Text by Dartwill Aquila
Leaders lead or guide. Rulers control.
Leaders take us where we want to go.
Rulers force us to enhance their wealth and power.
We are on the way to environmental catastrophe.
Who is leading us to a sustainable existence?
We are on the way to ever greater inequality.
Who is leading us toward justice?
We are on the way to ever more conflicts, wars, death and destruction.
Who is leading us toward peace?
We are on the way to increased division and hate.
Who is leading us toward solidarity and love?
We are on the way to hell and extinction.
Who is leading us to the smiling garden of the future.
When we can’t find any leaders, we must find our way ourselves.
We are sure to meet many leaders along the way.
We may even find many people behind us,
being lead.
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Official stamp of The Council of the Universe
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Help is not on the way.
(… repeat …)
Help is not on the way.
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“In case you haven’t noticed,
we are now almost as feared and hated all over the world as the Nazis were.”
Kurt Vonnegut in These Times, 6 Aug 2004
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The Kiss List (above) has been updated with two people, the writer Paul Craig Roberts and the singer David Rovics. Make new friends!
Two words we should avoid.
1. Leader
The people at the controls of society are not our leaders. The are drivers, suppressors, thieves, liars and war mongers. They are not our leaders. They are rulers. Calling them leaders supports them.
2. We
When speaking of the policies and actions of the rulers avoid the word we. The actions of the governments are always done in our name simply because we are living under their rule. We must do this and we must do that and we must cut back services and we have to support the bankers and etc. etc. etc.
It’s we and them, Dorothy, and We don’t want to be part of Them’s (sic) doings.
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“Small words can make a big difference.”
Dartwill Aquila
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This picture and several others can be purchased in different forms from Society6 http://society6.com/fanteliusdartwill/prints
We’ve all read accounts of how we have arrived at the present state of affairs. Some trace the sources that have formed the prevailing conditions to recent events. The bombing of the skyscrapers in NYC is a popular kickoff point. Some go back to the followup after W.W.II or as far back as the birth of capitalism, whenever that was.
Shakespeare speaks of the arrogance of wealth and position, oppression, bureaucracy, corruption, injustice and bribery through the mouth of Hamlet in the famous ”To Be Or Not To Be” soliloquy. He could be speaking of our times.
The ancient Greeks spoke of how laws were like spider webs catching small insects where the big ones flew right threw them. They were, of course, speaking of those too big to fail or jail.
The Biggest Picture
These times conclude a process that began over 10 thousand years ago when we broke away from the hunter-gatherer system of existence to begin an agricultural way of life. We broke away from the social structure that had evolved our brains during more than a million years and was consolidated during the first 200,000 years of Homo sapiens tribal life. We started to live as individuals with private property, but still carried a social brain geared to (tribal) communal living. We still carry this communal brain.
We recently broke away from the agricultural way of life and now live in civilian society where each individual produces as part of a global machinery. With our new social structure and the power of electricity and electronic technology we increase our influence on the earth and each other immeasurably.
Ten thousands years of private property and hierarchal social life has formed deep patterns of thought wrapped in strong cultural traditions. Our biology however is still geared to community life. We can’t change our biology to conform to the society of the prevailing order. We can however change society to conform to our biology.
Survival demands that we trust the biology of our minds and adapt to the new tribe of the global village. The clan of humanity is the only force that can stop the disastrous course of development we travel, and start turning the earth into a garden of peace, health and smiles.
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“It can be proven
mathematically, biologically, religiously and historically
that we all belong to the same family.
But until it is felt, nothing is proven.”
Dartwill Aquila
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History is definitely pregnant and humanity may not be part of the new world.
Call it the end game, the Apocalypse, Ragnarok or simply the struggle for survival. The battle is in progress. We, the people, either change the trajectory of developments or go extinct. We will die out unless we stop and bring down the prevailing world order and build one dedicated to the welfare of people in harmony with nature. We will die out. Every last one of us. Every last example of Homo sapiens. In ten thousand years not a trace of humans or the structures they built will be seen on the surface of the earth.
The ignorance, blindness or reluctance to see this obvious conclusion to the present course of events enhances the chances that it will occur. Extinction cannot be avoided by denying its possibility. Many people try to brush aside the dangers we face by sneering at the prospects and the messengers who sound the alarms. Doom-and-gloom they call the apocalyptic scenario, proud of the catchy phrase they use to belittle the arguments of impending world chaos and historical destruction.
Doom-and-gloom is already the reality of daily life for 100s of millions of people today. Doom-and-gloom is for the rulers of the present order and the cowards who cling to established norms and traditional structures. For those of us who refuse to accept business as usual; who rage at the forces of greed; who are disgusted by the indifference to the lives of ordinary people; who are humiliated by the widespread hypocrisy, corruption and injustice; who hear the call of another world, a nobler existence, it’s not a question of gloom-and-doom, but of serious-and-glorious. This is the battle that must be fought. This is the battle for truth, beauty, justice, mercy and love. And survival.
The battle is in progress. It will be fought with or without you. It will, however, not be won without you.
Give me your hand. Let’s unite our souls. Let’s go!
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“There’s a greater possibility of stopping bullets with words
than of stopping words with bullets.”
