Watermelon Watershed
Sylvia Shawcross
So I’m looking at the watermelon and thinking about the world we live in.
It’s one of those small happy watermelons all round and conveniently small. It is on sale. It is $8.99. This is a big savings because it is down from $14.99.
And I’m thinking how much I love watermelons in the hot days of the summer and how this is apparently now an ancient memory because the likelihood I’d buy a watermelon such as this for $14.99 is called not bloody likely. And the idea that I could grow my own with my property is also not bloody likely.
So unless someone invites me to lunch with a service of watermelon or they figure out how to 3D print the things in a lab, well… it was nice knowing you watermelon. But someone will buy the watermelons, the wealthy perhaps or the frantic millennial who has no time to check prices, sandwiched as they are between work and aging parents and young children; and who will just throw it all on the credit card to deal with later. One day.
They are the rushing and the rushed who run on empty most of the time but at least that saves on carbon emissions and for this a ragged smile might be warranted. They’re saving the earth when they cannot save themselves, some would say, but that might be too dark to consider really.
Maybe the watermelons will grow shrivelled and moldy and be fed to the pigs if there are any pig farms left or perhaps the insects in the insect farm or ploughed into landfill and the cycle of life will go on and the poor and the desperate will eventually stop buying watermelon-flavoured jelly beans because they don’t remember what a watermelon is and why risk their pittance on the taste of unknown things?
Better to buy Ramen noodles and strawberry jello they say with haunted wisdom. New wisdom plucked from the ether without history or culture now forming its own banal catchphrases under the New Normal.
We used to say “A penny saved is a penny earned.” What good is that to them now? They who do not even know the meaning of the word “save.’ Or even what a penny is for that matter. How could they understand the word “save”? Indebted before they even began.
But I digress…The important thing is, watermelon are not worth $8.99 and that is that.
The really really important thing however is that it is time to be honest. It has been easier to lie to ourselves that those in power are looking out for us.
The governments took our money and gave us watermelon for $14.99. They took our money and priced our homes beyond the reach of most. They took our money and sent it off to a foreign war to feed themselves and friends and murder other people’s children. Until perhaps they come to murder ours.
They took our money and left the homeless and broken hunched over on the streets. They took our money and failed to protect us from crime. They took our money and then our jobs and did not replace them. They took our money and stole our culture and erased our history.
They took our money and fed us poison. They took our money and condemned and demonized the spiritual traditions that kept and keep us strong. They took our money and borrowed even more. Indebted us to foreign shores. They took our money and weaponized our good will.
They took our money and began corralling and branding us like cattle. They took our money and maimed our children psychologically and even physically. They broke up families. They took our money and taught us hatred for the other—the non-conformists, the questioners. They took our money and sold us to the corporations as slaves.
They took our hope and replaced it with their dystopian plastic utopia of empty grey machines and uniformity driven by robots and AI as if a human would want this.
They are taking our freedom. They are taking our freedom. That bears repeating twice.
Mostly they took our money and turned their backs to any questions. And if the government is not going to listen to the people then why should the people listen to their government? And is that really what they want at the end of the day? A deliberate forcing of an uprising by the people that accelerates the problems they’ve carefully orchestrated? And the desperation that will have the people clamouring for their solution? And for those who do not clamour for it but are fatalistically resigned to paying a price they need not have paid… they too will clutter the gutters of a broken world. They are no different.
All being done in the name of Global Socialism.
At no time in history has Socialism been a good thing for any world. Why would it be different now? They start with the belief that they are levelling the field and end up persecuting, imprisoning or murdering those who would disagree. They would say that this Socialism was not done right. This time, they say, it will be different. They always say that. Yet it has always been that way and the outcome is always the same.
The dead of history don’t talk but they could tell a story that stretches well beyond our sense of outrage… those that lived through Socialist regimes. They are the ghosts that whisper in the night when daylight is too bright.
And they will do all this and the planet will still go on. They will not save anything. Perhaps themselves. The rest they will just break. And even if the world with humans should die tomorrow for whatever reason, was this the way to treat each other at the end of it all?
And now the question becomes just how far are they willing to go?
And how far are we willing to go to protect what makes us human?
“They don’t even know that they don’t know.”
I think it was Chomsky.
Your earworm:
Sylvia Shawcross lives in Canada. Visit her substack.
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I usually like what you write, Sylvia and this is also good, but please you and all those others who just don’t get it: Stop calling those rotten people who seek global domination and total control, stop calling these people socialists and say that they want to create socialism.
To be a socialist at the core means to care about social issues. Does any of these people care about that? No.
To create Socialism means that everyone becomes equal and the society makes sure that everyone is well. Do these peopple want that? No.
What these people want is to seize total control to enrich themselves and their pals, to have absolute rule over the 99%.
This kind of political position is more monarchist or absolutist.
But even a monarch can be benevolent and must ultimately care about his constituents. These people just want to make us livestock.
Were Leninists and Stalinists Socialsts? No. Is North Korea Socialist? Doesn’t seem so.
And also: The Democrat party in the U.S.A. is not politically left. They are left of the republicans, but way right of the center. Stop calling them socialists or leftist.
I’m so sorry, Syl, but you had to know this was coming. Please forgive me.
Mongo Santamaria…… Watermelon Man – YouTube
hahahaha
Canada
“When nature calls: Canadian wilderness area offers poop bags to fix fecal furore
“Special bag dispensers will be installed for visitors to wild areas around Squamish, British Columbia”
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/sep/15/canada-poop-bags-wilderness-hikers
Including visitors like the caribou, the wolf, the bear and the cormorant:
The common cormorant (or shag)
Has shat inside a paper bag,
The reason you will see, no doubt:
It is to keep the lightning out.
But what these unobservant birds
Have failed to notice, is that herds
Of wandering bears might come with buns
And steal those bags to hold their crumbs.
— with apologies to Christopher Isherwood.
Two utterly inoffensive posts still in pending after 24 hours. Why?
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/long_reads/russell-brand-allegations-career-comedy-conspiracy-theories-b2412427.html
Russell Brand has already been convicted. A hit piece in the laughably named Independent tells us that his career in comedy was “defined by darkness and delusions” and “a look back at his story prompts uncomfortable questions”. Note passive voice. The look, all by itself, “prompts” these “uncomfortable” questions”.
After a slick capsule of his “troubled” career we find that “another, darker side to the comic has emerged” i.e. the allegations are to be taken at face value. Trial? We don’t have time for that!
Brand already had a warning. A curious matter. Was this some kind of vague stirring of conscience in the Jackal division of the deep state? Or was the inevitable podcast of Brand delivering a prophecy of his imminent downfall supposed to make him look worse?
In any case his “denial comes ahead of an expected Dispatches investigation scheduled to air on Channel 4 at 9pm on Saturday night”. And I’m sure that will rake up enough (alleged) muck to keep the prurient satisfied.
Then a more detailed resume of his career lined with stuff that would have been pitched as “cute” in a favoured celebrity but which is now cast as indications of approaching malevolence. But the real meat comes at the end.
“….Brand’s most surprising pivot yet, though, has been his shift from left-wing hero to conspiracy peddler.”
And interesting comment since it highlights the difference between the permissible Left (soon to be indispensable champions of the new covid/climate/trans world) and the totally unacceptable opposition now branded as “Right”.
“Where once he positioned himself as a truth-teller, these days he trades in fake news, broadcasting live from a shed in Henley to his viewers on the right-wing streaming site Rumble. … He has falsely claimed that drugs like hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin can be used to treat Covid, is avowedly anti-vax, and has espoused the “Great Reset” theory, which alleges that global elites are using the pandemic to usher in a new world order.”
Good God! No!
But the end shows up Brand’s limitations and in the most ironic way:
“In the wake of the #MeToo revelations that swept through the film industry back in 2017, a handful of reporters have asked Brand to share his thoughts on the movement, and its unmasking of sexual predators. “I just feel like MeToo is a really positive step, it’s a sign of real awakening,” he told The Times in 2019.”
And it is the new Stalinist “Me Too” tactic of taking the accusation as proof of itself that is being turned on Brand. It is then poetic that this Brand-described “new awakening” seems set to swallow up Brand himself. Though I hope it doesn’t.
Comments not allowed tonight on the Mail.
I think they may have bitten off more than they can chew.
I sincerely hope so.
“They took our money and sent it off to a foreign war to feed (*Bloat) themselves and friends and murder other people’s children. Until perhaps they come to murder ours.”
… Oh Sylvia please, they have already come to kill our children, because They are evil, and have always been.
They don’t even know that they don’t know, sadly, applies to the majority of humans we need on our side for a small chance of winning this anti-human, anti-all-of-life-on-earth war. So, what chance do we have, even if we don’t comply?
Serve God, not man. Even if you don’t believe, it’s the best chance you got!
Nice admin, pending at 8:59 PM.
Don’t bother. I reinserted it myself.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/long_reads/russell-brand-allegations-career-comedy-conspiracy-theories-b2412427.html
Russell Brand has already been convicted. A hit piece in the laughably named Independent tells us that his career in comedy was “defined by darkness and delusions” and “a look back at his story prompts uncomfortable questions”. Note passive voice. The look, all by itself, “prompts” these “uncomfortable” questions”.
After a slick capsule of his “troubled” career we find that “another, darker side to the comic has emerged” i.e. the allegations are to be taken at face value. Trial? We don’t have time for that!
Brand already had a warning. A curious matter. Was this some kind of vague stirring of conscience in the Jackal division of the deep state? Or was the inevitable podcast of Brand delivering a prophecy of his imminent downfall supposed to make him look worse?
