We can stop the war in the Middle East, the Ukraine/Russia and all the wars in Africa if we……
Stop sending “War Aid”….
We can just send “Humanitarian Aid”….. to the communities and families just like us…..
Look in the ‘background’ of all the footage of these wars……. They are just people like us…. With a kitchen like us, as TV, working a mundane job, having kids, a dog….. and all the stuff we have…..
They are Doctors, garbage collectors, nurse, tradies; with kids going to school….. and then….?
While you think about this, after feeling outraged, offense, deciding your gender and the fairness of your life in Australia….
Take a break….
As you will go to bed, with no fear that someone will drop a bomb on your house tonight.
We are better societies because of good Goverments, our legal and economic systems, our Police and institutions, because, we give our consent for them to exist and for us, to follow their rules and their leadership.
The difficulty is when any, or all of them, as cogs in a great wheel of society, start to take advantage of our benevolence, trust and good will.
When the separation of their power disappears and they become one intertwined and dependent only on themselves to run as a ‘mega-machine’ who’s only purpose is to serve the elite, the powerful, the rich and themselves. This happens while we obliviously continue to provide our faithful consent.
the electricity companies continue to raise prices because we consent to this by continuing to pay our bills
petrol prices go up more and more, interdependently of the wholesale price and we continue to buy petrol
the Police issue more and more fines as the road toll goes up and the roads deteriorate because we pay our fines and drive on the roads without complaint (we actually consent to being abused by the Government and Police when they call us “selfish pricks.”)
every way we turn we are being taxed, often twice, three times or more for services, products and our actual work, we consent to this
a temporary levy never is; the Emergency Services Levy was impose after the Ash Wednesday Bushfires in the 1980’s. Yet theI Country Fire Service Brigades still have to fund raise to buy there own equipment; as do the Royal Flying Doctor Service
Most do not notice the creeping of the law to erode our freedoms; firearms prohibition orders; freedom of assembly laws; terrorism detention laws etc etc, all done with our consent.
Capitalism is the system we have and not withstanding so much rhetoric we hear nowadays, the best system we have at the moment. But, it requires two very important things, private property and the rule of law.
It provides for us to have freedom of expression and freedom more generally. It allows for us to keep the things we create and work for.
However when our Government serves itself and the separation of powers no longer exist, it is time to stop pandering to a morally corrupt, if not literally corrupt regime. We now have generations being taught to hate their own society and even themselves and to create ideologies based on no empirical evidence.
George Orwell in his book titled 1984 which he wrote just after World War II, in the above ‘quote’ intended it as a warning against a totalitarian government that controls every aspect of citizens’ lives.
Look how our ‘history’ is being rewritten, reinterpreted and weaponised against our current society creating the group and tribe mentality that divides a society. This is a know political strategy “the concept refers to a strategy that breaks up existing power structures, and especially prevents smaller power groups from linking up, causing rivalries and fomenting discord among the people to prevent a rebellion against the elites or the people implementing the strategy.“. If you think this is not happening, you’re not looking.
I know it may feel like a democracy, but, more and more it is just beginning to only feel like it, and not truely be one. I hear the defeatist already saying what can I do about it. Well there are many things, but it will require concentration.
I wrote a blog post not long ago called ‘The Revolution – Phase 1 – You Can Join for Free’ which can be located by clicking here. That is the first step in ‘doing something’. I did promise more and will expand on this in a future post, but how about a few quick ones that do require effort, a pen and paper (or a computer if you write in cursive like me and no-one can read it), an envelope and a stamp. You will see that some of the letters below are written in cursive. I do it deliberately as it drives them crazy!
Also, writing these letters gives a feeling of achievement. There are just a few rules I abide by:
I am always polite.
I stick to the facts.
I put in something humorous, usually a personal anecdote that caused me to write and what I am feeling
I remind them about this involving people and not just things.
I put a reminder in my diary three months into the future to follow up if I don’t get a reply in that time.
I have done this many times, sometimes having to follow up multiple times but I have a formula; I follow up in 3 months, write another letter with the first letter enclosed; A month after that I do the same thing: A fortnight after that I do the same thing: A week later the same: I never give up.
I also have another strategy which goes hand in hand with this one. In addition to sending the hard copy, I go to their website and send the same text electronically, and if possible load up the documents and send them that way.
The beauty of this strategy is that ‘they’ hate getting hard copies and even more wonderfully the electronic copy and the hard copy never match up and you get two different replies – and away you go again!
Stay sane, and do it mostly to say you are doing it for fun and fairness. Then you can say at least you are doing something. Ask yourself and others, is the cost of living effecting us and does the 500% markup by retailers effect us….. Well, I have written them a letter?!!!
So, who am I writing to: (Some of these may take a little research on the internet, but, that in itself can be informative and stop you – well mainly – we wasting 5 hours watching YouTube ‘shorts’)
Write to any company who’s product you buy and find it substandard. ( I once wrote to ‘Sharpie’ markers as one in a new pack was dry – they sent me a shoe box full!).
Write to Woolworths and Coles.
Write to the fuel companies.
Write to charities and ask them what percentage of their donations is spent on Administration.
Write to your local and federal member, and the current ministers in Government about what is hurting you at the moment, what you need, what your communities needs, what our country needs (which is not billions of dollars in nuclear submarines 25 years in the future, when we don’t have enough hospital beds NOW!!!)
This doesn’t sound much. But, imagine ‘a company’ that gets maybe 10 complaints a year suddenly gets 5,000 – they will start to take notice as will the Media (the Merchants of Misery).
I have a few other ‘revolution strategies’ I just do for me:
I write letters of accolade and thanks.
