The Year of the Pig is here…literally
Andre Vltchek
Gong Xi Fa Cai: happy year of the Pig 2019! Congratulations, the Year of the Pig has arrived!
According to the Chinese astrology, 2019 is a great year to make money, and a good year to invest! 2019 is going to be full of joy, a year of friendship and love for all the zodiac signs; an auspicious year because the Pig attracts success in all the spheres of life.”
So, what is astrology actually saying? We will soon have some sort of ‘brotherhood of men’ year ahead of us; a year that could bring both peace and understanding between all the zodiac signs?
We all wish that it could be possible. But we all have doubts that this is what is actually ahead of us!
*
So, where does the world stand, as the most populous nation on earth – China (but also Vietnam and several other countries) – celebrates the New Year?
To be honest, the world does not ‘stand’ at all – it lies in the gutter. It appears to be in coma.
Washington, but also Paris, Berlin and other capitals of the Western mafia grouping which has bullied the world for decades and centuries, declared its unwavering support to a Venezuelan treasonous cadre – Juan Guaidó – a U.S.-‘educated’, handpicked ‘regime change dummy’. It is now almost certain that the West will not stop in front of anything; that it will try to destroy the Bolivarian Revolution and to occupy a country that is potentially so rich, that it alone could satisfy the entire global demand for oil, for at least 30 years.
That’s not such a good beginning, is it?
But there is much more that is happening, simultaneously; unsavory, disgusting stuff, which brings the West into face to face confrontation with the rest of humanity, endangering our entire planet, igniting wars and conflicts in all corners of the world.
As the Year of the Pig begins, the U.S. is basically throwing into the trash can, its nuclear treaty with Russia.
President Trump is flexing his muscle, capriciously and erratically antagonizing China, challenging the mighty Dragon to a duel which could, potentially, destroy the entire global economy.
In the meantime, people are disappearing, getting arrested, getting muzzled: journalists, executives of successful non-Western companies, activists. Social media accounts of those individuals who are critical of the Western terror, are being suspended. People who dare to criticize the Western global regime have become unemployable, and often already ‘disappeared’ from the public gaze.
Non-Western media outlets are being intimidated, sanctioned and constantly attacked, in both Europe and in North America. There are ‘official’ budgets allocated for that. Philosophy, arts and literature have been reduced to entertainment, or to ‘academic disciplines’, while the academia itself has already collapsed, becoming synonymous with the lowest sort of collaboration.
These are dark ages, again. Terror reigns. Millions are dying, annually, mostly in the neo-colonies. The environment is being ruined. And the citizens in Western countries are too busy demanding more benefits for themselves, totally indifferent to crimes their countries are committing all over the world.
Just two months ago, I reported from Syria, that Syrian people had won, after tremendous sacrifice. Now, however, things are getting ‘complicated’ again. The withdrawal of U.S. troops from Syrian territory is not something we can be sure of, in this 2019 Year of the Pig.
The same goes for Afghanistan, where almost a two decades long NATO occupation has brought tremendous suffering and no benefits to the people. The once proud and freedom-loving nation now lies in rubble, with the lowest standard of living in Asia, and the shortest life expectancy.
And once mighty Iraq? Just a skeleton. And as the Year of the Pig begins, Trump declared that the U.S. military forces will stay, in order to ‘observe’ Iran! Well, that was not the deal, the Iraqi president protested: “You were supposed to be here in order to fight terrorism, only!” But who listens, and who cares. Iran is on the hit list of the Western mafia regime. To use ‘neighboring houses’ for the expansion of destruction, in this case already ruined Iraq, is something that NATO countries have had no problems of doing, for decades.
Listen to the Western mass media, and Russia is now ‘behind all evil political deeds’, as far as Europe and North America are concerned. Anti-Russian propaganda in the West and in its colonies (the latest was a comical outburst of a Western puppet, the Indonesian ‘President’ Jokowi), has reached a crescendo and were it not be so dangerous, it would make all rational human beings roll about on the floor laughing.
The most depressing is that the Western public is totally complacent. With certain notable exceptions (Italy, Greece), there is no attempt to change the regime and to save the world from tragedy. The so-called “Yellow Vests” in France are obsessed with higher salaries and better benefits for the French citizens, with near zero interest in what their country – neo-imperialist France – is doing to Africa, Latin America, the Middle East, Russia and other parts of the world.
