This is magnificent, Mark, to echo Jerome. Beautifully reasoned and written, and achingly vulnerable.
It's also the answer to a post I did awhile ago, suggesting that admitting where we've been wrong is the best strategy to allow others to do the same. In fact, I talk about celebrating our wrongness because it's a sign we're still learning and haven't calcified. You're amazing!
Having read this, I feel compelled to write an article confessing one of my own major failings.
(It won't be the "War on Terror". I already knew to distrust the purveyors of that psyop. But I'd previously drank another of their deadly poison concoctions, deeming it nectar of truth...)
I think part of the reason I wrote this is because I suspect we've all drank from a poison chalice at one point or another in our lives. And even if we haven't, they will continually be on offer at the Globalpsycho Bar..
"poison chalice... continually on offer at the Globalpsycho Bar.." Great turn of phrase! Realizing they actively seek to poison us will help us eventually Go Free.
Here is mine. I kind of stumbled into it. I write about the True, Good and Beautiful also (well, with the protestant label of "think about things that are true, noble, right, purse, lovely, admirable, excellent and praiseworthy: St. Augustine boiled this down to the true, good, and beautiful).
We, the older GenXers are becoming the heroes that we always knew that we would be, one day.
I think that we knew, intuitively and expressly, that the Baby Boomer world would fall apart, and that it would be up to us to pick up the pieces. All the time that we spent, supposedly apathetically, was really just biding our time..
It is now time to step up.
Taibbi, Shellenberger, Carlson, you, me, our families, friends and classmates; our time has finally come. And in exactly the manner that you are describing.
I actually read this comment aloud to my wife (a fellow Xer), and we talked about it a bunch. It's one of those things that's been lingering in the back of our minds.
Your essay crystalized my thinking on it. There are many of us who are willing to take hits, say what needs to be said, and to do what needs to be done.
I told my high-school aged son about your essay, and his response was, "remind me about this when we study 9-11 in US history in a few weeks." Coming clean and standing up is where we are.
Jeff, I'm on the cusp of Baby Boomers and GenX. I always knew — because I never fit in with any crowd and every time I tried it ended badly for me — that my perspectives and perceptions would be radically different. Although it was difficult being seen as a freak, it gave me more time to do my inner work, and to eventually start pulling back veils on the larger social constructs. Basically, I had to get my spiritual moorings in place and start trusting my bullshit detector. It's the work that all of us *ought* to be doing; I'm just not sure that the vast majority of people are full-spectrum human beings, capable of such arduous work.
"I'm just not sure that the vast majority of people are full-spectrum human beings, capable of such arduous work."
Have faith! There probably aren't majorities in the baseline, mathematical sense. But if we accept the possibility (or even the likelihood) of a spiritual reality, than it might be one that's always on the verge of awakening from a spell.
I agree. We have had some extra opportunities to build wisdom. I had the same experiences of not fitting into any group. And the solutions are
I think that our generation fits the parable of the prodigal son (hat tip to Tiger Hsiao for pointing it out.) Iur story will be one of confession, as Mark does so magnificently. Then redemption. Then Moving forward.
“…my dependance for a remedy however, is in the wisdom which grows with time and suffering. whether the succeeding generation is to be more virtuous than their predecessors I cannot say; but I am sure they will have more worldly wisdom, and enough, I hope, to know that honesty is the 1st chapter in the book of wisdom." - Thomas Jefferson to Nathaniel Macon, January 12, 1819
To which immortal words I would add that humility and self-honesty are the foundation upon which honesty with others rests. We are up against our ego, the desire for knowledge (as power) which truly is the root of all evil.
I should know - I traveled with financial liars and thieves at the highest levels, for many years. It didn’t take long for me to see the problem, and start to frame a plan for extricating myself from it…but it took way too long to navigate my withdrawal. I believed I could operate in a corner of that world on my own terms of honor. That was my ego talking; there is no honor among thieves, and the jackals are everywhere.
"We are up against our ego, the desire for knowledge (as power) which truly is the root of all evil."
Yes. And also simultaneously up against every other ego in the world, but the core battlefield is internal. It's only after we win that battle that we can even begin to fight on other ground.
"I traveled with financial liars and thieves at the highest levels, for many years. It didn’t take long for me to see the problem, and start to frame a plan for extricating myself from it…but it took way too long to navigate my withdrawal."
I think this is something we have in common, and may have discussed before. The only difference I see is "at the highest levels", as my most typical employers (not to mention my compensation) were in no way major league, even though many of my/our clients were.
