Though I've been spending more time with the DEW-ing 'build back better' land grabs than the just DO it and follow flip-flopping plandemic mandates ... one thing I find both have in common, the loudest voices are weaponizing law, business, education, academia, journalism and other institutions ... weaponizing "the" science", statistical models, mandates, exclusion, fear, blackmail, violence and more ... to do basically one thing. Impose their will upon others.
My three points of triangulation:
1 — The slippery language of eels. Former Senator S.I. Hayakawa (California) was also a former linguist and academic. I could not find and verify a quote from him I still remember ... "If you want to understand politics, look at child psychology." The people who aspire to power over others are morally stunted, but more about that in point 2. I did find other quotes by Hayakawa that are relevant such as "The primary function of ordinary language is to communicate intentions, feelings, and purposes. In politics, language is too often used to conceal thought." and "The political rhetoric of our time is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind." Those quotes are from the '70's, but he admitted to being heavily influenced by Orwell.
2 — "Snakes in Suits". I just read that good dialogue between you and Katie, so this might be a bit repetitious, but it supports the salience of Katie's analysis for the few who are behind the turmoil.). My previous point leads directly to those who are attracted to concentrations of power over others, those who are predisposed to be high in Cluster B, Dark-Triad personality traits. Rather than Lord Acton's quote about how power corrupts, my observations align with Frank Herbert (author of Dune) in that power attracts the corruptible. Although with some reservations, A. Lobaczewski's book "Political Ponerology: The Science of Evil, Psychopathy, and The Origins of the Totalitarian State" is one hairy rabbit hole to explore. If nothing else, it is a reminder that the skeletons in the family closet (pathological narcissists, machiavellian opportunists, and born-to-bone psychopaths) are a fractal of a magnified, sociopathic, distortion of what types of people emerge in populations larger than the family or local community. The Ponerology substack is a good place to explore more recent research into the dark psychology of outliers. Another book that gives a good analysis of the inevitable result is Joseph Tainter's "The Collapse of Complex Societies."
3 — Primate Studies. This applies more to the average, neurotypical human. Mirroring the polar opposite understanding of fundamental human nature between Thomas Hobbes (bad to be bone and requiring a rigid, authoritarian hierarchy) and John Locke (malleable but basically good and egalitarian) ... Robert Ardrey's 1966 book "The Territorial Imperative" emphasized the aggressive and territorial 'hot wars' among Chimpanzees during the Cold War between the U.S. and Russia. Jane Goodall's 1971 book, "The Shadow of Man" and the 'killer ape' hypothesis (Vietnam war era). And the 1996 book "Demonic Males: Apes and the Origins of Human Violence" (1996) by Wrangham & Peterson also emphasized warfare and patriarchy'. All three in the tradition of Hobbes seeing the worst in neuro-typical human nature. Those behaviorist experiments by Asch, Milgram, and Zimbardo seem also to bend human nature in that direction.
On the other hand, my favorite primatologist, Frans de Waal, has written several books about the malleable and empathetic side of social primates, from 1982's "Chimpanzee Politics" to my favorite, "The Bonobo and the Atheist", 2013 ... all aligning more closely with Locke's take on human nature. But who knows? Those books on the wide moral swath of primates may be inextricable from the personalities that wrote the books or the political times in which they were written. Maybe I am predisposed to vote for Frans de Waal as the scientist I'd most like to kick back and have a beer with. His TED talk was hilarious. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GcJxRqTs5nk&t=310s
Cheers Sage, and keep up the good fight (as if you had any choice in the matter 😂)
As the Sufi writer Idries Shah put it, in discussing the Acton quote:
'Those who are attracted to power find power absolutely delightful'.
This applies to every level in the hierarchy, down to the idiot cop beating someone for walking in the park or not wearing a mask as occurred everywhere during the lockdowns: Britain, Germany, the UK, Canada, etc - I can never forget those videos from 202).
Even the 'good' buck private in boot camp, a 'good' student trying to please the teacher or nurses' aid, tends to be tempted by power and, if caught, depending on the Nuremberg Defense of 'just following orders.' "The Lord of the Rings" is as good an analogy for neurotypical psychology as it is to the outliers who make and game the hierarchies.
I guess they (we) are equally guilty, but it is the self-promoting cleverness, persistence, and hubris of those high-functioning outliers who create, game, and lead to the fall of a "Tower of Babel" syndrome. Communities of African bushmen arguably have a more sustainable culture.
Vaguely recalling something I read a few years ago, a quick search turned up psychologist Robert Serpell's "The Significance of Schooling: Life-Journeys in an African Society," in which he recounted how rural Zambian children raised in communal environments—where tasks and play emphasize cooperation, shared responsibility, and group harmony—often struggled with the competitive structures of formal schooling.
When introduced to Western-style sports (e.g., races, team competitions with winners/losers), some children expressed confusion or discomfort, as their traditional games prioritized collective participation over individual victory (e.g., fetching water, farming, storytelling). Competitive games like soccer or exams can feel alien or stressful. At least a couple of other studies noted the same phenomenon ... Nsamenang, A. B. (1992). "Human Development in Cultural Context", and Greenfield, P. M. (2004). "Weaving Generations Together".
