New Year fireworks! Note the nuclear fireball overtones.
“Who brought us to this point? Who are the bastards that have turned our world into an endless war zone? Who are the deranged folk who made the hideous weapons called nukes and organized delivery systems that can reach anywhere in the world? Who has carefully indoctrinated us to accept that war is inevitable, that we must kill or be killed, that we must have Superpowers?
Who turned the MSM into a branch of the Government, one that helps it to spread its propaganda? Who is making money out of perpetual war while living the lifestyle of billionaires? Who is bribing our politicians to forget us? Who is allowing Corporations to control the world?
Answer these questions and you know who we have to bring down before nuclear war becomes a reality. We have to take control, march into their mansions and into their boardrooms and Ministerial Conference rooms and drag them out into the street and give them what they deserve. Then we need to start again: new Constitution that suits the year 2011, no President, no State Department, no Pentagon, no lobbyists, no huge Corporations, no capitalism, and no armed forces.
Our choice is clear: either we act or we humans become extinct. You choose!”
Friends, as we approach the end of 2010, questions must be asked about the coming year and what it might hold for the man in the street. The comment written above was written by an irate contributor on ICH (me) and seems pertinent to this topic. I have regained my rational state again so don’t be worried.
I guess I’m not a clairvoyant but it’s difficult to see that we are going to enter a new Golden Age of Enlightenment and Peace next year.
Let’s face it, our history over ten millenia shows no Golden Age of Enlightenment and Peace, just a succession of bloody wars and crippling plagues and famines and a constant struggle for survival.
As a friend from another blog has noted, capitalism has brought some advantages to the man in the street during the last two centuries but for each advantage there seems to be two disadvantages so I guess that’s a no-win situation for nearly all concerned.
Not of course for the oligarchs who daily grow richer while the bulk of people grow ever poorer. More and more wealth is held by fewer and fewer people which must be a recipe for disaster. Some say that capitalism is finished, that it has reached its use-by date, that we have reached the end of the road using credit to keep rampant consumerism going.
Moving to the international stage, we have several areas of trouble. The Global Financial Crisis is still with us and some nations in Europe are experiencing trouble paying back their debts. Ireland, Spain, Portugal are a few names written in red. The U.S. is having trouble with their housing regarding falling prices and unemployment is still high. It has printed billions of dollars of dollars in the hope that that will stimulate a strong recovery but it’s not happening.
Americans are not spending either because they are scared of losing their jobs or houses or they just don’t have the money. America, on paper, is bankrupt but it acts as if it’s not. There are currency wars going on between China and America as each tries to gain a trade advantage.
Then we have a series of wars going on, in Afghanistan, in Pakistan, in Yemen, in Somalia, in Nigeria, the list seems endless. More wars could break out in Iran, in Korea as the U.S. tries to gain major control of the world so that it has advantageous access to increasingly scarce resources.
Russia and China are both trying to prevent this happening for obvious reasons and the battle over resources, both economic and strategic, rages though it hasn’t reached the stage of armed confrontation yet (though it could at any time). China and Russia are spending billions to improve their Armed Forces and India is likewise engaged.
Alliances are being formed, Russia with Iran and India for example. It’s like world-wide tag wrestling with chest-beating combatants coming in and out of the ring as they strive for advantage. The E.U. is struggling to keep afloat so the U.S. hasn’t got the big European backup that it once had.
Eventually, because of overpopulation, nations will battle each other over resources like food and clean drinking water as well as over holding top-dog status and military supremacy.
As if that is not enough, our consumerism has created Global Warming. The bizarre weather being experienced by Europe and the U.S. seems to back up the claims that we are in for an increasingly heavy time of it. Even in Australia we are having major floods while, over in the West, bush fires are a major concern. New records are being set for flood levels and low temperatures and snow.Yet, strangely, fossil fuels are still being used as if there was no tomorrow.
