People try to tell me that there is no hope. That the status quo is too fully locked in. That the sociopathic manipulators who are driving our species toward war, ecocide and Orwellian dystopia are just too powerful and too good at what they do. That people are too stupid, lazy and deeply asleep to ever have any hope of waking up to what's going on and throwing off the mechanisms of manipulation and control so that they can turn things around before it's too late.
Every day people try to tell me this. I talk every day about how fucked things are, and people seldom if ever have any problem with the general gist of that message. But whenever I suggest that we've still got a fighting chance, I get quite a bit of pushback from readers with a special attachment to the song of doom.
"Unicorns and glitter," they tell me. "Get your head out of the clouds, you hopeless dreamer. Humanity is shit, and we are destined for shit, and shit is all that we deserve. Soon we will all kill ourselves off, and the planet will be better off without us. You have hope because you live in a fantasy land."
I mean, I get the appeal of that perspective. It's egoically gratifying to lean back smugly knowing better than everyone else, looking down your nose at the doomed, pathetic fools who don't know the things you know.
It feels good. It's ego candy.
But it's also childish nonsense.
The only thing holding the status quo in place is mass media propaganda. The ability of the ruling oligarchs to manipulate the way people think, act and vote is the only thing preventing the many from rising up against the oppression and exploitation by the few. We outnumber them so vastly that we could take true democracy and self-rule from the ruling elites without their permission and without firing a shot, simply by deciding collectively to change the way power and money works. The only reason we haven't done so already is because not enough of us want to, and the only reason not enough of us want to is because so many of us have been manipulated away from wanting to by plutocrat-owned media.
The elites hold their warmongering, ecocidal, exploitative Orwellian empire in place by controlling the public narrative about what's going on. Control the stories the public are telling themselves about what's happening, and you control the public itself.
But what does that mean, then? It means that the entire oppression machine is held together by narrative. By made-up stories. By fairy tales for adults. By unicorns and glitter.
It is those who insist that there is no hope who are living in a fantasy world. Only someone who mistakes a fairy tale for reality would think that the fantasy land described in the made-up story is all that can possibly exist. If you truly understand that the whole thing is held together by made-up stories and are truly standing outside of those stories, it's as clear as day that the Grimm's Fairy Tales book can be set down at any time.
It is as simple as changing our minds about whether or not we believe the fairy tales that we are being read by the pundits and politicians on the various screens we encounter about what's going on in the world and what's in our best interest to consent to. It's as simple as putting down the book of fairy tales, and as an incentive to do so we only have the threat of the extinction of our entire species forever.
And the people who say that that's impossible are the "realists"? Really?
I don't think so. You're not being a "realist" by insisting that everyone will necessarily go on believing fairy tales when they have every incentive not to. You're not being a "realist" by insisting on the continuation of a fake fairy fantasy land where people's lives are ruled by the made-up numbers in an imaginary economy that is controlled by a group of elites who are fully aware that they are making up a story as they go along. You're not being a "realist" by insisting that doom is the only possibility in a paradigm that is held in place by mass media when (A) trust in the mass media is at an all-time low and (B) our ability to network and share information with each other is at an all-time high. You're living in a fantasy.
I honestly believe that our species has the freedom to fail the test that it is being given. I believe that we are free to go the way of the dinosaur if we can't wake up from the dynamics which are driving us toward extinction. But I am also fully confident that anyone who thinks it's impossible for us to turn things around is living in a fairy tale.
Well I say enough with the unicorns and glitter. Let's start being practical and start waking people up from the fairy tale.
Come on, "realist". Come join me. Get your head out of the clouds and be a dreamer.
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I really liked your article and featured it in my post...
https://steemit.com/majornews/@wizardave/majornews-featured-steemit-journalist-caitlinjohnstone
Nicely timed article and a nice break from the usual headlines.
A few things resonated with me in this post.
Definitely true. It's a all about perception. Shadows on a cave wall (or on screens of handhelds) whereby all are spellbound and shackled.
This is what most people forget. Our numbers are staggering compared to theirs. Look at the pacifist actions of Gandhi and Martin Luther King and how they were able to demonstrate this very power in a peaceful manner with numbers in the hundreds of thousands.
In a recent post entitled Mass Passive Resistance (Gandhi style) to OUST the BANKERS: the time has come!, I elude to this very concept and try to get people to act collectively. I am still hopeful.
You left an amazing quote from John Lennon above, as what is says is so true about ignorant people who can only criticize yet haven't the courage to act themselves. And regarding his famous song/dream Imagine, I have a free online course from my Liberty Academy entitled Meaning in Song: John Lennon's Imagine if anyone would like to explore it and dream a little.
Here is one of my Discussion Questions in the course if ever anyone wants to add their 2 cents right here in a reply:
#2. The year was 1971
Imagine was released on October 11th, 1971. What was happening during this period in history? And how may have events of that time influenced Lennon to write a song that resonated with so many people from around the world?