I can not say with certainty whether competitiveness is a function of how we tend to define "intelligence", but evolutionary biologist Ernst Mayr argued that human intelligence itself may be worse than a mere spandrel ... a fatal mutation of a social primate.
Good point! I agree with you for a couple of reasons.
1 — I think 'faith' is more fundamental than 'reason'. Whatever one believes in, those beliefs are probably tied more closely with right-brain (hemisphere) processes such as expressed by Jill Bolte Taylor in her famous TED talk ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UyyjU8fzEYU&t=10s. But great artists and religious thinkers have thought the same for ages ... from St. Augustine ("Crede ut intelligas" — "Believe so that you may understand") to Martin Luther ("sola fide" — through faith alone is salvation"), to Søren Kierkegaard (leap of faith) ... and even some influential logicians, mathematicians, and scientists ... (Wittgenstein's Ladder, the metaphorical "god" of Einstein, and Max Born on the limits of science regarding ethics.
2 — Back to Frans de Waal. Earlier today, I gave a short talk at a book circle here in Japan, and my recommendation was de Waal's book "Good Natured" https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/401682.Good_Natured. I recommended the book because the working class Japanese are suffering similar problems as the Western world, but for slightly different reasons. The problem is too many foreigners. In the case of Japan, the foreign tourists are raising the going rates for hotels and restaurants out of the reach of many Japanese, and the influx of cheap, temporary foreign labor is keeping the minimum wage down. In the West's problem with immigration, Sweden has become one of the most dangerous countries in Europe. New immigrants get quicker treatment at hospitals than British citizens, American immigrants even in Silicone Valley hi-tech, will work for a cheaper salary than American citizens, and so on.
Though more connected with native depopulation than immigration, Canada has enacted laws increasing the case scenarios in which the medical industry can suggest suicide as a 'medical treatment' (MAIDs laws). From DeepSeek ... "Preliminary data suggests MAID is now the 5th leading cause of death nationally." But if I am not mistaken, Quebec is largely French-speaking and, therefore, more closely connected with Catholic thought, which forbids suicide. But back to Japan, the Japanese entry to the Cannes Film Festival a few years ago was https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plan_75. R.
Japan is a secular land of a thousand gods with only a small minority as Christians, none in the local community circle. So I suggested Frans de Waal's book as one guide to the roots of human morality as observed in other social animals (crows, elephants, dolphins, dogs ... but especially other social primates such as chimpanzees and bonobos).
Deep down, I think the ethics of any culture are more similar than different, and more deeply rooted in empathy and other feelings rather than logic and reason. Indeed, eating from the tree of knowledge, human 'intelligence', may be the double-edged sword on which we fall as a species. But as individuals, families, and small communities ... we still might find salvation in faith.
Ironic — that I am using logic and reason to agree that logic and reason has limits, and 'faith' (as a function of empathy) is our best hope for surviving and thriving.
That is the 6 gorillion dollar question. Is the secret knowledge they supposedly possess that living a life of perfidy will be richly rewarded in the afterlife?
At the core these people are social mercenaries...Power and/or money. Some come from connected families, some stumble upon the opportunity to work with such people who they wish to be like. They see the chance to make dough and maybe climb that golden ladder of "success". I think they all are at some level deeply materialist. Some maybe more pure ideologues.
It is difficult to grasp for almost everyone. The mind of a psychopath is unlike others' minds. So, I don't think in these terms. I just accept that these people have a nature different from me and others I know. (Of course, statistically we all do know some psychopaths). Empathy will never get you there because there is not common experience. I like SH's term "scorpions." And the story that goes with it.
It is likely most/all of us who are non-psychopaths have done some bad stuff. When young, we lied to our mom. Or for example, stole something later in life. If we did this we had a motive like greed or feeling one down, or needing a fix, or needing a new car, or a loaf of bread. Or perhaps we do something because we are being blackmailed. Or out of fear. Other examples are possible, but there is usually a motive.
So when we try to map that onto the behavior of these folks, what we get is inaccurate. Today I was talking to someone who kept talking about "people being greedy, corrupt" causing these horrible things that are happening with increasing frequency (vaccines, esp).
I said that there was something/ones "behind the scenes" calling the shots. I don't think she liked this idea. She would rather think people are horribly corrupt, maybe original sin or something like that and if only they weren't this wouldn't be happening. It is a horrible, depressing position to take.
Of course, there are the minions of scorpions. They do have motives we can understand. But they are not calling the shots.
Without the scorpions moving things along, we'd still be living in the 1950's, leave it to beaver land, with daily problems and conflicts to be solved, sure. But we wouldn't be facing extinction for large numbers of us and enslavement of the rest. No one I know or have ever known appears to have such a plan.
There's a lot to be said for just eating Doritos and watching football. However, not when the mass genocide is ongoing.
Yes, the "anything goes by any means necessary" explains a LOT. Some soldiers are, of course, psychopaths (stats vary but 2 or 3 percent is one figure). The non-psychopaths commit suicide in much larger number than average and suffer PTSD, etc. The psychopaths probably join a mercenary outfit where they can get away with more.
