WATCH: 15 Things I’ve Learned in 15 Years
In celebration of the 15th anniversary of the launch of The Corbett Report, James presents a list of 15 things that he’s learned in 15 years of doing this work.
1. People don’t fundamentally change when they “wake up”
2. Almost no one is actually anti-war nor actually pro-freedom
3. People want to be ruled
4. Everyone’s your best friend…until you say something they disagree with
5. Most people think this is a spectator sport
6. People do not rationally arrive at conclusions, they “feel” something to be true and then rationalize why their feeling is correct
7. The more you learn, the less you know
8. You should be more confident with what you do know
9. A certain section of the public is truly incapable of understanding satire or identifying sarcasm
10. The most important research is dumbed down when it becomes widespread
11. People get their “news” from headlines
12. People absolutely judge books (videos) by their cover (title and thumbnail)
13. You can’t wake someone up who’s pretending to be asleep. See: How Do I Wake Up My Friends and Family? – Questions For Corbett #065
14. Everyone thinks they are EXPERTS at breaking down video “evidence”…but they’re all wrong. Case in point: Upon Meeting A Friend for the First Time
15. The Library of Alexandria is on Fire. Save The Corbett Report from the library fire by ordering the 2007-2008 Data Archive USB.
Congratulations on 15 years of brilliant work, James. A jubilee actually worth celebrating.
Download options and an audio-only version of this podcast are available here.
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A bit of news James, that I’m sure you know, storage is finite and doesn’t grow fast enough to keep up with the amount of data being generated. Add to that the fact (is it? maybe that’s a guess) that the choice of what to preserve in storage is imperfect means that some vital piece of data may, probably will, get overwritten by something probably utterly useless. The result, a bit like entropy I suppose, the information storage gets randomised into nothing worthwhile. Asimov’s “The Last Question” is then just fiction.
Corbettites fans are kept at a certain level.
That has been his job to keep people at a level.
I really expected more from this video. I thought it might be a composed retrospective complete with choice examples from his Alexandrian Library illustrating the 15 points, but it was mainly just a superficial ramble.
I followed JC from the beginning, having started investigating 911 in 2005/ 2006. I followed his copious output for several years and his work introduced me to quite a few things, and I contributed to the site accordingly, with money and genuine praise for his careful research.
Gradually, like many I think, my interest in the counternarratives took me elsewhere, partly because I tired of JC’s rambling and somewhat repetitive style, and partly because I wanted a clearer framework into which to make sense of the lies we have all been told. James sticks to a libertarian position, and so can only offer useless, if principled ‘personal solutions’. There are deeply important subjects which are screaming out for consideration in the realm of conspiriology but that he simply ignores, and has consistently, and his overall contribution is the shallower for those omissions. Without any political direction, what else can this information source be but a spectator sport ?
I liked the idea that for the most part people are not really asleep, but rather pretending to be asleep. I came to the conclusion that, in most cases, what is dismissed as ‘conspiracy theory’ concerns neither a conspiracy nor a theory : the elites publish what they do, in contravention to any secret plan, and those willing to dig into the ideologies of those at the top present facts not theories. Corbett helped me understand that.
I actually think most people want to be ruled, and that is quite normal. It is a tragic paradox, but most people want to focus on their own personal aspirations and not on the structuring of society around them. They find the latter tedious and draining, and it mostly is -dealing with the ever incurring efforts of psychopathic people. I think they subconsciously realise that those at the top are predators, but would rather pretend to themselves that those who object are mere lunatics.
There is a notion of just rule, however this is just a fantastic swindle to people like JC.
Indeed what libertarians don’t understand is that it’s perfectly natural for people to desire “rulers”, or, better said, to be part of an organic hierarchy. The trouble with modern power is that it’s not organic, unnaturally centralised, and in the service of abstractions like money and progress. In essence, the unnatural entities we call money and technology have built a system that services them instead of mankind. And make no mistake, the “elite” that uses them as tools is equally their slave, just look at the transhumanist drive of the people in high echelons.
Agree to an extent, although I would not characterise what oppresses us as an abstraction, or ‘unnatural entities’. All these developments have come about through the decisions and actions of people. people motivated by ideas originated by..other people.
There is a group dynamic at play that relates to these ideas.
Perhaps there are numinous elements too. Corbett’s analysis steers clear of these, and in one sense is better for that, although ultimately leaves us looking elsewhere to make sense or response of it/ to it.
For some of the critiques JC offers he got my small sub. Since covid was activated, I haven’t found anything engaging from him.
I’m not interested in ‘Them’ unless it transfers to the realm of recognition and responsibility regarding correspondences in my own thought. Else we generate narrative capture to a prison planet and bring it on by making identity against it.
If you are awake – you are not claiming a personal freedom relative to another’s bondage.
So masking in virtue can be anything passing off as true, seeking boosters or reinforcement as immunity against disclosure
3 things to take away with you.
How are You governed by things, & matter stuff?
I am a living Man. Humans are specimens?
It’s become normal to talk about ourselves as if in vitro.
Human viruses/machines/
I resonate to:
1.You exist.
2.The One is the All, the All is the One
3. What you give out is what you get back
4.Yes everything changes except 1&2&3
I think someone is disputing that we live in a physical world. Yes, there is more than a physical world. We certainly live in a rational world where totalitarianism exists but we have to seperate ourselves from any kind of objective realities to understand the truth about the world we are in. You are a living man in a rational existence but you are still a baby in the bigger picture.
It’s not 3 things.
It’s only one: Capitulation to extreme materialism.
Here’s an intriguing article. It was only a matter of time.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-10889789/Pictured-monkeypox-patient-public-gay-HR-manager-London.html
First monkey pox patient goes public. In spite of numerous photos he didn’t want his surname published. Happens to be a promiscuous gay man who was recently diagnosed with HIV AND has recently been diagnosed with monkey pox courtesy of a confirmatory ‘PCR test’ in the absence of the usual symptoms of lesions, scabs or spots. He had apparently been assured by medics that he didn’t have monkey pox because of the absence of the tell tale symptoms but it was ‘confirmed by PCR’.
