The "elites" have always been with us, but today's "elites" are different, imo. Twenty-five years ago, Zuckerberg, Bezos, etc., were nobodies. Now they control what we're allowed to say, even when it's true (Rachel Levine is a man). There's a spotlight on the WEF, but who/what is the power behind the WEF? Who is picking winners and losers?
When my children were in high school, we watched the Korean historical dramas: The Iron Empress and Emperor Wang Gun. They are amazing. After watching too many battle scenes, though, I was struck by the futility of it all. You couldn't find a more homogenous group of people, but they were always finding reasons to kill each other. I wondered about the hundreds of thousands of Korean people who lived and died fighting some "elite's" war of vanity. This same story has been repeated on every continent throughout history.
I agree that the "elites" aren't necessarily psychopaths, but I suspect most of them are not wired correctly. And many of the current crop weren't born into their attitudes and beliefs.
For the first time, perhaps in all of human history, people are awakening to the reality that you describe in this article. The "elites" should be afraid of us. We don't need them. They need us.
I think that to a certain extent, "people" (I'm not accounting for individual unique specialness here) want to be led. While the human population is now enormous enough that outliers to this are a nontrival number, I'd go so far as to say that it's a genetic norm that we want to live in societies organized in some flavor of hierarchy, with some sort of clearly identified leaders, and enforced social norms. When groups of humans are cast adrift from these things, they inevitably seem to recreate them to keep themselves sane and relatively happy.
Your comment (and this response to it, so far) gives me some interesting thoughts about the nature of "elites," who are not necessarily the same thing as "social leaders." I'll have to do a lot more thinking on this, but I'm starting to contemplate that the notion of "elites" as we describe this pack of assholes- social leaders with no real grasp on power or competency to wield it- are a uniquely modern phenomenon and are what seem to be causing a cascade failure of global leadership and tyranny as a sort of panicked, frustrated response (see my post "The Play's The Thing" from a couple weeks ago as it suddenly seems more relevant now).
The warring nobility you describe from the Koryo dynasty (and thousands of other examples across history) represented power structures competing with each other, with their subjects serving as pawns and fodder for their ambitions. Our current elite seem to be attempting to "come together and design beautiful things" and are failing miserably at leading and at maintaining our obedience.
A thesis of this article (which almost no one seems to like or have read, I'm almost hurt) is that the elites are motivated by narcissism rather than psychopathy (though they certainly CAN be psychopaths), and that would explain why their attempts to create a homogenized global state is marked by so much abusive behavior and failure- true narcissists can never share.
Imo, the elites use us like the pieces on a board game. They have something controlling them, as well. Their heinous actions and media hype are fun for them. It's all theater. We are the bugs that kids used to tear the wings off. When boredom sets is it's time for a new game. Narcissists, yes. Some psychos and many sociopaths. They do worship and believe in Satan, imo. This is a spiritual war coming to a head.
I agree that most people want to be part of a community and to be led by someone or something. Most of us want to sit in the back seat of mom's SUV. But the power of "leaders" in the West is by consent of the led. Without followers, a leader cannot exist.
Historically, leaders were born into the role or born to someone who killed for the role. Some were good. Some were bad. Some were truly awful. And some were crazy. Modern day leaders, on the other hand, are selected by some unseen hand for us to "choose". When that doesn't quite work out as planned (Trump 2016), the deck is stacked (Biden 2020). Kamala Harris is, perhaps, the best example of this phenomenon. Every time she opens her mouth, something stupid and unintelligible comes out. She was "chosen" for us, so, clearly, the people doing the choosing are idiots.
I don't agree that the current "elite" seem to be attempting to come together and design beautiful things. Honestly, I'm not sure what they're up to. I've been trying to figure it out for the last two years. Most people want to live in peace, have meaningful work, care for their families, raise children. Mothers (and fathers) don't want to send their sons (or daughters) off to some foreign land to fight and die for someone else's cause. They have to be convinced by propaganda.
Over the past decade or more, we have been subjected to a psyop meant to turn us against each other (black against white, everyone against Christians, liberals against conservatives, everyone else against Trump voters). Ten years ago, people were asking what the hell was wrong with Bruce Jenner. A few years ago, Jenner was on the cover of Vanity Fair and deemed "Woman of the Year". We're now supposed to pretend that a man with three ex-wives and six biological children can become a woman, no different from you and me, simply because he says he's a woman. If we question this, we are called haters and transphobic. There's a movement to sexualize children and destigmatize the people who sexually abuse them.
This was not an organic reordering of society. It was orchestrated and planned for a purpose. What is that purpose? Someone or something has plans for us? Or, perhaps, they are trying to distract us while they do something else.
I've heard a lot of crazy stories over the past two years. Many have proven true. Remember when vaxx passports were a conspiracy? My point is that many people have awakened from their slumber. Once you see it, you see the pattern everywhere. IMO, the "elites" are losing control and they know it.
I did understand your point, although I would argue the line between a narcissist and a psychopath is blurry. They can both do a lot of damage on a personal, national, or global level.
