Please rise and put your hand over your heart while the authorities recite the National Security Poem.
"You may not speak
so that we can keep you safe.
You may not see
so that we can keep you safe.
You may not hear
so that we can keep you safe.
You may not ask
so that we can keep you safe.
You may not know
so that we can keep you safe.
You may not complain
so that we can keep you safe.
You may not refuse
so that we can keep you safe.
You may not live
so that we can keep you safe."
"Amen."
You may now be seated.
...
Zombie. Borg. Robot. Android.
(Animated non-living things without self awareness that perform automatic functions.)
Slave. Servant. Soldier. Worker.
(Living humans who must forfeit personal identity and forego self-interest to obediently perform the will of another. These humans give up their own free will to become an extension of somebody else's free will. Doing so is called performance of duty, employment or slavery.)
Cult member. Extremist. Fundamentalist. Member of a collective.
(Persons who give up personal autonomy after being convinced by extremely effective brainwashing that they want to be worshipful, obedient members, followers and believers of a brainwasher's will. The promised reward is religious/spiritual/political attainment/status/reward by way of receiving supposedly superior/special knowledge that only the brainwasher has.)
Whether mechanical or human all of the above entities have one overriding theme in common: they are servile. They are all required to operate devoid of free will. Dissent is unwelcome. Resistance is punished. Refusal to perform as instructed for any reason having to do with rational self interest such as staying alive, or conscience such as not wanting to kill innocent people or take people's homes or property, or any other expression of individual free will asserted as a legitimate cause for disobedience, is deemed unacceptable, criminal and punishable. Servile entities don't get an opinion. Their free will is irrelevant. Nobody cares about what they think. Their claims of conscience are also irrelevant.
If you are a servile entity you have only one purpose for living and that purpose is to obey your master; at least according to the masters. Disobedience is not tolerated. Willful disobedience can get you fired, court martialed, attacked by other servile entities, imprisoned, beaten up, tortured and even killed. The message is clear, obey or suffer the consequences.
It is interesting to note that the creation of robots and androids to replace thinking, feeling, disobedient humans has long been the serious desire of the controlling wealthy, the capitalists, industrialists, military leaders, dominators, tyrants and slave owners. All of these entities are notorious exploiters of humanity in their pursuit of personal profit, power and status. They all want and demand the same thing: unthinking, totally loyal, completely obedient workers, slaves, citizens and soldiers who will work long hours for little or no pay, with few or no benefits, few or no human rights or other rights, who exist only to do what they are told. They are never to question or challenge authority, never act disobediently, and lay down their lives without hesitation should their master/owner/commandant/leader order it.
It is clear that this arrangement definitely benefits those in control. What is not so clear and is little discussed is how little benefit there really is in being the one who is controlled.
Wouldn't you think that people who are willing (or unwillingly forced) to give up their own personal self interests, life goals, free will and self determination for someone else to use for their own self interests, life goals, free will and self determination would be paid extremely well for such a valuable thing? What is more valuable than the freedom to create one's own life? To work not to achieve someone else's vision and goals but to achieve your own.
That is after all the most basic and obvious thing for us to do with our lives. Not to work at the baker's shop but to own your own bakery. Not to bake their recipes but to create and bake your own.
Not to be told what to do but to decide for yourself how to best manage and use your own time. To set your own standards, establish and live by your own values, to come and go as best suits you.
Not to be imprisoned by arbitrary wage ceilings imposed by others but to keep the full fruits of your own labor, which is the only way and chance there is of accumulating wealth of any kind for most working people. For the vast majority of us being employed means being functionally poor, forever. Being self employed and working hard can and often does create a very nice, comfortable level of wealth that allows you to be independent and free. Giving that up so that someone else can use your body for labor, your hands and your mind for their own uses and benefits... you would think this would be something highly prized and appreciated and therefore very well compensated, but no, it's just the opposite. The pay sucks and your life is owned and run by people who use you. They profit, you don't. It's a hole that is very hard, if not impossible, to crawl out of.
When people give up their own free will, their own freedom, their own self interests, their own dignity for any reason or cause, they become non-persons. They don't count anymore. They are mere objects, tools to be used by their owners. People who allow themselves to be used by others for those others' personal enrichment are not respected for doing so. They are often treated quite poorly. They are used and used up and discarded.
When people give up their own free will, their own freedom, their own self interests, their own dignity for any reason or cause, they become non-persons. They don't count anymore. They are mere objects, tools to be used by their owners. People who allow themselves to be used by others for those others' personal enrichment are not respected for doing so. They are often treated quite poorly. They are used and used up and discarded.
