At Solari, the invention room is a place in our imagination where we go to collaborate on creating and developing great ideas. There are several protocols that apply in the invention room.
1. We stay in the positive. There is no such thing as a bad or stupid idea. If an idea does not strike us as particularly useful, we say that there are other ideas that are more “wonderful.” We also take personal responsibility to support and given energy as possible to the people in the invention room with us.
2. We avoid decisions. The invention room is for expansion, communication and invention. We don’t contract into decisions in the invention room. For that, we leave the invention room and go to a decision room.
3. No time consequences to the participants. Just because you have an idea, does not mean that you can be held responsible to implement it or anything else that would require your time. Your having an idea in no way commits you to anything that would use your time.
We have been getting more and more communications from our readers with lots of ideas on how to make our world a better place to live. We thought we would create an invention room here on the blog as a way for you to post these ideas.
I would like to add another protocol for this particular invention room..
4. We encourage you to promote ideas which you believe you or yours can implement on a financially sound and attractive way. We think there is nothing more powerful than useful ideas that can create income for the entreprenuers who implement them as well as create income and jobs for others. So if you think what you do can help our readers, please feel free to say so and post links. If we disagree, we reserve the right to not approve your post.
If you have ideas or comments that you would like to reach the Solari community, please place them as a comment to this post.
Thanks!
Catherine and the Solari Team
Dear Solari team and people,
I have split up this message in 3 parts:
My project , a Question and Login information
About me
Project
I have started to develop a project called Caloom, which is derived from whacking two words together:
Carta+ Bloom. The idea behind this is I wanted to say something about organically growing and visible on a map… nothing more to it.
The project is roughly in par with what is called Asset Based Community Development (see ABCD Institute. Here is a description of my project:
Caloom is a map-based tool for community development. It provides information for local communities and their citizens about the strengths and resources within a community. The skills of individuals and the services of larger organizations are all useful community assets – anything improves life in the community.
Caloom is all about discovery; the discovery of assets and the discovery of needs. It is about discovering your (local) world. Utilizing community’s assets and uncovering solutions are a means for cohesive community development.
The service supports community involvement and the building of further relationships within a community. Communal cohesion is created when institutions and citizens, their assets and any needs, come together in meaningful ways.
Much can achieved when a community draws on the skills of local residents, the power of associations and the support of institutions. This helps in making use of all these assets and maintaining a sustained use in the future. In other words, the service assists in the utility of existing communal resources.
The service is focused on using the map. In this way the user – whether an individual or an organization – can easily see what is available, happening or needed in the local community or any location of choice.
Question
I have tried 2 years to find funding but always got the same feedback:
“if you do not sell ads or sell user information to the highest bidder we do not finance anything”. This is fine so I tried to find developers to help me out as I am not a programmer. I hired one good programmer who worked i the summer of 2010 on the current version. What I look for and perhaps among you are people who could help me further, is building a team among which 1 or 2 programmers with real world experience and a good heart. Languages used are PHP, MySQL, jquery, openlayers and we use openstreetmap (no google!). My idea abou a collaboration and rewards can be read here, fine tuning is needed tough 😀
Login Information
As said, there is a beta site which fully works but there are some rough edges and the text is not done well and illustrations are missing to name a few.
login information for caloom.com
caldev (username)
Rk45a6 (password)
then either register yourself or use the demo account
demo@caloom.com
Demo2010
About me
I am a Dutch guy living in Finland who grew up under the drawing board of a father who’s primary job was explaining complex systems, power plants e.g., to people. My fascination for complexity was instilled very early on in life and has never left I notice. Along with that came my interest in energy and finance and the strong urge to “create”. Long story short, after a 10 years of working for gov and commerce in internet, service development and product development I turned a corner and decided to “do good”.
A friend an I began to investigate energy decline and soon I came to the conclusion there are many confusing layers piled on top of each other. In discussions with various stakeholders in Finland I noticed a split, some knew about the problems (speculation, letters of credit dependencies, production issues, resource scarcity if any) and many didn’t.
Research and talk alone wasn’t enough for me so I started to think and ponder. What are the consequences of all this and soon enough I came across people warning about credit crisis or housing bubbles, people like Kurt Richebächer. Then I met people working at not for profit organizations, large once who deal primarily with well fare and social issues. Think of getting together single mothers/fathers and create support groups, or, children phone support lines MLL, better food in the home courses Martat. They pointed out to me problems they and partner organizations have to reach people locally. As they depend on volunteers and there is no way for them to organize something easily under the umbrella of the mother organization man initiatives are either not started or die due to lack of presence of visitors.
What is the current state of your software? I’m terribly interested in contributing. Have you thought of making it open source? There is not another group of more dedicated minds than the open source community who are in it to make things better for all man kind.
Hi Jullian,
are you yourself actively involved in open-source projects? If so, which and what role do you have there? We can take it further via email as this is not really a discussion board or the like. My email is “my firstname” @ caloom.com
jeroen
Interesting post board. Would anyone be interested in working on a business plan for World Peace. War has been big business for years and from my perspective we have much more opportunity in profiting from Peace. I haven’t seen anyone actually describe what the outcome of world peace looks like, nobody has set a time line, nobody has a clear picture in how this can be accomplished, but I think it can be done very easily. The skill set posting on this board has more then enough to get the job done, nobody has yet to put all the pieces to gether yet. What have we got to loose?
Judy
Walter Burien poses an interesting scenario @ http://CAFR1.com/1+1%3D2.html , but uses slightly obtuse phrasing. Anyone care to state his case more clearly to the average person?
Great post I really enjoyed it and will be coming back shortly and linking back to your site from mine.
Dear Catherine,
Thank you for providing this format for the expression of various ideas. I don’t know that we need so much a different political system or financial system as we need a more enlightened populace. If we had the latter, then everything else would follow in due course. Anyway we have a tremendous, overwhelming training in our society about how great desire is, how it can lead us to happiness if it is just fulfilled. If I just had this…, if I just had that…. You know the story. But what if we can’t fulfill our desires? What if desire itself was the problem? How much training have we received from the corporate media or even our own school system to deal with desire thwarted? Chances are next to nothing. Isn’t this unfair? Being a psychiatrist I work with people a lot who have had their desire thwarted, for example the breakup of their primary relationship or a life turned upside down due to addiction. What then is the solution? Is it more Prozac? Or is there a different avenue to turn to? Because of (what seemed to me) Divine inspiration and long-standing spiritual practices, especially in Buddhism, some of the answers came to my mind. (At least what seemed to be answers.) I wrote them down. I practiced and taught them. I taught them to patients with the idea that they could have these cognitive techniques or tools in their mental toolbox and use them as they feel fit, or not use them if they find them not useful or even harmful. What I found was that at least for some people, the tools really did seem to work. They helped the person turn their life around. So I had some of the presentations videotaped and made available for sale. They can be purchased through Amazon or through my website www(dot)fivebrocade(dot)com. What I tell people, and even have told patients, that it is fine to pooh-pooh them, but try them first before you do this. Be fair. If they don’t work then fine, diss them if you wish. But if they do work then perhaps you have some tools that can enhance your life and help you extract yourself from the Matrix. Sincerely, Bill Pryatel
http://www.edar.org – Everyone Deserves A Roof. May be you will need one or may be you can provide one for someone who does.
New ideas and inventions are evolutionary but lets get released those inventions that have been repressed and never made the ‘light of day’….having been shut down by powerful vested interests in the oil and energy business AND NO DOUBT THE BLACK OPS OF THE SHADOW US GOVERNMENT. Technology such as “cold fusion” which would bring about virtually “free energy” for the world is real and may I refer you to a site which is working at promoting a consumer and voter groundswell to put pressure on the Obama administration to perhaps “become informed”, “become transparent” and release this AND OTHER REPRESSED vital technology. The information site is ……theorionproject.org…. and it makes compelling reading……..please look at it and become informed……best wishes LEE
Jan 30th 2009,
Ms. Catherine Austin Fitts.
Solari Real Channel,
P.O. Box: 157,
Hickory Valley,
TN 38042.
Dear Catherine,
.
Hi! My name is Sam Dissa and I listen to you through ‘Coast to coast’ frequently these days. I also read your articles online and in your website.
I currently live in LA, CA and I am holding a Bachelors degree in Biological Sciences and a higher diploma in ‘Health Information Management’ from ‘George Brown College, Toronto, Canada.
Right now job market is really bad for me and I am looking for a part-time
position. I am ok with day or night work as well as on week days as well as week-ends.
Could you kindly check the possibility of hooking me up with one of your clients/business partners/friends/contacts living in Los Angeles?
I would also love to join any social /employment/economic community which you are guiding and working with in Los Angeles.
I shall be grateful, if you could kindly consider my request favorably.
My contact number is 818-205-5355
Email: samd64@gmail.com
Looking forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely,
Sam Dissa.
My resume is sent herewith.
SAM DISSANAYAKE * 10819 Penrose Street * Sun Valley, CA 91352 * (818) 205-5355
samd64@gmail.com
PROFILE
Extensive knowledge of Social Services, Health and Public Affairs Coordination,
Educational Services, Customer Service, Quality and Project Management, Marketing, International Trade, Computer and Information Systems, and Training Development.
CAREER OBJECTIVE
Seeking a position as a Healthcare Information Assistant /Health Information Practitioner in an environment where I can contribute to the success and growth of the organization.
EDUCATION
Certificate of Completion in the Health Clerical Assistant Training Program
West Valley Occupational Center Woodland Hills, CA November 2005 to January 2006
Certificate in Marketing
George Brown College Toronto, Canada
In progress to completed 12/06
Health Information Management Program- Diploma
George Brown College, 2003 Toronto, Canada
Certificate in Fundraising Management
George Brown College, 2002 Toronto, Canada
Bachelor of Science
University of Toronto, 2000 Toronto, Canada
Masters Degree in Philosophy/Psychology
University of Toronto, 2000 Toronto, Canada
ABILITIES AND EXPERIENCE
Health and Fundraising Management- Coordinated public health education programs and seminars. Launched fundraising campaign projects in health care, and other public welfare areas.
Project Management- Conducted research, analysis and verification of information, handled documentation of specifications, instructions and other information, created and generated reports, prepared and delivered presentations.
Social Services and Public Affairs Coordination – Provided counseling/consulting services to a wide range of stakeholders and interest groups, maintained case files and records, determined eligibility services and coordinated referrals with external agencies, handled public affairs activities, established and maintained cross-cultural relations, undertook and maintained governmental and local reporting requirements
Marketing- Assisted in development and execution of marketing plans, handled new product/service introductions, coordinated direct mail, advertised and promoted campaigns and sales.
International Trade- Prepared import/export documentation, freight/shipping, foreign exchange, letters of credit, and other financial settlements.
Quality Management- Implemented programs and demonstrated an understanding of the requirements of quality assurance.
Training and Development- Developed and conducted training plans and programs to individuals and groups.
Administration- Information and office management, export management, distribution and operational research
Computers- Microsoft Word, Excel, Outlook, Access, and PowerPoint, Internet Research
EMPLOYMENT HISTORY
Clerical staff member, Medical Records – Kaiser Permanente (Woodland Hills, CA)
July 2006- December 2006 Woodland Hills, CA
Internship- Kaiser Permanente Woodland Hills, CA
January 2006-February 2006
Clerical assistance in the area of filing of patient charts in the Health Records, Arrangements of the distribution of transcribed medical reports to different Consultants and divisions in the hospital, Clerical support for recruitment of new hires in the Human Resources and Observation of Call Centre service operations,
Health Information Practitioner/Technician – Providence Healthcare Toronto, Canada
2002- 2005
• Released medical records for continuation of care and insurance purposes according to legal guidelines
• Analyzed hospital statistics utilizing SPSS software and generated reports of findings for management to make financial and care management decisions
• Developed policies related to privacy and confidentiality in health information management
• Assisted in the implementation of special projects such as Digital Transcription Services and Electronic Health Records by giving the outsourcing companies our requirements and information with 100% accuracy and forming committees
• Microfilming of historical medical charts
Volunteer-Canadian Health Information Management Association Toronto, Canada
2001-2002
• Assisted in analysis of surveys
• Prepared and arranged journals, seminars, workshops and mailings
Citibank of Canada- Processing/Banking Assistant Toronto, Canada
2000-2001
• Processed and verified information on credit applications with 100% accuracy
• Extensive alpha-numeric filing
Canadian Cancer Society- Tele-recruiting and Fundraising Toronto, Canada
1999-2000
• Participated in the seasonal fundraising campaigns by cold calling to solicit and secure donations
Volunteer- South Riverdale Community Arts and Cultural Project Toronto, Canada
1999-2000
• Contributed cultural ideas, stories, music, performance arts techniques and personal experience to the production team and assisted in the staging and editing of the final event
M & M Twins Ltd.- Marketing Officer
1999- 2000
• Researched product line, buyers and market, expanded and developed clientele and marketing network throughout Canada and North America by 20%. Introduced and recruited new manufacturers/exporters into market from other countries
Export Promotions Board- Projects/Research/Promotion Officer Western Europe
1990- 1998
• Conducted on-going research and developed markets for various product lines
• Counseled individuals, groups and organizations on market specifications
• Monitored and regulated quality standards of products and services with 100% acceptance in the international markets to ensure high volume/quality on regular shipments
Citizen Pete;The invention was not a theory.If you read Col Tom Bearden he has a project to build one but no finance never ever.The machine was build .For Tesla it was no problem for long.His pierce arrow vehicle used no oil or petrol or electricity for power. Another invention for curing cancer cheaply is a no no also.I had one and soon after was poisoned several times with arsenic but had antidote.Also put in a seat with no seat belt and run off the road.Royal Rife was inventor of the medical gadget which was sabotaged when in my house in Pilippines.Cia was there also.They did not sabotage personally but just gave orders.
Use an open software model. Make it small footprint. Put the technology in the commons. Make it possible for thousands of entreprenuers to make it and maintain it locally. That is your base, your constitutency. Build your business around advising them on a completely decentralized basis.
Organize it to spread like fire under the grass.
What if there was a technology could potentially change the world for the benefit of the inhabitants and society, but it would do even more to kill market economies? Like your big button story: (press the button and stop the trillions in drug smuggling and destruction of urban social systems, but destroy Wallstreet)? Would you press the button to make the technology available?
Do you remember the zero-point generator (engine) in Ian Rand’s novel Atlas Shrugged that provided free local power? Hypothetically, what if something like that was developed and proven?
If a independently tested technology like that was announced openly to the public (and nobody seemed to notice, or believe it, for some odd reason), would the government just kill it before it became available? If it benefited the people of the world but threatened to misplace entire economies; vertical markets; thousands of businesses and jobs; plus killed the best plans of developed countries, what would the response be? Do you think the Corporatacry would: A) Quietly declare the device a threat to national security, shut it down and make it disappear?; B) Grab it for themselves and control it, manipulate and abuse it, tax it, overprice it?; C) Embrace it as a new paradigm and enable the work of the owner/inventors to phase it’s use into the market, subsidizing the businesses that are lost because due to its’ implementation?; D) something else?
What would/could/should someone do with such a technology to protect it? Patents? Wouldn’t you think the inventors should try to do their best to keep the prototype quiet for fear of elitist take over and control?
Dear Catherine,
Thank you for putting up this section of your blog. Great idea and a much needed forum fro people during this economic meltdown upheaval. Thanks sor much.
I have some ideas but will forego spelling them out on this page because my keystrokes are being captured by TBTB. Having said that let me go on to say that my intentions far exceed my grasp and understanding of the full scale blueprint that works are economy and government. I have wanted to start my own business for many years but continue to find myself lacking the ability to network locally and with a since of trust in who I am dealing with. It is clear from all the sources presented on the internet and in your blog that one can’t just start something and not suffer the consequences for poor choices.
Okay, what does that mean and what do I need to convey? My website WaldenHolisticLiving.org is in the creation stage and has to deal with many of the things you talk about on your blog. Of greatest concern to me is melding the presence of higher consciousness within the context of working with people who know and understand the dynamics of this field. What I have in mind is a kind of holistic network of people who use your principles of engagement. I might add that my experience is limited in scope but have a vision for community development and long range strategies that form local communities to begin the healing process of the economic disaster and impingment on our resources.
Anyway, I appreciate you blog and your knowledge for the greater good of America and the whole world. I would like to talk more on the later as the keystroke capture is grading on my nerves and patience. My website is in development at Waldenholisticliving.com
Take care and may God bless your life and endeavors.
Sincerely,
Judith Walden
I personally am a fan of power yoga…it give you more energy for the day.
Paul:
For some interesting ideas, you may want to take a look at the Transition Town website and Hopkins recent book, the Transition Handbook….
Catherine
I want to echo the message from Mickl on October 4th. I am interested in participating in or initiating a “grass roots” group or movement, with the intent of implimenting these regional, localizing business communitites.
Let’s begin a dialoue and start getting some energy behind this concept on a larger scale. ( If we need to start a new church/religion…… thats OK . Catherine can be the Pope-ess) What ever it takes.
As a newbie to this website, I’m assuming the spirit of this forum is to present technology that can provide income for a community and ROI for investors.
The invention that I would like to present is a high performance heavy truck shock absorber. The benefits of the shock are that it radically reduces impact harshness and increases stability. If a 18 wheeler were equipped with this shock , a premium trucking line could also be created catering to fragile freight. It would be “Air Ride Plus”. There could be the top of the line system that ties the shock into the air ride air pressure system to enable the shocks to recalibrate according to the current load weight to minimize harshness. The economy system would sell for about $100 msrp per shock. The benefits are easy to quantify by showing proof of impact harshness reductions. The truck will last longer by not being beat as much.
