Re-2: an invitation…

by

2009-08-01

Richard Moore

Bcc: contributors
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Greetings,

Back on June 27 I sent out a posting, “an invitation”:

Quite a few of you responded, and I posted the responses on June 29:

After that, many other responses came in. Sorry for the delay, here are those later responses…

cheers,
richard
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From: Charles Lane 
Date: 28 June 2009 21:59:01 IST
To: Richard Moore <•••@••.•••>
Subject: Re: an invitation…

Hi Richard,
      I think your enlightened postings have possibly run their course (well for me that is) in that I spend less time online, or watching news. or reading about conspiracies, and have now become proactively organinzing my life and actions around what you have taught me. So if it seems like less people are responding to you perhaps it is because there is really no longer any room for debate or discussion as the proof lies in recent events (over the last decade…). You’ve been absolutely right this whole time and what more is there to talk about? It’s time for action! We’re buying guns, going solar and wind, raising gardens, and closing bank accounts. We’re trying to go back to gold coins but obviously can’t shop with them so we resort to cash in the market place. Is there anything I can do to help further your cause..?
      Your loyal subscriber,
 Charles
Hi Charles,
Nice to hear from you. I agree with you that there shouldn’t really be room for debate on the major issues, such as elite rule and the new world order, but it seems the great liberal majority are still in denial nonetheless. When I first started writing, globalization was just getting started, and Daddy Bush had just begun talking about a new world order. I didn’t even know about central banks, and was blaming everything on capitalism, corporations, and corruption. So much has changed, except the basic thesis: we are ruled by elites and the only way out is from the grassroots, what we can do ourselves.
Over the years, I’ve found the rabbit hole goes much deeper than I originally thought, and at the same time it’s all become much more visible. And there’s been a steady conditioning program, so people are now accepting torture, illegal wars, predator drones, massive homelessness and unemployment, planned economic collapse, selling out the treasury to the banks, putting bankers in charge of governments, and still they are in denial. 
But it’s not “my” cause, it’s “our” cause. And guns are not the way to go. It’s community you need, not isolation in some bunker. They’ll track you down and they have more guns than you.
cheers,
richard

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From: Ralph Suter 
Date: 29 June 2009 02:32:08 IST
To: Richard Moore <•••@••.•••>
Subject: Re: Progressive Iran scholar replies to Petras

Hi Richard,

I don’t plan to unsubscribe. While I find a lot of stuff you forward pretty dubious, I also find much that is worthwhile and most at least interesting, though I confess I don’t have time to read all of it, especially when you send it out in large spurts all at once, as you did a couple of days ago.
     I sent you the Kaveh Ehsani reply to James Petras because I had read Petras’ article on another list (NoIraqWar, Yahoogroups) and someone else posted Ehsani’s reply. Before that, I had commented on the Petras article myself, because I found it dubious on its face, especially because Petras took the official Iranian government reports completely uncritically and because many of his claims were as unsubstantiated and speculative as those of the people he was criticizing. I was glad to hear from someone like Ehsani who is an expert on Iran, which Petras is not. Another academic on the NoIraqWar list commented that he has high regard for Petras when he writes about his area of expertise, South America, but didn’t think much of Petras’ Iran article.
     Despite Ehsani’s reply to Petras, I’m inclined to agree that Ahmadinejad probably did win by a large margin, which (contrary to Petras) several mainstream articles (in Washington Post and Politico.com, among others) also concluded. More recently, another widely respected progressive writer, Mark Weisbrot, came to the same conclusion after analyzing the election more objectively than Petras did. You can read it at:
-Ralph

Hi Ralph,

Thanks for sharing your research. I publish lots of points of view on newslog. I even publish mainstream sources, which I consider to be propaganda. No way do I claim everything posted on newslog is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. It’s grist for the mill, stuff worth thinking about or researching further, as you have done. I do filter out stuff that I can see is nonsense, such as all the writings of Sorcha Fall. But if something presents a point of view that has some sense behind it, and gives a different perspective, then I’ll tend to share it.
I do find it a bit disconcerting that people will let dozens of articles pass without comment, and then they find one weak article and jump all over it, basically accusing me of being irresponsible in what I publish. I’d appreciate some balancing comments on articles that are found useful. Seems only fair.
best regards,
richard
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From: Ron Enders
Date: 29 June 2009 06:23:01 IST
Subject: Re: an invitation…

