The Kafwellian Dystopia

Those of us who are level-headed and clear thinking, e.g. the rest of the world, should sympathize with America right now.  That country finds itself in the unenviable position in which half the country fervently believes the Anti-Christ has just been revealed, and the other half piously believes that the Second Coming has just occurred, and both are right.  In fact, one might think of the situation as the Second Coming of the Anti-Christ.

One the one hand, the Anti-Christers are so convinced that TEOTWAWKI has arrived, that they've decided to get a head-start on the death and destruction bit.  They have spent their life savings to hire a fleet of buses to haul them around from town to town, where they can help folks get going on burning down civilization and destroying culture.

On the other hand, the Second Cominites, in their orgiastic revels, are blind to the fact that the Old Baddies they just threw out are all getting reappointed by their Savior.

It's a rather pitiable position for a nation to be in.  Not only does the left hand not know what the right hand is doing, they are both engaged in beating the living daylights out of each other, while both are wondering where the hell those attacks are coming from.  One can only assume that Kafka and Orwell have sat up in their graves and are gleefully watching the proceedings.  It is the birth of a whole new form of governance called Absurdist Kafwellian Dystopia, in which even the Elites who run the place haven't a clue what they are doing.

There was a priceless moment when Donald Trump, the Anti-Savior for lack of a better term, met with Barack Obama, the outgoing Anti-Savior.  One can only assume from the look on Trump's face that the Secrets of the Universe have just been revealed to him, and it looks nothing like the world he had planned on.  He has been handed the keys to Gringott's Wizarding Bank, only to find it stuffed to the rafters with perfectly ordinary lead ingots and not a horcrux in sight.

Suddenly, as the inebriated fog of celebratory and commiserative parties slowly wears off, both sides are beginning to realize the wisdom of P. J. O'Rouke's famous satirical invective, "Don't Vote, It Just Encourages the Bastards."  As folks stumble out into the glaring sunlight, they are dazzled both by their stupidity for both having been taken for a ride, and for not having chosen a more palatable Anti-Christ.  Even Mr. Trump seems a bit overwhelmed by his own rhetoric, if that makes the reader feel better.

Trump honestly never thought he'd get elected, which some people might find rather quizzical.  He entered the race to steer the dialogue; that's it.  What he found was that he had tapped a nerve more raw than biting one's tongue while enjoying a particularly spicy bowl of Tom Yum.  At some point, he realized he was too far in to quit, though he knows the next mouthful of Tom Yum is gonna hurt something fierce.

It's an amazing crazy quilt of interests who have all been playing a game of brinkmanship, and all of them have tumbled over the cliff.  As they all plunge inexorably towards the rocks below, they are all fighting each other to be the last ones to land, thinking the leading corpses will cushion the blow just enough to claim victory.

It is nice to think that Americans have learned their lesson now, and if they make it to another election, will choose the sane option of avoiding polls altogether.  After all, if no one participated in the circus, there wouldn't be much a circus to watch.  All shows require an audience, otherwise they are just rehearsals.

When will people realize that the only viable option is to not surrender ANY personal sovereignty to ANYONE for ANY REASON?  One need only look at history to understand that, in the end, NO ONE is ultimately happy with the outcome of any election, because it always means having to bow down to some undesirable result, no matter who claims victory.

So as we watch the absurd pageant of quasi-religious fervor unfold like the legendary Corpse Flower of Sumatera.  This is an appropriate metaphor because not only does the enormous flower smell like rotting flesh, it is also a parasite, an apt metaphor in so many ways.

If you swear allegiance to an abstraction or subscribe to a creed that you did not create, then you are part of a System that cannot be reformed from the inside.  The System is so inculcated into daily life that to change any part of it ripples out into the most insignificant parts of daily life.  Like a gangrenous limb, it must be entirely cut off.  There is no curing bit by bit.  The only way forward is to bit the bullet and get it over with.

Instead, the vast majority of people with endure any amount of absurdity and indignity, rather than suffer the momentary pain of the cure.  In fact, most will come to convince themselves that the bizarre and unwieldy System is preferable to any alternative, even liberty and individual sovereignty.  Ultimately, nothing will change until the pain of the System is so unbearable that there is no alternative but to crush it and take whatever follows, which as the people of Iceland learned is actually a far better choice.