When anyone forfeits their self respect, they won't be respected for it, they'll be used and abused. Is anyone confused by that? It's very simple. It is not hidden.
...
I am always saddened when I hear of soldiers coming home from active duty who are wounded and/or spiritually decimated and coming apart at the seams; in particular when they come home but do not receive necessary support or medical care or must wait impossibly long periods for appointments and/or get terrible care that is in fact not care at all. In essence they're abandoned. At the same time I'm always a bit incredulous when soldiers families or other advocates express surprise over this abandonment. Not because it's not outrageous because it certainly is heinous and outrageous, but because of one basic, simple fact that every person who joins the military should know but which strangely and often doesn't seem to register.
It is not hidden. When you join the military you literally sign your life away. You sign complete and total ownership and control of your body and your life over to the US Government; whoever and whatever that may mean. Your body and your life become the legal property of unknown others who are free to do anything they want with you or to you.
...
I am always saddened when I hear of soldiers coming home from active duty who are wounded and/or spiritually decimated and coming apart at the seams; in particular when they come home but do not receive necessary support or medical care or must wait impossibly long periods for appointments and/or get terrible care that is in fact not care at all. In essence they're abandoned. At the same time I'm always a bit incredulous when soldiers families or other advocates express surprise over this abandonment. Not because it's not outrageous because it certainly is heinous and outrageous, but because of one basic, simple fact that every person who joins the military should know but which strangely and often doesn't seem to register.
It is not hidden. When you join the military you literally sign your life away. You sign complete and total ownership and control of your body and your life over to the US Government; whoever and whatever that may mean. Your body and your life become the legal property of unknown others who are free to do anything they want with you or to you.
When you sign your life over to someone else to use in whatever way they see fit, you're taking quite a serious risk. You will get no written contractual assurances that you will get anything in return for entering into this bizarre one way legal agreement. When you join the military you are required to sign countless legal documents. The US Government is getting their legal end covered in iron clad chains and shackles. When you sign your name countless times you are attesting that you are of sound mind and adult age and that you freely choose to forfeit your conscience and free will to become the legal property of an entity that can and will use you in whatever way it sees fit. Once you do that, you no longer have a voice. You are not free to leave. Your opinion is not wanted. Your dissent will not be tolerated. Your well-being will not be assured. It was your choice. You made a legal contractual irrevocable agreement to give your life over to be used by a government. You surrendered your free will and your life, and you agreed to be promised nothing of equal value in return.
Think about it. You are required to sign legal ownership of your body over to the government and to release them from all liability for any harm or sickness or disability or death that comes to you in performance of your job duties. The only reason they have any interest in you is because you are willing to become government property with no rights of any kind. And what is it they want to use you for? Killing. They will use you until they use you up. To them, thousands of soldiers getting killed is all a part of doing business. And in this government especially, they clearly don't want to pay for medical care or benefits of any kind. They are legally entitled to send you back home in a bag or box or just drop-kick you to the curb. So when it's clear they only want you if you're killing for them, then when you're no longer able to kill, they have no use for you, how can you be surprised when they don't give a rats ass about what you need? The higher-ups are not disconnected. They understand just fine. They just don't give a damn. Nothing is hidden. It's all right out in the open, yet how many soldiers do not or will not see it?
...
To be forced, coerced, convinced, sold, steered, marketed or otherwise shoved into a direction that leads to a lifetime of servitude is to be deprived of freedom. Freedom to live life on one's own terms. To be convinced that giving that up in exchange for endless servitude is a good thing is to be convinced of a very old and very evil lie. What is it to discover one's own possibilities, interests, feelings, passions, principles, strengths and weaknesses but to discover one's own truths? What else matters so much as that? What else can hold any meaning for us but our own truths?
Zombies. The walking dead. These are people who have been separated from the important work of truly being alive, learning to understand themselves and others through coming to understand the world we all live in. This can only truly be done through independent discovery, independent thought and reason and living in service to one's own conscience. To understand truth, to own truth, you have to get to it on your own and when you do that it becomes a part of you. You know why it is, you know what it is, and you know what it means. You also know it is not a full and finished whole but only a part of a frankly inconceivable greater whole. We can not be given truth or simply be told what is true. The only way any of us can get to truth is by virtue of devotion to finding it, and devotion is something that comes from the heart. It is what it is. This search for truth, for meaning, for understanding, for self, this is the unique journey of every person's lifetime.
Or... you can skip all that and just be out to make money and enslave people.