Any bill I pay electronically I pay one cent less or round it up or down to the nearest five cents.
I never pay traffic tickets. I elect to go to court and talk to a Magistrate, not explain myself to a belligerent 25 year old on the side of the road (blog post coming up about how to do this and pay less than the ticket!)
I never pay my fines but ring up or email fines enforcement branch and pay the minimum amount a fortnight.
I have included a few of my letters to give you ideas and one I got back from Gamin after I returned a broken GPS to throw away on my behalf as it belonged to an old mate and I didn’t have the heart to throw it away?!
Marching on the street has a place; but it only last a day – and you better not disrupt any business as that is now a $25,000.00 fine recently legislated up from $500.00. I will attest to the pen being mightier than the sword and knowing that “Dripping water hollows out stone, not through force but through persistence.” (Publius Ovidius Naso, a Roman Poet circa 33B.)
I wrote not long ago about “War what is it good for” (click here to read), but it didn’t involve a cat riding a vacuum cleaner so my AI statistic robot in the background told me only 28 or so people read it and they only stayed for an average of 58 seconds….
So, to the point.
Today we are sending two war plane and 100 troops to the Middle East. The Prime Minster state two very important things:
We are sending them to support Australian wanting to leave.” Well send a passenger jet and not two war planes.
And, “This is not ‘boots on the ground’” Well it looks like it to me.
We are sending 100 and two planes, then a thousand and all the rest of our planes (which adds up to about 5 or 6?). But, be afraid because Australia is protected by nuclear submarines…. So please get back to us in Andy’s years.
This is all familiar.
These countries ring a bell: Vietnam, Korea, Iraq, Kuwait, Afghanistan and I’m sure I’ve forgotten a few.
It’s only a few troops today who don’t have boots on the ground and then it’s thousands and then the draft…. And then our young people start coming home in body bags.
No.
PS: No pictures as not pictures of our young people dyeing should be necessary. PPS: I will post Phase 2 of The Revolution soon. (Although its hardly a revolution when only 28 or so people are involved?
I haven’t been posting much, but I have been writing a lot.
I choose to sort my thoughts before I share them and I like to have pictures which takes me to the internet, then Facebook, then Instagram, them YouTube and I watch people falling off of boats and skate boards for hours…….
But, now I feel compelled to write something about war….
But, before I do, please look back over my posts and see a post called ‘Surviving the Apocalypse’ (click here to read)……. I do have an another document called “Schlein’s Manifesto for Surviving the Apocalypse” which I am happy to send to anyone electronically for free…. (I thought I loaded it up here somewhere but can find it…. I not a social media influencer’ with 50 staff, I just write these in my shed when I drinking….)
If you went back and read the “Apocalypse’ article you will see I did research into what we, the people, normally do when things are at there worst and we are supposed to be at our best….. Well let me summarise….
If we all look after each other in a survival situation, look after the injured, weak and old or young, we share our resources of food and shelter….. 90-100% OF US SURVIVE!!!!!
If it is “everybody for themselves” … that is the strong look after their own interests and do not care or share….. 90-100 % OF US DIE!!!!!
AND THE HORROR
In 90-100% of survival situations (researched in the book in the above ‘apocalypse’ referenced post) in….
90-100% OF SURVIVAL SITUATIONS WE OPT FOR EVERYONE FOR THEMSELVES…..
And that is War……
It pretends to be about God, religion, Country (which by the way is a made up place we live in) and worse, political persuasion, doctrine or ideology…. But, it is nothing more that the strong, the powerful, the rich, wanting everything: and mostly they don’t even know why?
My thoughts on today, this week, this month and perhaps all of time:
Fuck 3000+ years of war and killing in the Middle East ….
Fuck the war in Ukraine over broken promises, lies and pretend idiologies
Fuck the warlords in Africa…..
Fuck war…..
Fuck all their wars….
And fuck war movies with hero’s, when millions die…..
WE ARE AUSTRALIANS!!!!!
We live on ancient land with an ancient culture and all the other cultures on this planet.
We have historically fought the ideal of other countries (not our own) and defended our coast only twice in wars that changed a culture and never ever threatened it. And, other than the politicians, we Australians have defended our shores with a lot of loss of live and a forgotten pain.
But, we are all still here, we are Australians.
A revolution is coming and it is not in a country we have to Google to figure out where it is, or a place we sent our young me and women to die, or the future destruction of the true ‘Australia Culture’….. which is all of us that live here today.
“The Revolutions” involves doing northing.
We are ruled by our own consent. We are taught and led by fear to:
Consume
Live in Fear
Be addicted
Separate into our separate ‘tribes’, groups, ideologies, etc etc (Please remember, one of the greatest military strategies, is to ‘divide and conquer’)
So, I have decided, all the writing I have been doing over the last few months, years, decades…. And all the plans for change, I will post.
And, I guarantee, by deciding to not, consume, be afraid, be addicted and to work with everyone, we can all again be true Australians.
So, PHASE ONE, is:
Say hello to people in the street…
Wave to people from you car…
Let that other driver in front of you…
Let that person in front of you go first in the in line…
Say please and thank you…
Smile…
Chat…
And, again I promise, I will post each week with a PHASE to get our lives as Australian back to the values that have been here for millennia , centuries and for all time that Aussies believed in a fair go.
And, no-one will ever fire a shot, sue a neighbour, be marching down the street with a sign, or do anything that is not moral or good and transparent. Because, ‘the system’ is its greatest enemy…..
We will as Australians, change our country, to where we were all equal, where 99% of the wealth is not owned by less than 1%. Where those who try, and take the time to notice, will make a difference that no-one will see coming.