But the contract-with-self was the same, the sense that you could straddle the line between your principles and theirs. Actually, for a while there that didn't even describe me very well. I think I'd been corrupted at a certain point where I was no longer even bothering to draw those kinds of lines, or take a good look at which side of them I was on. Thank God I finally woke up, or I might be fabulously wealthy! :D
I hope not! Fat-men and needle-eyes, and all that.
But I agree that the current value illusion is almost caput. The collapse will be a test not seen since... well, I was about to say "the Great Depression" but part of me thinks is will be even more difficult in a variety of ways, given how atomized and addicted to fluff we've become.
Of course the great depression was a monetary op by the cabal. It wasn't random. It was a planned social attach that enriched the rich on the fat of the land.
Excellent essay, Mark. I dare say most of us can tick off most of that bullet list of errors, and most of those who didn't make those mistakes probably made the opposite ones; I doubt many people avoided failing one one side or the other of that particular reactionary pendulum. I know I didn't!
Thanks, Doc. And yeah, "mistakes were made" on both sides seems fitting. The problem is that all of our mistakes seemed to benefit a certain class of monsters, and continue to without abating. I have a strange (and maybe totally implausible) desire for the "left" and "right" to suddenly crystalize, and throw off the bonds of the psychocandy elite. Could be a pipedream, but you never know.
Amen to that! I went straight from the “Patriotism” trap of W into the waiting arms of “Hope and Change” with Obama. Then Trump, now Biden. It’s taken the debacle that is COVID for me to finally see how vast the divide and conquer war is against all of humanity. It’s been disheartening, yet oddly freeing at the same time. And it’s made me aware that my desire for goodness and the optimism that this time it’ll be different is definitely known by the enemies of mankind, and that they’ve figured out a way to weaponize it against me and multitudes of others.
All the money, thought and energy put into figuring out how to manipulate and control us. Evil beyond measure.
There are some who say, "All presidents are war criminals." And while I have some caveats with that sentiment, I also in many ways don't think it goes far enough, or digs anywhere deep enough into the depths of corruption. "Evil beyond measure," as you say. But not beyond accountability, in my opinion. We shall see. Thanks, Nana.
I have been passionate about sustainable energy since I was a kid. We are at a point now where "Great Leap Forward"-type catastrophes are on track in our country, by taking coal plants off line. I work in renewables. I have not figured out my path forward and what to do about it.
April Fools, MTHRFKR - I'm never wrong, you are!!!
Actually, I was all about bombing Afghanistan to keep them in the stone age, but then by the time Iraq happened I was like, this is about locking down America. I've been warning about WWIII ever since.
Then I got jabbed, a Phizer double tap. Bang Bang.
I wasn't afraid of the "virus", I fell prey to the idea I would never see my parents again. I couldn't see at the time, this is just the war of terror all over again.
And now that WWIII looks like it is imminent. I'm pretty sure it is about avoiding accountability for Covid Policy, as well as a kind of expansion of Malthusian eugenics.
I've been a news junkie since I was a child. Just lately though, I find myself retreating from the din, seeking core ideas enduring through time. I will be saving this piece, for the next time that "snow" comes raining down, or rather, to help keep me clear and cool as the current madness metastasizes.
Ahhh... I missed out on April Fools, Hunter. Probably because I've been trying to get over March, February, January and the thousand other days that Fools seem to Rule!
As far as the double-tap goes, I don't blame you in any way. In fact, I think figuring out how to help reverse any damage that might have been done to you should be a much bigger priority than it is now, instead of everyone aiming their RPGs at each other.
Thanks friend. Luckily, no harm done to me by the double-tap - except, any faith I might have had about the medical community corporations, the DoD, and the rest of the gov.
Thankfully I still have faith in the promise of AMERICA!
We are in world war III. We have been for many years now, a clever war kept well hidden by more clever generals than the ones leading the assault right now. That does give me hope, the young global leader graduates are basically incompetent. Powerful and dangerous, kind of like an elephant on angel dust and steroid. Yet, incompetent they are.
Yes, low grade WWIII since Syria and the first round of shenanigans in Ukraine, at least. Incompetent, and yet certain of their place at the leading edge of evolution, which stinks rancid like hubris.
Great article, and one that I can't praise highly enough! Also, the kind of thoughtful and though-provoking essay that I need to ponder more before I can give it the kind of response it deserves. For now, let me just say, very well done!
Thanks Mark. I drank from the Globopsycho chalice when I chose to side with Pharma against the Government. Always knew of evil’s pit of vipers in DC that writhed below their suited up, castigated minions spouting off maligned political rhetoric, was a force to be reckoned with. Should have sucked it up and immersed myself within, where I could have fought the real fight. Guess I selfishly wanted to work with and for the best and the brightest, not to mention the financial incentives. That sip I took, made me believe that I was virtuous and noble for my part in bringing new drugs to the market. Ha!