Think about it. You are required to sign legal ownership of your body over to the government and to release them from all liability for any harm or sickness or disability or death that comes to you in performance of your job duties. The only reason they have any interest in you is because you are willing to become government property with no rights of any kind. And what is it they want to use you for? Killing. They will use you until they use you up. To them, thousands of soldiers getting killed is all a part of doing business. And in this government especially, they clearly don't want to pay for medical care or benefits of any kind. They are legally entitled to send you back home in a bag or box or just drop-kick you to the curb. So when it's clear they only want you if you're killing for them, then when you're no longer able to kill, they have no use for you, how can you be surprised when they don't give a rats ass about what you need? The higher-ups are not disconnected. They understand just fine. They just don't give a damn. Nothing is hidden. It's all right out in the open, yet how many soldiers do not or will not see it?
...
To be forced, coerced, convinced, sold, steered, marketed or otherwise shoved into a direction that leads to a lifetime of servitude is to be deprived of freedom. Freedom to live life on one's own terms. To be convinced that giving that up in exchange for endless servitude is a good thing is to be convinced of a very old and very evil lie. What is it to discover one's own possibilities, interests, feelings, passions, principles, strengths and weaknesses but to discover one's own truths? What else matters so much as that? What else can hold any meaning for us but our own truths?
Zombies. The walking dead. These are people who have been separated from the important work of truly being alive, learning to understand themselves and others through coming to understand the world we all live in. This can only truly be done through independent discovery, independent thought and reason and living in service to one's own conscience. To understand truth, to own truth, you have to get to it on your own and when you do that it becomes a part of you. You know why it is, you know what it is, and you know what it means. You also know it is not a full and finished whole but only a part of a frankly inconceivable greater whole. We can not be given truth or simply be told what is true. The only way any of us can get to truth is by virtue of devotion to finding it, and devotion is something that comes from the heart. It is what it is. This search for truth, for meaning, for understanding, for self, this is the unique journey of every person's lifetime.
Or... you can skip all that and just be out to make money and enslave people.
Posts
ihemeThis begins in the beginning. Very early on we are taught to pledge allegiance to the flag and the republic. When were you ever taught to say "I pledge allegiance to myself?" We played Army all over the neighborhood when I was a kid. We would blow each other away on the neighbor's front lawn while they sat on the porch and thought about how cute we were. Hell, the Cub Scouts is nothing more than your first ROTC training. Can we really be surprised that kids grow up to be soldiers? This is the insane asylum of the universe.
ReplyDeleteBut beyond that; Happy Holidays, Angie! (No, really.)
Ang,
ReplyDeleteThe soldier as an example of a robot executing orders is spot-on. But other professions can be just as ‘robotic’: the accountant, the lawyer, even the scientist developing new and more destructive weapons. They do what they are being told. Otherwise its dismissal. Why do they sign their free will or their life away ? Its the ‘promises’ as you put it. The job is being marketed as ‘glorious’, saving the world or at least your country, etc etc. And the fine print, when you sign up, is so legalese that no mere mortal can understand it. So, you just skip over it and sign. And wake up later, confused, broken, maimed, or dead.
‘We can not be given truth’, we must find it ourselves. And that is for many a difficult job. Not because they are dumb, but because they have never been given the tools and techniques. School, parents, friends didn’t teach them to ask questions. Nobody encouraged them to go on that demanding journey. So, you ‘skip all that and just .. make money and enslave people’ or let yourself be enslaved....
This post helped me to understand a few things better. Thanks Angie (and best wishes for the new year)
Rolf
Jerry,
ReplyDeleteThank you for the well wishes for the new year; ditto back atcha.
You make a good point saying when were we ever taught to say "I pledge allegiance to myself"?
Isn't that so very strange?
How is it that you and I know that self respect and self worth are necessary and obligatory in order to function in this world - while so many others don't seem to have any clue about that? Where did we get this knowledge or is it that others are talked out of believing it?
I don't think I necessarily got this information and my understanding of it from my parental units, I feel that I came to see it and know it because it is true. Do you know where you got this knowledge? The point being, is this innate or is it taught? Because I think it is innate but like anything else within us, it can be shut down by others in many ways.
You are right, I have always seen it... generation after generation people go through the same daily motions not because they are driven by any deep desire to do what they do, but because it is expected of them and even required by society. We are largely orchestrated to accept for ourselves positions of subservience to wealth, power and authority as "good" and "natural" and right, and few question this. I find that completely bizarre. I question everything, not because I'm full of myself because I'm really not, but because when something doesn't make sense I ask for answers. There are not good enough answers here. It is subservience conditioning, social programming, that has calcified itself into society after being repeated for generations with few asking "why". Those who ask why are called troublemakers or anarchists or treasonous... and if power proper doesn't punish them for it then their own fellow citizens often will. Not particularly bright in my humble opinion but there it is anyway.
Thanks for your comment.
