Vol. IV, No 1 - July, 2017
Original Publication in July, 1986 was an Advertiser for the Mail Order and Home-based Business Trade that ran Monthly for two years and then Quarterly for another year. Final Issue as a Trade Advertiser was published in April, 1989. Volume IV, Issue 1 contains every Political Article published in LOTH blog under The American Relayer masthead. ~ JDHWB-R
The 1787 Constitution Created an Oligarchy in the United States!
WE THE PEOPE TRAILER
The Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF) is building a movement for Community Rights and the Rights of Nature to advance democratic, economic, social, and environmental rights – building upward from the grassroots to the state, federal, and international level.
Our mission is to build sustainable communities by assisting people to assert their right to local self-government and the rights of nature.
Begun as a traditional public interest law firm seeking to protect the environment, CELDF sought to protect communities from projects such as incinerators and waste dumps which cause environmental harm. Along the way, we encountered barriers put in place by both government and corporations. Such barriers included corporate constitutional “rights” and the preemptive authority of state government – both of which are used to override community decision making.
CELDF learned that no matter how hard we tried to stop projects that cause known environmental harm, our own government had worked with corporations to make sure such projects were sited.
In fact, together they had developed a structure of law which – rather than focused on protecting people, workers, communities, and the environment – was instead focused on endless growth, extraction, and development.
It is a structure that is inherently unsustainable, and has in fact, made sustainability illegal.
Thus, we recognized that whether communities were facing fracking, injection wells, factory farms, pipelines, GMOs, water extraction, or a wide range of other threats, the barriers they faced to stopping these projects – and in their place establishing sustainable energy, water, agriculture, and other systems – were the same.
Our Work Today
Today, through grassroots organizing, public education and outreach, and legal assistance, nearly 200 municipalities across the U.S. have enacted CELDF-drafted Community Rights laws which ban practices – including fracking, factory farming, sewage sludging of farmland, and water privatization – that violate the rights of people, communities and nature.
To protect those rights, the laws address the key barriers to local self-governance and sustainability – such as corporate constitutional “rights” – and has assisted the first communities in the U.S. to eliminate corporate “rights” when they interfere with Community Rights.
Further, CELDF has worked with the first U.S. communities and the first country to establish the rights of nature in law – recognizing the rights of ecosystems and natural communities to exist and thrive, and empowering people and their governments to defend and enforce these rights.
CELDF is now bringing communities and groups together to form statewide Community Rights Networks and the National Community Rights Network to drive change from the grassroots upward to the state and federal level.
This is the start of the Community Rights Movement. Join us!
Source: https://celdf.org/about/
Democracy School -Part I
Democracy School -Part II
Democracy School -Part III
Democracy School -Part IV
Democracy School -Part V
Democracy School -Part VI
Democracy School -Part VII
Democracy School -Part VIII
Co-operative Decentralism and Solidarity Economy in the USA!
UNIFIED DECENTRALISM
The Dynamics of Economic and Political Localization
Based on a Foundation of One Life Philosophy
By Joseph H. Bryan-Royster, Ph.D.
Unified Decentralism is the eventual synthesis of human co-operative evolution as reflected in localized economic and political systems founded upon the One Life principle of Metaphysics.
Applied Metaphysics is the field of study where an integration of consciousness is pursued against a backdrop of separated aspects, or many life forms, in three-dimensional parameters of limitation on a path of linear time. The purpose of studying this field is individual realization that consciousness is not actually divided into different forms of life, when viewed from the perspective of unity at the Source level.
One Life generates multi-dimensionally into a myriad of unique aspects and is thus manifesting as a multitude of visually separate life forms when immersed into three-dimensionality passing along a trajectory of linear time. This immersion into the material plane is cyclical in nature, whereas all aspects oscillate in a continuous transition in and out of manifestation as physical form.
Until each perennial manifesting aspect comes to an individual understanding of connectedness to this One Life and demonstrates this knowledge via action while in material form, said aspect is obligated to return in physical form and do so as many times as necessary for realization and application to occur.
Realization of this One Life principle underlying all manifested life forms is only possible to recognize through the process of spiritual introspection. The external world is able to provide clues to this unity but access to and direct understanding is an internal experience found via the practice of multidimensional meditation on a regular basis. Meditation is the true key to Applied Metaphysics.
The Source, otherwise known as the First Cause of the Universe or God, is not able to be found in the external world. Three dimensionality and linear time are expressions of the backdrop against which each individuated aspect of the Source plays his or her drama of self-discovery leading eventually to understanding that the answer to Life’s riddle is buried deep within the heart of all aspects. Multidimensional meditation is the direct route to the universal Source, so when an aspect journeys away from external perception to the very center of consciousness, realization flashes in a perceptual paradigm shift and all aspects are merged as a unified whole.
A true understanding of consciousness unified at the Source level, when applied on an individual basis by aspects presently immersed in physical form, fundamentally changes the way an aspect views other aspects with whom he or she comes in contact. Competition, an action of separated identities, is transformed into co-operation, an act of unified consciousness identification, when the One Life principle is applied to human interaction and exchange.
During the corporeal phase of existence, any aspect of the Source has opportunity for making a conscious choice between belief in the illusion of separation into individualized life forms or unification of all aspects in harmony as the ultimate reality. A divided mind on this critical issue guarantees perpetuation of the serial life cycle, incorporating the process of death and rebirth for said aspect to repeat the lesson. Repetition of this exercise is also the result of conscious decision to uphold the illusion by embracing separation. Disharmony and disunion are the oppositional outcomes derived through belief in the separation, especially when used for the purpose of individual gain at the expense of another incarnating aspect's advancement while embodied in form. Co-operation in all manners of exchange, not competition, is the key to building a new paradigm of mutual prosperity here on planet Earth.
Hierarchial pyramids of temporal power are fueled by individual greed and maintain their dominance over the populace via economic bondage and, if necessary, physical destruction of those who oppose their authority to the point where their power bases are thus threatened. Private corporations, in concert with political bureaucracies enforce this subservience either through clever media generated methods of persuasion, as demonstrated in the democracies of western civilization or by propaganda and coercion in authoritarian secular dictatorship states and fundamentalist theocracies which fuse government with religious dogma. Add organized crime syndicates and international terrorist cells to the mix and one can easily visualize a laberynth of of separationist obstacles to the true decentralist whose only service to higher authority is to the One Life within all life forms who is accessed internally via the art of meditation - the universal Source.
The proverbial beast who stands as dweller at the threshold when a person has embarked upon the path of deep meditation is externalized in the manifestation of these hierarchial pyramids of economic and political power. The meditator is required to recognize that the dweller is actually the shadow or egoic personality of the aspect. When the ego is ready and willing to let release adherance to the illusion of individualized existence, the dweller vanishes and the light of the source reveals the truth. There is no separation - only union. There is no longer a dichotomy between subject and object when an aspect of the Source returns to his or her point of origin, primal first cause of the universe.
In order to translate this process on an external scale, belief in the proverbial beast must be transcended. To do this, one must sever attachment to the benefits of continued servitude and no longer allow dependence upon the hierarchial power structures for sustinance. In basic economic terms, this severance is effected through mass implementation of consumer boycotts upon large scale providers of goods and services with conscious choice to procure essential provisions from decentralized sources of supply, even if the monetary cost is greater. In political terms this process is done via grassroots monitoring of elected officials and their legislative actions on all levels from town and city, through state and provencial, and ultimately to national government and international organizational bodies. Such is possible in countries embracing the rule of law, such as the United States of America and western-style parliamentary democracies. Should such monitoring reveal either corruption or or influence manipulation by national or multi-national corporate lobbyists it is the obligation of every informed constituent to notify said elected officials that such action is not in the best interest of the people whom they serve. Failure to change policy decisions upon such notification is grounds for withdrawal of electoral support in the next election and promotion of candidates who favor localized economics and political decentralization.