My apologies to future generations for the crisis I saw brewing decades ago. It was 1992 on the steps of NY Public Library on Madison Avenue that I personally witnessed healthcare being transformed into a political weapon. May God forgive me for not taking up the sword.
Thanks so much for this comment, DJ. It's really a helluva thing to do: to peer back into our pasts and find those exact moments when we failed. A big part of why I published this is to find stories like ours, because I think the people who are willing to actually do this work will be the only people worthy of any trust in the future, when it comes time to salvage and repair all the wreckage. One thing I've managed to retain throughout is that the one who claims to have never sinned is the one you shouldn't ever turn your back on.
I think there's a big difference between admitting you were wrong, and being caught out in being wrong. Humility requires self reflection, honesty requires admitting fault, both are virtues. So far, you on the side of the angels, there.
Me, I've always been 'small government', I grew a ups a Reganite (Government is not the solution to the problem. Government IS the problem.) who believed America was special; but that also came with it a hard core commitment to having a strong military. Not just strong, but the kind of military that makes bad guys pee themselves when they hear the Marines have landed and that Rangers have secured the airports. As for the intel agencies, I was ok with dirty actions. I was on record as to supporting selective assassination of bad guys.
What I never imagined was that their institutions would be penetrated and corrupted. The transformation of the US Military in my lifetime sickens me. From Don't Ask, Don't Tell right up to the Tranny Army of today, corruption festered and worse. Worse, I strongly suspect that our troops, like the FBI, have been selected and are being conditioned to be used against US citizens, rather than in defense of them.
Now I did go through my conspiracy theory phase in the 90's too (though it started in the 80's with my love for UFO stories and cryptids), so I was well prepared to believe the CIA might be crooked, that they murdered Kennedy. I knew about MK Ultra. But....and here's where I was a sucker....I thought those days were gone. That the crooks had been chased out after the Church Commission. Nope. Turns out the Crooks got Church chased out instead (though they took their time to get their revenge on him).
Now, I don't trust anyone I don't know. And some of them I keep a leery eye on :) I've always been prepper-curious, mostly due to Boy Scout training growing up. Keeping food, ammo, guns stockpiled was always 'normal' to me.
And I have to admit, I was wrong to trust any of our institutions. America is no longer 'special'....except perhaps as an object lesson for future generations. If there are any...
Thanks for the vote of confidence, Mark. Sorry it took so long getting back to you.
I think we might have a lot in common. I don't know if I'd call myself a "Reaganite" exactly, but I get the sense we probably share and/or shared a lot of the same core assumptions with regards to the size and purpose of government. That includes a strong military, yes, but one which is deployed sparingly and wisely. As for the federales and intel spooks, they were never on our side. But that was a lesson I had to relearn, unfortunately.
"Worse, I strongly suspect that our troops, like the FBI, have been selected and are being conditioned to be used against US citizens, rather than in defense of them."
This. And as you say, every so-called investigative commission turned out to be a smokescreen for *expanding* black ops. When the core of a bureaucracy's mission is to gather intel in order to coerce, hijack and puppeteer influential actors and sovereign nations, it's illogical to think that the mission will stop at the front door to your house. Like any cancer, a bureaucracy has one primary programmatic instruction: growth.
Trust is exceedingly difficult to build yet easy to blow in a heartbeat. This is to our advantage, I think. As trust in the NatSec apparatus plummets at a real level (i.e. not in merely which faction is nominally "in control" of them, but the agencies and missions themselves), they are in real danger of disintegrating. I suspect that's part of the reason we are seeing so many big, stupid Hail Mary plays happening simultaneously. They are panicking.
(I'm just part way through as I type this, fantasizing about how to most effectively share this in my various spheres... cross-post? quote-post? email widely? social media? ...)
The opening of your essay read exactly how i felt when i accepted Jesus after being a devout atheist well into adulthood. Very powerful experience and you described it expertly.
Good story. I cannot remember when I added Cobb's Rule #24, but it had to be after I decided to end my stint as a Theoretically Neoconservative Geopolitical Apologist. The rule is "Only be a fan of the dead." It means that the living don't deserve the idolatry they receive and we kill ourselves softly when we give it. Sometimes it's better to know that the best humans are already dead. What I wrote here happened in 2006, one year before my complete unravelling. https://cobb.typepad.com/cobb/2006/09/the_practical_l.html
Of the list you appended to the end of that piece, I'm curious which bullet point you've changed your mind the most about since then? I have been a longtime fan of Stoic Observations, and I think any fresh insight you have on that would be helpful (and not only to me).