In fact, there is hardly any soul-searching drive that can be detectable in the West, amongst the ‘common people’. They live, work, consume, enjoy the highest living standards on earth, and as long as they benefit, no crimes committed by their governments, corporations and individuals disturb their conscience.
By now, it is crystal clear that the world cannot count on the Western public to end the global terror that is being spread from London, Washington, Paris, and their dependencies – such as Riyadh, Tel Aviv or Jakarta. The West will have to be confronted and stopped ‘from outside’.
Will there be many confrontations and battles in the 2019 Year of the Pig?
*
The most important for this year, is to convince the global public that the West (and its colonies) have lost absolutely all the right to even utter such definitions as “democracy”, “freedom” or “human rights”.
For centuries and decades, these concepts have been brutally violated by all Western colonialist powers, and as a result, hundreds of millions of oppressed people have been dying, or living in appalling slums under fascist dictatorships.
Today, the West is the greatest ideologically fundamentalist, as well as undemocratic force on earth. Great majority of people there accepted all ideological dogmas of ‘exceptionalism’, while conquered nations are also forced to believe in Western exceptionalism.
The West tries to systematically overthrow all democratic, free and independent governments on earth. Then, it replaces them with servile and corrupt regimes that rob their own people and deliver loot to the doorsteps of the masters in New York, London and other ‘white’ Western capitals. The West is running the most brutal, racist, and morally defunct system in the history of the world. It is a fascist system, which is propelled by business, brainless consumption, moral emptiness, enslavement and shameless control as well as gray uniformity.
This 2019 Year of the Pig is not starting well.
But Chinese astrological predictions are actually positive. Let us share their optimism and not give up!
This should be the year designated to confront, with determination and courage, all the bad and filthy pigs of business, of colonialism and of imperialism.
At least in theory, good pigs should fight bag pigs, and win the battle.
Therefore, Happy New Year 2019, Happy Year of the Pig!
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Mikalina I have travelled to China over 40 times. Lived there for years. Your words on Xinjiang are lies. There are a few tens of thousands of Turks who have been found guilty in courts of law and found guilty of committing actual acts of extremism. They are interred in reeducation camps. There are no millions of Turks held in reeducation camps. The fact is Turkey and the CIA started to used the Chinese Turks as cannon fodder against the peoples of the PRC. Those interred are lucky to get a second chance at life. You and your mate Dun plenty of Groanin are obviously paid up government trolls. Stupid little people you two are.
I’ve read that the Yellow Vest’s manifesto includes the demand to leave Nato.and opposed to neo-imperialist French foreign policy
Have you been to Xinjiang recently? Or spoken to an Uighur? When I was in China the Han colonisation of the province was in full swing. I believe it is almost complete now.
You are being disingenuous in stating that the “West” is responsible for the planet’s ills when it is the controlling elite all around the world (which erroneous manipulative doctrine has convinced us is composed of entities called “countries” – for the purposes of culling wars).
The very, very, under rated and badly taught “Animal Farm” shows us that pigs can walk on four legs or two, depending on their access to power – just like the useful idiots the elite use to further their cause.
First off, thank You for Your spot on assessment of the reasons why no-one should celebrate a ‘new’ year based on what traditional superstition is predicting in regards to what will happen. It is, if nothing else, the carrot on a stick that makes people look ‘forward’ to another year that might be better than the last one – that wasn’t.
There is not enough room to agree to what You wrote, although I would like to differ in a few aspects.
These are dark ages again. What is commonly referred to as ‘dark ages’ never were. The opposite is true. If humanity was ever capable to exist interdependently, it was then. The stories about ‘dark ages’ originate from a rabid Catholicism, that considered anything and everything that would not concede to its power – evil. In that, dark ages were those, where the Pope did not have full control over the territories they wanted to assimilate. After all, the Catholic church is foremost a mafia like business venture. If you didn’t want to join them, it would club you to death. Millions of people who lived happily previously before were slaughtered for their refusal to join that Fascist club. So, no dark ages, if not for the ones as created by the Catholic church, who invented the ‘Inquisition’ to guarantee a monopoly in exploitation of the masses.