No surprise, the article mentions isolation, PPE precautions and advice not to touch door handles. Oh and the patient states that his case shows that contact tracing for the disease would be a good idea, and demonstrates that you can have monkey pox without any skin imperfections at all. Could they have covered any more bases in one article about one person? I think we can all see where this is rapidly heading. 🤒
Corbett helped wake me up. That doesn’t mean I still follow his path.
Just as Trudeau exacerbates mental illness and seeks Edward II’s demise. Those controllers behind him, what are they discussing? He palpitates. He’s urgent. Feed him. He is the clue. Push him in the direction he wants to go.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/0slxa37hq2i4few/JAMES%20CORBETT%20IS%20NOT%20YOUR%20FRIEND.pdf
All the way or limited hangout? Such is your choice.
Thanks for that link. Personally I am convinced that Corbett is 100% controlled opposition.
Your link gives info on Corbett’s peerage (ie: blood ties to nobility), but FAR more damning is how he is obviously an FTM with no brow ridge or other natural male markers (other than those available to deep state trannies using plastic surgery and hormones / hormone blockers).
There are plenty more signs of systemic BS from Corbett of course, many mentioned in the comments below.
Anyhow, shills gonna shill, trolls gonna troll, sellouts gonna sellout. Whatchu gonna do?
There’s always a few people who are quick to throw the label of “controlled opposition” on everything in conspiracy circles. Personally, I run for the hills whenever I see this kind of thinking. I scrolled through the dropbox essay and was very disappointed. THAT’s the best you have? Because this essay reads like gradeschool level conspiracy type thinking. If this is the best you’ve got to try to drag Corbett’s name through the mud, you should maybe go back to the drawing board.
That’s not at all the best *I* have. How about you answer to the fact Corbett is an FTM? Why lie about his gender and try to pass as a regular guy, especially given the fact that nearly all elites are obviously transgendered and hence now easily recognizable thanks to ‘transvestigation’?
How about you go through all the negative comments about Corbett on this page?
How about you go back to the drawing board, shill? I doubt you have convinced anyone who isn’t a shill like you :>
Please stop making silly speculations about gender, as if it’s remotely relevant to what’s being said. It’s old-fashioned, chauvinistic, playground ad hom dressed up as somehow profound. ‘You’re a girl’… Yes, that level. I think you can do much better.
There is nothing remotely feminine about Corbett’s features, from my perspective, in all honestly, and I really can’t see what you’re bleedin’ on about 😂 He’s got a full-on beard ffs 🤦🏼♂️ It really comes across like you’re reaching in a very juvenile way for something ‘shocking’ to say.
Doesn’t come across well, let’s just leave it at that. Please address what Corbett says, or channel your energy into something else more productive. Thank you, A2
You’re attacking the messenger. Allow us to make up our own minds.
Apologies Jack Bean it’s just been pointed out to me you’re replying to BetterInfos, not me! -A2
… sorry, nonsensically accusing random people of being FTM does not make someone a ‘messenger’, any more than Nigerian Princes are messengers or anyone making extraordinary, evidence-free assertions. May I advise you never to leave your home if you are in any doubt about this.
Let’s deal with what JC says, and keep personal remarks to ourselves. Thank you. A2
He’s talking to Betterinfos not you
Quite right you are too. I’ll removed my reply in a bit. Apologies to Jack Bean. A2
I don’t really follow Corbett, but by going into that ‘transgenderism’ tangent you’ve made it near impossible to have a serious discussion of whether Corbett might or might not be a gatekeeper, by muddying the subject with absurd and off topic points.
It’s done with many thorny ro difficult ‘conspiracy ideas’; some people throw in some absurd claims or connections into the idea, rendering the discussion unappealing and even ridiculous for most.
It’s almost like your comment could be ‘controlled opposition’, perhaps unwillingly, I don’t know.
Pretty sure he’s male; nerdy male perhaps, but still male.
> … FAR more damning is how he is obviously an FTM …
Take a hike and clear your head, pal!
Did you write this? What is its point? Corbett must be controlled opposition because he has the same last name as some people in the peerage?
Seriously? You don’t even produce any evidence he’s related to these people – just that he has the same name?
And what else? Oh – he used to say in his bio that he wrote for an online mag he doesn’t write for any more and so took that out of his bio.
This apparently is suspicious because the mag was started by an ex-military guy.
And for these reasons we need to dismiss one of the few people not currently buying the Ukraine psyop and it’s obvious intentions?
Beeley, Heningsen, Bartlett, Chossudovsky, that shower at the Duran, Caitlin Johnstone – ALL of them spouting BS about this fake war, and you are attacking one of the few calling it out.
Interesting.
Are you also still getting away with posting free advertising here for your monetized blog?
Beeley and Henningsen are so tedious and one sided that I can’t listen to them for more than 30 seconds. But yeah, the UK column seem to be totally behind the narrative of a war with the good guys and the bad guys batlling it out in the field. They rarely really scratch beneath the surface, I think them being banned from YT to be a gimmick as what they present is in line with the ‘other side’ of the MSM.
Bartlett, Beeley, Moon of Alabama, Duran, 21C Wire are all either dumb as a bag of hammers or paid to spout claptrap. How many real independent journalists exist? Corbett looks like one. Maybe OG. Any others?
Riley Waggaman. Check out his substack: pure disillusioned info, with humour.
Haha he didn’t reply. I read the article, utter piffle.
What is fake about the war? Are you saying no one is getting killed?
The war is “fake” as in orchestrated, planned, agreed. There are no heroes fighting the NWO because they are all on board with it.
“orchestrated, planned, agreed” by whom? And in whose interest would this be?