Richard,
I read you but don’t write you.
While not optimistic I still see the same challenges.
It seems – still – that he who has the gold rules.
While I can say – keep it up.  I can also understand – why?
So I will say – thanks and good luck.
Ron
Hi Ron,
As you can see, I’m not going to stop posting altogether. I would like to shift more into talking about solutions and things we can do. And I like to stay in touch with all you folks. 
By the way, I don’t publish people’s email addresses in order to protect them from additional spam. But if any of you want to write to anyone you see here, let me know and I can put you in touch.
cheers,
richard

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From: Bernard Clayson
Date: 28 June 2009 07:46:54 IST
To: Richard   Moore <•••@••.•••>
Subject: Re: an invitation… “state of the world May 2009”

Hi Richard,

I was going to respond, then got side-tracked, which is usual so I will do it now.

The world only has one problem too many people on a finite planet.
All the others are symptoms/consequences, no one dare touch THE problem because it is politically, morally, religiously unacceptable/suicide, so the problem gets bigger.

Industrial Revolution 1750 1 billion people.
First oil well developed 1860 1.5 billion.
I was born in 1940 when there was 2 billion.
Today 6.8 billion.

Economy/finance.
So money, on a linear path, had to multiply by 6.8 times to equal the same standard in 1750, then multiply by the increase in living standards of most of the world and you have the depreciation of the value of currency.
This does not justify the practices of the banking industry, but they have done what has to be done …… and taken their slice of cream off the top.
Robber barons is hardly a new concept.

Resources.
Ditto, in effect, we are robbing the future, the young and un-born, and they do not have a say/vote.

Science – will find a solution.
Bollocks, science has caused the problem and it has put more people out of work than jobs it has ever created.
Farming, which is what I was involved in, had 40 plus workers per 1000 acres, now it has one.
Car industry – think Henry Ford and the production line.
Etc. etc. ad-nauseam.

There is a solution, take away all the safety nets, shut the pharmaceuticals, hospitals to treat superficial injuries – broken bones, cuts etc
It will not happen because it would be political suicide, so nature will correct the problem, which will be a) worse, b) over-shoot (as has happened before) down to a few thousand.

Meanwhile, we will keep addressing the symptoms and resolving nothing, no change there.

Regards
Bernard
Hi Bernard,
I see, genocide as the solution to all problems. You’re in luck, as the masters of the universe agree with you, and their genocide program is now proceeding apace. And again, there’s the conditioning aspect that goes with it. Everyday on TV we see the ads, showing starving African children, and the appeal to send in $5 to feed a child for a year. So everyone accepts that the starvation is inevitable, and it’s up to us to send in donations. Never a mention of the intentional IMF policies designed to create the starvation, or the effect of those genocidal biofuels on raising food prices, biofuels that increase carbon emissions, don’t give energy independence, and often take more energy to grow and distribute than they deliver in the tank.
As regards overpopulation, I suggest you read Lappe’s, World Hunger: Twelve Myths

be careful what you wish for,
you may be among the expendable,
richard
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From: “Susie Jenkins”
Date: 29 June 2009 07:41:53 IST
To: RKM Moore <•••@••.•••>
Subject: RE: an invitation…

