The Cure for Depression

After watching a PBS show last week on the subject of depression in America, I had to stop and think about what they were putting out as the God's Honest Truth. It just didn't ring true for me.

Yes, the numbers are shocking but they do tell a story. Americans are dropping like flies from depression. People from all walks of life are falling victim to this spreading, debilitating phenomenon.

Somewhere in the neighborhood of 40% of the population is, or has been, on psych drugs at some point in their lives. Psych drugs are even prescribed to children as young as two years old with astonishing regularity.

Depression is not the only label attached to this explosion of what we're being told is "mental illness". There are dozens of diagnoses being handed out like penny candy on Halloween night by doctors and psychiatrists all over the country. And along with those diagnoses come pills. A whole lot of pills.

They say that people need not suffer alone with depression, and we are told that 15 million Americans are estimated to be enduring the pain of depression who have not sought help for their problem. "Depression is a disease" they say. "It is highly treatable" they say. "People who suffer from depression should seek help" they say.

They also say that of the 25 or so currently approved drugs being used to throw at the problem of depression, that it takes time to find the "right" one for you. There are no guarantees that pills will work and at minimum it takes several months before there is any way to find out if taking that particular drug will be of any help to you at all.

What are people supposed to do in the meantime while they patiently wait to see if any good comes out of dousing their brains and bodies with pharmaceutical chemicals, just shut up and suffer? Not quite. They have to shut up and suffer AND pay those incredibly high doctor fees and pharmacy bills.

When you stop to realize that so many 'antidepressants' are fluoride based, it really adds insult to injury. Fluoride is infamous for subduing people's minds, making them docile and submissive, unable to put up any protest or fight against anything coming their way that's causing them harm or trouble. They simply take it and don't complain. They don't have the energy or the interest to make a fuss. That seems very insidious to me.

There is even current research that shows that the very same fluoride they spike our water with causes a decline in intelligence as well, and there is overwhelming evidence that fluoride causes a whole host of other serious diseases and early deaths. Are all of these so called antidepressants in fact simply numbing the mind and spirit down until the truth and evidence of the total lack of quality in our lives, no longer concerns us quite as much? Are all those pills actually trying to resolve depression? Or are they attempting to alter people's brains in order to resolve folks to accepting their depressing lives?

If the millions upon millions of pills that people have swallowed were anywhere near as great as our Med Marketing Doctors keep telling us, shouldn't we be the most mentally sound and overall healthy people on the planet today? Wouldn't medical professionals from all over the world be knocking our doors down to get the secrets of all the great and abundant good health those pills are supposed to be delivering?

If pills were half of what we're mind washed into believing by TV sets and our own doctors, then why has our whole health care system's world ranking plummeted to somewhere in the low 40's? We are not number one, get over it. We're not even in the top five, or top ten or top twenty. The reality is that our health care is so bad it's dangerous. If you really want to be treated for something as serious as cancer and come out a survivor with years of good life left to live, you're much better off seeking treatment in a foreign country. Almost any other country you can think of.

If you're not lucky enough to be able to afford that, then you're stuck with all the pills you can shake a stick at, and all of the associated bad affects, liver and kidney damage, hair loss, sleep disturbances, weight gain, brain and organ damage and a whole host of barely mentioned but frequent bad effects that can make you feel worse than before you went to get help. And for the last time, there's no such thing as a "side" effect. It's a direct effect. That's marketing head games for you.

Going the route of standardized medical/chemical treatment for depression and all the other diagnoses is to choose a path with the least evidence of efficacy, controlled by people who don't mind at all that you'll have to suffer for a very long time in spite of whatever hit or miss "treatment" they start you on. What do they care? They'll get very well paid anyway and they aren't actually obligated to do anyone any good. The whole system shows an insulting institutionalized indifference to the suffering of the very people they supposedly exist to help.

It is disturbing to listen to the establishment media and medical institutions giving their compelling reasons to encourage people to seek help for their depression. "Every year depression causes a 50 billion dollar loss of productivity in America". "It also causes a concurrent increase in physical illnesses and disease". The entire thing is framed from the perspective of how it impacts the establishment. Lost productivity and increased insurance costs. It's insulting.

The whole concept of depression et al is something that needs to be scrutinized because we're not getting it right. The establishment experts and medical royalty are telling everyone that depression is a disease, a literal mental "illness". Oh yeah? How so? How can thoughts and feelings be "diseased"? Do tell. And because of the terrible guilt people feel when life kicks their ass they are offered the encouraging news that it's not their fault. It's simply a malfunction of the brain, and they can throw pills at it to correct it for you. For a very large fee of course, but believe them, they're only doing it because they care so very much.

Do they care? How is it caring to throw pills at it? How is it caring to define depression as a mental malfunction? How is it caring to automatically invalidate peoples suffering when they say that their lives are making them hurt? How helpful is it to suggest that when life is depressing, and people get depressed, that the problem is with those people, and not due to some darn good reason?

To say it's mental illness is an unstated but none the less screaming way of calling it a form of insanity. It suggests the depressed person is not sane. It says if you're depressed you're not rational, you're not stable, you aren't capable of making accurate assessments of the world around you or of yourself. Somehow your feelings are "wrong". "Abnormal". Oh really? How so? What's abnormal or wrong and who's deciding the definitions of those things? What makes them right and the depressed person "wrong"?

Indeed, the medical establishment in all it's glory and power is champing at the bit to write you off as a crazy person to be dismissed and not be taken seriously. Your complaints are automatically marginalized and reduced to nonsense. Tell me what's caring about that. The fact of the matter is it's downright insulting.

For all the talk and claims and TV commercials for pills to throw at depression and a whole army of new "conditions" plaguing Americans, there is still no evidence at all that proves that any of these laboratory concoctions actually do help anyone. The doctors and experts openly admit that because it's the truth. They also have to admit it since they don't even know if pills help or not, they don't have any idea how or why they might work, if they do at all.

It has been suggested that it's not the pills that help people so much as the way they are treated when interacting with kind, attentive people in the medical offices they go to seeking treatment. Just the human interaction, the kindness and feelings of acceptance and validation can be very powerful medicine. It's well established that talk therapy is helpful to depressed people, unlike pills which have no similar proof of being helpful.

There is a great deal wrong with this picture and a few obvious questions to ask that no one on the expert side seems all that interested in asking. With depression reaching epidemic proportions in America, why is this happening? Are tens of millions of unhappy Americans just crazy? Do they all have malfunctions of the brain? Aren't the numbers just too high to write it off as a form of insanity and an inability to assess their own lives properly?

If ten people all get food poisoning at one restaurant in one evening, that's enough to close the restaurant down isn't it? Nobody would dream of telling those poisoned people that they just aren't capable of enjoying their food properly. Yet our medical experts and the officialdom of mental health would have us all believe that tens of millions of depressed and traumatized people are simply incapable of enjoying their lives properly.

I'd like to challenge that notion because it's illogical as well as ridiculous. The fact is that life in America for a great many people today is not a happy matter. The long hours we work for the ever shrinking pay we get in return is not a reasonable substitution for life. Being eternal employees who are treated as lesser beings with no power and who will in the end have worked their whole lives and have nothing to show for it is enough to make any mentally sound individual depressed as hell.

Maybe there's very good reason that so many people are coming up empty inside in this society, even when they're amongst the lucky ones who achieve some modicum of success. Maybe success in a morbidly capitalistic society isn't all it's chalked up to be. Maybe it's just not enough. Maybe it's not the end all and be all of life. Maybe it's not what matters most in this world. In fact, maybe it's a total assault on the human soul and psyche and people succumbing to depression all around us is the reasonable and expected outcome of being shoved into a forced paradigm that just doesn't work.

One size does not fit all. One size can only fit the one who's size it happens to fit, everybody else will simply have to make do with something that can never work for them. And while the midrange of people will be able to make due to some extent or another, at the peripheral outside edges will inevitably be people who cannot even try to make due, the fit is impossible from the get go.

When you stop to realize that society is all set up in a preexisting system that we are simply born into, and that our paths and value as human beings are also predefined, and the expectations and demands to fit into that preexisting way of life is so intense that it doesn't even allow for those who cannot flourish in that system, then we're bound to have all kinds of people who are left out. We even call them "misfits". They don't fit in.