I’m not saying Putin is fighting the NWO, but anyway, I differentiate that issue from the “special military operation” in Ukraine, which is really a continuation of the war that has been going on since 2014.
Whether Putin’s invasion was justified or not, he was justified in doing something, given Ukraine’s failure to stick to the Minsk agreements, and The West’s failure to hold Ukraine to those agreements, and Zelensky’s breaking off of negotiations earlier this year (under pressure from the US and the UK apparently).
And as things stand, contrary to the western MSM narrative, Russia is doing quite well, even if not following the timetable that The West has dreamed up for it. It seems that a large part of Ukraine will end up back in Russia, or under the control of Russia. Maybe even all of it. I don’t see how that is in the interest of The West, or “the NWO” particularly.
This is what got me off ten years of JC.
Great link.
This is my thought imagine I gave you a green apple for for 50 years then I gave you a red apple how do you process that well that’s how the others or so called sheep feel they can’t comprehend it cognitive dissident they have to process that red apple 🍎👍
What I’ve learned in the last 55 years of observation:
“No one is more of a slave than one who thinks himself free when he is not.”
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
(August 28, 1749 – March 22, 1832)
“5. Most people think this is a spectator sport”
Edit to: Most people think life is a spectator sport
James Corbett, sir, you are a fine gentleman, nay, you are a Dude…
https://youtu.be/YHWJUh9jfnU
Brilliant aphorisms.
“You should be more confident with what you do know”.
Good up to date analysis of ongoing war in Donbass.
(14) Russian Ops in Ukraine: Donbas Cauldron(s) Closing, US-NATO Options Running Out – YouTube
See also the (usually) daily summary at the Military Summary channel:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUnc496-PPmFZVKlYxUnToA/videos
Probably about as impartial a factual summary as you can expect in this situation.
From a guy in Belarus, who may have his private biases, but seems to report Ukrainian gains and Russian losses as fairly as one can expect, and certainly more fairly than any Western MSM outlet.
A U.K friend has hit me up with the T&C’s of this scheme.
Energy Bill Rebate (council tax rebate) is a huge data captor sold as rebate.It is a agenda 30 on steroids.
They cant give checks out. It can only be done online via there new online system which logs details links bank to IP address house then different checks for verification.
They cant supply forms. Who remembers when signing filling things on line was huge fraud risk? Not no more.
Under the guise of bullshit in the guise of this ‘to prevent fraudulent applications, we will not be accepting telephone or written requests for this rebate.’
Everything is recoverable which gives them full details to your account from previously it being a direct debit which means certain amount out agreed each month. This new set from what I see gives access in and out under the guise of recoverable.
Its a new set up.
Let me no if I am wrong.
Be interested to hear of what others UK lot have had to do or is this a certain demographic area of a trail out.?
I have not seen this type of set up before where you cant even contact someone to ask basic questions they even tell you not to call or contact.
Some analysis of the historical evidence for the Library of Alexandria fire:
https://www.thecollector.com/library-of-alexandria/
It’s hugely dubious this was a real event, it reads more like a metaphor or a cover story to me.
The idea that when people wake up they remain fundamentally the same person seems more disheartening than it actually is. If people think that someone is suddenly going to leap into action once they realise what a shit show it is of course they are going to be disappointed but it’s probably a misunderstanding of how change actually happens. This is going to be long push back. Some people are more action oriented some are not – however the ones that are not can be more easily persuaded to get involved in the countless projects that will be developed by the action oriented people over the coming years and they are more likely to be open to that if they are awake – until finally there is a tipping point. There is and will be all sorts of projects in education and health as two examples probably led by action oriented people that will encourage others to get involved as it affects their day to day lives and they are more likely to become active.
Sorry that’s a bit long winded but basically this is a long haul fight, some people are just naturally more action oriented and through survive and thrive projects they can encourage others to activate.
Our society encourages most people to be passive obedient consumers. This starts in education. It’s deeply ingrained in people by the time they are adults. This is a difficult nut to crack and will take a long time but you can see how people were activated during the lockdown protests and for most people doing something feels good.
You’re absolutely right.
The idea of people waking up is based on the presupposition that not only everything has been kinda hunky dory until now, but also, and more importantly, that people give a shit about such things are true freedom, true justice, true rights, the greater good, and that they are committed to doing something about it to preserve it, fight for it. So on so forth.
The reality is that while a lot of people think that they subscribe to most of the above, they don’t. Or they’re not quite willing to get off their ass to protect it. Or they’ve been fucked up in the head and the shit their useful idiot selves stand for has little or nothing to do with the above.
Look at the utterly sorry state of the world in, say, 2018. The majority of people had become thoughtless consumerist sheeple, having as the sole raison d’etre to consume any shit, no matter how putrid, they’re prompted to by the more unscrupulous among us. What are these people supposed to wake up from? Quite a few might even consider what’s going on a good thing.
As you say, this is a long haul endeavor. People will first have to experience true misery to realize that something is wrong and then, little by little, they’ll start thinking of ways to establish a meaningful existence.
The idea that the world will wake up, flush covidism-wokeism down the tubes, and go back to the previously ideal state is naively nonsensical.
Looking at things from a long-term standpoint, I think that the world, the western civilization in particular, is facing an existential crisis. We’ve lost a purpose. We don’t know what we live for anymore. We’re devoid of any semblance of spiritual thought. We’re automatons consuming piles and piles of shit and burning everything in sight to achieve that.
We first have to come to terms with ourselves and only then this sick society can embark on a path of something meaningful.
Jacques: Right on. It would be great if civilians would remove “mean” from their definitions of meaningful…
People are realists not sheep. Denial is the paper ticket the self absorbed continue to live off., the Real that give and loose everything,. Others mistakingly call out as sheep.
When you Invest in something if you do not also return a greater amount of oneself back to People you become morally industrially worthless to other people.