I missed that you were quoting a quote in your comment. I apologize.
I agree that narcissists and psychopaths are distinct, but they aren't always opposite in their presentation. Not all psychopaths are low functioning criminals. Many are surgeons, corporate bigwigs, financiers, soldiers. Some have very high IQs and can do a great deal of damage. Is Fauci a narcissist or a psychopath or both or neither? We can only try discern their motivation and thought processes from their actions.
In the end, I'm not sure it matters if the person who is doing harm is a narcissist or a psychopath. Both types are dangerous and destructive.
I had a stalker for many years, so I read a lot on the subject. Still haven't figured out what they hell was wrong with him.
I came across Caitlin Johnstone a couple weeks ago. She's brutally direct and honest. Don't know if you've read any of her stuff, but I thought you might like it. I just read these articles this morning and thought of this conversation. The second article is linked from the first towards the end.
"It remains an open question what 'meat, milk, and eggs' they believe they are extracting from the herd, because economic value would become meaningless the moment they actually achieved their fantasy agenda."
When I was in fourth grade or so, the teacher started teaching us about "needs" and "wants". After defining the terms, she invited us to start brainstorming what our human needs were. One would have thought that she had a canonical Maslovic list to compare against, but apparently not. When one of my classmates said that "money" was a need, she accepted it with no hesitation.
When the value of money is so fundamentally embedded in the psyche of the grown-up (and the child) that they consider it a basic need, it won't be so easily written out of a new world order. So, whoever is on top, someone has to be producing capital.
If you had a monolithic totalitarian state that was exerting total control over resource allocation, there's nothing to "buy." If you're allowing your subjects some degree of choice within the constraints you're imposing under, say, a UBI, but still exercise veto power over the type and quantity of those purchases (you may spend your food credits on lentils or crickets!), all you've really got is a company scrip.
Also, at that point, the elite have no use for capital. Capital creates production, and if you've already taken top- down control of production, there's nothing you need to leverage beyond the artificial scarcity you're creating to control behavior and the credits the monkeys can use to buy fruit out of the vending machine.
I must be the only nail biter in the group. I'll admit--I am afraid of them. They've planned for decades in one manner or another and now have technology on their side, they can print money and spend it before it no longer has any value, they control what we watch and read (mostly) and pretty much everything else, like our food and medical supply. The legislatures and courts seem to be captured as well, at least some of them. 90% of people are still asleep so I don't have a lot of confidence in the "fight." To be perfectly honest, if they hadn't tried to forcibly inject me and my children with the cyanide they're peddling, I'd probably still be asleep too.
It just seems that when you control media, money, military and medicine, you pretty much rule the world. I know that sounds weak and I appreciate your post because it did pierce my bubble for a minute and give me some hope. I am a city slicker and though I have been working on it, I do not have much going for me in basic needs/survival arena. But I am also a fighter and have confidence I can do whatever it takes. I just hope there's enough of us.
Thanks for your excellent post--always engaging and thought provoking!
I'll be very shortly writing another article specifically about how to address this fear within ourselves as individuals that I hope helps you personally.
Someone I am related to said regarding the storing of basic needs: "I store a gun and lots of bullets. That is all you need." I gave it some thought. He is right, but also - if the SHTF I am on the fence about teaming up with him or running from him. either way I better be in shape. Haha.
I hope people are not retucking themselves into their beds.
I am seventy years old, and many times in a day I still look at my life and see myself as the kid I was decades ago, and I wonder about the why of my daily living....
That's what I find simultaneously amazing and frustrating about life- that an individual is one long unbroken story. When I meet people much older than me, I'm reminded that they were babies, teenagers, (hopefully) carefree kids, went to high school...
if only we really understood the fragility of every life when we were young...I consider myself blessed in my life, but most people would be appalled at how I grew up....but we survive, move on, and learn to enjoy the world around us, the universe we live in, and the beauty that envelops us...
Marxist academics have had over a hundred years of almost total academic freedom and institutional support and they're no closer to figuring out how to bring about the rise of the proletarian utopia so I wouldn't expect any revelations from the likes of Zuckerberg.
The thing is, Zuck never actually intended to grow from his humble beginnings as a slightly underweight bearded dragon in the reptile section of Pet Land Discounts to a member of the global elite. None of these people began their lifecycle as "leftists."
The relationship between the global elite and the Marxist academics responsible for the "long march through the institutions" is an interesting and symbiotic one, but it is definitely a relationship between two distinct groups of people.
Rounding Earth's explanation of the Kunlangeta is definitely worthy of consideration. Circulation of the Elites Substack - this author has some important contributions to this discussion.
When I ponder all the populist canyon that is increasingly widening in society, I find myself considering what will happen when the current crop of international and national Elites age out. In the US, it seems to me that most of the ruling class keeping the train on the tracks right now are quite old. I'm not certain their younger apprentices have the power or the organizational skills required to maintain the current trajectory.
Perhaps I'm only being optimistic but a huge opportunity might open up as the current farmers face the predicament of being put out to pasture by younger farmers with significantly less power-expertise and a more radical social agenda.