A first generation version of this technology is available and can be viewed at http://www.edelbrock.com/automotive_new/mc/shocks/truck-performer.shtml
Another example of the technology: http://www.fahrrad-linke.de/Shop/sbcBrain1.html
Specialized uses a form of our technology to increase comfort while also maximizing the stiffness during pedaling. This was pioneered and patented in our R+D shop in the mid ’90’s. After Specialized became aware of it, they claimed to have invented it in ’99 and also claim to have a monopoly on this feature. Specialized sued our licensee out of business due lack of litigation funding. Specialized’s only defense is the willingness and capability to outspend any challengers. We are looking to find a law firm to take them on with a contingency fee arrangement.
This technology was developed and mfg’d in California and used by Citroen Racing in the early ‘90’s to enable their race team to completely dominate the Dakar Rally. They won EVERY Dakar rally/race and championship from then on. Prior to their cars being equipped with the inertia sensitive shock absorbers, they were being humiliated by their competition. They were known for excessive roll overs and shock failures. A side effect was the cars became much more comfortable. They never rolled another race car. The technology has since progressed radically since then. Why isn’t it used in NASCAR? Rumor has it is, but not legally. We had a very successful test with Hendricks,other shock mfg’s got wind and the rules were changed immediately to eliminate the use thereof . An off road racing version looks like this: ricorshocks.com
Hello Catherine, ( your great! )
CA Firewall: I have wondered if it was all accident that a lone home survivor in a devastated burnt down community in a pervious season’s wildfires, had a large steel dumpster in front of it.
Could we actually be able to create a physical firewall, and even more? Suppose there is enough time to put ‘firewalls’ in place between a community and the path of a devasting fire. Two things I can think of could be effective, Large steel dumpsters and international cargo containers Perhaps they could be stacked or have blast deflector shield plugins that ensure the wind is directed above the structures. As an addition to this, imagine something like an oversize soccer net (fine chain link) with a waterpipe frame and nozzles spraying water down it via hookups. Imagine that these could be implaced on top of the ‘firewalls’ and daisy chained together with a high pressure water source. The ‘Thing’ could be left in plaee unattended in the face of danger. The lower flying embers could be caught and entinguished in this manner, the higher flying ones will maybe pass over the community and be dealt with by volunteer off road motorcycles and quads equipped with wearable/portable fire extinquishers and tarps. These fast and highly mobile vehicles are often already inplace in numbers in some communities, it would be the place of the fire corps to commandeer or have hearty citizens volunteer. They might be called ‘The Spot Patrol.’ (To put out spot fires) In the face of a firestorm, I’d put my money on the talented guy on a dirtbike to escape and live to tell even over the professionals on a firetruck.
I have a commercial CAD software package and skills if anyone wanto to model and draw anything, I can help.
Robert
relulofs2@hotmail.com
Hi Catherine,
My name is Claudia C. and I live in the UK.
Through a funny chain reaction ( triggered by an interview by project Camelot) I ended up on your website.
Have read some articles and watched some of the videos in your website.
I am truly inspired by your concepts and courage to wake us all up!!
There’s something that I am taking the liberty to ask you about because I like the way you land complex subjects in simple terms.
I came across a very outlandish idea, that comes from a lady called Mary Croft, who is talking about two Completely Different, Separate, Distinctive Forms of Accounting and that public debt and private debt should not be settled the same way and that we should not be using our dollar notes to settle private debt
because by the mere fact that we have a birth certificate we have life-time credit with the Treasury.
Have you heard about this?
If so, do you agree with this philosophy and is there any way to land it in practical terms?
Appreciate your help to understand a little bit more about this.
In deep gratitude.
Best regards.
Claudia
The right to understand.
Any solution is more problems in place, unless you determine and explain the rootcause for accumulating error and chaos in order to make people understand the monopolies and abuse of information and knowledge that prevent fair competition and sustainable progress.
Change the settled P3 monopolies
The global economic crisis due to the confidence crunch is deeply rooted in complex Public-Private Partnerships redrawing the boundaries between government and markets. History should indeed teach us the global energy-fundamentals upon which the systemic crime frame is build. National consent, law and regulation fails to explain the constriction of the national common good by world-wide special interests: just too big to comprehend.
Top-down reeducation.
Forcing public leaders to adjust their moral character by insisting on direct answers in a open public debate might give private lenders enough incentive to start reformed sustainable investments based on real open and free competition.
More EU = Less US
Responsible development, real change and sustainable innovation can only be instated world-wide if the seizure of post-war European Coal & Steel frame by American economic fundamentalism is disclosed, explained and renegotiated.
Stingflation
The Royal Dutch Disease is a global disease of toxic institutional behavior dating back to the early 60s and never explained. The greed-technology we now see being unravelled is grounded in private US technology advantage and public abusive conduct by the authorities: the Monster Deal of 1963 represents the foundation for future lack of overview, information terror and communication chimera. Compare http://stingflation.com
Please comment:
http://change-gov.ning.com
Epochal Transformation Accelerates
As Global Financial Matrix Disintegrates
Now that the genie is out of the bottle, economic, political and social events will proceed with the inexorable force of destiny. The forthcoming changes, shifts and breaks with the past that are delineated below do concern the unsavory business of WHAT, positively, will not be brought into the future. This is of critical importance. Why? Because those who do not know, and understand, and heed history, are always, always forced to repeat it.
I. As we all sat back and waited for this year’s October Surprise, please know that it came a little bit early this year on September 15th which will forever be known as PITCH BLACK MONDAY. Actually, the entire month of October was set up to be a series of Black Monday’s, as well as every other day of the week shaped up to be. It’s really a good time to brace your self since this year’s election cycle, and beyond, will bring with it a whole new season of surprises. Things like the beginning of the end of FIAT money – the real root cause of all our financial problems and economic ills. This foundational flaw, together with all of the multi-layered financial/economic/accounting mechanisms and schemes that have insidiously crept into the system, are the ‘not talked about’ institutionalized culprits and structural deformities that really need to go. Without them, the perps wouldn’t be so tempted to stack the deck against us all the time.
The only legitimate currency is that which is backed by GOLD, or some other precious commodity that is universally valued, and issued directly by the US Government, not a privately owned, organized crime syndicate like the FED. Debt driven, fractional-reserve banking – the real bane of global finance – will then be banished from the planet forever, along with the overlords of disaster capitalism, institutionalized usury & loan-sharking (e.g. World Bank & International Monetary Fund), as well as their economic hitmen. Finally, the central organizing principle of modern society, and especially Western Civilization, will no longer be: maximizing shareholders’ wealth.
II. Another little surprise will come in the form of an announcement that goes something like this: The USA was conceived to be a CONSTITUTIONAL REPUBLIC, not a democracy by plutocracy. The founding fathers would be absolutely horrified to see the “mob rule by the privileged elites” into which this once great nation has degenerated. Every political philosopher knows that democracy, when sufficiently dumbed down and unduly influenced by the moneyed ruling class, will always devolve into a despotic tyranny. Therefore, the wholesale exportation of our fraudulent notion of democracy, and its supposed freedoms (to buy, buy, buy after watching the boob tube hucksters), by the political and corporate classes must be reconsidered. And it will be soon, on a new channel during this “Fall” season’s new lineup! Stay tuned —
III. Another announcement will be made, in the not too distant future, about the business entity commonly known as the CORPORATION – the main huckster of this ‘brand’ of faux democracy. Surely, if the devil were to ever choose the perfect form in which to enter in order to carry out his nefarious designs, Inc. is it. Is there any other entity on earth – person or party, organization or association, government or institution, jurisdiction or bureaucracy, club or group, fraternity or sorority, etc. that can function with such impunity, as it hides behind the shield of LIMITED LIABILITY. Those two words have given complete cover for the flagrant and wanton destruction of planet Earth.
You name it – oil slicked coastlines, razed rainforests, beaches strewn with dead dolphins and whales. Not to mention the complete erosion of human, civil and national rights, wherever INC decides to set up shop.
Let’s pick a country. Let’s go to India and visit Bhopal of Union Carbide fame. Close to 8000 people died within two weeks of that December day in 1984 in what is known as the worst industrial disaster of the last century. Now that Dow Chemical owns Union Carbide, you can only imagine the veritable phalanx of attorneys who are paid unconscionable fees to ensure proper responsibility and accountability will never be assumed by their master.
Or let’s visit the Punjab and talk to the thousands of widows of farmers who committed suicide because of Monsanto’s “seedless seeds”. Or go to just about anywhere on that subcontinent where a Walmart is being protested for land theft, encroachment and despoilation. Let’s not forget about all the Coca Cola bottling plants that have become notorious for stealing the most precious commodity that every Indian cherishes and covets – WATER. Well, that takes care of land, water, air … and blood. What else in heaven’s name do these stakeholders want?!
We all know the deal. It’s the one where the individual, and his/her environment, is always trampled in favor of the corporate interest. Isn’t it time to really take stock of what our current predicament has left us with. Perhaps it’s also time to seriously think about actually re-ordering the ORDER, instead of once again rearranging the deck chairs on the titanic. Like we’ve said, “optimizing stockholder profit” will soon be history, as the cease and desist orders are not far from being issued to Corporate America. Might as well get a head start on dissolving (or re-chartering) that corporation.
IV. Termination of Globalization: The dominating and predatory form, that is. No other global initiative has been more unsuccessful at creating a framework for a more efficient transfer of goods and services around the planet. Truly, every aspect of this corporate inspired policy has failed miserably. Wherever it promoters trumpet its stated intention to make markets more streamlined, effective and resilient, it has done quite the opposite.
One only needs to look at the current debacle within the European Union concerning the banking, credit, and stock market breakdowns. Never has a response from the appropriate governing bodies been more disorganized, full of mixed messages and working at cross purposes with the member states. It’s like watching The Three Stooges (France, Germany & Italy) play musical chairs blindfolded with no clothes on. What an unprecedented spectacle, and in plain view for the entire world to watch! This will undoubtedly put the brakes on the concretizing of a North American Union and their planned currency – the Amero. Praise the Lord!
As a matter of fact, all of the financial unions and economic superstates (e.g. European Union; Southeast Asian Association for Regional Cooperation; Union of South American Nations) that have been created over the past many years will, by sheer necessity and desperation, be forced to re–organize themselves in the coming months and years. Even South America, which has two distinct camps that are constantly gummin’ up the works for each other, will abandon their current emerging model in favor of one that enjoys complete freedom from its North American taskmaster. To their credit, they have set the bar higher than it has ever been set concerning their strongly stated desire to be free of IMF and World Bank control. Only Russia has exceeded their standards, as they had already been fleeced by the Oligarchs in what may very well be the grandest larceny of national wealth/resources in history. This, of course, was preceded by a 75 year scourge of incessant rape, pillaging and plundering by the Bolsheviks and their Western financiers & handlers. Clearly Mr. Putin will not allow a repeat of any such conduct within his borders, and the international persecution that he has suffered certainly reflects their displeasure and frustration with him. No wonder Vladimir Putin is now considered a “reincarnation” of Peter the Great by his own people.
The ruinous influence of these two globalization thugs (IMF & WB) can be instantly assessed by looking at the economic calamities they caused in Argentina (1999-2002), as well as in Thailand, South Korea & Indonesia during the 1997 Asian currency crisis. Likewise, every nation in Africa that has chosen to take on their monetary yoke has only misery and war and financial oppression to show for it. Wherever these 2 scrooges show their faces, it’s quite like Ebenezer himself showing up to make a house call. You know the patient will soon find himself in a pine box after all the gold fillings and rings have been removed.
We have seen this globalization scam unfold in country after country, as a ruse to steal a nation’s resources, always taking from those who have, and giving to those who want it. In fact, an objective assessment of all the world’s current conflicts would reveal that the vast majority are directly the result of this geo-political/commercial dynamic. The privatization of water sources/bodies/supplies/rights is perhaps the most provocative and glaring, and can be found at the root of a number of these resource wars.
Clearly the verdict has been delivered: Economies are much less vulnerable, the more locally they are positioned and the less centralized their decision-making process. This arrangement affords much greater resiliency when dealing with the vicissitudes of the marketplace. And it takes the power away from those who are insulated in ivory towers, and far from the plight of the common man. It is time for everyone on the planet to “think globally; act locally”.
V. Stock market will become extinct. There is no greater tool at the disposal of those who can, and do, manipulate the various markets than the charade of “setting up” a formal system of trading, buying and selling of anything, as exemplified by the NYSE. This is where it all happens. From devastating whole national (and regional) economies, to toppling uncooperative corporate execs, to bringing 150 year old multi-billion $$$ companies to their knees within a week’s time. From triggering stockholder revolts, to propping up corporate raiders, to extorting billions from national and/or corporate treasuries. They can, and do, do it all right there on the floor.
Really, the very best example of what occurs in these speculative market exchanges is the gambling casino. In Vegas, everyone knows that the house ALWAYS wins. It never loses. Even when there is the appearance of losing, it still wins. Go figure, but it’s true. Your stockbroker is not too unlike the blackjack dealer. And your financial planner is often a croupier in disguise. So, the question remains, do you honestly know what your hard earned retirement money is invested in? If not, this is a very good time to find out!!!
For those of us who have been there, we know that whether you call it an oil bourse, a commodity exchange, or a bond market, you’re still playing in a game that can go against you at any time. Wipe out your earnings in a heartbeat; devour your principal in a flash. It’s often been said that when he comes, “he comes like a thief in the night”. Do you still feel you know where your entire life savings is currently residing?
The derivatives market represents the single greatest threat to worldwide economic stability and financial security. It poses such great potential for financial abuse and economic devastation that the current institutional arrangements of this commercial realm have become completely unacceptable. The alarming proliferation of hedge funds, as well as the growing number and variety of derivative instruments, has reached a critical mass that is incompatible with living a financially sound life on planet Earth. Simply put, some of these instruments are so far from the street – economic reality – that they put into jeopardy all the hard work, which appears in the form of real goods and services, that is produced by any economy at any given time. This predicament signifies a CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER to us all.
Remember – DERIVATIVES are the real megilla. Derivatives, by their very nature, can be highly radioactive, and can go nuclear any time circumstances conspire in just the right, or wrong, way. Those who control their destiny can, likewise, utilize their inherent threat as a means of conducting financial and economic terrorism anytime, anywhere completely under the radar screen. It’s time for them to go. And we trust it’s just a matter of execution at this point.
VI. Mass Consumerism & Perpetual Economic Growth – the Fric & Frac of our Age – are history. One need not look any further than the inside of one’s own home to see the ravages of these adopted twins. They own the bedroom, the living room, the family room and all the closets. They’ve taken over the kitchen, the den and the garage, as well. Since their middle names are Amass and Accumulate, we can only imagine what might lay hidden in the attic, the basement and the shed.
Ever since they became the twin pillars of Kali Yuga’s overarching philosophy of life, things started to really go to hell in a handbasket … or rather gilded cage. How so? What else could one expect from a political economy that demands growth, necessitates growth and extols the virtues of growth at every turn (and on every other commercial and newscast). Growth, at the expense of WHAT!! We’ll tell you what – Life!
One of the most tragic parts of this ever-unfolding tragedy has been the dramatic change in the spirit of the people with whom these twins associate. The very society loses its refinement, as the culture becomes debased. Aren’t so many things associated with Americana experienced as coarse, and crude, and crass? Likewise, the nation, which was once known as the “land of the free; home of the brave”, morphs into a country reviled for its unkindness, lack of compassion and cruelty. Before anyone realizes, the citizenry is easily being herded, and then stampeded, into wars and conflict of every sort and kind.
What else could be expected when the meme of consumerism is subliminally implanted at such a young and tender age, and relentlessly reinforced from cradle to grave? And, what does it really say about a society when all who belong to it are known as consumers. Kind of like little pac-men (and pac-women) gobbling up everything in sight. Starts out with BIG Macs and 24 oz cokes, then super-sized HUMMERS, then oil fields and gold mines and precious rainforests, and then whole countries.
Likewise, in the corporate realm, any board director, company officer, division president, regional director, department manager, production supervisor, etc. will candidly speak to the greatest pressure in their lives. More income, more sales, more profit, more production, more revenue – anything that will show an increase in year over year growth. Always gotta GROW, even though yuv been out of puberty for 20 or 30 years!?
Well, you can imagine that this state of affairs can only go on for so long. As a matter of fact, this party’s now over. And the hangover is about to begin. Perhaps it’s time to send these twins on a permanent vacation to the waterless region.
VII. War, as a means of wealth creation, is now bankrupt. War, as a means of conflict resolution, is over. As a means to any end whatsoever, war is finished. You get the picture, don’t you? War has outlived its usefulness, and has become as obsolete as the derivatives hawker. There is simply no more place for it in civil society. It’s time for the curtain to fall on this show for the last time, and for all of its bad actors to hit the stage exit.
It never was a legitimate policy for conflict resolution, as we know. Virtually all conflicts and wars were manufactured in the boardrooms of the world. And impeccably stage managed by the directors of the war studios. Isn’t the Iraq war a perfect example of this kind of terrible and awful-to-watch “B” movie?
Any deliberate, probing and unprejudiced analysis of all the major wars going back to the French Revolution will reveal an extraordinary degree of carefully calculated and coordinated events leading up to the actual conflagrations we call war. Just read the actual history that is only now beginning to surface, and you will reach this very same conclusion.