In any case his “denial comes ahead of an expected Dispatches investigation scheduled to air on Channel 4 at 9pm on Saturday night”. And I’m sure that will rake up enough (alleged) muck to keep the prurient satisfied.
Then a more detailed resume of his career lined with stuff that would have been pitched as “cute” in a favoured celebrity but which is now cast as indications of approaching malevolence. But the real meat comes at the end.
“….Brand’s most surprising pivot yet, though, has been his shift from left-wing hero to conspiracy peddler.”
And interesting comment since it highlights the difference between the permissible Left (soon to be indispensable champions of the new covid/climate/trans world) and the totally unacceptable opposition now branded as “Right”.
“Where once he positioned himself as a truth-teller, these days he trades in fake news, broadcasting live from a shed in Henley to his viewers on the right-wing streaming site Rumble. … He has falsely claimed that drugs like hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin can be used to treat Covid, is avowedly anti-vax, and has espoused the “Great Reset” theory, which alleges that global elites are using the pandemic to usher in a new world order.”
Good God! No!
But the end shows up Brand’s limitations and in the most ironic way:
“In the wake of the #MeToo revelations that swept through the film industry back in 2017, a handful of reporters have asked Brand to share his thoughts on the movement, and its unmasking of sexual predators. “I just feel like MeToo is a really positive step, it’s a sign of real awakening,” he told The Times in 2019.”
And it is the new Stalinist “Me Too” tactic of taking the accusation as proof of itself that is being turned on Brand. It is then poetic that this Brand-described “new awakening” seems set to swallow up Brand himself. Though I hope it doesn’t.
Looks like Russell Brand is up for a pants-down public thrashing.
Is he for real or not?
So many distractions.
A real establishment puppet, yes.
He does have “33” tattooed on his arm.
A truly awful cunt whose views should have always been disregarded, but who has corralled a lot of people who perhaps could otherwise been saved.
Hang him.
In case you have no idea of order of events, he was outcast for the phone call (quite amusing at the time) against Andrew Sachs, that he and that other cunt Jonathan Ross performed live on the radio.
Sonyo atone for that possibly genuine moment, he was forced to be controlled opposition on youtube.
Horrible horrible creature, that can only be, and should be, destroyed in cleansing fire.
Fuck you Brand, I hope you and your lies cause you to rot in hell
Real dissidents don’t have 6.6 million followers on a social media platform (yeah, 33 on his arm, 6.6 million followers)
The problem with that argument and a lot of the “shill’ arguments is that atuff that is said is REALLY uncomfortable for ‘them’.
Once you get into double or treble bluffs nobody ain’t never not gonna never know who’s telling the truth.
Stuff
What’s the significance of 33?
A master number, and the highest degree of “free masonry”.
Also a popular beer.
Gods secrets are so well disguised, that one doesn’t even know they are there.
Its up to you. If you like him as your new Alpha male, your hippie guru, your mindful course, someone who pleases your eyes and ears, he is good for you.
At least you are in a group of followers, a member of a secret invisible society where you talk the same language.
He seems to be popular and this is important in our times, to like those who are popular and have many followers. You can do it.
If he should be thumb downed you can just shift opinion and guru as the others do.
Free meal and free of any risk.
I had a plumber come to the house this week. He was awakened by listening to Neil Oliver on GB news and has gone on to find his way to sites like this.
Please explain how this is a bad thing.
A plumber? This is huge. This is breaking news. This will show them.
Call me when he has made his first poster.
He may be guilty of the allegations or maybe he’s not, but what you can be sure of is that they have mobilised all their forces and resources to discredit and remove him
I’ve always known I was out of step with the rest of humanity – and this convinces me.
I’ve always hated watermelon (and absolutely loathe cantaloupe). Even as a kid when in the summer the extended family would pass around slices of it like it was some special treat, I hated it. It was like eating flavored air.
And it was very confusing. I was like “Did I just eat something or only imagined it?” I’m still wondering which it was.
You “hate” watermelon?
That would imply either you have no idea what “hate” means, or you are simply a moron.
Could be both.
At least you didn’t call me a Russell Brand wanna-be. That’s encouraging (or are you just losing your touch?).
You hate watermelon? Why, because you have never really tasted them. In my childhood I didnt like olives and I didnt like parmesan cheese which smell like vomit.
But when I grew older my taste shifted and I became more open for sophisticated food.
Watermelon is one of God’s gifts to humanity and our vegetation. Its too childish to say someone doesnt like watermelon. I give my home plants a piece of watermelon sometimes and they love it too.
Melons are not my cup of tea. But what you say about tastes changing is true. As a kid, I didn’t like strawberries either – I didn’t like the texture or the sour flavor. Now I know better. Sour is my favorite taste. But I still dislike bitter.
Not to say watermelon is bitter. It’s just almost tasteless.
(Or maybe at 79 I’m still rebelling against my upbringing. All my relatives loved one thing more than watermelon: corn on the cob. To this day I despise corn on the cob. Of course all corn nowadays is GMO.)
Yellow melon is gross. Watermelon is like a refreshing drink.
Yes tastebuds change. I grew to like olives, coffee and red wine.
I can still remember when watermelon was 3 cents/pound in the US. But that was a loooooong time ago.
Yeah, gas in NYC was 27 cents a galoot when I first arrived at still Idlewild courtesy of Icelandic Airways and a complete shakedown by Immig. and Natz.. Diesel here is £1.57 a litre currently of which there are 4.5454 in the UK gallon aka £7.13 It actually reached £2 a litre a few months ago. Or £9.09 per galoot. I remember when it was 50/60 OLD pence.
Sick transit as we used to say in my band daze.
Fake constructed “heroes” destroyed by (probably) fake constructed “scandals”:
https://dumptheguardian.com/culture/2023/sep/16/russell-brand-posts-video-online-denying-unspecified-criminal-allegations
Julian Assange…. Alex Jones (aka Bill Hicks)…. now this…. it’s the same playbook rinsed and repeated.
Brand is a tosspot and another gatekeeper!
See my post above, Brand was made into this “opposition” character after he and Jonathan Ross upset the powerful(!) Radio 2 listening public.
If you ever get close to him, he stinks of spook
Drug addled loser becomes global celebrity
Hmmmm I wonder how thats possible?
Labels
Socialism is just another label. It can be applied to all sorts of societies from Sweden to North Korea and many in between. Capitalism and Communism are other labels. A few decades ago most people thought that the capitalist West and the communist East were sworn implacable enemies that were engaged in a potentially devastating struggle known as the cold war. The nuclear weapons on both sides it was believed could at any moment wipe us all out. Little did everyone realise that all ideologies and the three dominant monotheist religions had a common source. The bankers are now known as the central bankers or less flateringly as the banksters. These bankers had effectively achieved world government by the time of the Bolshevik revolution and the Balfour declaration. They keep consolidating with events like WW2 and Mao’s revolution. In their bid to control the world the banksters constantly draw and redraw new ethnic and ideolgical fault lines in order to keep various factions at each others throats, each conflict contributing to the bankster’s objectives and to their already immense wealth. Convid was absolute proof of the achievement of world government. Diverse powers like Islamic Iran, communist China, Hindu India and the nominally Christian capitalist West vied with each other in imposing inhuman and dystopian restrictions on their citizens. Overnight we all became Palestinians. Disdain for human rights once restricted to the USSR and Mao’s China became fashionale everywher in an instant. Unabashedly Fact Chekas were unleashed and freedom of expression was abolished. While it is true that it was communist countries that treated their citizens with more contempt and brutality, the banksters can and have extend(ed) these regimes to everyone everywhere. Even the Soviets did not force inject deadly vaccines into their citizens like Australia and New Zealand and Canada and Bidet’s Great Satan. And just when you thought it was safe to buy an airline ticket a deadly virus has emerged in South India.
In other words, the world is controlled by those that have stolen the ability to create money, and consequently now hold all others in debt.
The deadly Nipah virus is going to spread to the entire global population and we cant do a shit about it. We are doomed because of the anti-vaxxer’s “freedom” to kill innocent civilians.
You have to put “sarc on/off” or they won’t get it.
I will thanks.
Whilst sorting out some miscellaneous papers in my files, I came across a ref. to the following 61-second video. I’d sent it to an ‘awake’ friend [a French lady, in her late 70s] back in May 2021. She chuckled, and said “I think I’ll book him, if things get nasty…!”.
Even though what’s going on Earth is the exact opposite of funny, the video at the link below is amusing…!
“Vaccination of Cuneyt Arkin” (video: 61 seconds), at:
typo in my post above: should be “…what’s going on ON Earth.. [etc.]”.
Whoever (or whatever…) thumbed-down my edit, re. my earlier post, should learn that what I wrote is correct… ie, that I correctly edited my earlier post.
So why two thumbs-down?!?
Occasionally, it is necessary to write the same word, twice in succession, in a sentence. The only two words I can think of, where that applies, are the words ‘on’ (as in my post of yesterday, above) and the word ‘that’ (can’t think of an example, off the top of my head, where that would be so, but they do exist).
My correction of my own post, yesterday, above, is correct!! Ie, in my first post, I’d accidentally omitted the second ‘on’. The first one was “…what’s going ON..”- ie, “what’s happening…”, and thus does require the second ‘on’, ie, to express ‘what’s happening ON Earth…”.
So whoever thumbed-down my correct editing of my own post is in the wrong, and not me.
Lovely.
