Sometimes I don’t know why I bother. Some people must think I’m stupid but I can’t do anything about that. It’s one of the disappointments of doing this sort of thing that people are going to make assumptions on what you say and further assumptions on what you don’t say.
One of the things I try to discipline myself on is to always remember that I don’t know. I try to be clear about what I believe to be true and I try to stay away from hard and fast proclamations when in doubt. Sometimes I’m emphatic about human potential but I’m not an authority on anything. I rely heavily on both inductive and deductive reasoning and I have some skill at these. Mostly I rely on intuition and it has proven near infallible. No one who relies on intuition can be an authority on anything. No one who relies on intuition can actually know anything but they can become highly suspicious in both a positive and a negative sense. They can also become self assured. I am that.
There are a lot of intellectuals running around. No matter what, they know more than you do. That’s okay because I don’t want to know what they know. The worst are the new agers. They’ve got something better than intuition. They’re being informed and led from galaxies beyond. I can’t compete with that. I wouldn’t want to. I will say that I’ve never learned a single thing that was useful from anyone in the new age movement that I didn’t already understand far better from ancient Indian and Chinese sages who said and understood it better.
There are people that comment on this blog and elsewhere who think that everyone who runs for president is a stooge. They think that all rich people are selfish pigs. They think there are a hundred conspiracies afoot when a much smaller number will do. The fact is that there are millions of conspiracies afoot and all of us are involved in conspiracies of our own and some of us in much larger ones like the ‘conspiracy of ignorance’ and the ‘conspiracy of denial’. Anyway, a government couldn’t exist without conspiracies.
I’m not much interested in what happens on this planet except in terms of the suffering caused. I feel for the people who are victimized by others. I’m also aware of the sub-matrix of karma and I have to say that I don’t spend a moment worrying about what’s going to happen today or tomorrow. I would like to ease people’s suffering and one of the ways you can do that is to show them the cause of their suffering. This isn’t the blog where I address that though. This is a temporal blog, mostly.
I think I’ve looked into what Ron Paul intends and represents a little more deeply than the people who have objections to my supporting him. I think I need to take a different approach here and maybe, just maybe... some of you will understand where I’m coming from a little better. I hope so.
I know that no man or woman can become president and expect for their agenda to succeed. It isn’t going to happen. They have to deal with congress and a number of other forces. So I never look at a candidate and assume if that candidate gets elected that that candidate will do what they campaigned on. I sometimes expect that they will ‘try to’ but even that is often not the case. Most of these people are pandering liars and they will do what they are told. What I want is some honesty and fair-play and fewer police-thugs.
What I am looking for is balance. Since I know that the American congress is a sold out pack of whores and since I know that they also do Israel’s bidding before any consideration of the American public, what I want in the White House is an honest man. This I believe Ron Paul to be. I don’t agree with his entire platform. Personally I would do some things differently but... as I said... I don’t know anything.
What Ron Paul wants to do is mostly very good. He will shake things up in the right way. I haven’t a clue if he will be elected or not and it isn’t any of my business. He has a chance and that is a big part of my support. Dennis Kucinich does not have a chance and I’m not going to support a creep like Ralph Nader so who is left? Who is left?
Some people think there’s got to be some bloody revolution and everybody is going to take to the streets. There are people arguing for this event. I am not sanguine about these people actually showing up if it happens. I have taken it to the street and I spent some years on the run or in prison for it. At another point I was framed with something and facing a life sentence and was able to prove my innocence against all odds. I’ve fought with the police and other elements and been injured a time or two.
Taking it to the streets is a last resort. I have suggested not going to work and not buying anything but food for as long as it takes to bring the corporations to their knees. Such strikes would be very effective. That’s my kind of revolution. Don’t support criminal industries. Don’t dance to bad music. Don’t eat shit food. Don’t buy crap and turn your ass to lard in front of a TV. That’s my kind of revolution. The other kind of revolution is a dicey affair. You could wind up with another warlord in office, someone worse. You never know. Read some history. Sometimes revolutions didn’t turn out so well.
I thought long and hard about supporting Dr. Paul. I’ve tried to always be about the truth at this blog and wherever else I can manage it as well (grin). I’m not supporting him because I think he’s going to win. I’m not supporting him because he represents my wishes. I’m not supporting him because I think he will do or can do the things he says. I am supporting him because I believe he is an honest man and because I believe he will try to do the things he wants to do.
