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Look around America, at our sci-fi dystopia
It seems like all the counter-cultural online intellectual-types of a few years ago have lately been singing the praises of an unlikely literary hero, a military analyst named John Robb who has been authoring a TypePad brand blog on global security and terrorism for quite a few years.
With richly descriptive passages such as this, I can easily see why:
Security will become a function of where you live and whom you work for, much as health care is allocated already. Wealthy individuals and multinational corporations will be the first to bail out of our collective system, opting instead to hire private military companies, such as Blackwater and Triple Canopy, to protect their homes and facilities and establish a protective perimeter around daily life. Parallel transportation networks–evolving out of the time-share aircraft companies such as Warren Buffett’s NetJets–will cater to this group, leapfrogging its members from one secure, well-appointed lily pad to the next. Members of the middle class will follow, taking matters into their own hands by forming suburban collectives to share the costs of security–as they do now with education–and shore up delivery of critical services. These “armored suburbs” will deploy and maintain backup generators and communications links; they will be patrolled by civilian police auxiliaries that have received corporate training and boast their own state-of-the-art emergency-response systems. As for those without the means to build their own defense, they will have to make do with the remains of the national system. They will gravitate to America’s cities, where they will be subject to ubiquitous surveillance and marginal or nonexistent services. For the poor, there will be no other refuge.
Robb’s writing echoes the dystopian science-fiction coming out in the mid-1980’s, except now it’s being written as statements of fact instead of fiction. This must be why the counter-cultural types like me are reading him these days: we like having our minds blown. We used to have to sit around and dream up fantastical possibilities to entertain our imaginations with, now all we have to do is look around.
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November 12th, 2008 at 6:59 pm
Dystopian sci-fi future or a fair description of the wild west? Methinks everything old is new again.
November 12th, 2008 at 7:18 pm
Steampunk. It’s all a matter of metaphors. Which you choose determine what descriptions you create, what thematic experience you have of real-life events as they are truly happening.
November 13th, 2008 at 11:19 am
Its not fact. Its a kind of morbid conceptualizing. Reading him is about being invited into his nightmare. Its propaganda.
The foundation of this dystopian nightmare is a materialistic worldview. There is no spiritual element. People are animals, animals are mechanical…. everything follows natural law like a machine.
These are the assumptions.
I look at the world from a spiritual paradigm. There is a Spiritual battle being waged and this vision is what will occur if the negative elements win.
November 13th, 2008 at 11:29 am
I know you have this aversion to the illuminati being mentioned, but todays post when I click on it, describes how they operate. Robb’s propaganda, though, is pointing the reader away from where the Worlds real successful guerillas operate, In the US and Europe.
Plus there is this whole assumption is that the War on Terror is legit and that Al Quieda dropped the three buildings, with their suicide bombers with expert flying skills instead of controlled demolition from the inside.
But anyway, yeah its true successful Guerillas need cash flow, which the illuminati gets through drug dealing, arms dealing and the sex trade.
Probably though this is a matter of spiritual discernment and not IQ.
Its not something that can be forced on others. You, for whatever reason simply can’t see what is going on.
But don’t say that its just a matter of me being negative whereas you are positive.
You are seeing dystopia coming you just can’t see the source.
November 13th, 2008 at 11:36 am
I just read the whole NOV 13 article and its exactly how the illuminati operates.
Networking is a huge part of it. But its a network of people that all resonate spiritually on the same frequency. Its a Luciferian frequency.
November 13th, 2008 at 12:32 pm
And
The same thing is true of you or of any writer.
I really don’t think so. The foundation of the nightmare is behavioral, people making short-sighted self-serving decisions.
Robb is definitely a firm pro-USA propaganda writer, don’t get me wrong. But he’s a damn good one and as a sailor, you most assuredly have to look at which way the wind is blowing.
I disagree with Robb’s recent talk on eliminating temporary autonomous zones which spring up. It seems to run counter to his whole resilient community thing. Alternative solutions need to be encouraged and allowed to flourish on their own and to do so, they will have to be allowed a certain measure of autonomy outside state control. Likely that will happen whether we want it to or not: I think that’s the brunt of Robb’s argument.
Totally true, you have to read any author knowing what their biases and background are. You also have to look at what audience he’s catering towards and how he has positioned himself from a business perspective. That said, I can read and appreciate his point of view, without necessarily accepting as fact all of the assumptions which underly it.
I’m getting really tired of you making this kinds of statements about who I am, what I’m doing and what I’m capable of. I find it below the level of civil discourse, needlessly cutting and childish. If you want to continue our discussions here, which I do, I’ll have to ask that you leave the barbs and jabs at the doorstep. I have no time or interest in leafing through your statements for personal attacks.