Aloha Richard,

This is in response to your request for what is happening in local areas.  Know you are from Hawaii, so you may already know most of what is going on but here is what I’ve been seeing .
Things here are the Big Island  have changed. We’ve lived here this time since 1988.  Off and on before that since the early 1970’s. 
There have been layoffs in the tourist industry & building industry.  Many homes are for sale & rent – most selling prices are lower than two years ago.  (Some of these were decidedly overpriced back then, but not all.) Some homes are in foreclosure – we never saw that advertised here before as a selling come on. This is true even in the million dollar & up homes. 
The small local newspaper used to have many help wanted ads.  Now not so many.  Now see many for rents.
Most people here too just seem to be going on as normal.  Though friends say some of the other parents at their private schools are not sending the children back, but are going to use public schools. 
Target is set to open here in July.  It had over 300 applications from jobs seekers.  I don’t know how that will affect K-Mart & Walmart.  We have a huge pet store (new) & a big sports store(new) that are mainly empty of customers when I’ve gone in them, same with the new Office Max. (new meaning opening in the last year or so).
I’m taking it day by day.  Hoping nothing else bad will happen for some years yet.  Don’t feel there is much I can do one way or the other right now.  (I’m too old to deal with all this sh**t.)
Highest regards for you keeping you site going with news.  Wondered where you were lately.
Mahalo,   Susie Jenkins
Hi Susie,
Thanks for the report. It’s hard to tell what’s going to happen to those mega-chains. On the one hand, they’ve been caught by the boom-and-bust, with big new outlets that won’t find enough customers. On the other hand, as people pinch their pennies, they’re doing their shopping at the mega-chains with their low prices. 
It seems obvious to me that the era of growth and capitalism is over. The time from the beginning of the Industrial Revolution to 2008 was one big bubble, and now it’s burst. What happened to General Motors was a signal, indicating the fate of the corporation as we’ve known them. Deregulation was the mantra to spur growth, to inflate the bubble. Now they are bringing in the mantra of regulation, everyone’s books being monitored by the central banksters, except of course for the top Wall Street firms, where power has now been concentrated. I don’t think I’ve seen anyone else put forward this thesis, which I find surprising. If you’ve seen it anywhere, let me know.
cheers,
richard
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From: Diana Skipworth 
Date: 29 June 2009 14:42:10 IST
To: Richard Moore <•••@••.•••>
Subject: Re: an invitation…

Dear Richard,
I marched down the main street of town yesterday in a parade, dressed up as the Statue of Liberty, carrying a copy of Ron Paul’s book:  “Revolution; A Manifesto.”  Most recently I am the Kane County Coordinator for “Campaign for Liberty.com.”
You know, Richard, a couple year back, I sent your cause $1,000.
I don’t write you so much, as you don’t seem to agree with me.  You publish maybe some of what I write and then you negate it.  So why would I continue to do this?
Diana  Skipworth
Hi Diana,
It sounds like the Ron Paul movement is still alive and well. It’s amazing how people can think of Obama as having been an underdog candidate, when Ron Paul shows us how real underdogs are treated, ie completely ignored by the media.
I’ve asked you about this offline, but I still have no idea who you sent that $1,000 to. And I have no idea what you mean by “my cause”. Still curious.
I do realize that critiquing people’s comments discourages them from sending in further comments. I wish I knew how to be more sensitive about it. At the same time, I think the value of this list is our frankness, and our attempts to get at the truth. And I think we learn more from those we disagree with than from those we agree with. You state your views and I state my views, one of us may learn something, and other readers may learn something. And sometimes we get follow-up comments from others. I know I’ve learned a lot from cyberjournal, and I’ve been uncomfortable with some of the disagreements as well. We all need to keep questioning our assumptions. 
best wishes,
richard

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From: “Dave Patterson”
Date: 29 June 2009 15:57:31 IST
Subject: Re: an invitation…

Hi Richard,
Just a short version of the lengthy letter I’d like to write, to cover the points adequately – but time does not allow right now (I have a ‘day job’ teaching English here in Thailand, it’s a good gig overall, lots of free time considered over the whole year, and it doesn’t require me to do things I really hate just to make a living like so many ‘jobs’ in our capitalist paradise, but my 5-month ‘off’ season’ is coming to an end, and I am a bit busy finishing off the new course before spending a few days showing my niece a bit of the area) – been putting off a couple of other letters as well, but you at least will probably at least answer this one way or another, which letters to mainstream media people rarely do, even the ‘better’ ones.
 