War has consistently served its masters in three ways which no longer have relevance in an enlightened civilization: (i) population control (ii) artificial creation of wealth for the plutocracy (iii) imposition of a tyrannical order in the wake of the chaos that always results from war. Population control in this context has different meanings. The number of people who are systematically genocided, wantonly annihilated and deliberately infected with disease agents serve the purpose of population reduction. Then there is the sheer terror of war and its effects on whole populations (see how easily controlled both the Germans and Japanese were after WWII). “Order out of chaos” is made easy when all concerned parties have been faced with the extraordinary distraction, mayhem and pandemonium that war always brings.
Let us once again proclaim, here and now, that: WAR HAS COME TO AN END.
VIII. There is a very profound and significant connection between 9/11/01 and 9/11/08 that may be difficult for many to fully embrace. But here it goes –
The OMEN that 911 truly was, looks a little bit like THE LORD OF THE RINGS.
Remember the Twin Towers? When they came down in NYC, it was a message to humankind that the reign of the Almighty Dollar was coming to an end. As a nation’s currency goes, so goes its destiny. Her financial strength and economic prowess was on the wane, and soon to be greatly diminished. Just as the WTC (financial capital of the world) was pulverized into dust, the US Dollar would be swept into the ash heap of history. Just as we see it collapsing all around us, exactly 7 years after the original 911 apocalyptic events.
When the Ring of Power was finally destroyed, like the Pentagon (ring-shaped command center of the military-industrial complex) was mortally wounded and damaged, the message was equally clear. Her military might and superior force would be reduced to rubble in the twinkling of an eye. She would, likewise, soon see the demise of Her all-pervasive state sponsored terrorism. This, because she had lost all moral ascendancy. Besides, the empire could no longer be sustained politically, financially, practically or ethically, as the seeds of its own destruction had fully sprouted. The most fatal seed grew into that extremely corrupt and predatory form of corporate, crony capitalism which was so socially unconscious, and so environmentally unaware, it was quite doomed from the very beginning.
The GOOD NEWS is that this nation – its people – will now be compelled to beat their “swords into plowshares” and their “spears into pruning hooks”.
Just as the Phoenix rose from its ashes, so too will America ascend to even greater heights. As long as She ascends with the guidance of the highest of ideals, loftiest of principles and noblest of intentions. And She reforms, and transforms Herself, in good faith, in earnest and with haste.
As a modern day prophet said in the days immediately following September 11, 2001:
“America, Wake up ! ! ! Seize this God-given opportunity. There is no more time to dally in fear and ignorance and greed. For yours is a destiny that must serve as a beacon of Light and Hope and Peace to the world. Make haste, the time is drawing nigh!”
T. Anthony Michael
11/01/08
Publication and posting of this article is expressly authorized.
Greetings:
I’ve been developing this project solo – a series of vetted directories. Some direct links…
Splash Page: http://www.americanbraintrust.com/
Home Page: http://www.americanbraintrust.com/AmericanBraintrust.htm
Main States Portal: http://www.americanbraintrust.com/50States.htm
States Page Example: http://www.americanbraintrust.com/stsexmpAK.htm
From those links you can peruse the site and graps the concept. Tie it all together. The Ultimate Neighborhood…
Anyway,
Back to work…building a network is tough.
Ronnie Gura
American Braintrust Webmaster
PS I entered this project in the Knight Foundation contest, link is here: http://garage.newschallenge.org/projects/american-braintrust-network-american-thought
Heard “C” on Coast the other night and felt a resonance.
Related to the chat on Coast I thought of a book I read quite a bit ago now called THE JUDAS ECONOMY. Can’t remember the authors but they were remarking on the fact that for the first time capital was moving around the world without moving with the labour force. (excuse the Canadian spelling 🙂 “C” had mentioned that the generations need to work together. But that is one of the reasons the elite money managers (some cynancism in that statement) rather than the older generation investing in projects locally or of their own family’s (think farms and mom & pop business) they were told to invest in their own pensions because there would be no money around when they retired. Guess the prophets were right although the folks didn’t realize it wouldn’t be their own money that was gone.
As far as this discussion goes I would like to refer you to a concept used in Canada called Community Futures. I did a search on Google but didn’t find much of the idea in the USA. I became familiar with CF while living in the Okanagan in BC back in the mid 80s. At that time logging and mining was winding down and the local economies where spiraling towards a crash.
Here is a link which is far better for describing and informing the concept.
http://www.communityfutures.ca/
Is there some vehicle in the states which is similar, or a non-gov form which could be financed by local folks?
Well some scattered thoughts. Some might wonder why I am intruding here but rest assured I am living in Seattle with my wife, an American, so am intensely interested in building a future here.
GSW
I also wonder if this list might be flipped so the most recent is at the top – quite a bit to scroll down for people who return to check for new entries. Thanks.
I stumbled on the website for The Right Question Project while looking for ways to support my son in his schoolwork. They appear to be doing very good work and are addressing a very important piece of the financial permaculture picture: http://www.rightquestion.org/
The Right Question Project (RQP) educational strategy helps all people focus more sharply on key decisions, ask good questions, participate more effectively in making those decisions and insist upon accountable decision-making.
They used to tell me to jump and I’d say ‘how high. Now, I ask ‘why?’
— Welfare client in New Hampshire
After I started to ask questions, I could just see the look on their faces, ‘how’did you get so smart?
— Parent of school child in Kentucky
Now, when I go to meetings where people are making decisions that really affect my family, I don’t have to just sit there, not knowing what to say. I think about what I want to know and what I need to know and then I ask the question. What a difference!
— Resident of the Big Island of Hawaii, one of many laid-off sugar cane plantation workers who used RQP to participate in decision-making processes affecting them.
I didn’t know I could ask questions at the school. But, by doing that, I was able to get my son the services he needs.
— Homeless shelter resident in Massachusetts who learned to advocate for her hearing impaired son and secured an Individual Education Plan that met his needs
The Way Out of This Mess Is the Way of Mahatma Gandhi
http://www.lewrockwell.com/knaebel/knaebel21.html
Author: Jeff Knaebel
“Government is now a political anarchy, an anarchy inside power” ~ Hans-Hermann Hoppe, Democracy, the God that Failed.
MY BRIEF
My life is not about being a corporate biological robot servomechanism whose mind is stored in a computer disk, waiting to be told by The Machine how to live, what to fear, and whom to kill. I am here to become a man, alive and free to love and be loved.
THE LAWS OF LIFE
“Mind precedes all phenomena; mind is their chief, all phenomena are mind-made.”
~ The Dhammapada
The greatest wealth is a deep understanding of the Laws of Nature.
~ Eskimo
A look at biology shows the unitary independent nature of the human organism. We are born as separate units, one at a time. Likewise we die as separate entities one at a time. All our acts in between are separate units as well, even in cooperative endeavors. An aggregation of any sort into any form of organized group fails to blend even two persons into one unit, so long as there is life in each.
Even in a panic where the herd seems to operate as a unit, it is entirely individual persons who do all the acting. Every collective is an illusory construction. Biologists are helping us to see the concept of the social collective as an empty meaningless shell of imaginary form.
Liberty is the absence of coercion of a human being by any other human being. To have liberty means to be free without modification or qualification so far as social relationships are concerned. This is apparent when you consider the alternatives for any one social act. There are two possibilities: (1) you determine what you shall do; (2) you are prohibited from determining what you shall do. The second means that some other person or persons will decide what you shall do, and force you to do it. This defines slavery rather than liberty.
Man is a social being. The above-described liberty is not confined to self-willed conduct operating in isolation. All the forces of social cooperation operate to influence one’s actions as a free man. I believe that such influences operate at their best and come to full fruition of nobility among men only under liberty.
Moral considerations have no place except where liberty exists. A person cannot do “right” except where there is option to do “wrong.” No problem of morals can be resolved in absence of liberty. All that can be done by enslavement is to remove moral choice from the enslaved. As per Thomas Davidson, “That which is not free is not responsible, and that which is not responsible is not moral. Freedom is the condition of morality.”
If we are alive in an ordered universe, the existence of universal, unchanging eternal truths follows from the premise. If these eternal truths and unchanging principles exist, then one may hypothesize the existence of moral truths – moral law if you wish, as part of the universe in which we live. This moral law would then be higher than, and rule over, our social, statutory laws of society, custom and tradition.
It would remain man’s job to discover these laws by search, analogous to discovering the laws of physical science. We would deny as moral truth any prescription by majority rule, or kingly decree, or Executive Order. All these prescriptions would be denied as invalid sources per se.
Since the end is embodied in the means, no freedom-loving person can employ other than purely voluntary means. Liberty cannot be institutionalized. Only encroachments of liberty can be institutionalized. Liberty cannot be legislated, adjudicated, constituted, democratized or decreed. Liberty is liberty by law of nature.
We must never give up. If we should ever give up and say that liberty is dead, we have pronounced that human life no longer exists. The urge to be free is embodied within and intrinsic to human consciousness itself.
~ Adapted from F.A. Harper, 1957.
SERFDOM IS BY OUR OWN CONSENT ONLY
“Resolve to serve no more, and you are at once freed. I do not ask that you place bands upon the tyrant to topple him over, but simply that you support him no longer. Then you will behold him, like a great colossus whose pedestals have been pulled away, fall of his own weight and break into pieces.”
~ Étienne de la Boétie, The Politics of Obedience: The Discourse of Voluntary Servitude
It would be good to absorb into our consciousness the insight of La Boétie that any State, no matter how ruthless and despotic, rests on the consent of the majority of the public. La Boétie observed that this consent of despotism is engineered, largely by propaganda beamed at the populace by rulers and their intellectual apologists. The devices – of bread and circuses, ideological mystification, exaggerated threats to security – remain today the same as in La Boétie’s time.
“Gandhi saw that the power of any tyrant depends entirely on people willing to obey. The tyrant may get people to obey by threatening to throw them in prison, or by holding guns to their heads. But the power still resides in the obedience, not in the prison or the guns.”
~ Mark Shepard, Civil Disobedience, Nonviolence and Satyagraha in the Real World, 1990
Leo Tolstoy’s Letter to a Hindu was an important influence on Ghandi’s thinking about mass nonviolent action. This letter in turn was heavily influenced by La Boétie. In The Law of Love and the Law of Violence, Tolstoy quoted at length from La Boétie, and summed up,
“It would seem that the [citizens], not gaining any advantage from the restraint that is exercised on them, should at last realize the lie in which they are living and free themselves in the simplest and easiest way: by abstaining from taking part in the violence that is only possible with their cooperation.”
Two centuries after La Boétie, David Hume writes, Of the First Principles of Government,
“We shall find that, as Force is always on the side of the governed, the governors have nothing to support them but opinion. It is therefore on opinion only that government is founded; this maxim extends to the most despotic and military governments, as well as to the most free and popular.”
~ Both quotations above are taken from Ending Tyranny Without Violence by Murray Rothbard
HAPPINESS RESTS ON TRUTH ALONE
Edmund Burke said in 1756, as did Gandhi in our time, “Happiness in the long run rests on truth alone, and that truth is the natural law of human activity and human relations.”
He goes on to say that States violate the Law of Nature. In a nearly perfect match of the earlier quote of Gandhi, he says that injustice is grounded in the very nature of the State itself, because the State is necessarily supported by violence.
“To prove that these sorts of political societies are a violation of nature and a constraint upon the human mind, one need only look upon the instruments of violence which are everywhere used to support them. Review the dungeons, whips, chains, racks, gibbets with which every society is abundantly stored …. I acknowledge indeed, the necessity of such a proceeding in such institutions; but I must have a very mean opinion of institutions where such proceedings are necessary.” (Works, 1900).
Look, now, at how far we have progressed since 1756. Look at Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo, rendition, water-boarding, rape rooms and a proud nation’s legislation to legalize torture.
How is it that our state of denial – our absence of shame – is so profound that we can even discuss our relationship to “civilization,” when we have so clearly devolved to lawfully incorporated industrialized barbarianism? Again Burke, “In proportion as we have deviated from the plain rule of our nature, and turned our reason against itself, in that proportion have we increased the follies and miseries of mankind.”
It seems to me that in the realm of social organization, mankind is at the point of a profound choice. It will be worked out to success or failure over a long time period – unless we earlier blow ourselves to kingdom come. Yet, the direction of intellectual and practical work I feel must be determined now itself.
The great divide is between a stateless society of free people in voluntary associations freely entered – Carl Watner calls it the voluntaryist society – or a statist society. Gene Callahan puts it succinctly in his essay, The Most Crucial Gap in Politics:
“Once one accepts the notion that initiating aggression is OK under any circumstances whatsoever – then the case for human liberty has been abandoned, and all that remains is to argue over what degree of enslavement is acceptable.” (LewRockwell.com, 11 April 2005)
A SELF-REGULATING HUMAN COMMUNITY
As guides to the way out, as well as the proven designs for a self-regulating human community of love and reason, I am drawn to Hind Swaraj by Mohandas Gandhi, A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle, Basic Call to Consciousness by John Mohawk, the Tao Te Ching, and socially engaged Buddhism, together with the village self-rule traditions of India.
Stop trying to control. Let go of fixed plans and concepts, and the world will govern itself. The more prohibitions you have, the less virtuous people will be. The more weapons you have, the less secure people will be. The more subsidies you have the less self-reliant people will be. Let go of the law, and people become honest. Let go of economics, and people become prosperous. Let go of religion, and people become serene. Let go of all desire for the common good, and the good becomes common as grass.
~ Tao Te Ching
Lao Tzu figured that the individual and his happiness was the key unit of society. If institutions hampered individual flowering and happiness, then they should be abolished. For Lao Tzu, the government – with its “laws and regulations more numerous than the hairs of an ox” – was a vicious oppressor, “more to be feared than fierce tigers.”
“Take Care, Lest They Realize That They Can Do Without Rules”
Tracing our present sorry situation back to the time when the Constitution was imposed upon a free people by the manufactured consent of a few dozen powerful men, take note of the words of one the founding fathers to get a feel of “where they were coming from,” and where they intended to put their less arrogant fellowmen.
“Gentlemen [of the Constitutional convention] you see that in the anarchy in which we live, society manages much as before. Take care, if our disputes last too long, that the people will come to think they can just as easily do without us.”
~ Benjamin Franklin, quoted in Rebirth of Liberty, Carl Watner, 11 July 2005
ANCIENT THINKERS: THE SYSTEM ITSELF IS THE PROBLEM
Two centuries later Chuang Tzu reiterated Lao Tzu’s opposition to State rule. He said,
“There has been such a thing as letting mankind alone, with success. Good order results spontaneously when things are let alone. The common people have a constant nature. They spin and are clothed, till and are fed. It is what may be called their natural freedom. These people of natural freedom are born and die themselves, suffer from no restrictions or restraints, and are neither quarrelsome nor disorderly.
If rulers were to establish laws to govern the people, it would be no different from stretching the short legs of the duck and trimming off the long legs of the heron – or haltering a horse. Such rules would not only be of no benefit, but would work great harm. The world simply does not need governing – in fact it should not be governed.”
Chuang Tzu may have been the first theorist to see the State as brigand writ large, saying,
“A petty thief is put in jail. A great brigand becomes ruler of a State.”
There Is No Ruler Comparable In Virtue To Non-Rule
Pao Ching-yen was the culmination of these anarchistic thinkers and lived in fourth century AD.
He contrasted earlier days of stateless society with his current times. “There were no rulers and no officials. People dug wells and drank, tilled fields and ate. They went to work at sunrise and rested at sunset. Placidly going their ways without encumbrance, they achieved their own fulfillment.” In the stateless age there was no warfare. “Where knights and hosts could not be assembled, there was no battlefield … ideas of using power for advantage had not yet taken root. Into this condition of peace there came violence and deceit instituted by the State. The history of government is the history of violence, of the strong plundering the weak.”
Pao wrote that the system itself is the problem. The object of government is not to benefit the people, but to control and plunder them. There is no ruler who can compare in virtue with a condition of non-rule. He also demonstrated that the very existence of institutionalized violence by the State generates imitative violence among the people.
The common idea that strong government is needed to combat disorder among the people commits the error of confusing cause and effect.
~ Quotes of the three Chinese theorists are from An Austrian Perspective on the History of Economic Thought, Mises Institute).
The American Experience Cut to the Chase
“Whenever a people… entrust the defence of their country to a regular, standing army, composed of mercenaries, the power of that country will remain under the direction of the most wealthy citizens.”
~ A Framer – Anonymous ‘framer’ of the US Constitution – Source: Independent Gazetteer, January 29, 1791 (here sourced from Information Clearing House). See also Confessions of an Economic Hit Man by John Perkins, and When Corporations Rule the World by David Korten
“I suspected I was just part of a racket at the time. Now I am sure of it. Like all members of the military profession I never had an original thought until I left the service. My mental faculties remained in suspended animation while I obeyed the orders of the higher- ups. This is typical with everyone in the military service.” [and also of a populace brainwashed by the compulsory public education system of the State. ~ Ed]
~ General Smedley Butler. USMC (Ret.), War Is A Racket
“Anarchism is not a romantic fable but the hardheaded realization, based upon five thousand years of experience, that we cannot entrust the management of our lives to kings, priests, politicians, generals and county commissioners.”
~ Edward Abbey
“Liberty is the mother, not the daughter of order.”
~ Llewellyn H. Rockwell, The Impossibility of Imposed Freedom, 8 December 2005
SITUATION AND PROSPECTS
“Humanity is now faced with a stark choice: Evolve, or die.”
~ Eckhart Tolle, A New Earth, 2005
Through my small window on the world, I see in the scientific and industrial revolutions a convoluted, enigmatic process of growth-decay-new growth pursuant to which mankind has constructed an institutional machine. To this machine he has become totally subservient. The machine has taken over. It is carrying humanity mindlessly along a road to self-destruction. I call this machine the Corporate Warfare State.