My sense is that anyone who goes along with the plan is a "minion" or maybe "minion class" would be more accurate. I often think of your idea that people are good or bad depending on the situation.
There's some ideas I've seen that sociopaths are made, but psychopaths are born that way. Certainly those at the top do try to make their own into sociopaths. People who sell their souls to the devil is the archetype.
Such an important part for putting all this in place. The more bureaucratic the system, the more they can do this. Separation from effects like in the Milgram experiments (the "victim" is in another room). And separation from seeing the whole picture.
I often think of the Day Tapes quotes. I once had pretty good docs but they all retired in conjunction with the kovid era. One in private practice later said to me that her paperwork had gotten really crazy. So I think things were done to push out private practice docs so the bureaucracy could dominate. The other one looked haggard for a long time. Was it the shots ruining his health, or did he catch on and couldn't stomach it.
I had a prescient doctor way back in 1982. He told me then that the HMO's would eventually put an end to private practice as we knew it. He said it was being done deliberately, and that an independent private practice would eventually become unaffordable because of insurance costs and red tape requirements.
This makes me think of the fame that new-ish show Severance is getting. I can’t take any mainstream thing as neutral anymore—it all feels part of the manipulation.
I believe you have something there Sage,that’s why the upper management hide in their bubbles and contact with the workers rarely happens. I’ve seen it evolve in the health care structure, so that’s a valid point.
I know the owner of a hedge fund who is definitely a psychopath: occasionally he'd do something decent and generous, and people would think he was really a great guy at heart, just very dirty in business.
But I am certain it was all carefully calculated. He even donated to Catholic church funds in NY, and helped a charity for the disabled.
Favourite saying:
'Friends? I have lots of friends! Little green ones.'
I am reliably informed, by a customer who knows them, that Hillary Clinton is delightful to spend the weekend with, and her Sunday brunch, which he cooks herself, is delicious. Bill takes the guests for a walk, and when they get back there she is in her apron, the perfect hostess and mom. Sweet isn't it?
Yes, Sage: I rather think that Jacinda Arden gave the programming away when she said 'You have to be cruel to be kind'.
Ostensibly about the lockdowns, but it applies to the whole Plan which I am fairly certain she is privy to.
The end justifies the means, especially is someone can be convinced that it is in some way a noble, higher end. 'Save the Planet!', 'Build Back Better!', and so on.
This is also the basic mindset of the military and intelligence world: I will never forget the utter lack of any feeling with which someone from MI6 told me about a prominent political assassination carried out by them decades before. In the media, you will read that 'it is still a great mystery'.
In my memories, it contrasts with the attitude of a former soldier who had supervised torture of terrorists, and was obviously deeply distressed by it - again, though, it wasn't gratuitous but in order to discover where a bomb was, dismantle a network, etc. On the whole I found him to be a very decent man and I hope he found peace.
Solzhenitsyn said that the guards who took you to the Gulag were not psychopaths, they were just following orders, making sure the paperwork was correct.
But without the train drivers, guards, lorry drivers, etc, no Gulag....
Solzhenitsyn was not wrong. The psychopaths can't do any of that without the order followers. They are malleable, which is hopeful that they can be changed before it's too late.
I too find that people can cope with greed and corruption as an explanations Original Sin, or even Naomi's demons, but can go no further - far too frightening.
An old friend who made a fortune in finance, starting 'from nothing' (ie lower middle class) who is not in the billionaire class but has had dealings with them, and handled their investments, once observed that he thought the American billionaires were 'the most completely amoral people' he had ever met - which I would disagree with, based on people from intelligence agencies I have met - which is saying something in that world! No moral scruples at all, just money and power.
However, we can't find the whole explanation there (above all as they have the power they could ever want already!) as the most pressing question is: why NOW? Why are they moving so fast in the first two decades of the 21st century? Just because the control Tech is nearly ready? Partly, but not wholly.
The answer to the question is very involved, hence our general state of brain-ache as we live though this, and no one who is not energy an resources literate will be able to grasp it: to start, take a look at the 'Energy Skeptic' and 'Surplus Energy Economics' blogs, also 'The Honest Sorcerer'.
And for the wider context, an easy enough read is Joseph Tainter's 'The Collapse of Complex Societies'. W are currently living through a civilisational collapse.
And, most importantly, Admiral Rickover's speech on the future of America and the industrialised economies based on fossil-fuels made in, I think 1957 - which incidentally gives us an early date for the planning, in addition to the Day Tapes purportedly of the same vintage.
'Technocracy' is in the mix, and that idea is, in essence, over 200 years old; but what to do when fossil fuels per capita run down has been under consideration since the end of WW2. This, more than anything else, explains the timing and their obvious intentions to kill and sterilise on a global scale
One thing is for sure. We have all been played. Both sides.
I don’t trust the plan. I notice republicans are not talking about AI Stargate mRNA situation. Also, I don’t understand the crypto digital money executive orders.
