too can be gang-raped in the prison shower.

This is the sort of thing that one finds in countries where the reasonable are overpowered by the sinister. Outgunned. Outmatched. Outplayed.

We have forgotten what a free society looks like. We have forgotten many things.

In a free society, the only time a crime occurs is when one person (or group) violates the liberty and natural rights of another. A coke-head who commits a crime while jacked-up on coke should be punished for the crime. Not for the bag of powder in his sock. A primary reason why there are so few instances of drunk-driving in England -- a land awash in alcohol -- is because of the severity of the punishment associated with the crime. The same principle can be applied to drugs.

We can make it known that crimes committed while under the influence of drugs will be met with medieval justice. But if you just sit at home and shoot heroin into your eyeball -- who cares? What should it matter to society? Other than your loved ones, the rest of us do not even notice the tragedy of your circumstance. We're too busy with our own lives.

There is currently no logic, there is no consistency where our drug policies are concerned -- unless you consider the system from the perspective of those who control it. From that unholy and twisted perspective, the current system makes perfect sense.

What is sinister to a free man is benevolence to the despotic elite.

Seeking our broken submission and enslavement, the sole purpose of the war on drugs is to serve the leviathan of governmental power. It is the life-blood of corruption. Even if you have never inhaled, you become an asset to the bureaucratic network you serve and the criminals you create.

The implements of our own destruction are grown in the fields of far away lands.

The criminal elite use the powers of the CIA and other covert government agencies to maintain and control the trafficking of drugs within the borders of the US. We are living in an elaborately designed conditioning camp. Removing the countless billions of dollars generated by illegal drug trade would go a long way towards crippling the predatory institutions that prey upon the liberties of man.




I admit, I have a hard time even watching the footage of the above raid -- it disgusts me to such a degree that I literally feel sickened. This is what corrupt law and corrupt institutions can do to the mind of man. To condition an otherwise decent human being - a brother, a neighbor, a father - to become the extension and tool of tyranny. An officer of the unlawful.




It is time to end the war on drugs. It's time to break the conditioning. It's time to rediscover the concept of individual liberty -- before it's too late.

"I Love the Money Fires!"

Sometimes it takes a bit of satire:

Money, Banking, and the Federal Reserve

So maybe this documentary has a less-than thrilling production value. But it is an excellent overview of the role that money and banking have played in shaping the history of our once free republic.

This is the fetid core of corruption.


Here is something a bit more modern with a better production value explaining the sinister mechanisms of fractional reserve banking.



part 2

Police State

What the %#@! is Happening in America?

I know that it's hard to accept. I know you don't want this to be real. But it is. And you must.

Every day the noose seems to tighten. Each day we see the eroded monuments of our natural freedom -- we witness the ruin all around us. And we stare into the abyss -- until we become the abyss.

*******

Our beliefs are inexorably bound to our identities. Our moral code, our philosophical perspectives -- these are woven into the very fabric of who we are. We celebrate these virtues; we share them and solidify them within the social context. We forge our identities through the foundry of conversation and debate. We test the mettle of our beliefs, shape them, refine them... but seldom do we give them up.

Yet many times, we must.

Even in the face of overwhelming evidence, a deeply held belief is difficult to diminish.

*******

The term Cognitive Dissonance is used in psychology to describe the inherent tension that exists when an individual tries to hold two contradictory beliefs in his or her mind at the same time.

--If a person believes that he or she is good and decent but steals money from a relative, he or she will likely experience a form of cognitive dissonance. Sociopaths are common exceptions. As are politicians.

Dissonance increases in intensity the more profound a given subject is to an individual. A scientist, for example, who discovers "anomalies" contradicting conclusions held through years of academic blood, sweat, and tears will not easily relent -- just witness the crumbling evidence regarding the entire man-made global warming scandal. Al Gore must have literally crapped a carbon credit when the little scheme know as climategate lit up the Internet (despite a mainstream news blackout).

For the scientists at the IPCC, it was quite natural to disregard the medieval warm period in perpetuating and promoting a previously held belief. Many other statistical "anomalies" were also easily disregarded. In truth, we should expect nothing less. People have objectives. People have bias. People have perspectives. People have agendas.

*******

I love philosophy and theory. I always have. Especially as applied to politics.

-- I began as a democrat (long before I had to pay taxes), became a republican (G. Gordon Liddy used to talk to me while I would search for a parking place near campus), mutated into a libertarian (I rediscovered Ayn Rand and started to obsess on political theory), transformed into a neo-con after 9/11, then mutated back into an extreme libertarian a few years ago. Each time, various degrees of cognitive dissonance had to be overcome. Now I might have a knack for it. Perhaps it's time that you join me, if you haven't already beat me to it.