In the United States, decentralist wings exist in both of the predominant political parties. Within the Democratic Party there exists the Democratic Freedom Caucus and the same holds true for the Republican Party via the Republican Liberty Caucus. Minor independent political parties such as the Green Party, taking environmental issues further than proponents within the Democratic Party, and the Libertarian Party, extending individual freedoms beyond the scope found within the Republican Party, also exist. However supporters tend to detract voters from the major parties whose decentralist caucuses they mirror and thus inadvertently assist the opposing major political party to tip an election in their favor. Both the Democratic Freedom Caucus and the Republican Liberty Caucus need to formulate need to formulate Decentralist Platform Committees for their respective major political party. Then invitations to the Greens by the Democrats and Libertarians by the Republicans on these respective Decentralist Platform Committees need to be extended which would add to electoral strength of said respective major parties.
Should decentralist platform bids fail to garner majority support in the Democratic or Republican Parties, the left and right factions of decentralism in the minor political parties, i.e. the Greens and the Libertarians, must seek common ground in order to effect a united political base. The next logical step would be to invite the respective decentralist caucus members from each of the major parties and thereby create a unified Decentralist Party with enough grassroots political support to upset the political dominance of both the Democrats and the Republicans. Internal change within the major parties through adoption of decentralist platforms is far preferable to attempting creation of a new political party in the United States, as most state election laws currently put third parties at in a position of significant disadvantage in when candidates try to have their names placed on the November ballot. Decentralist Platform Committee Forums
Unified Decentralists who are fully grounded via regular application of multidimensional meditation have a golden opportunity to provide the major catalyst toward an acceleration of both economic and political decentralization by using synchronized meditation complimented with practical demonstrations on a human scale. Active spiritual and material participation in this critical process of localized transformation is vital toward eventual manifestation as a global phenomenon. Now is the time for plugging into this unlimited energy of the Source and sharing by example!
Written in 2005, prior to the Bernie Sanders phenomenon during 2016 Democratic Party primary run leading up to "coronation" of Hillary Clinton as nominee and resulting political blow-back in the Genera Election that swept Republican nominee, Donald Trump, into office as 45th President of the United States. ~ JDHWB-R
HOW TO DISMANTLE THE FINANCIAL PYRAMID
OF THE 1% OVER THE 99%
Presented by Joseph H. Bryan-Royster of Occupy Cape Ann at the 1st Occupy National Gathering in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on July 2, 2012
We, the members of our local general assemblies in the Occupy Movement have gathered together here in Philadelphia - at the birthplace of our independence and liberty to collectively seek a new vision for the United States of America; one that is transparent in nature, founded in horizontal direct democracy, reached through local consensus, and then implemented by our elected representatives as authorized by the Constitution of this Republic.
We the people are sovereign individuals - acting collectively for the common good. Personhood belongs to individual people - not to corporations formed for private profit. Election of candidates for political office must be funded publicly and equally by the people and these rights have to be protected and preserved with amendments to the Constitution. However, before this is able to happen here in the USA the 99% need to wake up to reality!
The 1% has methodically constructed a Financial Pyramid of mind control over the economy. In the United States of America since the age of the “robber barons” back in the 19th century. Decentralized family farms and local shopkeepers were soon replaced by industrial factories taking the common people away from growing their own food and providing for themselves. With the refining of oil came dependence on fossil fuels and convenience of the automobile. With the harnessing of electricity came radio, television, and an addiction to entertainment. We did not see the deliberate consolidation of resources by corporations behind the scenes. We no longer have the means to provide for our needs because we allowed them to take it!
Here is a one dollar bill – A Federal Reserve Private Bank Note - with no true monetary value because it is fiat currency - printed without any backing of silver to establish its actual worth. All transactions within the market economy are based on this unit, or its foreign equivalents. We, the 99%, are forced to earn, spend, and borrow money in order to survive in this system. The Democratic and Republican parties have failed to promote economic equality in America and we the people can no longer count on them to represent us, especially since the Citizens United decision by the U. S. Supreme Court allowed unlimited private funding of candidates.
Public funding of elections, on an equal basis for all candidates running for office, is the only fair way to ensure that there is a level playing field for everyone involved. Corporations are not People! Money is not Speech! To reverse this, Constitutional amendments are required. If the two political parties are unable to serve the collective will of the people, then we need to create an alternative alliance of Independent candidates committed to uphold consensus decisions made by community assemblies. Organize this effectively like a third political party.
Establish a co-operative decentralized network of local economies to provide material needs for the people and reclaim our right to produce goods and services for ourselves at fair value. Consensus-based Intentional Communities and General Assemblies in the Occupy Movement have the opportunity to synthesize localized Solidarity Economies by sharing their resources.
We will build a parallel grass-roots system separate from the inter-corporate market system. Eventually, we will not have to support the Financial Pyramid of the 1%. We will not work for private profit of corporate shareholders, nor will we buy their goods or services. Sustainable, open-ended boycotts will be possible once the decentralized alternative is strong enough to dismantle the Financial Pyramid of the 1%, causing it to collapse of its own weight when the 99% ceases to serve the inter-corporate market system and starts to create a new economy.
Wall Street operates like a gambling casino in Las Vegas. The public trading of stocks, bonds, and derivatives are bets made against the collective future of the 99%. In 2008 the economy tanked and we took the hit. Then the investment bankers who profited were bailed out and we the taxpayers are expected to pay. The market economy is now proven to be bankrupt!
Establish an Interface between Inter-Occupy and the Fellowship for Intentional Community. Transform all local Occupations in the movement into functioning Intentional Communities. Build an alternative decentralized network of green worker-owned co-operative industries. Create local currencies and start exchanging goods and services without use of U. S. Dollars. Monitor politicians at all levels for compliance with local consensus decisions by the people. Forge a Communitarian Alliance of Independent Candidates running as a virtual Third Party. Mobilize a sustainable open-ended consumer boycott of inter-corporate goods and services. Practice principles of Solidarity Economy as Co-operative Decentralism emerges in the USA!
Occupy Wall Street! Occupy Philadelphia! Occupy the United States of America!
Impeachment seemed impossible a few days ago. Not anymore...
by Lawrence Douglas
The “presumption of regularity.” It is a term largely unfamiliar to those outside legal or governmental circles but one that all Americans should now learn. Born of centuries-old common law, the presumption stands for the idea that government officials are presumed to act lawfully and in proper discharge their office – absent evidence to the contrary.
Every elected and appointed official enjoys this presumption. It is not easily squandered. It is meant to withstand errors in judgment and lapses in leadership. What it does not indulge is a clear pattern of abuse. Once the presumption collapses, the official is no longer fit for office.
This is the position that President Trump now finds himself in. What took Richard Nixon more than five years Trump has managed to accomplish in the narrow compass of four months. He has confirmed the worst fears of those who questioned his fitness for office. All the same, ten days ago, his staunchest critics might have called Trump a national disaster but essentially unimpeachable. Now it seems like just a matter of time before he is removed from office.
The announcement that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein has appointed Robert Mueller III, the former FBI director, to serve as special counsel overseeing the Russian probe only strengthens the spreading sense that Trump is finished.
What makes this appointment fatal to the president is not Mueller’s well-earned reputation for doggedness. It is the fact that the president’s own self-destructive behavior has altered the scope of the probe. No longer will the possible collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign be the focus.