I fundamentally disagree with the first bullet and anything that would promote military hegemony. The next three are vague and nebulous enough that a reasonably competent President could utter them properly.
#2 is happening with NATO, but other democratic countries don't need us to tell them so.
#3 is a platitude with no benchmarks
#4 I primarily still believe despite P. Zeihan's prognostications on the inevitable undoing of Bretton Woods, but also owing to my bias for free trade on the open seas defended by the US Navy.
We Americans got awfully frustrated with the global supply chain snafus and that container ship that went sideways in the Suez. Nobody's talking about our dependence on China for PPE any longer. A quick look suggests that dependence may have been overstated and overhyped. Nevertheless, I'm still noticing the businesses that did and did not survive COVID, and how long it takes for new cars ordered today to be delivered. I don't see a coherent re-shoring strategy with jobs promised - considering that's what politicians love to promise, where's the beef?
So yeah I don't know what the threat is of piracy on the open seas and I don't know what the ROE would be for the USNavy, but I do listen to commanders who lament the lack of discipline, foresight and strategic planning. Building ships is good, necessary, hard work. So are we going to clam up and build everything else in North America, world be damned? Will some terrorist arbitrarily decide to sink a container ship or two? Does anyone in our chatting class even give a shit about what men with thick gloves pickup and move by hand when they've got gigabit fiber? Seems like you have to spell it out as if "AI crashes oil tanker, film at 11".
--
I mostly fail to believe the electorate will or can elect non-Boomers with enough skill to carry forward a credible strategy for the final three bullets, and that nobody should even attempt the first. Eisenhower could have. Petraeus or Mattis could. You will not hear credible and substantial arguments about the geopolitical vision or capability of Nikki Haley - you can't. Not in a media environment where Jon Stewart and Tucker Carlson ply their soundbite trade.
Wanna hear something crazy? Joe Rogan (R) vs Sam Harris (D) in 2028. Only be a fan of the dead.
Hello Mark. So great to meet you and your heart. This is a wonderful essay, inspiring and touching and empowering.
For various reasons, including being raised by a narcissistic sociopath in a mother's garb, and an emasculated war traumatised father, I was distrustful of anything advertising itself as good for me. I had had a lot of that as a child and knew in my heart that wasn't true. My awake sister has gone so far as to say that our childhood was in fact the boot camp training ground for this war against evil.
Under the guidance of Jung, I spent many decades healing that childhood trauma. That inward gaze, combined with a nurtured distrust for good-for-me-authority, kept me from sipping too deeply from the 'Globalpsycho bar chalice'. Sip I did though, mostly that which further disempowered me while creating hero worship and the thrill of brutal justice. How childish that is! [Headshake.]
I confess to having remained too silent while I watched evil creeping up towards me poorly disguised in sheep's clothing. I knew the evil was there, and like many, felt it was a small thing, annoying and best ignored. I was mostly a compliant indebted worker-bee passively empowering evil by turning my eyes away from it.
For decades I kept the following attached to my office wall:
"When we are faced with an obstacle that is to be overcome, weakness and impatience can do nothing. Strong individuals can stand up to their fate, for their inner security enables them to endure to the end. This strength shows itself in uncompromising truthfulness with themselves. It is only when we have the courage to face things exactly as they are, without any sort of self deception or illusion, that the light will develop out of events by which the path to success may be recognised."
This is magnificent, Mark, to echo Jerome. Beautifully reasoned and written, and achingly vulnerable.
It's also the answer to a post I did awhile ago, suggesting that admitting where we've been wrong is the best strategy to allow others to do the same. In fact, I talk about celebrating our wrongness because it's a sign we're still learning and haven't calcified. You're amazing!
https://thirdparadigm.substack.com/p/when-did-you-stop-being-wrong
Thank you, Tereza.
I agree that it's a sign of vitality, of an unextinguished flame. And where there's life, there's hope.
And from that spark we rebuild the fire.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3G4kCi_ldr8
Beautiful piece Mark.
This actually makes me trust you more. :)
Thanks, brother.
Having read this, I feel compelled to write an article confessing one of my own major failings.
(It won't be the "War on Terror". I already knew to distrust the purveyors of that psyop. But I'd previously drank another of their deadly poison concoctions, deeming it nectar of truth...)
I think part of the reason I wrote this is because I suspect we've all drank from a poison chalice at one point or another in our lives. And even if we haven't, they will continually be on offer at the Globalpsycho Bar..
Can't wait to read about your own sip.
"poison chalice... continually on offer at the Globalpsycho Bar.." Great turn of phrase! Realizing they actively seek to poison us will help us eventually Go Free.