It is made of all cold metallic machine parts, like a machine. Its command and control center is mechanically intelligent far beyond the capacity of the individual human mind. It is self-replicating and operates continuously through the cycles of human generations. The human tools for its construction have been primarily ignorance, fear, greed, domination, exploitation, deceit and violence.
Like a computer, it has a programmed operating system. Its program is utterly malevolent and purely evil. It mechanically devours all creatures great and small. Its preferred flavor is human flesh. Its program code is for the cannibalization of all living beings.
At the present moment, The Machine is in near-total domination of humanity. It is gaining.
As its operating technicians it attracts the most evil members of the human species. Men who are corruptible and who live by power and domination. To these temporary employees it offers the most sought emoluments of money, power, sex, public honors and total control. The men drawn to its service are those in whose heart the fire of love – while still existing – has been nearly extinguished by fear and greed. Measured by the standard of deeds, some of these men appear to be darkly evil to the core.
Our Work Is to Break the Egoic Pattern
“The moment is arising when you must find a basis of unity which is not political … There is only one history – the history of Man. All national histories are chapters in the larger one.”
~ Rabindranath Tagore (writing four generations ago)
Measured by the parameters of clinical psychology, the men in offices of the Power Structure suffer from chronic paranoid delusions, kleptomania, a pathological tendency to commit murder and acts of extreme violence and cruelty, an obsessive acting out of ruthless domination. Diagnosis: criminally insane.
The Machine cannot be “fixed” or reprogrammed. Any attempt to replace its operators will prove fruitless. Any new hires will be men of the same character, for no other type of man wants the job. We have granted power of life or death to a machine whose only moral code is force.
I see our hope as being simply to abandon The Machine. Let it fall in a heap of irrelevance and disuse until finally it has rusted into the dustbin of history. The work demanded of us requires an ethical life of nonviolence and peace. This in turn requires withdrawal from the system and creation of a new human culture. Let this culture arise the way new grass springs up through the hulks of machines rusting in the world’s junkyards. It is slow and organic. It is Life.
Our work is to break the egoic patterns that hold us in thrall of fear and greed. We must abandon ideologies and belief systems. Each must come home to the truth of self. We must abandon the lucre on offer by The Machine and tread the independent path of self-reliance, self respect and human dignity.
We must seek a transformation of our individual consciousness as contribution toward transformation of human consciousness. I feel it begins with reclaiming our integrity.
But first, we must ask – and answer – the question: do we really want peace? If we really do want peace, it is not difficult of achievement. Simply cease making war. Begin spreading compassion.
CONSUMING ANOTHER’S LIFE – THE PSYCHOSIS OF CANNIBALISM
“Civilization does not mean electric lights. It does not mean producing atomic bombs, either. Civilization means not killing people.”
~ Nichidatsu Fujii, Hiroshima survivor, in “Columbus and Other Cannibals” by Prof. Emeritus (UCal) J.D. Forbes, PhD., 1992
All around us are examples of insane persons acting through the power of the State, killers and cannibals of the earth, users and abusers of fellow human beings.
The ethos of modern Western civilization seems to be satiation of material and sensual desire. The ethos of India – until quite recently – was restraint and control of the senses and material desires. The theme of a conference styled “Dhamma-Based Cultures Meet” highlights the concern of Indian elders. “Dhamma” here means laws of nature. I feel this theme also points the way out, as proposed in this present writing.
Background of the conference was concern for threats to human civilization posed by intolerant, illogical and violent thought patterns presently dominating.
For Us the World Is One Family and Not A Market
“Consumerism has spread. Materialism is gripping humanity. Our Indian value system is at stake. Permissiveness has become dominant. Terrorism has become global.”
“Struggle for existence, survival of the fittest, exploitation of nature, struggle for individual rights seem to be guiding principles. This has led to two world wars, unthought-of terrorism and dehumanizing lifestyle. The danger is awful.
“Dharma is basis of cosmic and individual existence. Dharma principles are universal and eternal. They are nature-and-life friendly. Not struggle, but harmony has been our attitude. Serving those in need was natural. That fittest would ensure survival of others was an inbuilt feeling. Uniformity is neither desirable nor feasible. Diversity ensures richness and beauty. Nature was revered as Mother. Man could “milk” her as would a child suckle its mother, but could never think of exploiting her. Duty consciousness rather than rights consciousness has been our ethos. Everyone doing one’s own duty implies fulfillment of one another’s rights.
“We have been attacked, enslaved and exploited during the last ten centuries. In 20th century we became politically free. Now we must get rid of mental shackles. Legacy of enslavement still lingers. We are enamored by the consumerist glamour of the West. We are not conscious of our cultural potentialities. We have deeper value systems. They are inclusive, holistic and eco-friendly. For us, the world is one family and not a market.
“Evolution implies involution. Man’s journey is from gross to subtlest to Beyond to Immanent.
Oneness exists at the deepest innermost level. This is not some intellectual belief, but is based upon invaluable sublime experiences termed by various names such as Nibbana, Moksha, Divine Light, Shunya, Universal Spirit. We don’t enforce our views. What is important is that an elevating life spring flow through our traditions for the integral holistic growth of whole of humanity.”
Our First Task Is Liberty
I believe that this conference theme represents the way out and the key to human survival.
It cannot be accomplished in the present regime of the Corporate Warfare State. It can only be accomplished through voluntary cooperation of free men living in a condition of liberty. Our first task is liberty.
The workshop of liberty is the mind. It is there we must begin. The political goal is a stateless society. We begin with our own mind. Then will we build a new earth from the grass. With Satyagraha – the force of nonviolence and love – with strong adherence to truth.
WHAT ONE CAN DO : If it is to be, it is up to me.
The path is made by walking ~ African proverb
A definition to keep in mind for part of what follows: pro-government teachers, preachers, journalists, and intellectual apologists for the State tell us that “anarchist” means one who favors “chaos” and “violence.” This is not true.
In the common experience of humanity over several thousand years, it is the opposite of truth. In actual, observable fact and history, it is government that causes chaos and violence. Anarchism in fact means “absence of a ruler.” The prefix “an” means negation and the suffix “archy” means rule, hence anarchy means rule by no persons.
Thus the original anarchist is one who believes that a society of self-governing members, in free and voluntary association, without coercion or force, provides the best chance for peace.
An Ethos of Dominate – Exploit – Kill – Hurt – Destroy Is Bound to End Badly
A Machiavellian mass society valuing wealth acquisition and characterized by exploitative relationships must inevitably be a violent society, using force to protect the “haves” from the “have nots” and outsiders. Such a society will destroy itself because its greed will cause it to consume its own resources and even its own people. Self-restraints cannot be effectively imposed because the very nature of the society – its internal dynamic – is to consume [which means to destroy]. Its voracious appetite will cause it literally to eat itself.
~ JDForbes 1973
We – each of us – are the co-creators of a peaceful humanity. As you live peacefully in your daily life, so does almost all of humanity. Who wants this war? It is not wanted by we common people.
It is the System of institutionalized structural violence that creates war. It is the very nature of the State to be at war. We do not want this horrible suffering of our children dying. We do not make war. States only make war. It is the System which must be changed to match us. We will either govern ourselves – responsibly and well – or we will be governed by others. What if we just laid down the State, as a warrior lays down his sword?
Note this fact: whenever you call upon the government to do something for you, the call you make is the bread and butter of the bureaucracy. On your calls and demands, it is nourished. Without that nourishment it could not grow. What you focus upon, increases. If you love your business and work and devote yourself to them, do they not flourish? And if you turn away and shirk your work, does it not wither and die? Likewise, if we can ignore the government, it will shrink.
The idea is to create a parallel economy with community justice based upon nonviolent voluntary mutual cooperation. Slowly we detach ourselves from dependence upon and involvement with the State, until it becomes irrelevant to our peaceful lives. When a sufficient number have achieved independent self-reliance, the State will go out of business for lack of customers.
If we can be strong, the future is ours. If we cannot discipline ourselves, the future belongs to the State. This requires serious introspection. Can we obtain the necessary mental objectivity and strength to devise a way – other than the State – to govern ourselves in voluntary mutual cooperation? Or, are we yet so fearful that we are addicted to the use of compulsion beyond the possibility of change?
Are we still at the level of clubs and axes – now become nuclear bombs – or can we use our tool-making ability to devise a better way?
Deeply Entrenched Power Will Not Voluntarily Abdicate
It will take long and be difficult. We are dealing with power deeply entrenched in every aspect of life and economy, connected to every chance for employment. The military-industrial complex is a massive network of defense contractors, politicians, lobbyists, manufacturers and suppliers which has a deeply rooted institutional priority in continuing the destructive foreign policies of the US. This is now being rapidly imported by India. These entities are not simply going to “bow out gracefully” in the name of peace. And this is only one of the “complexes.”
The social welfare complex is a gigantic network of social workers, bureaucrats, NGO’s and huge foundations whose raison d’être is poverty or recovering from war. They live by hustling the latest crisis. This complex oversees the distribution of multi-billion dollar programs which function to keep its recipients in a permanent state of dependency, while serving as a cash cow for administrators and managers. See the big bungalows and fancy cars of NGO managers hustling the poor of India.
This NGO-ism is an extension of the Corporate Warfare State, part of the payoff. “You bend ’em, we mend ’em.” These entities will protect their self-interest. If there were no Total War Everywhere of the Corporate State, there would be no need of the Red Cross.
The following is taken partly from What Is To Be Done, Steven LaTulippe (LewRockwell.com 20 January 2006). His essay corroborates my sad personal experience. The public infrastructure complex is a web of slum lords, agencies, bureaucrats, construction companies, politicians and finance Mafia who manage public works projects. This complex consumes astronomical sums of public money and is highly motivated to keep the scams going.
All of these games are interconnected and interlinked. A grim statistic from my former home state provides a sense of scale: more than half of the jobs there are in the government or directly connected to the government. This was fifteen years ago – it is bound to be much worse now.
None of these scam-complexes is simply going to dry up and blow away. Preaching limited government to these people will simply not connect. They have no intellectual framework to understand the concepts. It would be like trying to explain calculus to a frog.
There is worse. The Corporate Total State has developed sophisticated methods of manipulation to continue its rule indefinitely. This establishment has co-opted the media (or simply bought it), captured the education system, and designed sophisticated, powerful, clandestine propaganda techniques to influence the masses, and to keep them simply distracted. The whole purpose of these operations is to ensure that the game will continue without effective opposition.
Eventually, like the old Soviet Union, it will collapse. It will run out of time, victims and money. Its fiat currency will collapse and the game will be called. Recent events in the great financial train wreck indicate that this process has already reached the end of the beginning.
For this we prepare ourselves mentally and physically to be self-reliant survivors. Our own work – to wean ourselves from State dependency, so as to starve it – serves the dual purpose of preparing for its inevitable self-destruction. The urgency of the time is to preclude it taking us down with it.
THE OBVIOUSNESS OF ANARCHY – SOME EXAMPLES PAST AND PRESENT
“Social institutions are but the projection or external manifestation of ideas and attitudes existing in people’s minds. Change the ideas, and the institutions instantly undergo a corresponding change.”
~ Edmund Quincy, 1841
From the Mises Institute we learned that Chuang Tzu (369–286 BC) was the first known to us to work out the idea of spontaneous order, “Good order results spontaneously when things are let alone.”
Proudhon worked on these ideas in 19th century and F.A. von Hayek of the Austrian School in 20th. Norman Barry wrote The Tradition of Spontaneous Order in 1982. Howard Rheingold’s Smart Mobs (Perseus, 2003) offers hope for the present day, along with many references. He quotes Kropotkin, “Humans are predisposed to help one another without authoritarian coercion. A centralized government is not needed to set an example or to make people do the right thing. People were doing so before the rise of the State. In fact, it is government that represses our natural tendency for cooperation.” (Kropotkin lived in former Soviet Union).
The redoubtable Murray Rothbard discusses early American experiences in The Origins of Individualist Anarchism in the US (from Libertarian Analysis, 1970: posted on Mises.org, 17 January 2006). He mentions Albemarle, Rogue’s Island, and the “Holy Experiment” of Quakers in Pennsylvania. He reports that the Quaker minister George Keith had concluded logically from the Quaker creed that all participation in government ran counter to Quaker principles.
Rothbard asked: how could anyone professing in nonviolence serve a government in any capacity, since the essence of government was the use of violence? He saw that Quaker nonviolence logically implied not only refusal to bear arms, but complete individualistic anarchism.
As a consequence of their nonviolence, peace with indigenous Indians was preserved for more than half a century. There was no bloodshed. Voltaire wrote of the Quaker achievement, “It was truly a sight to see a government without priests, a people without arms, citizens as magistrates, and neighbors without jealousy.”
According to Peter Dillard (Voluntaryist No.129), the oldest voluntaryist society existing in the US is that of the Hopi Indians of Arizona. They have developed a peaceful, nonviolent, anarchistic society that has endured for at least a millennium. I have worked with these people on their “Planting Stick Project.” I found them to be a truly remarkable people.
Dillard continues, “The native system of government is in effect a practical system of anarchy. Hopi unity is expressed not in allegiance to a monolithic Hopi “state,” but through a voluntary commitment to what is known as the Hopi Way. The structure ensures that authority cannot become concentrated in one person or group. Initiation is not forced – it is only offered. ‘This is the very basis of our life, we must not force other people to change their ways.’ (Yamada, Hopi Anthology, 1957).
Decisions are made without “arm twisting” (coercion). No votes are taken (no majority rule). The group attempts to find voluntary unanimity. The principled dissent of even one member prevents the proceedings from moving forward on a given issue. Faced by irreconcilable disagreements, Hopi go their separate ways without violence.”
It Was Discovered That Man Could Live Without A State
Moving forward in time – to events that were told to me by mining camp friends only one generation removed from eyewitness – here reported by Carl Watner in The Voluntaryist, September 2006: Westward on the Overland Trail and in California during the gold rush, there was no government, no established law, no protection. Throughout the mining districts, the people met and adopted rules for their mutual security. In all the large diggings the established regulations were faithfully observed.
When a new area was opened up, the first thing done was to choose officers and extend the zone of order. “The result was that in a district five hundred miles long, inhabited by 100,000 people, who had neither government, regular laws, military protection, nor even locks or bolts, and a great part of whom possessed wealth enough to tempt the vicious, there was as much security to life and property as in any part of the Union, and a smaller proportion of crime.”
“At other times on the American frontier, there was inadequate supply of government circulating currency. So businessmen set up their own mints and provided coined money that effectively competed with government coinage. While the western frontier was stateless, it was not lawless.
As Carroll Quigley observed, when public authority in the western world disappeared around 900 AD, society continued. It was discovered that man can live without a State. Economic life, religious life, law, and property rights can all exist and function effectively.”
SURVIVING DESPITE GOVERNMENT
I think with people starting to take another look at the concept of money and feeling helpless, this would be a good time to teach people that there are other ways to live or survive. People have been told all their lives that they need money to live. Believing this statement has led many people to the addiction of money. Someone has to tell them about other possibilities. Like any other instructions you believe in, this habit is hard to break.
~ Lincoln Tritt, Gwich’in Elder, personal communication
I now turn briefly to India, where anarchy thrives within a power structure which itself is anarchic. This country is vast and tumultuous such as to defy description. I can offer only a tiny glimpse. One thing is very clear to me. Only through the order and web-like strength of successful anarchy do the people of India manage to survive, because they must do so despite their government.
The following is taken from Essays on Tradition, Recovery and Freedom by Darampal, Other India Press, 2000. The entire catalog of Other India Bookstore is a worthy resource for finding our way out of the present crisis.
“We have lost our identity, our anchorage in our civilization. This loss of identity afflicts us all. This is a pain that practically all Indians, including the Christians, the Muslims, and the others have to bear in common. We have to find some way out of such a state of rootless-ness. We have to somehow find an anchor again in our civilisational consciousness, in our innate chitta (the perceiving intellect) and kala (cyclical time under law of nature)…. According to our traditional wisdom and understanding of Universal Law, the spirit is the deciding factor in fulfillment of a goal, not the tools.”
“It is only because of the ingenuity, the perseverance, and the robustness of our ordinary people, many of whom somehow make do without adequate shelter, or clothing, or even water, that we still survive as a people and as a civilization. We educated Indians do not seem to like what they do: the festivals and the fire-walking that they celebrate – and the various other things which unknown to us, are intimate parts of their lives. Despite all the obstacles which we elite put in their way, they still remain grounded in the soil of India. Our own alienation, indifference and high-handedness notwithstanding, a more worthwhile future can be expected to emerge [from this spirit].”
“Simply because our people by temperament were mild and tolerant, and did not throw stones at us, or murder us in our beds – even when they went without food, clothes and shelter – we had thought that they were nearly dead, or wholly inarticulate and assumed that it was for us to determine their future and to initiate them into prescribed activity. While we believed this to be the state of our people, we who had been left in positions of power, authority, and what we called knowledge, did not even know or certainly did not comprehend, the laws, regulations, procedures and plans which we administered and believed would herald this new India.”
“In the period between about 1919–1947, and again briefly in 1977 under the inspiration of Jayaprakash Narayan, large sections of the Indian people began to believe that they could at least build a world of their own, a world constructed according to their own concepts and ideas – that perhaps they may then even be able to help the rest of the world return to sanity. It is possible that many of the more reflective and imaginative types in the West also at times felt that India may have a relevant message, and perhaps could serve as a world model. But the habits and assumptions of the past, built over several generations, asserted themselves and India reverted to its unthinking imitative role. This role benefits not even half percent of Indian people, the political class. It maintains their privileges, but is certainly ruinous to the social and private lives of at least 80% of India’s people. The initiative of freedom was snatched away form them after 1947, and what remained was allowed to erode in the flow of time.”