The sad thing is we don't even extend our intelligent acceptance of reality to those people, we label them with negative judgments and exclude them from the rest of the social body. We don't like any bumps and lumps in our game plans. So it's never the game plan that's responsible for unhappy people, broken people, poor people, sick people, young people, marginalized people who have no place to go and no hope of ever having a place or a way to make a life for themselves, it's their fault. And we, in all of our ignorant, rule-addicted self-superiority, are afraid of them. We reject them and blame them and we cannot see them as valid or as equally important as ourselves.

We live in a very judgmental, small minded society. The added pressure of having to compete for our bread only adds to the ugliness. It is inevitable that only a few will really ever win, the same few, a chosen few, and that means that everyone else will have to lose, to some degree or another.

Because we prize so called "success" so highly, it's also inevitable that those who are not the winners will have to bear the internal brunt of feelings of failure in varying degrees. Again the competitive nature of the social structure demands that we never show our negative feelings to others, and above all we can never admit failure in any degree. What can come of that but disconnection from others, even from family and friends who look to us with expectations for success? Our success reflects on our family and friends, and so does our so called failure to achieve a sufficient amount of financial wealth and the freedom and power it affords.

For most of working class America today it's all we can do to get the bills paid every month and see to the most basic critical life needs that all people have. The fat cats have taken almost all of the pie for themselves, and left nothing but a handful of crumbs for all the rest of America to fight for, and there's just not even enough to go around.

What's not depressing about that?

If we all ever wanted to get honest, which we don't, we would have to admit that life in America today is a failure, because the system is a terrible system that is set up to deprive people of any fair chance of ever getting a better life for themselves and their families. We are set up to fail by design. Not realizing that truth we all get up every morning and get back to the daily grind, and year after year we come home emptier and with less to show for our hard work and faith in the whole structure.

Aren't we in this busy, fast paced, exhausted society, so fixated and focused straight ahead on that ever present yet elusive dangling carrot, the paycheck we all endlessly chase after, that we inevitably gallop right past all of the things in life that make it fulfilling and which are the only things that can bring us happiness? When we put job before self and family and loved ones, aren't we in effect bypassing life itself? Aren't those the things that make life worth living and aren't those the very things that matter most? Over the course of our working lives we will change jobs many times, the jobs themselves become meaningless the moment we leave them. But we can't get another day to hear our baby's first word, or another son or daughter to watch grow up if we ever finally have the time to get involved and participate with them at that truly meaningful level, for years.

And what about the growing numbers of people who are cut off from the playing field and never even have a shot at getting a good enough education to be able to earn enough money to make better lives for themselves? The marginalized people of America are the fastest growing class, and that's definitely not conducive to happiness and satisfaction in life.

How many people are forced into an endless repetitive cycle of demands placed on them from every direction, demands that are a product of our obsession with capitalism and money, where success can only be defined in terms of financial holdings and the status those holdings afford? When there is so little room "at the top" and so few who will be able to attain the fraction of positions and spots available that will pay a generous enough salary to afford more personal freedom and choice in life, to afford more time for not working, for long periods of recreation, to allow for extended periods to heal from sickness or injury, that cover families for a sane and humane period of time for maternity leaves, then only a very small percentage of our population can ever have a shot at having enough of what matters most in life. Only a small percentage of Americans will even get the sleep they need. Few will have the quality of life that is required to be able to experience any real satisfaction and happiness in this world.

What's really infuriating is knowing there's no excuse for that. There is no reason that all cannot get their needs met. There is no reason that we all have to play on the same capitalist playing field. There are other things that matter more and other ways that people want and need to live their lives. But other options are not allowed. They would undermine the total control of those who benefit most from this contrived system that brings all the benefit back to themselves.

The sad fact of it is, for so many people, we are stuck in an endless grind of rushing to meet the demands of others and our jobs are something we have no love for. It is not creative work or work that we can sink our lives into and experience our own growth and satisfaction from. It is work that we can be dismissed from at any time without notice or cause, and that precludes having any feelings of real security in life. That insecurity would undermine anyone's sense of well being and would only become worse over time.

We work because we have to, we simply have no choice. We take whatever jobs we can get that we are qualified for. We are considered to be, and are treated as, disposable. We work harder than those of higher rank, and get less pay, and few to no benefits. We have to leave our children each day when we'd rather stay with them and raise them ourselves, and that means much more than having to pay a baby-sitter. It means days, weeks and years of not building the relationships that sustain us and nurture us throughout life, and populate our reality with trusted caring others that we can share our lives with, that we can talk to at meaningful levels, and who will be able to understand us and validate us, and love us whether we're doing well or not doing so well.

All of the underlying, supporting fabric of family and friends has been relegated to some secondary place, or even a lesser place due to the constant demands of daily life and needs. The chores, the bills, the gas tank, the wasted hours stuck in daily commutes, the going to work even when we're sick, not being there for ourselves much less each other, it all takes a very real, very measurable toll. We may be surrounded by people but we will feel lonely and strange, insecure and frustrated, and end up just going through the paces until we are numb.

There is no pill for that. There is no mental illness there either.

The whole idea of winners and losers is a financial framing and let's face it, who gives a damn about financially based values? What does that have to do with the reality of life and what's really important to human beings? We all need to have our needs met, we all need meaningful work to do, we all need to feel loved and accepted, and we have to have justice and live in a sane, fair society where everyone is respected and treated as equals in the eyes of the law and society. We are equals, money doesn't change that. Life must be held sacred regardless of worldly possessions or lack thereof. Wealth and poverty are no measure of human worth and the very notion of that should offend anyone with a lick of sense. It's a stupid thing to suggest and even more stupid to believe. But believe it we do.

Nowhere in officialdom will we ever hear that there are other ways to do things in this world. We will not hear alternative stories, or be given alternative patterns to live by. We will never be told we have a choice. We will only and forever be told that this is it, that it can't be changed, that it's not fair, and that's just the way it goes. We're stuck with it. But it's the greatest system in the world and just don't notice the human wreckage all around you. It doesn't matter. If you're not successful in this system you have only yourself to blame and we help no one by sharing the opportunity, or doling out the wealth in a fair way, or allowing those who don't fit into the rabid capitalistic structure to have a valid, respected place amongst the rest of us who are making it. And that includes the vast majority who only think they're making it when they're not making any headway at all.

If you're not rich, it's your fault. If you're not happy in this option-less world, it's your fault. If you don't live up to the value systems and expectations of others that have been thrust on all of us with no chance of all of us being interested in or cut out to live up to them, it's your fault. If you're a loser, it's your fault. However, if you're a winner it's because you know all the right people, went to the right schools, have the right amount of money, and are the correct color. You also have the correct indoctrination to enable you to think like a rabid capitalist and you have all of the things that get you in the door to success. That amounts to a very small percentage of the population. None the less if you don't have that stuff, it's your fault.

Well no it isn't. It isn't your fault and it isn't my fault. You and I and all those like us had zero to say or do with the system we're living in. In spite of all the rhetoric of democracy, there is nothing democratic about the systems of wealth, corporatism and power that have a death grip on how things are done. It is they who design the system and it is they who bought our politicians and it is they who have changed all of the rules to suit themselves. It is they who are enjoying the system that is designed to benefit them at the expense of everyone else, and at the cost of losing all that is most precious and important in our lives. The playing field is not even and the game is rigged. And the distribution of power is nil. It's all distributed upward and not a one of us has anything near the power of someone in our own government, a thing that was set up to serve us. It does not serve us it controls us and holds us down so that the insatiably greedy rich can feed off us.

That's plenty depressing. There's nothing incredible about millions of people going numb, or feeling the pain of dissolution of their beliefs in our government. Betrayal is one of the most painful feelings we can experience. Being reduced to irrelevance is the greatest damage that we can experience in this world. The wound is mortal to the psyche and the soul. When we see others routinely railroaded in the justice system, a million nonviolent drug users behind bars, children shooting up their schools, and corporate/governmental collusion and crime, and we can't do anything about it, we begin to feel our own imposed irrelevance. It is completely disabling. We go numb. In spite of that numbness the pain is ever present, and it takes a very serious toll.

In the midst of that numbness we withdraw in the hopes that no one will notice that we are not doing all right. We put on a show, keep on the game face, and keep going through the motions. But in that state of pain and withdrawal we are also cutting ourselves off from having the depth of interpersonal relationships that is crucial to happiness and well being in this life. The quality and value of our relationships with others is everything there is, that's what it all boils down to. The ability to have strong relationships with others means being able to be who we are, fully, without having to fear getting rejected for failing to meet some outwardly imposed definitions of success or personhood.