Those Doctors put up a surprisingly good fight. Can you imagine such a scenario in the NHS? All I can say is they must have been on a lot more than £15 per shot.
The ‘star’ of the above clip was a Turkish actor, producer and director. He was born in 1937, and ‘died’ in 1922. Thus that clip must have been filmed some decades ago.
(Quite obviously, the words “that’s not a vaccine, that’s a gene experiment” have been added [‘dubbed’?], for ‘comic’ effect, some time in 2021!)
(Just caught this.) Oops! The dude must have lived a spectacular life if he “died” before being born.
Oops indeed! Many thanks for pointing out my typo!!
Yes, he ‘died’ in 2022!
Mr & Mrs Melonshed
There is a curious pricing thing going on in UK
It’s the £1.25 a portion thing.
Nigella Lawson (Sleb chef) has a book with the same title where she makes dishes like spaghetti with a shaving of this or that probably costing less than 50p.
There is an advert on telly for some kind of sauce which, apparently, when combined with some sweet potatoes makes a dinner for a family costing – you’ve guessed it £1.25 a portion.
The ingredients, again, add up to about 50p.
Obviously, meat is taboo for any recipe that costs £1.25 a portion even though chicken, for example is still affordable and I could easily knock up a roast for less than the magic figure.
So, are they trying to help you budget or is there something more sinister going on ?
£1.25 is the new standard figure for a meal for Gammas/Deltas/Epsilons.and the new digimeal token will have a value of £1.25 – just enough for a few strands of pasta and maybe one of Nigella’s shavings.
Of course, Alphas and Betas will have their own shops where their extra credits will allow then an ounce or so of meat every other week.
I just wish I was joking.
Vegetarian food is good. There is nothing wrong with vegetarianism.
I thought we were all Guardian readers here. No comments on the fact that The G has been down since at least 6 GMT? Must be just my part of the world.
That’s weird.
I have read this site for a few years and never associated the contributors as Guardian readers.
Make of that what you will.
I believe Off G was set up by a few former Guardian readers who found the Guardian was departing from their left of centre values. Modern day, rather like RFK and the democrats. Hes found his party no longer recognisable. What encourages me are the collaboration between left and right. Basically its now right v wrong.
The Daily Clout and Bannon’s war room a good modern example of realising all decent humans, left or right can be part of the freedom movement.
Perhaps Off G will go down in history as one of the earlier to reject ideology and party politics. Before that the hard core ‘conspiracy theorists’, Alex Jones, Mike Adams and David Icke form the core of this movement, as now proven.
Off G has distinguished itself as a site without one ideology and a home to critical thinkers.
“Off G has distinguished itself as a site without one ideology and a home to critical thinkers”
That was my original point but I didn’t want to upset anyone.
Thanks. But what I said doesnt mean sites like Off G are totally immune from slipping back to tribalism. They’ve made good inroads starting 8 odd years ago.
But Off Guardian need to keep up. The UK is behind the curve now on current events. The battleground for our survival is in US. Their independent scientists, independent commentators
knock pants of anything here. If we expect the US activists to save us, we need to raise our game fast.
“I have read this site for a few years and never associated the contributors as Guardian readers”
Having likewise read this site for a few years I have come to the conclusion that we on OffG are disaffected readers who left the neo-Liberal Guardian that was captured by Anglo Zionazi Capitalism.
Our basic Guardanista spirit was captured by Bernard Woolley:
“Times readers are the people who run the country. Guardian readers are the people who think they run the country”.
I’ve never read The Guardian, and I’ve not bought, or read, ANY Mainstream Media newspaper for 35+ years.
I don’t know if that’s an admirable accomplishment or not. By not investigating for yourself what the “enemy” is saying, you must depend on others to tell you. And therein lies a recipe for deceit.
I’ve seen a number of people on this site and on other forums themselves state that they’ve not purchased, or read, any MSM newspaper for decades.
When working in London in my 20s, I bought MSM newspapers on occasion, but not regularly. And then decided to stop doing so.
The Guardian consistently has the best cryptic crossword puzzle. The sports coverage is quite good. Unfortunately, the rest of it is shit.
That’s a pumpkin in the photo, not a watermelon. I grow both.
I won’t submit a report on this year’s growing season, à la Gardener’s Question Time. Maybe recipe suggestions?
Better consult your books MC. There’s more than a thousand varieties of watermelons.
Thats why we call them all watermelons.
Could be argued that if watermelon’s don’t grow in canada then the price you were paying for them all this time was artificially cheap, based on subsidised fossil fuels and illegal labour.
The loss of foreign fruit is not a good issue to get resentful about.
According to this author, socialism – people co-operating for the benefit of all – doesn’t work; yet the solution to what the psychos are attempting to impose on us is…. people co -operating for the benefit of all!
Paradox anyone?
BTW how’s that dog-eat-dog, devil-take-the-hindmost approach working out?
It’s not our money…. Someone else controls and owns money…. They produce as much as they like and spread it around where they like. We and our governments get to pretend we have some say or control over that process. We and our governments have very little say in the matter. It’s not our money. We can play their money game and pretend to build our society around it but it’s not ours and they aren’t taking it from us. They are taking our energy and attention and giving us a tiny bit of their money to play their game with. Money is not the answer to our problems. It’s a system of subjugation.
Somebody or something is always going to be trying to take your stuff, it’s the nature of our world. I remember hanging out in the bush N.T. Australia and as soon as I stopped moving something would bite me, sand flies, march flies, ants, mosquitoes etc, relentless, you stop moving you die. Life requires you to be vital and aware. My son said to his younger brother, if you don’t decide what to do with your life, then somebody else will, it is fundamental that we are challenged, it is literally what it means to be alive. You can sleep when you’re dead.
I used to think most critics of socialism didnt know what they were talking about, then i realised they didnt know what they were talking about – though they had lurid imaginations…(anon)…
But who will organise your “socialist” utopia?
Who will ensure that everybody contributes equally and the benefits are distributed fairly?
And “quis custodiet ipsos custodes?”
And so on, ad infinitum?
Grow up.
you confirm the observation
Not an argument.
Socialism, national socialism, communism, fascism, all have a common feature: the expropriation of individual liberty and agency in the name of the “state”, “society”, “community”, the “common good” etc etc
It sounds good in theory, and perhaps it used to work in small tribal groups, but for today’s nation states it requires an “Inner Party” of administrators who ultimately enforce their will on everybody else by violence (hired police and soldiers).
Does this system sound familiar? It should – we’ve been living under it for at least a thousand years. Only its name changes.
I don’t pretend to have the answer, but whatever the answer is it sure ain’t “socialism”.
Fruit
One of the downsides of travel is the lack of fruit at airports. The huge duty free shops are filled with alcohol and chocolate and expensive suitcases and perfume and other forms of junk and poison. There is all sorts of rubbish for sale but nothing healthy to eat.
We are not there to help you to be healthy. We are there to suck money out of your wallet.
So you thought we were the Salvation Army?………………………LOL.
Don’t most countries restrict the importation of fruits, vegetables and animals? That is, unless done by so-called “reputable” professional importers and conglomerates – who can even import diseases because they’re considered so trustworthy.
If you have somewhere sunny to put an 8 gallon bucket/tub/pot/garbage can you can absoloutely grow a water mellon. A South facing wall would be good.
If you grow Cantaloupe instead (which are far sweeter btw) and you have a good summer, you could grow 12 from that 8 gallon pot, 12 from 1 plant is my record, summer wasn’t brilliant this year, I got 4 good ones per pot, the rest aborted when we had a cool spell for 6 weeks July/Aug so the chickens got a treat instead.
At this point I feel guilty for being far more interested in the lack of coverage than the tragedy itself regarding the Maui fire debacle
This staggeringly obvious cover-up continues to explode on social media while rapidly fading from alternative media, truly bizzare
– I can’t recall a similar event with this type of coverage dichotomy
and still
offG hasn’t mentioned the Maui fires at all
– regardless of what actually happened there – the cartoonishly grotesque response and subsequent sloppy-desperate cover-up is bordering on surreal
2000 children still not accounted for according to the public school system – while the death count decreases?
the relatively light coverage overall from normally relentless alt media is peculiar- to say the least – have we finally stumbled upon an event that has implications simply too dark to face?
the Maui fire hardly made a blip on Zerohedge and other counter narrative stalwarts
I’m genuinely confused
we don’t even need a conspiracy theory here to acknowledge the mind bending criminal incompetence that’s currently being buried with the desperation of a wounded animal
There’s something very different about this event – an eery miasma permeates from the Maui aftermath – some uncanny real-time recursive gaslighting and a mild widepread capitulation
regardless- the base level magic/horror/power has to do with frequency (energy) –
perhaps Maui gets a little too close to this fact
perhaps we’ve finally stumbled upon the one truth (method) that the construct simply can’t afford to have exposed
_
There’s something you may have overlooked regarding Maui: that thanks to this cover-up (if that’s what it is) we know almost nothing about what really happened. And the witnesses aren’t talking – because they’re dead.
In a word, there’s nothing for a reporter or anyone else to get a handle on and develop into a workable report.
If indeed the firestorm was more than just a forest fire, almost everything surrounding it is at this point pure speculation. Perhaps that’s the intent.
And I don’t believe speculation serves OffG’s or anybody else’s interest.
These are fair points Howard
However I’m struggling to gather the logic underpinning your final conclusion here.
we shouldn’t waste our time on speculation?
The highly documented and currently undisputed full spectrum failure of the authorities is enough to dig into without worrying about what started the fire.