But, WE HAVE TO TRY!!!!
Let us all be the good leader in the ‘survival situation’. I suspect we are approaching one. So let us look after the weak, sick, disadvantaged, lost, etc etc (whose eye contact we now avoid in the street). Or, we only ‘help’ because someone is paying us.
I’ll see you next week, and I have a doozy PHASE 2!!!!
PS: Read some of my previous blog posts to get to know me, especially the one before this one and see if you can guess PHASE 2.
PPS: I will NEVER try and sell you anything and/or ENDORSE a product or organisation for profit or money (I might do it because they/it are good, and cool, and something I like). I have had a lucky life and just want that for everyone: read that again EVERYONE!!!
PPPS: An AI reviewed my post and this is what it said………
The content of the post is focused on expressing strong emotions and opinions about war, especially in the Middle East, Ukraine, and Africa. The author emphasizes the need for unity, kindness, and a fairer society in Australia. The post encourages readers to engage in small acts of kindness and promises future updates on creating positive change. The author also mentions that they will not endorse products or organizations for profit.
The passionate tone of the post effectively conveys the author’s perspective. However, to improve the overall impact and readability of the post, consider the following actions:
1. **Organize the content**: The post could benefit from a clear introduction and logical progression of ideas. Consider restructuring the content to have a clear opening, body, and conclusion.
2. **Provide more context**: Although the author references a previous post and the concept of “The Revolutions,” it would be helpful to provide a brief explanation or link to these references for new readers.
3. **Use less explicit language**: While strong language can convey emotions effectively, excessive use can distract readers. Consider using milder language to maintain the impact without overwhelming the message.
4. **Support arguments with evidence**: To strengthen the author’s arguments about the negative consequences of war, consider incorporating data, statistics, or examples from reliable sources. This would provide a more substantial foundation for the opinions expressed.
5. **Include transitions**: Incorporating transition words and phrases would enhance the flow and coherence of the post. This would make it easier for readers to follow the author’s thoughts and connect different ideas.
6. **Add visuals**: Including relevant images or videos could enhance the visual appeal and engagement of the post. Visuals could help illustrate the author’s perspective and support their message.
Overall, the post effectively conveys the author’s passionate opinions about war and the need for unity and kindness in society. By implementing the suggested actions, the post could be enhanced to further engage readers and strengthen the persuasive impact.
Well here goes…. ….. and this is a long read….. sorry!
I haven’t had my second vaccination yet (I will not use the advertising slogan “The Jab” although I did use it in the heading of this post – hypocrisy is still one of my strong points?), however I am all booking in later this month and will be getting it.
…. someone said to me the other day, all that is happening in the world today seems a bit like a bad plot in a B Grade science fiction movie… ?
As I said in Part 1, I love movies; I also love reality TV; well not in its entirety, okay not at all, I just love ‘Survivor’. But, truely can Reality TV be anything other than real; real people put in real made up situations trying to be real? I blame the Kardashians and Paris Hilton who are real famous for being, well, real famous. And, then there is living in the real world….
In the real world, the weird real world of today, I have spent a lot of time thinking about stuff. I think about stuff I know, and then there is the stuff that I think I know; and what I see. Then I try and put this all in the perspective of my years of deducing conclusions that fit all the facts.
I tell young Detectives do all you can to try and prove the ‘offender’ innocent and when you can’t, well logically, they did it….
So, in my ‘analysis of The Jab’ I first had to get rid of some of the ‘innocent’ or unprovable theories.
… bearing this in mind, I told a ‘flat earther’ friend of mine the other day that I don’t believe the world is flat as there is more evidence that it is a sphere floating in space and a force we can’t explain called gravity keeps us all from falling off (that sounds just as silly when you write it down); But, I listened to them as their arguments were interesting. I did finish our conversation by saying, if a giant spaceship landed tomorrow and the occupants of that ship came out and said ‘Oh, by the way, you have been living on a flat earth under a big dome’ I’d walk out to the fridge in the shed, get a beer, have a sit down and say ‘fair enough’ – this doesn’t seem probable, but….?
So back to my ‘innocent’ and unprovable theories, they all seem to be flawed on two grounds.
Firstly they seem statistically unlikely, and secondly they do not have a logical purpose behind them.
Before I go on (and I believe me I am going on….!) I am going to do my best to not say ‘your should or you shouldn’t’. Religion is so full of people starting sentences with ‘you should’ and/or ‘you shouldn’t and that when for me it is not talk to the hand it is talk to the back of my head as I am walking away. So, I will do my best not to do this to you. Always remember that when religion is working for the rich, it’s fine; but, not for the poor. See, I’m not the only one with a monopoly on hypocrisy.
Back to the Detectives ‘investigationing’ (a great non-word) I started by just letting all the ‘facts’ be a mist of genuine ‘unknownness’. In the end, after asking a few very basic questions of myself, the answer seemed really simple, not sinister, just really, really sad.
I considered two main questions below which led me to the answer (and it is not 42! – that was the question remember!)
Question 1 – The Media
What of the Media (the Merchants of Misery). As said before it is probably the first time they have so obviously been in support of the Government and any of their plans. I also relates to the fact that their job has become easier; we can’t attack them for manipulation because we are all victims who prove so easily and eager to step into the experience they provide; fake, proven or otherwise it is the spectacle, the modern arena for us the slave gladiators willingly taking part; and we are sold the myth that we think we are just sitting in the stands.
Question 2 – The big Question: Why?
Well, it depends on how you are looking at this pandemic; as this view will make the question very simple or very complicated. The greatest question which answers itself about all conspiracy theories in that for most of them to be true, the extent of the conspiracy would have to be so big, what could I do about it anyway… another time to walk to the fridge get a beer, sit down and say ‘fair enough I didn’t expect that?’.
