Sunday May 13, 2007, 3:33 pm
As I share my awareness of collapse with others, I meet a variety of responses. Many, especially those folks in academia, and the history profession in particular, view the idea of collapse with bemused scorn, asserting that while civilization might appear to be collapsing, current events are not really new and are merely variations on prior historical occurrences. At the opposite end of the spectrum, fundamentalist Christians read current events through the tea leaves of biblical prophecies—some putting their own and the planet’s life on hold as they await “the rapture”—and still others, like the LaHaye-Jenkins crowd, bankroll millions from the profits of their “end times” prognostications

Sunday May 13, 2007, 3:48 pm
Ole Boots . . . which category do I fall under? Recognising, of course, that academia is one, for sure; and am also guilty of referencing history, as it's an appropriate persepctive from which to reframe the lens that we view ANY current event through, would you agree? The seriousness of this particular issue, and the extremes, are ones that are prevalent throughout cultures, history, and current events.

And I certainly concur with those whom you characterise as awaiting "the Rapture," to the point of manifesting it whilst awaiting it through irnoring the respoinsibilities of stewardship also stated within the scripture of the text that prophesises this rapturious descension. And then there are those whom carry a different spiritual or religious frame, within certain papameters of course, and traditions, and for that matter . . . cultures!!!

I hadn't considered myself as living under an illusions, so just thought I would check, ole bud!!! =) Hugz, Maureen

Sunday May 13, 2007, 3:53 pm
First, collapse strips us of who we think we are so that who we really are may be revealed. Civilization’s toxicity has fostered the illusion that one is, for example, a professional person with money in the bank, a secure mortgage, a good credit rating, a healthy body and mind, raising healthy children who will grow up to become successful like oneself, and that when one retires, one will be well-taken-care of. If that has become your identity, and if you don’t look deeper, you won’t discover who you really are; and when collapse happens, you will be shattered because you have failed to notice the strengths, resources, and gifts that abide in your essence which transcend and supercede your ego-identity.

Sunday May 13, 2007, 3:58 pm
I'm still working on COURSE IN MIRACLES, and stuck sometimes on a day;s course for a week, the past one has been for several, try that one and being and activist at the same time, oxymoron or what. And what comes out and u become aware of in ur minds thoughts can get pretty scarey at times, and I only part way throu the course. hugs and healing, sunshine

Sunday May 13, 2007, 4:02 pm
actually most of this is already written in tthe VEDA'S, we are in the age of Kali Yuga the least of the cycles, the shortest and most devestating, the VEDA'S go back before our civilzations as we know them.

Sunday May 13, 2007, 4:04 pm
For those who are perhaps unfamilar with me, my question was somewhat rhetorical!!! And somewhat facetious . . . "between Care1 friends" . . . which happens with all of us here. =) In that sense, Samantha, I would add that nationalism and nationality are also components in this collapse that is perceived and which Robert is commenting on, if I am not mistaken? Is that correct Boots?

Past that, for me at any rate, though seeing that this is in response to Robert . . . some interesting points are raised, not the least of which is "If thou cannot find it within Thee, Thou wilt never find it without!" Collapse? Sometimes, in particular cricumstances, in order to create renewal of some part of self; absolutely!!! Does it necessarily require that the ENTIRE Self undergo that process? I am not so sure that's necessary. I think it's a lifetime quest for knowledge, and understanding, and connection with Mother Earth, this journey we call life.

Peace is found is recognising that "Different doesn't mean wrong, it just means different! (Startin 1975). =)

Sunday May 13, 2007, 4:23 pm
There you go Maude...Let me say I see you in the infinity of consciousness. And as Baker further states -

But in the spirit of one of the wisest teachers of all time, psychologist Carl Jung, I find bone-marrow truth, not in the cerebral disengagement of academia nor in the apocalyptic madness of literal interpretations of the Book of Revelation, but somewhere in the middle, holding, as Jung would say, the “tension of the opposites.” In holding that tension, Jung taught, lies the potential for transforming our inner and outer worlds.

For most Americans, heads anchored firmly in the sand, shrugging off anything they are now hearing about “Peak Oil,” still driving their gas-gulping SUVs, reveling in suburban sprawl, and gullibly counting on their pensions and 401Ks to be there when they need them, the notion of civilization’s collapse is still largely relegated to the lunatic fringe. Whatever the problem, they cluelessly argue, technology will find a solution. But millions of those same individuals are far deeper in debt than they were one year ago, and during that year, they have seen the prices of gas, food, and virtually everything else dramatically increase. Some of those Americans have in the past year have had to face the reality that they are part of the rapidly-vanishing middle class who are only one paycheck or one catastrophic illness away from financial oblivion—who between mortgage, car payments, monthly bills, childcare, medical expenses, gas prices, and doubling monthly credit card bills, now realize that not only will they not be able to pay for their kids’ college education but that every new day necessitates walking more precariously over an economic tightrope across a gaping precipice with a thousand-foot drop. Those folks know in their bones the reality of collapse—they feel it, smell it, taste it, but may not yet be able to allow the words to pass from their lips. It’s still too horrifying to fully contemplate

Sunday May 13, 2007, 4:39 pm
In Endgame a two volumn work by Derrick Johnson he says,

Because civilization is not sustainable (premise one) and because civilization will not undergo a voluntary transformation (premise six), activists should change the ways they think about and work toward social change.

Because every living thing is inextricably dependent upon the rest of the natural world for survival, sustaining the natural world is good.

Because civilization depends on widespread violence (premise three), all civilized people (even dogmatic pacifists) are complicit in violence simply by their own participation in the industrial economy.