Front and center will be whether the president has obstructed justice – first, by entreating Comey to “let go” of the Flynn investigation, and second, by firing Comey. Also at issue will be whether Trump’s tweet – “James Comey better hope that there are no “tapes” of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press!” – represents an attempt to tamper with a witness in an ongoing investigation.
A White House with a presumption of regularity might be able to weather these allegations. A “regular” president might be able to convince the American people that Mr Comey’s contemporaneous memo misstated or mischaracterized the president’s entreaty, which expressed a hope not a command. Of course, even a regular president might not succeed.
Republicans should ask themselves how many nanoseconds they would have let pass before drawing up articles of impeachment had President Obama asked Comey to “let go” of the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server.
But Trump has made his irregularity all too clear. When a president lies extravagantly – about millions of illegal voters and about phantom crimes committed against him by his predecessor in the Oval Office – he has squandered the right to be believed when it counts most. And when Mueller summons Trump to testify under oath, it is hard to imagine a president with such a reckless disregard of the truth steering clear of the pitfalls of perjury.
If all this weren’t damning enough, the allegations that Trump has committed impeachable offenses has come during a week that has placed his profoundly irregular behavior on gross display. His lapses in judgment accumulate in staggering fashion. We had barely absorbed the bizarre tableau of Russian photographers ushered into the innermost sanctum of presidential power when comes word that the president had divulged sensitive intelligence to an adversary like a braggart showing off a shiny new Ferrari.
And now comes the news that in appointing Flynn his national security advisor, Trump disregarded not only the warnings of President Obama and Acting Attorney General Sally Yates, but the very fact that Flynn was already under criminal investigation.
Erratic behavior, extravagant narcissism wedded to a lack of discipline, and a pattern of arguably impeachable offenses: we can only hope that Mueller’s appointment sounds the death knell of this brief, dangerous experiment in presidential waywardness.
How to Impeach a President
MARK GERZON: THE REUNITED STATES OF AMERICA...
HOW WE CAN BRIDGE THE PARTISAN DIVIDE
"Although we come from opposite ends of the political spectrum, we believe our country needs to come together. "The Reunited States of America: How We Can Cross the Partisan Divide" will help us do that. It reconnects us to our country's motto - 'out of many, one' - and helps us meet the challenge of reuniting the country that we both love."
- Grover Norquist, president, Americans for Tax Reform & Joan Blades, co-founder MoveOn.org and Living Room Conversations
DREAM TICKET FOR THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY IN 2020?
Sanders and Warren rally faithful supporters
By Akilah Johnson and Felicia Gans
It was as if the 2016 campaign never stopped. The cheering crowds were there. There were soaring speeches too, as Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont railed against the billionaire class, and demanded health care for all and free college tuition.
Even the presidential primary’s typical weather, a cascade of wet snow, fell outside, unseasonably late.
But this time, by Sanders’ side was Senator Elizabeth Warren — appearing together as two progressive rock stars rallying their faithful Friday evening.
“We believe that democracy is not for sale, that we must overturn Citizens United, we must return this government to the people, and that’s why I wanted to be here with my friend, Bernie Sanders,” Warren called out, as the crowd erupted in chants of “Bernie! Bernie!”
Sanders swept through the city Friday, speaking at the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the US Senate in Dorchester, promoting his book at MIT in Cambridge, and appearing with Warren at a rally in the Orpheum Theatre. At each sold-out event, Sanders repeated much of the rhetoric that propelled him into the Democratic primary’s spotlight last year. Friday’s version included kind words for Warren.
“You can tell the quality of a person by the enemies she makes,’’ Sanders said. “And to her credit, Elizabeth Warren has made some wonderful enemies.’’
Less than a year ago, Warren declined to endorse Sanders’ candidacy, backing his opponent, Hillary Clinton, in the end.
Sanders talked about the election he — and Democrats — lost last year, as well as the contest that Warren will face in 2018.
The Vermont senator, a self-described democratic socialist who caucuses with the Democrats in the Senate, sharply criticized the Democratic Party.
“Trump did not win the presidency. The Democratic Party lost the presidency,” Sanders said during an afternoon discussion moderated by the Globe’s James Pindell at the EMK Institute.
Friday night, amid cheering, whistling, and “Bernie” chants, Sanders proposed a restructuring of the Democratic Party, one he said would be made up of the working class, rather than the “liberal elite.”
“And when we do that, when we transform the Democratic Party, we transform America,” he told a 1,600-person audience at a rally in the Orpheum Theatre.
Earlier on Friday, Sanders spoke for 45 minutes before answering questions for an overflow crowd inside the EMK Institute’s replica of the Senate chamber.
When asked whether he planned to seek the presidency again in 2020, Sanders declined to say.
“Too often the media gets involved in, what I call, political gossip,” he said. “The issue of today, in my view, is to try to address some of the concerns that I raised about a collapsing middle class, massive levels of income inequality, being the only major country not to guarantee health care. That’s what we focus on.”
Sanders called Trump a “fraud,” but he said the president was able to figure out what Democrats could not: Too many Americans are struggling economically and are frustrated, angry, and “living in despair.”
“If you sit home and think Donald Trump won because all of the people who voted for him are racists or sexists or homophobes, I think you got it wrong. What he did is he developed campaign rhetoric and proposals . . . that addressed some of those issues,” he said.
“The only problem is that Donald Trump lied,” Sanders continued. “He told the American people during his campaign one thing, and the day after he was inaugurated he began to move this country in a very different way.”
More than 600 people braved the cold, slushy weather to hear Sanders at the EMK Institute. Another 200 watched in overflow rooms.
Officials at the EMK Institute said there was a wait list of about 1,000 people.
Brenda Fluker said she was excited to finally see the senator from Vermont in person, having missed him during the campaign.
“There was nothing better to do this afternoon other than play hooky from work,” the 65-year-old minister and attorney from Mattapan said as she waited in line. “But I am looking forward to what he has to say about building the future.”
Later on Friday, Sanders spoke to a sold-out crowd at MIT, highlighting many of the topics in his book, “Our Revolution.” Many of the same issues in his book, he said, were brought to the forefront during his presidential campaign.
Sanders emphasized a need for prison and immigration reform, and spoke about the affordability of higher education, prompting loud applause when he mentioned tuition-free college. Sanders also defended his campaign strategy last year, noting that he’s not a “big fan of personal attacks against people.”
“I know people were mad at me that I wasn’t beating up Secretary Clinton, but that’s not who I am, and that’s not what I do,” he said.
Then, it was on to the Orpheum Theatre.
Tracy Bygate, 59, attended the rally with her husband, Hal Raymond, hoping to send a message to Republicans in Washington.
“Almost 100 percent, what the current administration is for, we’re not,” said Bygate, of Plymouth. “We have to show them, the Republican lawmakers, that we’re not going to lie down and let them walk on us.”
Max Feldpausch, a 38-year-old Braintree man, said Friday’s rally was a chance for Democrats to take action, rather than just point fingers at Trump.
He hopes to see the Democratic Party rebuild and “go in the right direction,” led by progressive leaders like Sanders and Warren.
“I think everything has to start with the grass roots,’’ he said.
BOYCOTT AMERICA
by Stephen Hren
Ok, so we waited to see how it would go. Ten days later, we have our answer. We, as a nation, have Stage One Fascism Cancer. I don’t think a policy of hoping it will turn out well is realistic anymore. This isn’t the same as Ronald Reagan or George W, or even Richard Nixon. It’s a whole new category of troubles. It’s time to start metaphorical chemotherapy. It’s time to starve the disease out, before the cold civil war becomes a hot one, or worse, the dystopia of our nightmares becomes a permanent reality.