— no warning sirens?
— no text alerts (while general texting was still functioning)?
— escape route blockades?
— water shut off?
etc.
Absolutely every key practical aspect of crisis response broke down miserably on this day — remarkable — this sequence of failures alone is truly extraordinary. It feels like there’s plenty of meat to for a ‘workable report’ from this staggering sequence of deadly incompetence – but the narrative remains – “tall grass and global warming” – and even this muppet grade story has already mostly faded away
– this is also unusual given the obvious criticality of the climate change narrative and the obvious massive platform this crisis provides to crank it up a notch
Also – this notion that “everyone’s dead” is verifiably false or at least an inaccurate exaggeration. There were in fact survivors – those who ignored authorities escaped. These are the very people who make for prime heroic tragedy content for the mainstream media – which has chosen to simply take a full hard pass on this one – unusual behavior for a very predictable MSM beast regarding typical “natural catastrophe” coverage.
– which in itself is a worthy phenomenon for offG to assess / investigate on it’s own – the flat out twilight zone behavior of the media on this event
Regardless, the sentiment that:
“we know almost nothing about what really happened” is the new threshold for investigation all of the sudden – kinda makes my point for me.
Something about this event has numbed the collective senses
Yes, the situation remains “fuzzy” because of a media blockout, military/FBI blockading (typical for wild fire events?) and giant black fencing surrounding the entire site (again, normal) …so, yeah nothing to report on I suppose
too fuzzy
move on
please forgive those last snippets and the passive aggressive tone
trying to get my point across with no intent to disrespect you Howard
thank you for adding to this thread
-cheers
Further disincentive to thwart independent reporting: tech activated to disable drones.
Even on off-G, we have people insisting that anyone associating “9/11” with a nuclear explosion is deluded – when (a) independent radiation meters and cameras were banned (b) USGS has yet to release its findings.
I’ve linked this video elsewhere. I’ll state outright that I don’t trust it entirely (for one thing, the name John Williams sounds fishy). However, it does explain (perhaps even explain away) each of the issues you raise here.
INTERVIEW: Lahaina Resident Sets the Record Straight – YouTube
Another thing which vanished from the media almost as soon as it happened was the East Palestine, Ohio train derailment incident. Yet this was arguably the most devastating chemical spill in American history.
Two theories as to why it disappeared: 1) it was a false flag which quickly backfired; 2) part of the media’s job is to downplay anything which might provide the industrial complex with a blackened eye.
Ryan Christian, at the Last American Vagabond, has been covering East Palestine and Maui and posted more information today. https://www.thelastamericanvagabond.com/maui-east-palestine-who-criminals/
yes – I noticed this
as part of a larger emerging trend – massive stories/catastrophes quickly fading away with the ephemeral lifespan of a marketing campaign A/B test
I will recklessly allow myself to believe this pattern and recent accelerated desperate sloppiness in narrative and cover up scrambling is the sign of a shift in overall trajectory
One more thing I forgot to say: there had been articles in globalresearch.ca regarding the Maui fire; but even that source no longer touches the event.
Though they do still have articles regarding the earthquakes in Turkey/Syria a few months back and the recent earthquake and flood in Libya.
Just to add here, there is quite obviously a massive US military presence in Hawaii – 3 major bases on Oahu alone, Air Force, Navy, Army (and it may be one big base now the way they consolidate, who knows and that just points out how easy it should be if there is only one base, doesn’t it?). You mean to tell me all that military equipment could not be mobilized within a few hours to fight that fire before it hit Lahaina? Fires started about 9 am and hit Lahaina about 4pm but they did not bother to even attempt to mobilize all those ready military resources to fight that fire? Really? That is pretty amazing to me.
Now that said, some will rush to point out the incompetence of the military, and the incompetence of leadership on Maui, the widely used excuse that the authorities “didn’t know” that fire was all that bad, blah, blah, blah. But if there were a foreign attack on Hawaii, and assuming that said military is for defense of the US and it’s land mass, it would take over 8 hours to mobilize all that to repel an attack?
How many coincidences and incidents of “incompetence” are we really supposed to believe here? We are talking about millions in real estate, with strict building and development codes overturned a month prior – does that sound accidental to anyone? As for speculation being an activity that would supposedly discredit this site, that’s one of the worst excuses I’ve heard in a long damned time – akin to the idea that anyone questioning the covid lunacy is merely a tinfoil hat wearing nutter. Didn’t this site come into being by questioning the MSM narrative pretty openly, obviously running the risk of being seen as one more nutter site from Day One? And yet that risk was taken here, on that subject at least. Perhaps those who say this is just one more limited hangout have a point?
Lizzy hz…about the use of military personnel to assist with putting out etc bushfires/wildfires…Such personnel are not trained for that, in fact, regular fire fighters would regard them as just as much hinderances as untrained
civilian volunteers…
When massive bushfires occurred late 2019/2020 south eastern Australia there was talk of national legislation being changed to allow for the use of military personnel in handling ‘natural disasters’…The help they could give was, being untrained, assisting the firefighters – transport etc (and probably providing sandwiches and coffees ?)…
I understood from media reports that military personnel could be used in ‘national emergencies’ but not ‘natural disasters’…
Thus we witnessed the military helping state governments during the lockdowns that were used to encourage people to volunteer to be jabbed – as ‘covid’ was declared a ‘national emergency’…
Plenty on Infowars
Yes – the only outlet actively covering Maui – as I would expect given the obvious purpose of Infowars –> make a story intellectually toxic / easily dismissible
I’m not knocking Infowars – plenty of obvious truth there (and dubious obfuscation) – and although I personally see it as a cartoonishly obvious controlled opposition shop it’s irrelevant because the mainstream takes comfort in “knowing” whatever’s covered there is nonsense
it serves a nefarious purpose willingly or not
The ‘Reese Report’ alleges the Chinese did it, and offers evidence – Chinese satellites armed with lasers were over the sites at the exact times the fires started.
So why the silence ? All that noise about a Chinese ‘spy balloon’ over America but silence about Chinese laser satellites over Hawaii ! A perfect opportunity for some China Bashing, dont you think ?
The Reese Report: CCP Satellites Over Maui at Time of Fires:
https://gregreese.substack.com/p/ccp-satellites-over-maui-at-time
Some are calling it the “Hawaiian Holocaust”
https://stateofthenation.co/?p=186131#more-186131
the fact that the hyper woke MSM defenders of BIPOC communities chose not to digest this heavily indigenous tragedy soaked story — the wholesale loss (slaughter) of the core of two generations of natives – who’ve been historically, illegally, occupied tells you that there’s something much larger afoot
Why would we need to implicate the Chinese when the US has a DEW facility less than 40 miles from Lahaina?
I think it could be the Japanese again. Kamikaze pilots dumped gasoline bombs over Maui because US insulted the Japanese Emperor.
If I were the American people I would raise up and defend America against evilness.
Why not put some evidence on here and start the discussion. You seem to be accusing the “alternative” media (OffG, ZeroHedge, etc.) of the same coverup as the oligarchy media. Not sure I get that, as in why would that be the case? “Implications too dark to face”? What could be more dark than the implications of the scamdemic (i.e., genocide) or the Great Reset (global technocratic human control)?
thanks Big Al
to be clear – I’m not accusing offG or alt media in general of participating in “the coverup” – I’m simply stating the observable facts – this story simply hasn’t appeared here nor was it featured prominently for any significant time on ZH.
I genuinely don’t know why – and I offer no theory
In regards to evidence for the discussion:
beyond the remarkable sequence of crisis response incompetence I’ve listed above (higher in the thread) there are numerous solidly documented physical anomalies that are getting increasingly difficult to explain.
because I’m “very meta” I find it fascinating that even within our community of critical thinkers who are capable of entertaining the concept of a government plot to intentionally kill millions with a toxic pharma product we get noticeably uncomfortable with the notion of “space lasers” or the awkward visuals of homes reduced to a fine white dust with plastic trash cans fully intact and undisturbed in the front yard
but discerning these images involves speculation beyond my understanding of fire dynamics and the nature of “wild fires” – and while the melting point temperature of steel and glass have somehow become”fuzzy” and debatable all of the sudden I still have trouble digesting the well documented phenomena of the solid aluminum wheels of many Lahaina cars melting to mush while the asphalt they rest on remains unscathed – here we find a contradiction beyond melting point comparisons – the explanations for this are not weak – they just don’t exist
Now if the solidly documented massively melted cars miles from the core fire and the many (most) boats badly melted while surrounded by multiple football fields of sea water don’t qualify as “evidence” (which they are) they’re certainly a difficult jumping off point to ignore
when we add these indisputable anomalies to the (verifiable) now many hundreds of people arrested for arson related to other recent “wild” fires (over 300 in Greece alone!?) we start to see the broader frame for an obviously narrative-connected set of events for offG to dig into
Take Note – have i just rambled on about space lasers, Oprah or DEW facilities on the island?
no,
no I did not
I deeply appreciate offG’s consistent resistance to immediately jumping on “current thing” conspiracy theories and sloppy speculation (as well as their avoidance of “picking a side” in a false dichotomy in this greater provisioned narrative etc. – solid publication, congruent positions)
but what I’m pointing out is that this event (regardless of cause) has undeniable signatures of the localized genocide of historically targeted native people on some of the most coveted land on earth with an overflowing bucket of awkward anomalies of basic physics
feels like a story worth covering, no?
regardless
I don’t expect the mainstream mental gymnasts who accept the “fires just get real hot” plot line to dig into this horror show any deeper but for the offG community I would expect this story to be far more relevant and curious
this appears to be the new playbook
fairly obvious – the fires will continue
finally – yes big Al – I agree, the orchestrated pandemic and subsequent pharmacide is indeed a high bar for “dark events” but if you really dig into the Maui fires and honestly digest the implications of what’s possible/probable during this new phase, the darkness there will be competitive with the covid charade
thanks for expanding the discussion
You make very reasonable and solid points R.