Your post and Caitlin's appeared side by side in my feed. Nicely timed indeed !
I'm a dreamer. Sometimes feel like I'm the only one. I celebrate every time I find signs of life, people that share a similar outlook. Those that weigh facts, are interested in history and detail, and forge their own opinions.
But it seems that it is far easier for the majority of folk (well here in Oz anyway) to capitulate to fears that take seed in the fertility of their own ignorance. To hate and blame those that are different, celebrate "heroes" that are anything but, and be immersed in small rectangular worlds of distraction.
One day there will be one lie too many. People will find the discipline to reject and overcome the never ending invective of carefully choreographed mind manipulating messages from the mainstream media, and the myth factory that is Hollywood. Government spin doctors. Think tanks of truth making.
We can turn them off. Unsubscribe. Close accounts. Boycott.
Develop the maturity to accept that our country is not one of the "good guys". We are not on the right side of history. That patriotism lies in the courage to stand up and shout this out loud, and not the meek and fearful acceptance of the current delusion.
Yes we do vastly outnumber them, and we can make it count.
Really well said! I love your phrase "fertility of their own ignorance".
Absolutely. We can already see how the masses are disconnecting from MSM outlets like CNN for instance. These social media giants are next, imho.
Indeed. But we need more patriots. People are too busy working their slave jobs to pay their endless debts and when they do have time off, they tune out and their brains drift into alpha (passive) mode hence more susceptible to brainwashing through propaganda they are fed by MSM, Fakebook, etc.
Oh, and I already have another Steemit user that joined my free mini course Meaning in Song: John Lennon's Imagine; so feel free to join to by dropping me a line and I will sign you up asap. Sometimes, its nice to try something new and converse more deeply on something.
I am most definitely a realist - I don't see unicorns.
We need realist and not dreamers, that's the problem.
(anyone who uses the word 'should' in political debate is a dreamer...)
Then we can change.
Know what is real and what is silly.
Here are EU Oligarchs in their natural setting:
Real or Silly?
The performance was a bizarre spectacle, that's for sure...
I'm not sure how this relevant to this though...?
....let them dream about an underworlds offerings..- while the realist shoot them, kind of thing?
Let's ee how Beelzebub helps them after they are shot..?lol
I know which side I'd put my money on...give me the realist over the dreamer anytime...
OK. I think it speaks to the "realists". These are the "respectable" leaders of society. And they define the confines of "realism", this is the reality creating cabal that CJ mentions.
I find the corporate media fantasy reality to be related to this disconnect - These are the people that we should trust and follow because of their innate leadership, intelligence, and wisdom.
Should be no surprise to anyone that we're rolling down this slippery slope and picking up speed. How they believed that this was a good idea to do publicly is beyond me.
Your suggestion of violent revolution is silly. The disparity of intelligence and arms – ubiquitous, nearly omniscient surveillance and nearly omnipotent firepower makes a firefight, even given the mass of humanity we can throw at them, a poor strategy.
Reminds me of the current Democratic political ploy: "The only way to fight fascism is with fascism." And that leaves us with a new dystopic reality, as we're seeing in America and other 1st World countries.
Solidarity and community are the keys to removing these assholes from the top of the heap. That "Dream" is impossible given the current media's control of the narrative and your suggestion that we shoot people as a response.
Seems to me that acquiescence or warfare are the only options being pitched by the Establishment. Believing in something else, a reality where humanity comes together in solidarity and community, is considered a dream.
Seems that you buy into that binary choice. This binary choice is meant to manipulate us, and a "shoot them down" solution sits squarely within that binary. CJs solution rejects the binary and offers us some agency that allows us to maintain our humanity and create a world where "4 Legs Good, 2 Legs Better" doesn't happen again.
Peace~
If you haven't read 'The Chalice and The Blade' pls do. Shines a bright light on Why the need to dominate and manipulate each other. Makes a solid argument that looong ago we used to live by a v differnt narrative. There is no reason we couldn't create a new one once again.
The so-called 'elites' seem to feel a small percentage of the population can survive long-term in self-sustaining underground bases, and they may be right, who knows. But on the current course, the above ground biosphere won't support most of the human population beyond 2030.
IMO, Agendas 21/30 are actually intended to drastically cut back on fossil fuel emissions by eliminating private autos and reducing electricity usage. The idea is to slow down global warming and thereby save some of the human race from extinction. If these plans are implemented, the population will be forced into self-sustaining zones, which won't be pretty as many will die, but it beats human extinction.
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So far 23 progressives have won their primaries (they don't take corporate bribes) and there are still many primary races left.Let's say at the end of the day around 40 of them win and "only" 20 of these primary winners will win their general election and get into Congress.Can you even imagine what a huge impact they will be able to make??Of course there is hope,now more than ever!