As to the ‘citizens’ of Western countries, it may be quite fair to say that they are not even demanding more benefits for themselves, since the benefits they are demanding in many cases, are benefits that were taken away from them by the same powers that are on a spree to finish off this planet for profits and power. Traditionally, nobody can be bothered about the suffering of anybody that is not personally related, or friends – living on the other side of the planet. This turned out to be an advantage for the Fascists in America, as they could sell their ‘constituents’ any lies about ‘over there’ – who would know the difference? Not the Midwest. Not those who have been believing the fairy tale of the ‘American Dream’ that never was.
The real issue that needs to be taken here is that they are not only totally indifferent to the crimes their respective countries are committing all over the world – these crimes are committed in their name. That weighs much more heavy than either not knowing about it, or not knowing enough about it, or believing the official story about it. Plus, another real important issue the West has, is the addiction to technology and entertainment. When the US illegally dropped their MOAB in Afghanistan, Americans all over the regime were thrilled and celebrated its success – that did not exist, other than in the pockets of the war industry.
In quintessence, what we are looking at is The Year of the Fascist Pig. Fascism is doing better than ever before and that renders our present and recent past truly worthy to be called The Dark Age. Singular, not plural, because there have never been dark times like this one before.
Homo Sapiens is on its way out. By its own doing that it can neither alter, nor abandon. Homo Sapiens is a drug addict of the worst proportions. His drug is so called ‘progress’ and not even going cold turkey will make him coming off of it. At this point I like to recommend the documentary ‘Surviving Progress’, that is now sort of history. It warned about what will happen if Homo Sapiens does not change its ways – and it didn’t.
The only consoling factor is, that everything has always been and will forever be temporary. “This, too will pass” is the age old realization by the same culture that gave us the Pig, the Dragon and the Rat, among other signs so different from those in the West. Based on that, there is only one year in the West. I call it the Groundhog Year. It is the year of the Fascist Pig – over and over and over again – ad infinitum.
Something happened. It should read These are not dark ages again.
@Not. The Dark Ages 500-1000AD. According to Prof.JBS Haldane, they were Not so dark as they are painted; invented four most important advances which enabled European civilization to flourish:
1. The Turnip; fed Northern Europeans during their long, dark, miserable winters.
2. The Horse Collar; ploughed the heavy, soggy, sticky clay soil of British and Flanders fields.
3. The Escapement Gear; enabled European workers to clock in punctual to the minute.
4. The Rudder; enabled European ships to steer their course and conquer the world.
The turnip was “invented” ? By whom ?
Was it a test tube creation ?
Was it an early form of GMO during the dark ages ?
@vexarb
Exactly. It does make sense to attribute the misinformation about these ‘ages’ in general to the needs of a ruling elite to control the masses below them. The pyramid scheme. Those at the top know how the cookie crumbles and traditionally, they have done everything to prevent the masses from getting wind of it.
I was born close to a Neanderthal village in one of the most pristine locations in Germany. Neanderthals – the mysterious species that is generally depicted – especially in modern school books – as a primitive sub species of Homo Sapiens. They didn’t make it because they were inferior in too many ways to H.S. and disappeared as a result.
An early 911 story. The opposite is true. Neanderthals were a high civilization and way ahead of H.S. They had running water in their dwellings before the Romans. They were extremely ingenious in many ways. Their brains were larger and their skulls thicker for various reasons. And their fate was not that they were in any way or shape inferior to H.S. Their fate was that they succumbed – the way it would happen for thousands of years afterwards – to the diseases that H.S. carried with him wherever he went. Neanderthals – like many other indigenous tribes on earth – did not have immunological resistance to the infectious diseases H.S. was accumulating by migrating practically everywhere. Picking up new diseases on the way and – a decisive turn in evolution – developing anti-bodies for these infectious diseases.
Just to wander about in the valleys of the Neanderthals gives you the shivers. It is still there. This inspiration of an amazing people – their spirits, if I may say so. Ever since the time I spent there, I have become somewhat of an advocate for my ancestral neighbors. And based on the understanding that we were fed lies about them and their engineering and agricultural abilities, the notion of ‘Dark Ages’ appears even more concocted. It is akin to say that everything prior to the modern man is inferior to his evolutionary status. Gullible people love the idea. It gives them the impression that they are indeed the ‘Crown of Creation’. Just to imagine the slaughter of people in South America who had built the most magnificent structures and pyramids – because they were ‘savages’ gives me convolutions.