Given these circumstances plus a host of others not mentioned, the world is a place filled with stress and fear. This stress is added to by the existence of nuclear weapons and the drift of many nations towards right-wing politics. Touches of fascism are creeping into nations like the U.S. The religious fanaticism of Israel, well, we won’t go there!
So what is going to happen in 2011? Given the factors mentioned above, it is hard to be optimistic. What the world really needs is to break with the past, throw out all the current conventions and start again from scratch.
Our systems, political, economic and international aren’t working anymore and besides, they only ever favored a few nations and small groups of oligarchs.
My advice is to hold onto your hat because I believe that the coming year is going to provide us with a bumpy ride.
Hopefully that will be the worst that we will have to endure.
“We have to take control, march into their mansions and into their boardrooms and Ministerial Conference rooms and drag them out into the street and give them what they deserve.”
I am in complete agreement. The Greed gene has and will be the death of all of us. The only way for us to survive as a species would be to go the way of Ghandi – living incredibly simply, completely non-materialistic, and working for the good of everyone. Ghandi was one in a billion, so I do not see this working. No, it looks more like we are on an end-run to destruction. Frankly, we are the cancer of the planet – the worst one ever created, since the last extinctions were caused by meteorite strikes etc. So, good riddance to bad rubbish.
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more of the same in 2010 only worse……………….
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Kent, the current world system is drawing us ever closer to achieving our own destruction and we’re too dumb to see it.
Coco, man is his own worst enemy. He hasn’t got the intelligence to recognize this.
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Where have all the flowers gone………..?
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David G Reply:
December 30th, 2010 at 11:02 am
“When will they ever learn…when will they ever learn?”
Never, it seems!
Cheers.
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Hello All -
With respect to this – if you want to see what the Earth will become, if Homo Sap finally manages to do itself in, go to YouTube and type in “After People”. You will see a series of 10 minute segments of this History Channel documentary. It is heartening to find out how quickly things will return to a natural balance. The Earth has all the time in the Universe and we do not.
One last comment for now. When I was much younger and less cynical I watched the American TV show, “Star Trek” during it’s three year run. I was struck by the optimism that was depicted in this show of the 23rd century, the lack of social prejudice, the cooperation of nations and the enthusiasm to explore the galaxy and represent the peaceful “Federation of Planets” to other races. In this future even money had ceased to exist! I wanted to believe in that future even though I would never see it and my own world was permeated by the Vietnam War, race riots, student protest and fears for the environment. Now, more than 40 years later I am ashamed at how far away from Gene Roddenberry’s vision we gave gone. The meanness and greed, the political extremism and intolerance, the lingering racism and sexism of my country and it’s insipid and mind-numbing consumerism is a painful thing to witness. And, of course, the continuing and accelerating exploitation of the natural world.
Gene Roddenberry would be very disappointed at these developments. I think he believed in a future where people could at last become truly human and be able to reach their potential. What the America of the 21st century seems to be turning into is a neo-feudal state of lower class serfs and corporate lords. We certainly aren’t there yet but the complacency of the “citizens” that I see around me does not bode well for the next several decades.
I wish the very best to all of you in 2011.
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David G Reply:
December 30th, 2010 at 12:52 pm
Bruce, thanks for your great comment. I agree that it is hard to be optimistic about 2011 and beyond.
I’m no longer sure what to be truly human means. I keep getting extremely conflicting images. What is evident is that we have lost the plot, lost our values and lost any uplifting vision of what we might become.
Our world, led by America, revolves around endless greed and endless war. Such a world can only have one destiny: that of the end of our species.
Best wishes to you for next year!
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coco Reply:
December 30th, 2010 at 10:02 pm
yeah, there’s life bruce, but not as we know it………..
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coco Reply:
December 30th, 2010 at 10:04 pm
btw, there’s a great book too called ‘the world without us’ by alan weisman that delves into the state of the planet if homo sapiens should suddenly disappear…………..
thanks for the youtube link. i’m going to look at that now……………
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David, the more I try to ponder the human species the more I think that we are the species that has never fit this planet. If we are this dangerous creation then does that mean nature messed up? Are we the freak? Are we the aliens? As Kent said …we are the cancer.