I think that's what's already happening. This is a temper tantrum of Padawans barely up to the task and their senior mentors reluctant to give up the reins to anyone.
It's very possible that this whole mess we find ourselves in is simply the result of a bad confluence of age demographics.
My dad is 80, and I just told him I didn't want him to die until I was a grown up. I'm 41. I'm a teacher. I'm a wife and a mother to 3. I *am* a grown up, but wow, when I realized he was close to dying, I wanted to be a real grown up. Whatever that means. Great post.
Why wouldn't some adopt a God-like notion of themselves when they can do what they want to whomever they want and never really fear getting your foot caught in a snare.? Macro and micro.
Imagine the powerful feeling of murdering a person or a whole tribe and nobody hold you to account. Ever. Such are the times. Such has always been the times.
I'll add that, as a Christian, knowing that evil does not ultimately prevail and all have to answer for their lives is comforting (and humbling). Also I believe there is an inbuilt desire for hierarchy. Unfortunately man will always make himself God. Humans do that (even on their own small personal level). Animals do it (thru a pecking order - every single herd animal I know of).
This was a good read from a good writer. That ASVAB score shows! I was not one who immediately understood the analogy (didn't read the headings closely), so it was nice to see the link to what came across to me initially as non sequiturs.
However, I have one question: Is there any chance that one of your hogs is named "Napoleon"?
Haha, no. Husbandmouth chose the naming convention for our livestock. Boars are named for flowers, sows are named for trees, cattle are named for locations in Ireland (to honor their breed).
I figured enough millions of people have done the Animal Farm thing that I should try to be more original.
I wouldn't cull an intersex hog. That'd be pretty fascinating. If it were fertile and physically strong I'd breed it, if it weren't I'd raise it to meat age (after castration it if functional testes were present).
If it were truly intersex it would be a hermaphrodite? (Which for some reason is considered a slur? Don't understand why, it's perfectly cromulent.)
Meaning that you'd be able to breed it with itself, essentially. If that doesn't make the Frankenstein-sense tingle, I don't know what would.
And your story is a great read! Having seen how friends who went to Bosnia and to Irak, Afghanistan and Sudan/Somalia (in the latter case as "private security contractors") came back all busted in their heads, I'm actually glad I was barred from conscription or signing up when it was made voluntary.
Because these guys are like vases you've dropped an glued back tgether again: you can sort of see what it should look like, but it can never ever become really whole again.
Politicians advocating war should be made to lead from the front.
True hermaphroditism (I wasn't aware of any pejorative meaning and I'm fucking using it anyway because I speak English) as it occurs in mammals has actually never been directly observed! Typically one set of genitals is anatomical only and doesn't have gametes, or is internalized and doesn't develop to maturity.
In any case, a genuinely "true" hermaphrodite almost certainly wouldn't be able to produce viable offspring "with itself". But it would be fascinating.
I recently came across this article about why the C-suite went ahead with the plandemic, and potentially as simple as the Quantative Easing of 2007 causing such a misdirection of incentives that they're playing to politicians not number crunchers.
Having once done sports Therapy I also like to analyse the connective tissue. Where the elites interface and interact with the other. Is it that black and white? Is there any social mobility? (Interestingly USA land of the American Dream has lower social mobility than the 1000 year old establishment in the UK which also reduced it's by getting rid of Grammar schools). How do these people work with smaller companies? How do companies outside the firehose of liquidity operate in lockdowns and politically? Where are their leaders and media mouthpieces? I don't have answers to all these. Just areas of interest for further study to really understand!It.
In terms of apocryphal scenarios, I think the democratisation of destruction is a little real (Bill Joys 1 IQ point lower each passing year to destroy humanity) and Joel Garreau's "Prevail" synthesis helps me mentally. But also need to prepare for a wilder ride for the next 20years than the last 20.
The aside about Traditional Chinese Medicine made me laugh out loud. I have oodles of TCM pharmacopeia in my bonce but do not recall ever reading about the benefits of elephant dung... mind you, the majority of TCM discoveries were made during times of extreme famine so it is possible that some unfortunate tried eating some at some point, I suppose!
I digress....
I came here to praise your analogy of farmers (Orwell did it too with his book obviously called "Animal Farm" which I am sure you appreciate!)....
In respect of the self appointed "elite" I admit I assiduously avoid calling them that. I prefer to use terms like the Black Nobility or Nobs for short. Alternatively I refer to them as the predator class.
I write about them all the time but here is an extract which conveys my impressions and unfortunate experience of them:
"The earliest of the Black Nobility's recorded ancestors created their Empire and they are obliged to continue with the plan on pain of disinheritance, excommunication or death, whether they like it or not.
They have been brought up to play their part in such opulent circumstances that they cannot imagine being any other way. They bred or beat empathy out of themselves generations ago and they educate their children to continue the family traditions and beliefs."
I've been in the room with real, actual psychopaths. They are not, as a group, more intelligent or adept than normal people- the whole notion that every psychopath is a charming Hannibal Lecter or Patrick Bateman is Hollywood's fault.