But in this society there is no redemption. Just one slip, such as a drug arrest, eternally condemns a person in the eyes of officialdom and the rest of society. One late payment and everyone raises your interest charges. One minor car accident and you're judged high risk for evermore. We do not accept or forgive normal shortcomings. We do not believe that time served is payment in full of any supposed debt to society. We never get off anyone's back who has transgressed outside of the very narrow path of politically correct acceptability.

We now strip felons of their right to vote. We're a society who believes that punishment should last forever and one mistake should deprive you of all of your rights. Punishments are infinitely more damaging than the crimes time and again. If felons are stripped of their right to vote and participate in our process then who is it that will ever be able to work to fix the horribly broken justice/prison system? Who would know better than these people what's broken in there? We're so addicted to hating those who don't meet our selfish standards that we're cutting off our own noses. How much more stupid can it get?

And what pray tell gives anyone the right to judge another and preclude the possibility that people are not criminals just because they break some law or rule. We all have the right to make mistakes and we may well have to fight to retain that right along with all the others they're taking away from us.

Our unwillingness to forgive and help people by simply accepting the reality that sometimes people fall down and can go on to living good, decent lives if not deprived of the chance, is turning our country into a totalitarian nightmare. Instead of our harsh, hypocritical judgments of others, understanding it can happen to anyone makes a lot more sense; and deciding to help people out of the ruts that keep them trapped instead of adding insult to injury with eternal punishments will get us a whole lot closer to reconnecting with the meaning of being human. Our failure to do that is dooming us to a society reserved for those who are rich enough to not have to pay for their mistakes while all the rest of us will pay a thousand times over in advance for crimes we never committed.

There are no pills for any of that. No doctors can fix the feelings and trauma that are the reasonable and inevitable result of living in a society that is patently unfair, dishonest, duplicitous, unjust, judgmental, unforgiving, cruel, depraved, unconcerned with the quality of life for everyone, and who would rather see you dead than have you hanging around unhappy, a living breathing example of just how much the system sucks the life, health and joy out of people..

Depression and many other illnesses aren't signs of weakness or mental malfunction. They're a normal response to unnatural injuries that we cannot get away from, avoid or have much chance of healing from. Depression is what happens when you are forced to look straight at reality and soak it in. It's a sure sign of sanity. Depression is what happens when you finally get real and realize you've been screwed in some form or another.

No wonder the rush to call it mental illness and throw pills at it. No wonder the guise of caring and urgings to seek treatment for your depression, to be drugged into submission and the docile acceptance of the unfair distribution of wealth and power that is status quo today.

The only real treatment for depression would be a huge awakening of the people and a redefining of what matters most in life, and then sweeping changes that will topple the power structure and recreate a system that lets everyone have a place in it.

The bottom line is that the only prescription that will cure the depression epidemic in America is one calling for social justice, mutual respect and an end to economic bondage.

Double Standards and Crazy Conspiracy Theorists

Very early in life we are all introduced to the concept of people who 'rule' over other people. At such a tender, innocent age, when mommy and daddy read us bedtime stories, (do they still read bedtime stories?), we are each introduced to the idea of 'special' people who can tell us what to do and that we have to obey them.

Whether this stuff is read to children from story books or whether that exquisitely important parent to child interface is outsourced to a DVD player, things have not changed in hundreds of years. The implantation of that critically important notion before the age of reason, is achieved with every single boy and girl on the planet. The youngest child will always know what a princess, a prince, a king and a queen are before they're six years old.

That permanent mental cement is poured and hardened before children can read or write for themselves, while they still need someone to cut their meat for them into tiny pieces, before their baby teeth grow all the way in, and for a great many children it will happen long before they are out of diapers. That foundational brain cement becomes, quite literally, a basic part of their mental foundation, forming their basic belief system about how the world works.

It's no surprise that no child is left behind when it comes to being introduced to the idea of certain people having rights of rulership over others. The storybook concept of certain people ruling over other people, so gentle and lovely, becomes a hard core belief that is never questioned. It is foundational, so the idea of having someone who is in some way special and better than you telling you what you can and can't do, or even ordering your death, or calling your nation to war, all seems perfectly normal. It would not seem normal at all without the foundational beliefs being laid at such a very young age across the board.

Whatever concepts are introduced to a child's growing brain are no trivial thing, although strangely, we have been led to think otherwise. We believe that since we don't remember our earliest years that there's nothing in there.

As a consequence of that assumption, some people have sexual intercourse in the same room as their toddler because they believe it won't register. Nor will the physical abuse register, daddy beating mommy black and blue, the drinking, swearing, shouting, the seething hatred and the tears. Little Jr. Is believed to be too small to remember any of this nightmare. He won't remember crying for hours, cold and hungry and frightened. He won't remember that nobody picked him up and held him and caressed him, comforted him. He won't remember the sheer terror and panic he felt for what felt like forever. He's even too small to remember being yanked from his crib and hurled against the wall. Thank goodness, we say, that they don't remember these awful things when they get older.

I'm sorry, but they do remember them. Not in words perhaps, but in any of the diverse other ways the experiences of our lives are lived and stored. And where are they stored but in the physical structure of the brain. That's about as permanent a memory as there is.

Children's brains are in the most extraordinary state and rate of growth from birth to about 5 years old. Every thought, sensation, sight, sound, color, contrast, texture, emotion; feelings of hunger, cold and warmth, the smell of mother's body, dad's pipe, family dinners, the sounds of voices, music, machines, and weather, don't just pass through one ear and out the other. The brain captures every last one of them. Even the subconscious perceptions are registered, things beneath the conscious awareness.

The brain perceives it all and files it, beginning the process of building the unique central data base and operating system of that person. It is the most astronomical feat of data retention, cross referencing, and data retrieval in the known universe. This is the miraculous, living, real-time capacity of the human brain. It's an organic, thinking, feeling computer that responds and reacts, changes and grows, shrinks and dies off, as we go about living our lives.

Pathways are established that are traveled again and again, but when there is something new, and everything is new the first five years of life, the brain literally grows its physical parts based on the data, sensations, thoughts, feelings, sights, sounds, and smells of every single experience it perceives. And it all sticks. Forever. It's all a part of the foundation the entire rest of the brain and the person will be built upon.

In the same way that a house needs a good foundation, so does the human brain. And when that is lacking, the house may seem fine on the outside, but it will have some very precarious weaknesses and perhaps some strangeness in the general floor plans as well. When corners are cut such as the laying of a strong foundation, it's only logical to expect that other shortcuts were taken as well. Doors might open to reveal a brick wall. A room may exist with no floors. Lights might never come on, or go off. Things tend to not be very stable on a poor foundation. It only takes a good hard push or two, which could be withstood by a well built house, to shove an entire structure off its poor foundation.

Human beings seem much more able to cope with the scars, wounds and deficiencies that are a normal part of life, at least in its present evolution, than houses can. But injury is injury, damage is damage, and missing parts are missing parts. Pain and struggle are never totally forgotten. It all comes with us where ever we go, for the rest of our lives. It's a good reason to be a little nicer to each other, I think.

Considering how little thought we give and how little practical knowledge we possess about early childhood development, it's no surprise when you stop to think about it, that there are a whole lot of wounded, broken, messed up people out there.

During the age of psychology, the reality of this phenomenon of damaged humanity began to become overwhelmingly apparent to our dear, well intended mental health experts. We are walking wounded, a great many of us are at least. But instead of this truth making the news headlines and capturing the undivided attention and serious concern of the public, this realization quickly became a buzzword, which quickly became marginalized, and soon was little more than a joke.

"Dysfunctional" families was the phrase. It doesn't really seem very funny to me, but then nobody asks me what I think when it comes to setting priorities in this country. Based on the fact that I see things very differently than we're supposed to see them, I assure you, I would have to be next to the last person on earth before I was asked to set any public priorities. I will always put life and people first. I'm just not a willing player in this psychopathic system, and you know that doesn't get you very far in this world. I'm quite proud of myself for that too.

Not to dwell too long on the subject of the development of children's brains, there is one last very important thing I want to mention. That is the discovery of Empathy Neurons.

In the mid 1990's Neuroscientists working in Parma, Italy discovered 2 kinds of neurons and their functions in the brain. The first are Mirror neurons, which were found to fire when one performs an action or sees the same action performed by another. Later it was determined they also 'reflect' sensations and emotions. Observing that same action in another fired these neurons meaning the observer was experiencing a mirroring of the feelings and experience of another. He didn't have to perform the action himself but felt the accompanying feelings and understood how the performer would experience it simply by observing someone else doing it.