I watch the animals here. They adapt to the climate. Its cold here now. If I stay outdoors too long I will freeze to death. They don’t. They don’t have to worry about clothing themselves. They don’t have to worry about paying taxes or the electric bill or building a fire to stay warm. They have built their own homes in places that made sense to them. They know nothing of money or greed. They only prepare to survive….nothing more. They will defend their actual homes and a small area of surrounding territory but that’s all. In their quest to survive they take and give. They add something to the eco-system naturally. We don’t. We just trample over and consume everything without adding back.
I hope 2011 can be a year of more and more awakening. We have much to overcome. To make a difference in this mess of a world we have to overcome our fear of death itself. We are extremely attached to our roles inside these meat suits we walk around in. We have to detach from the meat suit and realize we are much more. We also have to understand that the evil we see in this world is only able to proceed because we allow it. We have to say no. We have to do it in a way so as not to become that thing which we hate and see as evil. Love and peace to everyone for the new year.
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76-water Reply:
December 30th, 2010 at 7:03 pm
Kathy, you’re first paragraph, if you have a chance I really think you would enjoy the book “Slave Species Of God”. If nothing else, it will give you a different perspective to consider. In my 35 some odd year quest to try to understand whats going, who are we really, and where did these religions origanate. Anyway, no harm will come from expanding ones perspective. I know I’ve mentioned this before and really it is too good not to for those who seriously are inquisative. May love and peace be our constant companion in the new year. Sharn-
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kathy Reply:
January 1st, 2011 at 5:44 am
Hi 76-water. I remember that we barely touched on this subjecct a few months ago. I’ve not read the ‘Slave Species of God’ but have read a similar one called ‘The Gods of Eden’.
I think David’s concern a few months back was something along the lines of ‘be careful not to exchange a belief in a biblical god with one of a UFO god.’ David, I apologize if my memory doesn’t have it right and I don’t have time to go searching for the comments made a few months ago.
But I believe as you do that its good to research these things. Not looking for a replacement god or any god here but rather trying to study history to find out where the story of gods originated in the minds of man. (And more recently I’ve pondered mankind’s fascination with gold.) I mean, who starts this stuff?
This theory that the anunnaki (extra-terrestrials) came down from space and created us, a hybrid species to mine the gold in Africa is still considered fringe thinking and it seems that its based on a life time of work by Zecharia Sitchen and his ability to read the ancient Sumerian tablets. These anunnaki were not gods but a superior extra-terrestrial race who had the scientific know-how to alter the DNA of what we had called pre-humans. These first hybrids would have likely been told that their scientific creators were their gods. Since humans have some idea of god and other animals on this planet don’t, someone had to start that indoctrination amongst the humans very early on.
Whether extra terrestrials messed with DNA or not…I don’t know. What is not a far stretch for me to believe is that DNA can and has been tampered with. Our own scientists (hopefully they aren’t extra terrestrials) have discovered so much about genetics in these past couple of decades that they can alter human life in the laboratory.
My oldest son in college comes to visit me often and he usually brings me links to research on the internet. He gave me the name of Lloyd Pye to research. He said Pye’s studies had been a subject that came up in his sociology class. I looked and listened to his slide show on you tube and found him very interesting. The one I listened to was called ‘Everything You Know is Wrong’. There are 8 parts at about 14 minutes each. He goes into detail comparing the pre-humans to us in the way of bone density, frontal lobe, chest cavity design, how they walked compared to how we walk, they all had 48 chromosomes while we have only 46. Very interesting stuff.