Because civilization is not sustainable (premise one) and sustaining the natural world is good, an act is good insofar as it decreases the ability of civilization to do violence.

Because the global economy is killing the planet before our eyes (premise one) and because it is not redeemable (premise six), it is wrong to think that personal lifestyle changes we make within the current system can save the planet. While we are not responsible for existing in the current system because we did not create it, we are responsible for doing our part to destroy the system, as this is the only way to stop the destruction of the planet

Sunday May 13, 2007, 4:48 pm
Well, first my dear friend . . . as Maude . . . rofl, thank you!!! I wasn't sure you noticed!!! *big rofl* And secondly, precisely as relative to the second post wih you present the argument. Without recognition of the responsibility as regards how and what and when we contributre to the demise of the planet and therefore us, I am admittedly stupefied!!! Again, I am honoured. =)

Sunday May 13, 2007, 5:49 pm
I think if we don't change -- man will eventually become an extinct species. The earth at one point will not be able to recover itself.

Sunday May 13, 2007, 5:57 pm
Other than the environmental collapse, should we worry about it? Karl
Marx said all that is solid melts in to thin air. The Buddha said the
same except he added that the only thing permanent are our action and
the results of our actions. Thich Nhat Hahn recently wrote:

""Nothing remains the same for two consecutive moments. Heraclitus
saidwe can never bathe twice in the same river. Confucius, while
looking ata stream, said, "It is always flowing, day and night."

The Buddha implored us not just to talk about impermanence, but to
use it as an instrument to help us penetrate deeply into reality and
obtainliberating insight. We may be tempted to say that because
things are impermanent, there is suffering. But the Buddha encouraged
us to look again. Without impermanence, life is not possible. How can
we transform our suffering if things are not impermanent?

How can our daughter grow up into a beautiful young lady? How can the
situation in the world improve? We need impermanence for social
justice and for hope. If you suffer, it is not because things are
impermanent. It is because you believe things are permanent. When a
flower dies, you don't suffer much, because you understand that
flowers are impermanent.

But you cannot accept the impermanence of your beloved one, and you
suffer deeply when she passes away. If you look deeply into
impermanence, you will do your best to make her happy right now.
Aware of impermanence, you become positive, loving and
wise.
Impermanence is good news. Without impermanence, nothing would be
possible. With impermanence, every door is open for change.
impermanence is an instrument for our liberation."

Sunday May 13, 2007, 7:10 pm
NEWS OF THE DAY SHOWING DIMINISHING LIFE ON EARTH AS WE KNOW IT:

http://consortiumblog.blogspot.com/
WEDNESDAY, MAY 09, 2007
Unrest in France Following a General Trend Across Europe

In France, anarchists and other leftists are reacting to the
electoral victory of conservative Nicolas Sarkozy with riots,
although you probably have not heard about the unrest in the U.S.
media. While it is obvious that many of the rioters see Sarkozy as an
anti-immigrant zealot and denounce him as a "fascist," informative
reporting from the streets may be hindered by a law recently passed
by the French Constitutional Council that effectively criminalizes
the filming or broadcasting of acts of violence by people other than
professional journalists.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/12/world/middleeast/12oil.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
Billions in Oil Missing in Iraq, U.S. Study Says
By JAMES GLANZ
Published: May 12, 2007

Between 100,000 and 300,000 barrels a day of Iraq’s declared oil
production over the past four years is unaccounted for and could have been
siphoned off through corruption or smuggling, according to a draft American
government report.

Using an average of $50 a barrel, the report said the discrepancy was
valued at $5 million to $15 million daily.

Sunday May 13, 2007, 7:19 pm
The Earth is on it's last legs, man is about to destroy it! SAD1

Sunday May 13, 2007, 7:22 pm
MORE OF THE SAME ON NEWS OF THE DAY DIMINISHING LIFE ON EARTH

Published on Saturday, May 12, 2007 by The New York Times
The Millions Left Out
by Bob Herbert

The United States may be the richest country in the world, but there are
many millions — tens of millions — who are not sharing in that
prosperity.

According to the most recent government figures, 37 million Americans are
living below the official poverty threshold, which is $19,971 a year for a
family of four. That’s one out of every eight Americans, and many of
them are children.

More than 90 million Americans, close to a third of the entire population,
are struggling to make ends meet on incomes that are less than twice the
official poverty line. In my book, they’re poor.

TIMELINE: The Secret Bush-Democratic Trade Deal & What It Means

Posted by David Sirota at 6:30 AM on May 11, 2007.David Sirota: The origins and implications of the latest Grand Bargain ...


Today has been a whirlwind day on the political frontlines in the War on the Middle Class, as a handful of senior congressional Democrats and the White House - cheered on by K Street lobbyists - joined forces today to announce a "deal" on a package of trade agreements that could impact millions of American workers and potentially calls into question the entire election mandate of 2006 (I say potentially because the full details ar