Republican voters had a choice of 17 candidates last primary season. Sixteen of those ranged from decent thoughtful Americans to hold-your-noise stinky. Only one, though, threatened the sanctity and integrity of our republic, and they chose that one. They have to pay for that decision. Pain must be felt for the atrocity they have inflicted upon us, the atrocity known as Trump. If the economy grows, if jobs are created during the next four years, the potentially fatal infection that this man engenders will be seen as a “winner,” and we will be looking at four more. By that time, I can all but guarantee it will be too late. It’s time to tighten our belts and take a hard look at where we are spending our money, and how that is fueling those who support this juggernaut of lies and hatred that is undermining the very soul of our nation.
It’s time to boycott America. It’s time for everyone to boycott America, everywhere. We need everyone’s help to get us through this dark and troubling time. America runs on money. Those now in power care only about money. It’s time to take away the money. It’s literally the only way they will pay attention to us. Facts are a joke. Science is a conspiracy. Rights are for straight white males only. Our voices of protest are just annoying bugs in their ears. Only money works.
Disconnect yourself and your family as much as possible from the cesspool that is generating this plague. You already know what to do in your heart of hearts, it was just easy to get lazy in the Obama years (I certainly did). Mainstream American products, fast food, gas guzzlers, when the system is evil the products that support the system are evil. Cook at home, go on bike rides or walks with friends for entertainment, shop at the food co-op and the farmer’s markets, buy local, you know it all (remember Occupy?!), but it’s time to double-down. Try to tone down or eliminate frivolous spending. Pay down credit card debts that are keeping you on an endless treadmill and that make big banks gazillions of dollars. If this scrimping leaves you with a little bit of extra money, give it to people who help protect the vulnerable who are under attack right now, like the ACLU, Planned Parenthood, Sierra Club, etc.
Avoid contributing to the economies of areas that fueled Trump’s rise. Don’t visit or go on vacation there. Money creates jobs. Let me repeat: only money works. They do not care about your voting rights, the sanctity of your bodies, your freedom of expression or religion. They only care about money. We can be effective. Economics works on the margins: 2% growth is seen as good while 2% contraction is seen as awful. That’s only four percent. I live in North Carolina, and the economic boycott against our discriminatory bathroom law helped replace our Replublican governor with a Democratic one. Every little bit helps. The last thing we want is for those who voted for Trump to be rewarded for their collective assault upon us.
Chemotherapy is likened to beating a dog to get rid of the fleas. It’s an extreme measure, and I do not recommend it lightly, for the pain is causes is broad and intense. But sometimes it’s the only way forward to a cure.
Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/stephen-hren/boycott-america_b_14525198.html
Image (at top): http://www.occupy.com/article/grand-strategy-cast-corporate-state
STOP THE BULL MARKET! LET THE BEAR DEVOUR IT...
This is where I stand:
The 45th President, his power hungry cronies taking positions of authority in his Cabinet and administration, and the majority in Congress are a real and active threat to me, my way of life, and all or most of the people I love.
The American Relayer - Issue 6
Politics in the United States
Some people are saying that we should give Cheetos Mussolini a chance, that we should "work together" with him because he won the election and he is "everyone's president." This is my response:
•I will not "work together" to privatize Medicare, cut Social Security and Medicaid.
•I will not "work together" to build a wall.
•I will not "work together" to persecute Muslims.
•I will not "work together" to shut out refugees from other countries.
•I will not "work together" to lower taxes on the 1% and increase taxes on the middle class and poor.
•I will not "work together" to help the President to line his pockets and those of his family and cronies.
•I will not "work together" to weaken and demolish environmental protection.
•I will not "work together" to sell American lands, especially National Parks, to companies which then despoil those lands.
•I will not "work together" to enable the killing of whole species of animals just because they are predators, or inconvenient for a few, or because some people want to get their thrills killing them.
•I will not "work together" to remove civil rights from anyone.
•I will not "work together" to alienate countries that have been our allies for as long as I have been alive.
•I will not "work together" to slash funding for education.
•I will not "work together" to take basic assistance from people who are at the bottom of the socioeconomic ladder.
•I will not "work together" to get rid of common sense regulations on guns.
•I will not "work together" to eliminate the minimum wage.
•I will not "work together" to support so-called "Right To Work" laws, or undermine, weaken or destroy Unions in any way.
•I will not "work together" to suppress scientific research, be it on climate change, fracking, or any other issue where a majority of scientists agree this fascist and his supporters are wrong on the facts.
•I will not "work together" to criminalize abortion or restrict health care for women.
•I will not "work together" to increase the number of nations that have nuclear weapons.
•I will not "work together" to put even more "big money" into politics.
•I will not "work together" to violate the Geneva Convention.
•I will not "work together" to give the Ku Klux Klan, the Nazi Party and white supremacists a seat at the table, or to normalize their hatred.
•I will not "work together" to deny health care to people who need it.
•I will not "work together" to deny medical coverage to people on the basis of a "pre-existing condition."
•I will not "work together" to increase voter suppression.
•I will not "work together" to normalize tyranny.
•I will not “work together” to eliminate or reduce ethical oversight at any level of government.
•I will not "work together" with anyone who is, or admires, tyrants and dictators.
•I will not support anyone that thinks it's OK to put a pipeline to transport oil on Sacred Ground for Native Americans. And, it would run under the Missouri River, which provides drinking water for millions of people. An accident waiting to happen.
•I will not "work together" to legitimize racism, sexism, and authoritarianism.
This is my line, and I AM drawing it.
•I WILL stand for honesty, love, respect for all living beings, and for the beating heart that is the center of Life itself.
•I WILL use my voice and my hands, to reach out to the uninformed, and to anyone who will LISTEN:
That "winning", "being great again", "rich" or even "beautiful" is nothing... When others are sacrificed to glorify its existence.
This appeared on my Facebook News Feed yesterday, and I resonate completely with its content. So, I have signed it and posted this in its entirety on my Lantern of the Hermit blog. One comment was posted (prior to my receiving it) which I AM choosing to keep anonymous on this re-post along with everyone else who signed it, in order to respect their personal privacy. Comment is included, as it shows how we are able to save our Republic:
“In case anyone hasn't noticed, we're in a complete corporate takeover here. The rhetoric about draining the swamp and helping the little guy was never the plan. Now it's time to forget this false alignment with party and join as Americans to fight against this dangerous and very present evil.”
Starve the beast... Abolish the inter-corporate state!
Joseph David Henry Ware Bryan-Royster
Publisher, Lantern of the Hermit
AMERICAN COUNTERCULTURE MOVEMENT (1964-1972)
~ March on the Pentagon ~
The American counterculture refers to the period between 1964-1972 when the norms of the 1950s were largely rejected by youth.
The Emergence of Counterculture
A counterculture developed in the United States in the late 1960s, lasting from approximately 1964 to 1972, and coinciding with America's involvement in Vietnam. It was characterized by the rejection of conventional social norms—in this case, the norms of the 1950s. The counterculture youth rejected the cultural standards of their parents, specifically regarding racial segregation and initial widespread support for the Vietnam War.
As the 1960s progressed, widespread tensions developed in American society that tended to flow along generational lines regarding the war in Vietnam, race relations, sexual mores, women's rights, traditional modes of authority, and a materialist interpretation of the American Dream. Thanks to widespread economic prosperity, white, middle-class youth—who made up the bulk of the counterculture—had sufficient leisure time to turn their attention to social issues.