In Ralph Waldo Emerson's famous essay,"Self Reliance", he spends a good deal of time negotiating this psychological phenomenon (mind you, over one hundred years before Leon Festinger codified and developed the idea into a theory):

"A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do. He may as well concern himself with his shadow on the wall. Speak what you speak now in hard words, and tomorrow speak what tomorrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradict everything you said today. -- 'Ah, so you shall be sure to be misundestood.' Is it so bad, then, to be misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood."

Emerson argues that an important part of human growth is a willingness to shed the skin of yesterday. We must be willing to accept new realities for what they are and not condemn them to obscurity through the foggy lens of "foolish" consistencies. This means overcoming the cognitive dissonance associated with shifting positions and giving ground.

I think that most Americans are willing to admit that there was some level of deception on the part of the government concerning the tragic events of 9-11. Even several of the actual commissioners who sat on the 9-11 Commission have acknowledged that the government narrative regarding the events of that day is erroneous at best, deceptive at worst. Of course, this is just scratching the surface. There are so many anomalies and inconsistencies regarding the events of 9-11 that anyone with a willingness to investigate just a little will come away realizing that agencies within the government must have been complicit. This is difficult to say, and difficult to believe. Tremendous dissonance. But the truth is truth.

The vision of our free and great republic has been replaced by a gradual yet familiar tyranny. The incremental erosion of our freedoms leading up to 9-11 has only been amplified since.

It has served as the excuse for endless warfare abroad and overt assaults on personal liberty at home. The militarization of the police. The Orwellian surveillance grid. Body scanners and sound cannons. "Free speech zones" and "unlawful assemblies". The death of posse comitatus. Check points and blood samples. The list goes on and on and on.

Somewhere along the line, there was a quiet coup that struck at the foundations of our governmental systems. The shadow government that Eisenhower warned us about has ASSUMED CONTROL.

I know that it is hard to accept. I know that you don't want this to be real. But it is. And you must.

Divided By A Common Language

Today is April 15th. The most disturbing day of the year.

My colleague at work, call her Jane, is British by birth and is still British by citizenship. She has been living here since the 70's, so I often kid her about being a Yankee by default. She is highly intelligent, well-traveled, and well-educated. We see eye-to-eye on a variety of issues. We are both lovers of literature, the great Romantic tradition, and have had some lively conversations about art, poetry, philosophy, and even politics. It is in the latter, however, that our perspectives begin to diverge.

When I told her that I was thinking about going to protest the government today, she seemed a bit surprised. She truly believes that the "tea party" movement is dominated by racists and narrow-minded white men clinging to their guns and their religion. While I could not disagree with her more, she did get me to thinking about what the tea party has become.

The tea parties began with the Ron Paul revolution. From what I remember, it was dominated by Libertarians, a strong "End the Fed" sentiment, and vocal 9/11 truth activists. I count myself friendly to each of these.

Now I see what my British friend sees: Sarah Palin, Newt Gingrich, Mitt Romney, Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity... republicans.

I think it's unfortunate such a genuine anti-establishment, anti-tax, anti-big government, anti-big-brother movement has been captured by the familiar Left versus Right schism. It is a proven tactic that has worked well for our rulers in the past -- divide and conquer.

As long as people on the left, like my British friend, see divisive figures of the neo-con establishment serving as the lauded representatives of the tea party movement, then they will likewise view the movement itself with reflexive disdain -- a common reaction engendered by years of hating country-club, bible-beating, blow-hard republicans.

Once the establishment figureheads on either side of the political isle co opt an organic grass-roots movement -- half the audience is lost. The fight degenerates quickly along party lines. This makes our masters very happy.

-- I appreciate the old adage preaching to the choir. I think it aptly describes the relationship that most people have with Information. It is no secret that the human mind is quick to discard information that does not correlate with a preconceived world view. It is also no surprise that we seek media and sources of information that reinforce our systems of belief.

At this stage of my life, I'm trying to get down to the brass tacks: Liberty. Freedom. Repeat.

If it does not harmonize with my fundamental belief in the absolute sovereignty of the individual, then I will do more than disregard it... I will actively fight against it.

For someone coming from the political right, this means a willingness to criticize and question the military-industrial empire. The intelligence apparatus. The Patriot Act. The idea that the U.S military should be used in preemptive wars. Or that it should be deployed in over 130 countries with over 730 military bases for the purposes of democracy. Or that "free speech zones" and check-points and body-scanners and CCTV surveillance and a militarized police force keep us safe from the 'terrorists' lurking in every grandmother's luggage.

As someone coming from the political right, these and many other sacred cows have been sacrificed on the alter of a new awakening. Yet I must also remember that there are always greater and greater truths to be discovered and that time has a way of making fools of most.

