Bill

Bill, well said. In my book,

THE UNIVERSAL TRAVELERS AND WHY THEY WOULDN'T STAY HOME AND WASH THEIR DISHES,

I investigate the retrovirus, THE INCUBUS VIRUS which invades receptive hosts, destroys the conscience and empathy, leaving the underlying raw animal instincts assisted by human lust without love, to kill, devour, rape acquire and steal. Avarice replaces goodness, generosity and love, and hatred and revenge for being born replaces the inspiration for empathy and goodness.

I think we are on the right track.

by Professor Emeritus Peter Bagnolo (144 articles, 1 quicklinks, 95 diaries, 1313 comments) on Sunday, October 7, 2007 at 8:47:29 PM
 

n-dimensionality

Prof Pete,

I think a lot of people would dig your book.  Is it online or is it available only in hardcopy? 

Yes, what's really happening "out there" has several more dimensions than candayass consensus reality.  A kind of philosophical/emotional/spiritual version of string theory.  But not at the expense of personhood.

Solidarity to you and the entire Op-Ed News Family,

Bill

by W. Christopher Epler (Bill) (218 articles, 44 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 484 comments) on Sunday, October 7, 2007 at 9:23:07 PM
 

Yup

... everything you said and more.

I've always felt my generation was December's Children.

by Mr M (4 articles, 0 quicklinks, 9 diaries, 1259 comments) on Sunday, October 7, 2007 at 10:56:10 PM
 

beautiful image

"December's Children"  What a lovely and poignant image.

Bill

by W. Christopher Epler (Bill) (218 articles, 44 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 484 comments) on Sunday, October 7, 2007 at 11:30:58 PM
 

Homo stupidian

In order to more accurately reflect our nature, I suggest that we rename our species, as per the above.

We should also recognize that there is only one real difference between the rich and the poor; which of course is that the rich have money.

The poor not only would behave differently if they had money, they actively strive to emulate the rich, worshiping the same god. Which in turn keeps the rich in power.

Can the doomsday cycle be broken? Of course it can.

1. Kindness toward one another, which will come from actually recognizing that we are one species with survival as a common interest.

2. Putting children first, ahead of things such as adult egos.

3. Respecting nature,which includes working with her instead of against her.

4. Encourage and utilizing good ideas, placing them ahead of politics and religion.

Is that so hard? Of course not.

But getting from here there seems to be quite an issue, even though failure to do so WILL BE our epitath.

by Daniel Geery (26 articles, 58 quicklinks, 121 diaries, 681 comments) on Monday, October 8, 2007 at 8:29:35 AM
 

The New Enemy

If you want to fight back, you need to understand the new enemy. The new enemy is debt, variable rate debt specifically. The kind of debt that derailed the lives of the subprimers, the housing sector in general and accidentally spilled over into the world economy as a liquidity crisis.

How do you control the world with debt? Look back in history to King Leopold and the Congo. King Leopold confiscated the lands of the Congo from people who had little concept of ownership. He imposed a tax where no concept of taxes existed. To pay the taxes he invented money, where money did not exist. To earn the money, brass rods, the people needed to harvest rubber, which had no value to them. As rubber became more difficult to obtain (not a sustainable venture), the brass rods became a matter of life and death, villages burned, inhabitants murdered Taliban-style to get attention. The mercenaries sent to collect rubber and taxes were issued small amounts of bullets. For every bullet used, a token was required, a hand, a foot. Thus King Leopold civilized the Congo. By creating debt where none existed, Leopold controlled the population.

Not surprisingly anti-Imperialists like Mark Twain, Joseph Conrad and Arthur Conan Doyle were skeptical but King Leopold was generally supported by other governments and industrialists, who, at the time were more concerned about socialists. The King's undoing with the public came about when the Kodak was invented.

The Neocons may have morphed into a new persona, neocolonialists. Neocolonialists using Free Market principals and the IMF to create debtor countries, forced to open the exploitation of their natural resources. We have learned that neocolonialism via regime change has not been as effective as it was with King Leopold.