“Freedom – or the relaxation of long imposed control leads to flowering of body and mind. It also results in re-manifestation of oppressed emotions and practices. It is possible that the percolating of the sense of freedom amongst the peasantry and rural folk may lead in time to rejection of the hideous and oppressive administrative structures built by the British. The need is that we the elite give up our rigid and frozen postures, achieve some appreciation of social urges, and prepare for change. The change, when it comes, will have its own logic and not be governed by our preconceived notions of it.”
“We face two entirely different concepts of society. One is that put forward by Dr. Ambedkar and accepted as basis of the Constitution – the atomized and inorganic view of society which governs political theory and practice in the West. Political democracy is reduced to counting of heads. This gives rise to competing power groups, leading to government not by people but by money power.
“The other is the organic or communitarian view. This view treats of man not as a particle of sand in an inorganic heap, but as a living cell in a larger organic entity. It is natural that in this view the emphasis is more on responsibility than right, just as in the inorganic view it is natural to be the opposite. When the individual lives in community with others, his rights flow from his responsibilities. That is why, in Gandhiji’s sociological thought, the emphasis is always laid on responsibility.”
“A major aspect of the ahimsak (nonviolent) way of life is to minimize one’s needs and to fulfill these as far as possible from within one’s immediate neighborhood. His practice of relying on local availability is as important a part of the principle of ahimsa as the doctrine of non-killing. Thus for Gandhi, ahimsa and swadesi (of one’s own locality) were not two different principles.”
The preceding tour through part of India’s philosophy (it is highly diverse, not a singularity) and its social reality provides some background for the situation facing the majority of the population, which is rural. The common people must push against the overwhelming weight of the political class, which inherited its power structure from the British. That they yet live is – to me – a testimony of the strength of anarchy. For the reality, as I see it, is an anarchy of the oppressed struggling under a corrupt power structure which is itself anarchic.
COMMUNITARIAN (VOLUNTARYIST) ANARCHY
What we would deduce is that “civilization” means something terrible indeed: a society in which there are so many evil or violent or dishonest people that massive deployments of armed force and unspeakable weapons of mass destruction acting through armies and police are required for control.
~ Modified after JD Forbes, 1992
For those with a serious interest in community level anarchy, check the publications of the Center for Science and Environment (Delhi) and the magazine Down to Earth (Society for Environmental Communications, Delhi). A few glimpses from my own observation and experience follow.
* “Irrigation projects are a major scam involving political parties in competition to corner public funds. The only solution is to initiate community based water-harvesting techniques …” [This is what happens. The people quit relying on government and provide for themselves, often against resistance of local political “Mafia.”] * “Village has withdrawn all disputes from courts, settles them locally.” * “Self-help groups formed, community agriculture undertaken.” * “Kids manage herbal garden.” * “Women market village garden products and share profits.” * “Our communal achievements have come with difficulty. We will not let them be undone easily.” * “Local law develops spontaneously out of natural law and need to cooperate.” * “I saw the villagers dig wells and tanks worth crores (one crore = ten million rupees) in a matter of days. The government takes a year to install a percolation tank.” * “Cooperative teams of five families work together on each other’s fields and the landowner keeps the harvest.”
These and similar communitarian projects occur in countless frequency throughout India. I have watched – and participated in – trail and bridge-building projects in which men of two nearby villages worked together voluntarily to connect the villages by a path that had to cross a gorge. They worked together in harmonious anarchy: there was no “boss.” As each new challenge was faced, the man with the most suitable skills for that situation was spontaneously self-selected by the group. Among Native American people I have seen this happen without a word spoken.
There are some large-scale projects as well. In Sri Lanka the Sarvodaya Shramadana (shared work) Society organized by Buddhist monk A.T. Ariyaratne has created self-government and locally based economies in about 11,300 villages. These function as almost autonomous “village republics” or mini city-states.
The key to success is moral leadership, embodied in adherence to ten precepts: (1) Sharing – of wealth, knowledge, skills, power, authority; (2) Morality; (3) Beneficence, often as recognition and promotion of talent; (4) Straightforwardness; (5) Impartiality of judgment; (6) Composure in conduct (7) Non-hatred; (8) Nonviolence; (9) Patience; (10) Non-revenge.
At Ralegan Siddhi, the famous program of crusader Anna Hazare has completely transformed a poverty-stricken village into a model of sustainable development and healthy society. This has spread to other villages, selected on the basis of Shramdan (voluntary contribution of labor) and moral standards. Anna’s message is to work selflessly without hope of fame or fortune. “Success comes naturally to those who are not greedy for it.”
“In a nation where collective finger pointing at politicians and grieving at the slowness of democracy is the style, Rangaswamy Elango is an object lesson. He has chosen to evangelize village-centered development. He lives for his cause, Gram Swaraj – the Autonomous Village. He realized there can be no individual happiness if there is misery all around. He got elected head of his village, removed the outside contractor-political Mafia and embarked on village self-development.
Elango says that he has been deeply influenced by J.C. Kamaruppa’s An Economy of Permanence. Now he is forming “village clusters” along the lines of Gandhi’s “village republics.” He says, “There is an emerging force not visible to the media and most people. It is at work changing India from below. This force cannot be stemmed.”
~ Rediff.com News, 2004
Let us hope – for the sake of entire humanity – that Elango is correct in his assessment.
Indigenous people have demonstrated their aspiration to live in a direct relationship with the land, in a healthy community within a healthy environment, free of all outside domination and control, and with full right of self-determination in all aspects of human social function. ~ Victoria Tauli-Corpuz (Paradigm Wars, 2006)
This is perfectly congruent with M.K. Gandhi’s vision of Village Swaraj – a vision of self-governing Village Republics.
THE WAY OUT: MIND MATTERS MOST
Though one may conquer a thousand times a thousand men in battle, yet he indeed is the noblest victor who conquers himself.
~ Dhammapada 103
“We must be the change we wish to see.”
~ M.K. Gandhi
The First Step Is Emotional
The whole secret of existence is to have no fear. Never fear what will become of you, depend on no one. Only the moment you reject all help are you freed.
~ Buddha
I am grateful to Derrick Jensen (A Language Older Than Words; Endgame; Strangely Like War) for these insights. The first step is to give up all hope.
Give up all hope
* That the system will change * That “they” will change * That we can bring legal action * That technology will save us * That God will save us * That those who exploit will “see the light” and stop on their own * That the next election will be different * That there will be a great uprising of civil disobedience against violence * That there will be a sudden awakening and shift of consciousness * That Bush will be impeached and Sir Galahad will replace him * That mother nature will forgive us * That we can negotiate with melting glaciers * That anyone other than you will do anything
Accept the fact that the State is beyond redemption. It is a reflection of us. It cannot change until we change.
Hope, as per Derrick Jensen (Orion Magazine, 2006) is longing for a future condition over which we have no agency. It means we are powerless. To hope for some result means we have given away our power to do act, we have given up any agency concerning it. The use of any excuse to justify inaction reveals our incapacity of love. If we love, we act in defense of the beloved.
False hope keeps us chained to the system. One example: we can bring legal action in hope of forcing some change. But legal action works only with the tools which those in power grant us the right to use. Which means tools deliberately intended to be ineffective. We cannot prevail within the same framework of law whose design purpose is to oppress us. False hope binds us to unlivable situations and blinds us to creative possibilities – real, actual possibilities within our own power.
When you give up hope, you realize you never needed it in the first place. You become more effective because you cease relying on someone else to solve your problem. Since you died to the hope of rescue, those in power cannot touch you any longer. Not with empty promises, not through threats, not even through violence. You have become free. This makes you more alive, more powerful. You are no longer dependent upon those who exploit you. You no longer believe in the mythologies they use to facilitate their exploitation.
What can happen by this shift is that you let go of being the victim. You die to the conditioned, fabricated, molded, educated you. You reclaim yourself from the State system that taught what to think, what to feel. You think for yourself, search your own truth. You feel your own real feelings. You face yourself directly. You become stronger.
Don’t Wait For Permission
That which is not free is not responsible, and that which is not responsible is not moral. Freedom is the condition of morality.
~ Thomas Davidson
You don’t wait for anyone’s permission. You begin now with your own hands. You accept the fact that the State is beyond redemption. Because it is a reflection of ourselves, it will never change until we change. You reclaim your morality from what was taught by the culture that is killing the planet.
When you come home to your own true self, when you center yourself in the love that is your core being, you become no longer vulnerable to the co-option of fear and rationality that Hitler inflicted on Jews, that Lenin inflicted on kulaks, that Bush inflicts on Americans, that the Project For A New American Century inflicts on the planet. You shift the paradigm of physical -social – emotional circumstances framed by these exploiters.
You break the exploiter-victim chain. You become like the Jews who created the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, like the Essenes who left none to be taken alive, you become like the Indians who marched with Gandhi to harvest salt from the beach at Dandi.
You turn away from fear. Once you have died to their emoluments, power cannot touch you. You begin to protect the people, the places, and the creatures that you love. You command the liberty in which alone love can flower. That liberty in which alone it is possible to love and be loved in free and voluntary mutual exchange of energy – without coercion, without violence, without compulsion.
PEACE THE PRODUCT OF LIBERTY. MIND THE WORKSHOP OF LIBERTY.
“Peace is the inner harmony which dwells in truth, and not outer adjustments. Man will become extinct if he does not make a conscious effort to regenerate his mind and spirit.”
~ Rabindranath Tagore (writing four generations ago)
“Until now, human intelligence, which is no more than a minute aspect of universal intelligence, has been distorted and misused by the ego. Call it ‘intelligence in the service of madness.’ Splitting the atom requires great intelligence. Using that intelligence for building and stockpiling atom bombs is insane or at best extremely unintelligent. Stupidity is relatively harmless, but intelligent stupidity is highly dangerous. This intelligent stupidity, for which one could find countless examples, is threatening our survival as a species.
“The force behind the ego’s wanting creates ‘enemies,’ that is to say, reaction in the form of an opposing force of equal intensity. The stronger the ego, the stronger is the sense of separateness between people. The only actions that do not cause opposing reactions are those that are aimed at the good of all. They are inclusive, not exclusive. They are not for ‘my’ country, but for all humanity, not for ‘my’ species, but for all sentient beings and all of nature.
“We are learning that action, although necessary, is a secondary factor in manifesting our external reality. The primary factor is consciousness. No matter how active we are, how much effort we make, our state of consciousness creates our world. If there is no change on that inner level, no amount of action will make any difference.”
~ Eckhart Tolle, A New Earth, 2005
The Battle Is For the Mind of Man
“Final freedom is achieved in a silence beyond all words, and rests on the realization that we are One.”
~ Mansoor Abdullah, Yoga Teacher, personal communication
War is caused by ignorance of our own true nature, which is peace. When we let go of grasping, we can experience an insight of that true nature of peace. This can be done by introspection: mental purification through self-observation. From this comes the realization that war is something we create. When anger ceases, what remains? Peace.
Consciousness is not a culturally conditioned phenomenon. It begins at birth and is experienced through our bodies. When we are born, we don’t see ourselves as Buddhist, Christian, Muslim, male, female, and so on. We acquire perceptions of ourselves later. If we judge another culture, it is through the values of our own culture – values which are relative. Consciousness is that which remains when there are no attachments of any kind. Consciousness is not cultural – it is the point where we all merge. To experience this unity of consciousness is the way out of humanity’s crisis.
~ Adapted from Ajahn Sumedho, Abbot of Amravati Buddhist Monastery
From Ajahn Sumedho above, we can see that the real work is within and must be done by each one of us. Ultimately, it comes to this. Yet, for me, our current crisis requires that we also simultaneously engage with work in the world. This is where we build the foundation of morality upon which must stand future generations. This morality is the foundation of peace. The work immediately in front of us is to spread peace and nonviolence. Now is the time.
The battle is for the mind of man. The prize is not in vanquishing some “other.” The battle is either all against all, or all for all. There can be no “other.” We are all in it together. We either grow a garden together, or we cannibalize each other in the process of turning the earth into desert. We can either plant trees together, or race to be the last person standing as he cuts down the last tree.
THE WAY OUT: ABANDON THE STATE
Freedom is not an ideal located outside the individual person. It is rather the indispensable condition for which the human being quests for completion.
~ Paulo Freire
When faced with an irresistible corporate force, imbued with an irredeemable malevolent intent demonstrated across a span of centuries, to exploit and destroy preceding cultures across all areas of politics, economics, law, tradition, and spiritual practice – and with clear evidence that its cumulative actions are destroying the land base which provides us with life – and whose products are poisoning our bodies, minds and souls – what then does a rational human being do?
What does one do when faced with a huge, ravenous, rabid dog, coming at you with its foaming mouth and fearsome jaws click-click-clicking?
To get out of the Destroyer’s way and build up a wholesome life requires a life of voluntary simplicity in direct relationship with the land, as exemplified by indigenous people around the world. Living in this simple way, one is not involuntarily contributing to planetary destruction by paying taxes. Likewise, one is not living at the expense of others.
Build a Moral Safe Harbor
When human beings embark upon this shift in sufficient numbers, forming an archipelago of light within the ocean of darkness, they will then embody themselves as the irresistible force of good, and of life – in the manner of grass that springs back even after the Nice Government Men have walked over it with their jackboots.
As Paulo Freire (1971) notes, oppressors cannot exist without their host’s consent. The oppressed internalize the image of the oppressor, and adopt his rules, becoming fearful of freedom. Freedom requires of them to eject this image and replace it with autonomy and responsibility.
WHY THIS GREAT AND ARDUOUS STRUGGLE?
What we have seen from past millennia is not a rise in civilization, but the rise of brutality and barbarism overcoming resistance movements led by such as Buddha, Tecumseh, Chitto Harjo, Sarah Winnemucca, Handsome Lake, and Emiliano Zapata.
~ JD Forbes 1973
First, it is because we would live, and not die killed by the State Power Machine.
Asked why the attempt to climb Mt. Everest, the pioneering mountaineer George Mallory said, “Because it’s there.” Thus does freedom’s quest beckon the human spirit – because it’s there – planted within our breasts by the Great Beneficence which has ordered this Universe in the harmonics of the spheres.
The quest for freedom is also the quest for beauty, and from this quest there can be no turning back. The realization of beauty is the touchstone of our humanity.
Freedom’s beauty is akin to the beauty of love, accompanied by its nigh unbearable ecstatic pain. The exalted beauty of the flower is in its gift freely given.
The beauty of freedom is so great that one cannot contemplate it without the pain of great longing to merge with it forever, and thus achieve Self Realization.
As in these lines modified from the Ecstasy of Saint Teresa di Avila, one’s body becomes itself the burning torch of freedom…
“An angel very beautiful and so aflame he seemed to be all on fire… and left me utterly consumed by the great love of God… The sweetness of this intense pain so extreme that one cannot wish it to cease nor is one’s soul content with anything else…”
Carrying this mind, we won’t be able to kill anyone, because we will recognize them as ourselves (T. Thalya, personal communication).
This freedom can be won only from a state of deep humility, accepting that I don’t know who I am, where I came from, where going, and therefore certainly possessing no right to tell another who he is.
“I am made wise by the knowledge that I am a fool.”
~ Dhammapada
CLOSING LINES OF AN AMERICAN WAR RESISTER IN EXILE
Camped at Dhangu Kharak ~ Jeff Knaebel, 2002
I once wore a three-piece suit and bid for contracts at the feet of Multinational Power and visited Washington and swam there in the sea of lies my dignity far beneath Himalaya’s simple shepherd as he offered in his work-worn hands a cup of tea for me his uninvited guest.
Eyes direct and honest broad smile beaming friendship sincere “Auram se” quietly said, “Take rest, brother.”
I know what I know from my own direct experience the change can happen only from the inside from quotidian introspection. It must be done one by one no other can do it for me nor I for any other.
Only this carnage may cause me to turn away in disgust at what we have become and thus to begin again the long inward journey to the One Source of all Compassion.
Our ultimate power is the profound legitimacy of our cause, the strength of our struggles, and the foundation of our organized communities.
~ Victoria Tauli-Corpuz (2006)
May you walk in beauty,
Catherine,
Enjoyed your latest interview on Jeff Rense. I am trying to take your advice, but I have a question:
What do you think of this journalists take on the current finance scene–that cash will be king very soon? –Thanks for any insight you can provide.
Sincerely,
Brian
From:
http://lamecherry.blogspot.com/2008/10/finance-explained-101-boa-effect.html
Finance explained 101: The Boa Effect
OK you want to make a western currency, so you make all the central banks of nations join into dumping money into the plunder by the Rothschild led cartel who stole all the money legally.
Next, you plunge markets to drive people’s savings from the markets where they sell and cash in. This cash then is available for the cartels to direct where they want it invested in so they can get their hands on it as cash is going to double in value in a year.
Also, you have the Fed cut interest rates to drive money out of savings accounts in banks coming out of the stock market so people put their money into the cartel’s investment plunder.
In all of this, gas prices are going down which means inflation will be going down, but all the media trumpets wall street constrictions to worry dolts so they swing votes will side with the nation rapist’s candidate, Barack Hussein Obama.
The fix is simple:
Do not put your money into gold or other investment nonsense.
I ask you to remember that the dollar is rising now from 30 cents on the dollar to what will be 60 cents in the near future in buying power. This is why the cartels want to relieve you of your money.
Now ask yourself, is any investment you are going to make going to double your money in a short time in buying power?