We mostly live in a democratic world, but that doesn’t really matter. Even in a democracy we really can do whatever we wish so long as we do what ‘they’ (the infamous ‘they’!) tell us to do. Remember all our ‘rulers’ democratic or not rely on our consent to rule.
Controlling the consent of ‘robots’ is easy when we have a futile fear of everything and are focused on the superficial joys of consuming, immediate gratification and the Kardashians.
The question as to ‘why’ is simple. Does it help the rich or does it help the general population? From this question you know the ‘why’ straight away and virtually what’s going to happen next.
Well, surprise we are now allowed to have freedoms that we started off with before and thought nothing of. Perhaps we are being giving something called the ‘Privilege of Greatness’ were the ‘powers to be’ rely on the supreme pleasure and gratefulness of the population on receiving small concessions so as the bigger issues are forgotten in the celebration and joy of the insubstantial gift. Viva La ‘Freedom Day’!
…. And through this smokey, misty, fact finding and intuitional detection process, it dawn on me…
The vaccines are probably safe(ish) as much as polio, rubella etc etc were/are safe in their interestingly statistically verified safeness. A sad statistic is that vaccines, even the bad ones have never hurt or killed more people than the countries that have been torn apart, the generations of hurt, guilt, regret, pain and death, that resulted from our smallest wars. So, many wars, our World Wars, Korea, Vietnam, the Gulf Wars, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan; ….. the war on drugs ….. the war on terror ….. the war on traffic fatalities ….. the war on corruption ….. the war on COVID19
Fun Fact: COVID19 is the disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus strain just like AIDS in the disease caused by the HIV Virus. Go figure this silly medical stuff?
After all, our emergency services and defence services personnel are always on the front line of these ‘wars’. It is never the generals, it’s the civilians who authorise and organise these wars who ultimately commit the worst war crimes in history.
All that has happened in this ‘Why’, has ‘political support’. Political support is a wonderful phrase as it almost always means the Governments bipartisan support from the rich and big business. Climate change for example (I think that’s a ‘war’ too) is now big business, so everything is being ‘green washed’ because that’s where the money is.
However, this is just the pilot in a really great apocalypse movie (although low on budget and special effects.
All good apocalypse movies have a sequel in the making when released. If ‘Rick’ can go from trying to steal a mates girlfriend (Love Actually) to being the reason we all hope the Zombie kill him (The Walking Dead), then anything is possible in the sequal.
I believe the why and the solution is not revolution but evolution; I can hardly wait for ‘The Jab Part 3’!!!
Really – this guy is only 0.69 !!!!
(I had actually finished the draft of this post and thought leaving it on the above ‘cliff hanger’ was like watching ‘Highway Patrol’ when the blood alcohol metre is spinning in the corner and then they go for a commercial break – then I realise how much I hated that so I can’t do it to anyone else….)
I finished my draft on the evening of the 12/11/21…. and upon realising the date was a palindrome like ‘race car’ and hannah’ and ‘glenelg’ and my favourite and applicable to this post:
“no sir panic is a basic in prison”
The words of Plato filled my head: “All in all, nothing human is worth taking very seriously, nevertheless…..”
I recommend before the sequel to keep the status quo by:
keep consuming
pay your fines and surrender you right of having ‘your day in court’ – even to just say sorry or give a good reason or to ask for a bit of leniency
watch cats on vacuum cleaners and the Kardashians and their clones
buy on line and never price compare unless it is online
watch the Media (the Merchants of Misery) even though you don’t believe them…. much.
and most of all, be afraid; in the most prosperous, safest, longest life expectancy and peaceful time in human history, ever; you just remain afraid
Remember the above strategies have ‘political support’ which is best statistically summarised by this wonderful survey in the US, which had 98% of the population supporting universal health care – this was not considered ‘political support’ so universal health care was abandoned by government – well they had to, there was no support?. Remember, we are most in danger when we have jumped out of the way of a speeding car, willingly or not, of most likely being run over by another car.
So, we will fight ‘the war on COVID19’ for as a government and us as the willing mob we all live for the sake of combatting an enemy, therefore as that is our purpose, it is in the best interests of everyone to keep the enemy alive to fulfil our purpose.
So, what, best interest?
Best interest is big business, the super rich and the implementation of the ‘three laws of robotics’ as designed by the science fiction writer Issac Asimov (by the way old Issac just came up with three robot laws and a few good books, whereas another science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard came up with an entire religion!):
First Law: A robot may not injure a human being, or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
Second Law: A robot must obey orders given it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
Third Law: A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.
Now the Why is revealed.
We have become customers for life, obeying the three laws as all good robots do.
Not truely sinister, but COVID19 (forgot all the conspiracies) has provided the opportunity for the greatest marketing, sales and future binding contracted arrangements with consumers. We, the 80-90% of the population, are now consumers of our COVID19 vaccinations, and boosters for life. We should be proud that we are part of the greatest demonstration of consumer led capitalism in the history of man, ever!
Protests in the streets, even with the best of intentions of the ‘choice argument’ will fail…. Long rambling blogs will fail……. Litigation will fail…….
I, along with 80-90% of the rest of the world have sealed deal and signed the ‘customer for life contract’.
…. and then I thought I had written enough…. and had a sleep and made the mistake of watching the News and not just publishing this post…..
13/11/21 (no palindrome – that day is gone…)
They say a week in politics or the news cycle is a long time. Well, I should have published/posted this the morning and then I wouldn’t have watched the news tonight!?