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76-water Reply:
January 1st, 2011 at 8:38 am
My hat’s off to your son. How wonderful to have fresh insight available. I am going to check out Lloyd Pye and his research, thank you. I baught “The Gods Of Eden” after finishing “Slave Species O God” because I could find no other material I had not previously read. Started reading Zecharia Sitchen in 1984 and have all his works in my collection. However, Michael Tellinger, The author of Slave Species Of God is a different reseach scientist with a knowledge of genetics and the book came out in 2009 so possibly it reads a little more up to date. From personel expierence it is hard to put down once you start, and is written so the average person could understand it. David, may 2011 be a year full of insight for those who seek it. I realise this is your blog and I respect that. Don’t know how else to share information and you have opened my eyes to new perspectives. Early on, your anti-American remarks did disturb me till I realised you were just trying to get us off our collective asses. Now I share your desire, just to hopefully get enough people involved. Thank you for your patience in dealing with not a lethargic people, but mainly uninformed people. The truth is often a bitter pill to take. I wish nothing but peace, prosperity, and insight to you and your readership for the new year! Cheers!!!
David G Reply:
December 30th, 2010 at 7:16 pm
Kathy, thanks for your great comment. What humans are is not really a mystery. We are both black and white, capable of great evil but also of great kindness and creativity. Which predominates depends largely on the environment we live in.
The American people have had a rather poisonous environment created for them by the oligarchs who are controlling them using fear and, more recently, force. This trend will continue until either Americans rebel or they become slaves of the State.
76-water, love and peace are unwanted in a capitalist world. May it fail soon!
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76-water, I watched ‘where have all the flowers gone’ a couple of weeks ago. Youtube is filled with Pete Seeger songs. They are all works of love. I hope everyone here can start the new year or end this old year listening to Pete’s lyrics. They resonate with those of us who don’t want war, hate or greed.
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I have always loved “Where have all the Flowers Gone”. It so perfectly shows how we keep doing the same things over and over and still keep expecting a different result.
When are the majority of the people going to wake-up and realize that we are on the wrong path and that we need to make major changes in how we live?
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Some how, some way, we need to stop the greed. Maybe it cannot be stopped, but it can be slowed down, certainly.
In America, we now have the greatest concentration of wealth in the smallest number of people ever. Yes, even worse than in the depression of the 1930′s. Amazing to realize this fact.
We need for all people to wake up to the fact that we are all on this rock together. We need to make sure that all people have their basic needs met. Food, clothing, and shelter.
We also need to take to heart what General Smedley Butler said after 33 years as a Marine. There are only two reasons for war. 1) to defend OUR homes. 2) to defend the Bill of Rights. OK, this only applies to America, but the US is the biggest producer and exporter of weapons and weapon systems. America seems to now be at the point where war is our only business. We have endless wars for endless profits for the war industries and the “too big to fail” gangs of banksters. Again, greed is what drives this.
Most religions and most every philosophy tell us to treat each other as we want to be treated. Yep, the “golden rule”, and it is in nearly every religion or philosophy, or at least those that are worth anything.
I do not believe in nor follow any religion. I am more of a pagan, I can see creation in all life. Nature will take over after we humans kill ourselves. Unfortunately, we will probably destroy much of the natural world while doing so.
We can change, it just takes every one of us treating others the way we want to be treated. We don’t need another Gandhi to lead the way. We have the examples of his and many others who tried to make a difference. After 63 years here and having survived one imperial war, I seriously think that it is in all of us to do this.
It has to start with each of us. We are the change we want. Try it, it sure cannot make things worse.
I am usually very cynical and often sarcastic, but I would like to leave this life having made this place a little bit nicer.
just my 2 cents.
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Grace is my baptismal name. My aim is to follow the example of those who endured the slings and arrows of life with grace and dignity. Once again I am being challenged to my core. It is our personal struggle and yet it is on the news every day, it is what millions of other Americans are going through as we speak. In order for my husband to work in the “new” economy where he is competing with thousands of highly skilled unemployed, he must take a huge paycut. We will literally live as serfs. The only way we can afford to live is if he files bankruptcy. This is the best case scenario, folks. Welcome to America! Prepare to get groped on your way in. This is our outlook for 2011.