A genuine psychopath doesn't maintain sufficient emotional attachment to people, let along large groups of them, to want an intense "nurturing" relationship (however twisted) with people. To the extent that psychopaths become emotionally invested in other people, they're typically interested in a direct relationship or two as a "possession" or as a short-lived game to try to raise their arousal levels.
Narcissism as a personality disorder better explains the desire to control AND BE UNCONDITIONALLY LOVED by large groups of people regardless of your actual competency in your role.
And unfortunately, just like psychopathy, there aren't good "remedies" for it. One of the reasons I drifted away from public mental health was the (even then) steady and inexorable encroachment of politics and the ideology du jour. Most serious mental illness can't be fixed. It's tragic, but it's true, just like people dying of the flu and of COVID. What we consider "cures" or "treatments" for serious mental illness is usually mitigation efforts by society to make the person less dangerous or burdensome. They are usually not much happier or more fruitful as a result of the interventions we have available.
So, from a utilitarian view, there's an argument for the "kunlangeta" perspective, as the Rounding the Earth substack states: eventually they become disruptive enough to society that someone pushes them off the ice and everyone agrees not to talk about it.
Thanks very much for the praise regarding Fathermouth- it means a lot to me. The work is absolutely not finished- he's now going through the process of ACTUALLY getting heart surgery to repair the CHF damage, this time getting tests and travelling to his treatment outpatient from our home where he is mentally and emotionally very healthy and happy. The danger zone will be the roughly 4 weeks of inpatient following the surgery (though we're currently given reason to believe that this hospital here in PA has a much less drastic procedure in mind than NY wanted which may have a shorter hospitalization).
While I would not trade it for the unimaginable horrors and neglect he suffered, I have considered him living with us these past two months a blessing and a gift to all of us as a family- though he's very eager to go home and be an independent man again.
On your Dad’s upcoming surgery, I would encourage you to investigate anesthesia and the elderly before surgery and query the anesthesiologist (many do not give consideration to how their work affects the functioning of the elderly brain.).
Thankfully his team was extremely concerned by the story we told of his experience in November and did tests for sensitivity/allergy. They are taking it very much in consideration which is a big relief. It is still a roll of the dice.
>> For me, the philosophical question has become more, "How can we help re-humanize someone who has been dehumanized?"
It's an interesting philosophical question, but the answers won't necessarily be the same if you're asking that as a medical or psychiatric question. The answer is "sometimes you can't."
>> The mental health system has no remedy, and no obvious solution presents itself.
That is my unfortunate position, and I think a lot of pain and tremendous expense is made because we really don't want to face that as a culture.
Psychopaths have always been with us, and will always be with us, and I'm generally of the mind that characteristics that aren't the result of developmental/congenital damage that are persistently represented in the human genepool are probably there for an evolutionary reason. A certain, very small, ratio of psychopaths to normals probably serves some more complex anthropological balance. I think we currently have way too many because modern global culture has evolved in such a way to incentivize it and more psychopaths prosper than get pushed off the ice.
>> So we shouldn't have to push them all off the ice in some kind of cataclysmic world revolution.
I don't think "being a psychopath" is the sole qualifier for a society-level justification for being pushed off the ice. I don't dismiss violence as the worst possible solution for a problem- it doesn't occupy a unique category of human behavior. I think we may need to push a lot of people off the ice in the coming decades, simply because we will reach an "us or them" point, and it won't be because of a mental health diagnosis they have or don't have.
>> Theoretically, is there a way to convince our international human "farmers" that their livestock are human? Or have they crossed a line beyond which we cannot repair? At the end of the day, is kunlangeta really the only answer?
I think you're inducting in the wrong direction: the only meaningful question here is, "can we convince our international human farmers that THEY are human?" I think the answer to your version is a pretty dead-end "no": I don't think there's any motivation or rational argument for what is a default position.
The "elites" have always been with us, but today's "elites" are different, imo. Twenty-five years ago, Zuckerberg, Bezos, etc., were nobodies. Now they control what we're allowed to say, even when it's true (Rachel Levine is a man). There's a spotlight on the WEF, but who/what is the power behind the WEF? Who is picking winners and losers?
When my children were in high school, we watched the Korean historical dramas: The Iron Empress and Emperor Wang Gun. They are amazing. After watching too many battle scenes, though, I was struck by the futility of it all. You couldn't find a more homogenous group of people, but they were always finding reasons to kill each other. I wondered about the hundreds of thousands of Korean people who lived and died fighting some "elite's" war of vanity. This same story has been repeated on every continent throughout history.
I agree that the "elites" aren't necessarily psychopaths, but I suspect most of them are not wired correctly. And many of the current crop weren't born into their attitudes and beliefs.
For the first time, perhaps in all of human history, people are awakening to the reality that you describe in this article. The "elites" should be afraid of us. We don't need them. They need us.
>> We don't need them. They need us.
