Shut It Off - Shut It Up

“The essence of totalitarianism — regardless of which costumes and ideology it wears — is a desire to completely control society, every aspect of society, every individual behavior and thought. 

Every totalitarian system, whether an entire nation, a tiny cult, or any other form of social body, evolves toward this unachievable goal … the total ideological transformation and control of every single element of society… 

This fanatical pursuit of total control, absolute ideological uniformity, and the elimination of all dissent, is what makes totalitarianism totalitarianism. 

Thus, each new totalitarian system, at some point in its evolution, needs to launch a purge of those who refuse to conform to its official ideology. 

It needs to do this for two basic reasons: 

(1) to segregate or otherwise eliminate actual political opponents and dissidents who pose a threat to the new regime; and 

(2) and more importantly, to establish the ideological territory within which the masses must now confine themselves in order to avoid being segregated, or eliminated."

- C.J. Hopkins

 

A couple of things about corporate/government advertising/propaganda mind pollution. 

1) It's everywhere, it's getting worse, and

 

2) No one likes it except those that benefit from the spreading of this mental excrement. 

What to do?

Shut it off at the source, and drastically improve your mental space.

They want us programmed to work-buy-comply-die, and to do so unquestioningly. 

Nope. 

It's simple. 

Shut it off, and shut it up. 

Cut the flow off, free yourself and emancipate your mind.

End the illusion. Share what you learn far and wide.

Most People

This guy. He doesn't do what most people do.

Most people want more.

Most people avoid the truth because they don't want their precious illusions shattered.

Most people will comply with orders, no matter how outrageous.

Most people believe we are defending democracy when we bomb a country into dust and execute its elected leader.

Most people automatically give authority figures their respect.

Most people say they are not affected by advertising, but still buy things that are advertised.

 

Most people will not choose voluntary simplicity, even if it will save them and the Earth.

Most people do what other people do.

I investigate what most people do in order to determine what NOT to do.

For just because most people are doing something, does not mean it is the right thing to do.

No-Energy Food Storage: Carrots In A Moss Bin

I have been experimenting with a forest moss bin in our unheated garage for the storage of garden carrots for the past two years as a no-energy method for preserving our food.

This year, after our garden carrots (and beets) were used up, I put store-bought carrots in the bin to see how they would make out.

The carrots start growing again. When the carrots went in, not a root or top growth was to be seen on any of them. 

After many days in the moss, take a look! 

The long roots snake through the moss, which I keep hydrated over the season with occasional half cups of water sprinkled around.

I have never seen roots or new tops like these on store carrots while in their plastic bag in the crisper of my fridge. 

Moss bin carrots last longer, and can be stored for months rather than weeks. We can stock up when carrots are on sale, and not worry about them going bad.

And best of all, I find that any carrot stored in the bin tastes fresher than carrots kept in the fridge. 

Bonus: saves energy, which saves money.

Bonus plus: the moss can be returned to the forest as the weather warms up, and any parts still alive will grow again.

Earth Day 2022 - Love Your Mother

Earth Day 2022. The 52nd Earth Day. 

Their motto this year is "Invest in Our Planet". 

Doesn't that mean that you expect some kind of return, some profit from this investment? Are we that callous and selfish that we would sell out our own mom?

Wow, imagine the state we would be in if we didn't have those 51 years under our belts leading to the state we are in today.

My alternative motto this Earth Day, is "Love Your Mother". 

You wouldn't sell your Mom out to the highest bidder. 

You wouldn't knowingly hurt your Mother. 

And if she was sick, you would drop everything and make her health your #1 priority over everything else.

We have been tricked into selling our Mother to the bankers, in exchange for what WE want, to fulfill OUR limitless desires. The sacred bond has been broken.

"In this state of total consumerism - which is to say a state of helpless dependence on things and services and ideas and motives that we have forgotten how to provide ourselves - all meaningful contact between ourselves and the Earth is broken. 

We do not understand the Earth in terms either of what it offers us or of what it requires of us, and I think it is the rule that people inevitably destroy what they do not understand.” 

― Wendell Berry

When Berry writes about the Earth, he also understands it to be the Mother of All.

We have forgotten that The Mother of All offers us everything. This relationship requires us to show her our love, gratitude, and respect in all we do.

She will do everything for us unconditionally and for as long as she can. Today she is sick.

What will we do?

Remember our love for our Mother. 

Maybe by the 53rd Earth Day we will begin expressing that love through every thought, decision, and action. 

When we do that, current abusive systems will be blown away. This planet, and all its inhabitants will begin to heal.

Peace and harmony will reign. 

Years of digging the Earth,

Searching for the blue sky,

Piling up layer upon layer

Of mediocrity.

Then one dark night

The ceiling blew off,

And the whole structure

Disappeared into emptiness.

- Muso

Consumerism Explained Part III

After only 100 years of material excess, workers in consumer nations are witnessing the beginning of life with less stuff. 

It was unofficially over when they announced that in the near future "you won't own anything". 

The training and pressure to consume has been intense since the 1800s, but especially since the 1920s. 

Since then virtuous workers citizens consumers have done what they were told, for the good of everyone. Shopping was sold as a patriotic act in a classic mind control operation. 

Work, shop, repeat. We were drawn into a fake new world.

And now, the matrix is closing in.

"You should feel lucky to have food!" is the new, "You should feel lucky to have a job!"

Post-consumerism is a state that was destined to come from the beginning, and this had to always be known. 

But there were minds to infect, and profits to be made.