Ideals and Interests
Unconventional appearance, music, drugs, communitarian experiments, and sexual liberation were hallmarks of the 1960s counterculture, most of whose members were white, middle-class, young Americans. Hippies became the largest countercultural group in the United States. The counterculture reached its peak in the 1967 "Summer of Love," when thousands of young people flocked to the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco. The counterculture lifestyle integrated many of the ideals of the time, including peace, love, harmony, music, and mysticism. Meditation, yoga, and psychedelic drugs were often embraced as routes to expanding one's consciousness. Spiritually, the counterculture included interest in astrology, the term "Age of Aquarius," and knowing people's astrological signs.
Music
Rejection of mainstream culture was best embodied in the new genres of psychedelic rock music, pop-art, and new explorations in spirituality. Musicians who exemplified this era include The Beatles, The Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, Jimi Hendrix, The Doors, The Rolling Stones, Neil Young, Bob Dylan, Janis Joplin, and Pink Floyd. New forms of musical presentation also played a key role in spreading the counterculture, mainly large outdoor rock festivals. The climactic live statement of this occurred from August 15-18, 1969, with the Woodstock Music Festival held in Bethel, New York. During this weekend festival, 32 of rock and psychedelic rock's most popular acts performed live outdoors to an audience of half a million people. Countercultural sentiments were expressed in song lyrics and popular sayings of the period, such as "do your own thing"; "turn on, tune in, drop out"; "whatever turns you on"; "eight miles high"; "sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll"; and "light my fire."
Cultural Divisions and the Collapse of the Movement
The counterculture movement divided the country. To some Americans, the movement reflected American ideals of free speech, equality, world peace, and the pursuit of happiness. To others, it reflected a self-indulgent, pointlessly rebellious, unpatriotic, and destructive assault on America's traditional moral order. In an effort to quash the movement, government authorities banned the psychedelic drug LSD, restricted political gatherings, and tried to enforce bans on what they considered obscenity in books, music, theater, and other media.
Ultimately, the counterculture collapsed on its own around 1973. Two primary reasons are cited for the collapse. First, the most popular of the movement's political goals (civil rights, civil liberties, gender equality, environmentalism, and the end of the Vietnam War) had made significant gains, and its most popular social attributes (particularly a "live-and-let-live" mentality in personal lifestyles; i.e., the "sexual revolution") were largely co-opted by mainstream society. Second, a decline of idealism and hedonism occurred as many notable counterculture figures died, and the rest settled into mainstream society to start their own families. The "magic economy" of the 1960s gave way to the stagflation of the 1970s, and many middle-class Americans no longer had the luxury of living outside of conventional social institutions.
The counterculture, however, continues to influence social movements, art, music, and society today, and the post-1973 mainstream society has been in many ways a hybrid of the 1960s establishment and counterculture—seen as the best (or the worst) of both worlds.
~ Barack Obama's first inauguration on January 20th, 2009 ~
March 4th, 1789: 1st day of Governance under U.S. Constitution
The first inauguration, that of George Washington, took place on April 30, 1789. All subsequent (regular) inaugurations from 1793 until 1933, were held on March 4, the day of the year on which the federal government began operations under the U.S. Constitution in 1789.
The exception to this pattern being those years in when March 4 fell on a Sunday. When it did, the public inauguration ceremony would take place on Monday, March 5. This happened on four occasions, in: 1821, 1849, 1877, and 1917. Inauguration Day moved to January 20, beginning in 1937, following ratification of the Twentieth Amendment to the Constitution, where it has remained since. A similar Sunday exception and move to Monday is made around this date as well (which happened in 1957, 1985, and 2013).
On January 20th, 2017, Donald John Trump was inaugurated as 45th President of the United States. The "establishment" candidate, Hillary Rodham Clinton, was denied what was considered to be her "coronation" as our first woman President. However, corruption in the Democratic National Committee brought her down from such a pedestal on Election Day (November 8th, 2016) when an unconventional Republican nominee, Donald Trump, upset her plans to become the next occupant of the White House. Though I chose not to vote for Ms. Clinton or Mr. Trump, my decision to vote for Jill Stein of the Green Party turned out to be an "unconscious" vote for the Republican candidate, as our Republic is designed to fall into a two party system (though not originally intended by the framers). No party affiliation was attributed to George Washington at the start of his first term, yet by the time his second term began supporters of the 1789 Constitution were called "Federalists" and those in opposition were "Anti-Federalists." John Adams, first U.S. President to live in the White House, was also a Federalist, and his successor, Thomas Jefferson, was the first opposition candidate, a "Democratic" Republican, to whom power was passed peacefully on March 4th, 1801. Two parties have been the norm ever since, however some of them have gone into history, such as the Federalists and the Whigs. Jefferson's party is still in existence as the Democratic Party, and an abolitionist party formed in 1854 by Abraham Lincoln is the Republican Party of today whose nominee is now the 45th President of the United States of America... ~ JDHWB-R
MOVING BEYOND THE DEEP STATE
Dark Journalist and Cathy O'Brien
CIA Sex Slave Whistleblower - Prooject Monarch Exposed!
Relevant Website: TRANCE Formation of America
Breaking free of her mind control programming and Dissociative Identity Disorder with the help of intelligence insider Mark Phillips over the course of a decade, Cathy exposed the insidious world of criminal covert operations happening inside Black Budget operations connected with the Pentagon and intelligence agencies, including human trafficking and extensive drug running programs.
Deep State efforts to suppress her testimony culminated in the National Security Act being invoked to silence her and continue right up to the present. Nonetheless Cathy’s latest venture was to create a new workbook, PTSD: Time to Heal that actually allows trauma and sexual abuse victims to reclaim conscious control and deep connection to their inner memories.
Her story has touched thousands of survivors of mind control programming and dark political manipulation and given the public a transparent and shockingly honest vision of the hidden worlds of covert intelligence operations that exist and thrive behind a wall of National Security State secrecy.
STAND WITH STANDING ROCK
Protect Protesters' Rights
In January 2016, the Dakota Access Pipeline was unanimously approved for construction, with the aim of creating a direct route to transport crude oil from the North Dakota Bakken region through South Dakota and Iowa into Illinois. The controversial pipeline could destroy ancestral burial grounds and poison the water supply for a sovereign nation — as well as millions of Americans downstream who rely on the Missouri River.
All eyes were on Standing Rock late last year as unwarranted armored vehicles rolled in. Law enforcement used automatic rifles, sound cannons, and concussion grenades against water protectors. An estimated 300 protesters were injured in November when police in riot gear used water cannons for hours in subfreezing weather to disperse them.
Personnel and equipment pouring in from over 75 law enforcement agencies from around the country and National Guard troops created a battlefield-like atmosphere at Standing Rock. Escalated police militarization was used to intimidate and silence water protectors’ free speech and their right to protest a pipeline which passes near sovereign territory.
Thousands from across the globe have joined in solidarity with the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe to stop the construction of the Dakota Access pipeline. The protest has brought together 200 or so tribes that have not united for more than 150 years.
President Trump took executive action on January 24th 2017 encouraging the Army Corps of Engineers to override environmental review and speed up construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline near the Standing Rock Sioux Indian Reservation. Any day now, law enforcement may try to disperse water protectors with unnecessary and dangerous use of force. With resilience, water protectors have already endured militarized crackdowns, police abuse, and daily intimidation – simply for defending their water rights.
THE FACTS:
1. It is estimated that over 140 protesters, many of whom live in poverty, face felony charges and bonds of $1,500 each.
2. North Dakota has received over 3 million dollars in military weapons and equipment through the Department of Defense 1033 program since the program began in the 1990s.
3. Law enforcement in North Dakota is in potential violation of 1st Amendment right to free speech, 6th Amendment right to counsel for those subject to incarceration, and the 8th Amendment, which prohibits excessive bail.