Most people are terrified of making choices and taking responsibility for them.  They would rather play the victim and have institutions that rush to their aid, but they rarely realize the enormous price they pay for such cure, choosing to pay the price of liberty for the childlike state of eternal childhood.

And so the Kawellian (to coin a term) farce proceeds apace.  The Absurdist Dystopia grows unabated, sucking the life out of people like a massive parasite that the masses willingly accept out of fear of personal responsibility.  Such is the nature of insanity.

On the plus side, though, it makes for a helluva comedy.

Thinking Our Way To Freedom

One of our loyal FarceBook fans called us out on our assertion yesterday that we don't need leaders.  Let's let R.E. state it in his own words:

"trusting and focused are better words... most of us see the world as too complicated to navigate on our own and we are right. We can be ever vigilant and forego police... but you have to sleep sometime. We can forego government in totum but then we sit in a minor spot to grow our food, until fate or another person takes it away... the "birthright" is an illusion, just like honest government and security"

Points well taken and definitely worth a response.

While I greatly respect R.E., I must first state unequivocally that there is no such thing as security, nor safety for that matter.  It is all an illusion, and the sooner we are disabused of it, the sooner we can free ourselves and our minds.  My view of security is best represented by my own experience.  I used to have a gorgeous 1970 Pontiac Catalina 400 rag top with a custom-designed and installed Blaupunkt sound system that I did myself.  People said I was crazy putting that system in a rag top, but they were aghast that I left the top down and the doors unlocked most of the time - weather permitting.

I explained that with a rag top, getting in would take about 10 seconds, no matter how many precautions I took.  So better to just leave it open so that I would only lose the stereo, and not the top also.

In fact, no one ever touched my car.  At one point, a BMW next to it was trashed in a parking garage, but not a scrap of paper was missing from my car.  I owned that car for 10 years and never had a problem.  My experience confirmed, to me at least, that the more you try to protect something, the more challenge it presents to someone to break it.  Thus, the best security is none at all.

So, having dispensed with that argument, let's turn our attention to the idea that we need leaders because life is so complex.

Balderdash.

I view life as a three-dimensional matrix, and it greatly simplifies life and makes it rather manageable, without sacrificing the detail needed to function effectively.

Imagine a cube divided into seven sections on all planes - 7x7x7.  That means there are 343 smaller cubes within the larger one.

The X axis I label the Seven Deadly Sins.  OK, it's a hangover from my Catholic catechism, but it neatly sums up all the evil in the world.  To refresh our memory, the seven deadly sins are: Pride. Envy. Wrath, Gluttony and Lust. Sloth and Greed.  Honestly, can you think of any bad emotion that doesn't fit in one of those categories?

The Y axis are the seven Virtues.  Again, to refresh: Prudence, Justice, Moderation, Fortitude, Faith, Hope, and Love (charity).

On the Z axis, we have the seven Plots (a la Christopher Booker): Overcoming Monsters, Rags to Riches, The Quest, Voyage and Return, Comedy, Tragedy, and Rebirth.

To fully grasp the nature of this matrix, take a moment now to pause, reflect and internalize.  Can you think of any human situation that does not fall within at least two of these categories?

I didn't think so.

So that means that all of human society, history, art, and civilization can be plotted somewhere within this matrix of 343 choices.  Everything you do, from waking up in the morning to cooking dinner falls within two or three of these axes.  If you really want to encompass Life, the Universe and Everything, then simply label the axes: Motive, Opportunity and Means.

In a nutshell, this means that everything we know, have known or could know is summed up in 343 points within a 7x7x7 cube.

See how simple life really is?

Knowing this, and having the matrix firmly in our minds, what need do we have for leaders?  They are nothing more than points in the matrix, just like us.  Everything they do is a point in the matrix, just like us.  Everything the want is a point in the matrix, just like us.  So how, exactly, are they qualified to lead?  After all, they are just like us.

The fact of the matter is that no one is more or less qualified to lead us than ourselves.  With a few basic rules of conduct, everyone should be allowed to do whatever they want within the confines of their property, which includes their bodies and any space that they own.