Is this like Brettonwoods 3.0 ?? Is this the beginnings of a digital currency. A reset? Trump also said he wanted to do away with income tax. What if we have a currency reset, universal basic income, and no income tax? Sounds crazy, right?
With CBDCs they can tax directly. Maybe they'll call it something other than income tax. They can tax your assets at 100% so you don't own your house any more. Or they can be generous (as if) and let you live in it till you die then apply 100% inheritance tax.
Also, with a social credit system, you lose points. Points mean money. No need to call it tax.
We live in a world where it is getting much more difficult to tell who are the bad guys and who are the good guys. Assume that all of them are bad. Your level of trust must be near the flat line. All motives and mandates must be questioned. No more setting your life into auto-obey mode. Most people have ulterior motives no matter what side they pretend to be on.
For me, I have none as I expect my survival and good prosperity depends on me alone ( apart from God) and not blindly following any of the millions of "players" out there. I seek no power, fame or fortune since these things are illusions and turn to dust outside the system that has been perpetuated to convince people they are important.
Ok ok, sorry, it sounds a bit arrogant to say it is 'simple', as if it is very clear and everyone should know this. It took me very long to figure this out, but in the end it is obvious. Everything we see and have seen on the world stage is a play, all are actors and they pretend to rule but they are all following a very old script. This has been going on for a very long time, it is a 6.000 year old plan divided into three parts and we have reached the last part; the part with only them, the chosen people.
Reminds me of old school soap operas. Good guys turn villain. Then villain turns into a benevolent courageous good guy. All the caricatures continuously reinvent themselves. Predictive programming for the ladies?
Bhattacharya correctly states that people distrust (government) public health people which they have a reason to but does not explain why the are wrong in distrusting. That is why he is where he is and has been. To point out a remarkable fact with a smile and stop there and play dumb effectively occupying someone's time and getting nowhere.
I ask: Would you want him in a foxhole with you under attack?
Of course today we learned that Drumpf cut Fauci’s USSS detail. So there’s that. Drumpf’s Jesuit schooled (Fordham) & so is Fauci. The eye only sees what the mind is prepared to comprehend. Drumpf will tow the line as for his Jesuit masters.
I think that is the case with the narratives which are sheer nonsense, like 'Don't just distance by 6 ft, go as far as possible, and act as if you have it even though you feel great!' And of course 'It's on your shoes!'
I enjoyed walking such people into buildings and hedges as they tried to avoid me. Great fun!
"The unexamined life is not worth living" --Socrates
For me, thinking is a joy. However, I think that overthinking is the cause of suffering, or perhaps caused by suffering. Where is the line between thinking and overthinking? DK
I agree that joy is a separate system. And it's great when it's there. But to me thinking is also a joy. Seriously.
In the past I've done a lot of meditation, I mean a lot. And yes, that state can be reached. But what about the joy of thinking? Or engaging with other people's thinking? That may be the main reason I value SH's substack. I also appreciate conversations with friends, family, and even strangers. That brings also joy. Sometimes aggravation, too.
Comments should be open. (Had to edit twice to toggle off paid commenters only)
Hi Sage,
Though I've been spending more time with the DEW-ing 'build back better' land grabs than the just DO it and follow flip-flopping plandemic mandates ... one thing I find both have in common, the loudest voices are weaponizing law, business, education, academia, journalism and other institutions ... weaponizing "the" science", statistical models, mandates, exclusion, fear, blackmail, violence and more ... to do basically one thing. Impose their will upon others.
My three points of triangulation:
1 — The slippery language of eels. Former Senator S.I. Hayakawa (California) was also a former linguist and academic. I could not find and verify a quote from him I still remember ... "If you want to understand politics, look at child psychology." The people who aspire to power over others are morally stunted, but more about that in point 2. I did find other quotes by Hayakawa that are relevant such as "The primary function of ordinary language is to communicate intentions, feelings, and purposes. In politics, language is too often used to conceal thought." and "The political rhetoric of our time is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind." Those quotes are from the '70's, but he admitted to being heavily influenced by Orwell.
2 — "Snakes in Suits". I just read that good dialogue between you and Katie, so this might be a bit repetitious, but it supports the salience of Katie's analysis for the few who are behind the turmoil.). My previous point leads directly to those who are attracted to concentrations of power over others, those who are predisposed to be high in Cluster B, Dark-Triad personality traits. Rather than Lord Acton's quote about how power corrupts, my observations align with Frank Herbert (author of Dune) in that power attracts the corruptible. Although with some reservations, A. Lobaczewski's book "Political Ponerology: The Science of Evil, Psychopathy, and The Origins of the Totalitarian State" is one hairy rabbit hole to explore. If nothing else, it is a reminder that the skeletons in the family closet (pathological narcissists, machiavellian opportunists, and born-to-bone psychopaths) are a fractal of a magnified, sociopathic, distortion of what types of people emerge in populations larger than the family or local community. The Ponerology substack is a good place to explore more recent research into the dark psychology of outliers. Another book that gives a good analysis of the inevitable result is Joseph Tainter's "The Collapse of Complex Societies."