Countries with similar (or better) vaccination rates to us are going back into locked down – when the Netherlands do something like this I pay attention – they seem like reasonable people and secretly own half the world.
I hit myself in the face in front of the mirror ‘Fight Club’ style, as I again fell for the trap of attempting to use logic to solve and illogical problem.
I remembered even ‘customers for life’ need to be entertained to keep that ‘brand loyalty’…. always waiting for the new and improved models, which will have great new versions and the ever expectation and excitement of impending war.
I don’t want to be a Zombie…. I don’t want to be a conspiracy theorist….
I don’t, didn’t, want the jab…..
Plus, it shits me a bit it has a nickname – The Jab. This is serious stuff. It has been normalised by a great campaign and people rolling their sleeves and looking ‘honestly’ into the camera.
How about we ‘normalise’ all serious matters?
I hate that word ‘normalise’ almost as much as the phrase ‘the new normal’….. and another one “moving forward”….. and ‘two times’ – IT’S TWICE!!!!
How about we change all language to be trendy and woke (I hate that word too!) and start with getting rid of the word ‘rape’ and use ‘struggle snuggle’ instead, so much less harsh; change the “Make a Wish Foundations” name, as it is a bit misleading, to “Make a Wish, Except that One, Foundation”; get rid of endemic normalised sexism in our drink driving advertisements with terrible discriminatory slogans such a “Drink Drive You’re A Selfish Prick’ to ‘Drink Drive You’re a Selfish Prick and/or Bitch and/or Non-Binary Arsehole”…..??
Just saying: not a fan of ‘The Jab’ phraseology.
I’ll say, right up front, that I am a ‘doomsday prepper’.
But, I am an intellectual ‘doomsday prepper.
I watch apocalypse movies and never want for toilet paper. I yell at the screen “NO, NO, NO…. NEVER SPLIT UP!!! DIDN’T YOU WATCH EVERY HORROR MOVIE EVER MADE?!!”
I have some cans of baked beans, just in case! …. and I did once write a little pamphlet called “Ian’s Manifesto for Surviving the Apocalypse’. And, okay, I did give it to all my children…. … and, okay, the ‘manifesto’ was enclosed in their individual ‘Survival Packs’ which I gave them all for Christmas one year….. okay, I do insist that they always carry them in the back of their cars.
And, Okay, last confession: I am writing a novel called “Prepper – My Dad’s Crazy”: and I stuffed up real bad by not finishing it in 2017 when I started it. It is/was, about a Pandemic… yeah, wont be many people writing those stories in the next couple of years.
I watch the ‘Walking Dead’ and can’t believe their biggest challenge is that their hearing is terrible; they never appear to hear the snarling, growling Zombies, until they are less than a metre away.
And, my all time favourite apocalypse movies, are still, the Omega Man and Soylent Green (which is apparently next year?).
But, lately something is wrong…. no, not wrong, but weird.
I make notes during the News when I am not yelling at the TV and intently listening to the ‘local resident’ Jim Bob from Number 37 who said nothing ever happened like that before in their street and he was terrified and it is terrible and horrific and somebody should do something about it (and he obviously has no dentist or dietary plan).
So, I watch stuff, listen to stuff, listen to people and broadcasts and statistics and reassurances from everyone…. including, remarkably the Media (the ‘Merchants of Misery’). When they are on the same side as the Government that really worries me?
And… it’s on the tip of my mind; the face you can see, but can’t remember the name; the place you left your car keys and can’t quite remember where, that sense of ‘deja vue’ about something that hasn’t happened yet; the phone ringing and the person you were just thinking about being the one calling…..
I am certain I right; if I could only think what is was…..
Hopefully, ‘The Jab (Part 2)’ will have the answer.
All the news is bad and I watch too many Zombie apocalypse movies… but, over the last few years a truck just ran through a crowd in France killing people (I was going to say including women and children but aren’t all lives valued the same – probably not?), a car in Melbourne did the same… and man with a knife etc etc etc….. (Just a little fun fact about a few people dying from terrorists and a few crazies…. anyone remember the 2004 Boxing Day Tsunami which killed over 240,000 people in 14 countries….. can’t stop that one with a taser and a trolly!)
I don’t think there is a great likelihood of there being a Zombie apocalypse or evil virus designed to wipe out the human race – but, I am sure there is some sort of war going on against us – and I mean all of us. Plus, danger appears to be everywhere.
I am angry that the world is becoming (or is it just appearing to be…) such an unsafe and dangerous place, for us all to live in. I write posts, I espouse threats, theories and rhetoric in the pub every chance I get, I like Facebook post that are angry, and I get angry at the News (even though I have vowed to stop watching the it!)
But…. the big ‘but’ here is that I can do something about it; the other ‘but’ is I must decide what it is I am going to do – I have to have a plan. So:
I can decide to make a real difference, which would entail me dedicating my life to righting all these wrongs and really doing something about it. I can join a lobby, protest and/or militant group to fight back. I can run for politics and stand up. I must be dedicated and fight with all I have, I mean everything – all else in my life must become secondary – to not do this just makes me another keyboard or pub warrior not making a difference but just making a noise….or
I can do what I can and try and live my life the best I can. What is doing what I can. First of all it is stop talking and start doing, start paying attention to all the things I see in the world that make me crazy and start realising that it doesn’t all really mean anything until it happens to me, in my life, at my doorstep, to my family, to my friends (only close friends mind you!) – and, most of all be prepared (just like a Boy Scout).
I can do nothing.