Dartwill Aquila
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Mumia Abu-Jamal is listed on our Kiss List above. I don’t know what we can do to stop the torture of Mumia and his family, but I’m sure Mumia would like you to listen to what he has to say.
[4/3 UPDATE: Abu-Jamal has reportedly been moved by the Dept. of Prisons back to SCI-Mahoney’s infirmary, where there is no specialist on diabetes, despite his apparently still being in an acute health crisis. Sigificantly, his supporters note that this shift makes it even more difficult for family members, supporters and reporters to monitor his treatment and condition.To help Mumia immediate action must be taken. You can help by Calling Pennsylvanian Department of Correction Director of Health Care Services Richard Ellers at 717-728-5311 (rellers@pa.gov) and express your concern for Mumia’s medical treatment. You can also call SCI Mahoney Pennsylvanian Department of Correction Superintendent John Kereste at 570-773-2158, to express your concern. Take action now to help save Mumia’s life!]
Pennsylvania’s Prison System is Torturing Mumia Abu-Jamal and His Family Too
Mumia Abu-Jamal, the radical Philadelphia journalist convicted of killing…
View original post 1,178 more words
Base of handle on Thor’s hammer.
Text by Dartwill Aquila
Between May 1, 2013 and April 4th, 2015 there were 2,181 people killed by police officers in the United States. That works out to around 95 per month or 3 police action fatalities per day. (Brian Lynch, OpEdNews, April 12, 2015)
Although Blacks are disproportionately victims of cop killings, nearly half the victims are Caucasians. American cops must be superior marksmen compared to their European contemporaries because they bullet more people in a month than EU-cops manage in a year.
The increase in Black fatalities has been dramatic under Obama’s reign. Can their be a connection? If so, American women should start buying bullet proof vests. The next puppet-in-chief is likely to be female.
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It requires no more strength to pull a trigger than to lift a frying pan.”
Dartwill Aquila
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Circumstances tell us that awareness of the Holocaust is dangerous. The people who are most knowledgeable and concerned about this horrific industrial murder based on religious ethnicity belong to the most genocidal people in the world. They persistently shout about a need to learn from the Holocaust but demonstrate that they have learned nothing. Why should we bother?
Fuck the Holocaust. Let’s deal with today’s crimes, horrors and atrocities. History holds more than many examples of massive and deadly crimes. These examples haven’t prevented the mass murders and atrocities of today or stopped those in process. History is at best a tool with which we can find clues to help solve the problems of the day. Aside from that, properly presented, history makes for a good read.
We can also witness that the country with the most (14) Holocaust museums, films, books, reports, TV-programs and coverage of the Holocaust in general, has killed and is killing more people than any other country in the world.
Forget the Holocaust! Awareness of it appears to have a negative influence on people.
In many countries, it’s a crime to deny or even question the official version of the Holocaust. Belief, in this case, constitutes a crime. Anyone claiming to believe that the Holocaust didn’t actually occur, or occurred on a much smaller scale than official figures claim, is considered worthy of a prison cell.
It’s not a crime to believe that the world is flat, or that evolution is a false theory, or to deny that human endeavors have produced climate change. Personally, I BELIEVE that denying evolution has potentially greater harmful consequences for humanity than denying the Holocaust.
Forget the Holocaust. Next time someone brings it up, unlock the safety on your (verbal) weapon and take aim.
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(Yesterday’s post was an April fool story.)
“Good questions teach.”
Dartwill Aquila
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Guidance Counselor Mary-Lou Lagecci of East Stranton High School in Allenstown, Pennsylvania has been reprimanded by the School Board of Allenstown for refusing to help Patricia Logenfield inquiring about a career in pornography.
Patricia and her parents complained to school officials through their lawyer, Mr. Dosin, who explain that counselors give council, they don’t prescribe judgment. Patricia was seeking a career in a legitimate profession. It was not Ms. Lagecci’s role to praise or condemn career choices, but to explain the available paths to achieving the desired occupation.
Donald Logenfield, Patricia’s father, was not tolerant of Ms. Lagecci’s attempt to steer his daughter toward jobs with doubtful employment possibilities or those with poor pay. His daughter was encouraged to avoid good chances for well-paid employment.
The School Board agreed with the Logfields that any requests to achieve a place in the labor market with good earning prospects should be supported. ”Our job is not to produce unemployment,” said School Director Cartland.
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“Judging by the amount of corrupt officials,
corruption must be a major course at many colleges.”
Dartwill Aquila
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Barbara Tuchman, one of the most celebrated American historians of the 1900s, showed in The March of Folly that governments—from ancient Greece to our times—implement policies that seriously damage their own interests. What is more, they do this in spite of available alternatives.
Unfortunately, most people believe that today’s governments act or will act rationally, or at the least not act in a way that harms their own interests. History says that that is a naive belief. Even more unfortunately, the folly of governments strikes the citizens as severely as the fools in control.
The first Christians, who I like to refer to as raw Christians, recognized the foolishness and irrationality of the Roman rulers and turned their backs on the empire. They took responsibility for their own well-being. They grew in rational concern for each other and for the people around them as the empire crumbled – pursuing foolish policies.
Sometimes the most foolish policy of all is the one that does nothing.
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“Waiting for rich rulers to take care of your poor life?
Why not try convincing the owl to become a vegetarian while you’re waiting?”
Dartwill Aquila
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System Humanity 