The second kind were Conical Neurons, and these were found to fire when actions being performed held a purpose, or when observing an action being performed with purpose. This allows the observer to recognize the purpose of another's actions. It is these Neurons that are literally Empathy, and they lay the actual physical brain wiring for empathy and compassion.

So humans are born with the capacity for empathy. But here's the very interesting twist. From birth to the age of five, fifty percent of our neural connections die. Literally half of the brain dies off. What determines which half dies? It is the half that is not used. The neurons that are not used during that period are the ones that die off, and that includes the ones for empathy. That is how the brain is shaped and that determines pretty much everything about who we become.

To quote George Lakoff, "In short, we are born as empathetic creatures, and we have to be raised as such to remain that way."

There's no going back if that window of opportunity is missed.

I think it's safe to say that a great many other things need to be introduced to children during those early years, the widest variety of things possible should be brought to children to be experienced or those things may never gain a foothold in the adult brain. It means things like curiosity, reading, math and language must be taught, even a second language. To a child at that stage, what's the difference in learning one language or two? This is the time when it's easiest, when the brain is literally set up to do just that, and is hungry and ready for it. Children must learn to speak and listen, and they must learn that they are not the center of the universe. They must also be lavished with love and feel appreciated, wanted, and feel their own self worth and sense of personal power. They must be taught to be patient, fair, kind, and tolerant, and indeed, the single most important thing that children need to learn is so beautifully easy to teach. It can be comprehended even at that very young age. And that concept is of course the Golden Rule.

People who have that introduction in the first five years of life and people who have not would probably not be too difficult to distinguish as adults.

The psychopaths who bully the world and act like it's theirs to do with as they please are people who do not receive an introduction to the concept of doing unto others as you would be done unto. No wonder they act the way they do. They have no conscience about lying, cheating, stealing, even killing to get what they want. They are outraged at the notion that they should ever be held responsible for the harm they do to others. It literally infuriates them that anyone would dare suggest that they have to take responsibility for a single thing in their lives.

In the bizarre private world of the criminal elite, they are above everyone else and really, they don't see others as people. They may possibly register some technical recognition that other people are people, but those others don't matter. So it's a moot point anyway.

Once any of us pass through the mental membrane of implanted mind goo and can see the world without the multibillion layers of perception gauze and mind boogers our brains are filled with from the moment we're born, it's a simple thing to turn around and look at those who would call themselves "elite" and see not anything elite, but something depraved and completely criminal. Criminally insane in fact. That is the fact of it.

Everything about how these people operate is criminal. They commit crimes on a daily basis and never go to prison. You will never see an obscenely rich person behind bars. They are able to make sure that they will never have to face reality like everyone else; they can install or at the very least buy off or otherwise coerce whoever it takes to ensure that they always get away with their crimes. And they do get away with horrendous crimes, the likes of which would put people like you and I away for life a dozen times over.

But there's the irony. You and I can't commit the kinds of serious crimes they can. What we can do is rinky dink in comparison. Our limited way of seeing the world we live in doesn't go much past our own little lives, so our crimes are local and petty and the violence committed is because of jealousy, hatred, rivalries, small time stuff. Human stuff. We normal people by and large just aren't made of the right stuff to do all that much damage.

It is the sole realm of the really rich and powerful, the completely protected, to do the big damage and commit the big crimes that hurt millions of people. And they profit from those crimes because the truth is, crime pays very very well. But they don't want you to know that, so you get to watch movies where bad guys end up slapping their foreheads saying, "What was I thinking! Crime doesn't pay!" And the narrator says, "Let that be a lesson to you kiddies! Always walk the straight and narrow path, do not lie, or cheat or steal. Do right and be good because as you've just seen, crime simply does not pay!"

These are also the same people who bring you "You can't fight city hall!" And "Time is money", one of my personal favorites, and many other timeless social myths, delivered in cute little one liners that anyone can remember and automatically believe to be true.

The criminal elite are very jealous of their monopolized ability to be a massive global crime syndicate, and that's why they make such a fuss over black market designer handbags and the downloading of intellectual property. When Joe and Jane Average do that, it cuts into their criminal business profit share and if there's one thing they can't stand it's anyone getting a penny of their underworld profits. Or their overworld profits for that matter, because in fact, they own and control both economies. They sort of have to run around screaming and waving their hands and call teenagers pirates and terrorists because if there was no one to point at and blame, the public might start catching on to who the real criminals are. It's all such a great big lie.

The criminal elite are revolting creatures in so many ways, it's too daunting to try to count them all. But there's no need to count them. There's no chance of getting away from them or forgetting them, so counting I don't need. Exposing the lie is something I need though, because the truth of it is, all the veils can be swept aside and people can see, just like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz saw that man behind the curtain. That's all it takes. A ripping aside of the curtain and voila! It's just some guy. Some weird guy with all kinds of tricks and head games and lies. Fiction is nowhere near as bizarre as reality, and that's the truth.

It's an often told story how the criminal elites have a supposed obsession with blood lines. Terms like well born, or high born are more common in Europe than America, but you get the idea. It's not only ludicrous on its face to think that any child is born any differently than any other child, it's flatly outrageous and insulting to the majority of people in this world who are not tagged with that erroneous label. But it is necessary for them to continuously assert that there is an actual difference in the quality and hence, the entitlements of "them" vs. "us". They must endlessly propagate all of the lies that keep everyone believing that there really is such a thing as kings and queens who should rule over people because of some inherent right or superiority. It's such total crap it's not even funny.

There is plenty out there to read about the 'elites' inbreeding. They only want royals to marry royals and so forth, which has been going on for centuries and their gene pool is getting really shallow. There's only so much to go around with gene mixing in such a tightly limited pool over such a long time and it's easy to see that a lot of these people are complete twits.

I'm not trying to be funny or intentionally nasty, but admit it. Prince Charles is a vapid big eared mumbling dork. And look at George W. Bush. These folks are not the cream of the crop when it comes to intelligence. I mean, you tell me what amazing thing some royal or rich spoiled guy has ever done. They don't do much do they? They couldn't even qualify to hold down a job at Taco Bell. I'm perfectly serious. These people are so disconnected and detached from the real world, living in their own private Idaho surrounded by people born of centuries of inbreeding, I mean, what can we really expect them to be?

It's funny the way it's sold to us that their obsession is with the purity of blood lines, yadda, yadda, yawn. I don't think so. I don't think that's what it is. I think it has more to do with the fact that these people, many of which have families and wealth that go back centuries, all teach their children what it takes to be a serious sociopath. After centuries of two parents from intensely inbred psychopathic parents and grand parents and great grand parents etc., where the attitudes of what we call snobbery and imperialism are taught to the children whether the children like it or not, these families end up being completely twisted, hard wired, genetically wired psychopaths.

There is no compassion there, or any Golden Rule. They do have their own version of the Golden Rule, which is "He who has the gold makes the rules". It is supreme selfishness and self-absorbed entitlement, it's nuts. It's that simple. It's crazy ca-ca. The reality is that they can't bring outside genes into those sociopathic families because normal people couldn't survive it. It also runs the risk of exposing the next generation of mama's little psychopaths to real people who are human and compassionate and would attempt to pass those qualities on to those offspring. And nothing ruins a future psychopath as much as getting a damned compassionate streak.

Elites and compassion are not words used in the same sentence. Or in the same room. Or in the same universe for that matter. They are exact opposites. The so called elites are antihuman, and if you only observe how they operate for a good long year, you'll be clued in. It's all predictable and consistently despicable. They are criminal scum, an affront to justice, humanity and decency. They revile kindness, the thought of sharing makes them physically ill, and they are shallow, phony bigoted liars who put on the learned act of being genteel and noble to cover the facts of who and what they are, which is monsters. They are the antithesis of what good, decent, moral, humane, sane, rational, fair people are supposed to be. And guess what? They're in control. Any questions about why this world is so f'd up?

They do live in fear of us, and for good reason. We could wake up at any time and see what they've done to us. It's happened many times in history. Elites get what's coming to them. But they just never learn, and they will never give up.

There is a main benefit, the number one perk of being one of the criminal elite. A really amazing perk too. It's a bit hard for us to be able to see it for what it is, because we're just like Dorothy. We think we know who they are and we think there is some kind of magic or power or something special that causes many of us to bow down to these people. That whole bowing down thing though is the overt symbol of their main perk. And that perk is that they are the walking, talking embodiments of something called The Double Standard.