Well said. I think meaninglessness is a global phenomenon though, as strong in China and Japan as it is here. Perhaps only the most backward and impoverished parts of the world are still relatively immune to it.
One of the biggest problems – perhaps the very biggest – to getting anything accomplished is the people who narrowly define “action” as actual physical activity. These kinds of people consider speech and writing to be “non-action.” They so easily forget the lessons of history: more folks have been punished, tortured and killed for what they said than for what they actually “did.”
Those who would rule know very well that “the pen is mightier than the sword.” It would be nice if that knowledge filtered down to all the two-fisted action figures.
You do not awaken people by sticking a gun in their hand and ordering them to go kill someone.
We decided to remove the television from the home, home educate the children, take a deeper dive into good / evil, for us it’s recognise the age old battle between serpent seed/ woman seed. We trust Christ – we understand the signs of the times. Action and change can occur but it’s against the tide, it can be lonely and the nice things have to go as income reduced. Can be done, but western culture has been captured. The above comment is a good example. Most want the £400 rebate from the government, they will not look at the scam behind it.
What I’ve learned over the past 15 years the everything is rigged and is mostly pure BS
BOZO obviously hasn’t learned any of the fifteen.
What a blind nasty clown he is:
https://www.mintpressnews.com/frontman-empire-bono-activism-serves-powerful/281017/
It pains …me to say this … however, it needs to be said;
If ‘Bozo’ or for that matter let’s deflect over the ditch and use Trudeu/Biden/Macron … if they’re the clowns, what does it say for the rest of us – who actually pay their wages and keep them in the style they’ve become accustomed to?
The citizens expect to be entertained; and they’ll pay nicely for the privilege.
Most people (at least here in the US) seem to have come to the realization that politics is a clown show where clowns compete for the chance to make pretend rules (laws) and strut like peacocks every couple years.
That’s David Icke’s point — the bigger the buffoon telling you to do stupid things, the more self-respect you lose. Lose enough, and what do you deserve? Nothing. Which is what you’ll get.
Why do you people give this fat arsed despicable sack of puke pets names like that ? I couldn’t comment on what I call him as it would be removed
Bono is a Solomon, A Judas…Anything before Live Aid/ Joshua Tree. Bono was a genuine anti war anti poverty, pro justice/ jubilee Christ fearing artist. He had an experience with the “Unforgettable Fire’.
I suspect the oligarchy co opted him after live aid. They went to stadium ban selling out every venue all over the world. Bono lost his first love/sold his soul.
I grew up on U2/The Alarm, both Christian. Bono dances with the Devil in Davos. Mike Peters plays in working men’s clubs in Wales. It’s how you finish the race not how you start.
[9] And the LORD was angry with Solomon, because his heart had turned away from the LORD, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice [10] and had commanded him concerning this thing, that he should not go after other gods. But he did not keep what the LORD commanded. [11] Therefore the LORD said to Solomon, “Since this has been your practice and you have not kept my covenant and my statutes that I have commanded you, I will surely tear the kingdom from you and will give it to your servant.
Yes people want to be ruled, they rationalize their feelings rather than think rationally, they don´t have core values like peace, justice, individual liberty and they are absolutely willing to lie to gain acceptance from their ingroup/tribe/nation/cult/whatever.
People are instinctive and not all that smart as a whole. They want to make babies, food, music, dance and live decent lives and not be part of ruling the world. Leave that to others with those ambitions.
We are just tribally evolved primates trying to make the shift to mega society existence. Like family organized insects trying to adjust to becoming social insects like ants and bees.
None the less your contributions, James C, have been profoundly helpful and you should be very satisfied with the impacts you have had on our societal heading.
All progress is cumulative. And the results are not necessarily obvious until after the fact, sometimes after we are dead and gone.
Thanks for your efforts. They have made a difference.
The fact that the majority of people want to be ruled by authority comes from the indoctrination fed into them from birth by parents, then school, then work and overarchingly ‘the government’. Authority is to be respected, we are told. All authorities have ‘rules’ and we are taught that it is noble and right to follow them, otherwise ‘we will all fall into anarchy and tyranny’…we are told this by those stated authorities.
And yet we have a world of tyranny and chaos; wars caused by governments and higher elites, which are enabled by the followers of the authorities, who blindly follow their instructions to fight in Iraq, Ukraine, Poland etc.. Hitler was the tyrant, but his demented logic and debased morals had no power on their own; it was his followers (mostly ordinary people simply obeying authority) who proceeded and invaded Poland and Belgium and Netherlands and France and Russia etc.
Anyone who joins any armed forces is therefore a follow of authority, and becomes a part of a machine that kills other people, even if they do not actively pull the trigger that kills the innocent. And yet armies are seen as noble, worthy of tribute etc.
When we stop bowing to authority, we may change the world for the better. That would be nice, wouldn’t it… a world with no followers of authority, but guided by collective consciousness, respect and love for everybody else, addressing poverty and inequality. Start today, ignore the government’s bad laws and policies. Do not support tyranny.
A recommended read on this subject – Larken Rose ‘The Most Dangerous Superstition’. Larken Rose – The Most Dangerous Superstition (mensenrechten.org)
Wonderful comment. Thank you.
I would add that anyone who thinks only the military members are part of the machine is deluding themselves. We’re all a part of it when we partake in modern society whether we want to see that or not. So many times I have heard liberals say if people would just stop joining the military the wars would end. Not so. Not really and deep down we all are fully aware of that whether we can admit it or not. We’re all part of the machine and we all tacitly enable the killing to go on. You’re completely right in the bowing to authority being the problem but how to change that? That has been so ingrained in humanity from day one of organized civilization, hasn’t it? Great comment.
We are not all a part of the machine to the same extent.
I carefully chose all my IT work to make sure I was making the least amount of harm possible. I even burned all my savings on self-funded startups that got wrecked by deep state shenanigans. (I could go on at length about a LOT of effort made, inevitably so since the system tries so hard to rope us all in, including making us think we would be allowed to achieve good through social means like business).