I think that to a certain extent, "people" (I'm not accounting for individual unique specialness here) want to be led. While the human population is now enormous enough that outliers to this are a nontrival number, I'd go so far as to say that it's a genetic norm that we want to live in societies organized in some flavor of hierarchy, with some sort of clearly identified leaders, and enforced social norms. When groups of humans are cast adrift from these things, they inevitably seem to recreate them to keep themselves sane and relatively happy.
Your comment (and this response to it, so far) gives me some interesting thoughts about the nature of "elites," who are not necessarily the same thing as "social leaders." I'll have to do a lot more thinking on this, but I'm starting to contemplate that the notion of "elites" as we describe this pack of assholes- social leaders with no real grasp on power or competency to wield it- are a uniquely modern phenomenon and are what seem to be causing a cascade failure of global leadership and tyranny as a sort of panicked, frustrated response (see my post "The Play's The Thing" from a couple weeks ago as it suddenly seems more relevant now).
The warring nobility you describe from the Koryo dynasty (and thousands of other examples across history) represented power structures competing with each other, with their subjects serving as pawns and fodder for their ambitions. Our current elite seem to be attempting to "come together and design beautiful things" and are failing miserably at leading and at maintaining our obedience.
A thesis of this article (which almost no one seems to like or have read, I'm almost hurt) is that the elites are motivated by narcissism rather than psychopathy (though they certainly CAN be psychopaths), and that would explain why their attempts to create a homogenized global state is marked by so much abusive behavior and failure- true narcissists can never share.
Imo, the elites use us like the pieces on a board game. They have something controlling them, as well. Their heinous actions and media hype are fun for them. It's all theater. We are the bugs that kids used to tear the wings off. When boredom sets is it's time for a new game. Narcissists, yes. Some psychos and many sociopaths. They do worship and believe in Satan, imo. This is a spiritual war coming to a head.
I agree that most people want to be part of a community and to be led by someone or something. Most of us want to sit in the back seat of mom's SUV. But the power of "leaders" in the West is by consent of the led. Without followers, a leader cannot exist.
Historically, leaders were born into the role or born to someone who killed for the role. Some were good. Some were bad. Some were truly awful. And some were crazy. Modern day leaders, on the other hand, are selected by some unseen hand for us to "choose". When that doesn't quite work out as planned (Trump 2016), the deck is stacked (Biden 2020). Kamala Harris is, perhaps, the best example of this phenomenon. Every time she opens her mouth, something stupid and unintelligible comes out. She was "chosen" for us, so, clearly, the people doing the choosing are idiots.
I don't agree that the current "elite" seem to be attempting to come together and design beautiful things. Honestly, I'm not sure what they're up to. I've been trying to figure it out for the last two years. Most people want to live in peace, have meaningful work, care for their families, raise children. Mothers (and fathers) don't want to send their sons (or daughters) off to some foreign land to fight and die for someone else's cause. They have to be convinced by propaganda.
Over the past decade or more, we have been subjected to a psyop meant to turn us against each other (black against white, everyone against Christians, liberals against conservatives, everyone else against Trump voters). Ten years ago, people were asking what the hell was wrong with Bruce Jenner. A few years ago, Jenner was on the cover of Vanity Fair and deemed "Woman of the Year". We're now supposed to pretend that a man with three ex-wives and six biological children can become a woman, no different from you and me, simply because he says he's a woman. If we question this, we are called haters and transphobic. There's a movement to sexualize children and destigmatize the people who sexually abuse them.
This was not an organic reordering of society. It was orchestrated and planned for a purpose. What is that purpose? Someone or something has plans for us? Or, perhaps, they are trying to distract us while they do something else.
I've heard a lot of crazy stories over the past two years. Many have proven true. Remember when vaxx passports were a conspiracy? My point is that many people have awakened from their slumber. Once you see it, you see the pattern everywhere. IMO, the "elites" are losing control and they know it.
I did understand your point, although I would argue the line between a narcissist and a psychopath is blurry. They can both do a lot of damage on a personal, national, or global level.
>> I don't agree that the current "elite" seem to be attempting to come together and design beautiful things.
This is not a statement I made. In the above article I transcribed a speech at Davos where the elite describe themselves in this manner.
>> I would argue the line between a narcissist and a psychopath is blurry.
They are completely distinct and almost opposite in their presentation.
I missed that you were quoting a quote in your comment. I apologize.
I agree that narcissists and psychopaths are distinct, but they aren't always opposite in their presentation. Not all psychopaths are low functioning criminals. Many are surgeons, corporate bigwigs, financiers, soldiers. Some have very high IQs and can do a great deal of damage. Is Fauci a narcissist or a psychopath or both or neither? We can only try discern their motivation and thought processes from their actions.
In the end, I'm not sure it matters if the person who is doing harm is a narcissist or a psychopath. Both types are dangerous and destructive.
I had a stalker for many years, so I read a lot on the subject. Still haven't figured out what they hell was wrong with him.
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/spycatcher/201712/narcissist-or-psychopath-how-can-you-tell
You're right that it doesn't matter in the end. I think we collectively waste a lot of time trying to do field diagnoses on people that impact us.