Sunday May 13, 2007, 7:29 pm
I like your last statement Robert, "With impermanencee, every door is open for change. Impermanence is an instrument for our liberation." I agree with you. I haven't read the article yet about collapsing civilizations so I won't comment on that until I do. I wanted to comment on the last part of the comments that I read. Grief is a normal part of human existence and perhaps it is partly because we do not want to accept that we are all impermanent even though, for example, as a human being with life and work experience, I know we all die. I also know I miss those I loved who have died because I loved them and still like to think they are part of the energy of the Universe - in a sense every atom that has ever existed is still here in the energy around us...this is somehow a comfort to me. I also find it comforting that I don't know everything and I don't believe that any human being does as smart and insightful as we may be in the 21st century. Perhaps, human beings should they still exist and not have wiped themselves off the planet alont with all the animals by 4100, will laugh at what we thought we knew and what we didn't know just as we do in looking back. Yet philosophers were always wise it seems and some truths hold true through all time. One of those is living in the moment is important and all there is just because it is all we have and may have because we will fade just like the flower you talked about. This is something Americans run faster and faster to escape - the fact that they age and that they die and can die at any moment - the impermanence of life that you referred to because if anyone comes along and steps on that same flower even if it just bloomed as a beautiful wildflower two minutes ago it is dead after it is crushed. One thing I'm trying to say is even when you accept the impermanence of things, you suffer when your loved one dies because you love them and miss their presence and know you will see them no more in this life regardless of what you think will happen after it. I believe we must do what we can while we can to make a difference, to have a purpose, to be connected with other people, to other life on this Earth and because it is all we know while we are here, the only gift we have, I want to believe making others journey better in any small way if only by touch of a hand, a listening ear, rescuing a feral cat, whatever action one can take to make a difference is better than indifference, apathy, ignorance or inaction. Every individual gets to make a decision about how to spend their lives and does not have to have a total melt down or personal collapse (physical, mental or emotional) to find out what is important in live: love, the moment, BEing, Others but it tends to be incentive for growth and change and come with age (although collapse can happen at any age). Noted.

Sunday May 13, 2007, 7:35 pm
Great reading if your used to big words, not for the armature. Thanks, noted.

Sunday May 13, 2007, 7:36 pm
MORE NEWS OF THE DAY DIMINISHING LIFE ON EARTH

Endgame emerges as Wolfowitz fights to stay on at World Bank
By Rupert Cornwell in Washington
Published: 11 May 2007 ndgame emerges as Wolfowitz fights to stay on at World Bank
By Rupert Cornwell in Washington
Published: 11 May 2007
Indeed, in recent days, backing for Mr Wolfowitz from the White House has seemed to strengthen.
On Wednesday, Tony Snow, Mr Bush's spokes-man, said the President "fully supported" him, while Condoleezza Rice, the Secretary of State, is said to have strongly lobbied for him among European colleagues. But the pressures from within and without the Bank only continue to grow.

Harry Reid, the Senate majority leader, heads a group of senior Democrats on Capitol Hill who have written to Mr Bush, urging, "decisive action to bring this crisis to a close," and avoid further damage to both the bank and US interests there. Democrat candidates for the White House - among them John Edwards, the party's 2004 vice-Presidential nominee - have also sent the same message.

But the Bush administration remains impervious: not just the President but also Henry Paulson, Secretary of the Treasury, who directly oversees US policy on the World Bank. To counter the pressure from Europe, Washington is seeking to mobilise Asian and African countries represented on the Bank's board, as well as allies sympathetic to Mr Wolfowitz, among them Canada.

None the less, almost every day brings some leak from his foes to discredit him, aimed either at casting his crusade against corruption in a hypocritical light, or hinting at other improprieties in his dealings on behalf of Ms Riza

Sunday May 13, 2007, 7:39 pm
Compelling article--I have always hated the simplistic "is the glass half empty or half full?" question. It really --it depends on whether we are thirsty or need air. My point being that one doesn't always have to view the world through a "how does this effect me personally" perspective--sometimes it is about how a thing can effect us all and in all ways--it is multi-dimensional reasoning, not 2 dimentional reasoning that our species seems to lack. We are a reactive society without preventative fore-thought. True adaptive qualities are those which allow us to cope with change and alter immediately what we need to in order to survive. We have forgotten that we need air to breathe and clean water to drink and so will our grand children. We briefly consider it and then we cut the trees down, poison our fields and genetically alter our once diverse food supply. Then we wonder where the bees have gone and why Monsanto owns our land. We allow what is happening to our civilization by electing a poisonous administration to run it. We are a nation encouraged to go into debt at every turn and we teach our children that stuff=happiness. The collapse of civilizations have been happening since man has inhabited this planet (ancient cities and their inhabitants didn't just mysteriously dissapear--and we are seeing the fall of our own. What is really frightening is that this is the first time in history where it is effecting more than just "our way of life"--This time we are quite literally destroying ourselves at the cellular level and we are taking the other creatures of this planet along for the ride--biblically speaking or not. Many cultures have a way of knowing about natural destruction and impermanence, it is part of the culture and belief structure--it is written in a common memory. Americans have insulated themselves from the bad dreams and have been lulled into the deep sleep of apathy and this is worse than death.

Sunday May 13, 2007, 7:54 pm
I feel no grief in this. Energy does not "disappear" in a collapse. It changes. Perhaps it will be a change for the better.....

Sunday May 13, 2007, 8:11 pm
Change is always scarey. And the world has always changed - glacially slowly or lightning fast, evolving, devolving, and just plain mutating.. to paraphrase Bette Davis: "Buckle up - We're in for a bumpy ride!"

Sunday May 13, 2007, 8:35 pm
i READ THE ARTICLE WITH SOME INTEREST AND SOME RESERVATION. tHE VARIOUS CULTURES NEED TO COME TOGETHER IN COMPLIANCE WITH SCIENCE AND NATURE. THE STUMBLING BLOCKS HAVE ALWAYS BEEN AND WILL CONTINUE TO BE RELIGION.
C.G.JUNG ALSO WROTE '" GOD DID NOT MAKE MAN TO WORSHIP HIM,MAN MADE GOD TO WORSHIP HIMSELF.