The elite know this.  That is why they try so hard to keep us stupid, take away our property (or prevent us from owning any) and make every aspect of human behavior a crime.  It is the only way to control us, and our complicity is the only way we are controlled.

What it all comes down to is that our lives are nothing more than 343 variables.  To the extent that we can control any of them means that we have more security than before.  To the extent that we can't control them, but delegate someone else to handle the issue means we have an illusion of control and security, because once you delegate a variable to someone else, you have multiplied your problem exponentially.  How the delegate handles your variable depends on where they are in the matrix.  Now you have added their matrix to yours and increased the variables at least 343 times.

The fact is, no one is better at watching out for you than you.  Every time you delegate a personal responsibility to another, you make the situation less controllable.  In modern society, we have delegate so much personal power to others that life seems to be so complex and out of control.  In fact, it IS out of control, but it is NOT complex.

Time to take some of that power back.  Stop letting "leaders" take your power to use for their ends.  You have the sum of human knowledge right here on the internet.  You have a personal responsibility to educate yourself.  You are the one person that can delegate your power.  One tiny little change in the way you think can change the world.  And with the thousands of readers here, we have a force multiplier.

We don't need others to lead us, we need to lead ourselves.  Start reading, turn of the TeeVee, take responsibility for your life.  It's really quite simple.  All it requires is looking with different eyes - eyes that we once had as children, but lost due to training.

The only powe someone else has over us is what we give them.

In some ways, 50 Shades of Gray laid it in front of us, but we missed the point for all the steamy sex.

Oops...isn't sex in the matrix?

A Superhero Without Really Trying

"I'm beginning to think I'm invincible," came the first message as I got off the plane.  It was quickly followed by, "I survived Y2K, bird flu, 9/11, rapture 1 & 2, and now the Mayan Apocalypse!"

It was my Canadian bud feeling cocky with a new lease on life.

"Don't forget the planetary alignment of 1982, the swine flu and the Asian Contagion," I shot back.

Indeed, those of us of a certain age can boast that we have survived the End of the World as We Know It so many times now, it's getting rather passe.  I may even stop prepping, since if the end comes in the first half of next year, I won't care because I've dodged the bullet so many times I'm ready to surrender to the next shot fired.

I became a 'prepper' at an early age.  I was still in swaddling clothes when Hurricane Carla tore up Houston in 1961.  Then there were the double hurricanes in the early 70s.  Then Alicia, Rita, Katrina, and a half dozen other big storms.

I've side-stepped tornadoes and water spouts, earthquakes, wild-ass lightning storms, floods, and landslides.  And let's not forget the Munich bombing in 1980, or being shot at on the Afghan/Iran border the day the American hostages were taken when the Shah fell.

I've been in knife fights (I brought a gun...duh), nearly fallen 800 feet off a cliff and almost died from dysentery in Paris.  A little thing like the Mayan calendar ending ain't gonna stop me.

My bud was right...with all the apocalypses we've all survived, I think it's about time to admit we're all either dead and this is what hell looks like, or we're really immortals living out a Highlander existence.  Not sure about the latter.  I need to behead someone first to test the theory.

Here in Jakarta, it kind of seemed like the end of the world.  Beginning Friday evening, there was an epic rain for three days with severe flooding all over the city, leaving everything in gridlock.  As usual, I dodged that one by being 500 km away enjoying a lovely time eating Javanese food and hanging out in the mountains.  I did see Jesus there, but he was already dead, so nothing to fear on that account.  As for Muhammad, Buddha and Shiva, they were all missing in action.

No clouds parting, no stars falling, no whores of Babylon being eaten by dragons while drinking the blood of martyrs.  No seals were broken, no galaxies aligned.  No global coastal events.  And as far as I know, the sea is still blue-green, or at least the part that I flew over today.

The way I figure it, the Earth has been spinning around the Sun, according to best guestimates, for 4.5 BILLION years.  Odds are pretty good that it will go on spinning for another 5 billion or so.  About the worst thing we puny little humans can do is wipe ourselves out, but it won't be the end of the world.  We'll just be some cool bones buried deep in the bowels of the Earth for whatever creatures come after to dig up.

