Thursday, December 9, 2010 Musing as Prescience to Dawn.

We owe ourselves more. Hell, even my sitting here, writing this, you reading, our relationship as brief and transient as it may be. It's a start. Let's get to widening the cracks we've been forced into until the hills ring with the thunder of fissures birthing the face of the new world. Our world, whatever we make of it.

Hope everyone's keepin' warm. Beautiful sunrise over Columbia. Later today: Articles other folks wrote and I throw at you in a nice neat stack, videos, politics, and maybe a recipe or two.

Monday, December 6, 2010 Documentary Review: Collapse (2009) Kate Noble/Chris Smith/Michael Ruppert

This is Michael Ruppert, and he is saving lives. A retired LAPD officer who graduated at the top of his class, Michaels story is one full of near-prophetic deduction skills and constant benevolence toward his fellow man through the sharing of his information and conclusions. His newsletter, From the Wilderness is available online (www.fromthewilderness.com) and in print. It covers a wide array of vital topics and articles ranging from food sources to fuel, peak oil, and corporate conspiracy. He, "deals in conspiracy fact." He was one of the cops approached by the CIA during their funneling and distribution of drugs in South Central. He has been contacted by many high-ranking officials with warnings and threats, and has been shot at over his dissemination of the truth. He predicted 9/11, and was one of the first to connect the dots regarding the American governments role in the event. He Predicted the economic crash, and our current depression (let's be honest with each other, here, call a spade a spade.) He has a developed, solid, and complete view of our culture, its addictions and sicknesses, and possible methods of solution to avoid extinction, and survive the transition between our current world, and the one we have cause to create, better than and beyond this.

I had the luck of viewing a documentary made last year which serves as a sort of primer covering his life story, his activities and actions, and his point-blank, no-shit, straight forward break down of the world's predicaments.

If Michael Moore were developing his documentaries to their farthest extremes, still well within their most logical paths, and realized the weight of the links between his individual topics and pranks; and while I appreciate and revere pranksters as much as any man, even those to the degree of the Weatherman Underground,  he would have the same tired face as Michael Ruppert wears throughout most of this documentary. Ruppert understands. Ruppert, at some points, seems downright and honestly scared as hell. And why not? He's just like any of us, even more so than Moore, or others with the right idea and bank accounts capable of at least trying to solve problems by throwing money at them.

The man used to be a cop. He isn't rich, he's hardly famous, though he is gaining an understanding following, and he doesn't have anything to hide.

An ex-cop. A thirty-year veteran as a self-taught, self-produced journalist in a world which has forgotten the idea of true investigative media. Now he's my hero.

Here's a bit to chew on and whet yer appetite. Please, if you have a couple extra hours, watch this documentary through any available medium. Read some of his articles. Check out the newsletter's site. Donate. There is an eight-video series on YouTube which comprises the entire film, along with other interviews and speeches from Michael. His website, again, is www.fromthewilderness.com. He is an American hero and patriot in the truest sense.

Tuesday, November 30, 2010 manifesto.

I'd like to think we've all wondered about it. The more people I meet, the more I listen, the more this hope is affirmed. The more I find other people who have reached the stark, blazing realization that we are all the same, and all in this together. That we should take a step back from the path ahead, and in doing so, understand that regardless of the path we have chosen, or has been chosen for us, we are running within the confines of a very specific maze. A maze we've allowed to be built up around us in exchange for what we imagine to be conveniences. Even the maze itself, with its intricacies and engineering, winding and weaving as it does, is quite a marvel. However, we cannot remain ignorant to the fact that our society, our government, and our impact on the world around us is nothing more or less than that maze. We must see it for what it is, was, and will become in so far as we can determine our exponential trajectory.
 
And we must choose.

We have been taught to believe that what we were born into is not only birthright, but also, the best possible world and general momentum that could have been provided. While I have a deep respect for those who have come before myself, and for the true sacrifices which carved back at ever closing walls, I simply cannot accept this as absolute fact, without question.

There are obvious and glaring problems with the relationships between the earth and humanity, and among humans themselves. We have been fighting what is essentially a World War that has run longer than the war in Vietnam, with no signs of slowing. Our economy is in shambles, and our markets have to date failed to even acknowledge what continues to occur. We are constantly pushed further and further along ever narrowing passages, as more is promised to and denied us, as more and more is demanded of us, to supply to an elite class which has become disturbingly singular in mindset and disgustingly disproportionate in population and means. We are kept in constant fear: fear of the loss of what little creature comforts we are allowed, fear of those above us in the pecking order, fear of inability to provide for ourselves and our families even those barest necessities for life such as adequate shelter, food, and fresh water, and, above all else, fear of each other. We simply cannot and don't have to sustain such duress.

I am no longer thinking in terms of class. The notion of class in America seems to have made an absurdity of itself. In 2008, 1 in every 200 Americans used an emergency shelter system, having no where else to turn. One in seven Americans live under what is understood as the poverty line. This continues to worsen as the richest 2% of the population continue to reap the benefits and horde resources. The only thing allowing this to continue is our choice. 

What you won't find here is an answer to the big question at the root of it all, if that's what you're looking for. You won't find a walk through, or an ideology; You won't find a fail-proof plan, and you might not even find something interesting to read.

What I hope you do find is an understanding. The realization that we are always in control of ourselves, and our own lives. We are always capable of banding together for mutual aid, of community building, of understanding each other, and providing for each and everyone. We have only to chew through to walls of the maze to live as we please in the field.

The choice is one of priority, and participation. The priority is utmost: that of life itself. Continued existence as a species is on the line. For tens of thousands of years, humans lived within the laws of balance and sustainability, without even so much as a vague inkling that another way was possible. Now, five thousand years or less down the path we've traveled together, we are finding sign that the forest around us is kindling for our funeral pyre. We can, however, reclaim our lives, our decisions, and our planet.

What will follow is my attempt at just that, my invitation for you and anyone else to join me and learn from my mistakes and success, and as many sources and resources for the information behind it all as I can find and drag back for you.

If you've ever felt like the train's conductor is already dead, if you've ever thought there has got to be more to life, and more living to be done, this is for you. If you've ever thought that job was killing you, and still wondering how you are going to provide, this is for you. If you've ever gotten fed up with the actions preformed in your name without your express permission, this is for you. If you've ever risked your momentum, your course, and your conviction, sat back on your hind, placed your nose to the air, wiggled your whiskers and wondered.
This is for you.