I will answer for you as you are in a mess and if you are reading this you don’t know dick about economics or investment. No, so keep your money. Put it into a secure local bank on short term CD’s in bulk, bonds if you like which are tax free where your money should have been all along and simply stop worrying and wait for the situation to level out.
The stock market was over valued and should have only been at 8000. So that is probably where it is naturally going.
That is your fix in the short term. In the mid term vote John McCain and Sarah Palin as they are going to provide the production fix in this.
In the long term, purchase a share of your stocks in your local nuclear power plants which are going to be built, stay out of debt, put money into tax free bonds and stop being herded by the money masters as this is the Boa Effect in their constantly inflating their snake body, grabbing idiots who invest their money in wrong places and the constricting the economy and the life out of citizens retirements.
Read it over a few times as it is free advice so it is not going to cost you anything and you can sleep at night knowing you were not part of Warren Buffett’s rapine as he gets his billions from other people loosing money…….you as in the other people.
Hi Catherine,
In the effort to reach out and communicate with more people, how about creating a network for artists, writers, actors and independent film producers? Take the next step from the wonderful documentaries we have seen online. We can create short movies about real solutions. They could be aired online on a daily or weekly format. Some version of your blog in video format would be an ideal way for information to go viral. Visually demonstrating the idea of “Where should I bank?” or “Do I know my farmer?” would catch attention quickly.
I noticed you put “The Screwtape Letters” on a list of suggested reading. I have often thought that it would make an excellent internet video series. It could be easily updated for current issues because the underlying themes are still the same. I would love to help write it. As a matter of fact, I’m sure a lot of writers and actors would want to participate too.
We could create music videos. We could have an internet (virtual) version of free theater in the park. We could hold internet (virtual) graffiti slams, similar to your bumper sticker blog (with rules of course). We could create ways for expressing feelings or examining feelings that lead to focusing on solving problems.
The links on the main issue pages are just about done folks. Kick the Economy page around for a preview. The directory of vetted resources spans government, media, public and private resources available to you on the net. Note the bottom right “voices” and other cool media, balanced with left, right, and non partisan – everything you need to keep on top if events. The module on the bottom left has great tips on growing and safety and a host of others. Click through. Enjoy. Be strong. We just need to network. This site will always be free and I hope you all spread the word. http://www.americanbraintrust.com/Economy.htm Have fun…By the way, conferences and live chat and webmeets are envisioned – humph, imagine if the entire 50 met for a daily visit, shared their thoughts and presented their ideas…we can do it. Just gotta get organized.
I just heard you on the Coast to Coast show with George Noory. Great comments. I heard your invitation to post our thoughts about the “bailout” so here they are:
STOP IT!!!!!!! Just STOP IT!!!!
This country, its people, its economy, and its sovereignty have been used, abused, and hijacked by a small group of “special interests” who insidiously plot and scheme as to how to keep us dumb, them smart, us delusionally poor and them rich.
We the people let this happen because we are kept placated and dumb and becuase we are led to beleive by the mainstram culture that no one else feels this way and there is nothing to do about it. Look at me!!! I am venting on a blog because I am too afraid to even bring this up to anyone because we have all been taught to believe that anyone that thinks like that is a conspiracy theorist and has faded value. Why do we deny obvious evidence and our intuition and eat up this malarky that the media blasts at us. We are told what to beleive in a scary way.
As far as the economic issues in this country and the world, we need to get to the fundamental issues that lie under all the hub-bub. Greed and dishonesty are allowed to be unchecked in the current system while accountability and resposibility are left for dead.
Discourage greed and dishonesty and encourage honesty and responsibility. It is as simple as that.
Thank you for allowing me to vent.
N
I heard your call for solutions to fixing the banking crisis on coast to coast
The main problem with the system is it’s fractional reserve nature and the ability to multiply money from nothing. So how do we back ourselves out of the system without creating a huge credit backflush?
I believe the easiest and least painful way to do this financially is a gradual return to 100% reserve requirements so that every dollar that is invested in a bank is all that can be loaned out. This will not only make everybody compete on the same playing field for capital but it means that banks can’t turn my dollars into 9 more dollars and lend them to my competitors to destroy me and my pricing power. It also means that lenders will have to cost out the true value of a project before lending the money out in order to ensure that the money will come back with interest. And of course last and probably best is that they will no longer be able to devalue the very currency that I put in their banks
We can’t go to 100% reserve requirements overnight though(we could but the withdrawal symptoms in the economy would probably be devastating) so it is probably best to raise them 10% per year or 5% per year until we are again at 100%. That will give the system time to adjust and drain the multiplication from the system in a more orderly manner
On another topic: strategic voting
I think the only way to get the people in power to listen is to get to a point where they are only allowed one term to do their job right. People have to get in to the habit of voting out all incumbents until the institutions run right again. It is better to have someone from the other party for one term than to have an incumbent who does not do your bidding for two or more terms. Until they once again fear the voter they will not obey the voter.
People may even want to move into the district of the longest term members in congress with a plan to vote them out. If you had a coordinated effort you could have band of people who moves around the country(maybe senior citizens who can rent in different areas) targeting the longest term members of congress in order to clean out the system
Dear Ms. Fitts,
I have listened to you on the radio and reviewed the Solari.com web-site. I believe your idea of regional, not national is an important one.
Firstly, are you considering a larger organization to promote your idea’s in a larger domain?
Secondly, are you aware of the Communitarian movement. It uses many of your concepts only to the end of subjugation not freedom. I would think you would want to take care with “branding” in this case.
If you are considering a “movement” to promote your ideas, I would be glad to help.
I wanted to direct to inquiry to Catherine Austin Fitts — I wanted to know a list of recommended books on learning about High Finance such as US deriative markets, Federal Reserve and the fundamentals of the concepts of the current financial crisis.
Thank you
Catherine,
Here is my proposal to the many many problems that we face in the United States.
My proposal is, to have everyone represent their own self, and do away with our current method of representative government.
Simply put, I will represent myself, you will represent yourself, and each individual in America will represent their own self.
Clearly, this does not change the fact that we will still have a Democratic Government.
But what is changed, is the means or method that we use to achieve Democracy.
Because, I think that regardless of any truly brilliant and well thought out plan or plans that are devised to solve America’s economic crisis and other problems, they will forever be blocked by the powers that currently control our politicians.
Until the people of American establish a government, that is of the people, and by the people, and for the people, the enormous pressures of the controlling centralized powers that currently reside over our economic system and our politicians, will continue to do whatever it wants.
It is my concern, I think it is also yours, as well as many others, that there will continue to be more and more measures sought by these controlling centralized powers, to tighten its grip around everything possible to assume more control.
As I see it, our current representative government and politicians do not represent the people of America, nor could they even if they wanted to.
I can’t emphasize enough, the importance of people waking up, and taking the time to consider the importance of taking their power and their right to make their own decisions into their own hands, by doing away with representative government, and choosing to represent themselves.
We live in a era where technology has made it possible for quite some time now, for people to represent themselves. It’s no longer the horse and buggy days.
Communication and the conveyance of information is almost instantaneous.
We are living on the threshold of disaster, and I believe that the hero or heroes that will save us, is ourselves!
To think that you and I, and each one of us, could actually make our own decisions count, based on listening and acting on the advice of wise, informed, dedicated, experienced, knowledgeable, and sincere individuals and groups, what a concept!
This is so very possible and the implications are staggering, in terms of the positive, and creatively incredibly wonderful future that we could create for ourselves.
Of course we have some seriously hard work ahead of ourselves to get there. But with the pooling of minds and resources, it is more than possible.
However, as it currently stands, we have no choice but to live with what will be dished out to us. Is this the American way? Is this Liberty and Justice for all?
I think not. How many others are moved by these times in which we live, to realize that we do have within our means, the possibility of making our vote truly count?
How do we go about implementing a government based on people representing themselves? I honestly do not know, but count me in on doing whatever I can to make it happen, because I do not see any other way.
Sincerely,
Kim
Hi Catherine . . .last night on C2C I listened attentively to you, Andy Gause, and callers obviously mad, frustrated, and at an empasse for formulating a workable solution to the proposed bailout legislation.
My thought, simply, is we are not without a collective voice IF . . .a capital IF you will organize and form an action committee as, for example, lobbyists that have untold, but obvious clout with all segments of government. We desperately need a voice in Washington, and as you well know, united we stand. . .divided we fall. Need I say more?
I am willing to wager that given the opportunity, you will find unlimited financial support to organize, direct, and apply the measures necessary to attract all levels of federal and local governments to the will of the people. Please, I implore you to give the foregoing some thought.
Walter M. Napijalo
Catherine, I was on a conference call tonight and volunteered to contact you I’m merely want to alert you to a movement getting started. They are trying to promote Fed awareness. http://www.endthefed.us/
I appreciate all you do and have shown your videos and audio’s to groups in my home.
Jack in Texas
You might find this interesting.
MOVIE: In Debt We Trust
http://snagfilms.com/films/title/in_debt_we_trust/
In America’s earliest days, there were barn-raising parties in which neighbors helped each other build up their farms. Today, in some churches, there are debt liquidation revivals in which parishioners chip in to free each other from growing credit card debts that are driving American families to bankruptcy and desperation. ‘In Debt We Trust’ is the latest film from Danny Schechter, “The News Dissector,” director of the internationally distributed and award-winning WMD (Weapons of Mass Deception), an expose of the media’s role in the Iraq War. The Emmy-winning former ABC News and CNN producer’s new hard-hitting documentary investigates why so many Americans are being strangled by debt. It is a journalistic confrontation with what former Reagan advisor Kevin Phillips calls “Financialization”–the “powerful emergence of a debt-and-credit industrial complex.” While many Americans may be “maxing out” on credit cards, there is a deeper story: power is shifting into fewer hands. And with frightening consequences.
Lady Austin, I was glad to have the oppertunity to hear you on C2C the past eve.
I have often had the idea (long before) the”Wall Street” smoke and mirror game.
What if and of course you would need a trustworthy person to handle this and keep the
Govt out of it. We can add a small surcharge to every sporting event. Take it from High school prep games to the pros, we all love and have our favorite sports events now no we all cannot attend every thing we wish but it could and can add up quick. Yes it could take a yr or two but the monies are coming from the workong people and the white collar mngt as well as the immagrants as well.This would eliminate the call for borrowing the money as I have always believed that the extreme amounts of funds they are talking about is all on paper never in circulation if it were we all would have enough to spend and lend world wide.
We all know that we are going to borrow this bad debt but in the future we could see how to keep the funding in our own back yard so to speak.
The populus is wanting to rid ourselves from overseas dependancy on fuel and etc. We also need to rid ourselves of borrowing tactics as well.Everyone following the news is in an uproar over the middle class and lower will have to bail out these folks we are trusting our retirement as well as banking for everyday use and they make these bad choices time to find the honest hard working persons that are not consumed but greed and power.
I really also believe that it is all part of a bigger plan that only the “powers that be” behide all this are trying to crash tha small banks, to usher in this One World Bank,One Worls Govt,Have you seen the “Amero”currancy yet?It has been said that all this is part to crash the us dollar to the equal of the peso so then the US,CA<Mex can have their own new currancy to match the “euro”
Thank you for your time.
Allan
Let’s think about this ….
The Birk Economic Recovery Plan
I’m against the $85,000,000,000.00 bailout of AIG.
Instead, I’m in favor of giving $85,000,000,000 to America in a We Deserve It Dividend.
To make the math simple, let’s assume there are 200,000,000 bonafide U.S. Citizens 18+.
Our population is about 301,000,000 +/- counting every man, woman and child. So 200,000,000 might be a fair stab at adults 18 and up..
So divide 200 million adults 18+ into $85 billion that equals $425,000.00.
My plan is to give $425,000 to every person 18+ as a We Deserve It Dividend.
Of course, it would NOT be tax free.
So let’s assume a tax rate of 30%.
Every individual 18+ has to pay $127,500.00 in taxes.
That sends $25,500,000,000 right back to Uncle Sam.
But it means that every adult 18+ has $297,500.00 in their pocket.
A husband and wife has $595,000.00.
What would you do with $297,500.00 to $595,000.00 in your family?
Pay off your mortgage – housing crisis solved.
Repay college loans – what a great boost to new grads
Put away money for college – it’ll be there
Save in a bank – create money to loan to entrepreneurs.
Buy a new car – create jobs
Invest in the market – capital drives growth
Pay for your parent’s medical insurance – health care improves
Enable Deadbeat Dads to come clean – or else
Remember this is for every adult U S Citizen 18+ including the folks who lost their jobs at Lehman Brothers and every other company that is cutting back. And of course, for those serving in our Armed Forces.
If we’re going to re-distribute wealth let’s really do it…instead of trickling out a puny $1000.00 ( ‘vote buy’ ) economic incentive that is being proposed by one of our candidates for President.
If we’re going to do an $85 billion bailout, let’s bail out every adult U S Citizen 18+!
As for AIG – liquidate it.
Sell off its parts.
Let American General go back to being American General.
Sell off the real estate.
Let the private sector bargain hunters cut it up and clean it up.
Here’s my rationale. We deserve it and AIG doesn’t.
Sure it’s a crazy idea that can ‘never work.’
But can you imagine the Coast-To-Coast Block Party!
How do you spell Economic Boom?
I trust my fellow adult Americans to know how to use the $85 Billion
We Deserve It Dividend more than I do the geniuses at AIG or in Washington DC
And remember, The Birk plan only really costs $59.5 Billion because $25.5 Billion is returned instantly in taxes to Uncle Sam.
Ahhh…I feel so much better getting that off my chest.
Kindest personal regards,
Birk
T. J. Birkenmeier, A Creative Guy & Citizen of the Republic
PS: Feel free to pass this along to your pals as it’s either good for a laugh or a tear or a very sobering thought on how to best use $85 Billion!!
Catherine, I spoke to you on Coast to Coast a few weeks ago. I am the Person that has a plan to stop this foreclosure epidemic before it worsens, and it will.
The Plan I have has been reviewed by Executives in the Bank of America at top levels. The information I received back was “it is a good plan that will work”.
I would like to Fax you the plan but can not find your Fax number. Could you send your Fax number to cptdes2000@yahoo.com ?
I have sent the plan to The Senate Finance Comm,, Nancy Pilowski,Senator Jon Kyl, with a request that He share it with McCain. I am going to be sending it to the Mayor of Chandler who will look at it and review it with Banks etc.
Please contact me with your Fax number, I know this plan will help Americans and the other plans we have will help ALL AMERICANS. Please Catherine, if you can, call me at 480-206-6590
Michael OReilly
Bring back the UNITED STATES NOTE Read history at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Note
Found this at: http://www.depression2.tv/d2/node/211
From Failout To Bailout: How To Shut Down The Fed
View Track
Wed, 10/01/2008 – 17:50 — rich2010
How to turn the Failout of the Banksters into a Bailout of the American Taxpayer.
So, by now fellow taxpayer, you are asking yourself how to solve the credit crisis without bankrupting yourself and your fellow taxpayers. The Grin Reaper is here to help, first let’s start with some facts shall we?
1) In 1913 the Federal Reserve was created by a coterie of private international bankers as described by G. Edward Griffen in his book The Creature from Jekyll Island: A Second Look at the Federal Reserve.
Over the last 95 years the Federal Reserve, which is neither Federal nor does it have any reserves has taken out the US national debt as profit for it’s “services” of printing money from thin air and charging you the taxpayer to “borrow” it. The establishment of the Federal Reserve has no basis in the United States Constitution.
2) The current credit crisis was initially caused by the inability of debtors, in the face of increasing payments and decreasing property values, to service the mortgages that they have taken on. It has been greatly exacerbated by the development of $1 Quadrillion in financial derivatives built on these mortgages, as well as car and student loans.
3) The Federal Reserve, together with the US Treasury and the International Banksters that control the world’s central banks have dumped $1.8 Trillion of liquidity into the credit markets over the last 1 1/2 years to little or no avail in terms of easing the credit crisis.
Observing these facts, it is apparent that:
1) No solution to the credit crisis will succeed without stabilizing the real estate market. Throwing more “liquidity” at the troubled banks will do no more than prop us up until the inevitable day of reckoning. Thus the credit crisis is not a result of liquidity, rather it is one of SOLVENCY.
2) The taxpayer has no constitutional responsibility to bailout the Federal Reserve and it’s banks from their self-imposed insolvency.
3) The Failout represents nothing more than a recapitalization of insolvent banks because they loaned money to individuals who are unable to pay it back.
The BIG question is, how do we do it? The Grin Reaper’s answer?
The Federal Reserve Banks should be seized by Congress under Article 1 Section 8 of the Constitution. The FED banks could survive as clearinghouse banks, but the Federal Reserve, that has robbed the American people for 95 years, would cease to exist. The debt owed by the American people to the FED banks would be discharged in bankruptcy. Congress would take monetary policy from the FED and would simply stand in place of the FED through a monetary board. The FED credit computers would be transferred to Congress who would issue new credit (money), because under our present system 97% of all money originates as credit. This new credit would keep the system going and prevent collapse. It could all be done without interest and without debt. The backs of the international banking cartel would be broken forever (or at least until they could regroup in a generation or two and re-engineer the 4th Central Bank of the United States), and the American people through their elected representatives would control monetary policy (i.e. money in circulation, interest rates, and credit availability.)
As a side benefit to elimination of the Federal Reserve, we the people can demand the repeal of the 16th Amendment to the US Constitution, and eliminate the Federal income tax, which was established to service the national debt “owed” to the private cartel of international banksters. Elimination of the Federal income tax will put more money in the pockets of individual taxpayers and free them from the debtors prison without bars that the current US administration, and the private international banking cartel, has constructed for them.
It’s a plan you can take to the Banksters!
Grin and Reap my friends.