I’ve seen you make a lot of similar statements lately and recently tried to engage you on the religion subject. I guess I see you using a lot of spiritual arguments, and even quasi-Christian arguments, but I never see you mention God, Jesus or anything similar. Just what, exactly, is the nature of your spirituality? What rules of living are you operating under which you believe offer positive beneficial alternatives to the dominant paradigm? In other words, why should I believe you when you say such and such is a spiritual matter and accuse me of being a materialist again and again?
November 13th, 2008 at 12:44 pm
And it’s perhaps better to choose your metaphors than to have your metaphors choose you!
November 13th, 2008 at 4:01 pm
Don’t want to throw gasoline on a fire here, but I’m a bit confused:
First of all, the paradigm of a Spiritual Battle is the same an any other paradigm: a mechanistic system for making sense of the world. Paradigms are simply predictive frameworks for anticipating and preparing for potential future situations.
Secondly, in my mind, that first statement is completely contradicted by this following one:
Materialism and non-spirituality are Ahrimanic traits, per my understanding of the symbol system being used here. Luciferianism, on the other hand, is the complete opposite, a spiritual and highly abstracted take on things (i.e: the Illuminati, as Ted uses the term). I’ve thought Lucifer/Ahriman as a sort of dark side to Nietzsche’s Apollonian and Dionysian dichotomy.
So we’re talking materialism versus spirituality here. But it seems from these statements that the conspiracy we’re fighting is being run by both sides. Which makes the breakdown of Ahrimanic and Luciferian completely useless. If we cannot come to an understanding of what these conspirators stand for, then how do we know in what ways we should be fighting them?
I hate how all conspiracy theory comes down to pointing fingers at “elites” and explaining “how things are run” without offering any solutions… If that’s how things are, than what do we do about? Write to our representatives? Run for office ourselves? Overthrow the system in a bloody revolution?
I see no use in simply pointing out how bad things are. In my mind it only serves to demoralize us, giving us more depressing weight to carry around. That’s fine if you’re looking to overload your ego to the point of implosion under the stress of how bad things are, but that’s a shitty way to reach gnosis in my opinion, something akin to a spiritual auto-erotic asphyxiation…
I think we’re better off finding solutions, not just pointing out more problems. My own solution would be something along the lines of the Grant Morrison quote I mentioned yesterday: Violent optimism. Lustful striving after wisdom and compassion. Morality as a results-based economic system. Actual contentment as an attainable goal in this lifetime. Find a way to show people these things are a possibility and you completely pull the rug out from under the conspiracy.
Plus you get the added bonus of ending up happy, rather than depressed.
November 14th, 2008 at 12:49 am
That’s exactly why it should be studied and discussed. One of the back alleys of conspiracy I went down recently (Probably Mr. Delooze) suggested that what “They” want is to create Golems. But, not artificially using meat salvaged from a graveyard. The real prize would be to turn living people into Golems, not zombies. Spiritually empty flesh, not just slaves.
I think Tim’s right about you being a little insulting today. You are extra decisive and therefore value discussions that end in a decision. Tim seems to be trying to just throw things out there and see what results. You seem to be clashing because you’re taking things Tim says as things that require a decision to be made.
No decision about the illuminati is permanently true. I may oppose the illuminati and wind up opposing a member who is trying to destroy it from within. I may group together with like minded people and be led by someone who is an infiltrator to anti-illuminati groups. Something as big as the illuminati really can’t be comprehended so a definite decision can only be temporary. We just have to follow the truth where it leads.
November 14th, 2008 at 10:26 am
Well, I agree , Julia, about the Golem thing.
Civility is great, also genuine emotion and honesty is good too.
Often people say they “aren’t sure about something” or “simply don’t know”
when really they are lying. Like for example 9/11. Like for example a person could be pretty sure that 9/11 was an inside job, meaning perpetrated by elite elements within the US, but for whatever reason, they decide they don’t want to say that.
It could be they fear retribuition. It could be they fear they will be percieved as “loony”
It could be that they want to make money as a mainstream media person and fear that coming clean on how they feel, will put them in a fringe group and cut off their revenue.
Or maybe they really don’t know. Maybe they are congenitally unable to come to grips with harsh realities of life and so leave the question permanently open ended and never plan to nail it down.
But anyway, all this is co-operation with the purposes the psychological warfare was perpetrated on the World to begin with.
So this means evil, has gotten inside your brain like a virus, and is replicating itself using your mouth.
There are myriad lies like this in our consensual reality. If something is false you should not repeat it. if something is true you should speak it.
I guess when to keep quiet is a toughy. But anyway, since you are talking about all this type of stuff all the time anyway, why not really make an effort ot sort it all out for real?
There are things to come to hard conclusions about.
I am not talking about the finer points of Rudolf Steiner and the difference between Ahriman and Lucifer, per se. But real actions of evil people.
Evil in general. Doing actual actions. Not “having philosophies” and so on and so forth but taking control of ther US and turning it into a Police State.
