What to do in the mad, mad world?

I've only been here two weeks, and I've joined in on some discussions regarding the state of our world and the people who have power in that world.

My thanks go out to: darkforest, wa bluska wica, scratcho, junglejack, Alternative Thinker, midgardsun, Logan 5, e7m8, 56olddog, stinkfoot, boguskyle, Individual, gardener, thedope, 7he4uthor, stonk, rollingalong, Meliai, Reality is BS, The Imaginary Being, LoneDeranger, Jeph, Samuk1235, Telepath, GreatestIam, Altered Ego, ChronicTom, reb, Bonkai, *bunnie*, Shivaya, lunarverse, neodude1212 and anyone else I forgot that has been involved in the conversation. One of the nice things about a place like this is a wide variety of input, and the shaping of thought through rational debate. I appreciate that greatly.

Not everyone agrees on everything, nor in any way should they. But there is a thread, if you will, that runs throughout the conversations and is seldom argued over.

That is the fact that we the people truly have no power.

Some of us research deeply into the hidden facts and discover other layers of the onion, some of us are full-blown on about revealing the man behind the Wizard of Oz's curtain, some of us are just adults who have lived in the world and witnessed others' behavior long enough to know better. It doesn't take an education in the specifics of the world banking cartel to know that people with wealth use their power, behind the scenes mostly, to influence circumstances to their own advantage. All it takes is having worked and lived and seen the examples of people who possess or seek wealth in our own little microcosms. What we agree on is the fact that it is out of control, and the interests of the wealthy continue to shape most everything about the society at large.

We all debate little specifics, and seek to have the "truth" as we see it heard. That's wonderful, and we can be thankful it exists and we are even allowed it. But looking beyond the veil we might see that it's just another time sink for aware minds to dull the misery of living in a cage. There's a collective hopelessness about it all and a real growing feeling that the whole show can't even sustain anymore, let alone continue to grow at the mind-boggling rate that it has over the last 2 decades. And normal people are eventually going to feel the strain in a way that we cannot fully predict, but can sense is coming. Something huge and drastic. Not the gradual stripping away that has gone on our whole lives, but something that can't be spun by the spin-doctors of our media empires.

If we stipulate that governments and large corporations are controlled by the wealthy, and are themselves the enemies of the common man, the real question is:

What do we do about it?

 

woohoo I got a shout out!

What I personally do about it is turn my back on all the bullshit and build my own little culture and society. I don't really watch tv and if I do I turn it off during advertisements. I follow my own moral code and rarely think about things in terms of what the government deems to be legal or moral. I love all my friends and family fiercely. I seek out freedom for my soul. I create my own little world so that I can ignore the huge picture, because it scares the shit out of me, quite frankly.

I talk about the fucked up state of society constantly, to anyone that will listen. I actively exercise my freedom of speech.

If enough people created their own society instead of gladly joining in the artificial society created for us by government and corporations, the people would be like a rolling stone gathering moss. We would slowly gather power from the freedom of our thoughts.

I'm being idealistic. I really have nothing concrete to offer in terms of what to do about it.

 

u know how people quote the phrase "live free or die"?
well i'd be glad if this economic system takes a complete shit, so people as a mass will think of something new, better and pure. something like that now would be considered NWO, or hippie acid babble shit and everyone will scream and run away.
so yeah, we dont really have any power.

 

nebacanezer--thanks and obviously you are a welcome addition here.

 

I read an article about a guy from my hometown the other day. He's considered a genius when it comes to business, but instead of cashing in on his business smarts, he's chosen to put all his energy into a couple of music stores he owns. When most local music stores are going out of business, his are flourishing for several reasons..none of that is really important, so before I get off on a tangent..

In the article he talked about how this economic collapse is a good thing for those that know how to recognize opportunity. He talked about how impersonal business has been in the past few decades, how huge corporations have gotten, and he believes that those that are able to recognize opportunity will be able to start small companies that truly value their customers and find success much like his stores have found success.

He thinks this whole economic mess will be the catalyst we need to move towards localized economies. I hope he's right. We can find freedom in supporting local economies.