Greetings,
I am a webmaster from Youngstown, Ohio and am developing a project for America. The site is coming along nicely. Here are the permanent links. 50 States Individual Pages and remainder of the Main Issue Pages this Month of October. Feedback, Suggestions, Constructive Criticisms welcome. I’ll need help specifically with advertising.
Look, our founding documents can be studied, read and heard here. You can research the issues and blog ideas or simply just research and learn. I believe it is vital to our future. The resources are free and vetted for lewdness and the like. I have safeguard links to and much for consumer info. Click through and see the concept.
The new tutorial page http://www.americanbraintrust.com/howtouseab.htm is about the guts of it and the navigation of it on the right. Tips for doing so included. Designed so novice users can access and use.
No site is ever complete but this directory is certainly American Metal. Take it from a kid grew up in Steel City, USA – Youngstown, OH. Grew up watching those flames out my bedroom window. They severed our veins in the late 70s – was playing catch with my little brother when they destroyed our blast furnaces with ferocious, merciless force.
We can do this together. We just need to get organized and on the same page. Voting, donating, education, civic duty, helpful resources from public, private, and government resources. History, our past achievements and our promising future.
There is a lot to be proud of, a lot that we can do. Each of U.S. in The Fifty. I’m working hard and fast. I put contact on each page for feedback. Take a look. It’s better than what’s on T.V. and I promise you will wind up exploring yourself into a whole new reality of information, learning and discovery.
Whadda ya waitin’ for – get clicking…Let’s light those fires again. Who says we can’t trade and build and support industry apart from the current system? Indiana with Oregon, Utah with Alabama and so on. I don’t know bout you all, but I don’t feel right seeing Garlic on the shelves of my local market from China. Huh? Across the board we can do it. We can do it. Networking is the key. I believe in U.S. Might not mean a whole lot. But I believe in U.S.
Splash Page: http://www.americanbraintrust.com/
Home Page: http://www.americanbraintrust.com/AmericanBraintrust.htm
Main States Portal: http://www.americanbraintrust.com/50States.htm
Enjoy the resources.
Any Questions, Comments, Advice or Constructive Criticisms welcome.
GBTUSA
Thanks,
Ronnie Gura
Youngstown, OH
American Braintrust Webmaster
The PRE-PLANNED Financial/Economic 911 of 2008
WHAT: A pre-planned collapse of the US (and global) financial and economic systems.
WHO: The same characters who perpetrated the original 911.
WHERE: New York City & DC, of course. Plus a sideshow in Washington state.
WHEN: The days surrounding September 11, naturally.
HOW: Instead of painted drones, missiles with wings & big fins, and fake airplanes, they used the much more stealthy short seller.
WHY: To remake the economic/financial order of the world into a “PPP”.
WHY Really: Think about it ! And then ask yourself, “Cui bono?”
The 911 blueprint worked so magically for the world controllers that they were compelled to use virtually the same playbook. “If it ain’t broke, why fix it?
So, what’s the real deal here?
By analogy, let’s take a quick look at the 911 timeline and stack it up against the new 2008 Financial “911”, as it began to unfold earlier this year.
1. The Bear Stearns collapse that began in March 2008 is analogous to the 1st World Trade Center bombing in 1993. Just a warm up. This was preceded by a little failure back in January featuring Countrywide – the largest US mortgage lender.
2. The nationalization of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac marks the beginning of the new 911. Both in the DC area, they were the first to come down this time. Just as they struck at the heart of the military complex, this time they went for the jugular of the national real estate market. Remember – this is a financial 911.
3. Next came this year’s version of the twin towers, building 7 and other assorted NYC landmarks in the form of Lehman Brothers, AIG, Merrill Lynch, as well as Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs in their “new & improved” form. Basically took out the whole of American investment brokerage, heh?!
4. And, of course, we still have Washington Mutual out there in the boonies just like the one that “crashed” in a PA farm field. Update: WashMu is now history! As is another “little” bank by the name of Wachovia.
5. Their MO! What else, but controlled demolition? Throughout 2008, and especially this month of September, we have seen some of the world’s largest banks, brokerage houses, mortgage lenders, insurance companies and investment brokers go bust, as each of them fell perfectly into their own footprint faster than you can say: C O N T R O L L E D D E M O L I T I O N ! ! !
6. The 700 billion dollar Bailout Plan is just like the Patriot Act, isn’t it? Only this time it’s maybe a 1 or 2 page document (in its original form) that conferred absolute authority on the Executive Branch to do just about anything they want with the taxpayer’s money. And they want it rubber stamped now. Not tomorrow. NOW!!! Without discussion, or unnecessary congressional debate. Talk about Shock & Awe being used against the American people, and their elected representatives!?! “The Greatest Depression” never sounded more like “Weapons of Mass Destruction”, eh?!?!
7. Now we know we can expect further gyrations, panics and precipitous declines in the market and elsewhere, just as we had anthrax attacks in the Capital, beltway snipers in Maryland in October of ’02, the 3/11/04 train bombings in Madrid, and the 7/7/05 bombings in London. Not to mention the 50+ other synthetic terror events staged throughout the world to enforce compliance and create distraction.
8. The sudden and dramatic downfall of NY Gov Eliot Spitzer can also now be seen in its proper light. Having left the reservation one too many times, he simply could not be trusted to go with the flow. He had their numbers, their signatures (especially their MO’s), their addresses — the whole ball of wax, as well as his own reputation to burnish. Eliot, to seal his fate, wrote a masterful expose on the subprime mortgage fiasco/fraud that was published in the WashPo just weeks before his public humiliation. He had recently testified before Congress in great revelatory fashion as well. The elimination of John O’Neil, Head of Security at the WTC complex, is quite similar, except that John O. – a great patriot – died on 911, having just been given the job.
9. To date, the most obvious and glaring example of this manipulated takedown is the case of a NY Senator. His letter to the FDIC contained confidential information that triggered the IndyMac bank collapse in July. California AG Jerry Brown was called to review the entire affair after the OTS Director explicitly blamed the letter for causing a run on the bank (3rd largest bank failure in US history). This episode is eerily reminiscent of Larry Silverstein’s order to, “Pull it.” just prior to the expertly controlled demolition of Building # 7on 911.
10. Just as 911 was perpetrated as a cover for: inaugurating the War on Terror, overtly advancing the NWO regime globally (in contrast to this previously covert operation), imposing a police state (Homeland Security) in the US (by gutting the US Constitution), UK and elsewhere, dominating and securing oil/gas reserves in the Middle East and Cacaucus (to include running energy pipelines through Afghanistan and stealing Iraq’s oil wealth via military invasion), jump starting the Afghan opium trade, etc., the ECO/FIN 911 of ’08 is a cover for many of these same agenda items. However, there is one little item that is particularly high on the current agenda. And that concerns the derivatives market, which in its totality approximates somewhere between 750 trillion and 1 quadrillion dollars of instruments as of 2008. In fact, the sub prime mortgage defaults are just a tip of the tip of the iceberg when compared to the real megilla – DERIVATIVES. This is what they’re really worried about, and having to cover for. Except this is a quadrillion dollar megilla that can’t be covered without unraveling the entire capitalistic system, and its fascist corpocracy and kleptocratic oligarchy.
11. And then there is the teenie-weenie matter concerning the Federal Reserve, and its collection agency – the IRS. The man standing behind this curtain has a lot at stake, especially in the form of mountains of evidence that will indict, and convict, the entire system. Lots of evidence was destroyed during and after 911, as will happen after many of these Wall Street firms are taken over, nationalized, liquidated, merged and disappeared. The veil, however, has already been lifted.
Does anyone see a pattern here?!
The real lesson to be gleaned from this analysis is that events of such enormity and consequence are rarely spontaneous and unchoreographed. Especially when they happen just weeks from an era defining presidential election. They have obviously been planning this one for a long time, and it has been fastidiously engineered to have a very definite effect and desired outcome – a permanent planetary plantation (PPP).
The execution, thus far, has been flawless. Even for those of us who stood there on the 1st 911, and knew it was a fraud while the buildings were coming down, this one is exceedingly more difficult to penetrate. However, penetrate we will, until every last conspirator is sitting before the TRUTH AND RECONCILIATION COMMISSION spillin’ the beans. The ultimate and lasting effect of these inquiries will be a New World Order of our making, not theirs. The only remaining, $64,000 question will undoubtedly be, “What do we do with them after we head them off at the pass?”
For the uninitiated, it may take quite a lot to wrap your mind around this extremely complex and convoluted plot, but, please, just be patient. As this drama plays out, the true intentions of the primary perpetrators will become manifest as they unwittingly reveal themselves by their handiwork. As Eliot Spitzer, no – Eliot Ness, nee – Sherlock Holmes once alluded to – a fingerprint inadvertently left as evidence is impossible to erase.
You see, the short sellers, unlike the “airplanes”, are still with us. Each one had a target to take down which they did with amazing speed and dexterity. And the myriad transactions that converged to topple their prey are all preserved somewhere, in some huge database, with multiple backups to serve as confirmation of trades of staggering amounts. AHHH! Nothing like computers, especially when they’re not confiscated and shipped off to China for permanent disposal.
May all financial wizards and economic soothsayers, henceforth, be inspired to stare into their crystal ball and divine the upcoming financial and economic events of global proportions with the keenest of acumen and sleuthing. As we shine the LIGHT of our collective awareness on these rapidly unfolding schemes, we will serve as beacons of revelation, and hope to the world.
Remember – we now know the script. We know the major players involved. We know their MO: Controlled Demolition. We are able to watch the crimes being commit-
ted in real time. Each of us has now been thusly notified, and empowered, to serve as a vector of dissemination of this critical information. So —–> LET’S GET BUSY ! ! !
T. Anthony Michael 9/22/08
TAnthonyMichael@gmail.com
Permission is expressly granted to copy, email, scan, attach, forward or post this article.
Special Message to the Market Oracles and Money Masters of the Universe
Our “PRE-PLANNED” scenario delineated above in no way ignores the true state of the national economy, international finance or global economic picture. In fact we are, and have been, fully cognizant of the fact that the true state of every market – real estate, equity, bond, commodities, currency, derivative, etc. has been in shambles for many years, just waiting for the Perfect Storm to come around and blow it all away.
It has been obvious to many of us that each of these markets have operated according to the whim of a very few individuals with extremely concentrated power to manipulate. Therefore, all markets can be artificially inflated, as we have seen time and time again. Likewise, they can be artificially deflated, sometimes rather quickly for effect, as we have seen. “The Invisible Hand” of the market is just that – a very carefully hidden hand that makes a complete and total mockery of every economic and financial theory ever advanced. Time for a lot of us to accept this fact of modern economic life.
Perhaps we should now take off our blinders and admit that while, yes, all of the indicators are, and have been, there for a catastrophic economic meltdown & financial cataclysm, these events are still completely controllable. All of us have seen bubble after bubble grow and balloon, and merge and overlap, and inextricably interpenetrate each other, until all we have is one massive bubble ready to pop. But, when will it pop?! It will pop when the confidence level is sufficiently undermined by the very same MEDIA that controls the flow of the relevant information. And who, pray tell, controls the media, if not the Invisible Hand? Clearly, the real Market Oracles are not a part of that MSM juggernaut. Therefore, it is incumbent upon each oracle to get it right, since they are the very best sources of pertinent financial and economic data/information.
The inevitability of self destructive capitalism does not preclude the process of controlled destruction. As the system eats itself, there are those who are eaten, and those who eat. We are witnessing this devolution in living color, as we both write and read these words. The “strong” at the top of the pyramid have always done the eating, as the “weak” at the bottom provide the bone for the stew. The only major difference at this particular, and final, feast is that the internet has allowed for an unprecedented explosion of true and accurate information in real time. Therefore, the playing field has been leveled like never before. The little guy or gal, for the first time ever, has the opportunity to take back a little, or a lot, of his/her power (WEALTH), should he/she so choose.
Even as the Wall Street gangs team up with the opportunistic political class, as well as the numerous corporate/legal jackals and lobby parasites, to effectuate the most massive redistribution of wealth (aka in your face THEFT) in recorded history, something has profoundly and fundamentally changed. There is a dynamic at work which can alter the game just enough to potentially turn the pyramid upside down. This, however, requires a no nonsense, “look in the mirror with raw honesty” approach. Then we (the oracles) will not deign to render a judgment that is not fully baked. And the recommendations we make are more likely to be issued in the best interest of ALL, especially for those who are in a position of class disadvantage, financial ignorance or structured powerlessness.
So, we have made it clear that all the forces have been put into place for the upcoming monetary apocalypse. But even these forces are controlled, each and every one of them, all the way up to the top. It’s probably a very good time to contemplate just who it is that resides at the peak of the global financial decision-making process. And, their agenda ?!?
Winter House
Amos 3:15 “And I will smite the winter house with the summer house, and the houses of ivory shall perish, and the great houses shall have an end.”
Yosef sat before the fire, a storyteller beneath Tcha Ti Mon Wi, the place where the spirits gather. It had been long since one so adept had recorded a story in stone for future generations. The stones in the medicine wheel lay flattened in a spiral, the opposite of the spiral energy from stars arrayed above. As the coals in the pit glowed, the rock was ready to receive those images that any seeker could invoke.
He began: When a warrior challenges his enemy, he must first warn of his intention. That is a law of this universe. In the Twenty First century of haste, the Aristocrats knew this law, but had forgotten one small detail, a detail so important that all the warrior would attempt rested upon its premise. Thirty-one years before, he had arrived on October 18th, 1987 as a glittering sword to the Old Men Rockefellers. Their mansion was upon a knoll overlooking Sleepy Hollow to the west, and New York City to the south. The warrior approached along the Seven Bridges Trail. He greeted each bird and plant in his passing. Within, he observed youthful lust still lingering from his home in White Plains. He sat quietly in meditative pose facing the Rockefeller mansion several miles distant. Rothschilds were the power behind the Rockefellers, though that was scarcely important in this point in time. As he stilled, a four-point buck approached, acknowledging the warrior. The man then stood, moving along more public trails toward the mansion. Ladies and gentlemen sat their carriages, and others rode their horse solitary.
Off to the left a field of corn was being harvested. Crows were raucously vying for the leavings. Above them, a red-tailed hawk soared, circling over the approaching warrior, and passing toward the mansion. His attention was focused upon a large double-trunked maple, in its golden glory. Quietly moving behind the tree where no one could see, he began to invoke an ancient ritual. Trees record the history of a land, but unlike stones, can only preserve it for the span of their life. He saw over two centuries, the rise of Rockefeller power, drawing from the land, to wage war with commerce. The verdict: guilty.
Hearing the galloping of a horse, he came from his trance. To the west were public lands. Behind the maple, where he stood, was a wrought iron gate, open into the private Rockefeller estate. A young woman glanced from the horse, asking of his health.
“I am fine, thank you,” he replied. In a matter of seconds, during this exchange, she galloped by into the estate. In fact this was a psychic communication, not subject to the strictures of time. The next day, the stock market crashed in one of its largest declines in recent memory. They had been warned.
The President of the United States, George W. Bush, was a complete and utter incompetent. He had one gift – a folksy delivery. That was the reason the Rothschilds at the Bank for International Settlements in Basle had chosen George. Inwardly, they fumed at his address. “The damn fool kept rubbing the mike and creaks and groans accompanied each statement as it was delivered live to the Nation.” Any psychoactive piggybacking of his address was successfully countered by this miscue. This was the moment they had carefully orchestrated through Henry Paulson, the U.S. Secretary of Treasure, and Ben Bernanke, the Federal Reserve chairman. The nation must be convinced that $700 billion was needed to keep the nation afloat. Most had forgotten Catherine Austin Fitts, the meddling chick financier, who blew the whistle two years before. The Rothschilds had let her story remain public because the relevant information was buried in Chapter 9 of a 125-page diatribe.
The warrior remembered. On September 25, 2008, the day after the President’s address, he carefully extracted the relevant passage – $.7 trillion missing from HUD – unaccounted for. This was the bribe money Rothschilds had used to position themselves in the U.S., stolen directly from U.S. taxpayers, and now Congress was being herded to convince the public to pay for their sins.
What Rothschilds had forgotten was the warning thirty-one years before. Of course they had noted an adept, but had forgotten with the passage of time. That same warrior had remained debt free beyond the finely meshed scheme by financiers to embed everyone within the sin of greed. The warrior was allowed to speak with Power according to the Laws of the Universe. Like the Rothschilds secure in their European chateaus, the warrior lived far distant from the chaos of New York City. As he sat upon Tcha Ti Mon Wi, he reflected on this journey, embedding the images within the heated rocks.
Ironic, that it would be the very stones crying out that would bring the Aristocrats to their knees. They had sought to destroy the lifeforce of the Earth before its time. Now they must vanish in smoke. The prophecy in Amos foretold this with certainty. The winter house in Hebrew meant the autumn house of harvest. The harvest had just been completed where the warrior lived beneath Tcha Ti Mon Wi. The house of ivory in one translation meant houses of man. Would humans or just the Aristocrats be forced to leave Earth? That remained uncertain.
Carefully, layer upon layer, the warrior typed the story onto the Internet, contacting presidential contender Obama, his campaign headquarters, and regional offices. Others were networked as well, a Chinese intelligence officer for the CIA, a financier, and business adviser stretching across the portal of the Internet – speaking Truth to power. The bluff of Bush to stampede the cattle into one more acceptance of theft was revealed. Congress would not pass the bailout of $700 billion.
Peter
Tap the county employee’s retirement plan money’s which are segregated to the county level in some states, and develop a track record of investing this within the same county or at least same region of the street.