– anyway – the last post (RE: An invitation) hit a couple of buttons, and I thought I’d just send this off – the first button, of course, being your penultimate inquiry about ‘Is anybody out there?!?’ – a sentiment I have been dealing with for awhile as well, albeit in a somewhat lesser way – yes indeed, I am still here, still reading. This is something I have been noticing the last couple of years, as others (I think of William Bowles and INI, whom I am sure you know) have also been apparently feeling some burnout the last year or two – I don’t know if there is any sinister thing going on here (chemtrails anyone?) – but I have been feeling some diminished ‘drive’ the last few months as well – a small lethargy, less ambition to be getting into the fray – I have been putting this down, in my case, to various things – getting older (a year short of 60 now), some small personal problems that wear at one a bit, perhaps some ‘why bother?’ stuff after years of trying to essentially no effect (outside of our choir, as it were) – but I’ve also wondered at times if there isn’t something in the air somehow that is just sapping a bit of energy somehow – very indefinite feeling, nothing to put a finger on – but really, I’d put nothing past these bastards we’re all fighting. I do note the ‘progressive’ web sites that we would probably agree are gatekeeping seem to have lots of energy etc, which – well, I won’t get off on that tangent.
 
Second – thanks for mentioning Greenways in your last – you never got back to me on it after acknowleging you got it, but I’m happy that you remember it, and feel it worth mentioning when the occasion arises.
 
Finally, the last letter you have from Ed Goertzen about the ‘democracy deficit’ – his first two points are ‘..for whatever reason, a deficit in neighbourhood..’, and ‘..Mass Media Propaganda rules information..’ – I think it is worth emphasizing and never forgetting that these two things are very much related – the lack of, or taking away of, or diminishment of, neighborhood is one of the key things that has been going on over the last 50 years, and it is, I think, very related to that prime disseminator of mass propaganda, the television. Getting people, all people everywhere, into their own little shells somewhere, eyes and brains glued to the tv rather than out in the neighborhood interacting with real people, is pretty key, I think, to the success of the current globalisation/brave-new-world crap that is going on, or really, is getting closer and closer to complete dominance. Basic divide and conquer 101. And one of the things most of us in places like this seem to be trying to establish is a return to the idea that people ought to be getting away from that tv, meeting more together in our own local spaces, talking about things, figuring out what to do on a local basis together, rather than taking directions ‘en masse’  from talking heads on tvs.
 
Well, as usual, far more remains unsaid than said, but I will add my voice to the few you have shared – rest assured, you do not fight alone! We may have slightly different ideas about how to get where we want to be, but I have no doubt that we are all heading to the same place, somehow – and there is strength in diversity (for some reason Close Encounters just came to mind as an example – all those people being driven to get somewhere, completely unconnected – but they were all heading to the same place, and they were all looking for some path to a better place ..)
 
Hang in there – maybe, just maybe, if Green Island does what I think it can do as a book, I will have a chance to meet you there in Ireland some day – I have been interested in my family history for quite a long time now, and both of my branches go back there, and I want to get over for a look around as well – 
dave
Hi Dave,
Well said, my friend. Reminds me of the Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy, Television, the drug of the nation, spreading ignorance and spewing radiation:

I suppose the soaps are more harmful than the propaganda. People watch ER, or East Enders, or whatever, to see what their “friends and neighbors” are up to. The characters are more interesting than the people around us. We’re emotional vampires, sucking on a virtual illusion for our sense of society. 
Yes, lethargy. I’m blaming mine on an infected tooth that just got pulled out. I wish we could get a definitive answer on what’s in the chemtrails. I know they’re real, because I’ve photographed them repeatedly out of my own attic window. Crisscross patterns, laid down by several planes at once, going back and forth, expanding to fill the sky. I wish someone would take a plane up there, gather a sample of the vapors, and analyze them in a lab.
Perhaps you can say more about your own ideas for a ‘path to a better place’. We don’t get nearly enough contributions along those lines.
thanks for your observations,
richard
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From: “Peter Hollings”
Date: 29 June 2009 16:58:06 IST
To: “‘Richard Moore'” <•••@••.•••>
Subject: RE: an invitation…

Richard —

Your postings are consistently among the most valuable I find on the
Internet. If you wish to move to Google, I’ll follow.