Sunday May 13, 2007, 9:02 pm
Thanks Boots for this and the video, These and a combination of other influences ha sgiven Me the Key to the next step in my Journey to Positive activism, While I am not Going Away I am Going to Attempt a Major Shift. I needed to vent my Frustration about some things and let go of others; In some ways I have always been working towards this Goal: To accept My Calling as a Spiritual Healer Worker to Constructivly Bring About Change and Provide Others with Spiritual Tools and the Physical Tools to Bring about Change In Thier World,, I have Slowly been aquireing Tools and Skills toward These Goals and a Recent interview of 1 of My Favorite Authors Kurt Vonegut When Speaking of his views of the collpse of civilization He was asked What do you Recomend To The young People Growing up with The immenent collapse of Civilization as We know it as you Predict it ? He Said " I would tell them to form a Gang, Gather People that you love and can Trust to support you and adapt to the Changes that will come " A tribe If you want to call it that. I know that There are Changes coming that I will need Help surviving and as much as I Want to see Justice for All and A healed Planet I know That is out of My Reach But To reach out to that which is within My Realm and to Offer Assistance to others tring to Affect possitive Changes In thier Personal Sphere of influence That I Can See The Results and know That my efforts havn't been shoved into somebodies Shredder! I will Continue to Sign some petitionsand Keep my sense of humour But I know that Argueing with the Stubornly Bigoted Is no longer worth my Time nor Is Demanding that all the Criminals in the world be Brought to Justice They will dig thier Own Holes and I donot feel Obligated to Judge or Prosecute them ; This does not mean That I will refuse my Responsibilties Within the Democratic Process Such as it is. For most of My life I have lived on what most would consider a below poverty level income ($2,-12, yr comfortably lately) While I know I can't make Every one Reduce and Share I will Offer what I can to Those in Need of assistance with thier Changes! ! !

Sunday May 13, 2007, 10:21 pm


http://cyberjournal.org/show_archives/?id=2501&lists=newslog (copy & paste for complete story)
Original source URL:

http://www.newleftreview.org/?page=article&view=2565 (brief review on this site)

New Left Review 33, May-June 2005

In the conclusion to his major two-part essay on the new US imperialism, Giovanni Arrighi situates the contradictions of the current American ‘spatial fix’ for the problems of overaccumulation in the context of a longue durée of systemic cycles. Have Washington’s attempts to secure its world role through the invasion of Iraq instead hastened the rise of China?

GIOVANNI ARRIGHI

HEGEMONY UNRAVELLING—2

In the first part of this essay, I argued that the recent resurgence of the concepts of ‘empire’ and ‘imperialism’ is above all a consequence of the Bush Administration’s embrace of a new imperialist programme in the wake of 9/11—that of the neoconservative Project for a New American Century. [1] The paper sought to investigate the social, economic and political circumstances which prompted the adoption of that policy, and in particular its relation to the turbulence of the global economy since the 1970s. In dealing with these questions, I began by examining David Harvey’s interpretation of the relationship between imperialism and capitalist development in The New Imperialism, focusing specifically on Harvey’s concepts of ‘spatial fix’ and ‘accumulation by dispossession’ as means to analyse the Bush Administration’s present course. [2] I argued that, far from laying the foundations for a second ‘American Century’, the occupation of Iraq has jeopardized the credibility of US military might; it has further undermined the centrality of the United States and the dollar in the global political economy; and it has strengthened the tendency towards the emergence of China as an alternative to US leadership in the East Asian region and beyond. It would have been hard to imagine a more rapid and complete failure of the neo-conservative imperial project. In all likelihood, the neo-conservative bid for global supremacy will go down in history as one of the several ‘bubbles’ that punctuated the terminal crisis of US hegemony. [3]



The bursting of this peculiar bubble has transformed but by no means done away with the world-historical circumstances that generated the Project for a New American Century. In this concluding part of the article, I will highlight these circumstances by using Harvey’s concepts of spatial fix and accumulation by dispossession in a longer perspective than he does. Within this optic, the new imperialism will appear as the outcome of a protracted historical process consisting of spatial fixes of increasing scale and scope, on the one hand, and on the other, of an American attempt to bring this process to an end through the formation of a US-centred world government. This attempt, I will argue, was integral to US hegemony from the start. Under George W. Bush, however, it has reached its limits and in all likelihood will cease to be the primary determinant of ongoing transformations of the global political economy.

Sunday May 13, 2007, 10:30 pm
CONTINUED FROM (THIS IS LENGTHY ARTICLE - TO REVIEW ALL COPY & PASTE SITE ABOVE)

I. OVERACCUMULATION AND FINANCIALIZATION

As Harvey suggests, there is an interesting correspondence between Hannah Arendt’s theoretical observation in The Origins of Totalitarianism that ‘a never-ending accumulation of power [is] necessary for the protection of a never-ending accumulation of capital’, and my own empirical observation in The Long Twentieth Century that the expansion of world capitalism has been based on the emergence of ever more powerful leading capitalist organizations. [4] The correspondence, however, is not as ‘exact’ as he suggests. For Arendt’s observation refers to the accumulation of power and capital within states, whereas mine refers to the accumulation of power and capital in an evolving system of states. The difference is crucial in more than one respect.