I too am curious at this anomalous response
I wonder if providing an article here on Offg would add anything, Rueben.
Peggy Hall at Healthy American has been covering the fires extensively since the very beginning.
Ryan Christionson from The Last American Vagabond has covered them.
Reinette Senum on Foghorn Express has been doing coverage since the beginning. (She had already just initiated a lawsuit against geoengineering) This week she did a report on the China connection to the fires.
Ed Dowd lives on Maui and he recently did an interview – I believe with Kim Iverson.
Other sites could have been providing coverage also, but those are the sites I follow.
I think it’s a case of what another commenter wrote that there is just so little information and most of it speculation. (When I say “little”, I mean definitive)
Peggy, Ryan and Reinette have their own sites so their reporting would not necessarily show up on Offg.
Just my two cents.
Thank you Judith
I was happy to see these outlets trying to keep Maui in our headspace
for now I think Robert t Brame’s analysis is the most impactful, exhaustive. level headed and direct
I also want to clarify that I don’t aim to appeal to the emotions of the event – the tragedy of the families (horrible and heartbreaking) but to focus beyond Lihaina and try to digest the implications of the technology involved and the possibilities for the broader playbook going forward
cheers
Let me jump in here. As tragic as Maui was – especially if it represents a new trend for TPTB – it is small potatoes compared to at least two other issues which OffG doesn’t seem willing or able to touch: geoengineering and 5G.
I tried a couple years back to slip in a comment about 5G; but an Admin replied that 5G was not significant in light of the ongoing Covid scam. Well, now, two years on, it’s been observed that 5G can have an adverse effect on some of the mRNA vax ingredients (like graphene oxide).
Yet still no mention on this site.
thanks Howard – I personally have no issues with offG and deeply appreciate this platform as a sacred space for sanity and I remain impressed with Kit Knightly’s congruency of thought – but we must remain intellectually autonomous – and your broader point on offG and 5G coverage holds
and of course platforms and people are easy to compromise (not suggesting offG is compromised in anyway)
regardless – yes
my broader point remains – frequency based technology is paradigm leap too far for us to collective grapple with and certainly a much larger threat than fabricated or real bio-weaponry – although it’s a bit pointless to create a “relevant threat contest” here
The implications of the technology go beyond weapons of course and I won’t go into the awkward free energy discrepancies we’re all asked to ignore every day but when we dig into what’s already publicly documented (military/contractor documentation plus patents) combined with the brain/body’s sensitivity to frequency we come to a very dark place of possibilities
even critical thinkers have cognitive dissonance threshold
and sure, regardless of whether or not graphine oxide has been mass injected it’s been established as a highly frequency sensitive/reactive compound
– but I don’t even need to go down that path
– and I won’t
but I agree
5G is the levitating and glowing red elephant in the room – with millions of cells being deployed globally with no meaningful safety thresholds in place (see: Telecom Act 1997) (I come from telecom / analytics) – and geo-engineering, again literally, symbolically, ethically too large to digest – while other threats have tangible handles for us to hold onto and tug at – with public figures to yell at (Fauci/Gates etc.) – while 5G and frequency tech remains a faceless ambiguous snooze fest – steadily enveloping the environment
I feel the frequency based threat dwarfs covid (regardless of whether or not they’re connected) and this assessment can be made without stretching to connect dots to nefarious intentions or groups
I still truly believe that a critical point of mass awareness regrading these methods (e.g. Maui) has potential (and has in the past) to disrupt or thwart these events – now I’m fully speculating but the logic holds
Things are getting spooky – but they’re also getting sloppy
bad news / good-ish news
Info says that China and Russia have safety levels for microwaves 100 times above West with due shields and distance for pregnant women m.m.
So there seems to be a difference in the way microwaves are being handled.
Can we say as a rough rule US/EU are using microwaves as a military weapon, and East are trying to use it as a civil service?
The old story, you can use a hammer to build something up, or you can use it as a weapon to rob your neighbour for what he build.
Thank you for this. In a perverse sort of way, 5G is “the gift that keeps on giving” in that no one ever reaches a point where they’ve now learned everything they will ever need to know about it.
You may already be familiar with a documentary called “Resonance: Beings of Frequency” by James Russell. It’s not a slick, Hollywood type of documentary; and it largely features “egg-head” Oxford types – so it probably wouldn’t appeal to many of my fellow Americans. But it is very good – –
–and near the end it features a spokesman for the International Commission for Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP) who gives the term “sleaze-ball” a whole new meaning.
Sorry Howard – I forgot to make a key connection related to your solid points – I believe the broader frame of frequency based technology and 5G are not only functionally related but possibly tactically coordinated – but that’s a path I haven’t gone down fully
So the motive is supposedly what? That rich people can now buy up the land and have it for themselves? Is that it? And who could have done this, I mean actually pull the trigger? The military? Private company? I think part of the reason for the lack of coverage, and that Infowars and Alex Jones are hanging on it, is because it lacks teeth. The motives and culrpits for 9/11 and the scamdemic make sense and are pretty clear. This one doesn’t make much sense. At least to me, which is why I haven’t delved into it.
I should say, after just a little checking, you’ve piqued my interest. The coincidences are pretty stark. If true, this is as insidious and criminal as it gets.
haha – sorry Albert – I initially thought this follow up was separate reader
Thanks for digging into this further!
These are fair questions Albert
the fact that Maui was targeted by the WEF as a the fist AI driven 15 minute city (only hindered by a large block of indigenous locals who refused to sell their land) and that many of these recent fire locations just happened to be areas slated for environmental off-limit zones in the Agenda 2030 roadmap should be be sufficient jumping off points
Hawaii governor Green’s executive order (two months prior) (gulp…) to allow the government to acquire private land in the event of an environmental disaster is yet another truly remarkably timed side note
and Respectfully, If you’re still asking – who could’ve done this? I’m afraid your worldview is in for a very uncomfortable journey if you start digging into what’s already primary source verifiable
not to mention how irrelevant it is – knowing “who” pulled the “space beam laser trigger” or digging into Oprah’s estate expansion aspirations etc.- clumsy distractions
what we see here is the clear signature of exotic frequency weapons (documented for over 50 years) essentially microwaving hundreds of native families to death on sacred land explicitly targeted for elite think tank program expansion
and yet – it still “lacks teeth”?
the implications going forward are fairly daunting no?
not just for Maui
again – my increasingly petty/punitive tone here is for emphasis / flow of expression only
I do not aim to disrespect you Albert and your points are valid
and you’re right IMO – the lack of coverage itself leaves us all with little followup information to dig into – my more primary point is that I feel there’s more than enough facts available to keep the pressure on this event and this highly unusual and sloppily-desperate cover-up is a story in and of itself – has it’s own unique signature distinct from recent cover-ups
thank you for adding to the thread
Not a problem Rueben. Thanks for the info. I only have so much free time on my hands these days so I haven’t been able to keep up much on this.
(P.S., I’m going from Albert to Big Al because I bought a new computer and it made me log in again and I logged in as Big Al. So one computer has me as Big Al and one as Albert Anderson. I’ll try to fix that.)
I suffer a touch of shadowbanning on Twitter which I wear as an honour and I do have a running series of articles on Maui, as well as another on depopulation. Both taboo in polite circles where one would hope to be published.
Griping apart, a political analyst told the Maui ABC affiliate, “conspiracy theories flourish in the absence of explanation.”
Does that mean journalists should stand down? Hell, no. And doesn’t it suggest that the reason some run from the story is that they fear a conspiracy might be part of the explanation?
Do me a favour. If you find anything in my six articles on Maui so far that is speculation, give me a heads up.
https://moneycircus.substack.com/p/what-exit-did-mauis-children-take
There are various “alt-media” outlets covering Maui; eg:
James O’Keefe:
Sep 15, 2023 – 4.1M Views
https://twitter.com/jamesokeefeiii/status/1702472782385140042
And TLAV – which I haven’t watched because it’s too long, but there’s several links.
https://www.thelastamericanvagabond.com/maui-east-palestine-who-criminals
—
They’re not even hiding the land-grab!
https://governor.hawaii.gov/chiefhousingofficer/emergency-proclamation-relating-to-housing
Emergency Proclamation Relating To Housing
EMERGENCY PROCLAMATION OVERVIEW
The Proclamation Relating to Housing was first signed by Governor Green on July 17, 2023. On September 15, 2023, Governor Green signed the second Proclamation Relating to Affordable Housing, which aims to facilitate the development process and empower stakeholders to contribute to the creation of affordable housing for Hawaiʻi residents. The Proclamation reflects extensive input from state and county agencies and community stakeholders. The second Proclamation is a continuation of the groundbreaking and visionary work launched by the Green Administration and the many housing stakeholders in Hawaiʻi to eliminate the barriers to developing affordable housing. Read more here on the changes in the second Proclamation Relating to Affordable Housing.