I don’t like that fucking war in Iraq. Dr. Paul says he’ll stop that and not start new ones. He’s going to go after those bloodsuckers at the Federal Reserve. Just these two things are enough for me.
I believe he will uncover the 9/11 cover-up if he gets into office. I don’t know this but I hope so. I can’t imagine any of the others doing so. This is a particular concern of mine. I want the truth about 9/11 to come out. Now for the clincher;
...they can’t afford to let Ron Paul into the White House because of this and other things. So I don’t know what’s going to happen about that. You and I know some of what the Bush Crime Family did while they were in office. We don’t know all of it. We do know that some of it is high treason. How can they possibly let him win? That’s the kicker right there, forget everything else.
However, if you think I’m going to sit around with my thumbs up my ass waiting on this people’s revolution that you’ll be marching with in your mind on your sundeck, cocktail in hand and cheering along with rhetoric well out of the line of fire well... no... I’m not going to do that. I’ve never put my thumbs up my ass and I suspect there’s a reason. I’m going to use my talents to support the best energy of the time. Every day I’m going to try to support the good in others and believe in a better world. Only a fool thinks such a world will come in any universal sense but that doesn’t mean you can’t try to make it so. Maybe it will be a little better because you did try. The most important thing is not to make it worse and especially not to make it worse under the guise of making it better.
If you know something about Dr. Paul that I don’t know then please tell me. Got a better candidate with better ideas? Let’s hear about it. I’m just doing the best I know how to do and learning as I go. If I’m wrong about this I’ll change direction in a heartsbeat. But you never get anywhere in any direction unless you set out for somewhere. You never learned a damn thing if you never took a risk. Use your life as something more than a tube that consumes and excretes. Everybody makes mistakes and this may be one of mine. It won’t be the first time.
I’ll be on about other things for the next couple of weeks (I think). I just thought this needed to be said.
'The World is a Rumor' is track no. 8 of 13 on Visible's 2007 album
'The Sacred and The Profane'
Lyrics (pops up)
28 comments:
I appreciate your writing and I believe as you do on this issue. God Speed and may the force be with us all as we are in for an exciting journey this coming year. I will be involved with the millions of other friends in our quest for peace and justice! Keep up your good work! Sundog
You fucking nailed it.
Well said. All of it
Some people think there's got to be some bloody revolution and everybody is going to take to the streets." Well, there is a revolution ( it may not be bloody, but ...) and everybody is taking to the streets. Look at ronpaulforpresident2008.com and go down to the "Ron Paul's Army" post - watch the video (it's a hoot). And let us not forget Ron Paul's Airforce - 1 blimp! The Revolution has begun! The people are in the streets !!
The times they are a changin'
Yes.
Yes.
Um... that's spooky. I wrote this yesterday in a throwaway fashion and today it seems front and centre. The first bit that is.
Hi Les, Folks,
I felt somewhat uneasy about my last comment so I thought I'd clarify it. I have questions about the gold standard that, as far as Ron Paul is concerned, is a single possible negative against an avalanche of positives. If I met him (not a very likely prospect) I'd wish him well and then ask him what was up with the gold standard. That's it. I have no desire to deter anyone from supporting or voting for him. Far from it. In a perfect world of bullshit he represents an unhoped-for truth. Would I be alone in saying I feel less cynical every time I hear him talk? It's a strange feeling.
and
I have a thought about the internet. Everything that self-perpetuates must deal with environmental changes or perish. This includes the masters of lies. They have a 'genetic' character. Cormorants dive under water and eat fish. The masters of lies use camouflage to control money. Money gets them fish, boats with helicopters, underage pussy, you name it. The camouflage is required to stop the otherwise ignorant population they live amongst from lynching them.
The media is part of the environment. Each successive medium - print, radio, cinema, television - has represented a small adverse environmental change affecting how the liars' camouflage works. The liars successively took possession of each of these potential media adversities and turned them into an environment shaping weapon. The particular part of the environment in this case is other people. That other people are viewed as part of the environment - to be used, eaten, made into landfill - is at the core of the liars' DNA. It defines them. Without their pre-eminence they are nothing. It's bullshit of course, but that's what they think.
The internet is different to the other media. It has no centre. Unlike everything that has come before, they cannot buy it, cannot co-opt it. There's never been a thing like it. For the liars it's an environmental change on a par with Krakatoa. A cormorant can cope with faster fish but having the water evaporate is beyond it. Before our very eyes we've watched the liars twist, turn and try every goddamn thing to control the discussion on the net. And they're failing. Even their final taboo subject, who owns the money supply, is up for real-time worldwide discussion. The net is an existential threat to them. It cannot be allowed to live.