 

I see a different paradigm to the idea that we have no power. Indeed, if we stipulate that governments and large corporations are controlled by the wealthy, and are themselves the enemies of the common man, then we have thrown away our power as tho we never had it. That mental image about the locus of control is what makes it so. It is the whole hearted cooperation of the common man that gives power to the wealthy.

So from that perspective the way forward is to clearly withdraw support. However that may not be perceived as easy by many. There are a lot of habitual comforts that are part and parcel of the insidious attractiveness of the system.

 

I agree with this completely. Their power could be compared to our monetary system. The only reason it exists is because the common man believes in it.

Many of the wealthy make their money from the buying habits of the common man. The common man will need to learn how to sacrifice in order to garner power.

 

As you have heard krishnamurti say it is no measure of good to be well adjusted
to a sick society. I disagree that sacrifice is necessary, I do agree that to some it appears a sacrifice to give up what you did not need in the first place.

One way to live on the edge, of anonymously skirting the system, is to remain totally liquid. Stay away from "property ownership". Stay away from contracting for goods and services. Allow the sunrise to determine the quality of everyday.

 

That can be hard to do when people are subliminally and not so subliminally made to feel like they need to aspire to a position among if not higher than their peers and the public in general. Most are born into it and therefore don't know any better. Can't go without that shiny new thing, don't want to be the only one without, I'll look like some kind of social misfit. Don't want to be left out of the herd. Nope, must buy, must have, must be normal...

 

You don't gain power by making sacrifices. Power comes by taking it from others.

 

Yes, and it is this same kind of conditioning that is blinding people to the fact that our society has serious problems. The people that are unwilling to give up their consumeristic culture are the same people that would never see anything wrong with it in the first place.

"The hand of Vengeance found the bed
To which the Purple Tyrant fled;
The iron hand crush'd the Tyrant's head
And became a Tyrant in his stead."

-William Blake

 

That's the nature of things.
Life is stagnant otherwise.

Blake is entirely correct of course, but it doesn't change the fact that it's a process that has to happen.

 

If the nature of things is power, corruption, transfer of power, corruption, repeat, that could be considered a form of stagnation in and of itself.

If insanity is defined as doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results, the human race is fucking bonkers.

 

way to give props! nice thread btw

 

nice quote btw

 

power can come from pushing others to the margin, but I think that it can also can come from people joining together. I think that this is the true and lasting power

 

It possibly will be on day. The lens hasn't been pulled that far back yet.

Sanity is a lie, as existence is the most insane thing there is.

 

For many of us there's only one thing we can continue to do. Vote. In the US we still as individuals have one vote a piece. It's not much. But if we are the 98 percent, it can in the long run mean something .

And that means not voting a certain way because some marketer said if you don't your vote won't count. You only have that one vote, you can't rely on marketers to tell you how to vote. You need to be informed and vote your conscience.

 

Well if more people actually stood up and said what you are saying and voted along those lines we would have power. We are 98 percent against 2 percent, why exactly are they winning in selling their agenda against the interests of the 98 percent. Does anyone really think the top 2 percent is going to let any of the rest of us into their closed club? So why do we continue to vote for their agenda? It's like voting the cheerleader and football player prom king and queen, when really they actually have done nothing for the school but look pretty.

 

... yes but consider that standing aside on the premise that it is just some outside process that needs to happen will affect whether the outcome is to our benefit at all.

I got the gnawing sense from the beginning that this mess is not the "idiopathic" correction that so many news sources and politicians insist on characterizing it- but a calculated process designed to accelerate the flow of money from the masses to a very few at the top- and the government's policy response seems to be part of the calculation... trillions being printed and sent who knows where because it hasn't been used to reimburse retirement accounts that were gutted by the crash. Money does not just disappear.

Unfortunately, being engaged in the system makes us party to it. There are very creative ways to hide the truth and the current way of concealment is to bury it among volumes of "disclosure"' calculated to make the whole it unpalatable to the common attention span that has been culturally whittled to tolerating little more than sound bytes and buzz-worded rhetoric. Unfortunately the sheep have been trained to deliver their own minds. The bare bones foundation of the power being unduly wielded over us boils down to our inability to fend for ourselves and our unwillingness to cooperate with our neighbors.