We do it because we are critical thinkers
I came across Caitlin Johnstone a couple weeks ago. She's brutally direct and honest. Don't know if you've read any of her stuff, but I thought you might like it. I just read these articles this morning and thought of this conversation. The second article is linked from the first towards the end.
https://caitlinjohnstone.substack.com/p/if-it-feels-like-youre-being-manipulated?token=eyJ1c2VyX2lkIjoxNjgwNzY5NCwicG9zdF9pZCI6NTE5OTk1MjEsIl8iOiJLT2pzTiIsImlhdCI6MTY0OTY4NDc4MywiZXhwIjoxNjQ5Njg4MzgzLCJpc3MiOiJwdWItODIxMjQiLCJzdWIiOiJwb3N0LXJlYWN0aW9uIn0._xk4-qvv4_0hMaHANPoSPOp_x--VN_9adyuPr96aSUI&s=r
https://caitlinjohnstone.substack.com/p/society-is-made-of-narrative-realizing?s=r
Many Are surgeons! Can attest to that from working with them.
Thanks VERY much for the heads up.
"It remains an open question what 'meat, milk, and eggs' they believe they are extracting from the herd, because economic value would become meaningless the moment they actually achieved their fantasy agenda."
When I was in fourth grade or so, the teacher started teaching us about "needs" and "wants". After defining the terms, she invited us to start brainstorming what our human needs were. One would have thought that she had a canonical Maslovic list to compare against, but apparently not. When one of my classmates said that "money" was a need, she accepted it with no hesitation.
When the value of money is so fundamentally embedded in the psyche of the grown-up (and the child) that they consider it a basic need, it won't be so easily written out of a new world order. So, whoever is on top, someone has to be producing capital.
"Money" is different from "capital," though.
If you had a monolithic totalitarian state that was exerting total control over resource allocation, there's nothing to "buy." If you're allowing your subjects some degree of choice within the constraints you're imposing under, say, a UBI, but still exercise veto power over the type and quantity of those purchases (you may spend your food credits on lentils or crickets!), all you've really got is a company scrip.
Also, at that point, the elite have no use for capital. Capital creates production, and if you've already taken top- down control of production, there's nothing you need to leverage beyond the artificial scarcity you're creating to control behavior and the credits the monkeys can use to buy fruit out of the vending machine.
Fathermouth is not on teh nets.
Dogbreath and Milkbone are Dog #1 and 2. My dogs actually have really good breath!
Brothermouth is already around here somewhere.
I must be the only nail biter in the group. I'll admit--I am afraid of them. They've planned for decades in one manner or another and now have technology on their side, they can print money and spend it before it no longer has any value, they control what we watch and read (mostly) and pretty much everything else, like our food and medical supply. The legislatures and courts seem to be captured as well, at least some of them. 90% of people are still asleep so I don't have a lot of confidence in the "fight." To be perfectly honest, if they hadn't tried to forcibly inject me and my children with the cyanide they're peddling, I'd probably still be asleep too.
It just seems that when you control media, money, military and medicine, you pretty much rule the world. I know that sounds weak and I appreciate your post because it did pierce my bubble for a minute and give me some hope. I am a city slicker and though I have been working on it, I do not have much going for me in basic needs/survival arena. But I am also a fighter and have confidence I can do whatever it takes. I just hope there's enough of us.
Thanks for your excellent post--always engaging and thought provoking!
Your fear is not crazy or wrong and I sympathize.
I'll be very shortly writing another article specifically about how to address this fear within ourselves as individuals that I hope helps you personally.
Someone I am related to said regarding the storing of basic needs: "I store a gun and lots of bullets. That is all you need." I gave it some thought. He is right, but also - if the SHTF I am on the fence about teaming up with him or running from him. either way I better be in shape. Haha.
I hope people are not retucking themselves into their beds.
I am seventy years old, and many times in a day I still look at my life and see myself as the kid I was decades ago, and I wonder about the why of my daily living....
That's what I find simultaneously amazing and frustrating about life- that an individual is one long unbroken story. When I meet people much older than me, I'm reminded that they were babies, teenagers, (hopefully) carefree kids, went to high school...
if only we really understood the fragility of every life when we were young...I consider myself blessed in my life, but most people would be appalled at how I grew up....but we survive, move on, and learn to enjoy the world around us, the universe we live in, and the beauty that envelops us...
Marxist academics have had over a hundred years of almost total academic freedom and institutional support and they're no closer to figuring out how to bring about the rise of the proletarian utopia so I wouldn't expect any revelations from the likes of Zuckerberg.
The thing is, Zuck never actually intended to grow from his humble beginnings as a slightly underweight bearded dragon in the reptile section of Pet Land Discounts to a member of the global elite. None of these people began their lifecycle as "leftists."
The relationship between the global elite and the Marxist academics responsible for the "long march through the institutions" is an interesting and symbiotic one, but it is definitely a relationship between two distinct groups of people.
Rounding Earth's explanation of the Kunlangeta is definitely worthy of consideration. Circulation of the Elites Substack - this author has some important contributions to this discussion.