The campaign has started. They shalt do war by way of deception. So what else is new? They will lie and lie and lie. The net is mad/bad/dangerous/pornographic because of paedophiles/terrorists/stalkers/foreigners/murderous teenagers. Fear trumps reason. And a thousand fears trump a single one. The liars' SOP.
God knows how we're going to hold on to this astounding and barely-appreciated internet. My feeble offering is 'with truth'. The masters of lies would laugh at this. I wonder what their servants reading this think? They'd sneer at my powerlessness I expect. Yeah, well I sneer at their servility.
Dear "BlogRolling":
I don't know your email, so am posting my comment here. Your commentary was thoughtful & intriguing. Although I was saddened to read what you wrote about Rep. Kucinich having no chance, I agree that you're probably correct. Despite that, I supported him to the degree I could, because he's a good, honest man doing some good in the cesspool that is Washington, D.C.
May people follow your advice about not consuming - for we need a peaceful revolution in the United States!
For Peace & Justice,
Ray Snew
raysnew@yahoo.com
visible,
in my effort to find issues with which I'm in disagreement with Dr. Paul, I googled "undesireable political positions of Ron Paul". Among the hits was your blogsite and for the past hour, I've been reading your expositions on the man.
Several times, you've said, "I don't agree with everything Dr. Paul says" but then I don't see any follow-up. Those "things" are what I'm looking for in trying to determine if any of his negatives take precedence over his positives.
While reading your blog, it is as if I were writing it (albeit, not nearly as well). I harbor the same dilemmas, quandries, and concerns that you do, therefore, I feel certain that whatever questions you DO have about some of Dr. Paul's positions, I would also. Is it possible, then, that you would feel free to discuss any of RP's liabilities?
Thank you in advance.
Am afraid we're all spinning our wheels & wearing our pink tinted glasses cum purple muumuus. When I get exhilarated, I get very worried. Benezhir Bhutto.MLK. RFK. JFK. Even George Wallace. Boom Boom.
Should Ron Paul get the Big Mo by some miracle it's boom boom. The men behind the curtains will just now allow him in.
Too many crash down disappointments in the course of my 53 years. Hellary or Ghouliani is our Chernenko or Andropov, transitional hacks for NAU.
One of the best and most honest posts I have ever read.
We are all, after all, human.
Your whole message here bears witness with me. I am a simple person. I don't want to get anything over on anyone. I don't want to act, to be a character. I want to be real.
This is how you come across to me, too.
I believe as you do that Ron Paul is one with us in this.
Thank you for bearing your soul, a rare thing indeed.
The most definitive political treatise ever written is still Machiavelli's The Prince.
I see nothing new in the candidacy of Ron Paul, any more than I see anything different in the assassination of Bhutto.
One must sometimes consider everything from a much more distant view. Such a view may not tell us much about reality, but it can tell us what isn't reality.
Governments do a lot of things.
One of the things governments do is to set up immortal bureaucracies to laud over mortal men.
More than 60 years ago our government set up the Manhattan Project to build an atomic bomb ostensibly to end the Second World War.
All these years later and existing among so many others that bureaucracy, while it has morphed into a differently named bureaucracy, several in fact, it still exists. It still makes nuclear weapons as well as delivery systems, and a myriad of other humanity ending killing systems.
And within every empirical knowledge set being amassed within the bureaucracies of every science there are countless other WMDs just awaiting the time they will be used against humanity too.
This is one of the things government does. It funds these scientific bureaucracies that build the knowledge sets that have the potential and the inclination to destroy humanity.
I honestly don't think anyone has the sense, knowledge or the longevity cum foresight to control via any political office what is happening to humanity now that our world has become so utterly belligerent and bellicose due to over population and so capable due to the work product of scientific bureaucracies.
Machiavelli is now obsolete.
Politics is obsolete.
And democracy never worked to begin with.
Our government is fighting both sides of every war on the planet and concealing the progress regardless of which side upon which you might seek information.
It is all disinformation now.
And Ron Paul, even as the most radical candidate likely to survive the first round of voting, is still offering but a baby step he will not be able to deliver when what is needed is a marathon runner with the instincts of Ghingus Kahn to dismantle the beast if humanity is to survive.