Hell, they'll probably tell themselves that oil comes from our rotting carcasses.  They might even theorize that we were wiped out by a giant meteor with a weird name.  Hopefully, though, they won't have a Mayan calendar to spook themselves with.

Those of us in the 50+ category have now survived at least a half-dozen apocalypses.  It's our job now to teach the younger generation to stop all the BS and start thinking about the future...as in making it better and not always wishing for some deus ex machina to come along and clean up our mess.  It's too easy to give up and hope for a supernatural 'do over'.  The real task is to realize we're on our own and our future is ours to make.  There won't be gods riding in on clouds, or ETs with miracle technology, or whatever dream team you believe in.

As a species, we are rounding adolescence and heading straight for adulthood.  Our parents, whatever we think they are, aren't there to clean up our rooms for us anymore.  It's time we grow up and take responsibility for our own actions.  We can't hide behind mama's skirt forever.  We now know our place in the Universe and it's time we get out there and start making something of ourselves.

Yup, we're all superheroes now.  We've dodged bullets, leaped tall buildings and outrun locomotives.  So, time to download or get off the pot.  We're still here, for better or worse.  Let's, gor God's sake, start focusing on the 'better' part of things.

IronBatSpiderHulk To The Rescue!

Do you believe in the Second Coming of Jesus, the 12th Imam, the Meshiach, benign aliens from Planent 9, or superheroes?

If you answered "yes" to any one of these, then you are a victim of mind control and should proceed immediately to detox your mind.

It's like this, if some group of elite can make you truly believe in some outside force that will show up in a blaze of glory and set everything to rights, then you won't do anything to protest the elites' machinations.  Rather, you will sit idly by fervently praying for your hero to arrive and whisk you away while cleaning house here on Earth.  Whether your hero is a god/man wielding righteous indignation, a benevolent race of extraterrestrials, or a billionaire playboy-turned-philanthropist, all these characters trigger your wait-and-see mode.  That way, you won't get in the way of the ruling class as they enslave and destroy our, as of this moment, only home.

I've never had much use for Karl Marx, but one thing I have always respected was his view and the use of religion to placate the masses and prevent them from taking matters into their own hands.

The foundation of irreligious criticism is: Man makes religion, religion does not make man. Religion is, indeed, the self-consciousness and self-esteem of man who has either not yet won through to himself, or has already lost himself again. But man is no abstract being squatting outside the world. Man is the world of man – state, society. This state and this society produce religion, which is an inverted consciousness of the world, because they are an inverted world. Religion is the general theory of this world, its encyclopaedic compendium, its logic in popular form, its spiritual point d’honneur, its enthusiasm, its moral sanction, its solemn complement, and its universal basis of consolation and justification. It is the fantastic realization of the human essence since the human essence has not acquired any true reality. The struggle against religion is, therefore, indirectly the struggle against that world whose spiritual aroma is religion.

Religious suffering is, at one and the same time, the expression of real suffering and a protest against real suffering. Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people.

  --Kart Marx, 1843, Contribution to Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right from the Deutsch-Französische Jahrbücher

A careful reading of this quote reveals some profound insights.  He points out that religions are at once foisted on people, while at the same time they are a reaction against cruelty of humanity against itself.  Ultimately, religion rechannels our basic impulse to right wrongs, by short-circuiting that impulse into some future outside justification event.

By buying into these programs, we are rendered inactive, like blowing smoke on bees when robbing the hive.  Regardless of the religious origin of the "righteous revolution," we see it in many secular movements, as well.

The secular versions recast the reformer(s), but the basic storyline is the same: don't take matters into your own hands.  Leave that for the "righteous experts" who are far better equipped to handle these things.  Whether it's Batman or the Avengers, or greys or aryans, or even, as Clif High rightly pointed out in a recent interview on Red Ice Creations, the David Wilcock/Benjamin Fulford scenario of the Yakuze arresting all the banksters, we are powerless lumps of flesh incapable of handling our own affairs.

As Marx so eloquently states, we see the evil and suffering caused by injustice, but we are indoctrinated to believe that we can not capable of fighting such things.  Instead, we turn to outside forces who will come someday to vanquish the foes, avenge the downtrodden and set things right once again.  In a sense, this is opium to ease the pain of our inaction and impotence.