3 — Primate Studies. This applies more to the average, neurotypical human. Mirroring the polar opposite understanding of fundamental human nature between Thomas Hobbes (bad to be bone and requiring a rigid, authoritarian hierarchy) and John Locke (malleable but basically good and egalitarian) ... Robert Ardrey's 1966 book "The Territorial Imperative" emphasized the aggressive and territorial 'hot wars' among Chimpanzees during the Cold War between the U.S. and Russia. Jane Goodall's 1971 book, "The Shadow of Man" and the 'killer ape' hypothesis (Vietnam war era). And the 1996 book "Demonic Males: Apes and the Origins of Human Violence" (1996) by Wrangham & Peterson also emphasized warfare and patriarchy'. All three in the tradition of Hobbes seeing the worst in neuro-typical human nature. Those behaviorist experiments by Asch, Milgram, and Zimbardo seem also to bend human nature in that direction.
On the other hand, my favorite primatologist, Frans de Waal, has written several books about the malleable and empathetic side of social primates, from 1982's "Chimpanzee Politics" to my favorite, "The Bonobo and the Atheist", 2013 ... all aligning more closely with Locke's take on human nature. But who knows? Those books on the wide moral swath of primates may be inextricable from the personalities that wrote the books or the political times in which they were written. Maybe I am predisposed to vote for Frans de Waal as the scientist I'd most like to kick back and have a beer with. His TED talk was hilarious. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GcJxRqTs5nk&t=310s
Cheers Sage, and keep up the good fight (as if you had any choice in the matter 😂)
steve
As the Sufi writer Idries Shah put it, in discussing the Acton quote:
'Those who are attracted to power find power absolutely delightful'.
This applies to every level in the hierarchy, down to the idiot cop beating someone for walking in the park or not wearing a mask as occurred everywhere during the lockdowns: Britain, Germany, the UK, Canada, etc - I can never forget those videos from 202).
Agreed, Xabier.
Even the 'good' buck private in boot camp, a 'good' student trying to please the teacher or nurses' aid, tends to be tempted by power and, if caught, depending on the Nuremberg Defense of 'just following orders.' "The Lord of the Rings" is as good an analogy for neurotypical psychology as it is to the outliers who make and game the hierarchies.
I guess they (we) are equally guilty, but it is the self-promoting cleverness, persistence, and hubris of those high-functioning outliers who create, game, and lead to the fall of a "Tower of Babel" syndrome. Communities of African bushmen arguably have a more sustainable culture.
Vaguely recalling something I read a few years ago, a quick search turned up psychologist Robert Serpell's "The Significance of Schooling: Life-Journeys in an African Society," in which he recounted how rural Zambian children raised in communal environments—where tasks and play emphasize cooperation, shared responsibility, and group harmony—often struggled with the competitive structures of formal schooling.
When introduced to Western-style sports (e.g., races, team competitions with winners/losers), some children expressed confusion or discomfort, as their traditional games prioritized collective participation over individual victory (e.g., fetching water, farming, storytelling). Competitive games like soccer or exams can feel alien or stressful. At least a couple of other studies noted the same phenomenon ... Nsamenang, A. B. (1992). "Human Development in Cultural Context", and Greenfield, P. M. (2004). "Weaving Generations Together".
Frans de Waal again, on collaboration as a basic instinct ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrb2SwXU594
I can not say with certainty whether competitiveness is a function of how we tend to define "intelligence", but evolutionary biologist Ernst Mayr argued that human intelligence itself may be worse than a mere spandrel ... a fatal mutation of a social primate.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nuOKvuEWkWo
Despite it all, cheers.
I can see Ernsts’ point, perhaps though, human intelligence is a fatal mutation of faith…just a thought…..
Hi Melody.
Good point! I agree with you for a couple of reasons.
1 — I think 'faith' is more fundamental than 'reason'. Whatever one believes in, those beliefs are probably tied more closely with right-brain (hemisphere) processes such as expressed by Jill Bolte Taylor in her famous TED talk ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UyyjU8fzEYU&t=10s. But great artists and religious thinkers have thought the same for ages ... from St. Augustine ("Crede ut intelligas" — "Believe so that you may understand") to Martin Luther ("sola fide" — through faith alone is salvation"), to Søren Kierkegaard (leap of faith) ... and even some influential logicians, mathematicians, and scientists ... (Wittgenstein's Ladder, the metaphorical "god" of Einstein, and Max Born on the limits of science regarding ethics.
2 — Back to Frans de Waal. Earlier today, I gave a short talk at a book circle here in Japan, and my recommendation was de Waal's book "Good Natured" https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/401682.Good_Natured. I recommended the book because the working class Japanese are suffering similar problems as the Western world, but for slightly different reasons. The problem is too many foreigners. In the case of Japan, the foreign tourists are raising the going rates for hotels and restaurants out of the reach of many Japanese, and the influx of cheap, temporary foreign labor is keeping the minimum wage down. In the West's problem with immigration, Sweden has become one of the most dangerous countries in Europe. New immigrants get quicker treatment at hospitals than British citizens, American immigrants even in Silicone Valley hi-tech, will work for a cheaper salary than American citizens, and so on.