Don Robertson, The American Philosopher
My blog has pretty much been saying the same thing all along but I'll take the baby steps right now. I know philosophy often has no room for faith but I do and we'll see what we'll see. After all- life ends in death for those who can't see beyond it and that amounts to just about everyone on the wheel. Only a few of us are consciously immortal but everyone gets there eventually.
So, do we say life is shit and give up because everyone dies? No. I don't plan on winning any battles except the one with myself. Meanwhile I'll fightthe good fight win or lose. Since life 'seems' to end in death I'll spend mine believing in the unquenchable dignity of human spirit and never mind the outcome.
If Americans think they can elect Ron Paul then they do not know history.Democracy in the eyes of the west is about choosing between candidates who represent evil. Then you get to choose the lesser evil but EVIL none the less.Ron Paul is too honest to make it as a candidate. He will be sidelined or shut up. The western media lives by deception and they learned this deception from the church during the crusades. As for choosing your leaders the Islamic World tried to get rid of Nasser then Sadat then Mubarak.They tried to get rid of Gaddafi ,Saddam , Hassan of Morooco ,Hussain of Jordan and Fahd of Saudi but American (and Soviet) hegemony kept the above in power killing and torturing their leaders and even torturing their innocent family members and causing fear to permeate throughout society. What goes round comes round and now it is America's turn. Maybe you can still turn back the clock by reining in Israel and allowing the muslims to choose their their own leaders as the first 4 Caliphs were chosen after the Prophet's demise. Islam is not about ruling the world as some westerners believe in their wildest fantasies or like the western fantasy about 21 virgins for a killer of non combatants when she blows herself up. Victory for muslims cannot be attained in this world except temporaly. Victory is only achieved on the Day of Judgement when the believer enters paradise. And this victory is not achieved against others but against yourself because you make the choices and not satan or some other force. I hope for your sake that your choices will not be limited to evil but you need a paradigm shift to see past the deception which takes place in the world every day and act HONESTLY and TRUTHFULLY. You do not have a totalitarian police state as in Egypt or Syria or the other mentioned states as yet so you still have a chance. But your window of opportunity is diminishing by the day. God Bless you.I am a muslim.
I think you'd better count those virgins again because I think you left a lot of them out.(grin)
I don't really understand the point of virgins as something more special than any other female but that's me.
I lived and worshipped as a Muslim for 2 years or so, as I've done with nearly every religion. I prefer the wide open spaces of the divine's intrinsic being these days apart from all the superficial trappings.
God bless you too. We'll see what we'll see.
The Gold Standard was, is and always will be a bad, bad idea. If Ron Paul is backing a return to the Gold Standard, he is either ignorant of banking and finance or is a bad, bad man.
A nation's money supply is backed, in actuality, by the nations productivity, it's GDP, and the size of the money supply should reflect the size of that GDP. If it is significantly less, then we get depresion and deflation. If it is significantly more, then we get boom and inflation (unless the money is diverted overseas or into speculation or both, as is happening now in the US). To tie the nation's money supply and therefore GDP to the amount of gold held by the GOVT or central bank is a boneheaded idea of the first order unless.... unless.. you happen to own the gold.
Australia's entry into the Great Depression was caused solely by the Bank of England recalling the gold it had on loan to the Australian govt central bank. Australia was on the Gold Standard and so had to slash the size of the money supply which slashed the GDP and caused untold misery. And every last bit of it unneccessary.
That is the Gold Standard, folks.
That's exceedingly simplistic and beside the point that the Federal Reserve is more bad bad bad. Regardless what you base your currency on there is no justification for private bankers being able to print what they want and loan it at interest and control nation's policies; not to mention foment wars for their profit.
If Ron became president, he would serve as exactly that - a president - and not a dictator. Which means he would have to work with Congress, and he would expect to work with Congress, and he could not enact all his policies without their votes. I think it obvious on some issues - say, abolition of the IRS - that Paul would not get the votes. Nevertheless, he would move the "center" toward the rock-solid principle of the Constitution. The rest of the candidates are bought-and-paid-for corporate hacks. They want to push voters off a cliff toward the elitists that own them. Ron sees our direction in the Constitution. We know where he stands. Peace. Trade. Freedom. Pretty good pillars, if you ask me. The rest of the Republican field are egotistical phonies who only like the Constitution when it is convenient for them.
