How far, how far removed from real life? Dusty apartment, mediated experience of the world. I read articles about things that happen all over the planet, which I can prove no more than I can prove the existence of black holes. All taken on trust. A gigantic base of knowledge built on the flimsiest veil of real experience. Absurd! And yet I could fly all around the world and experience these things for myself, but what would I choose? In this life we only ever scratch the surface, so much must be taken on faith. (Comforted by memories of magic; thank you psilocybin for this island of sanity)

This apparatus of which The I has been given control- built to adapt, as capable of loving and caring and peace as it is of brutal and unrepentant slaughter. And why? Biological imperatives, nothing better to do, one has a self and he can either express it or die alone (cf. story from Dostoevsky’s devil in Brothers, the soul doomed to walk for millions of miles before he was allowed into heaven; he rebelled, decided he would just lay down forever. But he got up (after millenia), walked, and rejoiced upon his entry into paradise).

And so this social meat machine, the human, can take a keyboard and write a blog and share ideas. Is there any one human who could carry the information of the whole hive? More and more in common with insects, a fact which has either gone unnoticed or has been accepted by the greater majority. But this strange hairless ape is not an ant, it has a nature, and that nature yearns to break through the modern veneer like tufts of grass cracking  suburban pavement.

Existed outside for a while, in the world of ideas, which against all logic seem more real than anything else (intuition so much more dependable than logic). No back to the indoors of the soul; there’s work to do and external demands to satisfy.

However, in order for democracy were to work in practice, it requires effort. This is why it inevitably fails: people are lazy. In order for democracy to work, everyone would have to devote, minimally,  5-10 hours a week to understanding the most important things effecting our country, because determining the cause and therefor helpful attempts at solutions to those things is a very complicated process. In order to elect and hold accountable competent leaders capable of dealing with real world problems, especially in a world where change is happening so much faster than the bureaucracy can keep up with it, the public needs to be constantly educating itself in order not to fall prey to the manipulative wiles of self-serving ideologues who distort facts in order to serve their own shortsighted agenda.

Instead, people watch television for an average of 28 hours per week, using up plenty of time that could be spent being a responsible member of the electorate, while at the same time filling their heads with propaganda in order to be more easily cowed into a state-approved point of view. Time not spent watching TV is usually occupied with consumption, whether of alcohol or some other drug in a setting totally devoid of responsibility for anything or anyone.

None of this would bother me in other circumstances; how one spends her time is not really my business if it does no harm to me. But it does harm me, and everyone, because it is the endorsement from these people in the form of their votes that allows the criminals in our government to assist the bankers and institutionalized investors to bleed all of the fucking money out of the world with no sense of accountability for all of the damage they do. The bankers and insurers and pharmaceutical companies harnessed an ignorant, fat, and irresponsible middle class in order to create a new tyranny out of what is still nominally a democracy. And you let it happen.

So fuck anyone who thinks that merely voting is enough to be a responsible citizen. You’re only harming yourselves with your ballots because you’ve made no effort to understand the actions of your government and their consequences, or if you have it was likely only a superficial survey that kept you well within the bounds of conventional thinking (i.e. slavery).

America has the leadership it deserves, and when this country finally finishes its thrashing, shrieking, pitiful death throes, hopefully ignorant, lazy people will know enough to stay the hell out of its government, for their own sake.

AB

Toil and struggle is the norm, not the exception. Pain and suffering are normal. Failure and destruction is normal. What matters is not whether your struggle ultimately results in something good (a house in the suburbs and a surgically enhanced wife, right?).  What matters is whether you keep fighting or you give up.

Giving up is by no means something unwelcome to the sufferer. On the contrary, to allow circumstances to overcome you, to quit swimming and surrender yourself to the currents, is perhaps the most delicious poison on the planet. The urge to surrender creeps into the back of your mind, and once you acknowledge it as a viable option it’s already won. Surrender is compelling– it’s easy and responsibility is difficult.

But continuing the struggle in spite of terrible circumstances, even the nightmarish horror of an earthquake’s aftermath, is the ultimate expression of life’s resiliency, and marks anyone who expresses such as a true hero.

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

Your life will improve by reading this piece!

My ideal for investment is a wealthy man, or a group of organized people who together have enough money to fund an enterprise, putting their own money on the line to buy into a business or investment (real property or commodities) with which they are intimately familiar so that they understand the risks they are taking and so they are confident in the likelihood of success and factors which may contribute to the enterprise or investment’s success or failure.