Though more connected with native depopulation than immigration, Canada has enacted laws increasing the case scenarios in which the medical industry can suggest suicide as a 'medical treatment' (MAIDs laws). From DeepSeek ... "Preliminary data suggests MAID is now the 5th leading cause of death nationally." But if I am not mistaken, Quebec is largely French-speaking and, therefore, more closely connected with Catholic thought, which forbids suicide. But back to Japan, the Japanese entry to the Cannes Film Festival a few years ago was https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plan_75. R.
Japan is a secular land of a thousand gods with only a small minority as Christians, none in the local community circle. So I suggested Frans de Waal's book as one guide to the roots of human morality as observed in other social animals (crows, elephants, dolphins, dogs ... but especially other social primates such as chimpanzees and bonobos).
Deep down, I think the ethics of any culture are more similar than different, and more deeply rooted in empathy and other feelings rather than logic and reason. Indeed, eating from the tree of knowledge, human 'intelligence', may be the double-edged sword on which we fall as a species. But as individuals, families, and small communities ... we still might find salvation in faith.
Ironic — that I am using logic and reason to agree that logic and reason has limits, and 'faith' (as a function of empathy) is our best hope for surviving and thriving.
Cheers from Japan Melody.
steve
"What might be the master rationales for such?"
That is the 6 gorillion dollar question. Is the secret knowledge they supposedly possess that living a life of perfidy will be richly rewarded in the afterlife?
"What motivates them?
What animates them?
What drives them?"
At the core these people are social mercenaries...Power and/or money. Some come from connected families, some stumble upon the opportunity to work with such people who they wish to be like. They see the chance to make dough and maybe climb that golden ladder of "success". I think they all are at some level deeply materialist. Some maybe more pure ideologues.
"What drives/animates/motivates them."
It is difficult to grasp for almost everyone. The mind of a psychopath is unlike others' minds. So, I don't think in these terms. I just accept that these people have a nature different from me and others I know. (Of course, statistically we all do know some psychopaths). Empathy will never get you there because there is not common experience. I like SH's term "scorpions." And the story that goes with it.
It is likely most/all of us who are non-psychopaths have done some bad stuff. When young, we lied to our mom. Or for example, stole something later in life. If we did this we had a motive like greed or feeling one down, or needing a fix, or needing a new car, or a loaf of bread. Or perhaps we do something because we are being blackmailed. Or out of fear. Other examples are possible, but there is usually a motive.
So when we try to map that onto the behavior of these folks, what we get is inaccurate. Today I was talking to someone who kept talking about "people being greedy, corrupt" causing these horrible things that are happening with increasing frequency (vaccines, esp).
I said that there was something/ones "behind the scenes" calling the shots. I don't think she liked this idea. She would rather think people are horribly corrupt, maybe original sin or something like that and if only they weren't this wouldn't be happening. It is a horrible, depressing position to take.
Of course, there are the minions of scorpions. They do have motives we can understand. But they are not calling the shots.
Without the scorpions moving things along, we'd still be living in the 1950's, leave it to beaver land, with daily problems and conflicts to be solved, sure. But we wouldn't be facing extinction for large numbers of us and enslavement of the rest. No one I know or have ever known appears to have such a plan.
There's a lot to be said for just eating Doritos and watching football. However, not when the mass genocide is ongoing.
I actually don't think you need psychopathy to explain it. Maybe at the top, yes.
You need an "anything goes by any means necessary" mindset.
Like soldiers in war, they do hideous things. They are not necessarily sociopaths.
Great thoughts,K!
Yes, the "anything goes by any means necessary" explains a LOT. Some soldiers are, of course, psychopaths (stats vary but 2 or 3 percent is one figure). The non-psychopaths commit suicide in much larger number than average and suffer PTSD, etc. The psychopaths probably join a mercenary outfit where they can get away with more.
My sense is that anyone who goes along with the plan is a "minion" or maybe "minion class" would be more accurate. I often think of your idea that people are good or bad depending on the situation.
There's some ideas I've seen that sociopaths are made, but psychopaths are born that way. Certainly those at the top do try to make their own into sociopaths. People who sell their souls to the devil is the archetype.
Also I believe this accomplished by bureaucratic and scientific ice cubing.
Each person performs their roles and then goes home and watches football.
Separation from effects.
Then the rubber hits the road when CVS doles out shots and highly paid doctors perform executions by lethal injection. A quote from Day Tapes.
Such an important part for putting all this in place. The more bureaucratic the system, the more they can do this. Separation from effects like in the Milgram experiments (the "victim" is in another room). And separation from seeing the whole picture.
I often think of the Day Tapes quotes. I once had pretty good docs but they all retired in conjunction with the kovid era. One in private practice later said to me that her paperwork had gotten really crazy. So I think things were done to push out private practice docs so the bureaucracy could dominate. The other one looked haggard for a long time. Was it the shots ruining his health, or did he catch on and couldn't stomach it.
I had a prescient doctor way back in 1982. He told me then that the HMO's would eventually put an end to private practice as we knew it. He said it was being done deliberately, and that an independent private practice would eventually become unaffordable because of insurance costs and red tape requirements.