Abso-fucking-lutely.
Here is mine. I kind of stumbled into it. I write about the True, Good and Beautiful also (well, with the protestant label of "think about things that are true, noble, right, purse, lovely, admirable, excellent and praiseworthy: St. Augustine boiled this down to the true, good, and beautiful).
I was writing about the quality Pure and realized I wasn't. https://thinkaboutsuchthings.substack.com/p/how-blessed-are-the-pure-in-heart
I linked this article over at Sage Hana's: https://sagehana.substack.com/p/everything-is-a-rich-mans-trick-296/comment/14120196
Looks like it already drew at least one more read here...
We, the older GenXers are becoming the heroes that we always knew that we would be, one day.
I think that we knew, intuitively and expressly, that the Baby Boomer world would fall apart, and that it would be up to us to pick up the pieces. All the time that we spent, supposedly apathetically, was really just biding our time..
It is now time to step up.
Taibbi, Shellenberger, Carlson, you, me, our families, friends and classmates; our time has finally come. And in exactly the manner that you are describing.
I actually read this comment aloud to my wife (a fellow Xer), and we talked about it a bunch. It's one of those things that's been lingering in the back of our minds.
"Is it time?"
Your essay crystalized my thinking on it. There are many of us who are willing to take hits, say what needs to be said, and to do what needs to be done.
I told my high-school aged son about your essay, and his response was, "remind me about this when we study 9-11 in US history in a few weeks." Coming clean and standing up is where we are.
I think that we are on to something. More to come.
It would be a fitting third act to our strange story, Jeff.
Jeff, I'm on the cusp of Baby Boomers and GenX. I always knew — because I never fit in with any crowd and every time I tried it ended badly for me — that my perspectives and perceptions would be radically different. Although it was difficult being seen as a freak, it gave me more time to do my inner work, and to eventually start pulling back veils on the larger social constructs. Basically, I had to get my spiritual moorings in place and start trusting my bullshit detector. It's the work that all of us *ought* to be doing; I'm just not sure that the vast majority of people are full-spectrum human beings, capable of such arduous work.
Keep up the good work!
"I'm just not sure that the vast majority of people are full-spectrum human beings, capable of such arduous work."
Have faith! There probably aren't majorities in the baseline, mathematical sense. But if we accept the possibility (or even the likelihood) of a spiritual reality, than it might be one that's always on the verge of awakening from a spell.
I agree. We have had some extra opportunities to build wisdom. I had the same experiences of not fitting into any group. And the solutions are
I think that our generation fits the parable of the prodigal son (hat tip to Tiger Hsiao for pointing it out.) Iur story will be one of confession, as Mark does so magnificently. Then redemption. Then Moving forward.
This is an interesting analogy.
We have to come to our senses, come clean, come home, and then take our rightful place. Ha. I like that.
I am glad that you could read through all of my iPhone typos.
“…my dependance for a remedy however, is in the wisdom which grows with time and suffering. whether the succeeding generation is to be more virtuous than their predecessors I cannot say; but I am sure they will have more worldly wisdom, and enough, I hope, to know that honesty is the 1st chapter in the book of wisdom." - Thomas Jefferson to Nathaniel Macon, January 12, 1819
To which immortal words I would add that humility and self-honesty are the foundation upon which honesty with others rests. We are up against our ego, the desire for knowledge (as power) which truly is the root of all evil.
I should know - I traveled with financial liars and thieves at the highest levels, for many years. It didn’t take long for me to see the problem, and start to frame a plan for extricating myself from it…but it took way too long to navigate my withdrawal. I believed I could operate in a corner of that world on my own terms of honor. That was my ego talking; there is no honor among thieves, and the jackals are everywhere.
"We are up against our ego, the desire for knowledge (as power) which truly is the root of all evil."
Yes. And also simultaneously up against every other ego in the world, but the core battlefield is internal. It's only after we win that battle that we can even begin to fight on other ground.
"I traveled with financial liars and thieves at the highest levels, for many years. It didn’t take long for me to see the problem, and start to frame a plan for extricating myself from it…but it took way too long to navigate my withdrawal."
I think this is something we have in common, and may have discussed before. The only difference I see is "at the highest levels", as my most typical employers (not to mention my compensation) were in no way major league, even though many of my/our clients were.
But the contract-with-self was the same, the sense that you could straddle the line between your principles and theirs. Actually, for a while there that didn't even describe me very well. I think I'd been corrupted at a certain point where I was no longer even bothering to draw those kinds of lines, or take a good look at which side of them I was on. Thank God I finally woke up, or I might be fabulously wealthy! :D
You probably will be someday, given your writing skills! You spin straw into gold.