This model provides a basis for sound, consistent growth by forcing investors to be EXTREMELY CAREFUL with their investments – that’s the principal component lacking from the current model. What institutional investors do is gamble. You can tell me all you want about SEC filings, blue sky laws, audit inquiries, and all of the other disclosure and regulatory regimes that exist, but these investors are NOT intimately familiar with the companies in which they’re investing. They’re familiar only with paper filings, usually fraught with misrepresentations. The institutions that consistently profit do so by cheating, whether through market manipulation (w/ government complicity and support) or computerized frontrunning or whatever other methods are available.

Nor are they gambling with their own chips, a fact which requires no lengthy explanation. Other people give the banks their money to manage, and it is all insured by the support of taxpayers. So it’s easy to see how the element of EXTREME CAUTION is here completely lacking, and in fact has been totally abandoned in a fatalistic orgy of spend-’til-the-big-one-hits (and it will hit soon if there is any justice in this world).

So on that note I send out my sincere prayers to God, Allah, Krishna, Vishnu, Wotan, Thor, Mercury, Satan, Baal, Tammuz, Jesus, Yahweh, Jupiter, Ares, Shiva, Athena, Zeus, and all of the many other gods I’ve overlooked that boulders fall from the sky and onto the heads of all bankers, politicians, insurers, and anyone else getting rich from institutionalized theft, and all of those who support them, and also pharmaceutical company managers for good measure. While I’m certain there are good people among these groups, I do not wish for them to be spared. I would joyfully give loyal service unto my death and beyond for the deity who can accomplish this for me.

In all sincerity,

Mike Brewster

Saying “I love you” or “you’re my friend” is easy and thus mostly unimportant. Those words are symbols for something that’s already been proven through hard-won experience and  growth together. False friends are easy to pick out because they give up on the friendship at the first sign of difficulty, showing they care much more about their own comfort than the possibilities waiting behind tough circumstances.

An honest friendship will never allow temporary circumstances to interfere with it, because the bond of friendship exists outside of time, shining light on the hidden forces encircling us all and teaching us about ourselves, about life, about one another.

In order to live a rich life in the company of those whose love you share, cast aside fear and embarrassment, be true to yourself and good to those with whom you would share the path through this life. Every courageous action begets an infinity more, and every friendship echoes in eternity.

Causality is a tricky thing. Understanding why an event happens after the fact can be difficult and even impossible, given the complexity of reality, and given that any small contingency can have a massive effect upon the whole (the Butterfly Effect). This is why government solutions mostly fail: because problems are addressed without being understood. The government’s proper role is not to solve everyone’s problems, it’s to execute the general interest (e.g. military defense). When it extends itself beyond its proper bounds it balloons and then collapses, the way a star might burn brightest just as its fuel runs out and it burns out for good.

No revolution will be necessary to bring down this government. What’s scary is the question of who will be in a position to step into its shoes once the collapse happens.

Thus the cycle of death and rebirth is everywhere and a principle characteristic of our history, mythology, religion, art, and dreams- not only because it is descriptive of the outside physical world, but also of our inner psychology. I remember reading from a George Carlin comedy book something along these lines: Death must have a survival value, otherwise it wouldn’t be part of the biological process. We’re so used to thinking of things in terms of our own individual lives, not realizing how ultimately unimportant they are, even for our own subjective viewpoint. Our modern lack of a connection to anything real and enduring keeps us from seeing the unity behind the many fragments, but if one observes reality with a mind open to possibilities one can’t help but realize that nothing ever really dies, it’s just changed- the potential of one form exhausted, we assume another form and express the eternal life principle. It is this principle, the unbreaking chain of which each of us is a short link, which is the most important aspect of our lives.

And so, to return to the psyche, we should not be afraid to confront feelings of depression and emptiness in our lives. It plays a necessary function just like winter does in seasonal regions. Dark lonely feelings indicate a stagnation which must be overcome, a need for fundamental changes, the same way a recession indicates a need for economic reorganization and creates a lean time in order to cull uneconomic activities. In this same way a period of darkness and withdrawal will give one a better sense of perspective and allow one to realize what is important in his life and what is causing the psychological disturbances (anti-depressants and government stimulus packages play analogous counter-productive roles).

A toast to the overcoming of inertia and stagnation, to the possibility of new life and new paths, and to the redeeming beauty underneath all existence. Cheers!