A very good point about bureaucracies: all the little cogs turn, ignorant of their part in the whole....
This makes me think of the fame that new-ish show Severance is getting. I can’t take any mainstream thing as neutral anymore—it all feels part of the manipulation.
I think it always was.
I believe you have something there Sage,that’s why the upper management hide in their bubbles and contact with the workers rarely happens. I’ve seen it evolve in the health care structure, so that’s a valid point.
I know the owner of a hedge fund who is definitely a psychopath: occasionally he'd do something decent and generous, and people would think he was really a great guy at heart, just very dirty in business.
But I am certain it was all carefully calculated. He even donated to Catholic church funds in NY, and helped a charity for the disabled.
Favourite saying:
'Friends? I have lots of friends! Little green ones.'
I am reliably informed, by a customer who knows them, that Hillary Clinton is delightful to spend the weekend with, and her Sunday brunch, which he cooks herself, is delicious. Bill takes the guests for a walk, and when they get back there she is in her apron, the perfect hostess and mom. Sweet isn't it?
Yes, Sage: I rather think that Jacinda Arden gave the programming away when she said 'You have to be cruel to be kind'.
Ostensibly about the lockdowns, but it applies to the whole Plan which I am fairly certain she is privy to.
The end justifies the means, especially is someone can be convinced that it is in some way a noble, higher end. 'Save the Planet!', 'Build Back Better!', and so on.
This is also the basic mindset of the military and intelligence world: I will never forget the utter lack of any feeling with which someone from MI6 told me about a prominent political assassination carried out by them decades before. In the media, you will read that 'it is still a great mystery'.
In my memories, it contrasts with the attitude of a former soldier who had supervised torture of terrorists, and was obviously deeply distressed by it - again, though, it wasn't gratuitous but in order to discover where a bomb was, dismantle a network, etc. On the whole I found him to be a very decent man and I hope he found peace.
Solzhenitsyn said that the guards who took you to the Gulag were not psychopaths, they were just following orders, making sure the paperwork was correct.
But without the train drivers, guards, lorry drivers, etc, no Gulag....
Solzhenitsyn was not wrong. The psychopaths can't do any of that without the order followers. They are malleable, which is hopeful that they can be changed before it's too late.
I too find that people can cope with greed and corruption as an explanations Original Sin, or even Naomi's demons, but can go no further - far too frightening.
Why?
An old friend who made a fortune in finance, starting 'from nothing' (ie lower middle class) who is not in the billionaire class but has had dealings with them, and handled their investments, once observed that he thought the American billionaires were 'the most completely amoral people' he had ever met - which I would disagree with, based on people from intelligence agencies I have met - which is saying something in that world! No moral scruples at all, just money and power.
However, we can't find the whole explanation there (above all as they have the power they could ever want already!) as the most pressing question is: why NOW? Why are they moving so fast in the first two decades of the 21st century? Just because the control Tech is nearly ready? Partly, but not wholly.
The answer to the question is very involved, hence our general state of brain-ache as we live though this, and no one who is not energy an resources literate will be able to grasp it: to start, take a look at the 'Energy Skeptic' and 'Surplus Energy Economics' blogs, also 'The Honest Sorcerer'.
And for the wider context, an easy enough read is Joseph Tainter's 'The Collapse of Complex Societies'. W are currently living through a civilisational collapse.
And, most importantly, Admiral Rickover's speech on the future of America and the industrialised economies based on fossil-fuels made in, I think 1957 - which incidentally gives us an early date for the planning, in addition to the Day Tapes purportedly of the same vintage.
'Technocracy' is in the mix, and that idea is, in essence, over 200 years old; but what to do when fossil fuels per capita run down has been under consideration since the end of WW2. This, more than anything else, explains the timing and their obvious intentions to kill and sterilise on a global scale
One thing is for sure. We have all been played. Both sides.
I don’t trust the plan. I notice republicans are not talking about AI Stargate mRNA situation. Also, I don’t understand the crypto digital money executive orders.
Is this like Brettonwoods 3.0 ?? Is this the beginnings of a digital currency. A reset? Trump also said he wanted to do away with income tax. What if we have a currency reset, universal basic income, and no income tax? Sounds crazy, right?
The fact that a giant nation can view it through a "both sides" binary is itself evidence of "being played."
hittn the marks ;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlZtgBJj_LA&t=182s&pp=2AG2AZACAQ%3D%3D
Oh that is entertaining. 😅
With CBDCs they can tax directly. Maybe they'll call it something other than income tax. They can tax your assets at 100% so you don't own your house any more. Or they can be generous (as if) and let you live in it till you die then apply 100% inheritance tax.
Also, with a social credit system, you lose points. Points mean money. No need to call it tax.
Trump signed 2 EO’s expressly prohibiting CBDC throughout the Federal Government.
Cannot another EO reverse that?
Nothing is set in stone.
This was feel good week: lots of bones for the mangy dog electorate, desperately gnawing under the high table where the lords sit.
They are so predictable….