Consumer propaganda went so deep that our fears and negative attitudes have been internalized. We don't realize they are not our beliefs at all. 

We assume they are simply "the way life is".

Now it is becoming more apparent that a life based on endless consumption, waste, and disconnection from nature and each other, is neither possible nor desirable.

This is not the way life is, or ever was, or ever will be again.

They lied, and now they are in a panic.

Consumerism Explained Part II

The Circus of Consumption is producing so many distractions for us to devour that the ring masters are getting wealthier from us being entertained to death.

People who are entertained endlessly will hardly even notice when their world is crapified for profit.

Our being harmed and killed by the entertainments, distractions, and propaganda is simply a fringe benefit for the operators of this infernal machine.

Just because we aren't consuming a material thing does not make consuming "entertainment experiences" any better for us. 

Especially if they are pre-packaged crappy experiences.

The most troubling thing is that while this is happening there are no cries of anguish to be heard from the chronically entertained.

The only cries are for "More, more, more" of the same three rings simultaneously slinging mental sludge.

We can't turn it off, and we can't get enough. The consumer circus goes on.

Or does it?

Consumerism Explained Part I

In a consumer society you can buy anything you want. 

Any time you want it.

Mostly you can buy happiness. 

It's fleeting, and fake, but by making repeat purchases forever, everything will be fine.

Isn't that marvellous?

Power Of The People

Archimedes said that if you had a lever large enough, you could move the Earth. 

Accordingly, if you had enough people and the necessary handholds and place to stand for everyone, you could lift the Earth.

The Amish show this to be true, albeit at a smaller scale. 

In this video they model the power of the people and what can be done when we work together.

Competition has it's place in nature, but manufactured artificial "survival of the cruelest" competition for the benefit of the few is socially corrosive and unnatural.

There are more examples of cooperation in nature than there are of competition. There are both.

In human society, the mix between the two has been put grossly out of balance, and we are now seeing the full effect of fake, imposed competition where cooperation would naturally reign.

Surviving and thriving on Earth is a cooperative activity. If we don't start tapping into the power of the people, working  with each other and with the greater natural community, we are done.

Note to self. Bumper sticker meme idea: "If the Amish can do it, why can't we?"

We can get together and move the Earth. Or anything else we choose.

The Shaker-Fuller Test

I found the Spring 1969 Whole Earth Catalogue ("Access to Tools") online today. It was my go-to book back in the day, and it felt comfortable seeing it again.

In the Purpose section the publishers say, "So far, remotely done power and glory - as via government, big business, formal education, church - has succeeded to the point where gross defects obscure actual gains."

The Catalogue was meant to help redress power imbalances in society, and help people start to take care of themselves.

A little further in I was looking at references to Buckminster Fuller's books. 

When I read about what Fuller wrote about the importance of beauty in problem solving, I thought of groups like the Shakers.

Fuller said, 

"When I am working on a problem, I never think about beauty... but when I have finished, if the solution is not beautiful, I know it is wrong.

The Shakers didn't need to think of of beauty when they created the things needed to solve the problems of life since arriving in late 1700s America from England. 

Their work has always been a sacred pursuit, and a job well done a form of worship. 

The result was durable, practical, and beautiful things, the designs of which endure to this day because they can not be improved upon.

Humanity needs broader solutions that are as beautiful. 

That should be the sniff test - 

1) "Is this solution as simple as it needs to be, no more and no less?", and

2) "Is it beautiful?"

I call it The Shaker-Fuller Test.

Have a proposed solution? Is it needlessly complex and not beautiful for everyone and the planet?

Then it is not viable.

Next.

Thinking beautiful thoughts is our first step. 

Then, we make those beautiful thoughts into simple, beautiful solutions.

Surely this is possible for big-brained beings that consider themselves to be the most intelligent, highly evolved life form in the known Universe.

See the Whole Earth Catalogue here. Note: it appears to be a scanned copy.

Billions And Billions Saved

Because of my interest in satirical art, I learned about William Hogarth, an English painter, printmaker, pictoral satirist, and social critic from the 1800s. He was possibly the original editorial cartoonist. 

If Hogarth started visual satire for the masses, the artist known as Mr. Fish (Dwayne Booth) has been working on perfecting it. 

When I saw Fish's "Billions and Billions Saved" artwork I thought of the most conventional thought experiment going - the "Killing Hitler" scenario.

In this mind mashup one theoretically averts all the horrors of WWII by going back in time and offing young Hilter before he and the Nazis had a chance to come to power.

When I saw the picture above, I thought that one might save more lives in a time travel thought experiment of "Strapping Ronald Into An Electric Chair" scenario.

Imagine, if you will, the theoretical time traveler offing him and his inventor, Ray Kroc. before the deadly duo had a chance to sell all that killer fake food. 

Hitler, or Ronald thought experiment? 

I wonder which would save more lives?

 

April Fools Day Cancelled

Things you do want to hear, "April fools!" after:

- "Because of the way you think, we froze your bank account until further notice without evidence or trial."

- "There's a ______ (food, energy, truck driver, everything)  shortage."

- "All our leaders have failed us."

- "We're out of coffee."

Things you do not want to hear, "April fools" after:

- "War is over, and peace has broken out everywhere."

- "The effects of global supply chain breakdown have been mitigated by import replacement and bolstering community resilience."

- "Our lame leaders and corrupted systems have been replaced with more effective alternatives."

- "Shortages are temporary, and we will be back to normal shortly."

- "I love you."