Furthermore my #1 concern and task has always been fighting against the satanic machine and achieving some kind of huge positive lasting success against evil on earth.
=> and you claim glibly that we are all at the same level as soldiers (murderers for hire of corrupt governments worldwide)? Are cops (ie: pigs) also at the same level? LOL. I can imagine where you work…
It is not authority which is the problem, it is the modern way we establish it. You must recognise that at some point something went horribly wrong, but to do so you don’t need to discard the whole history of civilisation as that would mean going back to the savannah.
You, like many others, are pointing the finger at the wrong enemy. Which is not authority, but false authority. The false authority bought with money and imposed with tech.
Looking for a reason to have a little faith in those useless ordinary people?
Try the recent Health Canada poll that made the mistake of asking if the vaccine was safe and effective and 87% replied ‘no’. Now I’m well aware that such polls, if not outright faked, are self-selecting but this one did have a large number of respondents (over 40k I believe).
Health Canada had to produce a fact-check along the lines of “the correct answer is yes”.
Details?
Polls are basically an aptitude test at People comfortable in their own surroundings, as averse to say classroom or unfamiliar setting. imo
> 13. You can’t wake someone up who’s pretending to be asleep.
Asleep?
“One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we’ve been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We’re no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. It’s simply too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves, that we’ve been taken. Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back.”
“It is easier to con people than to convince people that they have been conned” — Mark Twain.
An additional quote from Carl Sagan:
“We’ve arranged a society based on science and technology, in which nobody understands anything about science and technology. And this combustible mixture of ignorance and power, sooner or later, is going to blow up in our faces.
Who is running the science and technology in a democracy if the people don’t know anything about it?”
– Carl Sagan –
Quoted May 27, 1996
(November 9, 1934 – December 20, 1996)
Unfortunately, Mr Sagan (whom I greatly admire) would propose making science and technology a much larger part of our educational curriculum – rather than scaling back on science and technology.
Clearly, I prefer the latter approach.
Why don’t you want people to understand the physical world they live in and be able to dud rim instead between real science and pseudoscience?
I cannot upvote you but that’s my point too. Careful though, the worshippers of Tech just got offended.
He probably understood that money power was controlling and subverting science and tech, but dared not say it.
Exactly, only the answer is not, as Sagan implied, to turn every human into a soulless science robot, but to reject modern technology and apologise to mother nature. Let’s simply go back to when the vitality of man could flourish through art and not be strangled by abstractions like money and progress. No need to return to the caves, a couple of centuries will do. High infant mortality was preferable to an ugly world where no one will survive as a human.
> 2. Almost no one is actually anti-war nor actually pro-freedom
Nuance is good!
This, I think, is the crux of everything that’s wrong with human society. Everyone opposes war when it’s to their detriment; but either ignores or supports it when someone else gets shafted.
Which only makes sense because it would be idiotic to pursue abstract terms like “no war” and “freedom”. If you are assaulted you shoot and ask for the imprisonment of the assaulter. There is no freedom to kill and harm, and when a war is waged upon you you can only fight back.
Yes. Bitter but true. We can try to fool ourselves people are waking up but we are in the awake minority and the capacity of human beings to believe nonsense and fool themselves seems to be endless
I must have been lucky, or perhaps it was just my natural curiosity.
Writers and teachers like Jiddu Krishnamurti, Meher Baba, Ramana Maharshi, Peter Kropotkin, RM Bucke, Bakunin, Proudhon, Bertrand Russell, Carl Jung, Anthony Damiani, Ken Wilber, Simone Weil, Tony Judt and Barry Long, as well as many others, including poets, songwriters and composers, have all helped to keep my eyes and heart open to Truth.
Bertrand Russell? Carl JUng?
Kinda disappointing you didn’t try to get H.G. Wells and Margaret Mead in there as well….
Russell’s ‘Why I Am Not A Christian’ is a classic text and Jung was a good foil for Freud’s obsession with sexuality.
Also “Freedom versus Organization”, a seminal exposee of U$ Oligarchy. And “History of Western Philosophy”, not only a masterpiece of rationalist clarity but a masterpiece of cheeky-chappy rationalist humour a la Voltaire; with a poignant bitter-sweet ending, where Russell expresses his faith in the ability of Logical Analysis to “turn Philosophy into something solid and durable like Science”.
Beyond his popular and sensible books, he was in favour of depopulation.
Rationalism is as good as the human mind deprived of intuition and emotion. Still trust it? Good luck.
I realize it’s de rigueur here to boo and hiss H.G. Wells – particularly his eugenics leanings. But that view makes short shrift of the overt messages in his works.
It may be that his work is filled with Masonic and other esoteric references; but at some point the works themselves deserve a little slack.
defs jung, and jung based astrological analyses of the collective psyche as in liz greene’s, outer planets.
which goes toward explainimng why people goalong, enthusiastically. but most would rather blamr brain washing.
Good reading list. I regret not having read more than three of them: Kropotkin, Russell and Jung. Wasted my time on Eng.Lit writers like Addison, Macauley, Buchan, Sayers, Bronte, Austen, G.Eliot, Wells, Huxley and other names which have faded in my estimate. Like yourself, on the other hand, I found poets durable: Homer, Aeschyles, Sophocles, Euripedes, Sappho, Menander, Dante, Goethe, Wordsworth, Byron, Tennyson, the Brownings, Graves, Rilke, TS.Eliot and D.Thomas. Also of course, “Shakespeare and the Bible”.
And “The Great Philosophers: Buddha, Jesus, Confucius, Socrates, Plato and Kant”. And Wittgenstein: not earnest young Tractatus-Logico-Positivus-Wittgenstein; but the later, mellow Wittgenstein who, having taken a job as primary school teacher, realized that people do not learn words from their definitions as philosophy students, but learn to use words as counters in the games they play with adults and with other children, as children.