Allow me to add that I appreciate Your contributions to this site and to the collective consciousness very much. I do my best to tame my frustration and manage my depressions about the status quo. I may not always succeed at that, but the contemporary shit that is flying off the fan does pose a significant challenge to my mind. It is actually unbelievable what is happening right now. Thank You, once again.
“The most depressing is that the Western public is totally complacent. With certain notable exceptions (Italy, Greece), there is no attempt to change the regime and to save the world from tragedy”
Totally complacent? Far from it. Iin Britain one of western politics longest standing anti-imperialists attracted the biggest rise in votes for the Labour party since 1945 and has majority support among every age group under 50. In the US too most young people no longer support the corrupt bipartisan corporate / endless war consensus in DC. Those developments have occurred in the face of uniform support for the status quo in mainstream media
Do you mean the Labour Party is anti-imperialist? 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀
Forgive me, but didn’t the last Labour government start six wars in five years? Or was it five wars in six years? I never can quite remember.
No. I obviously mean its leader, Jeremy Corbyn.
Sorry, that is what confused me. Is that the pro-military-Frankenstein, pro-European-Empire, pro-NATO, anti-Putin, pro-Navalny, pro-business, pro-credit imperialism Jeremy Corbyn? If so, how are we defining ‘anti-imperial’?
Corbyn has to navigate a strident and unreconstructed neocon Blairite PLP and media to become Britain’s first anti-imperialist PM. Surely people can recognise that? None of his self-styled ultra left critics, posturing in articles and comments, are confronted with that task. Either support him or continue denigrating and smearing him. The choice you make will speak volumes.
I stopped supporting him when he started collecting for the White Helmets, and started supporting the charity regime change Jo Cox Foundation – three months before the murder of innocence at Rashidin. To which Corbynites averted their gaze. British politics is broken beyond repair: there are no ‘anti-imperial’ choices. British foreign policy is imperialism and soft power projection. So long as we legitimate the delegitimated oppressive structures (Corbyn de facto supports the neo-Nazi occupation of Eastern Europe) …we get what we deserve. I can postulate emergent peaceful solutions, but there is no home for them in British politics. We need a new peoples politics – which cannot happen all the while we support delegitimated leaders. Unless you support the White Helmets, NATO, militarised EU, nuclear weapons? I don’t. I support peace, critical consciousness, and radical responsibility.
Corbyn has to navigate the real world of mainstream British politics and media, completely surrounded by haters. Compared to him, what efforts have you made to realize “a new peoples’ politics”? Anything beyond posturing online?
BigB: Corbyn was collecting for the White Helmets? ffs…. Am highly sceptical and don’t trust any politician, regardless of what political party they belong to. The most obvious example is Syriza. Look what they did after they got in. Complete betrayal. Even after the Greek people voted No in the referendum. Is Corbyn another Tsipras?
Andre, a bleak assessment of the state of the World, but a pretty accurate one. The West, including here in Australia is drowning in mass consumerism, hedonism, and a rampant narcissism. Trying to convince friends and acquaintances of the reality of the World has been a futile, fruitless, pointless task. Some refuse to accept what I say, and even go so far as proclaim their ‘total belief in Western liberal democracy’. Others accept what is said in papers like The Guardian. I’ve been labelled a conspiracy theorist, Orwellian, asked what drugs I’m on, called a Russian troll, a ‘fucken Putin lover’ a ‘utopian daydreamer’ etc etc. A customer of mine the other day felt globalism had been ‘really good for the World!! I don’t bother anymore. Its a constant surreal headspin. I come on sites like here, The Saker, Caitlin Johnston, Moon Of Alabama to vent my spleen. To let off steam. And as Mikalina commented yesterday ‘youre not alone’. I try and live simply, I treat others respectfully, I show compassion and empathy to those who need it, I practice mindfulness, and connect with nature in a spiritual sense. To feel a sense of peace within. Yet at times I feel helpless, at times I feel despair, at times I fear what is coming. I said this elsewhere, but will say it here. I believe the Anglo Zionist Empire has begun its death throes, and the edifice is crumbling. The insane power crazed Neocons will not give up their power and wealth peacefully. They are certifiable addicts fully addicted to power and control. Addicts repeat the same insanity over and over. Until they hit rock bottom. The problem for us is how much damage will these psychopaths do as they desperately try to save their Empire from collapse. Even more scary is what people like Bolton, Pompeo and Pence are capable of doing. We already know the answer. For now I am immensely grateful for Putin’s rational cool head. But how much longer will Russia allow itself to be continuously provoked and backed into a corner?