Peter Hollings

Hi Peter,
Glad you find the postings useful. 
Fortunately, I haven’t had any problems recently with riseup, so I’m leaving people’s subscriptions alone. I want to support riseup, because it really is a labor of love by sincere activists, and it was only reluctantly that I was moving off. For now all is well in that regard.
cheers,
richard
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From: “mike boddington” 
Date: 29 June 2009 10:02:25 IST
Subject: RE: an invitation…

Dear Richard
I have been travelling since June 11th and have just returned to Vientiane:  meanwhile, I have been unable to access my e-mails and respond to inquiries etc.
      I live in the Lao People’s Democratic Republic:  I have been here since early 2002, and before that was a regular visitor since August 1994.
      Questions such as yours, with regard to how things look where I live, frequently pop into my mind.  Apart from Thailand (a nation much given to dramatic swings in fortune, generally self-inflicted in the downward direction and totally inexplicable in the upward) I do not travel much to other countries.  However, my recent travels were to UK and Norway, and were much enhanced by atypically beautiful weather.  I looked around for signs of depression/recession etc and found them wanting.  Shop premises all appeared full;  construction cranes soared above the cities;  restaurants, pubs and places of entertainment were thronged;  airports, airplanes, trains, buses were often full to capacity and mainly expensive (getting into a London cab at St Pancras, I noted that the standard charge is now GBP2.50:  I thought back to the first cab I ever took in London, in 1959, when the standard charge was 6d, or 2.5p – so 50 years has seen a hundredfold increase).
      My worldview has been informed by my reading the international press, picking up articles from internet news mailings etc, and talking to visitors to Laos.  That worldview was contrary to the received images and impressions of the trip.  It seems that you are in the same plight.
      Is the worldwide financial meltdown another fabrication?  Is it a plot by the masters of our corner of the universe to grab more of the takings? 
      Here is a piece that I wrote some three months ago about how the global credit crisis is impacting Lao PDR and some countries in the region.  There have been developments since I wrote it – especially that our latest mega-investment, the Nam Thuen 2 Hydroelectric scheme is now completed with enormous capacity, but the regional market has gone away:  so the capital asset may sit there for some time to come earning nothing.  That could put a damper on things. 
 Best wishes
 Mike

Hi Mike,

Thanks for your report, and I published your attached article to newslog:
Laos:  Land of Plenty in Apocalyptic Times


Unfortunately, you won’t receive this as your email address seems to be defunct. If anyone out there knows how to reach Michael, please let me know.
cheers,
richard
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From: Thomas Schley
Date: 29 June 2009 20:27:13 IST
Subject: RE: an invitation…

Many people I know have lost jobs including me.  A  friend had a very good and interesting job with what used to be called School for International Training (it had a more recent name I’m not recalling) in Brattleboro, VT area (very politically active and liberal community). He and 13 others just lost their jobs.  Many do have some land and gardens, but it will be hard to find new work in that locality when their unemployment runs out.
One brother in law has lost his job, but another is doing well with the motorcycle/scooter business for obvious reasons.
The Transition Town movement is beginning to catch on here after a good start in Ireland and the UK.  Too early to say if it will get anywhere, but it does have a lot of youthful energy overseas.
Dairy farms in the northeastern US are hurting, but organic dairies have been hit the hardest as consumers are now faced with rising milk prices and dwindling incomes.  Some dairy farmers converted to organic and seemed to do well for two or three years, but with higher feed costs and loans that have to be paid off for the organic conversion more farmers are having to sell out.
There are farmers though that are trying to create niche markets for cheese, yogurt, focusing on healthier diets and local foods, etc.
Being in the hinterland doesn’t always allow you to remain hidden when you have to follow government health rules, etc.  
Best,
Tom
Hi Tom,