Bronte, Austen, Eliot have “faded” in your estimation? I would suggest you step out of the 21st Century and into their world when reading them.
Sometimes relevance is a false god diverting one’s attention from things of enduring value to things of transitory value.
Absolutely! Not to mention Chesterton or Nicolas Gomez Davila. Anything traditional will be more sensible than modern pretentious “rationalism”.
The flower of English lit has faded in your humongous estimate, huh.
My God you’re a brainless arrogant old Trot aren’t you
One needs to go to different sources for different things. One needs to be aware of the applicability of stuff he’s getting from various sources and refrain from projecting his own expectations into something that is not what he expects.
Corbett is a useful figure in digging up certain facts, putting them into a certain context, sometimes providing food for thought. That’s about it. He’s no clairvoyant. He’s too focused on detail to see the big picture. The verbiage he tends to resort to often borders on tolerability. His “solutions” are naively ridiculous.
As long as you keep this in mind, it’s okay to check the guy out once in a while.
I don’t know what to think about the above 15 “truths”. What sort of consequence does this have for anything? This is shallow inconsequential shit.
Addendum:
As per No. 4, I am your best friend because I like it and I find it stimulating when people disagree with me. Nothing works better to sort out one’s thoughts than an informed interlocutor who opposes them.
So, I’d like to invite whoever downvoted my comment to explain what he/she finds objectionable about it, and we can have a discussion. What is it? You’re stuck too far up Corbett’s asshole and can’t bear it when somebody doesn’t sing adoration songs to him, let alone dares voice some minor criticism?
Beware of false prophets, for fucks sakes!
I downvoted your post for foul language. Ditto this one.
Wow, I’m honored, man. Fuck! That’s kinda like getting a ticket for a violation of the verbal morality statute.
FYI, I prefer the colloquial language, y compris words like shit, fuck, motherfucker, asshole, cunt, and so on, as mirrored by reciprocal vocabulary in the other languages I speak (some are even juicier than English, let me tell ya), of the common man to the pompous verbal garbage of the pretentious elites and people who lick their boots in hope that some of the glitter will fall down on them and that their masters will sweep a few crumbs off the table for their pitiful sycophantic selves.
The way I’ve lived my life has allowed me to meet people from all walks of life, ranging from the homeless in the streets of Vancouver to millionaires in Nassau, Bahamas. During Dubya’s era, I was for a while responsible for correspondence between the President of the EU and the POTUS. Never met worse scum that the latter, let me tell you.
Get a life. It’s a not a “foul” word here and there – who the fuck defines “foul” anyway, the self-righteous self? – that matters. It’s the foul nature of a person’s mind that does. And you know what? The slick motherfuckers who talk smooth talk are more often than not, if not always, the worst fucking offenders.
I’ll take the swearing of an honest man over the sanitized drivel of a malevolent asshole any day of the week.
For the benefit of those who happen to speak the language, here is a response to a politician’s proposal to prohibit “foul” language on TV. If you don’t speak Czech, learn it. You’ll piss yourself laughing.
Upper case is swearing lower case is British Isles no problem here ya dumb cunt, half the time I’ve a problem what you time travellers are on about anyway. Most of you sound like American net people obsessing over your own I.d systematic hang ups when it goes belly up. imo.
I read you, least you don’t sound like a boring robot.
I’ve been to Vancouver, one of the happiest times of my life was three years in Mexico btw.
I downvoted your post for lack of foul language.
I downvoted you because of your egocentric nitpicking and failure to differentiate between your personal experience and general observations of trends in human behaviour.
Parochial carping is tedious.
I neither up nor down voted you, though – sadly – I must agree with you. When you said “He’s too focused on detail to see the big picture” I nearly jumped for joy. Because that’s exactly how I perceive Mr Corbett.
However, and this is where the “sadly” part comes in, I think his contributions are immensely greater than you give him credit for – precisely because of his preoccupation with detail.
My first encounter with his work was his “Suicided” series – which is absolutely without peer in journalism.
But now he has abandoned the “Suicided” work (which is sorely needed now) in favor of ridiculous “Solutions Watch” vehicles which, when analyzed, provide no solution to anything.
I absolutely had no intention to come across as not giving Corbett enough credit. What I wanted to say is that his fact finding and some analytical efforts are highly beneficial, but he falls short when formulating thoughts of broader consequence.
In this vein, each of us has a different ability. We’re all unique individuals. Some are good at digging up details, others are better at connecting the dost. I’d humbly say that I’m not too bad at the latter, but I have no patience for the former.
Each of us can benefit from contributions made by others. That’s what’s great about people, living a life.
Anyway, I’m afraid that these 15 points don’t exactly bring out Corbett’s forte, which is what I meant by the above comment.
Aka painting with big brush strokes. I am sure that in all the 15 categories that James names that there are people who qualify. But how many? And who? And compared to who?
There are people who dress up like being Napoleon. Some people dress up like being Canadian who live in Japan, making pod casts. So what?
Generalizations are useless. The least that is needed when someone talks about a group is that is contrasted to something is else. To who is James talking? People compared to who?
Corbett’s sense of humor is drier than the Sahara. It might be a Canadian thing.
Haahhh! Haaahhh! Haahhh! I was going to say his sense of humour was drier than a ‘nun’s nasty’ ,,,
Glad someone mentioned Canadian humour. I am a great fan of Moonshine from the Larger Lunacy (yes, Prof. Leacock was an Englishman who also wrote a serious History of Canada). And the classic Nero Wolfe TV series. In my stint at Imperial College I enjoyed a spontaneous rendition of Her Mother never Told Her, by a Canadian fellow student.
“O brave New World that hath such people in it”, there is hope for Canada. Humour is the great antidote to fascism.
Older UK readers may remember Bernard Braden, a Canadian who amused us for many years on radio and TV.