For the rest of us, some in the Fed have been encouraging the conversion of personal assets into variable rate debt to support consumption. This debt becomes our brass rods. Even today prices for big ticket items are based not on price, but monthly cost. The manipulation of short term lending rates can make us feel wealthy as our monthly payments reduce, or if interest rates go up, we may be forced to give up purchases already made. Debt is more important than force when it comes to controlling a population.

The ultra wealthy, who control the lending, control the world, almost. China seems to understand the connection and has so far been conservative in allowing the lenders to control the country. The biggest challenge today is changing a nation of savers, like the Chinese, into a nation of debtors, like the US.  On the other hand, a nation or an individual who's foundation is debt, is on fragile footing and prone to collapse.

Selective strikes in Iran will turn them into a compliant debtor nation overnight (perhaps).

by Bernard (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 53 comments) on Monday, October 8, 2007 at 12:06:48 PM
 

W. Christopher Epler (Bill) is a genuine hero.

Yo Bill, 

As the saying goes, related to addressing the root of the major problem(s), YOU have “Nailed it.” - succinctly, directly, clearly and courageously in the content of your article.

I address this matter extensively from different perspectives and points of view in “SECTION I”, chapter “7. POLITICAL and CONTROLLING ELITE POWER FRAUDS” of my book COSMIC CONSCIOUSNESS: Do-It-Yourself Manual in pdf format with numerous links to numerous sources. The sections, chapters, and so on, are linked to in “Bookmarks” for easy access.

[Page 130]

In addition to all of the most courageous individuals on ‘the front line’, the people of the United States of America, as well as the other Nations and People of this planet are very fortunate to have an increasing number of alternative media sources with people of courage and integrity who care about the truth and are willing to take whatever risk there is in questioning and speaking out, in no uncertain terms, about the psychopathic, corrupt, dangerous and deadly big money corporate interest, and sick political establishment, that control the most popular mainstream media personalities, who are limited to the status quo of presenting their programming and opinions from the narrow perspective of “left” and “right”, “conservative” and “liberal”, Democrat or Republican. The truth, while being easy to understand and apparent is nevertheless intricate with it’s particulars and nuances that cannot be comprehended from any narrow perspective.

[Pages 152 and 153] 

Can you imagine any one (1) day out of the three hundred and sixty five (365) days in a year that would be promoted as a National Day of THINKING?  On which day, there would be no broadcast of any sports events or scores, and all the sports sections of all the newspapers in this country, for that one (1) day, would be printed as the THINKING section (maybe just one sheet with the word THINK! on it). ESPN and other television and Internet sports channels would, for that one (1) day, become the THINK channels. And maybe practice  “A Golden Silence” for those 24 hours. To top it off, the United States Federal, State and Local government, leading the way, in cooperation with corporations, and businesses could promote this idea and encourage individuals and groups to not do or discuss sports for that one (1) day.  Pretty Out Rageous—and downright scary to imagine, huh?

Anyhow, uhmm, the reasons why now is the best and greatest time ever for a person to be alive on the planet Earth are: [1] We have the opportunity to benefit from all that has preceded and gone before us, as well as all that now exist.  [2] For the first time in human history, we have entered into The Age of Information, brought about by technological advancement which make it practically impossible to hide the TRUTH for longer than a few days, weeks or, at most a few years, as opposed to the hundreds and often times thousands of years1 that it sometimes took the TRUTH to resurface after being forced into hiding or hidden by the corrupt reigning powers of the past (and there are direct connections between past and present corrupt “reigning powers”).  [3] For the first time in the history of this species, an individual can affirm by a substantial number of other individual’s personal experiences and knowledge, from a variety of cultures, races, geographical locations and chronological ages, one’s own personal revelations from the inner search of one’s heart and conscious awareness. With the understanding that those personal revelations might be at odds with what most people, family, friends and associates might think and behave like.  These external source affirmations, from other individuals all over this planet - incarnate and discarnate - can often be attained/received without leaving one’s castle, house, apartment, room, sidewalk heating grate, park bench or what have you, via printed and electronic media sources who rate themselves according to how consistently and effectively intrusive into our/‘consumers’ lives they are, whether YOU like it or not.  [4] There has never been a time when the need has been so compellingly crucial and critical, for the continuation of desirable life on planet Earth in general, and human life on Earth in particular, for all uncorrupted individuals with sound minds and principles based on the TRUTH at all cost, to rise and actively contribute any and every “two cents worth” that we can.

