Losing it

"Reality is a hard-to-beat tool. Too bad earth
monkeys rapidly losing all contact with it."
--my Bro

It'll soon show its nasty, ugly-tooth grin again,
taking a bite outta many tender asses while they
were looking elsewhere for it.

Careful where you hitch your little red wagon

I have written of these current processes of
change that manifest themselves, in part, in
decentralizing social systems and behavior. But
many fear such changes, mainly because they have
so fervently identified themselves with
institutional systems that are now called into
question. Having attached themselves to such
abstractions out of unexplored habit, such people
begin to experience a sense of personal-identity
death: "if my sense of being is inextricably tied
to the nation-state, who will I become if that
institution should become extinct?"

If a person lives a centered life – in which his
or her beliefs and behavior are not in
contradiction, but reflect integrity – a
fundamental change in one’s life may be
inconvenient or even unpleasant, but it need not
be destructive of one’s sense of self. If, in the
words of Viktor Frankl, a person retains the
inner capacity "to choose one’s attitude in any
given set of circumstances," the opportunities
for survival are greatly enhanced.

But upon what basis does one make such a choice?
If one’s life has been dominated by external
forces that defined reality for such a person,
how does such a mind overcome its own
conditioning? This raises, anew, Heisenberg’s
"uncertainty principle": the mind that is being
observed is the same mind that is doing the
observing! Furthermore, if one’s sense of being
and reality have been defined by an institutional
order whose authority is now in retreat, if not
collapse, upon what source does that mind draw
for its wholeness?

I have a picture of all of those folks, whose Church
of Government has failed, being in a meeting
discussing what new church to institute as their
world comes crashing down around them. But maybe
their blessed world just dies without a whimper
and they never notice. They were in a meeting at
the time.

In any case, it'll be a comedian's feast, the show
of the millennium.

The whole essay.

On circumstances

"People are always blaming their circumstances
for what they are. I don't believe in
circumstances. The people who get on in this
world are the people who get up and look for the
circumstances they want, and if they can't find
them, make them." --George Bernard Shaw

It's time

"Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for
every opinion now accepted was once eccentric."
--Bertrand Russell

With that in mind, let's do some thinking.

I've come a long way, baby.

Those on my blogroll who don't see The Bigger
Picture will get shit-canned. It's time to move
on, guys. Way beyond time as a matter of fact.

Those who pick enemies outside The System will
be erased. Those that don't understand what The
System is will also find the trash can.

If you're new to this blog and you don't have a
clue as to what I'm talking about, stick around
to find out.

If you ain't interested, thanks for stopping...
bye, bye.

Now I'm going off-line for a couple of days but
coming back with my hackles up.

The reality

"Society exists only as a mental concept; in the
real world there are only individuals."
--Oscar Wilde

It's quite obvious that almost no one knows this.

A political test - revised

I've seen this political test taken by numerous
bloggers and the results proudly shown so I thought
I'd make my up own results. Fuck tests. I ain't
proud about just plain facts. Here they are:

My political profile

Overall: Politics is for idiots but not this idiot.

Social Issues: Don't have a one.

Personal Responsibility: 100% for everything I do.
The Universe or the guy next door don't give a
shit how I make out. Only my cat does but even he
knows how to feed himself if I'm gone for a spell.

Fiscal Issues: Handled...daily. So far as I can
figure I gotta live to eat and vise versa. Rarely
boring. Routinely necessary.

Ethics: Don't fuck with me, I won't fuck with you.
Probably the beginning of a fine and profitable
friendship. If not, moving on.

Defense and Crime: A two part question, assholes.

Defense: Again, I'll handle my own or die trying.
It's cheaper and a helluva lot more effective when
you do things yourself, something my pappy taught
me.

Crime: ...don't bring home very tasty bacon.
I might get a bullet between the eyes...or the
other guy.(See response to Ethics)

Now go forth and make up your own responses.

Utopia vs. Liberty

Rieben gets out his scalpel...

The monuments of the past are the golden calves
of organization, validating the fairy tales and
demonstrating that, through coercion, we can
create the wonders of the Roman Empire and all
the other empires and kingdoms – palaces, parks
and productions. The achievement of cooperative
monuments are not predicated upon similar social
goals nor enforced association, and do not create
such things. Freedom has no monuments or
spectacles, aside from such prosaic things as
office buildings, jet liners, electricity and
indoor plumbing.
...
Utopia rules this world in the same way that the
Golden Calf does. The Golden Rule counts for
nothing stacked against the Golden Calf; a
contract of man's rights counts for nothing
against the fairy tales of utopia. Our endeavor
upon this planet derive from the fairy tales that
we are taught about life by our societies, and
all of these are utopian by the nature of our
coercive sociopolitical base – we have no other
history on this planet. Liberty is not utopian;
it is the absence of utopia. And this flummoxes
everyone.