When I ponder all the populist canyon that is increasingly widening in society, I find myself considering what will happen when the current crop of international and national Elites age out. In the US, it seems to me that most of the ruling class keeping the train on the tracks right now are quite old. I'm not certain their younger apprentices have the power or the organizational skills required to maintain the current trajectory.
Perhaps I'm only being optimistic but a huge opportunity might open up as the current farmers face the predicament of being put out to pasture by younger farmers with significantly less power-expertise and a more radical social agenda.
I think that's what's already happening. This is a temper tantrum of Padawans barely up to the task and their senior mentors reluctant to give up the reins to anyone.
It's very possible that this whole mess we find ourselves in is simply the result of a bad confluence of age demographics.
Got this in my email today but it’s not appearing in the Substack App 🤔
Same for me.
I *think* it's displaying correctly now. It's at least showing up on my dashboard and didn't yesterday.
My dad is 80, and I just told him I didn't want him to die until I was a grown up. I'm 41. I'm a teacher. I'm a wife and a mother to 3. I *am* a grown up, but wow, when I realized he was close to dying, I wanted to be a real grown up. Whatever that means. Great post.
Why wouldn't some adopt a God-like notion of themselves when they can do what they want to whomever they want and never really fear getting your foot caught in a snare.? Macro and micro.
Imagine the powerful feeling of murdering a person or a whole tribe and nobody hold you to account. Ever. Such are the times. Such has always been the times.
I'll add that, as a Christian, knowing that evil does not ultimately prevail and all have to answer for their lives is comforting (and humbling). Also I believe there is an inbuilt desire for hierarchy. Unfortunately man will always make himself God. Humans do that (even on their own small personal level). Animals do it (thru a pecking order - every single herd animal I know of).
i got the book set of Calvin and Hobbes last Christmas, its wonderful
This was a good read from a good writer. That ASVAB score shows! I was not one who immediately understood the analogy (didn't read the headings closely), so it was nice to see the link to what came across to me initially as non sequiturs.
However, I have one question: Is there any chance that one of your hogs is named "Napoleon"?
Haha, no. Husbandmouth chose the naming convention for our livestock. Boars are named for flowers, sows are named for trees, cattle are named for locations in Ireland (to honor their breed).
I figured enough millions of people have done the Animal Farm thing that I should try to be more original.
So if you ever have a non-binary or intersex hog (before culling it), it could be named Tulip. O.K., I'll stop now.
Please and thank you.
I wouldn't cull an intersex hog. That'd be pretty fascinating. If it were fertile and physically strong I'd breed it, if it weren't I'd raise it to meat age (after castration it if functional testes were present).
If it were truly intersex it would be a hermaphrodite? (Which for some reason is considered a slur? Don't understand why, it's perfectly cromulent.)
Meaning that you'd be able to breed it with itself, essentially. If that doesn't make the Frankenstein-sense tingle, I don't know what would.
And your story is a great read! Having seen how friends who went to Bosnia and to Irak, Afghanistan and Sudan/Somalia (in the latter case as "private security contractors") came back all busted in their heads, I'm actually glad I was barred from conscription or signing up when it was made voluntary.
Because these guys are like vases you've dropped an glued back tgether again: you can sort of see what it should look like, but it can never ever become really whole again.
Politicians advocating war should be made to lead from the front.
True hermaphroditism (I wasn't aware of any pejorative meaning and I'm fucking using it anyway because I speak English) as it occurs in mammals has actually never been directly observed! Typically one set of genitals is anatomical only and doesn't have gametes, or is internalized and doesn't develop to maturity.
In any case, a genuinely "true" hermaphrodite almost certainly wouldn't be able to produce viable offspring "with itself". But it would be fascinating.
Impressive essay with disturbing connotations.
I recently came across this article about why the C-suite went ahead with the plandemic, and potentially as simple as the Quantative Easing of 2007 causing such a misdirection of incentives that they're playing to politicians not number crunchers.
https://www.technocracy.news/how-the-c-suite-embraced-lockdowns-and-economic-war/
Having once done sports Therapy I also like to analyse the connective tissue. Where the elites interface and interact with the other. Is it that black and white? Is there any social mobility? (Interestingly USA land of the American Dream has lower social mobility than the 1000 year old establishment in the UK which also reduced it's by getting rid of Grammar schools). How do these people work with smaller companies? How do companies outside the firehose of liquidity operate in lockdowns and politically? Where are their leaders and media mouthpieces? I don't have answers to all these. Just areas of interest for further study to really understand!It.
In terms of apocryphal scenarios, I think the democratisation of destruction is a little real (Bill Joys 1 IQ point lower each passing year to destroy humanity) and Joel Garreau's "Prevail" synthesis helps me mentally. But also need to prepare for a wilder ride for the next 20years than the last 20.
I so love your ramblings. They are educational, humorous and fucking scary.
Also, glad your dad found his way back from hell a second time.
Thank you too. This community is such a blessing.
Someday I'll tell that story. It's amazing to think it was over 20 years ago now.
Utterly brilliant.