Besides, all that moolah is about to disappear with the mists of time. It’s all fake.
I hope not! Fat-men and needle-eyes, and all that.
But I agree that the current value illusion is almost caput. The collapse will be a test not seen since... well, I was about to say "the Great Depression" but part of me thinks is will be even more difficult in a variety of ways, given how atomized and addicted to fluff we've become.
Of course the great depression was a monetary op by the cabal. It wasn't random. It was a planned social attach that enriched the rich on the fat of the land.
Excellent essay, Mark. I dare say most of us can tick off most of that bullet list of errors, and most of those who didn't make those mistakes probably made the opposite ones; I doubt many people avoided failing one one side or the other of that particular reactionary pendulum. I know I didn't!
Thanks, Doc. And yeah, "mistakes were made" on both sides seems fitting. The problem is that all of our mistakes seemed to benefit a certain class of monsters, and continue to without abating. I have a strange (and maybe totally implausible) desire for the "left" and "right" to suddenly crystalize, and throw off the bonds of the psychocandy elite. Could be a pipedream, but you never know.
Amen to that! I went straight from the “Patriotism” trap of W into the waiting arms of “Hope and Change” with Obama. Then Trump, now Biden. It’s taken the debacle that is COVID for me to finally see how vast the divide and conquer war is against all of humanity. It’s been disheartening, yet oddly freeing at the same time. And it’s made me aware that my desire for goodness and the optimism that this time it’ll be different is definitely known by the enemies of mankind, and that they’ve figured out a way to weaponize it against me and multitudes of others.
All the money, thought and energy put into figuring out how to manipulate and control us. Evil beyond measure.
There are some who say, "All presidents are war criminals." And while I have some caveats with that sentiment, I also in many ways don't think it goes far enough, or digs anywhere deep enough into the depths of corruption. "Evil beyond measure," as you say. But not beyond accountability, in my opinion. We shall see. Thanks, Nana.
I too believe a Day of Reckoning approaches. It’s actually not a good thing when God long delays such. Wrath is being stored up for His enemies.
I have been passionate about sustainable energy since I was a kid. We are at a point now where "Great Leap Forward"-type catastrophes are on track in our country, by taking coal plants off line. I work in renewables. I have not figured out my path forward and what to do about it.
Ain't it fun being a visionary.
April Fools, MTHRFKR - I'm never wrong, you are!!!
Actually, I was all about bombing Afghanistan to keep them in the stone age, but then by the time Iraq happened I was like, this is about locking down America. I've been warning about WWIII ever since.
Then I got jabbed, a Phizer double tap. Bang Bang.
I wasn't afraid of the "virus", I fell prey to the idea I would never see my parents again. I couldn't see at the time, this is just the war of terror all over again.
And now that WWIII looks like it is imminent. I'm pretty sure it is about avoiding accountability for Covid Policy, as well as a kind of expansion of Malthusian eugenics.
I've been a news junkie since I was a child. Just lately though, I find myself retreating from the din, seeking core ideas enduring through time. I will be saving this piece, for the next time that "snow" comes raining down, or rather, to help keep me clear and cool as the current madness metastasizes.
Keep shining this light in that darkness.
Ahhh... I missed out on April Fools, Hunter. Probably because I've been trying to get over March, February, January and the thousand other days that Fools seem to Rule!
As far as the double-tap goes, I don't blame you in any way. In fact, I think figuring out how to help reverse any damage that might have been done to you should be a much bigger priority than it is now, instead of everyone aiming their RPGs at each other.
In the meantime, keep shining too, brother.
Thanks friend. Luckily, no harm done to me by the double-tap - except, any faith I might have had about the medical community corporations, the DoD, and the rest of the gov.
Thankfully I still have faith in the promise of AMERICA!
Hello WHD.
We are in world war III. We have been for many years now, a clever war kept well hidden by more clever generals than the ones leading the assault right now. That does give me hope, the young global leader graduates are basically incompetent. Powerful and dangerous, kind of like an elephant on angel dust and steroid. Yet, incompetent they are.
Hello Guy.
Yes, low grade WWIII since Syria and the first round of shenanigans in Ukraine, at least. Incompetent, and yet certain of their place at the leading edge of evolution, which stinks rancid like hubris.
Great article, and one that I can't praise highly enough! Also, the kind of thoughtful and though-provoking essay that I need to ponder more before I can give it the kind of response it deserves. For now, let me just say, very well done!
Thanks, DD. As always, I anticipate some very useful food for thought.