You are absolutely the best writer on the internet hands down. Your music is a thing of beauty and I am so godammed glad I found you. A N D you like Ron Paul. Sweet.
Ben Train
Les,
The "bad, bad" was slightly tongue-in-cheek. Shouldn't do it.
My post was short, too short, perhaps.
It is simple, yes, but not simplistic. The size of the money supply has a direct relationship to GDP. In boom times it usually runs at 0.9 the size of GDP and in recession times at 1.1. The psychology accounting for the difference in velocity rate.
The reality is that a currency is matched to the wealth creation of the nation whether or not there is a gold standard in place (or any other notional backing). I should have added, "This is why the currency should ALWAYS be issued by the government because it is based on the Common Wealth." As we own the security on which the Money SUpply is issued, we should own it.
I'm not arguing with you but, rather, showing I agree completely with you on that point.
The Gold Standard gives the bankers cover for (continuing to) stealing our national wealth in the form of issuing the currency as they have in the past. I am convinced they will do it again with a coming new currency.
There will be a currency meltdown, cries for "a backing of substance" to stop the "printing press economic disaster", and we will be back in the bankers pocket with a new curerncy with the bankers still in charge, is all. This may well be an international currency.
THis will be the economic equivalent to prescribing starvation as a cure for gluttony.
James, you're a smart guy; much smarter than me when it comes to things like money. I don't have any and that probably says it better than anything else.
I don't care about returning to the gold standard. I just want the bankers off our backs. Whatever we base the currency on has no meaning if our leaders are crooks and psychopaths.
I want an honest leader. I think it begins there. For now that is Ron Paul. I could personally be a better president than most of them simply by trusting in the collective energy and honesty of the people and not being a pirate. I just want someone who will fight for me or else I will have to, sooner or later take all the letters off my name but the first one. (V)isible
I can't argue with any of that, Les. More to the point, I think you are right on everything; what's wrong and why Ron Paul is your best shot.
My comment was on the gold standard (and the coming con-job regarding it), really, not Ron Paul. I should have left him out of it.
I appreciate your posts and your responses very much. Here's to better days.
A book you may find inspiring is "A Force More Powerful" by two authors one of which is Jack DuVal (can't remember the other, maybe Anderson). It's subtitle reads something like "A history of non-violent revolutions in the Twentieth Century"
It truly did need to be said Les and I agree. There are issues that I do not agree with that Dr. Paul has. However he doesn't believe in the absolutely asinine notion that I you have power and everything you want, then you should make sure that no one else gets what they need.
Thank you for clarifying your support on this issue as myself share this view (as I am sure others do). Dr. Paul is not Jesus who can save us from evil, but aren't the alternatives closer to Satan?
And besides, isn't there one thing, one person that this whole struggles matter for? I know for me that I can't (and I won't) give up....
Ronnie D. Traywick Jr.
Les wrote:
So, do we say life is shit and give up because everyone dies? No. I don't plan on winning any battles except the one with myself. Meanwhile I'll fightthe good fight win or lose. Since life 'seems' to end in death I'll spend mine believing in the unquenchable dignity of human spirit and never mind the outcome.
1:18 PM
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Exactly how I feel too. Thanks for articulating that for me. Saved me mucho tiempo (again) you did. Muchas gracias Senor V :) :)
btw, my all-time favourite words/human attributes:
dignity, grace, decency,kindness, generosity, gentleness, all of which equate to *respect*.
annemarie ;)
An outstanding article, Les!
Very succinct, and very powerful! You state the general reason for activism just the way I feel it needs to be stated - only in a much more clear and elegant way. And I pretty much feel the same you do about Ron Paul, too.
I have to say this thing with the Generation Y paulistas took me by surprise. I had grown quiet despondent & thought it was all iPod and picture phone & processed junk food for the mind at state university.Thus my amazement walking down The Drag by the Univ. of Texas Austin the other week and all the many paulistas were out with their signs and I start rapping with them and remembering my enthusiasm at their age aeons ago in the sixties....and this freshman looking 18 year old and his girlfriend start rapping to me about Lysander Spooner and I think wow, something really is going on here...
I knew the jews would come out with some sort of "racism" or "anti-Semitism" story on Ron Paul a day or two before the NH primary because they always do that sort of thing. This was no different.
I remember the eighties newsletters in question written up by his people. Some may have even been reprinted in the "notorious" Spotlight. Problem was, it was all rather tame and it was all true! But better the smear than the snuff out, I suppose!
Excellent!!
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