...and so most go for the sizzle of Empire/Utopia
until there is no more steak. It's built into the
majority mind-set and plenty of past examples
abound.

Fuckin' hamsters.

A fine read.

An inside job

In the name of nationalism, religion, ideology,
tradition or "the common good," the governments
of the world suppress individual liberty and
individuals' control of their own communities.
Special interest- corporate- state- bureaucratic-
military elites worldwide tax, regulate, bully,
beat, prosecute, jail and execute citizens into
submission. They discriminate against, rob,
ethnically cleanse and genocide members of
oppressed racial/ethnic/religious/regional
groups. Without government control, these elites
would have little real power over individuals and
communities.
The concept of individual liberty is simple:
individuals should be free to do whatever they
please as long as they don't harm others by using
force or fraud. This is the basic ethical tenet
or "golden rule" of all religions, one corrupted
by layers of theology and ritual and centuries of
kowtowing to political authority. Individual
consent–not some nationalist, racial, religious,
tribal or, ideological construct or “social
contract”–is the only legitimate basis of any
social, economic and political organization.

So far so good and then this...

However, supporting the idea and value of
individual liberty is not enough to obtain
liberty.

Why not? If you can't sell it, it won't work simply
because either you're doing a bad job or no one
is buying because they like what they have. Besides
freedom is an "inside" job.

We must support institutional structures that
make it impossible for public or private entities
to crush individual liberty.

Flat-assed wrong, a recipe for more structure.

Since when is Empire brought down by more Empire
or its trappings, playing their institutional game?

Can you organize freedom?

How is your freedom obtained by a membership card
or a protest movement?

You wanna be free?

You're on your own.

Get to work if you've a mind to.

Why would you want to fight 'em when it's easier
to ignore 'em?

To be fair, there is value there if you know what
to look for.

Rove/Plame

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Bigness goeth before The Fall

There seems to be only one cause behind all
forms of social misery: bigness. Oversimplified
as this may seem, we shall find the idea more
easily acceptable if we consider that bigness, or
oversize, is really much more than just a social
problem. It appears to be the one and only
problem permeating all creation. Whenever
something is wrong, something is too big. And if
the body of a people becomes diseased with the
fever of aggression, brutality, collectivism, or
massive idiocy, it is not because it has fallen
victim to bad leadership or mental derangement.
It is because human beings, so charming as
individuals or in small aggregations have been
welded onto overconcentrated social units. That
is when they begin to slide into uncontrollable
catastrophe. For social problems, to paraphrase
the population doctrine of Thomas Malthus, have
the unfortunate tendency to grow at a geometric
ratio with the growth of the organism of which
they are part, while the ability of man to cope
with them, if it can be extended at all, grows
only at an arithmetic ratio. Which means that, if
a society grows beyond its optimum size, its
problems must eventually outrun the growth of
those human faculties which are necessary for
dealing with them.

Hence it is always bigness, and only bigness,
which is the problem of existence. The problem is
not to grow but to stop growing; the answer: not
union but division.

Very nicely stated.

Notice the bolded text.

That is the distraction running wild now.

The unanswered question here is how to stop growing.

I am convinced it only happens naturally, without
central direction or organization and as an
evolutionary function...cycles of growth then self-
destruction...when it happens well...one at a time.

So went the dinosaurs. So will go today's dinosaurs
for different reasons.

Getting ready for The Fall is to shun bigness and
all group effort, moving to your tomato patch in
advance.

Not many will make it.

See this and other links here.

Edit:

Taken from a url on the site above:

...small is better

Good start.

He didn't make the finish line.

On thrones and asses

"On the most exalted throne in the world, we are
still seated only on our ass."
--Michel Eyquem de Montaigne

An option

In the quest for recognition, the Honorable
Peter Anderson, Secretary General of the Conch
Republic has created "Official Conch Republic
Passports". The Secretary General has extensively
traveled our surrounding Caribbean Nations with
nothing more than his Diplomatic Passport and has
been well received by many as a Diplomat and as a
Government Official of the Conch Republic and even
had his passport endorsed by nearly all! Officially,
our passports, Diplomats and Citizens, have been
well received by 13 Caribbean Nations as well as
Germany, Sweden, Havana, Mexico, France, Spain,
Ireland, and Russia."

Further down...

FAQ: Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Are you serious about being your own country?
A: We are very serious about being funny and we
try to be funny when we are being serious.

Q: What about America, are you still Americans?
A: Of course! We are dual citizens, U.S. and
Conch Republic. In fact we like to think we
represent what is best about America…a people
unafraid to stand up to government gone mad with
power.