The Double Standard is that which allows them to get away with mass murder and the theft of entire economies, by willful intent and with full preplanning; but obviously no one else would ever get away with anything even close to that harmful. People like you and I are dragged away and thrown into cages and left to rot for much less than that. The more they are having a field day getting away with not just basic crimes, but crimes against nature and crimes against humanity, and now horrendous crimes against life, our planet's very genome, they are destroying it all, and the more criminally insane they act, the harsher and more oppressive our civilian police become. The more they act like the scum and criminals they are, the more they want to police us down to what we think and say, to track our movements, know our most private details, deprive us of legal power to defend ourselves against them or force them to treat us like equals.

They believe that we are so dangerous to their continued self-serving total control, that they pay some of the most intelligent, and most devious thinkers in the world to devise ways of keeping us weak and frightened. The natural characteristics and behaviors of normal human beings are made illegal and so we are grossly over-punished for the slightest things.

This should explain the obsessions they have with mind reading and control technologies, bio-chips that track our movements, an interconnected national ID card, surveillance cameras and systems, intercepting all of our phone calls, faxes and emails, the list goes on and on. They are so afraid of us waking up and coming up with a plan to thwart them and get our world back they are militarizing the entire planet and we get to be the criminals. But we aren't the criminals, they are.

You know it and I know it and the people next door know it. We all know it. We all know we are drowning in chemical pollution, chemical drugging, chemical foods, chemical cleaning agents, and chemical weapons. The list is far too long to be something I could type up in this lifetime. All of the pollution and destruction of wars, all those bombs, the nuclear warheads, the oil being burned, the ships at sea dumping millions of gallons of oil in countless oil spills, dumping radioactive waste... you know the horror stories, I don't have to tell you. But who is behind it all? Who is it that wants the war and the polluting industries and the radioactive power plants and nuclear bombs, the filth spewing industries choking the air and the people?

That's not you and I HoneyDew. You and I could never come close to doing the damage that's been wrought by the psychopaths who control the world; but that won't stop them from trying to come up with ways to make us feel the guilt and take the blame for it. I assure you, we just could not achieve the destruction these people have brought upon the world.

We've all asked, how do they get away with it? Why won't they stop it? It's senseless. It's mindless. It's suicidal for the whole planet. But it is the profits for the rich that must always come first and the millions of deaths that requires is all part of the process. To them it's nothing to cry about. People have to die and suffer so that they can rake in the humungous wads of wealth they seem to need so very badly. It's like the Mafia guy says in the movies before he pops some poor devil that was grabbed off the street and thrown in a trunk. "It's nothing personal. It's just business. No hard feelings".

That's the model, and that's how they see it. Somehow this idea of 'business' superseding human life, and the two cannot be separated, and by the way, EVERYthing is personal, is just another example of one of the most egregious, invalid lies that's ever been sold to the people of Earth.

Every flaming thing that happens to us is personal. What else is there? Life is personal. Business isn't even a reality, it's an activity, a concept. That's what's not real. But they use it as a supposed excuse to detach themselves and their actions from humanity and make human life and all life irrelevant to the task of making themselves richer. As if there is anything legitimate about that. There isn't. Where's the bridge from acting like a decent human being to deciding you don't have to do that? The acts these people conspire to perpetrate on the world are criminal, but with the meaningless use of the label "business" we've all been conditioned to believe it gives them the right to get away with theft, murder, pillage and every other conceivable crime against man and nature. Just call it business and you can commit all the crimes you can squeeze into a lifetime.

Our heads are filled with all sorts of convoluted lies, things that don't make sense, that don't withstand scrutiny or questions, and that are never allowed to be brought up and challenged because now they are sacred rights. They are sacred truths, deeply ground into society for dozens of decades.

Today we all believe that we must get up and go to work every day, and that's the only way we can be considered worthy or decent people. But that is a standard imposed on us by people who profit off our labor, not a measure of real human worth or the value of human life. Working for wages has nothing to do with being a successful human being. The whole work ethic is a lie, it serves them, not us. Our entire lives have been subverted with lies and double think and false standards that are so stupid if you just stop and look at them, but nobody looks at them. All of this stuff becomes a permanent part of our psyche, just like Cinderella and Prince Charming, and the Good King concept, and most people swallow it without question and never look back. Our lives are stolen from us before we can even develop a person within, and who benefits? The criminal elite. Who loses? Well, we do. Every single day of our lives.

The lies and myths of the criminal elite saturate our world. It's all hog wash and fairy tales, but we can't see it for what it is. We see it as legitimate and real and it never even occurs to many people that nothing has to be the way it is now. Mankind can make all different choices and have a very different world to live in. There does not need to be war and pollution and injustice and poverty. But this is the world the criminal elites like, because it keeps people hungry and weak and afraid and dependent and trusting of the very people who use them their entire lives, and brutally discard them without hesitation when they can no longer turn a profit for the CEO's of the world. The Double Standard lets them be everything we most despise and everything we strongly rage against for being criminal, and wholly unacceptable. But somehow when they do it, we think it's okay. They think it's okay too, in fact they think it's their birthright to do anything they want to anyone they want, anytime they want. It's your complaining about it that's criminal.

These are not nice people. And they are not concerned with our health or well-being. It is an endless source of irritation to them that we want to feed the poor and care for the sick and elderly, and that we want to use our own tax dollars to improve the quality of our own lives and everyone's lives in our country. They see that as outrageous and completely unreasonable. The money belongs to them and we the workers and the poor just don't need to be okay. Our lives have no inherent value as they see it, only their lives are automatically special. The rest of us are disposable and we need to just shut up; at least as they see it.

The fight we waged for a five day work week instead of a 7 day work week, and an eight hour day instead of a 12 hour day; the fight to end child labor, the fight for living wages, for safe working conditions and medical benefits were long, hard, brutal wars that the rich criminal elites fought hard against, hook line and sinker, with all viciousness, violence and hatred. Our progress in finally achieving some of those things has now been erased, they've turned back the clock, and we've been robbed with clever lies of that part of the pay we won and that they owe us. We won those things with our blood and our lives during the last century. It will take an incredibly long, hard fight to ever get them back again, it may not be possible now, with the never before heard of massive wealth and interlocking systems of control of the rich today. Combined with modern technology and the death grip they have on our minds, we're the slave class baby, and they're just getting warmed up.

They do not think we deserve medical care, and they won't pay for it. That's who these people are. And that's who we are to them. They are true scum. The literal scum of the earth. They are the destroyers of all joy and health and nature. They are so stupid that they don't have the sense to not shit in their own beds. That's pretty damned stupid as I see it. Even so called "dumb" animals don't do that.

I had to say all of that so I can say what I want to say today. Which is how all of that ties into the cries of "loony conspiracy theorists", a phrase we hear constantly now a days. It's a phrase I've never heard so often before in my entire life.

It's perfectly clear for those who have passed through the veil and have gotten themselves some education on the facts of 9/11, that there is nothing to theorize. Our doubts are not theoretical. We're not interested in speculation. Our doubts are here because of a very simple thing. The story we've been told does not match the physical facts. At all. We are not being told the truth. And with all of the lies they've been caught telling, the dirty, immoral unethical tricks that really define the regime in power right now, the secrecy, the refusal to work with reality, the massive amounts of cash, the dirty dealings, threats and violence, the extreme right wing ideologues destroying everything they touch with such disdain for the people, such disrespect for life and law, and with so much pride and joy every time they screw someone to death. These people are criminals by any objective measure.

So why are they getting away with it when it's so obvious? Why are they not getting arrested and tried for crimes against humanity, for treason, for spying, for a whole long list of glaring crimes that are just astonishing. Why isn't Congress stopping them? Why are they helping them destroy our country?

It's that perk I mentioned before. The Double Standard. Most people buy into the brainwashing mythology, the rights of kings to rule. The rights of the President and his supposed executive authority. And because most people can't look at our government objectively because of their brainwashing, there is another element that holds it all up. Our enabling it.

We don't demand that these people must live by the same rules and standards that we do. We know we'll never see them in jail, or tried for their crimes. We know they aren't us and we aren't them. Not because there's any actual reasoning behind this, but only because it is their psychopathy that demands it. They live the Double Standard that allows them to run rough shod over this world and poop all over it, killing millions of people. Lying us into wars for oil profits and religious fanatical control of people all over the world who are not bothering anyone.