Sorry to hear about conditions where you are. I suspect more of us will be in the same situation soon. It is a certainty that ‘the plan’ includes a lot more collapse before solutions are offered. They said as much at the most recent Bilderberger meeting, and the evidence is clear from ‘their’ actions. All this talk about tightening our belts so we can become competitive again, so much hogwash. They know there can’t be a recovery of the old paradigm. The hogwash is designed to get us to accept that the decline is temporary, that there’s hope of recovery. Take your medicine now and you’ll feel better in the morning. Ain’t no morning coming, not from their direction.

hang in there and stay in touch,
richard
________

From: “Patrick Hickey” 
Date: 29 June 2009 12:42:12 IST
To: “Richard Moore” <•••@••.•••>
Subject: Re: an invitation…

Hi,
     Generally speaking, those of us on the short end of the sick understand just how serious this declining economy really is, and how it will probably continue downard for the foreseeable future.
      People nearer the top are more likely to defend the banksters, and insist the economy has already begun its climb in the upward direction.
      There are few middle-class living in Sedona, but the one’s I’ve been in touch with inisist banksters are really innocent victims.  And that saving the mega-banks was necessary to turn the economy around.
      As a dedicated student of the current economic crisis, just about the only people who seem to “get it” are among the poorest.  Most middle-class and upper class become argumentative when anyone questions their premises.  I guess this is they way of defending their position in the pecking order. 
     Oh yes, I’ve discussed economic topics with a couple of former Wall Street professionals who agreed with me that saving banks to big to fail was a very poor decision, to say the least. 
     I keep suggesting that we must consider doing our banking through the local credit union, which has remained in tip-top condition.  The response I get is glassy-eyed incomprehension, as they just keep on doing business with Bank of America, etc.  They are either ignorant or incapable of changing old habits.  The comforts of old habits may prove disasterous sooner rather than later.  Lemmings just keep rushing of the cliff.
       Everyone around here seem to have settled on their opinions, and are not open to new information.  Some taxi-drivers and a very few of the East Coast elites see the situation in the same light as I do, but even the comfort of agreement only goes so far.
     The fact that Sedona is mostly a wealthy retirement town probably explains the situation here.  The assumption that a turn-around is waiting in the wings seems to instill a passive attitude.  Certainly nobody has much influence when it comes to the world economic future, but passivity doesn’t go very far or aleign with the precautionary principle, or lay the foundation for personal survival if current trends continue (as I expect).
     I have simplified my life and sharpened my gardening skills.  I have put time and energy into building collaborative mutual support groups, but only people on the lunatic fringes are interested — there aren’t enough of us, either.
     I’ve made new contacts and friends throughout the advantaged class, but they still find their money to be their most vital resource.  They talk about the Golden Rule at church, but still view each individual as 100% responsible for how “well” he/she is doing, e.g. moneywise.  All giving here is volunteer, so giving never involves a spirit of reciprocity.  This pretty much precludes me because I’m unable to just give and never receive.  It all seems to very “industrial era”.
     One thing is that nobody knows what the future of the economy will be.  Right now, peole with the most limited financial resources are being hit the harders.  Multi-millionaires complain about losing a million or two, but they keep on planning world cruises, or whatever.  Meanwhile the local Catholic food bank is about out of food for the needy.  I consider extreme economic deprivation to be a grave injustice, but that sort of injustice remains off the stage for the most part in the U.S. 
     As far as financial resources go, most people’s relative position in the money-based pecking order remains pretty much the same in Sedona.  The attitude has always been “if you can’t afford it, leave”.  Quite a few illegal aliens have been leaving.  Our own poverty-stricken citizens find this a positive event, since illegal aliens take up most of the food from the food pantrys, and also take basic jobs from our own needy citizens.   They also absorb a lion’s share of our hospital resources via the emergency room door.  The state of Arizona is billions into red ink, and indirectly illegal aliens are pushed medical expenses far enough that the medical subsidy I personally recieve from the state of AZ may be cut at any moment.