The people who have and continue to defy, distort and abuse the truth for a variety of reasons - sincere to purely devious - ranging from claiming that they have an exclusive on the direct line to “GOD” who is telling them how and where to lead the rest of us, through those who think and claim they have an exclusive hereditary right to rule, or once having been elected to serve, should then be allowed to do anything they want, anyway they want, and on into the international corrupt secret societies who instigate continuous wars and conflicts while cleverly fronting themselves with charities, donations to “good” causes, (sometimes) well meaning ambiguous front-line members going along to get along, and so on down to those individuals who are simply dedicated to their personal excessive gains and pseudo satisfactions at any and everyone else’s expense, that they can manage, need to be exposed and seen for what they are, in order to have any realistic hope for a future worth living on Earth.

It is most important to keep in mind that people of the mind set described above are extremely intelligent, charming, clever, strong, addicted to winning at all cost, and determined to remain the same—consummate ‘con’ artist.  The key to which is, the only way that “they” can maintain those positions is with the do-nothing complicity and/or active cooperation of mostly all of the rest of us.

            Most people are spiritually apathetic, oriented to, accepting of and in active (although often denied and sometimes unrealized, yet clear from actions or lack of) complicity with the corrupt ruling elite “King Rats”.  Too many are reinforcing the ‘hopeless’ way of thinking which says, “What’s the use of trying to change things, when, obviously, the most corrupt people control, and have controlled throughout (traditional) history, so why try to be individually effective against ‘them’”, and/or “It’s human nature to be cruel and stupid” . . . and so on.

The answer to which is simply, if more people commit themselves, quickly enough, to pursuing their IMP (Individual Maximum Potential), we have a very good chance of improving the quality of life for humans on this earth, it may already be too late, but, if more people do not try, the situation will almost certainly continue to rapidly deteriorate into the extinction of people on this planet, and quite possibly right before the eyes of people who are here now.  As Mahatma Gandhi said: “Your individual acts may seem futile, but it is crucial that you do them.” [Search here for quote and Gandhi info.]

To not be able to think clearly is the worst affliction that any person can suffer with.  The next worst is to think of one’s self as essentially hopeless and/or useless, and therefore to settle for wallowing in psychological, physical and spiritual misery and suffering to the bitter end.  In the final analysis, as far as personal fulfillment in this life is concerned, there is nothing worthwhile to loose (except your fear and volunteered slavery status), and everything to, potentially, gain (genuine self worth, peace of mind, purpose for living and the like) by trying – the risk reward ratio working in your favor, holistically.

by Rama Demetrius Dyushambee, DD (1 articles, 0 quicklinks, 3 diaries, 17 comments) on Monday, October 8, 2007 at 2:45:22 PM
 

wow!

How very, very kind.  It helps to hear that because I am a teacher (at 2 institutions of learning -- gotta pay the mortgage somehow) and its hard to make time for throwing bottles into interspace, but I think it keeps my spirits up  to know that I'm doing something, ANYTHING, to help my beloved country and Mother Nature -- also I want my decendants to HAVE a future.  And so much of the time I learn quantities of wonderful things from the responses (such as yours!).

Solidarity to my wonderful American brothers and sisters,

Bill

 ps  That DOESN'T include the neocon cabal, since these ANTI American fascists answers to the lunatic fringe right wing of another country (hint:  it begins with "I")

by W. Christopher Epler (Bill) (218 articles, 44 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 484 comments) on Monday, October 8, 2007 at 3:43:37 PM
 

peace

CosmicD,

Whew!  THAT was a mouthful (or spirit full).  Prof Pete suggests below for you to put your intutions out there, both as pieces in their own right and and comments when it suits you.  I totally agree.  You have a balance and sanity in what you write that doesn smack of nuttiness, excess, or self adoration. 