In many ways, Marxism and its spawn spring from an impulse to stop the suffering of humanity, but even Marx is derailed by his reliance on some organization to inflict change from above.  In fact, history shows us that any organization, no matter what motivates it, can be perverted to serve the elite power structure.

Whether it's Tea Parties or Occupiers, socialists or capitalists, christians or muslims, all group efforts can and are ultimately suborned to the cause of those who would subjugate humanity.  Without fail, all are infiltrated and redirected, while at the same time the members continue to believe that they are doing right.  In every case, the groups are placated by small and meaningless concessions from on high, and so feel that they have succeeded in the midst of their failure.

There is only one sure way to completely vanquish the forces of evil and secure justice for all.  It comes down to complete and personal responsibility for one's actions, and allowing everyone to do as they please within the confines of their bodies and property.

The first and deadliest fallacy of any group effort is that the group knows what's best for all others.  In the end, all groups believe that theirs is the only way to find peace and justice, and proceed to ram it down everyone else's throats.  In doing so, the group feels justified though they have simply traded places with the previous bad guys.

The only possible way to fix things is for everyone to pursue enlightenment in whatever way works best for them within the confines of self and home, and leave everyone else the hell alone.  Any system of law, no matter how wonderful and divine its apparent revelation, involves forcing someone somewhere at gun point to adhere to that system.  And since all use of force in inherently immoral, then all governments and systems of law are immoral is they have one single person who is forced to follow.

Marx, like so many others before and since, sought to replace one set of elites with another.  No matter how benevolent the new elite seem, at some point they will seek force to control others, and so devolve into the enemy of free choice and justice.

As Roger Daltry famously warbled, "Meet the new boss, same as the old boss." 

Anything which subverts the quest of the individual to be left alone and to pursue his or her own course is opium for the masses.  By passing the responsibility off to some outside savior, we hand over our own wills to create our own paradise.  If we create something good, then others will want to join.  But if they are forced to follow, then the leader is no better than any other elite throughout history.

Most importantly, we need to stop allowing others to stop our natural impulse for freedom by promising us pie in the sky saviors who will never materialize, and will simply continue to evolve as old ones fade away.

John Dalberg-Acton told us that "power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely."  He failed to mention that there is one power that is incorruptible, and that is power over Self.  If we limit ourselves to conquering our Selves, there is no room for corruption, since we are prevented from forcing others into our world.

Just to prove that you are now cured of mind control, watch this snippet of a nightly newscast.  If it no longer has power over you, then you will see the truth behind it...

 

Or we can depend on billionaire playboys popping up to rescue us, but frankly looking at Bill Gates doesn't inspire hope.

Fear And Loathing

The big weather news of the week?  No, not the dozen or so who died in a typhoon in the Phillipines, but Brad and Muffy had to flee the Hamptons for some piss-ant rain storm.  Reportedly, Muffy's hair got mussed by a mild breeze caused by the rush to evacuate.

Hunter S. Thompson would be proud.  Richard C. Hoagland calls it "fear porn," and a more apt name we are hard-pressed to develop.  It's an old trick, but it is very effective.  What is surprising is how many people fall for it, even though there are repeated examples of the manipulation.

The use of fear as a weapon is a simple, yet effective tactic.  It is the basis of the concept of 'terrorism,' which is to frighten people to the point of submission.  The reason terrorism can ONLY be government sponsored is that people's fear response doesn't serve any other interest.

People, despite all our sophistication, have basic and primitive responses to certain stimulae.  One of the strongest and most basic is the fear response.  When faced with a threat, people will automatically 'circle the wagons.'  There's an instinctual rally behind leaders and a desire to protect vulnerable individuals and institutions.  Not that the instinct is bad, but the manipulation of it for socio/political ends is quite evil.

As a technique for manipulating large groups of people, the concept is very old.  Even the telling of ghost stories around the camp fire is a means of keeping more impressionable souls close to camp.  After a good ghost story, kids won't wander off in the night, to fall prey to accident or attack.

On a larger scale, such thinkers as Sun Tsu and Machiavelli wrote at length on the use of fear for political and strategic goals.  Using imaginary, manufactured or even actual enemies is a tool that causes the masses to cling to 'thought leaders' and gate-keepers' (politicians and media) to receive 'information' on how to react, and 'protection' from the threat.