Arendt draws our attention to the process whereby individual capitalist states tend to experience an accumulation of ‘superfluous money’ (that is, of more capital than can be profitably reinvested within their national boundaries) and a need to grow more powerful in order to be able to protect growing property. From this perspective, imperialism of the capitalist sort is a policy aimed both at finding profitable external outlets for surplus capital and at strengthening the state. My observation, in contrast, draws our attention to the process whereby increasingly powerful capitalist organizations have become the agency of the expansion of a system of accumulation and rule that from the start encompassed a multiplicity of states. From this perspective, imperialism of the capitalist sort is an aspect of the recurrent struggles through which capitalist states have used coercive means in the attempt to turn in their favour the spatial shifts entailed in the ‘endless’ accumulation of capital and power. [5]



As Harvey underscores, finance capital backed by state power plays a crucial mediating role both in the production of space that is involved in the enlarged reproduction of capital and in the ‘cannibalistic practices and forced devaluations’ that constitute the essence of accumulation by dispossession. He is nonetheless vague about the world-historical coordinates of this role. Like Arendt, he seems to adhere to the view that finance capital has been an outgrowth of nineteenth-century industrial capitalism. While this may be true of capitalist development in some states, it is certainly not true of it on a world scale.

Sunday May 13, 2007, 10:45 pm
http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/7424

Ten Ways Bush Resembles History's Tyrants
by Sherwood Ross | May 12 2007 - 9:48am

As public sentiment begins to build for impeachment, it might be illuminating to examine the many ways President Bush operates in a manner reminiscent of history's tyrants. Here are 10 areas that come readily to mind.

First, tyrants tend to see themselves, as Hitler did, at the head of some kind of "master race." President Bush and his backers would deny it, but their drive for a "New American Century" betrays them. They're world-beaters, and won't sign the global warming treaty or any other cooperative document. Republicans at their last Convention jeered the very mention of the words "United Nations." Those who see it differently get slandered. Recall how Bush's hatchet men impugned Senator Kerry's Vietnam War record. This was reminiscent of Nazi claims Germany's Jewish veterans of the Great War did not deserve their medals. Another manifestation is Neocons would reduce gay and lesbian Americans to second-class citizenship status. Bush's backers are convinced of their superiority at home and globally.

Second, tyrants tend to be congenital, brazen liars. Bush lied about Iraq's threat to America just as Hitler lied when he claimed Poland attacked Germany first in 1939. The UN told Bush there was no WMD in Iraq, yet Bush said there was and made war. He knew better. As many as 600,000 Iraqi civilians are dead, 2-million have fled, and a nation is being destroyed before our eyes.

Third, tyrants engage in outright suppression or manipulation of the news. The Bush Administration has paid off newsmen to plug its achievements, sent out video press releases disguised as news stories, banned photographs of coffins returned from Iraq, and even planted a phony journalist in White House press conferences. And it's spending millions to bribe Iraqi journalists.

Fourth, tyrants will use a "crisis" to grab total power. After the massacre of 9/11, President Bush pushed through the Patriot Act. Recall 1933, when Hitler declared a "state of national emergency" after the Reichstag (Parliament) fire, which likely was set by the Nazis. The new law gives Bush the power to arrest any American citizen on his say-so and he has allowed his intelligence agencies to spy illegally on American citizens without a court order.

Fifth, tyrants torture. Of all people, Bush picked Alberto Gonzalez for the top legal position in the nation, the very man who rationalized the torture of captives. Bush also lavishes billions on dictatorships such as Egypt, whose Gestapo obligingly tortures individuals the CIA kidnaps from other countries. Bush has turned back the clock of history to the Spanish Inquisition.

Sixth, tyrants tend to make serial wars. Soviet Russia's Stalin attacked Finland, Poland, and Hungary. Japan struck Korea, Manchuria, China, America, and U.K. One war is never enough for a tyrant. Recall Napoleon invaded nations to liberate them from kings, only to put his relatives on their thrones. Having invaded Afghanistan and setting Iraq ablaze, Bush now threatens Iran --- three countries that are oil-rich or geographically sited for oil transmission lines or both.

Seventh, tyrants are notorious for their closed mindedness. They ignore their critics. Japan walked out of the League of Nations rather than answer for its conduct. Bush doesn't listen to critics, either. The Pope denounced America's war on Iraq as immoral. The UN Secretary-General called it "illegal." Millions the world over protested it. And a majority of Americans call it wrong but Bush ignores them. Polls show 70% of the Iraqi people want the U.S. to get out but Bush refuses.

Eighth, tyrants spend lavishly on the military. In the Thirties, Germany, Japan and Soviet Russia devoted a high percentage of their gross national product to their war machines. Today, America spends more on armaments than all other nations combined. And America under Bush is the Number One arms merchant in the world.

Ninth, tyrants don't respect the sovereignty of other nations. Bush rationalized his attack on Iraq as "preventive war" -- a euphemism for "aggression." The Pentagon has already dropped troops secretly into Iran, according to Seymour Hersh in "The New Yorker." The Pentagon operates 700 military bases in 130 countries and refuses to leave Okinawa and Greenland despite protests from their citizens.

Tenth, tyrants have double standards. Bush declares he's for "freedom" but forges alliances with the heads of Saudi Arabia, and former Soviet Asian republics where citizens have zero rights. He warns Iran against making a nuclear bomb while he scraps non-proliferation treaties to make America's nuclear arsenal more lethal. Bush threatens Iran, which spends $4-billion a year on arms, while he spends $500-billion on arms. He warns Iran might make a nuclear bomb while he has 10,000. He accused Saddam Hussein of germ warfare capability while he has been secretly building the greatest germ warfare capability of any nation in history since the Soviet Union under Stalin.