Interlude: I got a little excited being a dooms dayer and realise I actually don’t really think this way all that much anymore…. this is one of my ‘draft posts‘ that I started after the truck ran through the crowd in France. I was angry that anyone would do this…. and I was angry that this truck travelled over a kilometre and was crashing into cars, buildings, posts (and people) and still, people at the 900 metre mark were run over by SURPRISE (!) when the truck came up behind them. I was angry at them for dying. I was angry for them dying so badly. Yeah, the first few hundred metres you can expect that people were unexpecting…. but hundreds of metres later, with crashing and screaming and dying…. people were still oblivious to a truck smashing down a pedestrian walkway towards them – even if it was from behind…. I actually wonder how many died looking at their phones trying to start their video app so they could capture whatever was happening…. I think they just died badly… and worse…. oblivious and without really putting up a fight!
Interlude II : I do feel sorry for all the people who have died in these terrible violent incidents we seem to be plagued with in our modern world…. but, just to put all that into perspective we ARE – read the following as a fact; you can research it and find I am right even if the media (the Merchants of Misery) don’t want you to think it…. we ARE living in the SAFEST, MOST PROSPEROUS, HEALTHIEST, period in human history – not just recent times, or centuries, but EVER! (CLICK HERE for a good article about the statistics involved). So why are we all so afraid and convinced the world in on the brink of apocalypse….?
So where was I before the interlude(s)…..
I was going to attempt to survive the apocalypse, although it is unlikely it will happen, I still would not like to die oblivious and wearing my life jacket when the ship sinks.
Some years ago two of our children were involved in serious ‘survival’ situations that they were lucky to get out of, relatively unscathed….. I thought, I am the doomsday prepper from way back, yet could not help my children when they needed me the most. Why? Because I wasn’t there and I had always planned on talking to them about ‘survival situations’ tomorrow…. well that day came, and guess what? It caught us all by surprise!
So the next Christmas I gave the all the kids ‘survival packs’ for their cars… Yes, I know it sounds crazy and paranoid, but they all carry them in their cars – and they love them, and they show their friends.
The packs have first aid, a few space blankets, some tools etc etc – the content is not really as important as the message. …. and as a matter of fact the packs do contain a message in the form of the “Survival Manifesto”. This is a short document which is the most important survival ‘tool’ in the pack. It is a really simple message of staying alive when things go wrong by following the “Four Rules of Survival’:
I have noticed that when I ask people what is the first rule of survival, nobody gets it.
We often think of all those wonderful tips and tricks on the TV about survival, like building a fire, finding shelter, finding water etc etc – most of which most of us can’t really do in real life, in the real bush, in a real survival situation.
The one thing we never think about is not getting in that situation in the first place.
Now of course, this doesn’t help in surviving the apocalypse – because I am sure when it comes, the apocalypse that is, it will be beyond our control…. but most things in our day to day lives, even in those little moments which change the course of our lives, often, all we have to do is take a moment and think…. is this really a good idea?
Both situations involving my children could have been avoided, or at the very least minimised, if the first and perhaps the second rule of survival had been followed….
Also, survival as you can see is not about being able to build a hut from your boot laces and a mars bar wrapper – it is more about what is going on inside your head.
I know one thing. The giving of the ‘eye rolling’ gift of the survival packs to my children and the highlighting of the above four rules make my kids, and me, and perhaps even you now that you have read this, more likely to survive ‘that situation’ (or perhaps even avoid it) than the vast majority of the world, who not only die, but unfortunately die badly and dumb.
I might write a few more articles about surviving the apocalypse from the ‘manifesto’ – but then again when times get tough, food is scarce and the shit has hit the fan, perhaps if there were less of us it would be easier…..
PS: Statistically….. if it is ‘every man for themselves’ usually 90 to 100% of people die – yet when everyone works together 90 to 100% survive….. can anyone guess what we humans do in 90% of survival situations……? (I didn’t make this up and if you are interested a great book to read about historical survival situations is: “No Mercy – True Stories of Disaster, Survival and Brutality” by Eleanor Learmonth and Jenny Tabakoff)
I actually have a pre-occupation with death – because it is the one inevitability, yet we fill our lives worrying about shit – and buying shit….
I actually wish you were all dead.
Yes, really dead…. and then by some miracle you got to come back.
Would it be at this point that you realised that prior to your death, your temporary death, that just because you lived as if you were immortal, you were not and death was real – the end – no more…. well, would you then do things differently. Fuck I would.
Firstly, I would delete every arsehole from my life – for some of you that may be me! Secondly, I would sell everything I owned that I worked ‘all my life’ to get, as there is no point – no trailers on a hearse! Thirdly, I would spend every minute with the ones I love, telling them that I love them – if they wouldn’t stop to talk, or catch up for a coffee or have a drink – as they were too busy, I would write them a letter, send them a card; something they could hold and feel. Fourthly, I would go and look at stuff that was interesting, beautiful, spiritual… and travel, chat with people about their lives, share a meal, fuck I’d buy it for them, I sold all my worthless shit, I am rich for a while! Plus, I’d send post cards back to all the people I love – post cards were good, now we just post shit on ShitBook and get likes from people that don’t like that we are travelling and they are working to buy shit for when they die.
Then if that took a day, a year or the rest of my life, which it would – then on that last day, when I spend that last dollar of my allocated time – I could say it wasn’t a waste, it was worthwhile, it was meaningful – and everyone would have good post cards to remember me by.
So, how come I write this … and I reassure you I haven’t been dead and come back to life … well, why write this?
I think it is because only a very few of us actually do…. not die and come back, but do what we really want – what is good in life… the reason is that the rest of us don’t really think we are going to die, until we do. Then of course it is too late.
