We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Wednesday, September 22, 2021

Posts that I especially recommend for Wednesday, September 22, 2021

  • Freedom from Fear: Stop Playing the Government’s Mind Games by John W. Whitehead & Nisha Whitehead from The Rutherford Institute. My reaction: The Whiteheads show their bias by the headline. The government is not playing mind games, but the capitalist ruling class is--via their control of the government. Whiteheads' observations fit well with an anarchist perspective which is highly influential of what represents a far-left perspective in the USA.
  • Fighting Vaccine Mandates – #SolutionsWatch featuring James Corbett from his website discussing in a video (about one hour) what he has investigated about the growing worry in relation to "no vaccine, no jobs, or no service".
  • 💥We Won’t Be Free Until Our Minds Are Free by Australian Caitlin Johnstone with her American husband, Tim Foley, also reading the script (but you may miss supporting examples, illustrations, etc.)--from her weblog. And Johnstone and Tim Foley, her American husband, are living in Australia! This is a best post. My brief commentary follows:
I have followed various political writers who have challenged the mainstream narratives and have ended up being disappointed. It seems that living in the United State casts a spell on people to prevent them from challenging the very premises that founds our society and its capitalist system. It is almost impossible not to succumb to the many distorting messages that inundate our minds and corrupt them. 
 
I've noticed the people who are the most free of this all-encompassing bias are the ones who have spent significant amounts of time living overseas, especially in countries outside of the US/Anglo/Zionist Empire. Thus, I find people such as Whitney Webb (Chile), Brian Berletic (Thailand), Vanessa Beeley (a British journalist currently living in Syria), Eva Bartlett (a Canadian who has lived in a variety of countries), Pepe Escobar (also living in a variety of countries), Glenn Greenwald (Brazil), and even Jame Corbett (Japan) and Caitlin Johnstone with her American husband, Tim Foley (Australia), always very credible. Corbett, who I often differ with, I find his investigative pieces valuable. After all, Corbett is living in Japan which is an integral part of the Empire. And, I can't help thinking that Foley found living in the USA intolerable, and the two of them created their own ideological space in Australia which is experiencing the worst control methods of the pandemic. If I were younger, I would carefully consider living in another country outside of the Empire. 
 
Regardless of how well-read one is, it is usually impossible to totally escape one's milieu and the distorted political outlook that people have--friends, relatives, and associates. All but a few people living in the USA are fully saturated by the ruling class's ideology.
  • A Solution Without a Solution by John Steppling, an American dramatist currently living in Norway, from his weblog. (Note: This highly erudite, intelligent author is not for everyone, but I've found in the past that I agree with many of his observations. His writings are often lengthy, but numerous, unrelated pictures are interspersed with his writing.) 
Today, artificial intelligence, or AI, is the centerpiece of the U.S. empire’s plan to maintain global dominance.

AI is essentially computer super-intelligence that does what human brains can not. Exponential technological advances have rendered our human brains, constrained by the slow process of biological evolution, inferior to modern supercomputers.

Applied in the service of humanity, artificial intelligence has incredible promise. But applied in the service of empire and the permanent war state, it spells disaster.
  • BBC Retracts Blatant Lies About Syria featuring Jimmy Dore and Aaron Maté discussing the lies of mainstream media in relation to Syria in general and BBC in particular via YouTube video (31:56m).
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