The goal is to force a choice. It comes down to getting everyone dependent on an evil system and seeing if they will go along with it in order to survive, or if they will choose good even if it means death.
November 14th, 2008 at 11:44 am
So our choices are “drink the Kool-aide and join the police state” or “choose good and die”? I’ve made some pretty hard sacrifices in the name of truth, but this is the most depressing thing I’ve ever heard.
How am I to even know what choosing good means if all I do is track the actions of these elites, and worry about how they control everything? That’s what I want to know. What good and helpful path is made clear through the exploration of all this theory? (and theory is pretty much the same as philosophy, by the way.)
Yeah, I was there*, 9/11 was an inside job. So what? What should we do, on the ground, in our daily lives, because of that? How can we use that information to make a better reality for people to live in, so that they don’t have to rely on the elite controlled power structure?
Gandhi said “be the change you want to see in the world.” He did what you said, he chose good, made a stand for it, and he MADE THE CHANGE HAPPEN. He didn’t say, stop those who are doing bad. He showed that good changes come from embodying good decisions and showing people just how good they can be. That has been the message of every enlightened-type person throughout history, and we need more people like that now if we’re ever going to hope to turn things around.
(* caveat: I was living in Brooklyn, I saw it and thought, how the fuck did that happen? That’s all that I mean by that).
November 14th, 2008 at 1:33 pm
So Ian,
What if we here in this little circle are a bunch of talkers, but then we all get on the same page about 9/11. Just to be clear on it?
Would that be a bad thing?
Ghandi, you say was all action, so does that mean, he wasn’t for kicking out the British? He was all like “Just ignore the British, don’t talk about them and they will go away?”
Its like you want to be all action, you say, but for some reason thats translates into not dissing the British.
Talking bad about the British is against what Ghandi was about?
India is still all fucked up BTW. Now they have Nukes. But still tons of poor people and ecological destruction and disease etc. I mean there is good and bad there. Lots of Ancient Spiritual Wisom, lots of modern development and smart people, and still there are people being taken advantage of.
So the fight doesn’t end.
But anyway, I am not about just watching the illuminati like watching a slasher film or just tripping out on it. I am for action. But that takes clarity.
November 14th, 2008 at 1:38 pm
Ian, I guess the bottom line is
Why is Tim, posting about dystopia, in kind of a musing artistic way, positive.
Wheras, naming names and seeking clear answers is negative?
You sound like I am going around stepping on flower gardens people are building.
The topic is dystopia.
All my point is that there are clear answers to a lot of questions that are out there. I guess that can be a downer. But if you really want to know…
November 14th, 2008 at 2:34 pm
I think the thing is that Tim is talking about dystopia as a possibility, something to be watched out for and a danger to work at being avoided. This gives me a plan of action, on the ground, in my life.
When you “name names” and “seek clear answers”, I don’t necessarily think you’re being negative, I think, “how can I use this information in my life?” And the answer I come up with is that I can’t. Not that it is useless, but that it is incomplete. I already don’t trust authority, I think power can easily twist and corrupt people’s connection to our shared reality. But of what use is that knowledge?
As for:
It wouldn’t be a bad thing. It just wouldn’t matter, except that we could all pat ourselves on the back for agreeing with each other. Yeah us. Now what?
This is EXACTLY what Gandhi did. It was called non-violent protest. He did what everyone knew was their right to do as humans, but what the British had outlawed. He showed people, Indian and British alike, that they were all better than that.
Like I don’t know that? I find this remark really insulting, although I don’t think you really meant it that way. But still, do you seriously think that pointing out “9/11 was an inside job, the reptilian elites are controlling everything!” will really do a better job than all this Ancient Spiritual Wisdom which you are claiming hasn’t worked?
November 14th, 2008 at 6:34 pm
I really don’t understand your point of view Ian. But anyway, I am not saying that the spiritual wisdom of India didn’t work.
I am just saying this battle is ongoing.
As far as various dystopian scenarios I don’t think the plan is for things to be like “mad Max.”
I think Robb’s job is to scare people into accepting solutions offered that supposedly prevent this type of thing.
You put these nightmare scenarios out there and then people are willing to compromise freedom to avoid them.
Like most people don’t want the wild west, so instead they choose slave labor and the security it provides.
But anyway I honestly don’t get what you are trying to say.
If Tim was painting a picture of UTOPIA and I was saying “nah, that will never heppen the illuminati won’t allow it”
Then I would see your point. But I am not saying that. I guess maybe what it is is that I have given up on the romantic dream of wondering why all this stuff is happening and playing around with different ideas, as a fun way to pass the time.
Instead I looked into it for solid answers and got them.
There is deep esoteric and spiritual stuff associated with these questions, so it was a fruitful endeavor. Because a lot of these questions are profound. The nature of evil and so forth the purpose of life. All good questions.
But anyway there is a certian point where the rubber meets the road. Metaphysical evil manifests in regular people doing actions.