Smart Freedom, Not More Rope

Hey, the world is changing. It will not be the same. Mixing Terrence McKenna, teachings from Kundalini yoga, wilderness awareness experiences, economics, Mormonism, and the recent conference I attended presented by the California International Bankers Association, 2012 is going to be a big year. If we are lucky, citizens are going to own the insurance markets, car manufactures, and every other "over-leveraged" capitalist industry. And the pandemic is global, with the pathogen being the IMF and World Bank.

If we are lucky, we are not going to be "communists" in the sense that the Catholic Church today was once as oppressive as today's Taliban, which they were during the dark ages. One of our biggest objectives should be in avoiding the post-soviet privatization, where billionaires were politically created by merging mafia with government. But if everyone owns stock that they can freely buy and sell, those citoyens are then responsible for the actions of their businesses in their communities.

The capitalists have sold the world enough rope to hang them many times over. Our mission, should we choose to accept it, is not to use that rope.



This post written in Berkeley, CA (go figure). Regardless of how crazy you think Berkeley is, is it not an expression of freedom? So maybe Berkeley should be studied as a model.

New American Gothic

Politico is reporting that Obama told a meeting of Bank CEOs “My administration is the only thing between you and the pitchforks.”

Definition In Exquisite Detail

Entomologist Justin O. Schmidt drew up an index to categorize the discomfort caused by stinging insects. The attack of the bald-faced hornet is "rich, hearty, slightly crunchy. Similar to getting your hand mashed in a revolving door." A paper wasp delivers pain that's "caustic and burning," with a "distinctly bitter aftertaste. Like spilling a beaker of hydrochloric acid on a paper cut." The sweat bee, on the other hand, can hurt you in a way that's "light, ephemeral, almost fruity. A tiny spark has singed a single hair on your arm." In bringing this to your attention, Gemini, I hope to inspire the rebel in you. Your homework is to create an equally nuanced and precise index of experiences that feel good. According to my reading of the astrological omens, you will be able to call on tremendous reserves of intelligence as you identify the numerous modes of pleasure that are available to you, and define them in exquisite detail.

I have always enjoyed Rob Brezsny's horoscopes. I like the free will part - nothing good can happen without some degree of freedom. Otherwise any pronouncement about the future would be a curse: the rhythm of life would be the great inevitable. In such a reality, the bad guys win. I refuse to accept their depression. We do have a choice. This you know in the part of you that can't be denied.

Which Unforeseen Economic Collapse Are They Talking About?

It can't be the one we are going through, because we know about that one.

From Chris Hedges at TruthDig.com:

"The specter of social unrest was raised at the U.S. Army War College in November in a monograph titled “Known Unknowns: Unconventional ‘Strategic Shocks’ in Defense Strategy Development.” The military must be prepared, the document warned, for a “violent, strategic dislocation inside the United States,” which could be provoked by “unforeseen economic collapse,” “purposeful domestic resistance,” “pervasive public health emergencies” or “loss of functioning political and legal order.” The “widespread civil violence,” the document said, “would force the defense establishment to reorient priorities in extremis to defend basic domestic order and human security.”

Sound cheery? How about this "revelation":

And we have few tools left to dig our way out. The manufacturing sector in the United States has been destroyed by globalization. Consumers, thanks to credit card companies and easy lines of credit, are $14 trillion in debt. The government has pledged trillions toward the crisis, most of it borrowed or printed in the form of new money. It is borrowing trillions more to fund our wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. And no one states the obvious: We will never be able to pay these loans back. We are supposed to somehow spend our way out of the crisis and maintain our imperial project on credit. Let our kids worry about it. There is no coherent and realistic plan, one built around our severe limitations, to stanch the bleeding or ameliorate the mounting deprivations we will suffer as citizens. Contrast this with the national security state’s strategies to crush potential civil unrest and you get a glimpse of the future. It doesn’t look good.

I see only one answer. We need to pull together as Americans and the world and bridge cultural gaps. We have to do it with the only force that can defeat evil, and that is love. The love that the people of Whoville felt after the Grinch stole everything. This is the story of the Peacemaker.

My friend at Adored By Hordes believes Facebook is the mechanism for the Body of Christ to function. I think Facebook has the potential to be the virtual Tree of Peace.

UPDATE: Facebook justice.