A prime example of this technique in practice is the recent events surrounding hurricane Irene.  Anyone who has sufficient experience with big storms knows that you lock down for hurricanes and run from tornadoes.  One assumes that 'experts' would know this.  So why the week and a half of fear mongering and orders to flee?  It can only serve one purpose, that of generating fear in the masses and causing them to turn to PTB and media as the purveyors of 'information' and 'protection.'

The same technique was used quite effectively on a global basis after 9/11.  The fear of an unforeseen attack by mysterious enemies capable of destroying large and unthinkable targets has caused a global fear instinct to kick in that is still reverberating 10 years later.  The use of that fear has caused great numbers of people to willingly hand over their personal power and responsibility to a group of self-serving power mongers.

Even things as small as 'Amber Alerts' serve the PTB.  Amber Alerts are a program of media warnings in the US that are triggered when a child is reported missing.  Children, of course, are the most effective tool of those who would make the masses submit.  The idea of a child in danger causes and very strong and primitive reaction in people to drop what they are doing and circle the wagons, waiting for word from the 'authorities.'  It is very subtly fed to people by inducing the fear of 'it could happen to your child.'

Children are used by the PTB to create some of the most egregious violations of personal freedom known to Man.  Organizations such as 'Child Protective Services,' which are nothing they claim to be in that name, get other people to feel justified and proper in stealing people's children and farming them out to the highest bidders.

So-called 'public education' functions on the fear that your child won't have a chance in the 'real' world if they don't receive the full 12 years of indoctrination at the hands of evil manipulators.  This is despite the fact that some of the greatest thinkers in history had little or no 'formal' education.  Sitting in a classroom no more guarantees an education than having an open book on your desk, yet the fear that your child will be deprived causes you to submit your child to the brain butchers.

Mass vaccinations operate on fear.  If you don't take the jab, you will die a horrible and painful death from some vicious disease, even though more people statistically drown in buckets of water every year, than die of the supposed plague du jour being used to 'fear' you into submission.

The Cold War, global warming, nuclear holocaust, viral epidemics, killer storms, cometary impacts and the like are all tools of fear-mongering that are in play in our culture.  Who benefits from the fear that is generated?  Why, the very people who are telling us to be afraid, of course.

Fear of poverty keeps the middle classes in line.  Fear of Second Comings and Eternal Damnation keep the faithful in line.  Fear of depriving our children of some vague opportunity keeps parents in line.  Fear of death keeps nearly everyone in line.

There is a reason that the great adepts have all, without exception, taught that conquering fear is the first and most important step in freeing ourselves from bondage.  When we no longer act out of fear and subdue our innate panic response, then we are finally free to open our minds to greater Truths and Spiritual Development.

The Truth shall set us free, and the Truth is, there is nothing to fear.

We must train ourselves to stop acting without reasoning first.  It's not easy.  There are very primitive parts of our brains that startle at the unknown.  We create phantoms in our minds that cause us waste our lives reacting to possibilities, rather than focusing on reality.

It is fear that causes us to surrender our personal responsibility to anyone who presents themselves as a 'leader,' when in fact those 'leaders' are using their knowledge of the truth to present themselves as fearless.  It's a vicious circle that keeps us submissive and subservient to those who generate and manipulate fear as a weapon.

Observation of animals will quickly inform us about the basic human condition.  That lemmings will panic en masse and follow each other over a cliff is a trite but effective metaphor.  Both sheep and cows are excellent examples of blind submission to 'leaders.'  The Judas goat is a classic example.  The goat is trained to walk through the corral, and the sheep blindly follow it to their certain doom, or at least a good sheering.  A herd of thousands of cows can be managed by a handful of cowboys by simply guiding the lead cow.

In human 'society,' the lead cow is called a 'news anchor.'  It is their job to boldly march into butcher's hands, and they willingly do so because they know they will be spared to lead the next group.  Those who follow, though, are not so lucky.