Second Emergency Proclamation Relating to Affordable Housing (September 15, 2023)
Emergency Proclamation Relating to Housing here. (July 17, 2023)
The Proclamation prioritizes the many state and county affordable housing projects, which aim to create thousands of new low-income and workforce housing units throughout the state. For questions regarding this Proclamation and the Build Beyond Barriers Working Group, please contact the Governor’s Office on Housing at gov.housing @ hawaii.gov.
—
Build Beyond Barriers Working Group
The Build Beyond Barriers Working Group (BBBWG), led by the Lead Housing Officer, is dedicated to accelerating housing development through stakeholder collaboration. This group will not engage in policy-making or regulatory changes but will focus on streamlining housing projects. Its main tasks involve monitoring and coordinating various housing projects, assessing housing regulatory agencies’ workloads, and certifying projects for construction. These certified projects can include housing, infrastructure development, and brownfield sites primarily intended for housing, with a strong emphasis on fair wages for workers throughout the project’s duration.
August 11, 2023, Build Beyond Barriers Kick-Off
August 29, 2023, Build Beyond Barriers
September 26, 2023, Build Beyond Barriers Meeting – Canceled
—
Note; I’ve watched only a few minutes of the following.
Hawaii Gov. Josh Green Holds Meeting With Building Beyond Barriers Group After Wildfires Ravage Maui
Forbes Breaking News
Aug 11, 2023
Hawaii Gov. Josh Green (D-HI) meets with Building Beyond Barriers Working Group.
“the Green Administration”, leftist doo bs all over.
“…how far are they willing to go?”
‘…as far as we are willing to go to protect what makes us human.’
The Death of the Authentic Left
That’s a pretty good article by Toby. Yeah, I would agree that, say in 2019, the radical left was the weakest it has been in my lifetime. I agree with him, any real left hasn’t existed for some time (at least in the West). Of course, the paradox is that the right believes that the world is now experiencing a global communist takeover – for the first time I might add!
I don’t know about you, but we are definitely still living in a capitalist society. As long as class exploitation lies at the crux of a system, then it remains capitalism. We have since normalized fascism for the past 50 years, pretending it was a good thing for the private sector to self-regulate and for monopolized, too big to fail mega-corporations to dictate how and where the State should spend its money, rather than the other way around. We can all agree that banks and corporations have done a far worse job at governing when it comes to managing public finance, who can’t be bothered. In the immortal words of Mike Pence, “That’s not my concern.”
Yanis explores in his new book the idea that capitalism has morphed into technofeudalism, but to me it’s just capitalism with more bells and whistles.
Yanis Varoufakis: TECHNOFEUDALISM – What Killed Capitalism
“It is not hard to see that capital’s mutation into what I call cloud capital has demolished capitalism’s two pillars: markets and profits. Of course, markets and profits remain ubiquitous – indeed, markets and profits were ubiquitous under feudalism too – they just aren’t running the show any more. What has happened over the last two decades is that profit and markets have been evicted from the epicentre of our economic and social system, pushed out to its margins, and replaced. With what? Markets, the medium of capitalism, have been replaced by digital trading platforms which look like, but are not, markets, and are better understood as fiefdoms. And profit, the engine of capitalism, has been replaced with its feudal predecessor: rent. Specifically, it is a form of rent that must be paid for access to those platforms and to the cloud more broadly. I call it cloud-rent.
As a result, real power today resides not with the owners of traditional capital, such as machinery, buildings, railway and phone networks, industrial robots. They continue to extract profits from workers, from waged labour, but they are not in charge as they once were. As we shall see, they have become vassals in relation to a new class of feudal overlord, the owners of cloud capital. As for the rest of us, we have returned to our former status as serfs, contributing to the wealth and power of the new ruling class with our unpaid labour – in addition to the waged labour we perform, when we get the chance.”
We have yet to experience real Socialism, which has been badgered mercilessly by capitalists for a reason. We need more discussion and debate about it.
Nancy Fraser – What Should Socialism Mean in the 21st Century?
“They are so stupid so they dont know they are stupid”. When I travel in third countries, they are stupid but mostly they know they are stupid.
I once met a boss for a water plant in a latin town 4000-5000 inhabitants close to the amazon river. We needed fresh water for our little sail ship.
The water boss was a little guy with a gun in his belt. In the city were women walking around in bikini with a whiskey bottle in hand. Really surrealistic place.
The boss couldnt read, write nor calculate. Never been to school. So he had bought a calculator, and we spent 3 hours drinking a bottle of the local fire water while calculating a price for our water on its screen.
Beginning with 5 786 988 dollar we finally ended at a price of 15 dollar for 1000 litre.
As a perfect gentleman he assisted carrying the filled 25 l jelly cans to and from the boat.
We stayed there for a couple of days and heard he had sold the same amount of water to 82 old Esmeralda downtown for 3 dollar, and I think if a bigger sailship than our was passing by he would probably sell the same amount for 30 dollar.
There was nothing cheating in it. It was simply their form of social justice.
If someone of the characters in town were shitting in the fresh water you got a bullet in your right butt, so everybody would know its not a good idea to pollute the society’s water.
You pay what you are able to, the important thing is that everybody get the fresh water they need to their conditions.
With no school, a calculator and a gun he was running this job as good as any educated water plant director. He knew he was stupid but he got along anyway.
So socialism is the great evil? And capitalism, i.e. the actually existing system that has dominated the world for the last few centuries and is now more intensive than ever before, doesn’t even get a mention till below the line?
Capitalism has always been the fundamental operation. And if there are violations of the sacred “leave it alone” screed, it is because such a screed would never work since “leaving it alone” doesn’t even make sense. There is always organisation, always “state interference”, to ensure that the conditions necessary for capitalism to exist are maintained. And if capitalism has “raised us all up”, the benefits the majority have gained had to be fought for – which, of course, goes against the sacred (but highly selective) screed of “leave it alone”.
And if the years since covid have seemingly brought about “communism” then the question has to be asked: “When exactly did the masses rise up and start a revolution?” This is a “revolution” imposed from above.
And even if you insist on saying that the various revolutions of the 20th century were all phony as well, then that means there is no such thing as “communism” and these “new societies” are a kind of neo-feudalism. Which is where we’re headed now.
But please drop all this ridiculous “Socialism is coming to get us!” and “Biden/Sunak/whoever is a socialist”. It’s just irritating bullshit.
Agree totally. This site sets it out for our confused American readers:
https://www.rudemacedon.ca/vgi/backgrounders/collectivist%20plot%20omg.html
This is pretty good!
This concept is getting stronger, the idea that communists and globalists are essentially the same and bear more or less equal responsibility for the state of things.
See this excerpt from Katherine Watt who has done great work on looking into the military origins of the Covid con.
“For communists following the ideological lead of Karl Marx, Antonio Gramsci and their intellectual descendants, the individual exists for the benefit of the collective, and specifically for the people who occupy the top tier of the communist political organizations in each country.
For globalists, it’s the same story, except the individual exists for the benefit of the elite people who serve as stand-ins or placeholders for the idea of the collective as a whole.
In both cases, the purpose of the collective to which the individual is subordinate, is the promotion of this-world material wellbeing in terms of more goods and longer longevity for the primary beneficiaries: the political elites in the Party, or the financial elites within the global economic system.
From that viewpoint, any conflict or tension between the individual human being and the human society in which he lives, is resolved by destroying the individual and any governing principle — such as Constitutional rule of law — that protects the individual from society and from government.”
https://bailiwicknews.substack.com/p/on-why-and-how-globalists-allied?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email‘
They have fallen for the (at least) 7 decades old propaganda campaign that there is a communist plot to take over the world. (In 1946 when Churchill gave his infamous “Iron Curtain speech the USSR were still burying their dead.) Watt seems to think that there is a powerful communist organization in every country. When I argue with them that non of the main players of the Covid con are Marxists or communists I get blank stares. No evidence is needed for their conviction. We’ve focused on the “spell” put on the left, we’ve forgotten that the right is also in the grip of fantasy.
Agreed, but at least many on the right can see the tyranny coming down on our heads. Most on the left remain blissfully unaware, or support it. The fantasy is much worse on the left.
Would it be better if I said the left were enthralled and the right were deluded?
Why, if we are opposing tyranny, must we now accept another set of bullshit ideas?
Who said anything about accepting bullshit ideas? I’m arguing that there is a major difference here. The right can see that something is very wrong, which provides an excellent starting point for communication about the reality of the totalitarianism we are facing. With the willfully oblivious and blind left, we have no where to start.
I have been active and organizing with people in the health freedom movement from the beginning. In my particular area, the vast majority are conservative, a few libertarians in there too. I have not been able to make headway countering the idea that really has become an article of religious faith that Covid is a communist plot to take over America. Yes, the left, whatever that is, might as well be brownshirts for the Great Reset.
That is disappointing. Good on you for trying.
The right and their ideological roots are family, King, God and Nation with the Christian religion.
Leftist ideology is Marx, Jewish, Atheism and Global. Previously Global Communism.
When you look at where the Green, Clima, CO2, Trans, LGBT, Fema Camps, free Abortion, Depopulation, Refugees, Organ trade, Human trafficking, Social Score Cards, Digital Id, ideas comes from, they come from the highest echelons of Finance and socialist/jewish anti-Christ gurus, Blackstone , JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs (CO2 bs), Facebook, Tony Blair, Prince Charles, Rockefeller, m.m.
The right is infested with socialist ideology because of the money bags located there, so its sometimes difficult to see any difference.
We can say no to put a spell on the useful idiots on the left, but we must put a spell on their ideology, because their ideology has never been and will never be anything than a doormat to a Totalitarian state..
Good verses evil.