      Fortunately, I don’t really require medical services, so it wouldn’t make much difference to me (I’m into alternative medical approaches, which no government subsidies covers or probably ever will).
      Hard times are clamping down on me, and I already had little more than a skimpy and tattered so-called safety net.  I suffer from a recently recognized neurological condition known as mitochrondiral Citopathy, which can result in perpheral neuropathy, cardio-arrhymia, rapid-heart rate.  Mine is set off by exposures to toxic pesticdes and herbicides mostly.  $8,000 in cardiologist’s testing could find nothing wrong with my heart, and gave me so expensive, toxic pills to correct it.
     I threw those out and set out on my own to diagnosis and treat myself.  I was going perfectly well after a year and a half, with a resting pulse of 45 and blood pressure of 110/63.  I let the cardiologist give me a nuclear stress test just to make sure I was really okay, and that test knocked my mitochrondrial citopathy for a loop, setting me back into arrhymia.  It took me 4 months to restore my regular heart beat.  That sounds okay, but working out my “cures” was another great invisible and distressing burden I didn’t need considering that my income has already been insufficient to cover my basic living expenses.
     Medicare and other programs covered the cost of my heart diagnostic procedures and drugs, but I get no aid whatsoever to cover my diet, exercise, and supplements all of which is leaving me insolvent.
     Being tan and fit as a fiddle only further isolates me, especially since I must avoid exposures to toxic pesticides and herbicides, as well as too much GMO, sugar-laden, chemically “enhanced” foods.  I can’t work, generally speaking, I can’t eat much of the food, and I have only a rag-tag so-called safety net.  Yet, I do have my health, and I live in Sedona’s beautiful red rock country. 
     I’d like to see a transition from the industrial era, financial-based society to something more community oriented and collaborative, but in the meantime, the situation is dim and chaotic for those of us in the fringes.  I’m not talking about an extrinsic shift, but an intrinsic value transformation.  Like moving up Maslow’s pyramid of values to a higher level.
      Though I’m 67 already, some of us have been living in accord with higher values throughout the 2nd half of the 20th century.  Perhaps we’re no closer to a upward shift in consciousness than previously.  The difference today is that the old materialistic, competitive, authority-based mindsets are blowing themselves out of the water. 
     Like satori, we already have the answer inherent within us. However, as Erich Fromm pointed out in his various brilliant books such as Escape from Freedom (1941),
     He (Hitler) projects his own sadism upon Nature who is “the cruel queen of all wisdom” and her law of preservation is “bound to the to the brazen law of necessity and the right of  the victory of the best and strongest in this world.” page 252.
      Our culture has shifted away from the obviously rigid social structures of Hitler’s Germany, yet, today the wealth of the planet is being usurped by the financial oligarchs, who give little thought to how the deprived general citizens may eventually react.  Will it be toward self-destruction, or will we be able to make it up to a “new way of living”, creatively and spiritually?  Or a combination of both?  Of couse, many are taking it out on themselves and their “loved ones”, right now.  They must blame themselves, I guess.  I know how they must feel, as I’m being victimized as well, though I don’t identify with victim role.
     Somehow Americans have accepted the role of victims, with nobody, apparently, to hold responsible for the increasing deprivation and suffering.
     Today the Wall Street sociopaths have been embraced by our apparently more social liberal president who is strongly ingrained with the ethic of Industrial Era status seeking.
     With Wall Streets and major corporations “owning” congress, the people are no longer sufficiently respresented.  With mainstream media owned by the same controlling corporations, they define and promote issues that serve their own financial interests.  This probably has a lot to do with the limited thinking I find in my contacts with Sedona’s middle class.  Further up the socio-economic strata, I find fear of the deprived needy, while embracing the exploits of Harvard, etc, and Wall Street elites.
      Of course, there really isn’t much any of us can do about the playing out of the industrial era sociopathology and fascism, as individuals at least.  We really need to take back our government and put it back into the service of the people (by the people and for the people). 
