One's Reform
Not being able to govern events, I govern myself.—Montaigne
During times of blatant or concealed oppression, when things seem not to be right with the world, it's common to have feelings of anger, frustration, and even despair. What's forgotten is much of these grievances are ultimately external to ourselves. While it may be intuitive and feel good to immediately try to thwart and resist such issues, there's sometimes a more optimal way to bypass it all.
Whenever I'm surfing on a beach and there's a rip current, I make sure swim parallel to it, not against it; or else I will get caught in the moving water's path of least resistance and get pushed out to sea away from the surf zone. Learning how to do this makes the whole process of surfing smoother and a more pleasant experience. Similarly, there are forces at work that push events no matter how strong or how much force one tries to counteract it.
Much has been discussed regarding reform movements, particular in the great works of literature. Eric Hoffer the author of the True Believer, prophetically described the mindset of people who gravitate toward mass movements and the sort of attitude man takes as reactionary factions become more popular. We see this today with the neo-reactionaries movements and whatever other fad people are joining thinking social change can be substituted for a lack of personal responsibility.
In the The Ordeal of Change Hoffer wrote, "When a population undergoing drastic change is without abundant opportunities for individual action and self-advancement, it develops a hunger for faith, pride and unity. It becomes receptive to all manner of proselytizing, and is eager to throw itself into collective undertakings which aim at 'showing the world'."
All types of social reforms have not only been futile, as shown by history especially in the 20th century, but it has led nearly everyone astray in how they view their own personal lives. Confrontation has been the focal point over circumvention, and what has that amounted to? Perhaps by focusing on trying to reform ourselves, individuals will find out that it's the only thing one can do with any possible degree of certainty and this might as well in the end "change the world".
So true, there is so much we can do to change ourselves and our own personal world. Everyone doing that together, individually, is what makes real change. Groups do not think, and never effect change, they are always the unconscious tools of power.
Your observation is so relevant to today. As economic pressure grows on the average person, rather than fighting their oppression with what tools they have, and trying to find truth that will set them free, the majority of people just want to bury their heads deeper into the sand. As times get harder I see more and more people doubling down on escapism, and the fantasy world presented by consumerism and the mass media.
Rather than fighting for individual freedom, which also brings with it individual responsibility, we see the rise of collectivist, socialist ideas, happening right now all over the Western world. Millenials in particular are hard Marxists, the statistics show this very clearly.
It's unfortunate isn't it? I guess thats how it goes though. The individual, like you say still has opportunities to strive with the available tools such as crypto and the like; and this will always remain, the the controllers can't ever seem to get rid of the dissenters, rebels, etc... This should be the focus.
Yes, the so-called alt-right and pro-nationalist movements are inherently collectivist as much as the marxist ones, yet many in my generation don't see it.
Yes, that is definitely true. It's not as obvious on the right wing of the spectrum, but in the end many still support groupthink, statism and collectivist ideas, rather than free market competition, personal liberty and respect for private property.
At the same time self-professed Marxists, socialists, SJWs and Antifa groups are much more destructive, both in terms of the demoralisation and destabilisation of the basic fabric of society, as well as just outright oppression and violence. And they far outnumber the right.
Are you familiar with Yuri Bezmenov, the former KGB agent and defector? He did some fantastic interviews back in the 80s, and wrote a couple of brilliant books talking about the methodology and tactics of the Soviet intelligence apparatus, which he himself was deeply involved in.
Will check him out. Seems like marxist ideology has been a great tool to deceive the masses.
It is the greatest paradox in human history that the world's biggest capitalists have funded Marxist ideology since it's inception and continue to do so up to today.
It's logical though if you think about it. There's nothing better for the international moneylenders than big government. There is no better customer!
Another excellent author I would like to share with you is Prof. Anthony C. Sutton. He proved beyond any doubt that the Soviet Union was built from the ground up by the West, through a combination of loans, technological assistance agreements, exchanges of patents, industrial cooperation, and outright shipping of critical materials for their industrial development. The same is true for China and even Hitler's Germany. The document trail is there and is absolutely beyond doubt.
Yuri Bezmenov was well aware of this too, and mentions it in the talk I sent you above.
Thanks for sharing these videos. Interesting stuff to digest!
It's very logical and makes perfect sense. The State is the best mechanism to grease out as much money as possible; and capitalism as a system just means using capital as a means to generate an economy, which is virtually every economic system. There is just a difference between capitalists that are monopolists versus laissez faire capitalists.
It's a perfect triangle between banks, who collect interest on loans to governments, who then spend that money on contracts given to private corporations, which are in turn owned by the same people who own the banks!
That, in essence, is Marxist, socialist, Keynsian economics, whatever you want to call it. It is the absolute opposite of a free market.
Collectivism is the perfect ideology for such a system, because, ultimately, it has nothing to do with personal freedom and equality, but everything to do with work. The herd mentality is encouraged as it creates good workers, who will sacrifice themselves for the common good, which is really the good of the owners of the system.
From this type of activities you can always get a great lesson, sometimes the most important lessons are when we get in touch with nature, seeing things much clearer.
I imagine that learning from mistakes, I think that's where we should have arrived, sadly it seems that history repeats itself over and over again with different actors and theaters.
Definitely
Yes, this has been observed countless of times by the many people, which I think is even more reason to try to look beyond it (social reforms).
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