Evil is using both the left and the right
sowing divison and hatred.
For communists following the ideological lead of Karl Marx etc. the individual does not exist for the benefit of the collective nor does the collective exist for the benefit of the individual. The split into individual and collective is already suspect in that neither is conceivable without the other. Collectives are obviously collectives of individuals but the individual is the product of a collective in that he is produced from parents who themselves are the product of a society that goes back through innumerable transitions and developments all the way into prehistory. Therefore all this talk about focusing on the individual rather than the collective, and vice versa, ignores the interaction between the two.
Of course what the individualistic rhetoric actually means in practice is that certain individuals project the concerns of their group onto a society as if to suggest that the society exists only for them. And of course the collectivist rhetoric serves the same purpose.
But the idea that “the individual” can somehow be considered “a victim of the collective” taken as a general rule presupposes that individuals can somehow float free of all collectives which is absurd.
Socialism, communism, capitalism, libertarianism – you name it – all have one distinctive feature in common: they were designed to look good on paper. The devil of course is in the conversion to reality.
The so-called “ruling class” endlessly changes the playing field to meet the exigencies of the day. Whatever sounds best at the moment to take the heat off them and their endless exploitation of humanity is precisely what they will promote at any given time.
Perhaps next up, when capitalism no longer hides their nefarious plans, will be Cockamanie Symbiosism or something just as ridiculous as everything else that’s gone before it.
Hell, they might even call James Corbett in to set up an Anarchistic system.
Marx’s project was to look at actually existing reality and attempt to analyse what is happening in it. He did not have some failsafe blueprint for society but insisted that every society, every system, was part of a historical development and therefore always evolved out of what came before. Blueprints are ideological justifications for what exists. They are not “applied to reality”.
The “so-called” (?) ruling class of course are a shower of opportunists who will resort to any rhetoric that suits their continued – and very real – rule. But they have to work with what they have which is indeed a system. And it follows certain rules. Capitalism needs to rely on profit which has depended on exploitation. And profit exerts tendencies e.g. the tendency towards a situation in which inputs are minimised ideally to zero whilst outputs are maximised as much as possible. This all being implemented on a competitive basis. Result: cutthroat diminution of materials accompanied by maximisation of hype. Another example: To generate constant profit, addiction is a hugely effective tool. This is why drugs and pornography are so attractive as industries. Best of all is war where the weapons have to be constantly updated for each side. These are details of the world the ruling class work in and in which they have to shape their activities.
Covid marks a turning point. The approaching crisis calls for drastic measures and the ones at the top are really unconcerned about how many of the smaller businesses they send to the wall.
“Communism” is the boogieman who haunts the thinking of All Respectable Persons…
And, as a Strawman, has been made to work some serious overtime defending capitalism….
“The words that are used
For to get the ship confused
will not be understood
as they’re spoken…
(1960s folksinger)…
Many decades later and i still occasionally re-read Wilhelm Reich’s “Character Analysis” to remind me of what’s going on below the surface…And it’s frightening…
watermelon is worth what i will pay. i would pay 20 for a melon before i spent 0.20 on ramen – no brainer! BUT, they are injecting watermelons with a chemical that makes them rot within 24hrs of being cut open. What other natural foods are they tainting? Apeel comes to mind
Interesting ear worm indeed…I’d say some souls are shrivelled and moldy like said certain watermelons
Yeah except he was referring to his idea of God or the Universe when he said this. If you watch the whole interview and have some background information about Dylan’s history you will see that’he wasn’t referring to El Diablo.
He has a strangley haunted look in his eyes for somebody you say is talking about the god of love…and his choice of words are strange…to say the least. But everybody is entitled to their own opinion.
It’s kind of difficult to speak for someone else and, ultimately, unconvincing.
Why not let Mr Zimmerman speak for himself?
https://odysee.com/@WyattStagg:e/Bob-Dylan's-Messianic-Kingdom:0
Shame on Bob. “I did it to get where I am now, eternal fame in the universe”.
Except that’s not what he said, its what you wanted him to say, so shame on who?
I think I got it wrong. Sincerely. But it is not easy to interpret Bob’s words.
Do you make deals with the Lord? I think we do if we believe.
After my comment I found Megadeth (the well known heavy metal band) in an interview talking about satanic forces.
In the interview the lead singer declare himself a Christian, but not before he went through a lot of experiences with the invisible forces.
After all Bob Dylan’s song texts would make much more sense if it was the Lord he made a bargain with. So my regrets for this missing shot.
https://youtu.be/7W6ePhWEU5w
Thanks for the correction, he did say he made an agreement, and with something he couldn’t see, and that he was upholding it.
That’s all I got out of the interview and it possibly wasn’t even about spirit or the lord, could have been finances for all we know, like someone else approving how you spend your own money, could have been the long arm of the law, they have satanic foundations which can’t be seen, until they invite themselves into your house to show you their toothless justice, we just don’t know.
I firmly believe every famous person on Earth should be muzzled at all times when out in public. That way they cannot put their foot in their mouth.
And anyone who hangs on their every word should be made to wear a cowbell so others can avoid them.
Better to remain foolishly silent than to open ones mouth and remove all doubt.
The link I sent has a good explanation of the dark forces in the industry.
They say the devil could and can be in the room anytime he wish.
But I said to myself all Bob Dylan’s text songs are about to improve our world, this way I understand it when he says he was on a mission by the invisible Chief in Command.
I think my link is important in relation to Bob Dylan too. It show differences within the industry re hidden forces.
If the Lead singer of Megadeth can make his own religious decisions, I cant see why Bob Dylan would not be able to do the same.
The entertainment industry is a jungle, so let us just leave it there. Anyway I like both Dylan’s and Megadeth’s music.
Give the devil his time, just make certain there is not much time due him.
A former Queensland Premier Jo Bjelke-Petersen called press conferences “feeding the chooks”…Dylan was deeply disdainful of the media, always feeding it off-the-cuff, throwaway comments…He had some scorn for followers, especially because they believed his every word…The Point: take what Dylan says to the media with a grain of salt
As William Burroughs said.
“Question, what controls control?
Answer, control is controlled by its need to control.”
considering the nature of the criminals that run the governments, you are lucking all they took is your money,, freedom, affordable housing, affordable and safe food, jobs, culture, and history. because they have used the nation states they run to make much more from the people of other lands.
There’s a pretty strong argument that most forms of capitalism end up in the same place as most forms of socialism in the end. Everyone talks about ‘capitalism’ as if it actually exists on earth: it doesn’t. Corporatism exists, cartels exist, monopolies exist, oligarchs exist and corrupt politicians exist.
For a while, risk-takers thrive, until Governments impose lock downs. then the risk takers go bust.
For a while under socialism, honest hard working folk with a service ethic thrive. Until the corruption in government means there’s no money to pay them any more.
Capitalism is for risk takers, socialism is for steady eddies.
The fact is that neither system can marry the two for very long.
Two aspects of the Emotional Economy of Capitalism:
— Enough is never Enough !
— Taking more than you give (Unequal exchange)…
So long as there are bloodsuckers who expect more (emotionally) than they give in return, for whom enough is never enough – Capitalism Lives !!
The industrial based capitalism of the past 150-200 years is historically transient…Some have claimed the extant form is morphing into Technofeudalism…
The Economy is next to non-existent in Orwell’s ‘1984’- a version of technofeudal society in which the primary (re)production is the social control complex…
In ‘1984’ it’s Room 101 for the doubters, dissidents, and dis-obedient…In 2023 there are The Camps…(Remember Syme ? He was a clever one – ‘disappeared’ was his fate…)
The flaw of all ideological and teleological viewpoints is 1) they see power as real and 2) they believe they can know the end purpose of history. Both premises are false: power is an illusion and the end-purpose is determined by reality. Unfortunately humans do not fully control reality. The one thing history tells us that everyone eventually faces the war they are trying to avoid. That makes our teleological outcome one thing – nuclear Armageddon. Paradoxically, the only chance of avoiding that fate is to accept it.
https://patternofhistory.wordpress.com/
Did you say the ends justify the means..
Are you saying us hoomins have a (Dr Freud’s) Death Instinct ?
Or are you just preaching some sort of Buddhism ?
You will be very glad you do not & can not control reality!
Power OVER is the illusion. Or if you prefer; control masks as power, while what we think to possess, possesses us.
History tells us whatever we choose to hear – but if we use it to stamp continuity of narrative identity set in lack & grievance, it tells us we are made by conflict and pain of loss to struggle in a world where love comes to die.
The desire to heal receives a blessing shared.
Sow & reap is cast out in time and place of differentiated or fragmented sense of self/reality, but is the true nature of the timeless. How can all the king’s horses and all the king’s men put Humpty together again but as in-silico/virtual models to which life must be sacrificed – over, over and over again.
On the other hand, leave them alone and they’ll come home, dragging their tales behind them, suggests a natural alignment to a homing signal or indeed innate Nature.
Our denials never truly leave the mind, but they do limit & filter the range and focus of awareness as attention – so as to compartmentalise a sense of self in its own ‘chosen’ reality augmentation – or substitution. (Image & thought).
Human being is a verb. Life is a verb – but a nounce or reporter/bearer of news – translates to an object model of weighted significances taken as currency.
So the use of mind for judgemental denial or limitations by which to focus in specific arena of experience, sets its own ‘fate’ as a jack-in-the-box of charged psychic conflict under a disintegrating masking dictate. Though we may humanly experience the compression of being denied as impending death, barbarians at the gate or madness pushing through the bolted cellar doors. The power of love is not control, but to a covertly set control ID must be seen as threat or contagion, to be demonised and killed.