There again, humorous Canadians elected and seem to put up with the fascist Trudeau.
Wrong x 15 !
Or to spell it out: Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong.
Now, can i have my money back ?
It takes 16 wrongs to make 15 rights. So you don’t get a penny back.
And you’ll be supplying your ‘correct’ list, I presume, or are you far too clever to back up things you say? 😄 A2
Hopefully he’s learned a little more than that in the last momentous fifteen years because what he’s listed are simply basic observations about humans as old as the hills. Almost like it’s some kind of interlude to distract before the next “thing” happens. “People want to be ruled”. Really? How fucking profound.
Oh, come now. At least contribute the requisite level of profundity yourself or quit with the armchair cynicism/sneering. Thank you, A2
Thank you for making me a better human! You make me think about really important stuff which makes me really uncomfortable. I love it!
Last Evening i watched a video of Alex Jones (InfoWars) interview ‘economist whistleblower’ Edward Dowd…
Edward is among the few who recognises that the ‘covid pandemic’ was used as a cover story for the 2020 economic collapse. In his words “A crisis to cover the crisis they created.’ Edward says the ‘covid pandemic’ was used as cover “to put in place a system of controls, in case of riots” resulting from economic collapse. and he asserted confidently “(We are) about to enter another collapse…that’s why the monkeypox release…..(We are) going into a hard recession… happening in the next 5 months……By September…they’re planning new lockdowns.”
Edward believes, like so many, that “People are starting to wake-up.”…
I cant recall when i first heard that claim, and i havent tried to count the many times i’ve read it since…Is it an act of faith, or hope ? But all these many months later people are still only starting to wake up. Edward is very assertive “We are coming to a Great Awakening !” (I plead “Lord, grant me a Long Life so that i can witness This Great Awakening !!!” ***)..
People are starting to Wake-up about what ? ‘Covid’ was a scam ? The ‘pandemic’ was a fake ? ‘covid’ is no worse than the ‘flu ? The jabs dont protect ???
How many have started to wake-up to the reality that lockdowns and all the other restrictions on their freedoms, and media terror campaigns, are weapons to crush any active reactions to economic crises ?
Can people gain individual Enlightenment, or be Woken Up. from reading stuff on the internet ? Or is it time to form Consciousness Raising groups, or organise Teach-ins like was done during that other war ? What do you think ?
*** There was a Great Awakening in the USA some years ago that led to the splintering of The Church into dozens of sects…
The more you learn, the less you know
=> If you are in the box, then everything you learn is BS and misleading, so the less indeed you know
=> but if you are out of the box, daring to learn useful truthful things (often by self-teaching), then the more you learn, the more you know (and win)
You always get what you deserve! 🙂
He may have meant that as your knowledge of a topic increases, you see the complexity, nuances and exceptions, and become less prone to absolute convictions or statements.
What you describe is exactly the hallmark of the BS pseudo science our satanic system has fed you with.
You find out in time that whatever logic you learned has not proved useful or exact, but rather full of exceptions, ‘nuances’ (ie: previously leaned generalisations prove to be often false) and so much complexity when ‘nuances’ are taken into account as to be completely useless outside of mental masturbation.
Hence the more lies and half-truths you learn and practice with, the less able to hold any conviction absolutely or to make absolute statements.
It doesn’t hurt, and may actually help, to focus far more attention on the very things most activists would consider a waste of time: fictional literature. Reading about ordinary – or even extraordinary – people going about their ordinary lives may give greater insight into humanity than many a treatise specifically geared to understanding humanity.
I think it peoples predictability that gives value to the system – It Itself doesn’t need to weaken them, they do that for themselves…fix that,and the rest is nature..
No mention of Julian Assange?
Yeah, I am totally on with that! There were 56 thousand examples of terrible things going on in the world that he should have mentioned to avoid being Cancelled. Virtue signalling on all of these worthy topics and issues is so incredibly important to maintain one’s credibility. I really respect your courage in pointing out this shortcoming. You have elevated yourself.
Calm down there fella. A guy like Corbett should be thinking about Assange every day.
Why would it be necessary to specifically mention Julian Assange in a listing of general categories of things learned over the years?
Besides, when you add all 15 bullet points together, don’t they spell “Julian Assange” or any other hostage to the System?
I was just stirring the pot. Looks like a few things floated to the surface.
Assange has been quietly revealed as a psyop ever since his handlers jumped the shark and ret-conned a girlfriend and two kids into the lonely & monastic life he’d allegedly been living in the embassy. People aren’t dumb. They don’t say much, but they started to figure it out. They know he’s not in Belmarsh. They know it’s a sideshow. So the punters don’t turn up any more. You can bet Corbett has figured that out if most of Assange’s previous fan base has
And you know this how?
Or maybe he is in Belmarsh, but in a 5 star room, not a cell, and takes tea with the governor every afternoon.
OK, so how do we know you are not a psyop with these important-sounding all-knowing hints you keep dropping?
Why does Corbett film himself talking even when there is nothing else to show on the video?
How popular are podcasts?
I know, right. I never visit my friends.
Why video at all, when you can spit it out in words and, if necessary, a few photos? “The medium is the message”.
Two things I learned in the last 2.5 years.
1. Agorism is the excuse to run and hide (except running and hiding in today’s world is cowardly and delusional).
2. Voluntaryism is the excuse to make believe you can still have some control over the destiny of a world that is destined to fail in incremental degrees of entropy culminating in massive cataclysmic catastrophe (wash, rinse, repeat).
We’ve tried “organised resistance” for three hundred years. It doesn’t work. All it does is replace one set of elites with another. The only way out is if you WANT to get out. It has to be an individual decision to not engage.
The more I learn the stupider I realise most of the population are.
I used to think that until i learned everyone thinks that.
> 7. The more you learn, the less you know
… and the sadder you get.
Sometimes I think maybe it would be better to live my life with my head in the sand and be happy like everyone else
Yes, but its too late now for many of us. Can’t unsee what you’ve already seen.