Monday May 14, 2007, 3:29 am
she is absolutly right and i try to tell this to people for years, especially young people with little kids, i tell them to send their kids to survival schools if they want them to survive, but they are just laughing and breed and breed...... the only solution is, to find our own solution, don't count on greedy, powerhungry politicians they will extinct like the saurier if there is nobody there to feed their greed and no taxpayer to pay their weapons, their armys or their destructive ruthlessness, train the kids to survive anything, by sending them to a survival school to learn how to survive, without weapons to murder anything that crosses their way, not the cowboy is the hero, the native person is the hero, because of his love and respect, understanding and caring for mother nature and all of her children. this is the real truth that has to grow in your hearts and in your minds. the native people are the only ones who can teach your children to survive, because they lived in harmony with mother earth, and stop crying for a luxury that destroyd the earth and tortured and killed all the other children of the earth, like the forests, the animals on land and on sea, the air, the water, the earth, learn to respect life and i think this is what is happening at the time, mother earth will teach the ones who will survive to respect, care, love and to be grateful and for all the fertility she provides us with, every second of our lifes. because now we take so much more than we need, we kill for fun, we destroy for greed and we never give anything back and most of us never even say thank you!!! she is right to teach us that lesson, every single one of us. humans are even too stupid to see, that just because they want something to be a thing, doesn't make it a thing and everything that grows, also feels, feels joy, feels love, feels pain and because humanity is too stupid to understand the language of the animals, the plants, the stones, the Earth, we torture and hurt, kill and destroy, we are the ones who don't feel, because we lost our hearts on the way to material wealth!!! Humanity deserves what we are getting now, because even now the humans just cry for their cars, their money, their material possessions and still not see their shame and what they've done and still do to our beautiful paradise earth and all her other children!!!

Monday May 14, 2007, 3:46 am
HELLO!THIS IS GREAT GREAT FUN! SPIRITUAL DISCOURSE AMONGST FRIENDS IN AN INTELLIGENT MANNER! HOORAY!
INCARNATION AFTER INCARNATION THE WHEELS OF IMPERMANENCE AND DELUSION SPIN.!.ONLY THE SEEPEST LIGHT WITHIN EACH OF US BUDDHAS VOID, WESTERN RELIGION SLIGHT OF GOD HINDUS /SIKHISM NAAM OR KRISHNA/BRAHMA
WHATEVER THE POINT IS ALL PHYSICAL MANIFESTATION IS TRANSITORY AND IMPERMENANT . ALL OF IT. BOTOM LINETHE ONLY ANSWER IF YOU ARE SEEKING ONE IS THE ESSENCE WITHIN ACCESSED BEHIND THE THIRD EYE THE TENTH GATE TISRA TIL THE EYE THAT IS SINGLE.
WELL SAAID FRINED
NURITH AND ALL WELL SAID ROBERT
But you cannot accept the impermanence of your beloved one, and you
suffer deeply when she passes away. If you look deeply into
impermanence, you will do your best to make her happy right now.
Aware of impermanence, you become positive, loving and
wise.
Impermanence is good news. Without impermanence, nothing would be
possible. With impermanence, every door is open for change.
impermanence is an instrument for our liberation."

Monday May 14, 2007, 4:46 am
"Barn's burnt down --
now
I can see the moon."
~Masahide

The moon represents awakened awareness. The burnt barn can represent worldly calamity and loss.
Think of the Chinese character that combines danger and opportunity (a loose and often misapplied translation) to make the word 'crisis'. The more correct way to translate the two characters is 'danger' and 'critical point'. There is no inherent 'gift' in the danger..but it does give one the opportunity to become more aware of the dangers, what we each have done to contribute, and how we can make the necessary corrections. To burn away our destructive thoughts and actions so that we can finally see clearly and to think, act and live as we always should have.
Destruction and creation are going on continuously all the time. Certain cells die and new ones take their place .. it is called life. No one even notices that every 7 years your body consists of completely different cells than it did before, and on and on. It is a delicate balance though, and if we do harmful things to the body to create more dying cells than is being replaced, ill health occurs, and if taken to the extreme, the whole organism ceases to 'live'. The awareness that crises allow is hopefully a recognition of the harm being done so that the body can recover and return to the healthy balance that is otherwise inherently there.
One needn't wait for the barn to burn down to go out and bask in the moonlight.

Monday May 14, 2007, 5:05 am
Thanks, noted.

Monday May 14, 2007, 6:07 am
Have you seen the electronic key chains with the "countdown" of how many days Bush have left in office? "Only 600 more days or 20 months" some people tell me, "why worry about Bush anymore? He’s over."

But Joshua Bolten also handed those devices out, reminding Bush operatives that the clock was ticking on the Bush agenda.

The important question for us to grapple with now is, what further damage will Bush do if not removed from office before January 2009?

So many people are against what Bush has done. But people have also grown accustomed to living with "that which you do not resist and mobilize to stop."

Monday May 14, 2007, 6:09 am
From worldcantwait.org: Cheney Threatens Iran from the Deck of a Nuclear Aircraft Carrier

Monday May 14, 2007, 6:42 am
Noted; Carolyn talks about coming together in sustainable community. I have been led for the last fifteen years to prepare for this eventuality. I have been instructed to write forty books about the Science of Sustainable Health, which will be needed in the coming age. What is sustainable community? Find out; www.aaabookstore.us .

I agree with Carolyn when she points at the selfish me, me, mine attitude that is the root cause of our collapse, but within that is an opportunity to come together in a birth that will bring gifts, prosperity, healing, harmony and more... It is all up to us. We make choices every day. Choose wisely.