As in the parable of the tenant farmers & the messengers of the ‘absent Master’.
To the practically minded – have I said anything (that can be useful in their ongoing focus of problem solving or war on…whatever)?
How separate are we really – right now and in every now – from our source and true Nature – but that thinking makes so?
Individual expressions of the whole are recognisably felt as qualitative but the concept individual can be quantitatively represented as locked down ‘meanings’ competing for acceptance at cost of awareness of wholeness or Soul.
The wish or desire to create (reality/experience) is itself creative, but only within the light of the always already creative. Anything we sow or give value to by sharing will frame what follows on – while its premise is protected (as self). Conflicted premises follow false profits. A true prophet reveals the healing of conflict as alignment in true Currency of with-ness and worth-ship.
Our grip on self/control is its grip on us. Releasing an unworkable or self-conflictive covert identity cant be magically effected (though we may die over and over in the tempt), but as the recognition of what we are not, in the light of what we are -regardless any belief or judgement set against its Messengers.
The time of compression enforces a release of the unworkable to a unified focus within life. There is no true unity in war, but there is siding with freedom to be that you are. Unless we give it, how shall we know we have it?
Hi Sylvia.
Would you please describe what do you mean by “Socialism”. What are those bad points. And then, are there any good points?
I like your articles.
Nastran
Support local farmer’s markets. If you don’t have one within a thirty minute drive your options are limited to the corporate monopolies and all their contol’isms.
Listen carefully to the WACs. They tell us all we need to know.
When I worked as a civil servant right out of high school for the US Army, occasionally a WAC private (Women’s Army Corps) would become in a “family way.” You must trust my honesty when I say they would almost always say they were not that “way” but had simply swallowed a watermelon seed – and nature took its course.
What they told us, as it turns out, was not at all a funny anecdote about not-too-smart WACs but a history of humanity – say whatever might get you off the hook. And worry about consequences later.
“All being done in the name of Global Socialism. At no time in history has Socialism been a good thing for any world. Why would it be different now? They start with the belief that they are levelling the field and end up persecuting, imprisoning or murdering those who would disagree. They would say that this Socialism was not done right. This time, they say, it will be different. They always say that. Yet it has always been that way and the outcome is always the same.”
If your complaint is that it is the government’s plan to enact global socialism, when in fact it was global capitalism that got the world into the problems that you’re complaining about. Then what’s the point of complaining?
All this constant pointing out of the problems, yet not giving any solutions to solve the problems, other than pointless peaceful protesting, is pointless.
“The unpreparedness of the educated classes, the lack of practical links between them and the mass of the people, their laziness, and, let it be said, their cowardice at the decisive moment of the struggle will give rise to tragic mishaps.” — Frantz Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth
Don’t have a clue about you lot. But if Annie’s got her gun, you better have yours!
“When you have to shoot, shoot. Don’t talk.” — Tuco, The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
This has nothing to do with watermelons, but couldn’t resist posting.
It pays to be a climate activist.
“Environmental activist Greta Thunberg net worth is $18 Million USD. Thunberg was born into a wealthy Swedish family. She has inherited over $10 million from her family’s estate. Considered one of the richest climate activists in the world. Among other assets she owns nine cars and six properties.”
https://www.caclubindia.com/wealth/greta-thunberg-net-worth/
Do you expect a thumb up or thumb down for this one?
“one of the richest climate activists in the world”
Definitely not the richest, though LOL
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/oct/22/just-stop-oil-van-gogh-national-gallery-aileen-getty
“she owns nine cars”
B-but they’re electric, right?
“At no time in history has Socialism been a good thing for any world. Why would it be different now? They start with the belief that they are levelling the field and end up persecuting, imprisoning or murdering those who would disagree. They would say that this Socialism was not done right. This time, they say, it will be different. They always say that. Yet it has always been that way and the outcome is always the same.“
But if the governments that you clearly blamed for getting the world into the mess it is in are capitalist, then that would logically mean that capitalism shouldn’t be the system that you would be looking to get the world out of the mess that it is in.
Furthermore, it seems that you are against violent revolution. So tell us how you expect us to reason with the governments not to enact this socialism that you are fretting over? Through peaceful protest? Because that has never worked. The government has simply flipped the script every time.
No solutions. Simply more pointing out the problems and complaining.
Frantz Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth:
“The unpreparedness of the educated classes, the lack of practical links between them and the mass of the people, their laziness, and, let it be said, their cowardice at the decisive moment of the struggle will give rise to tragic mishaps.”
“When you have to shoot, shoot, don’t talk!” — Tuco, The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
Just wait.
The mayor of Chicago announced yesterday (9-14-23) that he wants to build State owned and operated grocery stores in the “food deserts” of the city. Mostly on the south side.
The privately owned stores were forced to close because they were robbed blind.
However, the government run stores probably won’t sell watermelons because it is considered a “racist” food.
I would suggest that you grow your own.
In another thought vein: If the Mayor’s plan succeeds, all hell could break loose. Imagine if all “watermelons” are owned by the government.
The family of a friend from high school fled Poland in the 1960s when the State took ownership of their livestock and crops on their farm.
It’s coming.
The waiting is about to end.
Weirdly, just saw a post today about how Trudeau is threatening food retailers to brainstorm a way to control prices or he is going to find a way to do it for them.
Sounds like Canada is going take ownership of the crops and livestock on privately owned farms.
I believe that would be called socialism.
It’s coming fast.
Considering all governments are owned pretty much outright by corporations it’s more like feudalism dressed up as “communism.” Or socialism, take your pick but it assuredly really is not about equal ownership of the commons. They’ll own it all and tell you that you consented to that. And what passes for left will bring it on. Yes, it’s coming fast.
State capitalism…Same as in the USSR***
***for those of youse too young to remember USSR = Union of Soviet Socialist Republics…ok…
I were in the Baltic states before and right after the Berlin wall’s fall. You could not buy anything with your Western money.
There was one type of bread, one type of milk, a queue to buy two types of meat. There was cheap LP’s of classic music for 1/2 to 1 dollar. Two types of private cars, Trabant and another.
One little dollar shop in the city centre where you could buy amber stones. In the outskirts of the Capitol there were km after km grey dirty concrete 8-12 storey buildings wth clothe hanging outside to dry. Children’s playgrounds were concrete.
I think their education were valid, classic math, physics, music. But…….very special.
The contrast between this place and Sweden on the other side of the belt was extreme.
One of the great ideological victories of the last 50 years is to impress on us an extreme form of capitalism and convince that its not really capitalism but its opposite — Global Socialism in this article. This leave people without hope, crushed — the Boot on the Neck.
What is socialism, anyway? Stripped to its essentials its the idea that the farmer takes precedence over the hunter/gatherer. From time immemorial human society has organized itself into tribes and resources for those tribes were plucked from the environment — hunt, fish, collect wild fruit and so on. Over time, and as people become more numerous, resources get depleted so life eventually becomes a never ending search for more plunder. This is a fair description of a capitalist society, a society always looking for plunder, or in a more civilized setting, a percentage. The problem with this mindset is that it relies on ‘the world’ being always able to provide more resources (and absorb more waste). Eventually you run out of world. Contrast this with the ‘farmer’ notion. Farmers — not exploitative agribusiness, BTW — realize that the land they work has finite potential and work hard to maintain and increase that potential. There is no question of despoilation since its not possible to just move on should you wreck the land. This is the idea behind socialism — its about doing what’s right for the world and its population.
Obviously I can write reams about this. Many, many, people have. The important thing to remember is that the hunter/gatherer types understand that farming is a threat to their lifestyle because it puts constraints on them. Since they command lots of resources in our society they go to a lot of trouble to convince people that There Is No Alternative, that “they’re all the same, anyway” and generally undermine and destroy anything that looks like it might oppose them. This invariably takes the form of war — total spectrum dominance type war, ranging from economic to all out hot war with plenty of propaganda, political maneuvering and the odd bit of assassination. (War is also very good for business.) The fear is real — should a socialist society establish itself then it will not only repriortize the needs of society to include the welfare of all the people first but it will also be rather efficient because it will be able to deploy capital as needed without the baggage of having to earn that percentage ASAP.
Anyway, just thought I’d mention that the reason why that melon is ridiculously overpriced is not really “supply and demand” but that it represents a very small slice of melon and a very large chunk of overhead. Everyone and their dog is trying to make a cut from it with you, the sucker at the end of the chain, representing the only injection of hard cash into the melon economy. Rent’s another good one, of course. The weird thing in all this is that the problem was figured out well over a century ago, not just by communist revolutionaries but by enlightened capitalists who realized that unfettered capitalism was going to literally kill and eat the goose that lays those golden eggs. (….and the fact that folk tales keep on telling us this suggests that people figured it out a very, very, long time ago….)
A world without us?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_World_Without_Us
Not so bad, just a lot quieter.
And greener.
Thanks Syl.
I just wish people would take seriously the organic nature of our relationship to the earth.
I mean, wardropper and johnny without a beating heart and a functioning brain would also be a lot quieter, but it wouldn’t be wardropper and johnny any more.
I think it’s the same with the earth.
We are part of it; not just specks of cosmic dust that happen to have settled on it.
The problem arises – indeed, has always arisen – when humans through some quirk of hubris imagine they are NOT a part of the Earth but its lord and masters.
A world without the US – now you’re talking !
Nope. All the nuclear power plants blow up.