Thanks Mark. I drank from the Globopsycho chalice when I chose to side with Pharma against the Government. Always knew of evil’s pit of vipers in DC that writhed below their suited up, castigated minions spouting off maligned political rhetoric, was a force to be reckoned with. Should have sucked it up and immersed myself within, where I could have fought the real fight. Guess I selfishly wanted to work with and for the best and the brightest, not to mention the financial incentives. That sip I took, made me believe that I was virtuous and noble for my part in bringing new drugs to the market. Ha!
My apologies to future generations for the crisis I saw brewing decades ago. It was 1992 on the steps of NY Public Library on Madison Avenue that I personally witnessed healthcare being transformed into a political weapon. May God forgive me for not taking up the sword.
Thanks so much for this comment, DJ. It's really a helluva thing to do: to peer back into our pasts and find those exact moments when we failed. A big part of why I published this is to find stories like ours, because I think the people who are willing to actually do this work will be the only people worthy of any trust in the future, when it comes time to salvage and repair all the wreckage. One thing I've managed to retain throughout is that the one who claims to have never sinned is the one you shouldn't ever turn your back on.
I think there's a big difference between admitting you were wrong, and being caught out in being wrong. Humility requires self reflection, honesty requires admitting fault, both are virtues. So far, you on the side of the angels, there.
Me, I've always been 'small government', I grew a ups a Reganite (Government is not the solution to the problem. Government IS the problem.) who believed America was special; but that also came with it a hard core commitment to having a strong military. Not just strong, but the kind of military that makes bad guys pee themselves when they hear the Marines have landed and that Rangers have secured the airports. As for the intel agencies, I was ok with dirty actions. I was on record as to supporting selective assassination of bad guys.
What I never imagined was that their institutions would be penetrated and corrupted. The transformation of the US Military in my lifetime sickens me. From Don't Ask, Don't Tell right up to the Tranny Army of today, corruption festered and worse. Worse, I strongly suspect that our troops, like the FBI, have been selected and are being conditioned to be used against US citizens, rather than in defense of them.
Now I did go through my conspiracy theory phase in the 90's too (though it started in the 80's with my love for UFO stories and cryptids), so I was well prepared to believe the CIA might be crooked, that they murdered Kennedy. I knew about MK Ultra. But....and here's where I was a sucker....I thought those days were gone. That the crooks had been chased out after the Church Commission. Nope. Turns out the Crooks got Church chased out instead (though they took their time to get their revenge on him).
Now, I don't trust anyone I don't know. And some of them I keep a leery eye on :) I've always been prepper-curious, mostly due to Boy Scout training growing up. Keeping food, ammo, guns stockpiled was always 'normal' to me.
And I have to admit, I was wrong to trust any of our institutions. America is no longer 'special'....except perhaps as an object lesson for future generations. If there are any...
Thanks for the vote of confidence, Mark. Sorry it took so long getting back to you.
I think we might have a lot in common. I don't know if I'd call myself a "Reaganite" exactly, but I get the sense we probably share and/or shared a lot of the same core assumptions with regards to the size and purpose of government. That includes a strong military, yes, but one which is deployed sparingly and wisely. As for the federales and intel spooks, they were never on our side. But that was a lesson I had to relearn, unfortunately.
"Worse, I strongly suspect that our troops, like the FBI, have been selected and are being conditioned to be used against US citizens, rather than in defense of them."
This. And as you say, every so-called investigative commission turned out to be a smokescreen for *expanding* black ops. When the core of a bureaucracy's mission is to gather intel in order to coerce, hijack and puppeteer influential actors and sovereign nations, it's illogical to think that the mission will stop at the front door to your house. Like any cancer, a bureaucracy has one primary programmatic instruction: growth.
Trust is exceedingly difficult to build yet easy to blow in a heartbeat. This is to our advantage, I think. As trust in the NatSec apparatus plummets at a real level (i.e. not in merely which faction is nominally "in control" of them, but the agencies and missions themselves), they are in real danger of disintegrating. I suspect that's part of the reason we are seeing so many big, stupid Hail Mary plays happening simultaneously. They are panicking.
Lots of great stuff in here. On the move now, but will respond in detail soon. Thanks fellow Mark.
This essay adds some urgency to it. The bad guys are actively working to, more than take over the narrative, take over our minds where the narrative plays. Your mention of MK-Ultra drew the connection in my mind. https://davidgosselin.substack.com/p/from-mk-ultra-and-programmed-assassins
Oh my! 💕❤. 💖
Thanks, daiva. Right backatcha. 💕❤. 💖
This is SO GOOD!
(I'm just part way through as I type this, fantasizing about how to most effectively share this in my various spheres... cross-post? quote-post? email widely? social media? ...)