Sedona is rather hide-bound, the advantaged class accepts its shrinking but still sufficient fortunes, the middle and lower classes hardly exist but their (our) suffering is increasing far too fast, yet our inclination to work together remains pretty much off the table.
    I am constantly building my personal support group, as I’ve found that over the years, I would never have made it this far without them, but most of these people don’t even know each other. I have been developing “happiness” charisma methods similar to the ones in the Acrobat attachment.  I don’t ordinarily discuss these strategies, because many are suspicious of “ulterior” motives.  But as long as I also do the inner work of seeing to it that my heart is in the “right place”, I find being well-connected and mostly well thought of without giving up my proclivity of “speaking truth to power”, I seek to be civil and self-assured.  Like Bill Clinton, I just keep picking myself up and being another “come-back kid”.  I cannot avoid pushing some people too far at times, but after a cooling off period, I am civil and respectful toward them while I know they are aware of where I’m coming from.
     Sounds like I’m a some sort of politician, but I don’t have ulterior motives, “what you see is what you get” with me.  If Rush Limbaugh can make millions for being vicious nut-case, I can at least practice my freedom of speech, too.
     All across the U.S. people who have lost everything are killing themselves, their families, and their co-workers.  The msm no longer reports this sort of thing, but concentrates on a missing child in Florida or elsewhere.  The idea seems to be that reporting the truth only builds pessimism and we must keep looking for those green shoots of a return to the prosperous ways of the good-ol’ U.S.  As though our attitudes are the main ingredient in the reawakening of our economy.  Well, while such attitudes may fuel the stock market, they are only pipe dreams when it comes to restoring gainful, well-paying jobs or stopping    foreclosures, or feeding and housing the poor, I’d say.
     We need are fundamental changes, not fixes with duct tape and bandaids.  Personally I aleady know how to live a high quality of life and I know the difference between quality and quantity.  I live in a 300 sq. ft. garden studio, drive a 1990 Honda Civic Wagon, and grow my own garden.  I ride my mtn bike 10 miles three times a week and work out at the fitness center 3 hours a week.  I’ve lost 90 lbs and corrected my mitochrondrial citopathy using a personal program of alternative healing (the cardiologist couldn’t diagnose this neurological condition and found nothing wrong with my heart).  My resting pulse was arrhymic and neared 190, and within a year it was regular as clockwork and now is 47.  The remainder of my cardio-vascular systems is the envy of any 20-something.
      I’ve uncovered one of the biggest blind spots in orthodox medicine, that is, when perfect hearts just stop beating, you die.  And millions of us may be dying due to neurological failure.  If the impulse to beat fails, the heart doesn’t beat.  Amen!  Perhaps traditional treatements used on a healthy heart can do more harm than good, and also are a profit center the cardiological professionals.  The cardiologist almost did me in with a nuclear stress test 4 months ago, that set me back a year in my own program (I had to deal with the uncertainty that I might never fully recover).
     I don’t even bother trying to educate the cardiologist about mitochrondrial citopathy or the natural supplements and lifestyle I utilize.  I’d just as soon die on my program than on his.  The cardiologist’s drugs cause impotency, among other things.  I’ve just told him “don’t call me, I’ll call you”.
     Well, this is the latest report from my soap-box!  And it is a work-in-progress, as always.
 
Thanks for lending me your ear,
 
Patrick Hickey – Sedona, AZ

Hi Patrick,

Well, that was quite a report!  Very thoughtful. One of the issues you raise is the complacency of what we might call the upper middle class. Lots of theories about that, trying to explain the phenomenon of denial. I suppose the notion that the system is at its root evil is just too scary to contemplate. Whatever are we to do if we can’t count on the system, if progress has been an illusion? And then there’s a lifetime of depending on the system, benefiting from it, seeing ‘progress’ in our own lives. The illusion is in our bones. And as we get older, the early assumptions become more and more difficult to reexamine, or even to be aware of. Taking the blue pill makes life so much easier, as long as you’re one of those who still has a good job.
I haven’t read anything about a spate of murder-suicides, involving families and co-workers. I know that’s a big thing in India, among farmers. Do you have some of those reports?
Perhaps you can say more about your community initiatives, and what you’ve learned.
And about afib, what do you find helpful?
best wishes,
richard

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