There is hope.  Stories about people ignoring evacuation orders and going to the beaches despite threats of punishment and certain doom tells us that the power of the 'opinion leaders' is waning.  After all, the right of the individual to do anything they want to themselves is supreme above all other powers.  If Joe Sixpack wants to ride the storm surge on his boogy board, so be it.  If a man wants to ride out a storm on his property to protect it from looters and public 'authorities,' more power to him.  These people are taking personal risks that they feel are warranted, for whatever reason and reward they perceive.

Anyone who invests in the markets knows that the greater the financial risk, the greater the reward.  It is the fear of loss or ruin that keeps most people out of such things.  Those who take the risks are personally responsible for informing themselves of the benefits and dangers of such actions.  It is not for us to decide whether or not they should take those risks, and it is not for us to mediate their losses, should they fail to properly calculate the risks.

In the same way, it is not for us to decide if a storm is dangerous or not for any given individual.  That is their choice.  They have information on storm tracks, wind speeds and expected rainfall.  They, as reasoning beings, are personally responsible for deciding to stay put or flee, and they must accept both rewards and losses for their decisions.

If we find this a reasonable argument, then what can possibly be the benefit to some group to inculcate fear in large groups of people?

Training mass numbers of people to respond in certain ways makes them predicable, and thus controllable.  It also keeps them from depending on themselves and their friends and families.  Rather, it indoctrinates them into the concept of clinging to 'thought leaders' and 'gate-keepers' as sole arbiters of right action.  When people are afraid, they follow anyone who appears to have an idea what to do.  It causes us to doubt our own capacity to decide the odds and what we should do to mitigate risk.

We are implanted with 'behavioral templates' in the media that cause us to use pre-programmed responses to various stimulae.    The PTB use this for their entertainment.  It's amusing to them to herb masses around and watch the terror in their eyes as they run from a summer rain hardly more than a Texas gully-washer.

Anyone who has faced their fear and survived knows the feeling of empowerment it brings.  If the Self can conquer the animal flight instinct and face down the things that makes Self afraid, then Self is rewarded with the knowledge that Self is powerful and capable and independent.

That is the greatest fear of those who would control us.  That we should become empowered and conquer our fear and learn self-reliance makes us impossible to control, impossible to herd.  The empowered individual does not need a leader, he IS the leader.  He doesn't need to pay taxes, or depend on government agencies and hand-outs.  He is his own authority.  He doesn't need to share his reward and doesn't ask others to re-mediate his losses.

Does that sound like the kind of individual that governments and 'authorities' try to create?  Or does the quivering, indecisive lump of fearful animal flesh seem more to their liking?

Despite all his faults, FDR did come out with a great line that is worth remembering: "There is nothing to fear, but Fear Itself."  Knowledge that we are eternal beings incapable of real death, and fearless in the face of danger, real or imagined, is the remedy to our current predicament.

Those who stand and fight, whether natural or man-made dangers, are self-empowered and self-reliant, and truly free individuals. 

The PTB are deathly afraid of one thing, the self-actualized human being.  Their power, wealth and control are completely and inextricably dependent on our fear.  Whether it's religions, political institutions or just plain bullies, they eat fear and thrive on it.  The complete lack of fear is kryptonite to their super-powers.

Ask yourself this: Why do the 'authorities' tell everyone to run, but allow supercilious air-heads to remain in the face of danger to report it to us?  Very simple.  It creates in our minds the impression that the media have the favor of the 'authorities,' and we instinctively admire their bravery and fearlessness in the face of certain doom.  We, therefore, naturally transfer our allegiance to the media because they have no fear, whether of Nature or 'authorities'.  Thus, we become willing pawns of the PTB mouthpieces.

Every time someone tells you to fear and run, the first question in your mind should be, "Why?  What do you have to gain from my fear?"  That simple thought deflates their power and brings them down to our level.  Don't be fooled by follow-on stories about the folks who didn't listen and died.  People always die.  It is the nature of life.  It is no less tragic, but it should not cause us fear.

Freedom comes through two tasks.  Uninstall the fear, and conquer it's cousin, guilt.  If we deprogram those two things, then we are powerful and free.  The hardest part is accepting the consequences of our actions, no matter what our choices.

The true heroes are the ones who stand and face their fears, not the uniformed baboons who show up later to clean up the mess.