Why else does this government alone condone Israel's genocide of Palestinians? Why else do we sit still for the outrageous laws that have been passed that prevent us from suing or seeking damages or demanding justice from this government? They are legally scott free no matter what they do. They are supposed to uphold the law, but they break any and every law they like, at will. The Double Standard lets them do that. They can then turn around and create a police state for us to live in, where the slightest sideways look could be interpreted as a threat that gets you detained.

The Double Standard is something we've been conditioned to grant them without ever really thinking about it. It is that Double Standard that allows them to keep perpetrating their crimes all over the world. The willingness of so many clueless members of the public to bow down to them, to serve them, to serve their every whim, to die for them, is the only reason this goes on. Without our cooperation and agreement to let them be everything we think of as criminal and get away with it, AND tell ourselves they are the good guys, this is the sad reality that continues this whole nightmarish reality.

This is a protective support of that Double Standard for those people and to those who are the most fervent supporters, when people like us bring up hard facts that prove in no uncertain terms that these people are criminal scum, we are never thanked. On the contrary, we are despised. Literally hated. They scream obscenities at us, "How dare you!" "If you hate this country so much why don't you leave it!"

The Double Standard allows them to lie. They aren't doing anything wrong when they lie. It's only wrong to lie when we the people do it. Pointing out that Double Standard seems an outrage. Are we stupid? How dare we suggest that their lies and crimes and murderous actions, their greed and duplicity and the cancer that they are on this world, is somehow not wonderful and beautiful and they are our precious dear leaders who get to do whatever they like, just because they get to?

What's happening there is that we are not allowed to call them on that Double Standard. That's why we're not allowed to call them on any of the horrible problems bringing this world to a point of sickness and collapse that just may kill us all, and not a long time from now either. But we can't have any public discussion of any of those things, or the mind control techniques, or the drugs that are killing us, or the foods that are tainted and grotesque and dangerous, because it's all directly due to them. And the Double Standard means that they can be trying to kill us all and tell us they are protecting us and it's okay. We are not legally allowed to care more about our own lives than their profits. It's just as simple as that. We are criminals for even thinking along those lines; that's how their sycophantic twit followers feel, and that is most definitely how they feel.

That's why they get so angry when we bring our facts to the table. It's outrageous of us, who do we think we are? These are people who must not be challenged, because they could never defend themselves on an even playing field. If they were held to the same standards as the rest of us, we'd have run out of criminal elites eons ago. It's a symbiotic relationship of authoritarian twits who lick the boots of the guy above them, and kick the pants of the guy below them. It's hierarchical, a closed discretionary system of classifying the status, entitlement and value of human beings.

It's actually the legal and accepted way to value human life and as ignorant and outrageous as it is, it's exactly to the liking of both the criminal elites and the people most sucked into the belief that there's validity to any of this. And all kinds of different interests can jump on board for a lot of reasons to parasitically partner along for the ride for their own purposes. The religious set is all about authoritarianism, and it's so easy to mix the worship of God with worship of a phony pseudo King on earth. Not that there's any logic there, but it's not about logic. It's never about facts. Facts are evil and irrelevant. It's always about this fairy tale of entitlement for the "special" people who rule our lives however they please.

We who don't see other mortals as higher beings have no desire to play the 'Double Standards for the criminals in control' game. We want to hold them accountable. We want them prosecuted for their crimes. We can see the truth. We know the facts. We know they are criminals a thousand times over. It's an unfathomable and frustrating thing to be hated for our honesty, integrity, and desire to uphold and maintain the values of free, independent people who believe in working together as equal beings so that all may benefit and prosper. We don't need no stinkin' Kings or people who try to raise themselves above us, precisely because when that happens, we get what we've got now. A global crime syndicate in control, destroying our country and as much of the world as it can get its hands on, with no chance of prosecution or anyone being able to stop them until they're done glutting themselves. Either that or because some random miracle occurs to make them stop; although history and reality dictates that it will probably come to bloodshed and civil war, and even more suffering, death, and criminality.

What a dirty shame it is that those who hold themselves before us as our models of morality and family values are nothing but the scum of the earth; liars who have brought unbearable shame and loss upon this country and who are working to bring on its destruction so that they may prosper and benefit. They are the pinnacle of deceit and deception, and this is war. But they don't want us to recognize that, and their blind followers and fellow psychopaths are all to happy to rake in dollars to sell their souls by selling out their country to assist the criminal elites in obtaining their idiotic desire to have total control and ownership of the entire world and everyone and everything in it.

It is their erroneous, obnoxious, invalid claim to be able to live their lives inside the legally protected bubble of some right to Double Standards for the rich, that is the number one thing that defines them. Because we are all so brainwashed early in life to believe that such a claim and right is valid and even necessary, and because we feel so uncomfortable with suggesting that they are not different than everyone else and they must be held accountable for what they do, just like the rest of us, that they will never have to face responsibility or end their rampage of death, destruction and psychopathic greed. And the brainwashed public, subconsciously or otherwise, will protect their right to keep that Double Standard intact, even if it kills us all. It's a bad case of the Emperor's New Armageddon.

So, a 'crazy conspiracy theorist' is actually just someone who exposes and denies the invalid claims of the criminal elite to have Double Standards. In this world, in this time, and in this place, honesty is insane because the criminals reign.

Planet of the psychos, eh?

Just wanted to share that insight of the day.

The Law

We Americans are obsessed with rule following and the law to the point of ignorance. We think of rules and laws as something from on high that must not be broken. We don't believe we are free to ignore the law, even if it kills us to obey it. We quite literally accept the notion that the law is what is supreme and the law is what is noble and that it is the law that must be defended at all costs. We give our lives to protect the law.

The fact is, that makes no sense. At all. Where do I begin?

The law can't be supreme, only our lives can hold supreme meaning. Laws cannot be noble, only people can be noble. The law doesn't need to be defended because it can't be harmed, in fact it doesn't even exist except inside people's heads. People need to be defended because we can be harmed, we can cease to exist. And because we are irreplaceable and life is sacred, we need to take steps to defend and protect life. Therefore giving our lives to defend something that can't be harmed makes no sense. What is the law for if it is not to protect and defend our lives?

Here are a couple of obvious basics about laws which will probably not come as any surprise. In the first place, the law and the rules are nothing more than words. They are words written on paper or posted on signs. The words do not come from on high, or from beyond, nor are they eternal and immutable. They are not by any means guaranteed to be fair, or right, or moral, or correct and there is no legal obligation for them to be any of those things.

Laws are in fact wholly arbitrary and they are written to protect the interests of those who write them. That's why law in its current form exists. That's why it is so heavily propagandized and lauded in countless TV shows where we get all teary eyed over ideas like justice and righteousness, and we assign only the highest ideals to those who make our laws and those who are heavily armed and will shoot us in the back to uphold them.

Yes, we are trained and taught over and again to obey the laws. We are threatened with frightening stories about what happens when you break the law. We are constantly shown examples of those who break the law. They are held up to us by the scruff of the neck, eyes blackened by police brutality and torture, all legal of course, and we are told hair raising stories of their dastardly deeds and the wrongs they've done to the innocent. The message is clear. Only bad people break the law. And when the law is broken terrible things are the consequence. Without the law to steady the keel of social order, our whole system would break down and devolve into chaos and disorder, violence and cruelty, and it would all go to shit overnight. It would end everything.

Excuse me while I yawn. Yes yes, I've heard it all a million times just like you have but I've actually sat down and thought about it. And what I found out is that, honestly, all of that is pretty much crap. All of it is contrived and designed to keep you and me and everyone else living inside of self-enforced boundaries that prevent us from treading on the lawns of those who want us to believe we have no right to walk where ever we like in a country that we pay for 100%. That takes some amazing brainwashing. And we clearly do have that brainwashing because we all live in utter and desperate fear of doing the wrong thing, or being perceived to have done something wrong, and the mere sight of those glowing red lights in our rear view mirrors is enough to make even the bravest of us tremble with stomach churning anxiety.

It's really quite revolting in my humble opinion. I think it's time for all of us to at least stop long enough to look this whole subject right in the eye and size it up. Let's see what it really is, and who it's all about, and what the reasons and true purposes behind law truly are. This short but interesting adventure could possibly change the way you think of law and rules entirely, and it may very well empower you in ways you never knew existed. It might not do a thing for you, and there are definitely those who will be unable to do this exercise, feeling that they are breaking yet some other unwritten law. The one that says do not question authority. This exercise will indeed separate out those who believe authority is granted by the people, from those who believe authority is natural and cast in stone and must never ever be questioned. To those fitting the latter description you have my condolences. To those who are unafraid to take an intellectual trip into the idea of laws and rules and get a new perspective on things, I say let's do it.