You are not afraid to use the word "truth" and you use it with humility and respect, and precision (insofar as that's possible).  

I basically agree with everything you wrote and I hope you continue to share your intuitions.

May I conclude by saying I think what I like most about your writing is that you have a POSITIVE approach to truth.  Truth is real and it's within the reach of our souls and spirits and from truth comes EVERYTHING.  Cynicism about truth is the ultimate tragedy -- and stupidity.

A way of  thinking about this is that we truely are (as the old and wise text says) "children of the universe".  This is our HOME, and intelligence is the self awareness of what we think about, and don't think about.  Ultimate realness is where we already are and there is no duality between that which is already the case and some pseudo self identity/personality.  And on and on and on . . .

peace Bill 

ps  The world is poisened by delusion, hate, and greed, but these are but passing clouds between the real and our fragile hearts.  Jesus (and others) preached from and to vulnerability.  Vulnerability and Truth.  Turth and Vulnerability.  What else is there?

by W. Christopher Epler (Bill) (218 articles, 44 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 484 comments) on Monday, October 8, 2007 at 6:20:11 PM
 

Thank YOU most sincerely

Bill,

Straight ahead… 

Founder & Minister www.YOUtopiaINstitute.org 

LET’S HEAL IT

COSMIC CONSCIOUSNESS: Do-It-Yourself Manual

YOUtopia INstitute Internet Talk Radio (Scheduling soon)

by Rama Demetrius Dyushambee, DD (1 articles, 0 quicklinks, 3 diaries, 17 comments) on Wednesday, October 10, 2007 at 9:12:04 PM
 

Bill

It is in editing, but will be both hardcover and E-book and later paperback.

Pete

by Professor Emeritus Peter Bagnolo (144 articles, 1 quicklinks, 95 diaries, 1313 comments) on Monday, October 8, 2007 at 4:06:57 PM
 

Professor CosmicD

May I suggest to Professor CosmicD, to write an article, instead of a comment that is an article length? I say this not in sarcasm, but because you have something to say that begs a larger audience and so I say, in future, lest we miss what you write as comment, make a comment and refer to your article of greater length. I say this further because there seems to be so many going to our archives, copying existing articles and rewriting, and here you have something original to add to Bill's wonderful article, so why not write your article and refer to it here in comment, and in your article refer back to Bill's I think that is an excellent way to promote both articles and double both audiences.

I have done this more than once and it worked very well.

Sincerely

Pete Bagnolo

by Professor Emeritus Peter Bagnolo (144 articles, 1 quicklinks, 95 diaries, 1313 comments) on Monday, October 8, 2007 at 4:17:42 PM
 

YOUR suggestion is very much appreciated

Professor Bagnolo, 

Thank YOU for taking the time to write such an informative and motivational filled suggestion.

My posting that you refer to was my first posting to any OpEdNews articles, or otherwise. And as such, I intended it to be, sort of an introduction. So I included some excerpts from my book, which accounts for the length.

As I wrote to Bill, my life’s work (and it seem to me, yours as well) is about learning and experiencing, balanced with my intuition, and putting it all “out there”. My reason for including the links, below my signature, was so that anyone who is interested in reading more of my writings can click those links for easy and immediate access to more, as well as in depth information about my related endeavors, and much more.

Following YOUR suggestion, I fully intend to do my best to reach a larger audience, to include one and more articles for OpEdNews

I AM about to start an Internet talk radio broadcast. Please e-mail me directly if YOU are interested in being a guest. 

Straight ahead… 

Founder & Minister www.YOUtopiaINstitute.org 

LET’S HEAL IT

COSMIC CONSCIOUSNESS: Do-It-Yourself Manual

YOUtopia INstitute Internet Talk Radio (Scheduling soon)

by Rama Demetrius Dyushambee, DD (1 articles, 0 quicklinks, 3 diaries, 17 comments) on Wednesday, October 10, 2007 at 9:54:58 PM