The aside about Traditional Chinese Medicine made me laugh out loud. I have oodles of TCM pharmacopeia in my bonce but do not recall ever reading about the benefits of elephant dung... mind you, the majority of TCM discoveries were made during times of extreme famine so it is possible that some unfortunate tried eating some at some point, I suppose!
I digress....
I came here to praise your analogy of farmers (Orwell did it too with his book obviously called "Animal Farm" which I am sure you appreciate!)....
In respect of the self appointed "elite" I admit I assiduously avoid calling them that. I prefer to use terms like the Black Nobility or Nobs for short. Alternatively I refer to them as the predator class.
I write about them all the time but here is an extract which conveys my impressions and unfortunate experience of them:
"The earliest of the Black Nobility's recorded ancestors created their Empire and they are obliged to continue with the plan on pain of disinheritance, excommunication or death, whether they like it or not.
They have been brought up to play their part in such opulent circumstances that they cannot imagine being any other way. They bred or beat empathy out of themselves generations ago and they educate their children to continue the family traditions and beliefs."
See the full story here if you are interested: https://francesleader.substack.com/p/who-rules-the-world?s=w
I've been in the room with real, actual psychopaths. They are not, as a group, more intelligent or adept than normal people- the whole notion that every psychopath is a charming Hannibal Lecter or Patrick Bateman is Hollywood's fault.
A genuine psychopath doesn't maintain sufficient emotional attachment to people, let along large groups of them, to want an intense "nurturing" relationship (however twisted) with people. To the extent that psychopaths become emotionally invested in other people, they're typically interested in a direct relationship or two as a "possession" or as a short-lived game to try to raise their arousal levels.
Narcissism as a personality disorder better explains the desire to control AND BE UNCONDITIONALLY LOVED by large groups of people regardless of your actual competency in your role.
And unfortunately, just like psychopathy, there aren't good "remedies" for it. One of the reasons I drifted away from public mental health was the (even then) steady and inexorable encroachment of politics and the ideology du jour. Most serious mental illness can't be fixed. It's tragic, but it's true, just like people dying of the flu and of COVID. What we consider "cures" or "treatments" for serious mental illness is usually mitigation efforts by society to make the person less dangerous or burdensome. They are usually not much happier or more fruitful as a result of the interventions we have available.
So, from a utilitarian view, there's an argument for the "kunlangeta" perspective, as the Rounding the Earth substack states: eventually they become disruptive enough to society that someone pushes them off the ice and everyone agrees not to talk about it.
Thanks very much for the praise regarding Fathermouth- it means a lot to me. The work is absolutely not finished- he's now going through the process of ACTUALLY getting heart surgery to repair the CHF damage, this time getting tests and travelling to his treatment outpatient from our home where he is mentally and emotionally very healthy and happy. The danger zone will be the roughly 4 weeks of inpatient following the surgery (though we're currently given reason to believe that this hospital here in PA has a much less drastic procedure in mind than NY wanted which may have a shorter hospitalization).
While I would not trade it for the unimaginable horrors and neglect he suffered, I have considered him living with us these past two months a blessing and a gift to all of us as a family- though he's very eager to go home and be an independent man again.
On your Dad’s upcoming surgery, I would encourage you to investigate anesthesia and the elderly before surgery and query the anesthesiologist (many do not give consideration to how their work affects the functioning of the elderly brain.).
Thankfully his team was extremely concerned by the story we told of his experience in November and did tests for sensitivity/allergy. They are taking it very much in consideration which is a big relief. It is still a roll of the dice.
>> For me, the philosophical question has become more, "How can we help re-humanize someone who has been dehumanized?"
It's an interesting philosophical question, but the answers won't necessarily be the same if you're asking that as a medical or psychiatric question. The answer is "sometimes you can't."
>> The mental health system has no remedy, and no obvious solution presents itself.
That is my unfortunate position, and I think a lot of pain and tremendous expense is made because we really don't want to face that as a culture.
Psychopaths have always been with us, and will always be with us, and I'm generally of the mind that characteristics that aren't the result of developmental/congenital damage that are persistently represented in the human genepool are probably there for an evolutionary reason. A certain, very small, ratio of psychopaths to normals probably serves some more complex anthropological balance. I think we currently have way too many because modern global culture has evolved in such a way to incentivize it and more psychopaths prosper than get pushed off the ice.
>> So we shouldn't have to push them all off the ice in some kind of cataclysmic world revolution.
I don't think "being a psychopath" is the sole qualifier for a society-level justification for being pushed off the ice. I don't dismiss violence as the worst possible solution for a problem- it doesn't occupy a unique category of human behavior. I think we may need to push a lot of people off the ice in the coming decades, simply because we will reach an "us or them" point, and it won't be because of a mental health diagnosis they have or don't have.
>> Theoretically, is there a way to convince our international human "farmers" that their livestock are human? Or have they crossed a line beyond which we cannot repair? At the end of the day, is kunlangeta really the only answer?
I think you're inducting in the wrong direction: the only meaningful question here is, "can we convince our international human farmers that THEY are human?" I think the answer to your version is a pretty dead-end "no": I don't think there's any motivation or rational argument for what is a default position.