As the song says…’Don’t give up…cause you’ve got friends…’
Also maybe check out this or pass it to some of your insouciant friends…it might help wake them from their slumbers
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/51129.htm
P.S…. I forgot to add, I’ve also been involved in Central American and East Timor solidarity groups, was involved with 2 Socialist organisations – one in Australia, the other in New Zealand, involved in Welfare cuts (anti austerity) protests as well as rallies for Julian Assange and Wikileaks, and supported the boycott of Apartheid South Africa as well as BDS, so I have also taken part in protests, not just venting online.
Gezzah, good on you, mate!
Your frustrations may be mollified by reading my book, a free pdf is available on request to: [email protected].
The theme is the global financial system – how it works and what the outcome might be – it has an optimistic end play – ‘A New Emergent Economy’! – Chapter 13.
Andre writes…….”The so-called “Yellow Vests” in France are obsessed with higher salaries and better benefits for the French citizens, with near zero interest in what their country – neo-imperialist France – is doing to Africa, Latin America, the Middle East, Russia and other parts of the world”……………….That is totally wrong. The Yellow Vests have the balls to stand up to the very system this article rants about. We need more Yellow Vests throughout our world where people get off their lazy backsides and do something about this western con of exploitation of not only other countries but also of our very own citizens by a rich elite who control the mechanisms of power to fulfil their greedy agenda.
Thank you for an excellent rant and I concur with all your observations. However, this article looks mainly at symptoms and perhaps some observations of possible causes of our dysfunctional economic, political and global financial systems is in order.
For over 100 years our industrial systems have been driven by cheap energy and yielded an amazing growth in the western world’s standard of living, having exploited the other worlds resources because they could. This era is coming to an end as perpetual economic growth fails and our western instituions fail. It has been an expression of human greed and excess which has driven us to this point in history when massive changes are about to take place. Straus & Howes ‘Fourth Turning’ is in play and there is to be no escape from the consequences. The global financial system is broken and due to collapse soon.
I have written a book about all this and much more, a pdf is available free on request to: [email protected] and supplements the several other books available on this subject, here’s one worth reading:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0857193392/ref=pe_3187911_185740111_TE_item
Well hello Peter: you sound like me. Not least because I also refer to Tim Morgan. It goes without saying then that I thoroughly endorse your comment. I would add that the real benefactors and wealth extractors are non-allegiant to any particular country – East or West. They form a virtual, supra-national, synarchic supra-society – some researchers are calling the “dominium”. Around 1,000 billionaire and 147 TNCs commandeered the Age of Oil …and stole the future. The biggest heist in history has so far gone undetected. So long as we analyse the global economy as separate trade blocs, economies and nation states split neatly into hemispheres …we get a picture of the imperium: but not the dominium. Two halves make a whole for Eurodollar trans-national capital flows. And it all runs on oil. When we look at the whole, a global earth system view …we can begin to envision the post-carbon-capitalist world. The difference between potentiality and actuality might seem huge …but the possibility at least emerges.
https://www.resilience.org/stories/2019-02-13/offshore-finance-how-capital-rules-the-world/
Okay, as bleak as the situation appears, I like to offer some joke. Since You wrote about the Dominium, I just had a George Carlin like moment based on that.
It explains why it is called Con<emdominium.
Some glitch bugging me today. Sorry about that. Now the joke is destroyed. But it was supposed to look like this:
It explains why it is called Condominium.
Nottheonly1
Very good. The new international class structure could be referred to as the Presidium, the Dominium, the Imperium, and the Delirium …for the international petty-bourgeoisie that don’t know what is happening – and don’t care so long as the avocados arrive on time!