Last holdouts are cleared from main Dakota Access pipeline protest camp
Law enforcement took control of the largest Dakota Access Pipeline protest camp Thursday, arresting or moving the few dozen people who had remained in the mud and snow in one of the largest environmental protests in American history.
“At 2:09 p.m. (February 23, 2017), Oceti Sakowin protest camp was completely cleared by law enforcement!” the Morton County Sheriff’s Office wrote on its Facebook page, referring to the name protesters gave the camp just north of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s reservation in North Dakota.
Later, law enforcement, with the aid of National Guard troops, also began clearing the smaller Rosebud camp, located across the Cannonball River. There were no reports of broad confrontations with law enforcement, though some people could be seen on live-stream videos being wrestled to the ground and handcuffed.
At least 30 people had been arrested by early afternoon, but many others fled toward a third camp, Sacred Stone, the original protest site established 10 months ago. The camp was set up on private land by a handful of people from the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and others who have argued that the $3.8-billion, 1,170-mile pipeline threatens the tribe’s water supply and sacred cultural sites.
Situational Assessment 2017: Trump Edition
By Jordan Greenhall (www.medium.com) - February 3rd, 2017
In 2015, I took a swing at assessing the shape and state of our global challenges. Looking back, that essay is still well worth a read, but it is high time for an update.
While many things have changed in the world in the past two years, 2016 saw what looks like a phase transition in the political domain. While the overall phenomenon is global in scale and includes Brexit and other movements throughout Europe, I want to focus specifically on the victory of the “Trump Insurgency” and drill down into detail on how this state change will play out.
I use John Robb’s term “Trump Insurgency” here to highlight the fact that the election of 2016 was not an example of “ordinary politics”. Anyone who fails to understand this is going to be making significant errors. For example, the 2016 election is not comparable to the 2000 election (e.g., merely a “close” election) nor to the 1980 election (e.g., an “ideological transition” election). While it is tempting to compare it to 1860, I’m not sure that is a good match either.
In fact, as I go back and try to do pattern matching, the only real pattern I can find is the 1776 “election” (AKA the American Revolution). In other words, while 2016 still formally looked like politics, what is really going on here is a revolutionary war. For now this is war using memes rather than bullets, but war is much more than a metaphor.
This war is about much more than ideology, money or power. Even the participants likely do not fully understand the stakes. At a deep level, we are right in the middle of an existential conflict between two entirely different and incompatible ways of forming “collective intelligence”. This is a deep point and will likely be confusing. So I’m going to take it slow and below will walk through a series of “fronts” of the war that I see playing out over the next several years. This is a pretty tactical assessment and should make sense and be useful to anyone. I’ll get to the deep point last — and will be going way out there in an effort to grasp “what is really going on”. I’ll definitely miss wildly, but with any luck, the total journey will be worth the time.
Front One: Communications Infrastructure.
All modern warfighters know that the first step of any conflict is to disrupt the enemy’s communications and control infrastructure.
Our legacy sensemaking system was largely composed of and dominated by a small set of communications channels. These included the largest newspapers (e.g., NYT and Washington Post) and television networks (e.g., CNN, CBS, Fox, etc.). Until very recently, effectively all sensemaking was mediated by these channels and, as a consequence, these channels delivered a highly effective mechanism for coordinated messaging and control. A sizable fraction of the power, influence and effectiveness of the last-stage power elites (e.g., the neocon alliances in both the Democratic and Republican parties) was due to their mastery at utilizing these legacy channels.
It is important for anyone planning in the contemporary environment to recognize that the activities of the Trump Insurgency are entirely different to all previous actors. Rather than endeavoring to establish control over the legacy infrastructure, the Trump Insurgency is in the process of destroying it entirely and replacing it with a very different architecture. One that is intrinsically compatible with its own form of collective intelligence.
It is clear to me that the Insurgency is engaged in “total war”. They are simultaneously attacking the legacy power structures on multiple fronts (access, business viability and, in particular, legitimacy) while innovating entirely novel approaches to the problem of large scale communications and control (e.g., direct tweets from POTUS). Their intent is not to play with or even dominate the legacy media — but to eliminate them from the field entirely and to replace them with something else altogether.
This approach is strategically optimal. The Trump Insurgency represents a novel model of collective intelligence in general. It is the first truly viable approach that is connected directly with the emergent decentralized attractor that has been driving technical/economic disruption for the last several decades. This form of governance is structurally incompatible with the legacy media architecture. It is intrinsically dissonant with the kind of top-down, slow, controlled, synchronized approach of the old media. It therefore both must dismantle this architecture and replace it with one that is in synch with its mode of operation and, thereby, benefits massively by hamstringing any collective intelligence that works in the old top-down fashion (i.e., all existing forces currently at play).
To use a concept from Gilles Deleuze, the Trump Insurgency is a nomadic war machine and it is in the process of smoothing the space of communication. To use a simpler metaphor, if you imagine the Trump Insurgency as highly effective desert guerrillas, they are currently in the process of turning everything into a desert. The Establishment, optimized for “jungle conflict”, is going to have a hard time.
From where I sit, it seems evident that the Insurgency’s ability to read-plan-react (their “OODA loop”) is simply of a higher order than the legacy power structures. For at least the past 18 months, the Insurgency has been running circles around the the Establishment and the old media. Accordingly, I fully expect the Insurgency to win this fight. Specifically, for all functional purposes, I expect the memetic efficacy of the New York Times, CNN, the Washington Post, MSNBC and related channels to be near zero within the next two to four years. I would not be surprised to see several of these entities actually out of business.
Note, the relative position of “new media” such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube is harder to predict. I suspect that most of the important conflict of this front will take place here. Right now, all of new media is controlled by forces broadly opposed to the Insurgency. Yet the Insurgency must establish dominance on this territory. They can accomplish this either by capturing these existing platforms (aka “bend the knee” capitulation) or by moving the center of power to new platforms that are aligned with the Insurgency (e.g., gab.ai replacing Twitter). If you think that this latter is highly unlikely, I strongly urge you to reexamine your models and assumptions.
My sense is that the decisive decision in this conflict is whether the “new media” remain coupled to the legacy power structures (and their OODA loops) or decouple and enter into a direct conflict for “decentralized supremacy” (see my last point below). If they choose the former, they will lose. If they choose the latter, the outcome is hard to predict.
Front Two: The Deep State
In ordinary politics, an elected candidate is expected to integrate with and make relatively small fine-tuning changes to the existing state apparatus and the mass of career bureaucrats that make up most of the actual machinery of government (AKA the “deep state”). Thus, while the Obama Administration might differ quite significantly from the Bush Administration in political theory and intent, the actual impact of theses differences on the real trajectory of the “ship of state” is relatively small.
My assessment is that the Trump Insurgency has identified the Deep State itself as its central antagonist and is engaged in a direct existential conflict with it.
Normally this would be an easy win for the Deep State. However, I expect this front to be the most challenging, uncertain and dangerous of the war. The Deep State is massive, has access to vast resources and capabilities and has been in the business of controlling power for decades. But two things are moving in the Insurgency’s favor.
First, the Deep State appears to be fragmented. For example, the “Russian Hacking” scenario of the past two months looks surprisingly uncoordinated and incompetent. I don’t know exactly what is going on here, but it is clearly not the product of a unified and smoothly operating Deep State.
Second, it seems highly likely that the Deep State is prepared to fight “the last war” while the Insurgency is bringing an entirely different kind of fight. The Deep State developed in and for the 20th Century. You might say that they are experts at fighting Trench Warfare. But this is the 21st Century and the Insurgency has innovated Blitzkrieg.