Laws and rules are written by human beings no different than ourselves. The only difference between those who write the laws and make the rules and the rest of us is that they have the pen and they are in the official "rooms" where our laws are written. That's about it for qualifications. That is it for correctness, righteousness, accuracy, morality, ethics and every other adjective you might automatically assign to the concept of law. The bottom line is that laws and rules are a man-made thing. They are not necessary to human life. Human life can and has existed and thrived without a single law being in existence. The reality is that life on earth can get along just fine without man-made laws being imposed on us, we don't need them in any way, shape or form to live a good and meaningful life and do what we're here to do in this world.

It is man-made law that needs us to exist, it cannot continue without us. It needs us to agree to acknowledge it and abide by it but there is in fact no natural thing, no natural obligation for any humans to obey any man-made laws.

I know that sounds strange but look at it this way. Think of the other animals in the world, and that is what we are, we are animals, just one of the many kinds of animal life on this planet. Can you name one other animal besides man that obeys any man-made laws? Do dogs and birds and cats keep off the grass because there is a keep off the grass sign posted there? No, they do not. They don't care about any signs, and they don't care about any rules, and it's not just because they can't read. Even if they could read, they still wouldn't care. To them if a place exists and they want to walk on it they just go walk on it. The entire concept of permission or allowance or rules would be something they simply would not understand.

To them the idea of not being allowed to walk somewhere or do anything "because it is against the law" would be meaningless. And that's because it really is meaningless. It's all made up by guys who want things that way, it's not based on any kind of natural law. 'No Trespassing' signs will not prevent a single deer or bear or raccoon or rat or cricket or worm from going where ever it wants to. It couldn't care less about any posted signs, and the fact is it would be very difficult to take aside a raccoon or deer and explain to them that there are laws and that those laws must be obeyed.

The deer, if it could understand you, would listen to you speak and then it would look at you and say, "Why?" "Why must I obey any creature on this earth beyond myself? According to who? I am in charge of my life and this world belongs equally to all who live on it. I need no permission to go anywhere or do anything I like. I may eat whatever I find to eat where ever I find it. The food belongs to no one. If I find it and am eating it obviously it is mine to eat. No one else can own it. What a ridiculous idea. You are funny human, and unfortunately not too bright. We animals bow to no man, or beast. We are free and the world is ours. There are no rulers, rules or laws that are real beyond the laws of nature. We do not recognize your false claims of ownership of what is freely ours and always has been."

And they would be right.

There are no other animals than man on the face of the earth that would give one second's consideration to anyone telling them, "You can't do that!" Animals wouldn't even pause long enough to flip you off. It would literally mean nothing to them what we think or demand of them or each other. Our notions of obligated obedience are complete nonsense to them, (and they call them the dumb animals).

All the other animals on earth understand what life is and who they are, and they know the real laws of the world and they simply live by them. They don't need animal police, and they don't wage animal wars. They don't have animal gangs who run around destroying other animals homes just for the fun of it or to hoard all of the food even though they could never eat it all but only don't want others to be able to eat. The animals wouldn't put up with that for one second even if it ever did happen in their kingdom.

I'm afraid that whole hoarding and ownership thing is only in our kingdom, and it's no more valid here than it is out there, only we're not smart enough to realize that. Our minds can be gotten into and messed with so much that we no longer understand that we all have the right to food and shelter and life; or at the very least that no one has any conceivable right to prevent us from having those things. Animals know that without needing to talk about it. They have no compulsion to grab it all up for themselves and let all the other animals starve to death or be deprived of the use of the natural shelter all around. It's natural, simple, straightforward, obvious reality.

Animals also don't kill unless it's for food or in self-defense, with the exception of some species' testosterone saturated males who will sometimes act like jerks and do mean things, but that is the exception not the norm. Most often these males will fight each other around mating seasons. This is the time that they are driven to prove themselves the strongest, smartest male in the group and when they achieve that status, the females say, "You will do to father my offspring". It's not very romantic but it sure is sensible. And the males are happy as can be because they get to do the one and only thing, more than often, that they're any good for. I'm sorry but it's true. I don't make this stuff up, check it for yourself.

It is the female, the lioness, who is the hunter and who brings home the bacon for the family. It is the female and the matriarch who is the spiritual leader and boss, from elephants to the humans smart enough to realize that and go with the flow. The males are lazy and aggressive and are often otherwise, sorry but, basically useless and annoying. That's the breaks. That's not to say they aren't a hell of a lot of fun and we'd be lost without them. Okay I'm having some fun at the expense of males, I couldn't resist. Males are indeed needed and they are pretty cool.

One example of a very cool male is a 500 pound silverback gorilla. They are so strong they could tear your head off in a second, but you know what? They don't. There's something there worth noticing.

The amazing power these creatures have is not something they abuse even though they could abuse it for personal gain anytime they wanted to. They have no desire to abuse others with their power. Once again this is an aberration mostly human animals suffer from, with our powerful males feeling no compulsion at all to restrain their ability to abuse others for personal gain, or just for the pleasure it gives them to do it. They get off on it. For the gorillas, self-restraint is a natural law that does not require policing to enforce. It only requires being a natural animal to understand the world they live in, and they have a natural respect for the lives of others. Why would they be motivated to be abusive of anyone? What would it get them that they don't already have? You see, it's not a burden for them. It's common sense based on the reality and truth of natural law.

It's really very simple and reasonable when we're talking natural law. It only gets complicated when we're talking about human made laws, because those are basically a whole lot of crap.

The whole point of human made laws is to prevent people from doing certain things. That's really what it boils down to, and it's not always a bad idea. Sometimes the best thing a community can do is get together and decide things like, it's not okay for people to kill each other just because they want your stuff. It's not okay to walk into someone else's house and take their stuff. It's not okay to hurt people because you want their stuff or just because you don't like them. Everyone agrees to the rules because they're equal and logical and they apply to everyone in a fair and sensible way.

Having those rules in place makes sense and it allows the people of that community to have a shared value system which can be a very good thing. It lets people feel safer as they go about their business and it allows steps to be taken when someone breaks the rules and causes harm or damage to others that is unfair or unjustified. It makes their community a nicer place to live because they've agreed they won't be victimized by evil people, and they will stand together and run those bad guys out of town, or otherwise deal with them.

It's all just too tiresome, frustrating and time consuming when bad guys breeze in and rape and pillage the place every five minutes, and face it, who wouldn't get real tired of that sort of thing? Laws are put in place to define an agreed upon right and wrong and to uphold and defend that shared agreement to benefit the whole community. It's a good arrangement for a group of honorable people to live by.

The trouble is, mankind is often not very honorable. In fact, some people are down right rotten to the core. They will lie and overstate things, make false claims and accusations, and they do it to get something they don't deserve but want anyway. And they aren't ashamed of it in the least, at least until they get caught and are proven to be greasy slimy liars who end up in jail. That's another series of laws we quickly passed, 'No greasy slimy liars when it comes to public dealings'. You can do it at home with your own family, but not to anyone else because we don't have to put up with your private tyranny and delusions of grandeur and entitlement to have it all your way. There is no such thing in the real world pal, so keep it to yourself. (Unless of course you're the President of the United States. HE'S the decider according to him. Like I said, delusions of grandeur.)

It's all quite reasonable. And to the extent that the laws are made and agreed to by the same people who will have to follow them, then it's a pretty good deal. They can change their laws when they need changing and no one is forced to comply with anything against their will.

But the laws have to be fair and treat everyone equal or it's not law anymore, it's corruption. And all of that is easy to see when you're directly involved in your own self-governing. Where the people ARE the law, it's quite difficult for a cadre of weasels to move in and take over because they have no power over anyone else.

And that's precisely why the entire idea of power over others was shoved into the law books. Human weasels exist. They are real and they want to be in charge of others. If you think about it for a minute it should become apparent why anyone would want to have power over others. Claiming that you have power over others entitles you to get away with wrong doing. It entitles you to treat others unfairly and prevent them from being able to do anything to protect themselves from you. Power over others is great for the sociopaths who crave it so badly. Power over others is not a normal thing to want, and most of us would have little desire for it.

Power over others is not a natural thing. It is not necessary and it is rarely something people welcome. We don't like anyone having power over our lives, and we don't need it. It doesn't help us in any way. When anyone has power over our lives it only helps them, those who have the power. It enables them to decide what the rules are, regardless of whether we like it or not, and there are only two rules once power over others is introduced into the law books.