Hello BigB and many thanks for the link which I will read with interest. It is good to find another fellow traveller.
I started my book in 2013 (the Cyprus bank robbery!) when Tim wrote his but have only just come across his work – but at first glance it does seem to support my assessment of the current systems. – I will read it with interest shortly.
Financialisation has effectively extracted wealth from the economies and concentrated it in a small clique of connected billionaires. This must change and the next crisis should be a catalyst to enter a new era, what I call the ‘New Emergent Economy’ (Chapter 13 in my book), following the ‘End of Growth’ (Chapter 12)
My book is also being serialised weekly on The Burning Platform blog – we are up to Chapter 8 – ‘Financial Engineering’:
https://www.theburningplatform.com/2019/02/16/the-financial-jigsaw-issue-no-40/
You can count on me following the serialisation then. Or, how do I apply for the PDF?
I presume you know of the Transnational Institutes annual ‘State of Power’ report – it is well worth a read.
https://www.tni.org/en/topic/state-of-power
It seems to me that even the dominant POV can accept that you can’t have infinite growth on a finite planet as axiomatic. But those limits get pushed further and further into the future. It is a far less common view that we have already passed peak everything, and further investment in current trends will produce only diminishing returns. The environmental ethic never really impacted the masses, perhaps the fact that the way finance is structured – as returns diminish, the amount going offshore will not. The future is being channelled away through secrecy jurisdictions and virtually no one knows it is happening. That includes our pensions, and social securities. If a few more people caught on, perhaps there is something we could do?
Anyway, I’ll catch you later if comment here again. I’ll check out Chapter 1 later today.
Hello BigB, I can let you have the pdf if you email me at: [email protected] and if we need to share views and ideas we can email each other. I will stay in touch with this blog anyway.
You are so right that the 99% have no idea what is actually happening to them. It’s the bioling frog syndrome. Our standards of living are being gradually eroded as the financialised global economy impacts our former standards through EROEI. The global economy runs on energy not finance and the elite know this.
So glad to have made contact. Best, Peter
Extract…..”Humanity United: This NGO was founded after the largest human trafficking scandal in U.S. history (detailed later in this investigation) was exposed on the Maui Pineapple farm in which Omidyar had invested. Ostensibly formed to combat slavery, Humanity United has also been used to fund The Guardian, a liberal British newspaper that has provided positive coverage to and collaborated with numerous Omidyar-backed initiatives.”
From extensive article by southfront…..not sure where else to post it….explains a lot?
Plus….”First Look Media: This organization is the main arm for supporting the cutting-edge media projects produced under Omidyar’s watch. Besides The Intercept, First Look funds a documentary division called Field of Vision that has overseen films about high profile journalists. Past productions include Risk, a negative portrayal of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange that prompted Wikileaks lawyers to accuse its director, Laura Poitras, of “undermin[ing] WikiLeaks just as the Trump administration has announced that it intends to prosecute its journalists, editors and associates.” A Field of Vision documentary on the Panama Papers functioned as a PR vehicle for the Omidyar-funded International Consortium of Investigative Journalism that holds the documents, and features journalist Luke Harding in its trailer. Harding is the Russia-obsessed Guardian correspondent who recently fabricated a report on meetings between Assange and former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort. First Look also sponsors the for-profit studio Topic, which is producing another film on the Panama Papers, The Laundromat, starring Meryl Streep and Antonio Banderas.
Democracy Fund: The main arm of Omidyar-backed activist media initiatives, this group funds a collection of groups like the Center for Public Integrity that advocate transparency in politics. At the same time, the Democracy Fund backs Bill Kristol’s neoconservative mini-empire Defending Democracy Together, and provides support to his new Cold War vehicle, the Alliance for Securing Democracy, a project of the German Marshall Fund think tank. Omidyar’s Democracy Fund has donated to German Marshall Fund’s Defending Digital Democracy project, as well the German Marshall Fund itself.”
https://southfront.org/how-one-of-americas-premier-data-monarchs-is-funding-a-global-information-war-and-shaping-the-media-landscape/
Wowee article
Don’t criticise poor Luke Harding. Those beastly Russian spooks broke into his Moscow flat and turned off his central heating and tampered with his alarm clock.