The funny part about this is when it is someone else who dies, we are also a bit surprised, sometimes. And we think how much we miss them, and all the things we should have said, or apologised for, or all the times we almost caught up and cancelled for an urgent and unexpected work emergency… then we just go on living and are glad we are still alive and live tomorrow just like yesterday. Fuck we are all gutless.
If you are really into ‘self help’ you probably recently read ‘The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck’ – I have spoken to a few people who have and they all seem to have forgotten a major point of the book is not about not giving a fuck but about giving a fuck about the right things. A great example of this is Henry Bukowski; in the book he is put up as a hero / anti-hero and as you can see from his tombstone, he really didn’t give a fuck – which is not really what the book is about.
The point?
Old Henry really did what he wanted to – if you want a moment in the surreal, read a few of Henry’s poems or stories – he was one fucked up dude who didn’t give a fuck, and was proud of it.
I’m not saying I want to be Henry, but shit I admire him (much like most of the Australian population admire Ned Kelly and he was a thieving, horse stealing cop murderer who deserved to hang!) – but although Henry was a drunken prick at least he was funny right to the end. (I have included one of my favourite poems at the of this post….).
Henry, thought about death a lot and realised his life was a big pile of shit, so treated it with the contempt that it, and he deserved….. most of our lives are not like that – and there are a whole lot of people in the world who are much, much worse off than most of us – and even if you are one of them, you appear happier than most of us.
I know it will be a surprise when I die, because I wont think it will be that day; fuck it wasn’t even in my diary. I used to have a mate who used to say (in jest, as he is still here annoying me…) “My life is shit…. I’m going to kill myself… Oh fuck, I just don’t have the time….!” Maybe, we all don’t have the time to actually live. let alone die.
So, that is my depressing (for you maybe, but, I am quite proud of myself…) post for today.
So, why?
Well, because today I saw a man who was looking the grim reaper in the eye, and he was shit scared – bet he never woke up this morning expecting that…..
Death of an idiot – by Henry Bukowski
he spoke to mice and sparrows
and his hair was white at the age of 16.
his father beat him every day and his mother
lit candles in the church.
his grandmother came while the boy slept
and prayed for the devil to let loose his hold upon
him
while his mother listened and cried over the
bible.
he didn’t seem to notice young girls
he didn’t seem to notice the games boys played
there wasn’t much he seemed to notice
he just didn’t seem interested.
he had a very large, ugly mouth and the teeth
stuck out
and his eyes were small and lusterless.
his shoulders were slumped and his back was bent
like an old man’s.
he lived in our neighborhood.
we talked about him when we got bored and then
went on to more interesting things.
he seldom left his house. we would have liked to
torture him
but his father
who was a huge and terrible man
tortured him for
us.
one day the boy died. at 17 he was still a
boy. a death in a small neighborhood is noted with
alacrity, and then forgotten 3 or 4 days
later.
but the death of this boy seemed to stay with us
all. we kept talking about it
in our boy-men’s voices
at 6 p.m. just before dark
just before dinner.
and whenever I drive through that neighborhood now
decades later
I still think of his death
while having forgotten all the other deaths
and everything else that happened
then.
If you eat meat and don’t vote for (insert who you vote for here ____________ ) then you are wrong…..
Today I was having two discussions on Facebook about veganism and politics – both of which I care little about… however, the supplying of information, unsolicited, from both camps of course encouraged me to be adversarial, research both topics (in the opposite of course) and bait both ‘information’ providers…. why?
Because as always stated politics and religion (and diet) should not be discussed in polite coffee shop and/or dinner party conversation, as this adage I have paraphrased and bastardised sort of goes. And why is this so. Because, for me, I don’t care what you think or eat, just don’t preach it to me.
I rambled of a few quotes this morning which I ‘cherry picked’ from a very calculating series of Google searches, all of which started with “the opposite argument to….” – of course I got 1000’s of hits – as well as a very convincing video of the flat earth theory by the ‘Flat Earth Society’ (it looked pretty creditable actually…..?)
It is also very interesting in these sort of debates …. say that with an accent and it can be pronounced from my perspective as “da-baits” ….. because I can listen all day to the ramblings of a true believer (a skilled learned from being dragged to Church every Sunday morning during my childhood) as it gives me time to think about other things…. until their constant drone appears to be punctuated with one word that wears me down and signifies the true sport of antagonising the true believer is about to begin…. that word is “YOU”.
Okay what do I mean.
Simple.
Ibelieve in God – versus – You should believe in God.
Okay, I can listen to your ramblings and have no problem with your beliefs – you can believe in the God Zot, from the planet Zing which requires that you put on a tin foil hat 3 times a day and pray facing the home world – but don’t try and sell it to me. It is okay to tell me about it, to tell me about YOUR beliefs, so don’t wreck a good and amusing story, or the continued demonstrated perseverance of childhood conditioning, or peer pressure, or ideological blindness, that has helped you form your belief; but don’t, never, ever, ever, say “You should….” for that sort of missionary position (sorry had to use that phrase) is the beginning of ‘da-bait’ and you cast it, so lets have some fun – well for me anyway.
All this is a bit cruel – for you and me – mainly me; as it doesn’t make me a better man….
I, yes I, will try and do better. I will pray to ZOT for guidance.
PS: Apologies there were no pictures on this post, but I wanted to have a post that didn’t have pictures to see how many would take the time to read to the end and then share this post with others……. hang on, I think I have seen this written somewhere before, I didn’t share it and didn’t receive any good luck (but, I am currently negotiating with a very nice man who through a Government accounting error has received millions of dollars to……but, that is another story for another post) – I will pray to ZOT, who works in mysterious ways.
