Civilized To Death

just finished re-reading Civilized to Death by christopher ryan, published and first read 4 years ago. in it ryan argues that humans evolved as hunter gatherers living in small intimate groups in which a great degree of cooperation and sharing of resources was the rule, and that this way of life was optimal to human happiness. by contrast, civilized humans generally live in large cities in which intimacy is lost and competition and selfishness rule, much to the loss of our happiness.

imo he's an extremely intelligent guy and this view is well supported by the evidence he presents. here's a link to an 80 minute long interview with him that's excellent:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RHifuRNsWNQ

in both the book and in the last 15 minutes of this interview he makes a very insightful analogy between a species of grasshoppers in northern africa and people, making the point that environmental conditions play a huge role regarding how animal nature manifests itself. under certain conditions, benign grasshoppers become aggressive cannabalistic locusts which devour everything in their path. likewise, as hunter gatherers humans are a benign species that lives an ecologically durable lifestyle in harmony with nature, but when we adopted agriculture and became civilized, that all changed, and now we're like locusts devouring the planet.
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feb.3 is the late michael ruppert's birthday. he would be 72 this year had he lived, but he killed himself with a bullet to the brain 9 years ago at the age of 63 (1 year younger than i am now). i think his suicide was an act of love, as he understood that earth was over populated with sheeple, had done all he could in his life to warn of the coming collapse of civilization, and  killed himself as an of sacrifice for future generations.

ruppert was among the most well known radical truth seekers and speakers of his day, a dystopian doomer who wrote books and appeared in several documentaries. among other things he tried to expose cia international drug trafficking, the 9/11 conspiracy, and peak oil.

peak oil's an interesting subject. it was a major topic of doom discussion 20 years ago, when many predicted the collapse of civilization was imminent due to it, which of course has yet to materialize, i think because of the development of new technologies like fracking which allowed drillers to access previously unaccessable deposits of fossil fuels in shale rock. also the development of more efficient engines has temporarily delayed the onset of collapse, but i remain certain it's coming pretty soon, if not in my lifetime, soon after.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nVmgeiW_GNQ&list=PL68946D564648432A

Senseless

i just finished a memoir by anita moorjani titled DYING TO BE ME. it's a seemingly miraculous account of a near death experience she had with end stage cancer when according to doctors she should have died. instead, she came back from organ failure and coma and within a few weeks the cancer was completely gone and she was able to return to robust health. this was 17 years ago and apparently is well documented and indisputable, a medical miracle, which she attributes to the near death experience and what she learned from it (which was basically that the cancer was caused by negative emotions, primarily fear, and that life is meant to be lived fearlessly and authentically (be yourself!).

it's a very interesting account bolstered by the apparent medical miracle. but is it true? i'd like very much to believe so. it's rather similar to other accounts of near death experiences in which sheeple return to 'this life' as if reborn, no longer fearing death or doubting the immortality of the 'soul'. but i just can't totally do so, much like i can't believe whole heartedly in god, because it raises too many unanswerable questions, and makes claims which ultimately make no sense, like everything is perfect. if this is so, why is there suffering? and, if beyond 'this life' exists a realm that is far more wondrous, devoid of all it's limitations and suffering, why would anyone ever choose 'this life'?

is life a great gift? we're led to believe so, that it's miraculous, which may indeed be the case, but again, why is there suffering? why does it sometimes seem more a curse than a gift? how can it become so unbearable that some choose to end it to escape the suffering?

moorjani has since written several books, appeared on popular tv shows, and traveled extensively talking publicly about her nde and what we all might learn from it, like in this TED talk:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhcJNJbRJ6U

David Ray Griffin, Kevin Ryan

'perhaps it is better to wake up afterall, even to suffer, rather than to remain a dupe to illusions all one's life' - kate chopin, taken from a youtube video put out by architects and engineers for 9/11 truth

david ray griffin died last month. he was among the most prominent critics of the false official narrative of the 9/11 terrorist attacks and american imperialism, wrote many books about these subjects, gave many speeches, inspired many others to get involved. below is a link to a compilation of tributes to his life taken from off-guardian, another off the beaten track alternative source of independent journalism seeking to counter the tsunami of disinformation and propaganda that spews 24-7-365 from western lamestream media:

https://off-guardian.org/2022/12/11/offgs-tribute-to-david-ray-griffin/

link to a cspan video produced 16 years ago, featuring mr. griffin, peter dale scott, kevin ryan, and peter phillips:

https://www.c-span.org/video/?194754-1/911-american-empire-intellectuals-speak-out

link to kevin ryan's blog, a treasure trove of 'conspiracy theory' information and speculation:

https://digwithin.net/

“Strategy Of Tension” And 9/11

long pdf article detailing how western government intelligence agencies led by the cia have systematically over decades been involved in false flag terrorist activities which have been used to smear left wing political parties and their supporters throughout much of europe and the u.s., via very secretive operations such as gladio and northwoods. these have also been carried out to create public support for foreign invasions such as those of afghanistan and iraq in the wake of 9/11, the most infamous of all such 'ops'. here is the beginning and conclusion of this article, followed by it's link:

Historians today and in the coming years face a challenging task: they must
write the history of the events of September 11, 2001. What they write will be

taught in history classes. But what will they write? Will they write that Osama Bin
Laden sent 19 Muslims to launch a surprise attack on the U.S.? Or will they write
that the administration of President George W. Bush was responsible for the attack,
either constructing it or deliberately permitting it in order to shock the U.S.
population and to create a pretext for increasing military spending and attacking
Afghanistan and Iraq?

“it is clear that deceiving the public and trumping up wars for Americans to fight and die in was standard, approved policy at the highest levels of the Pentagon.”

Conclusion

The two main arguments against the view that the attacks of 9/11 were
influenced by the US government and its military have been a priori arguments.
One of these is that civilized Western governments in general, and the US
government in particular, would never do such a heinous thing. The other main a
priori argument is that if the attacks of 9/11 were carried out by forces within
America’s own government, this fact could not have remained secret for this long.
The information in this article shows both of these arguments to be dubious at best.

http://www.journalof911studies.com/resources/2014GanserVol39May.pdf

Incentivizing Abusive Policing

another video exposing gross misdeeds of loveland colorado cops. in this case, they were incentivized to make false arrests by federal programs which dish out money to police departments contingent upon their arrest numbers being high enough. as is pointed out, as usual, the officers involved never face any consequences for their misconduct. their bosses defend them.

i read somewhere that an overwhelming majority of police, something like 90%, lean republican/conservative. they generally act like typical 'conservatives' who live by 'alternative facts' and don't have any ethics beyond myopic self interest. only in dystopia!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPEfxgkcuRI

Be Afraid. Be Very Afraid (Of American Police)

even though i've posted videos similar to this here very recently, i just keep coming across more and more unbelievable examples of how american police are far more dangerous, corrupt, and violent than any criminal gang. more sadistic, stupid, entitled, and protected from accountability for their own brutality and criminality when dealing with the public they purportedly 'serve and protect'. it's also an extremely sad commentary on the abject stupidity of the american sheeple that they don't en masse object to this state of affairs and demand radical reform. instead, thanks in no small part to a very biased and corrupt corporate media which is constantly pushing the mostly erroneous idea that crime is rampant and out of control and that police officers are these great selfless heroes who are worthy of our utmost trust and respect. it's absolutely sickening!

this video details 4 separate incidents over about a one year period in a relatively safe (except when police get involved!) and crime free american community wherein police officers in mostly routine encounters almost instantaneously resort to brutal or deadly violence. after watching enough of these and thanks to a few unpleasant encounters with police i've personally experienced, i must admit that i'm far more afraid of american police than i am of criminals who aren't police. it's hard to imagine any occupation that employs more violent, dangerous, and sadistic individuals. i doubt very much if any decent intelligent compassionate person could fit into american police culture, or be hired as an officer.

finally, at the end of this video i love the point taya graham makes regarding how american police routinely turn the idea of 'presumption of innocence' on it's head, and immediately treat much if not most of the public they are called on to deal with as though they are criminals, even those who shouldn't even be considered as criminal suspects, like the 'good samaritan' here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S593uFOWNPY

Abby Martin

just discovered to my surprise that i haven't mentioned Abby Martin in this blog previously. she's among the brightest and most outspoken radical critics of american militarism and imperialism to be found in journalism over the past decade. of course as such the corporate lamestream western media wouldn't touch her with a ten meter pole, so like others she had to resort to the only organizations that would hire her kind, in this case one funded by an 'enemy', russia.

here she is speaking with another veteran of russia today (RT), lee camp, about the corruption/bias of western media and the internet in favor of western establishment deceit, hypocrisy, war crimes, and such:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_RVMXZIrIM&t=458s