I am trying to be my most positive. Peace on the inside, because we need peace on the outside. : )
Cheers to the New Year!
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Grace Reply:
December 31st, 2010 at 4:59 am
Sorry, but i found a quote that fit in lock step with our experience:
The façade is crumbling. And as more and more people realize that they have been used and robbed, we will move swiftly from Huxley’s “Brave New World” to Orwell’s “1984.” The public, at some point, will have to face some very unpleasant truths. The good-paying jobs are not coming back. The largest deficits in human history mean that we are trapped in a debt peonage system that will be used by the corporate state to eradicate the last vestiges of social protection for citizens, including Social Security. The state has devolved from a capitalist democracy to neo-feudalism. And when these truths become apparent, anger will replace the corporate-imposed cheerful conformity. The bleakness of our post-industrial pockets, where some 40 million Americans live in a state of poverty and tens of millions in a category called “near poverty,” coupled with the lack of credit to save families from foreclosures, bank repossessions and bankruptcy from medical bills, means that inverted totalitarianism will no longer work.
2011: A Brave New Dystopia
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article27136.htm
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Hopefully everyone will read the link that Grace provided. It certainly stirred me up as my comment shows. Unfortunately too few people read the articles on ICH!
Cheers.
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Grace, I’m so sorry to hear about your husband’s job but I’m glad that he didn’t lose it altogether. Maybe you will have enough time to plan a different strategy. Unfortunately, I believe that we all need to prepare to go through hard economic times along with political and civil unrest.
When I moved back to the country in May I had my heart set on growing a garden. One of my brothers had given me hope because he said he would like to have one too. But at the time of the foreclosure on my house, we were going through the great flooding of Tennessee. By the time things dried up enough to plant a garden it was really too late in the year to start one. I made some suggestions to my mother about growing a few things in pots on the deck but she would have none of it. I was discouraged. But a fun thing happened. When my mother was finished with her potted petunias on her front porch in August, she pulled them up because they were withered from heat.
I had become fast friends with my 4 year old niece when I moved here. One day she was here with me and she said she would like to do a project. I said “let’s plant a potato” in grandma’s big flower pot. And so we did. I cut one potato into 4 sections. Each section had an eye. They grew like crazy!!! Pretty soon, everyone was excited about our potato vines. My mother doubted that they would really make new potatoes at the roots because we had planted so late in the year, all the growth was going to vine, and when they budded out to bloom, the buds fell off before they bloomed. 8 weeks into the whole project we had to dig them because the weather turned cold. We had about two dozen potatoes about 2 inches in diameter. And now finally…..my mother wants to grow tomato and pepper plants next spring on the back deck in pots. Progress is slow but maybe if I keep preaching I can get a few more people to start thinking about becoming self sufficiant again like we used to be.
I read the article that you linked us to and I read Brave New World a few months back. America is experiencing aspects of both Huxley and Orwell right now. Government is the terrorist but sadly enough, I read an article today about an interview with an ex- CIA agent who said the most dangerous terrorist threat for America now are the American citizens. Thats how they view us and thats what they have been preparing for. And we? What have we prepared for? The next episode of Days of our Lives?
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Yeah, Grace, I too am sorry to hear of the job scene. I think that things inside America are much worse than the White House is letting on. Soon, lots of people will be trying to grow their own.
This is while trillions continue to be spent on armaments and billions are given to Israel. What a crazy place the U.S. has become!
Kathy, your potato story is inspirational. And so are you!
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Grace Reply:
January 2nd, 2011 at 4:48 am
Kathy, I love the potato story. It will live on.
Yes David, I dare not say more at this time because it is much worse than I want to talk about.
..And growing ones own is a real option. Time to look around for spots and spaces.
Here’s to a “New” Year!
ers!
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