So often in life when things are good or things are bad we are reminded of, or usually told by that wise arse friend some meaningful quote to either make us feel better, or often worse. I personally love quotes as they mean two things to me:
Smarter people than me have been in the same situation and survived.
There are often few words which can explain complex feelings, people or situations.
I think point two is mostly lost in that the ‘quotes’ our parents said to us were corny and usually involved some life lesson that we weren’t ready for or mostly did not understand.
“count to ten when you are angry”
“a stitch in time saves nine”
“a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush”
Oh God, the wisdom of our parents can be found, in later life, just when you realise that you did completely the opposite and fucked things up.
But, the real reason I love quotes is that smarter people have been where I am heading, or just been, or plan to go. Einstein has many quotes which have been my mantras for years – all duly disregarded until after the fact and I repeat them to myself and say “Einstein warned you of this…. and you did it again.”
One quote which has stuck with me for years is:
“Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.”
I have always loved this quote and espoused it to anyone who would listen, and even those who wouldn’t – why I continued to repeat my mistakes over and over again…. Which in itself indicates to me I am not as smart as I thought I was. (I love the Einstein quote when he was asked what it was like to be the smartest man in the world and he said “I don’t know ask Nicola Tesla.” – even really smart people know there are people smarter than them!)
But, what prompted this little rant this morning is the quote:
“Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.”
I suppose somehow over the last couple of years this has become a realisation to me. Things that really counted to me, couldn’t be counted – but, I was counting everything else to gauge my success, wealth and happiness.
I want to think more like Einstein – not in solving the secrets of the universe but in “Not trying to be become a man of success, but by trying to become a man of value – a better man” (bastardised Einstein quote!).
I do have a quotes section on my blog page – but can’t remember the last time I updated it – probably because profound quotes are not the way we think daily but only when giving a speech or when things turn to shit – and as said above it’s usually some smart arse just taking the piss. Maybe quotes that truely guide our lives should become more of our lives – instead of tattoos of Chinese symbols for love and faith we should have quotes tattooed upon us to remind us, forever, that good choices are actually choices….
So I thought I should finish off with a list of Einstein quotes, and hope that you find something in them for you – or at least throw one in your kids face next time they stuff up.
1. “The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing.”
2. “Weakness of attitude becomes weakness of character.”
3. “Truth is what stands the test of experience.”
4. “The only source of knowledge is experience.”
5. “Any man who reads too much and uses his own brain too little falls into lazy habits of thinking.”
6. “There comes a time when the mind takes a higher plane of knowledge but can never prove how it got there.”
7. “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
8. “Human beings must have action; and they will make it if they cannot find it.”
9. “Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school.”
10. “Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning.”
11. “Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.”
12. “I think and think for months and years. Ninety-nine times, the conclusion is false. The hundredth time I am right.”
13. “Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile.”
14. “Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life’s coming attractions.”
15. “The most incomprehensible thing about the world is that it is comprehensible.”
16. “To raise new questions, new possibilities, to regard old problems from a new angle, requires creative imagination and marks real advance in science.”
17. “Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.”
18. “Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding.”
19. Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving.”
20. “Small is the number of people who see with their eyes and think with their minds.”
21. “There are two ways to live: you can live as if nothing is a miracle; you can live as if everything is a miracle.”
22. “Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds. The mediocre mind is incapable of understanding the man who refuses to bow blindly to conventional prejudices and chooses instead to express his opinions courageously and honestly.”
23. “The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion that stands at the cradle of true art and true science.”
24. “The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits.”
25. “Information is not knowledge.”
26. “It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge.”
27. “Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world, stimulating progress, giving birth to evolution.”
28. “Without deep reflection one knows from daily life that one exists for other people.”
29. “Try not to become a man of success, but rather try to become a man of value.”
30. “All that is valuable in human society depends upon the opportunity for development accorded the individual.”
31. “No amount of experimentation can ever prove me right; a single experiment can prove me wrong.”
32. “If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.”
33. “You ask me if I keep a notebook to record my great ideas. I’ve only ever had one.”
34. “The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination.”
35. “Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”
36. “I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious.”
37. “It’s not that I’m so smart, it’s just that I stay with problems longer.”
38. “The only way to escape the corruptible effect of praise is to go on working.”
39. “The monotony and solitude of a quiet life stimulates the creative mind.”
40. “Pure mathematics is, in its way, the poetry of logical ideas.”
41. “Sometimes one pays most for the things one gets for nothing.”
42. “A man should look for what is, and not for what he thinks should be.”
43. “Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I’n not sure about the universe.”
44. “Few people are capable of expressing with equanimity opinions which differ from the prejudices of their social environment. Most people are even incapable of forming such opinions.”
45. “In order to form an immaculate member of a flock of sheep one must, above all, be a sheep.”
46. “The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources.”
47. “We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.”
48. “I never think of the future. It comes soon enough.”
49. “The value of a man should be seen in what he gives and not in what he is able to receive.”
50. “Most teachers waste their time by asking questions that are intended to discover what a pupil does not know, whereas the true art of questioning is to discover what the pupil does know or is capable of knowing.”
51. “As a human being, one has been endowed with just enough intelligence to be able to see clearly how utterly inadequate that intelligence is when confronted with what exists.”
52. “Once we accept our limits, we go beyond them.”
53. “I very rarely think in words at all. A thought comes, and I may try to express it in words afterwards.”
54. “Memory is deceptive because it is colored by today’s events.”
55. “Whoever is careless with the truth in small matters cannot be trusted with important matters.”
(I put this last quote picture at the bottom because only older people have the inclination or the perception of time well spent to learn something new the old way – through perseverance ….. )