I guess it’s a bit trite, now, to bash LH – but it’s just such fun………!
The Saker interviews Jorge Valero, Plenipotentiary of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela
The Saker: the Hegemon has a fight on its hands.
[Vexarb supposes Andre’ would call it the Hogamon]
Fair enough, Dinkum, here’s to pigs; from Homer’s Odyssey for children:
“So Odysseus climbed a narrow, stony path through bushes and trees, up the hill towards the old house of Rev. Eumaeus, the Godlike Swine-herd. Now you know that a Sheep-herd is a farmer who has a herd of sheep; so a Swine-herd is a farmer with a herd of swine. The reverend Eumaeus kept pigs. Now you might think it was funny to call a pig farmer “Reverend”. Because these days Reverends don’t farm – they just study and pray.
Also these days, most people think that pigs are dirty but this is not true – pigs are very clean animals if you look after them properly. Also pigs are smart and have very keen noses – better than dogs. Pigs can smell their food even if it’s buried under the ground. They eat acorns and truffles, which they find under oak trees. Truffles are the most deliciousest sort of mushroom, expensive to buy and hard to find, because truffles grow wild and deep under ground; so it is wise to keep a pet pig that can guide you to find delicious truffles for free – if you are lucky enough to live near an oak wood! The pigs first sniff out where the truffles and acorns lie buried under oak trees, then dig them up with their tusks.
Pigs come in the Three Sacred Colours – White, Black or Red. All three colors are sacred to the Gods, which is why their Priests and Priestesses dress in White, Black or Red. So in olden times people made pigs into a Totem. (In America you will find many people with Totem Animals – some tribes have the Eagle Totem, some have the Bear, some have the Beaver; some tribes even have trees, like the Oak Totem). Some of these totems belonged to the sky gods, some to the earth gods, and some to both. The Pig Totem belonged to both. Pigs belonged to the sky gods because:
1. they like oak trees, and oak trees belonged to the chief thunder god – Zeus.
2. their tusks are shaped like the crescent moon; and their eyes shine in the dark, like moons; so they belonged also to the moon goddess, Celine.
But pigs also belonged to the earth gods because:
1. they hold their nose close to Mother Earth, to sniff out food that is buried under ground, and dig it up with their tusks.
2. like elephants, hippos (and rugger players) they occasionally enjoy a lovely wallow in glorious mud.
So now you know why a simple pig farmer of those far off days could be called Godlike Eumaeus. And as Odysseus followed a stony path up through the wooded hill, he noticed that the earth under the oaktrees had been freshly dug up – so there must still be pigs near the old house!
Sorry to chuck this in here, Andre, but I feel sure you will appreciate its broad humanism. A tribute to Lyndon LaRouche from a Russian acadamician, posted by one of the good folk at SyrianPerspective:
“the Thylacine #287310
Russian Academician Sergei Glazyev, leading Russian economist who serves as a leading advisor to Vladimir Putin memorializes Lyndon LaRouche.
[Sergei Glazyev tells it like it is]
2014: “We have to understand that the key to resolving the catastrophe of Ukraine [and of Syria] is to be found in Washington. That’s where Nazism has to be defeated.”
2019: Sergei Glazyev, upon the passing of Lyndon Larouche —
“Lyndon LaRouche has left us. He was a titan of thought, a man of incredibly encyclopedic knowledge, great soul, and love for humanity.
He will always remain in our memory as an ardent fighter for mankind’s happy future, based on implementation of the principles of physical economy—a realistic school of economic thought, directed towards the creation of material benefits and the conditions for socioeconomic development.
In contrast to the libertarian tendency that today dominates mainstream economic ideology, in the interests of the world financial oligarchy, Lyndon LaRouche developed genuine economic science in the interests of the development of the productive forces of mankind. His concept of a Eurasian development bridge from Western Europe to Russia’s Far East, and onward to Alaska and the U.S.A., could become a real alternative to today’s hybrid world war. LaRouche foresaw the Russophobic aggression of the American ruling elite and warned of its ruinous consequences…”
Vex: out of respect, I won’t launch in to one …I’ve never disagreed with you before – but has someone changed the laws of thermodynamics in the last week? Mr LaRouche postulated a form of perpetual progress, akin to the perpetuum mobile – specifically forbidden by the 2nd Law. If Russia is following his thinking: we really are doomed. Unless we can find the switch that controls entropy. It must be in the Urals?