Perhaps ages hence, after our decayed society has long since rotted away, our primitive progeny will build monuments to lament our dystopic ruin. The few who were actually on to something will be venerated as prophets. The rest remain history's fools.

-- As for Jane, my British friend, we will never see eye to eye. When we get down to the heart of the matter, our difference is an issue of philosophy. She is a collectivist. I am an individualist. She believes in the potential power of the state to create social justice. I do not.

So while we may be able to sit down and agree on a variety of political issues, in the end, there can never be a kindred revolutionary spirit.

I'm just glad that she can't vote.

Narrow Shaft of Light

Those seeking power and influence have always been quick to capitalize on man's ignorance, fears, and prejudice.

Frightened men find solace in institutions and hierarchies which hold the allure of truth while serving the pragmatic function of control. As observed off-handedly by Thoreau, "Where there is a lull in truth - an institution springs up." --Be they religious, governmental, military, or corporate... most institutions are born of primal fears and metaphysical ignorance.

-- When man was ignorant regarding the cosmos and mysteries of nature, religious institutions served to fill the vacuum.

-- When man was ignorant to the philosophies of liberty and freedom, governmental institutions manifested kings, lords, emperors, and master.

Though such claims to truth are the centrepiece of their perceived importance, the hierarchical nature of institutions ensures that the truth, if any exists, is always compartmentalized. It is disseminated according to relationships of importance within the hierarchical order. Institutions, by their very structure, are designed to control knowledge from the top down. The archetypal pyramid of power. Those at the bottom of the order -- the masses whose labor and zealotry service the institution -- receive only partial truths and disguised deceptions. This provides the greatest benefit to the few at the top -- ensuring, through incentive, the perpetuation of the lie.

-- According to a recent United Nations study, "The richest 2 per cent of people in the world own more than half of all household wealth, while the poorer half of the global population control just 1 per cent". This is the malignancy of power.

The controlling oligarchy which, as Aldous Huxley asserted in his speech at Berkeley, "has always existed and presumably will always exist", has managed to manipulate the masses from time immemorial simply by controlling the institutions in which they rely. It is in this way that the ruling elite have managed to keep populations in servitude while they themselves are privy to a life of hedonistic freedom and indulgence. Power. Domination. Secrecy. Control.

This is why the founders of this once-great republic originally created such an incredibly limited governmental structure. They understood the systemic corruption and deceptive tendencies inherent to all institutions -- especially those with potential for real power.

-- I wish my "liberal" friends would acknowledge the prevalence of this fundamental reality: What holds true for the excesses of corporate greed holds true for the excesses of governmental power. Again to quote Thoreau, "Society is EVERYWHERE a conspiracy against the individual." Not just in it's systems of managed capitalism, or merely as a product of the military-industrial complex (the traditional enemies of the political "left"). It is within the bloated bureaucracies and welfare institutions whose existence is cloaked in the guise of charity. It is in the regulations and laws which serve to limit the choices of the individual for the sake of perceived safety or security. It is indeed everywhere.

Ultimately, at its rotten and festering core, is the brutal murder of the human soul -- a state of dependence is the most wicked result of all. Thomas Jefferson put it best: "Dependence begets subservience and venality, suffocates the germ of virtue, and prepares fit tools for the designs of ambition." It is a prison built of deception -- a mighty citadel of institutions and bureaucracies. Human beings cannot evolve, either spiritually or intellectually, when they are being regulated and controlled. It is Freedom that brings the evolution of spirit, not government agencies and entitlements.

-- I wish that my neo-con/ republican friends could see the folly of imperialism. I wish they could acknowledge the effective danger of such a pervasive military and intelligence apparatus (especially when it is ultimately used against dissenting Americans). But hearing some of the bravado and testosterone-laced comments regarding the need to "nuke them middle-eastern bastards back to the stone age" disheartens me to the point of nausea. Human beings are human beings. Nations make war. Institutions make war.

Stobe Talbot (Bill Clinton's Deputy Secretary of State) observes in a 1992 Time magazine interview, "In the next century, nations as we know it will be obsolete; all states will recognize a single global authority." He then shamelessly asserts, "National sovereignty wasn't such a great idea after all."

The existence of a constitutional republic built upon the principles of Individual sovereignty -- the ultimate expression of liberty -- is the bane of all tyrants. Unfortunately, tyrants are more vigilant than a fat and complacent population undereducated in the virtues of limited government and individualism.

Although I am happy to see more and more Americans becoming aware of the deceptions and illusions which have dominated the controlled political debate for the better part of a century, I fear that we may have already crossed the bar -- once more we have drifted into the tumultuous seas of despotism.

All that we can do is RESIST.