Q: Can I travel on my Conch Republic passport?
A: We do not represent our passports as valid
travel documents. That said, people have traveled
all over the world on them. The Conch Republic
passport even saved one man's life in Guatemala
when confronted by armed revolutionaries…"Americano
no! Republica de la Concha". He was filled with
shots of Tequila instead of shots from the
Kalishnikovs.

Q: Can I get a Conch Republic passport even if I
don't live here?
A: As a sovereign state of mind, we accept
citizens of like mind wherever and whenever they
shall apply.

"We've seceded where others failed."

That's the motto under the seal of the Republic
of Conch.

Freedom is all about options.

More is better.

Your choice.

To read all about it go here.

Via Sanityranch
(scroll down a bit)

On opinion

"The fact that an opinion has been widely held is
no evidence whatever that it is not utterly absurd."
--Bertrand Russell

Looking into the quantum vacuum

Anyone else see this?

Something nags at me about it, like it's time
to start some serious study:

Even though science had to accept and has
accepted the concept of a quantum vacuum it is
not scientific main stream yet. - An avalanche
does not start out full size. A little snowball
can trigger an avalanche that is growing in speed
and force as it is thundering down a mountain
slope sweeping away everything in its way.
Likewise, the science of the quantum vacuum will
rapidly become ever more important and ultimately
it will eclipse everything conventional science
has to offer. The quantum vacuum is the last
great frontier of science. The above examples
give but a modest glimpse of its possibilities,
which are endless.

While reading the rest of this, realize that we're
all just hogs looking at wrist watches here,
including the author with his incessant referrals
to the "spiritual", remembering what Arthur C. Clark
said about it: "Any sufficiently advanced technology
is indistinguishable from magic".

The article.

There's something going on there.

Demonizing VS Deifying Dreamers and Dissidents

I suspect "we the people" have unconsciously
aped the foibles of more primitive human
ancestors, additionally separating contemporary
dreamers and "shamans" into opposing classes -
the few who happen to be born into ruling
classes, VS the many who aren't and who are
therefore likely to come into conflict or
disfavor with the rulers of the day by
questioning or disputing the "authorities." The
former have the power to throw the latter into
jail or discredit them, and the complacent herd
learns what the "authorities" wish them to know,
through schooling and news media, and through
control of the "higher professions," and
increasingly the lower ones. The herd is kept
corralled by means of regulation and law
enforcement, threat and intimidation,
imprisonment and punishment, tethered by reins
disguised as purse strings, and spurred by the
invisible rider that rides relentlessly upon all
of our backs. Oddly, few seem to object to the
elephant rampaging over America's population even
as we try to hide from it like so many ants under
a carpet.

The whole essay.

Via Eric's Grumbles Before the Grave.

Saving a Dying Corpse

The institutionally-centered forms with their
command-and-control mechanisms that have long
represented Western societies are eroding; and
the established interests that have benefited
from such systems are in a life-and-death
struggle to resist their demise.

They will lose and never see it. It's not in that
mindset.

...
It is this confrontation that underlies the so-
called “war on terror.” “Terrorism” – like
“international communism” that preceded it – is
but another specter held up to a gullible public
to enlist their continuing support for
institutional hegemony. “Terrorism” is a tactic,
not a competing political institution; a tactic
that reflects the inability of the state to
predict and control events. Even the British home
secretary, Charles Clarke, admitted that there
was no governmental measure that could have
prevented the subway bombings. One former CIA
analyst has asserted that unpublicized US
government figures show an increase in terrorist
acts in the world from 175 in 2003 to 625 in
2004, hardly a ringing endorsement of the
efficacy of the “war on terror.”

Just be glad you're not getting all the "War on
Terror" you're paying for. There's gonna be
considerable "collateral damage" anyway.

Read it all.

Give it a shot

"The question isn't who is going to let me; it's
who is going to stop me." --Ayn Rand

On civilization, such as it is

"...the first man to use abusive language instead
of his fists was the founder of civilization."
--Sigmund Freud

How to stop terrorism...

...for those that need the studies.

Looked obvious to me, even before the studies, but
Empire thrives on crisis, conflict and occupation
of foreign lands as well as kicking ass at home.

Don't expect anything different.

Pape's study looks at 462 suicide-terrorist
attacks between 1980 and early 2004 world-wide.
The research finds that in over 95% of the cases
the "central objective" of this form of terrorism
was the eviction of foreign troops from occupied
countries or regions that were considered by the
terrorist groups to be occupied. Therefore,
perceptions were a crucial indicator of reality
articulated in acts of terror. What this means is
that since suicide terrorism is mainly a response
to foreign occupation, and not Islamic
fundamentalism, "the use of heavy military force
to transform societies over there ... is only
likely to increase the number of suicide
terrorists coming at us".

The article.

I won't

I said I'm going to post this url from time to
time so here it is again, an example of a true
civilization yet to be seen.