Ang
Hi Rolf,
ReplyDeleteDo you know what mystifies me about soldiering and men? It is that men are often rather dominant creatures by nature, or at least they act that way. They are also very competitive. They hate being wrong. They hate losing. In other words, they would loathe being forced to be a lesser being; being knocked down to a bigger, tougher, stronger man. God help us all if it was a woman knocking him down to size.
Yet in the military it is accepted and even embraced to leave your conscience, self worth, dignity, critical thinking skills, everything about you, at home. These are not wanted and not welcomed. No questions, just unthinking immediate obedience, even if it means you're gonna die or do something you would never think of doing otherwise.
I know this is all mixed in with some very noble, higher traits in men, like loyalty and the desire to do good in this world... perhaps it is the skillful conflation of the idiotic with the noble that disables our ability to see it for what it really is.
I wholly agree with you. We are not given the tools and techniques we need to think critically and analyze and question and determine the objective facts of things. I think some of this is a direct result of poor language and reading skills because we can't express our thoughts and feelings well, and because without an excellent vocabulary we cannot be precise in our thoughts. Thinking becomes sloppy and generic. We need better education to have a fighting chance against those who benefit most from enslaving others.
Thank you for your comment.
All the best to you in 2011.
Ang
Great post. I am blessed to be on a path where I can discover my own truths and work in service of myself and those I care about, while discovering what it really is to live and be a human BEing.
ReplyDeleteI think more people are starting to wake up and ask questions. Their needs are not being met. Many know something isn't right, but like a fish in the ocean being unaware of the water it swims in, they have no frame of reference for anything outside their brainwashed lives of slavery.
Like an addict, I had to "hit bottom" within my life of slavery before I woke up and did something about it. I was always a questioner, but I didn't see any other way to survive.
Now I am fundamentally accountable to my own free will, and the level of personal responsibility involved is astounding and intimidating. Many people like being slaves because it is easy and (seems)safe.
I don't know what the answer is, but I wish I could find a few more free thinkers to help create a new paradigm.
Love and light to you in the new year Ang.
Freyja aka Maitreya
Interesting 'blog'-or whatever they call these things.......
ReplyDeleteConsider- that 30 or 40 years ago, one could go to the local public library three or four times a week, and you would never find books that touched on topics that are tossed around on sites like this, (let alone being able to actually comment on them)-when was the last time that anybody reading this, wrote a snailmail letter to the author of a book?
To actually wake up- years later, and find that nearly all of the history books that one poured over, were all a pack of lies!?!
But even then, there were people out there, who were trying to get the message across:
Go placidly amid the noise and waste,& remembering the joys of owning a piece thereof. Rotate your tires. Speak loveingly of persons nearest you, (even though you know them to be turkeys)- know what to kiss &when.
Rest assured, that a walk through the ocean of most souls would scarcely get your feet wet. (For a good time, email Dave- at this addy. Take heart amid the deepening gloom, that your dog is getting enough cheese. The world continues to deteriorate- give up!
-from Deterioata, National Lampoon.
Cheer up, Angie- You have a voice, and you are being heard! (And You are not alone).
One does not have to be an American citizen to care about the American people! (Too bad about your government, though).
Happy New Year, to you folks!(Up here in 'the great white north', we got your back!
Neighbours-right?
Freyja,
ReplyDeleteThanks. Well I almost kind of envy you if you're in a position to be on a self-directed path. Hooah! I'm nowhere near that kind of freedom yet, but hey, our paths still crossed anyway. Funny that.
I think getting yourself unceremoniously drop-kicked out of mainstream life and landing flat on your face in sheer terror is where it all begins. The well worn path doesn't go anywhere, it just goes round and round like a stained old parade. The alone, naked, cold and horrified path is much more interesting.
And I think you're right about people waking up. Folks just don't know what to do about any of it. More people are going to wake up and when enough do things will change for the better.
Thank you for your comment.
Ang
Sheik Yerbootie,
ReplyDeleteYou're right, the internet blew the doors completely off the state's ability to keep our heads inside little boxes. We can hear all manner of voices and hear all manner of experiences thanks to this new fangled method of two way information exchange. Instead of just being on the receiving end of a one size fits all broadcast, we can jump through the screen and run around anywhere we want and talk to whoever we want and listen to whatever we want. I'm sure they're freaking up there in the "Total control" department of freedom and democracy. It's good for them. I particularly like finding all the interesting history I never knew a thing about. It's great to have this living library.
I'm not as much sad about this stuff as I am angry. It's good exercise for me.
By all means watch our backs from up there in the great white north.
I know I'm not alone, not by a long shot.
Thanks for saying hello.
Ang