Rule number one is that he who has the guns makes the rules.
Rule number two is that he who has the money makes the rest of the rules.

There is no rule number three. That's all of it. It doesn't matter if there are a million laws on the books, those are the two that it all boils down to. And they say the law is too complicated to understand. Nope. It's as simple as can be.

Those who are represented by rule number one, and those who are represented by rule number two may disagree with the ranking order, but that's really nothing that affects the rest of us. It doesn't matter who's number one, the end result is all the same to those who don't get to make any of the rules. What it boils down to for us is that the rich people will make rules all day and all night that say rich people matter and you don't and the guys with the guns will show up and get you if you don't happen to like those rules. That's our whole legal system in a nutshell. Go ahead and tell me I'm wrong. You can't. That really is what it is.

Something else it is, is totally invalid. The laws that put power over others on the books are false laws based on nothing valid. Power over others is not a necessity of life. We don't need no stinkin' power over others, nor do we need anyone to have power over us. We would do just fine thank you, without power on this earth. We'd be fine, we would thrive, we would get along somehow without being told what we cannot do by twits who think they own us. It is they who would not fare well. They would cease to be. It is they who need us in order to continue existing, not the other way around. That is what I mean when I say "natural" law.

Because what is the law really if it is not the law of life? If it is not the law of simple truth? If our man-made laws are not the written expression of human truth, then they can't be valid. And the fact is, we don't need laws to be written if they are natural laws, because natural laws can't be broken. Natural laws cannot be shot dead or eradicated or destroyed or corrupted. They just are what they are because that's what they are.

For instance, it is a natural law that females give birth. You can pass a man-made law that requires men to give birth and women will be arrested if they keep it up, but you already know that man-made law won't change a thing. It's a stupid law. It's demanding that natural law be subordinated to some stupid human's idiotic will. It doesn't work that way and there's nothing you can do about it.

As amusing as that may be, it is not a silly measurement of validity, it's really quite valid, and it's something more serious and real and worthy of our consideration than those men who make our millions of man-made laws would like us to notice.

There really is such a thing as natural justice. We are all capable of knowing what feels fair and right. We are capable of witnessing acts and of knowing right away if they were just and fair or criminally unjust. It's a simple thing to determine and this again is something we need no man-made laws to frame or define for us.

Justice is within us and it is self evident, when we know the given facts we can come up with the just conclusions. It's a beautiful thing that the rest of the animal world enjoys every day. But in our part of the animal kingdom, we can't seem to get everyone to play fair and be honest, or be reasonable, or be led by a sense of justice or fairness. In the human animal there is an anomaly, people who don't care about what's fair or right or just, and who have no interest in anything beyond getting what they want for themselves no matter who it belongs to or who they must hurt or cheat to get it.

These people are obviously not right in the head but unfortunately, these people tend to be the ones that make our laws because they are also the ones who crave all that power over everyone. It is because of them that our whole system of laws has turned into the convoluted polluted mess of incomprehensible legalese spaghetti it is today. Our laws are now too many and too confusing to be of any use to the vast majority of us. We literally need to hire consultants who spend their entire lives buried in law books to have any chance of making our way through the nightmare that is our legal system. This system is not user friendly, and it doesn't even try to be.

The law has become so far removed from the average citizen that it has become a monster. It consumes us in our ignorance. Because the law and those who 'uphold' it are both self-concerned and self-worshiping, there is little doubt that our current system of so called law and order, our system of justice, is only concerned with it's own power and continued control over the public and very little else.

We are always right to challenge the law anytime we see it working in contradiction to simple truth and justice, and sadly, it often does just that. The bottom line is that our system of laws is no more real or valid or powerful than we decide to let it be and although it would claim to have power over us, it does not and cannot, there is no mechanism or proof of any such thing. We can walk away from it any time we like and just blow it off.

We can say, "You are invalid and we are no longer interested in playing your stupid power games that control us and our lives and are patently unfair. Leave us alone, you are nothing. We are better off without you." We can indeed turn and walk away anytime, and that is the truth, the natural law, our birthright, something that cannot be changed. It is the reality of human law.

It is always up to us what our own laws are, and it is always up to us whether or not to accept them, obey them, abide by them or have anything to do with them. The only power human law has is the power we give it. And the power we give it can also be taken away, by us.

That is the reality of power and the fact is that reality has been subverted and propagandized by very clever, very devious, very evil people who have sold us the notion that they must have power over us to keep us safe. That is always a lie. No one can keep us safe. If you think that through you'll realize the truth of it. Fear is the tool that enslaves us. And nonexistent power is what keeps us beneath those who feed off of us and deprive us of natural justice.

There are no beings on this planet who have any entitlement to control others. In order to do so they must use force and that is never legitimate power, obviously. Force is not power it is force. It is the lowest form of human existence on this planet. Any moron can be violent, it takes no thought or intellect or talent. Force is the cheap trick that seeks to cover the truth of it's own invalidity with the blood of others. It is never respected, it is never valid, and it is what lies at the core of the laws that we are forced to endure and live by today.

That threat of force is with us at all times, and it is never concerned with justice. It is only concerned with our total compliance. It is instantly exerted at the slightest sign of our disobedience or disagreement. I would say that the legitimacy of our entire system of laws is in serious question because when laws are just there is no need to use force against anyone. Why the need for such brutality if this is such a just system of laws? Why the lust for such extreme punishment if this system is so fair, reasonable and compassionate?

People every where are all too happy to live in a just world, and many of us would really like to try it. It is usually only when people are deprived of justice that they refuse to comply with the laws, and when they do that, they are severely punished. Who does it serve to condition us to see government brutality and murder of citizens for failure to obey the law as a valid thing for governments to do? It doesn't serve us. It serves them. We are never threatened by the public airing of grievances to determine what is fair and what is right. Only the governments of the world are threatened by the idea of real justice for the people. Are you beginning to see the pattern?

This is the ugly reality and the truth is that power corrupts. The entire notion of power is something to reconsider because as far as I can tell, it really has no validity in this world.

Our American freedom is a grand illusion, and the law is only a tool of those who want to control us so badly. It is the highest trick they have, which they alone can use to get us to believe they have such a thing as power over our lives. This is why they do their business in court.

If we rejected this unnatural man-made system of law, what device would exist that they could use to convince us that we are obligated to do things their way? What device could they point to and claim that by virtue of this device they have control and power over all of our lives?

There is no such device. Nothing exists that allows others power and control over us except this one thing: not the law itself for it has no power or virtue on it's own, but only our belief that the law must never be broken. That belief alone is what perpetuates the status quo and allows this broken system to continue with no hope of our cleaning it up and making it honest. We don't have the power to do that. We only have the power to walk away, but they have ways of dealing with that too. They seem pretty desperate don't they, if that's what it takes to keep people under their control. There is nothing about their claims to power and control that is valid enough to make it unnecessary for them to use force against us, to force our compliance with their laws and self-interested demands.

This is also why they control the courts, and why the courts and all who work in them, work for those who control us and claim to have power over our lives. The courts do not exist for us and they do not exist to bring justice. They exist as a tool of officialdom and majik to make us believe that when we are deprived of justice in court that they have won fair and square and we are obliged to accept whatever they say. It is a tool that enables them to retain false power and control regardless of truth or justice.

It's all quite obvious once you see it, it's right there for all to see. If we can see through the propaganda that makes us all believe that just because it is a law it must be respected and obeyed and upheld we could set ourselves free from our self-imposed self-limiting erroneous beliefs. That we must obey all laws and rules is nothing but a huge propaganda job that's done on our minds, not for our benefit, but for theirs. If those who control us were truly interested in justice, it would be they who would be explaining this to you, not me. But they will never be this honest because the risk is just too high that we would reject their phony power and reject their control and deny their false claims to run the world to their liking. If it was our choice we would choose natural justice to rule ourselves and we would make them go away. And they know that.

And now you know it too. Interesting, yes? Do you look at the law any different now? Geez, I hope so. And I hope it's gotten you closer to the reality that we're all consistently denied knowledge of. The power really does belong to us, and we can change it all any time we like. The constitution doesn't give us the right to live in a just world, natural law gives us that right. That is the real natural law that can never be broken. It belongs to us all and it always will. If only we knew it, maybe we could finally put an end to the injustice that rules our world and begin the simple work it would take to make our world a better place for everyone.