BigB. The respect is mutual. I have already acknowledged (in the thread on LaRouche) that your description of Techno-Progressives like LaRouche as dangerous lunatics applies equally to myself. But out of respect for you, did not engage in polemics. I was trained as an engineer, my best friends and my closest family are mostly engineers, physicists, bio-engineers and biological scientists. So we can hardly escape a feeling of pride and satisfaction in the solid achievements of organized Natural Knowledge; neither can we escape a feeling of responsibility for the ethical use of such powerful tools. Believe me, we are on the same side, though perhaps coming from different directions. Andre Vltchek has put his finger on the Hogamon: the culprits who misuse technology for personal wealth and power.
Goethe wrote a 2-volume drama on the human predicament: on the one hand we are ignorant apes destroying our world then weeping with self pity, blind empire builders who puff our chests with satisfaction at our progress even while our army of workers, led by the Devil, are really digging our grave; on the other hand, we are men and women with souls to be saved even though we err.
“Es irrt der mensch, solang er strebt”. — Wolfgang von Goethe, 18th century evolutionist.
Amen to Goethe: it’s how we save ourselves. Surely the first step is that the economy and environment are not negentropic. Our mathy, stochastic, neoclassical equations do not have energy inputs or waste outputs built in. They are linearised perpetual motion engines that are in error. And as far as the Cartesian mechanical engineering paradigm brought us – it had a blackhole in from the start. That blackhole is us. Consciousness has been left out of our scientific paradigm. Putting our humanity at the heart of science denies nothing, it extends a humanist vision into the 21st century. We are part of the fabric of the Earth. Bringing entropy into our equations – via EROI – doesn’t end progress. What it does do is require that we re-imagine progress away from material financial progress. Re-invented progress is us – human capital, love capital, and the symbiotic, synchronic re-imagining of mind, environment, and economy as a single systemic entity – aligned with, not seeking dominium over, the Natural Laws.
What happened in the US is that those who would have been expected to “rise up” against the continued implementation of fascism were split apart, middle class vs. poor, workers vs. those who get phased out of the job market. It’s not about complacency, but about the fact that our political leaders so successfully divided and conquered the masses.
Also folk wisdom: an uprising can unleash all sorts of ugly passions. For instance the mob scene in Die Meistersingern, where the one neighbour says to the other:
“Oh! Don’t I know you? / Well, here’s what I owe you”.
Which is why the Fabian Society preferred the Long Hard Grind to Socialism, through local meetings, fact sheets and Practical Proposals.
The porcine community gets a hard time in the media and in general.
Pigs are smarter than dogs or cats, and kinder than most world leaders and members of the One Per Cent.
I know it’s only a metaphor, but fair go Andre.
We need a more appropriate/accurate pejorative.
Parasites perhaps, Turds, Lifesuckers ?
Feel free to add your own.
Let’s hear it for the pigs!!
Shame on you George Orwell.
Where Americans err is in thinking our situation is “the 1% vs. the 99%.” We’re rich vs. middle class vs. poor.
The $mug middle class are akin to $atan$ soldiers or $atan$ servants.
They are the wilfully ignorant who facilitate the ‘Future Eaters’
Universal Justice will be their undoing.
Google or better still Duck Duck “Michael Ventura on Class in USA” . I’ve flagged this countless times on various forums over the years without much if any response. I don’t expect any now but there you go.
Yossi, I took up your challenge and googled Michael Ventura, but found nothing about class: only arrests, traffic tickets and Applied Empathy.
google is deep state, or as BigB elaborates – Dominium. For what it’s worth, I exclusively use DDG and it will garner different results, or results not showing in the dominium search engine…
Try https://www.austinchronicle.com/columns/2010-04-09/990614/
You’re welcome.
Yossi, brilliant incisive writing by Michael Ventura. Thank you so much for that link, I’ve put it in my diary and downloaded the page. No wonder Google tried to bury the man under a snowstorm of results under the heading of arrests and traffic fines.
Thanks Yossi.
Peace be with you.