Monday May 14, 2007, 7:56 am
I am not religious. I am not one with dozens of years of education to my name. However I've an opinion. LOL
I think humans, the USA in particular, are killing life as we know it. This planet cannot continue to survive under our constant apathy and raping of it's resources. Will that mean mankind ends too? I hope so. (And I have children so please no "think of what you're saying" replies) This planet, if it is even possible for it to heal, can ONLY do it if a different species is dominate. Humans will only continue to ruin everything beautiful about this planet and it's other life forms. All that is just my rambling opinion of course. :-)

Monday May 14, 2007, 10:24 am
I think the Earth is comparatively young for a planet...she'll be around for lots longer than we can imagine...the changes that will happen, will mostly effect the life ON the planet. Many will perish, but the survivors will have a new beginning. It's already happened many times. God works in mysterious ways and knows how to keep mankind humble. The meek always inherit the Earth...how meek can you get when you've lost all things material? What good is money to the wealthy when entire continents are covered by the waters of the Earth? And what was once ocean floor becomes the salty deserts upon which nothing grows for thousands of years? All things change.

Rejoice! The spirit dances across the stage of immortality! We are but fragments of the Greater Spirit, God!
No need to fear...just go with the flow, and build a big boat! LOL! I think Noah left some instructions in a book somewhere.

Love & Peace

Monday May 14, 2007, 12:05 pm
Just wanted to say that we belong to the Earth, not that the Earth belongs to us. We are not its keepers nor its overseerers--we are simply one part of that which it affects and effects. The Earth will and does rid itself of those who do not know or understand its laws.

Monday May 14, 2007, 2:31 pm

The Untold Story of Fallujah - Video - Must See !! (Copy and Paste Site Below)

http://www.care2.com/news/member/798880044/374230

YouTube - Caught in the Crossife: The Untold Story of Fallujah Pt. 2

A Whole city (of 250,000) was destroyed by our troops. Do you call someone who trys to defend his home, his family, and religion an insurgent? ? This was NEVER shown in the media.

Monday May 14, 2007, 2:32 pm

The Untold Story of Fallujah - Video - Must See !! (Copy & Paste Site Below)

http://www.care2.com/news/member/798880044/374230

YouTube - Caught in the Crossife: The Untold Story of Fallujah Pt. 2

A Whole city (of 250,000) was destroyed by our troops. Do you call someone who trys to defend his home, his family, and religion an insurgent? ? This was NEVER shown in the media.

Monday May 14, 2007, 4:21 pm
Drum Dance And Dream For Peace
Drumming Event-Peace Bridge
http://www.worlddreamspeacebridge.org/drumming/index.htm
'For who understands, even a mosquito's buzz is jazz, for who does not understand drums and clarinets are not enough.

Monday May 14, 2007, 5:40 pm
TESTIMONY OF A FORMER US ARMY RANGER Part 2/2
An Army Ranger speaks from the heart...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYfrO5A48vQ - (Copy and Paste to see and hear video)







-

Monday May 14, 2007, 6:55 pm
Preparing for Collapse:

Not only will we be compelled to relate differently to humans, but
to all beings in the non-human world as well. Only as we begin to
read the survival manuals that trees, stars, insects, and birds have
written for us, will our species be spared. The very "pests" that we
resent as unhygienic or annoying may, in fact, save our lives. One
year ago, the honey bees used to circle around me on warm days when I
ate my lunch outside under the trees, sitting on the grass. Today, I
sit under the same trees on the same grass, but the honey bees are
gone. No one seems to be able to tell us why. Maybe it's time to ask
the bees to tell us why.
>
> Paradoxically, collapse may bring meaning and purpose to our lives
which might otherwise have eluded us. In our linear, progress-based
existence, we rarely contemplate words like "purpose." With
civilization's collapse, we may be forced to evaluate daily, perhaps
moment to moment, why we are here, if we want to remain here, if life
is worth living, if there is something greater than ourselves for
which we are willing to remain alive and to which we choose to
contribute energy. These decisions probably will not be made in the
cozy comfort of our homes, but in the streets, the fields, the
deserts, the forests, in the eerie echoing of our voices throughout
abandoned suburbs, and beside forgotten rivers and trails. Purpose
will rapidly cease being about what we can accomplish and will
increasingly become more about who we are. In a collapsing world, the
so-called "purpose-driven life" will no longer exist. Humans will
be "driven" by only one issue: the determination to survive and
assist loved ones in surviving. From that quest for survival will
emerge authentic purpose, which will undoubtedly not resemble
anything we can imagine today.
>
> Lest the reader infer that I'm portraying collapse as some exercise
in airy-fairy spirituality devoid of practicalities, I hasten to add
that collapse will require humans to attend to the most pragmatic
realities of existence-food, water, shelter, health care, and a host
of other survival issues. As centralized systems such as federal,
state, and local governments are eviscerated, communities will be
compelled to unite in order to solve these issues-to grow gardens,
make clothing and other items, treat each others' illnesses, bury one
another, create community currencies, and rebuild infrastructures on
an intensely local level.

Monday May 14, 2007, 8:03 pm
http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/7440 (Copy and paste site for rest of article)

The Trouble With The Entire World Is A Guy Named Ron
by Robert Weitzel | May 13 2007 - 8:37pm | permalink
article tools: email | print | read more Robert Weitzel

This is not a parody. I swear. It’s all true.

Just so you’ll know that what follows is scientifically possible, I will acquaint you with a 2003 study funded by the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation and published in the American Psychological Association’s Psychological Bulletin.