They could go with a consumption tax, applied on every purchase. And a wealth tax, applied to property, if you still have it (but not for long!)
Together with environmental taxes, most probably fines for non-compliance.
No appeal possible, all managed by AI.
All in all, the perfect tool to re-shape ownership, consumption, and settlement patterns.
And to enforce total obedience.
The income tax repeal suggestion is to shift to consumption tax. Taxation on income will 100% keep you poor.
No wealth tax was mentioned. Environmental taxes will be gone.
The best push is to abolish property tax at state level.
Is it just me or not? I dont see clips with Donald and Candace.
Clips 2/3 are both in video #2.
The second video. The Bhattacharya video leads with Trump/Candace
I'll attach a note to make this more clear.
Thank you.
same here...
We live in a world where it is getting much more difficult to tell who are the bad guys and who are the good guys. Assume that all of them are bad. Your level of trust must be near the flat line. All motives and mandates must be questioned. No more setting your life into auto-obey mode. Most people have ulterior motives no matter what side they pretend to be on.
For me, I have none as I expect my survival and good prosperity depends on me alone ( apart from God) and not blindly following any of the millions of "players" out there. I seek no power, fame or fortune since these things are illusions and turn to dust outside the system that has been perpetuated to convince people they are important.
This good guys/bad guys entrenched binary is the stumbling block to understanding.
My opinion.
The answer to the 'why' is simple; we have entered an age in which their books tell them there should be only them.
Ok ok, sorry, it sounds a bit arrogant to say it is 'simple', as if it is very clear and everyone should know this. It took me very long to figure this out, but in the end it is obvious. Everything we see and have seen on the world stage is a play, all are actors and they pretend to rule but they are all following a very old script. This has been going on for a very long time, it is a 6.000 year old plan divided into three parts and we have reached the last part; the part with only them, the chosen people.
Yep. I AGREE SAGE. "It sure ain't Public Health".
THE CON MAN CABAL convinced the Public that actors catching themselves with their arms outstretched in China were real Covid VICTIMS.
What an easy duping .... before the POISONING of society.
I am honestly tired of the lies and the downright insanity.
The Owners of the World made some decisions about some things that they would like to happen.
They constructed audacious plans to make them happen.
These plans require lots and lots of people to hit their marks and say their lines.
That is the insanity, sauce reduced.
Because as long as you think you are watching anything but the above, the discrepancies are crazy-making.
Reminds me of old school soap operas. Good guys turn villain. Then villain turns into a benevolent courageous good guy. All the caricatures continuously reinvent themselves. Predictive programming for the ladies?
People...
...trapped in a story.
And people LOVE stories.
Pull tighter on them chinese handcuffs.
Bhattacharya correctly states that people distrust (government) public health people which they have a reason to but does not explain why the are wrong in distrusting. That is why he is where he is and has been. To point out a remarkable fact with a smile and stop there and play dumb effectively occupying someone's time and getting nowhere.
I ask: Would you want him in a foxhole with you under attack?
He's there to protect the cull the herd paradigm. Nothing else.
Of course today we learned that Drumpf cut Fauci’s USSS detail. So there’s that. Drumpf’s Jesuit schooled (Fordham) & so is Fauci. The eye only sees what the mind is prepared to comprehend. Drumpf will tow the line as for his Jesuit masters.
I suppose we'll never know fully what drives them. Some of them may just enjoy taking the piss out of the hoi polloi. It must make them feel smart.
I think that is the case with the narratives which are sheer nonsense, like 'Don't just distance by 6 ft, go as far as possible, and act as if you have it even though you feel great!' And of course 'It's on your shoes!'
I enjoyed walking such people into buildings and hedges as they tried to avoid me. Great fun!
Many people - maybe even most people - are unknowable. And all of these “audacious plans” are definitely tied to Israel. It’s 2030 or bust, baby!
You will find me in a galaxy far, far away.
Sage Hana said "I think about stuff like this a lot."
Thinking is still allowed, but actively discouraged by Groupthink manipulators including self-appointed email list moderators.
Thinking is the cause of suffering.
I'm not joking.
"The unexamined life is not worth living" --Socrates
For me, thinking is a joy. However, I think that overthinking is the cause of suffering, or perhaps caused by suffering. Where is the line between thinking and overthinking? DK
Easier said than done...
...but Learn to stop thinking...and just be.
There is a joy there that thought has never reached.
Even the mind-fuckers wish they could touch it.
I agree that joy is a separate system. And it's great when it's there. But to me thinking is also a joy. Seriously.
In the past I've done a lot of meditation, I mean a lot. And yes, that state can be reached. But what about the joy of thinking? Or engaging with other people's thinking? That may be the main reason I value SH's substack. I also appreciate conversations with friends, family, and even strangers. That brings also joy. Sometimes aggravation, too.
Just as one can't be a pacifist...
...If they cannot defend themselves...
I'm unsure of how well we can think
If we cannot shut it off.
The techniques for shutting off over-thinking are very valuable, if anyone is interested I'll be happy to share mine.
I agree with your point.
There's a kind of thinking which is pure clarity, not image, not words. Very close to intuition and vision.