Upgrading to a paid subscription helped me feel better about myself. :-)
Thanks, man!
OT: It’s started.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11920801/Married-father-kills-talking-AI-chatbot-six-weeks-climate-change-fears.html
We will have crossed the last Rubicon when it’s considered murder to destroy this technology
It's a believable tale, absent detail though it is.
The opening of your essay read exactly how i felt when i accepted Jesus after being a devout atheist well into adulthood. Very powerful experience and you described it expertly.
Good story. I cannot remember when I added Cobb's Rule #24, but it had to be after I decided to end my stint as a Theoretically Neoconservative Geopolitical Apologist. The rule is "Only be a fan of the dead." It means that the living don't deserve the idolatry they receive and we kill ourselves softly when we give it. Sometimes it's better to know that the best humans are already dead. What I wrote here happened in 2006, one year before my complete unravelling. https://cobb.typepad.com/cobb/2006/09/the_practical_l.html
Thanks, Michael.
Of the list you appended to the end of that piece, I'm curious which bullet point you've changed your mind the most about since then? I have been a longtime fan of Stoic Observations, and I think any fresh insight you have on that would be helpful (and not only to me).
I fundamentally disagree with the first bullet and anything that would promote military hegemony. The next three are vague and nebulous enough that a reasonably competent President could utter them properly.
#2 is happening with NATO, but other democratic countries don't need us to tell them so.
#3 is a platitude with no benchmarks
#4 I primarily still believe despite P. Zeihan's prognostications on the inevitable undoing of Bretton Woods, but also owing to my bias for free trade on the open seas defended by the US Navy.
We Americans got awfully frustrated with the global supply chain snafus and that container ship that went sideways in the Suez. Nobody's talking about our dependence on China for PPE any longer. A quick look suggests that dependence may have been overstated and overhyped. Nevertheless, I'm still noticing the businesses that did and did not survive COVID, and how long it takes for new cars ordered today to be delivered. I don't see a coherent re-shoring strategy with jobs promised - considering that's what politicians love to promise, where's the beef?
So yeah I don't know what the threat is of piracy on the open seas and I don't know what the ROE would be for the USNavy, but I do listen to commanders who lament the lack of discipline, foresight and strategic planning. Building ships is good, necessary, hard work. So are we going to clam up and build everything else in North America, world be damned? Will some terrorist arbitrarily decide to sink a container ship or two? Does anyone in our chatting class even give a shit about what men with thick gloves pickup and move by hand when they've got gigabit fiber? Seems like you have to spell it out as if "AI crashes oil tanker, film at 11".
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I mostly fail to believe the electorate will or can elect non-Boomers with enough skill to carry forward a credible strategy for the final three bullets, and that nobody should even attempt the first. Eisenhower could have. Petraeus or Mattis could. You will not hear credible and substantial arguments about the geopolitical vision or capability of Nikki Haley - you can't. Not in a media environment where Jon Stewart and Tucker Carlson ply their soundbite trade.
Wanna hear something crazy? Joe Rogan (R) vs Sam Harris (D) in 2028. Only be a fan of the dead.
Hello Mark. So great to meet you and your heart. This is a wonderful essay, inspiring and touching and empowering.
For various reasons, including being raised by a narcissistic sociopath in a mother's garb, and an emasculated war traumatised father, I was distrustful of anything advertising itself as good for me. I had had a lot of that as a child and knew in my heart that wasn't true. My awake sister has gone so far as to say that our childhood was in fact the boot camp training ground for this war against evil.
Under the guidance of Jung, I spent many decades healing that childhood trauma. That inward gaze, combined with a nurtured distrust for good-for-me-authority, kept me from sipping too deeply from the 'Globalpsycho bar chalice'. Sip I did though, mostly that which further disempowered me while creating hero worship and the thrill of brutal justice. How childish that is! [Headshake.]
I confess to having remained too silent while I watched evil creeping up towards me poorly disguised in sheep's clothing. I knew the evil was there, and like many, felt it was a small thing, annoying and best ignored. I was mostly a compliant indebted worker-bee passively empowering evil by turning my eyes away from it.
For decades I kept the following attached to my office wall:
"When we are faced with an obstacle that is to be overcome, weakness and impatience can do nothing. Strong individuals can stand up to their fate, for their inner security enables them to endure to the end. This strength shows itself in uncompromising truthfulness with themselves. It is only when we have the courage to face things exactly as they are, without any sort of self deception or illusion, that the light will develop out of events by which the path to success may be recognised."
I Ching 5 Hsu p.25 Baynes/Wilhelm, paraphrased.