Catherine might want to put this in perspective. The Tapeworm mechanism has been a part of the American landscape as far back as the Constitution and even George Washington blessed it by making an early tapeworm’s major architect an appointee to the Supreme Court. It is so acceptable in DC because the history is long and deep.
You might want to read this article by Michael Hudson. What’s changed is the degree and of course the danger thanks to OTC derivatives.
http://www.counterpunch.com/hudson09232008.html
A Cautionary Tale About Politicos and Financiers
Henry Paulson and the New Yazoo Land Scandal
By MICHAEL HUDSON
With the upcoming election and all of the confusing and troublesome events in the financial markets and economy, I decided to release some of the results of research I have done over many years. I am releasing this so that Americans can better understand what is happening and hopefully find it useful for their own personal decisions. I am also releasing it so that people of other countries can also understand what is happening and better understand the bizarre behavior of the United States these last years.
Catherine, I love the quality of your work.
Here are the links:
The link to the webpage is:
http://www.classicsoftware.com/signalspace/newcycle.htm
A link to a pdf file is :
http://www.classicsoftware.com/signalspace/newcycle.pdf
You can get to the pdf from the web page as well.
Sincerely,
Ed Moran
Signal Space, Inc.
Dear Catherine,
As I move to a small town in western Washington in another two weeks,
thoughts of what is to come for this country flood my mind and I, like so
many others, am deeply concerned.
I have never had much of a stomach for politics but that may all be changing now.
Long story short, one of the first ways I would like to enter the
political arena is by writing a letter to, say, both the governor of the
state and the mayor of the town I will be moving to. I have no hope for
the federal government at the moment and only some hope for state
government. Thus, my concentration will be on the governing powers of my
own “neighborhood” for now (with a letter to the governor for “good
measure”).
What I would like the letter to do is essentially explain to the
powers-that-be how our current economy really works and then explain how
it NEEDS to work, both for the sake of continuity and simple integrity. (I
would like, for example, to introduce and push for the concept of local
currency.) The only problem with this endeavour is that, in spite of
(what I would consider) my above average intelligence, I haven’t the
slightest clue as to what to say.
The letter I would end up writing:
Dear Governor/Mayor X,
Our economy is really corrupt. We need to change that. One way we could do
that is by having local currency. Can we put this plan into action?
Sincerely,
Dufus
Would you mind writing a form letter that has many more “teeth” to it,
much more substance (but which is still understandable to those without a
PhD), and maybe posting it on your website for others to use as well?
Something that provides all the necessary details but which us “little
people” could also “tweak” a little bit here and there, in keeping with
our own local situation and personal thoughts and so forth?
I THINK that would be a really helpful way for grassroots movements to
really get something going unto saving at least their local economies, if
not their state’s also, and I would be forever endebted to you if you
could do me this favor. 🙂
Thank you so much for all that you do for God and country. It is so
necessary and very much appreciated.
Greg Beattie
Seattle, Washington
Permaculture Community Investment Bank
The following is an idea for setting up a local Investment Bank that would finance small business start-ups under a Brand such as “Permaculture Enterprise Network.” This Bank would provide training and mentoring for its borrowers, as well as an ethical basis for its businesses: “Earth care, people care, fair share,” from Bill Mollison’s “Permaculture, A Designer’s Manual”(1988). Permaculture is a way of designing place-based ecological economies. It is capable of providing sustainable water, soil, food, fuel, and shelter while generating community along the way. Permaculture is intelligence-dense and capital-light. It is a whole systems approach to designing environmentally regenerative support structures for human nurturance.
Under the Bank’s auspices, business plans would be written by prospective owners for specialties such as rainwater harvesting, edible landscaping, firesafing, alternative energy, fertility and energy crops from marginal lands, water sequestration using earthworks for ponds, swales and keylining, aquaculture, natural building, sustainable forestry, constructed wetlands for wastewater treatment, small scale dairies, food processing and preservation, among other things. These are basic capacities that make a place prosperous –capacities that add up to real productivity and local security.
There are many proven techniques, not difficult to master, that young people willing to work, could pick up and get good at. The Bank would sponsor the basic permaculture design certification course, an established 72-hour curriculum with a hands-on design project pass-fail requirement, which would be a prerequisite for a basic business management course in which students would learn to write, with expert coaching, the well-thought-out, customized-to-place business plan most appropriate to their abilities. The Bank would retain majority ownership and provide ongoing mentoring for enterprises selected for support until the business passed a financial assessment proving viability, whereupon, with ample cash flow, the owner could realistically buy out and become fully independent. Maintenance contracts for installed systems, since many of the techniques are new, would be a common feature offered, providing ongoing employment and developing experience until systems maintenance for these new approaches has become as familiar and mainstream as maintenance of private autos, septic systems, lawns, homes, and major appliances are today.
The Bank, in its function as small business incubator, would provide bookkeeping and marketing services for its start-ups. These are the tasks business-owners starting out have the hardest time with. The Bank would provide training, loans for equipment (each start-up not very capital-intensive), mentoring, legal services, accounting, as well as customers for each new business. The moral support supplied by such an arrangement would be a powerful insulator against the high failure rate common to small business starts in the mainstream economy.
The Bank, in its function as promoter of permaculture solutions, would lobby local government to remove regulatory obstacles. It would set up specially permitted model projects to demonstrate quality standards. It would obtain economies of scale in purchasing materials and equipment. It would coordinate flows, one enterprise’s waste becoming fuel for another’s production. It would also help with allocating labor between enterprises seasonally as needed. The different specialties once launched, might form their own associations, interact with experts in their fields, sponsor research, and nurture ongoing innovation in their area of expertise. Competencies would be developed and best practices established.
The Bank would be a conduit for philanthropy as well as a source of information about available subsidies and tax credits. In its function as an investment vehicle, The Bank would provide a secure home for local investors to place their money into shares of locally productive, visible hard assets generating income streams. In its function as holder of an ethical mission, The Bank would assure the customers of its protégés monitored, high quality services. As a part of its ethical mission, The Bank would demonstrate financial transparency, for the purpose of building trust.
An apprenticeship program would develop ongoing expertise. It would provide a sense of belonging to a challenging and meaningful mission as well as a structure to stimulate inventiveness among the young. People care services could be integrated with these activities, such as child care, allowing adults in their most productive years maximum convenience and peace of mind as they work.
In the current economy people are losing their jobs, just as a great deal of work needs to be done to get alternative support systems in place. The time for this is ripe. Due to the hole made in the mainstream economy by a falling house of cards, state and local governments, pension funds, financial institutions, even the federal government, are rapidly becoming insolvent and are already being forced to cut services. It looks like communities are going to be left on their own. Investment vehicles that only a year or two ago were fine, now seem uncertain: stocks and bonds, real estate, even bank accounts no longer seem as secure as they once were. Investment in real-world productivity, building local skills and basic self-reliance using the best knowledge available, would leverage investors’ assets into practical systems for maximum community-based long term security.
The organization described here could start with where we are today, doing those projects which are legal, productive, and financially viable now, while remaining observant, adaptable, and open to evolutions as conditions change. It could safeguard an ethical basis for ecological human nurturance. Permaculture’s whole systems perspective is capable of revealing efficiencies which can then be designed in to highly effective systems for prosperity in a given place.
The Bank would also be an appropriate venue for the creation of a LETS –Local Energy Trading System: an alternative currency. Once a community of small businesses got production for local needs up and running, a local currency could protect an area from inflation, deflation, supply disruptions, and failures in the existing financial system. In prosperous areas, the network of businesses would be integrated with the regular cash economy, and evolve as needed. In low income areas with high unemployment, it could operate under work-trade or other types of barter arrangements.
This is an idea that is not very hard to do, not very expensive, can start small and grow, and can end up with local prosperity capably building up in a climate of trust and cooperation, with a fair and understandable moral foundation.
From Reinhardt’s site (Enterprise Corruption), “America’s First ‘Global Crossing'”
http://www.enterprisecorruption.com/?page_id=25
This was my second email (edited) re: the poster called “reinhardt”:
*********
I forgot to include the link where this info came from. May contain some helpful info. http://www.godlikeproductions.com/forum1/message607789/pg1
Why was reinhardt banned from Google Groups? It sounds to me like this man is implicating the Vatican in looting America through coprporations such as Enron, Tyco, etc, and through banks. Wasn’t the Vatican Bank involeved with BCCI? Remember the P2 Lodge and the guy who was hanged from a bridge, in London, with a brick in his pocket? This is an area of conspiracy/para-politics that I am not very familiar with, though I know there are many sites dedicated to the role of Rome as the hidden hand behind other players, such as The City of London. Anyone who can add some clarification to this, please post your comments to the thread at Godlike Productions (first thread linked, above).
**********
I’m barely smart enough to read your blog, Catherine, lol. I try to keep up and am very interested, though. I need a flow chart!
I sent the following, via email, to Solari and George Ure. I received a message asking me to post this here.
***********
Notice the date: From: reinhardt – view profile
Date: Fri, Jul 18 2008 11:36 am
Email: reinhardt
Rating: (11 users)
show options
Reply | Reply to Author | Forward | Print | Individual Message | Report Abuse | Find messages by this author
“Crash is in September.”
yup
and the negative news that will move the market downward should occur
Sept 15
this organization below.. runs the show
http://www.legatus.org/public/index.asp
the money laundering occurs just prior to the pilgrimage to rome and
the checks are written during the pilgrimage and the checks clear by
September 14 and the negative news leaks out (something along the
lines of “insider trading on a mass scale at a major brokerage) then
they start crossing the “t”s and dotting the “i”s on Sarbanes-Oxley II
SOX II will certainly protect the working class’ nest-eggs fur sure!
http://finance.google.com/group/google.finance.983582/browse_thread/thread/aad550b590f931bf Scroll through and read reinhardt’s posts. He is now banned from Google Groups. SAVE HIS POSTS before Google deletes them! http://finance.google.com/group/google.finance.983582/browse_thread/thread/aad550b590f931bf
Catherine and George, I’m sure you can decipher what he talking about. I can’t. It’s over my head in the conpsiracy department. Any synopsis would be greatly appreciated!
To Fix Unfair Mortgages Crisis — Ballpark Suggestion
As the Chinese saying goes: “Interesting times”!
As a Tibetan lama said: “Confusion creates space, an opportunity to make things happen.”
What I hear being tossed around in today’s media for solutions to fix the “biggest financial crisis since 1929″ is “sell some of our gold reserves,” “borrow a trillion or so from foreigners,” increase taxes on the people [but not the rich]”, etc. Let’s turn this approach on it’s head.
Put all of the offending corporations/persons assets in trust with the American people at the top of the list(s).
a) Forgive all unfair mortgages and give complete titles to the home owners.
b) Make sure pension funds are not raided.
c) Etc.
d) Let the offending corporations collapse making sure to protect the assets of the people as suggested in a) and b)
This would make corporations think twice about doing this again (yeah, right!). It would not burden future generations. It would release a tremendous economic stimulus which would benefit the Nation. Etc.
I am not an economist, so I’m sure the above-approach would not be straight forward. But I like the tenor of truly benefitting the people and the Nation for a change rather than bailing out the rascals again.
Sincerely,
Conrad T. Greenstone
Founder, Planet Homestead Foundation
Catherine –
Came across a recent article that supports your musings on 911.
If you get a moment, please visit:
http://www.israelshamir.net/Contributors/Collateral_Damage_911.pdf
The writer is well-researched and makes some astute observations.
Highly recommended.
Thank you so much for all you do – your work is very much appreciated.
Michael
Attention: Catherine Austin Fitts
Greetings.
I began building a place for the American people to research and address the issues facing our great land. It started because I found myself funneled down into one of those back against the wall moments, a saga which I will spare you the details of, suffice it to say that my options narrowed considerably, but my spirit grew exponentially.
I know you must be busy, short and sweet I’ve been without steady employment since March and after 2 months of steady pursuit of jobs in my area, (no one pays relocation fees for work anymore it seems) about the second week or so in May I was putting together an electronic skills portfolio and had the TV on and heard Sen. McCain talking about open government, more debate, weekly press corps meetings and townhalls on the Internet…Then an Idea washed over me – what the hell, no prospects…I have some skills, maybe I will build a place like that, a place where people can be informed and research the issues and also educate themselves about the issues, but also provide vetted resources that span the private sector, public sector, government and academia. Collect it and provide blogs and eventually (when funds allow) the ability to live chat and or webmeet.
Building it I envisioned people logging on – then as I was putting together the main states page portal It dawned on me that each state could have issue specific concerns addressed and rather than go on…briefly…the Main States Portal took on a life of its own, as a tool of learning and discovery, about current issues, resources yes, but to learn about our Heritage and history too and I even worked in some recess activities.
I have the entire site built, that is all the pages and nav is complete offline – I have posted portions that are complete, the supporting architecture if you will, and now am working round the clock day after day to finish linking and researching the main issue pages and the 50 states individual pages. Given the excitement over Gov. Palin I am uploading the Alaska page in a few days and you can click to it – it is representative of all the states pages in layout, only info of course will differ. I was gonna send a pdf of a states page but it’s better to put it up live.
I will put the links below – I am working very hard to finish it all up and not much to go – but if you review what is here you might see what I mean…I parsed direct links with a blurb on each for you to peruse.
Splash Page: http://www.americanbraintrust.com/ (It’s a flag and there are fireworks so don’t be startled, I may scrap this page with the full upload)
Home page: http://www.americanbraintrust.com/American%20Braintrust4th.htm (The actual homepage is complete and linked, this one is a working model)
Economy Main Issue page: http://www.americanbraintrust.com/Economy.htm
Economy Blog: http://americanbraintrust.wordpress.com/economy/ (all the blogs are done and ready)
Main States Portal: http://www.americanbraintrust.com/Americanbraintruststatesp1.htm (Read Webmaster note in Green Box) (this I think is fun way for kids of all ages and adults to learn and discover)
So Why did I write you? Other than taking a shot…
I heard you on Coast tonight, you said there is nothing wrong with making money on solutions, well, in part that is why I am writing you – I mean, I am smart and can conceptualize and design and am very left and right brain…what I lack is the how to turn a profit gene. As you can imagine I am immersed in completing this and am but a few weeks of intense work and research away. But then what? So if you are still reading this, and after you click through what’s uploaded thus far, if you think I am on to something here, how about helping me out, shore up the weakness, the what to do with it next part. I need help. I also think that this could be the answer in a way to what you said at the end of your call with C2C, because if We The People just open our eyes and gather together and collectively look at the problems…I mean, safety in numbers, no? It’s late this is probably sounding loopy. Must be the back spasms or the crick in my neck…better call it a night.
PS I have ideas for modules also – I won’t elaborate beyond this – they can be designed and implemented on each and every member of congress’s websites – all 535 – the “sunshine modules” would be mandated somehow and required to look exactly the same so they are easily used (universal) and identified by the folks in the 50, no matter which, and they would be an easy way for any John or Jane Q. Citizen to log on and see in real time where the dollars are and what the votes are, and what votes for what bills or appropriations translate into tax payer dollars. Does that make sense? I have it all spelled out in detail and will post it on Braintrust with the final upload of the entire site. I hope it’s ok to write.
Thanks for your time,
GBTUSA
Ronnie Gura
Youngstown OH
My skills portfolio http://www.guragraphicdesign.com/
(I’m going to keep pluggin away at this, if you see potential, great, if not, please enjoy the resources, especially the main states portal)
I noticed that my bank, USAA, was not on the “Tapeworm 20” list. Do you know where USAA is on the spectrum of good banks vs. bad banks? Also I have seen a few websites claiming to be able to help individuals receive ‘forgiveness’ from their unsecured debt because of the way banks turn promissory notes into cash assets (http://debt-forgiveness.us/index.html). I’m wondering if you have heard of this.
Thank you.
Hi Catherine,
I know of your work through Richard Cornforth and viewing some of your lectures posted on you tube.
To get right to the point, I have been working on a process to increase agricultural yields and am prepared to bring this product to fruition. As this program progressed, I realized that there are many issues which transcend the nuts-and-bolts of the Ag industry.
Would you consider meeting and brainstorming how this technology might be properly implemented? Having someone involved that can navigate some of the big picture issues would be a blessing as we move forward.
Dear Catherine and team,
I applaud the work that you are doing and the resources that you’ve made available to empower people in support of their financial freedom via ‘conscious capitalism’ and a deeper understanding of the system at work. The integration of your approach within a local economy via financial permaculture is a timely model and initiative.
I’m a permaculture designer and sustainability consultant, with a strong focus also on natural health and raw foods. Understanding something of the opportunity to support our body, mind and spirit to function optimally using whole foods or phytonutrients, I was interested recently to discover a company which markets whole ‘superfoods’ and hebs of the highest quality via fractal or multilevel marketing. The distinction is that their products are all raw, organic, and fair traded so at the highest level of quality and they are also strongly committed to a system based on principles of nature, equitable exchange and return of surplus towards permaculture and other projects that support repair and recovery of nature and people.
It seems that fractal marketing allows integration of low start-up cost entrepreneurship with local economy benefits linked to the potential strength of larger entities and the benefits of working in teams. It potentially spreads the profits from such a venture more evenly through a structure, yet allows still for adequate resources to go to support ongoing product development, quality control, supply chain management etc.
I’d be interested in your teams assessment of this company as an opportunity. I can attest to the validity of their products and the health benefits of integrating such foods into the diet in order to displace synthetic vitamins, pharmaceuticals and the dead and denatured foods which contribute to dis-ease and lower people’s financial and physical quality of life.
I’ve recently become a distributor, and my website is: http://www.noblelifeelements.com/ajventure
Best regards,
Andrew Jones