Let’s take a look at the “fake news” meme for example. This has all the earmarks of a Deep State initiative. Carefully planned, highly coordinated, coming from all authoritative directions, strategically targeted. My read is that this was a Deep State response to the Communications Infrastructure fight. But it looks like this initiative has not only failed, but that the Insurgency has been able to leverage its decisive OODA loop advantages to turn the entire thing around and make “fake news” its own tool. How? By moving rapidly, unconventionally, in a very decentralized fashion and with complete commitment to victory.
If my read is correct, the balance of the struggle between the Deep State and the Insurgency will be determined by how quickly the Deep State can dispense with old and dysfunctional doctrine and innovate novel approaches that are adequate to the war. In other words, is this the Western Front (France falling in six weeks) or the Eastern Front (the USSR bleeding and giving ground until it could innovate a new war machine that could outcompete the Wehrmacht).
If my read of the situation is correct (which, of course, it very well may not be), then the Deep State would be ill advised indeed to undertake any major efforts in the next 12–24 months. For example, an “impeach Trump” initiative, would almost certainly be an enormous strategic disaster. In spite of the apparent strength of the Deep State, the Insurgency’s superior OODA loop would likely result in an Insurgency victory in this fight — and victory here would greatly strengthen the Insurgency’s position. (Can you say “Emperor Trump?)
From the opposite direction, the Insurgency would be well advised to Blitzkrieg. Right now it has the advantage of an approach and a model that its opponent doesn’t understand and can’t react to effectively. But the Deep State is deep. Given time it could learn how to win this fight. If the Insurgency wants to win, it needs to radically reduce the Deep State’s strategic agency quickly. This means moving fast and moving decisively.
ate how deeply dangerous this fight is. Classically, when a long-standing hegemony (cf “Pax Americana) is weakened and distracted by intra-elite conflict, rivals like Russia and China will see an opportunity to move from a hegemonic to a multi-polar world and can be tempted into adventurism. In these conditions, even the slightest mistake can push the system into nearly catastrophic conflict.
Front Three: Globalism
Anti-globalist rhetoric was one of the most enduring and central features of the Trump campaign. Indeed, if Trump clearly stood for anything, resisting the “false song of globalism” was it. And all evidence in the post-election environment is that the Trump Insurgency will indeed be actively anti-globalist.
What is flat out astounding is the relative ease with which Trump has been able to cut through globalist Gordian Knots. For half a decade, the Trans-Pacific Partnership was an unstoppable juggernaut. Until, that is, Trump decided to end it. Perhaps this is evidence of a “below the surface” weakness that made TPP a paper tiger. Perhaps it is evidence of the relative balance of power between nationalist and globalist institutions. At least when the nationalist institution is the United States. (Compare the Greeks vis a vis the EU). Perhaps it is evidence of a larger scale anti-globalist conflict that has been raging for nearly a decade and has been surfacing all over the place (Brexit, Trump, Le Pen, etc.).
In any event, it is a significant victory and I am certain that it will embolden the Insurgency. At this point, I expect the Insurgency to cut deep into globalist power institutions (the World Bank, the UN, various treaty organizations) and, more importantly, globalist-allied national institutions like the Federal Reserve. The Globalists have an odd connection to power. Generally, they must move through influence and threat to elites, with a non-trivial amount of mass level propaganda to smooth the way. The Insurgency is broadly immune to globalist propaganda, the Insurgency elites seem unlikely to play ball with globalist elites or to back down under threat. At this point, I see only two real moves available to the globalists. 1) economic destabilization hoping to turn “the people” against the Insurgency; 2) some kind of some kind of social/military destabilization.
But I don’t give the globalists much of a chance. Of all of the major world powers, only the EU is currently dominated by globalists, and with the victory of Brexit and the surge of nationalism in France, the Netherlands, etc., even the Eurocrats are on the run.
By moving quickly and decisively against the Deep State allies of globalism at home and erecting nationalist resilience to global institutional influence (e.g, high tariffs and protectionist monetary policy), combined with shaping a narrative that points all bad economic news directly at globalists, the Insurgency might well be able to cut most globalist power off at the knees.
Notably, even large multi-national corporations — until recently appearing to be pulling the strings of political policy — seem to be rapidly capitulating to the Insurgency. The two major globalist forces that have not yet been publicly tested are the energy companies and the banks. What will happen here remains to be seen. A cynic might suggest that the Insurgency itself is only superficially populist and in fact really simply represents the interests of Energy and Banks against other elites. That cynic might be right, we shall see.
The net-net result of this front will be a significant weakening of the post-War global institutional order and a rebalancing of power along not yet fully understood nationalist alignments. It is not clear what effect this change will have. For example, one might expect “global scale” issues like climate disruption or terrorism to lose focus and efficacy — but that isn’t clear. It is certainly plausible that nation-to-nation alliances can make significant forward progress in even these areas of interest. Particularly if you assume that globalist agendas were extracting value from global scale crises rather than resolving them.
Moreover, there is no reason to believe that a multi-polar nationalism will be less stable over the long term than a hegemony. History has certainly cut both ways. Perhaps what is most clear is this: the period of transition as globalist forces struggle to maintain power while nationalist forces are not yet in any form of stable equilibrium with each-other is a moment (possibly lasting years) of extreme danger.
Front Four: The New Culture War
Last week, Reddit user notjafo expressed something important. It is worth reading his entire post, but the gist is this: the left won the culture war of the 1960’s — 1990’s. And the Trump Insurgency does not represent “the next move” of the old right in that old war. It represents the first move of an emergent new culture. One that is directly at war with the “Blue Church” on the ground of culture itself.
“The Blue Church is panicking because they’ve just witnessed the birth of a new Red Religion. Not the tired old Christian cliches they defeated back in the ’60s, but a new faith based on cultural identity and outright rejection of the Blue Faith.” — /u/notjfao
While I can nit pick at some of his analysis, broadly speaking I agree. As of 2016, the shoe is on the other foot — the counter culture has become the mainstream and the Insurgents are the new counter culture.
Similar to the other battles, this Culture War front is characterized by a distinction between a more powerful and established Blue team organized around and fighting “the last war” and a Red team still in flux but beginning to figure out how to fight from the future. And, as per the other fronts, until the Blue team figures this out, it will continue to lose ground without understanding why.
In this case, however, the superior OODA loop of the Insurgency is only part of the strategic shift. Of far more importance is the fact that the Insurgency evolved within a culture broadly dominated by the values and techniques of the Blue Church and therefore, by simple natural selection, is now almost entirely immune to the total set of “Blue critique”.
In other words, if we map the arc of the culture war from the 1950’s through to the 1990’s we will see the slow emergence of a set of strategies, techniques and alliances on the part of the emerging Blue Church that became increasingly perfected and effective over time. For example, the critical power of the epithets “racist” or “sexist” which had little or no traction in the 1930’s and 1940’s had, by the 1990’s become decisive.
Yet, even as the Blue Church was achieving dominance, the roots of the Insurgency were being laid. And, like bacteria becoming increasingly immune to an antibiotic after constant exposure, those aspects of the emergent “Red Religion” that were able to survive at all began to coalesce and expand. What has now erupted into the zeitgeist is something new and almost completely immune to the rhetorical and political techniques of the Blue Church. To call an adherent of the Red Religion “racist” is unlikely to elicit much more than a “kek” and a derisive dismissal. The old weapons have no more sting.
Moreover, the Red Religion does not intend to engage the Blue Church in any way other than “outright rejection.” It considers the Church and its adherents to be acting in bad faith by default and the doctrines of the Church to be little more than a form of mental illness. Accordingly, the Red Religion has no intention of dialogue, conversation or even sharing power with the Church.