It's a very short story, all on one page, by Eric
Frank Russell.

And Then There Were None

Have a read for some large grins if you haven't.

On improving government

"I believe that all government is evil, and that
trying to improve it is largely a waste of time."
--H. L. Mencken

Gutting the power of the IRS

In our January report, we quoted
from the[court] decision,

“...absent an effort to seek enforcement through
a federal court, IRS summonses apply no force to
taxpayers, and no consequence whatever can befall
a taxpayer who refuses, ignores, or otherwise
does not comply with an IRS summons until that
summons is backed by a federal court order…[a
taxpayer] cannot be held in contempt, arrested,
detained, or otherwise punished for refusing to
comply with the original IRS summons, no matter
the taxpayer's reasons, or lack of reasons for so
refusing.”

Had a summons once. Ignored it then, will ignore
all others.

So now you've got some legal backing.

Legal beagles can see the details here.

Edit:

Statists will whine, moan and shout...

...all to no avail.

I'm looking forward to the show.

The London Bombings

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What's not important.

It's more important to know what's not important
than what is important.

It's a large job.

I'm just doing a little of it here.

So many distractions, so little time.

Moral Cowards In Hiding

Unlike the soldiers at Ft. Bragg, neither
President Bush, Ms. Albright, nor other armchair
war-supporters, will be the ones who will pay the
“price” of such vicious behavior. These are the
people who remain at home, safe from the death
and dismemberment of battle, able to cheer on the
sacrifices of others, and to continue the spread
of their own moral leprosy. They will not stand
by your children – as you would as a loving
parent – but behind them, out of the line of
fire, both for their own safety and as a
convenient hiding place. But of one thing you can
be assured: like their fellow Americans, they
will be content to hide their moral and
intellectual bankruptcy behind such phrases as
“support the troops.”

Full essay.

You have only two ways to live

1) You can make things you need to survive, or you
can trade for them.

2) Or you can take them through force/deception,
or get what you want from someone who does that for
you.

In an area where No. 1 predominates, you can expect,
at minimum, a decent and relatively easy living.

Where No. 2 predominates, you can expect at least
an increasing improverishment as the people in No.
1 protect what they have, leave or join the second
group until there's nothing left worth stealing;
A Dark Age.

Make your choice.

All else is irrelevant.

Think about it.

Now tell me it ain't so.

On cynics

"The cynics are right nine times out of ten."
--H. L. Mencken

More on the Death of the Nation State

I only mention these few examples of the limits
of the state as a prelude to my general claim.
It's my view that the gulf between accumulated
power and effective power is going to grow ever
wider in the coming years, to the point where the
nation state itself will grow effectively weaker,
more anachronistic, and finally irrelevant to the
course of social development.

See why Lew says so.

The foundation

"Economic independence is the foundation of the
only sort of freedom worth a damn." --H. L. Mencken

Make Poverty History...

...with other people's money...

...til there is no more.

Then everyone's poor.

Sanity is lonely.

The Left/Right distraction

Wandering around political blogdom, I find many
still don't 'get it', spouting incessantly about
the 'bad boys' on the right or the left, depending
on which side of the fence they're bunkered, rifles
blazing away at the other side.

From where I sit, the battle looks really silly,
wasting all that ammunition on types of
control and missing the controlling concept:

They all, the left and the right, want a piece of
you without your consent.

Is that what you really want?

I don't.

"Left and right are just two wings of the same
bird of prey." --Butler Shaffer

Means and ends

To you, who still think of tribes and teams,
leaders and followers, shepherds and sheep. Who
still believe in obligations and privileges,
plans and projections,
To you who are still pack animals looking for
direction...
good luck.

This is a promise and a warning.
...
We are similar in our means, but individual in our ends.

See the rest of this fine essay.

The first in a long string

MAKING HISTORY: Minnesota government shut down
Friday for the first time ever after state
lawmakers failed to pass a temporary spending
plan.

HOW DID IT HAPPEN? Senators adjourned shortly
after Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty asked for a
stopgap measure to keep the government running 10
more days. Earlier, the governor and House
Republican leaders rejected a temporary measure
passed by the Senate.

THE AFFECTS: About 9,000 employees were laid
off, highway rest stops will be unattended for
the July Fourth weekend, and no new driver's
licenses will issued.

That's the whole bit.

Lotta details missing here.

Why the silence?

Another thing: The particular party in power will,
of course, be blamed.

Bwaaahahahah.

Link.

Do you need this permission?

"We are fast approaching the stage of the
ultimate inversion: the stage where the
government is free to do anything it pleases,
while the citizens may act only by permission;
which is the stage of the darkest periods of
human history, the stage of rule by brute force."
--Ayn Rand 1905 - 1982

Ahead of her time, wasn't she.