The study found that conservatism can be explained as a set of beliefs and behaviors that result from a psyche controlled by fear, aggression, closed-minded dogmatism, and intolerance of ambiguity, compounded by mental rigidity and decreased cognitive complexity [dumbness].

Seriously, I’m not making this up.






.

Monday May 14, 2007, 8:36 pm
The EARTH will still be spinning Beaurifully in Space......Long after all of mankinds damage has been done. We are not exempt from extinction.

Tuesday May 15, 2007, 12:06 am
WHY ARE WE STILL PUSHING EXTERNAL POLITICS? AS CAUSE IN THIS ILLUSION THAT THERE IS EXTERNAL CAUSE?
WHAT HAPPENED TO THE TRUTH? WE ARE ALL CAUSE.AND WE ARE ALL THE ANSWER .AND INSTEAD OF RUNNIGN AROUN D IN CIRCLES WITH INTELLECTUAL LINEAR CONONDRUMSWE SHOUL DBE POLISHING OUR OWN MIRROR EEEEESHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Tuesday May 15, 2007, 4:50 am
All constructs are tombs !

Let us go back to Jung.

What you deny will come back to haunt you as fate. There is no escaping the consequences of either our actions or our inactions.

We are responsible for redeeming our own shadow nature and all that the majority wants to do is dump their projections on anyone and anything available. The creation of one scapegoat after another is a terrible human habit.

Why are we so against life that we prefer an illusion to reality ?

Why are we not doing the deep work of soul making so that we can evolve in consciousness and finally deliver the world from the burden of our vanity ?

Tuesday May 15, 2007, 5:34 am
If causality is inescapable is there need to oppose it. In rhetorical circumstance do we participate with our adversaries in the illusion regardless of which way that fate is carring us? In the two opposing forces like the antipodes of North & South do we comfort ourselves in finding consciousness of the moment and as Gandhi said, 'being the change we want to see.'

Tuesday May 15, 2007, 5:38 am
I believe that when we work from Love everything and anything is possible. If we choose to honor all life here on Earth, all life will then be protected and safe...You might believe this is not possible, some only think of money and power. But I ask you to surround those people with this power of light and love..If we all work for good and what is sacred what we know to be truths...We will prevail...I am not much of a political person, but even though I see such awful things on the news and radio...Still I pray for the people in power that put others in the position of harms way....The only reality is Love, truth and taking care of eachother with love~~Kim K~~

Tuesday May 15, 2007, 6:04 am
Part of my problem I'll admit is how to handle the good vs evil. I saw a guy that was in a small town in France when the Germans came in. He did not fight against them, then after the Germans got control without a battle from the Peace loving town, they killed everyone in the town.

Tuesday May 15, 2007, 8:32 am
And Will there be a world left in light of ubiquitous nuclear bombs !!

Japan closer to changing pacifist constitution
Parliamentary moves deepen fears of a new militarism from Tokyo
TOKYO - Japan’s parliament laid the groundwork Monday for amending the country’s pacifist constitution, boosting Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s drive to give the armed forces a larger global role, but adding to critics’ concerns about a resurgent Japanese militarism.

The country’s 1947 constitution was drafted by U.S. occupation officials after World War II, and it has never been amended. Many Japanese credit the charter’s pacifist clause, Article 9, with keeping the country out of war since 1945.

Tuesday May 15, 2007, 10:12 am
The son of Andrew Bacevich was killed in Iraq on May 13th. Bacevich,
Sr., is the author of The New American Militarism: How Americans are
Seduced by War, one of the best critical books on the U.S.
government’s war policies. The death is noted on Juan Cole’s site and
here:

http://www.thewashingtonnote.com/archives/002129.php

Tuesday May 15, 2007, 10:12 am
The son of Andrew Bacevich was killed in Iraq on May 13th. Bacevich,
Sr., is the author of The New American Militarism: How Americans are
Seduced by War, one of the best critical books on the U.S.
government’s war policies. The death is noted on Juan Cole’s site and
here:

http://www.thewashingtonnote.com/archives/002129.php

Wednesday May 16, 2007, 9:27 am
They were talking about me in there! (The lunatic fringe)
www.care2.com/c2c/group/agciv

Friday May 18, 2007, 4:59 am
To all:

Long before there was Carolyn Baker writing of these matters, there was E. F. Schumacher.

The E.F. Schumacher Society keeps his vision alive at http://www.smalisbeautiful.org

Most US Americans will never "get it" until the tide rushes in and sweeps their neat little world of quicker- than-quick pyramid rackateering finance schemes,insta-loans, easy payment plans and all the other crapola gimmicks of a debased, diseased "culture."

I say good riddance to the fantastic, plastic muck, all the conmen and scheming debauched Bushites and their flea bitten Roving dogs of putricity and vitriole.

Saturday May 19, 2007, 5:46 am
The Shift is coming!!

Saturday May 19, 2007, 12:41 pm
We are so unique in our differences, isn't that singular.

Saturday May 19, 2007, 10:17 pm
Indeed it is Robert!
All components of a circle are equadistant from one another and yet are still each a part of the greater whole...

Saturday May 19, 2007, 10:24 pm
Samantha White Raven:

Very eloquently stated...your words are symbolic of the wisdom that's within you...

Saturday May 19, 2007, 10:33 pm
Mary P.

Think of that shift as a movement of a pendulum swing...

Saturday May 19, 2007, 10:40 pm
Errata: that should've been typed as "Think of that shift as a swing of the pendulum."