The Blue Church should expect to meet the Red Religion in war. And in this conflict the Red Religion has the advantage.
In the nature of every movement that has endured the crucible of selection, the Red Religion is much more coherent and focused than the dominant Church which is criss-crossed with internal conflict and in-fighting. The Red Religion was born into and optimized for new media (e.g, optimized for memes rather than films) and as the balance of power shifts from 20th Century media to 21st Century media, this inures to the advantage of the Reds. Going deeper, even as the Red Religion has developed an immunity to most of the primary techniques of the Blue Church, it has simultaneously developed its own memetic/values structure connected with deep human values that stem from ancient “tribal selection” and are highly attractive to the portions of the human family (men and women) who are focused on protecting and defending their tribe (hence the Red Religions’ intrinsic focus on Nationalism).
In other words, over the short to mid term, most of the humans who are best prepared to wage war — who are most attuned to and psychologically ready for war — will be attracted to the Red Religion. They will be focused, almost entirely immune to the entire portfolio of Blue weapons and they will be armed with and optimized for 21st Century techniques of waging culture war.
As a consequence, the result of this conflict will almost certainly be fatal for the Blue Church. We are already witnessing it, in the form of both an increasingly desperate “doubling down” on obviously impotent attacks and a creeping demoralization within the fabric of the Church. I expect to see this accelerate and as the Insurgency wins on other fronts, the set of alliances that hold the Church together will begin to unravel and the Church will collapse.
The sooner that happens, the better it will be for everyone.
Right now, the Church is killing us. While it is holding many important, necessary values, it is also holding a ton of stuff that is deeply dysfunctional. But by monopolizing the instruments of culture and power, it inhibits us like a well meaning but overbearing parent from being able to form the new innovations in culture, practice and value that are necessary to our age. The collapse of the Blue Church is going to lead to a level of “cultural flux” that will make the 1960’s look like the Eisenhower administration. As the Church falls away, the “children of Blue” will explode out in a Cambrian explosion and reach out to engage in all out culture war with the still nascent Red Religion.
This Culture War will be unlike anything we have ever seen. It will take place everywhere all at once, constrained less by geography than by technical platform and by the complex relationship between innovation and power on an exponential technology curve. It will be a struggle over not just the content, but the very sense and nature of identity, meaning and purpose. It will mutate so quickly and will evolve so rapidly that all of our legacy techniques (both psychological and institutional) for making sense of and responding to the world will melt into so much tapioca. This will be terrifying. It is also the source of our best hope.
The War for Collective Intelligence
If you’ve made it this far (or chose to skip directly here), take a breath and settle in. This is the interesting part. For that precious few who prioritize understanding over brevity, what follows will make much more sense if you have read my Foundational Assumptions, The Coming Great Transition, Introducing Generation Omega and The Future of Organization.
For those who want the tldr, it is this: we live in a non-linear world, stop thinking linearly.
Once you have accepted this as the task, you will eventually come to an important conclusion: you can’t. By yourself, you can’t think non-linearly. This isn’t your fault. Individual human beings can’t think non-linearly. Only “collective intelligences,” those agents of “inter-subjective consciousness” can. To put it more simply, we implement and do things as individuals. We innovate as tribes. And the world we live in today — the world of the 21st Century — is a world of continuous innovation.
In this environment, for the first time ever in history, the ability to innovate is decisively superior to the ability to deploy power. Prior to today, the rule of “the battle goes to whoever gets there the first with the most” was a decent rule of thumb. Of course, this has never been strictly the case. Most of the great stories of history are built around moments of innovation where the smarter but less powerful group was able to outwit and undermine their opponent with superior technique, technology and strategy. Over time the balance has slowly but consistently moved in the direction of innovation. Ask Turing and Oppenheimer about the accelerating pace of innovation as it relates to war.
The conflict of the 21st Century is about forming a Collective Intelligence that can outwit and out innovate all of its competitors. The central challenge is to innovate a way of collaborating and cohering individuals that maximally deploys their individual perspectives, capabilities, understandings and insights with each-other. Right now, the Insurgency has the edge. It has discovered some key ways to tap into the power of decentralized collective intelligence and this is its principal advantage. While it is definitely not a mature version of a decentralized collective intelligence, it is substantially more so than any collective intelligence with which it is competing and unless and until a more effective decentralized collective intelligence enters the field, this advantage is enough.
Like all wars, the shape of this particular conflict will be highly dependent on path, timing and surprise. Right now, for example, the relative difference in power between the Establishment and the Insurgency is large, and while it continues to lose it’s impact, power still matters. At the same time, while the Insurgency has a meaningful advantage in “collective intelligence” this advantage is not overwhelming. Thus the details of the situation that I describe above.
So, for example, if the Deep State uses its power advantage as a way to stall until until it can innovate a collective intelligence advantage, it has a decent chance. (Of course, becoming a decentralized collective intelligence is going to be really hard for the actual individuals who make up the Deep State to understand and accept.)
But watch out as the conflict evolves. As the Insurgency cuts down and unplugs legacy power structures (e.g, the media, the intelligence agencies) and replaces them with more fluid and innovative approaches (e.g., gab.ai and Palantir) the balance will begin to tip quickly. If the Establishment cannot stave off the Insurgency in the next 4–5 years, that phase of the war will be over.
Then the real question. Does the Insurgency and the Red Religion represent a stable attractor in the 21st Century. Can it form a collective intelligence that is able to select-against and out-compete all comers. If so, what does this look like? My sense is that this is ultimately a highly unstable state. While tribalism (nationalism) can be very potent in the short term, it is ultimately a deeply unstable ship to navigate the oceans of the future.
Or is there a different timeline where one of the “children of Blue” discovers an approach that is more intelligent still — one that is more fit to ride the wave of exponential technology and global scale crisis? One that is more fully in line with the true nature of inter-subjective consciousness? One that can scale without losing its coherence? One that is adequate to the whole set of existential challenges of the 21st Century?
Such an eventuality is certainly possible — although the most robust collective intelligence is likely to be more purple than red or blue. How likely? Well, right now I think we have a decent chance but really do believe that the die will be cast in the next 3–5 years.
For those who want to take action, I have three recommendations:
The Blue Church, the Deep State, the Old Media and all the other aspects of the Establishment are holding you back. Free your mind. This is going to be much harder than it sounds. For most people, if you are under 40, your entire development has taken place within the context of the Blue Church. Many of your deepest assumptions and unconscious values are going to have to be examined with brutal honesty and courage.
All Collective Intelligence is gated by Sensemaking. Right now, our collective sensemaking systems are in complete disarray. We don’t know who or what to trust. We barely even know how. Find ways to improve your individual sensemaker and collaborate on collective sensemaking systems. This should get easier as the old media and the Blue Church collapse.
Both #1 and #2 require other people. And, since all of our old ways of collaborating with other people are either suspect or obsolete, you are going to have to learn how to build real faithful relationships the old fashioned way. Get much better at making friends. I don’t mean casual acquaintances. And I definitely don’t mean social network contacts. I mean the kinds of people who ready willing and able to actually care for you — even at risk to themselves. Not because of shared ideology or even shared mission, but because of the deep stuff of human commitment.
Good luck.
[Note: this was published in Deep Code and is intended to be challenging and to move the conversation forward. Comments that are thoughtful and contribute will be greatly appreciated. Comments that are not will be deleted.]
Source: https://popularresistance.org/situational-assessment-2017-trump-edition/
THE AMERICAN RELAYER: Politics in the United States
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