#1? my life changed PROFOUNDLY when I realized my government wanted to kill me, circa 2001, and that EVERYTHING I knew was a lie
I walked away
Bearing in mind the essential modesty needed in order to be honest, here is my reaction (and by modesty and honesty, I mean you should always apply your pronouncements to yourself first):
“Waking up” is difficult to apportion. I’ve been travelling a road of gradual awakening which started with 9/11. And I have changed. I am no longer the blasé and complacent person I was at the start – and whose blasé-ness and complacency only became apparent after waking up. But in terms of outward activity, it may be true that I haven’t changed. I still hold down the same job. I have made my thoughts clear to a few if I felt I could do so positively i.e. there’s no point in raking up anxiety when you know the one you’re speaking to will either not understand or will not want to understand.
I always had trouble with the concept of “freedom” so glibly dished out by many. We are all part of a community and not only does this not interfere with our freedom but it makes a degree of freedom possible. And anyone caught in a war zone will be anti-war. Thus all pro-war sentiment comes from the affluent spoilt brats who don’t have to put up with the reality of it. But that doesn’t make all these ones pro-war.
No-one has responsibly for the entire society. No-one could. Everyone has their niche. We all have enough to deal with in our own everyday lives. We are quite happy to let the others get on with it. Unless of course they start to interfere in a dangerous way. Even Trotsky admitted this i.e. that most people are conservative until pushed to extremes.
Crap. I had a blowout with someone over covid but we patched it up … and never spoke of it again. We remain friends.
Not sure what “this” is.
G K Chesterton said this. Indeed he insisted that no-one reasons their way to a basic world view. Their basic world view is what their reason is necessarily dependant on.
One of those apparently profound statements that is very glib and doesn’t mean anything.
As someone lacking confidence I might agree with this – but it depends on what is “definitely known”
Actually sarcasm backfires on the ones who use it. And this may be so because the ones who “misunderstand” actually know perfectly well you’re being sarcastic. All they have to do to defeat you is take you at face value.
This is a self-defeating maxim. If the research is the most important and it becomes widespread then that’s the best thing that can happen. But if this automatically makes it “dumbed down” then there is no incentive to spread it.
Some people do. But I have found that there is a large number more smart that the media gives them credit. And always remember that the media is there to create despair. I reckon they’ve done a good job on our James here.
In a speeded up and gorged world where people have too much getting pushed down their throat this is hardly surprising. You don’t have enough time to check out everything so you have to narrow it down.
Someone who’s pretending to be asleep isn’t asleep. They don’t need to be wakened up. They have already chosen a side and it’s not yours.
Frankly I would ditch the word “experts”. It should provoke the same sneer as “conspiracy” whilst “conspiracy” should not provoke any sneer at all.
A slick send off with an advert. Well OK then.
#3. Speak for yourself. I’m not quite happy being ruled, never have been and never will. Like you said, even Trotsky said “most”.
Rhetorically, no-one wants to be “ruled”. I’m just asking what the word means in a world that has a comlpex division of labour. We are always “ruled” by something e.g. economic forces, competition driven by basic requirements etc. And no-one in this “democratic” age will come on the TV and say, “I control all of you” etc.
Then you have the question of how “free” you want to be. Do you want to be on a planet all by yourself? Do you want to be the one who lords it over everyone else? What kind of community do you want? How do you want to relate to it? Do you want everyone to ask you what they should do? And if you want everyone to mind their own business, you still have the problem of who gets what and why.
Why are you taking all this effort to quibble about or misunderstand bullet points? Big picture lost on you?
This item is all bullet points with no big picture. That’s the point.
Oh come on mate. Those points are broad big picture statements about human nature and they annoyed you for some reason even though you can’t actually disagree. So you fell back on emotionally-motivated nitpicking which got upvoted way beyond its merits by other people with a similar reaction
So are you for or against arguing about “the big picture”? And, assuming that you’re for it, what is the “big picture” anyway? And why can’t I argue with the statments made in an item on OffG? Isn’t that what these articles are all about? If you think Corbett’s item is a waste of space then why are you even here? And getting upvoted by people with a similar reaction is what upvoting is all about.
#13: Bob Dylan sang that in order to dream, you have to stay asleep.
Corbett sounded a bit pissy in this one. How experienced podcasters like him don’t realise that most of the comments that he’s responding to here come from bots and trolls I don’t know.
6 is particularly dangerous. Do I want to believe those in power regard me as an aped-brained meat-sack who should be moved off this world ASAP? I believe it because I listened to Graeme McQueen make a reasonable case that the anthrax attacks had to come from within the US deep state – and the rest followed from there. It’s much more to do with paradigms than emotions imo. People have a paradigm into which they fit information. When one’s paradigm can no longer contain the information one is discovering, it’s either come up with a better paradigm or pretend the new information doesn’t exist. Why some jump one way and some the other I don’t know. Dumping the mainstream media and some spare time to breathe and think certainly help.
“The Corporate Fascist State run and owned by War Racketeering Eugenicist Oligarch Mobster Psychopaths is not only an Organized Crime Syndicate.
It is a Crime Against WE THE PEOPLE (Humanity).
Oh yes it is.”
Mulder and Scully knew what was coming
https://twitter.com/TexasLindsay/status/1533628751115862018?s=20&t=JkZfz5J_W8X4xit-1f1X6Q
By and large I agree with these points but I have a couple of modifiers. Number 7, for example, isn’t really “the more you learn the less you know” but rather “the more you know the less you understand”. Knowledge is also not one dimensional although many people treat it as such. As for #3, “people want to be ruled”, that again isn’t strictly true. It would be more accurate to say “people don’t want to be bothered”. We as a society pay people to maintain that society. We’ll put up with their eccentricities and ego trips provided they don’t bother us too much or fail to deliver on what they’re supposed to.