House Of Cards

As I sit here cranking up ye olde Time Displacement Neutrino Particle Accelerator, I once again wonder to myself: "How ever did it get so bad?" 

In your day, it had gotten to the point where governments had been refusing to uphold long existing laws, and often even altering them, in order to better accommodate large financial institutions, which were then perceived to be critical to the smooth functioning of our civilization.

Some of these institutions had been caught laundering money for drug cartels and terrorists, and were simply never prosecuted based on a perception of being "too big to jail".

The same can be said for other institutions who were fined a pittance for making huge profits by short selling assets they had duped their unsuspecting customers into purchasing.

Yet, others still continued to make their dirty deals, fixing interest rates, and reaping profits far greater than any fines imposed, meanwhile playing roulette with the lives of the poor on the commodities exchange, while driving up the prices of food staples essential to those living in third world countries. Other financial giants had received little more than a whack of the paddle for willfully pillaging and squandering their clients investments.

Through all this, those hapless ones protesting these injustices over in the 'Occupy' movements, were being arrested in the thousands, yet none of the criminal elite banksters, save for those in tiny Iceland, had ever been charged with anything, let alone imprisoned.

The meme in those days had been the "one percent" versus the "ninety-nine percent". The reality was more like, or as great grand papa used to say: "the have-nots versus the have-yachts".

The public treasuries had been pillaged to fund illegal resource wars and bailouts of the "too big to jail". The national debts of the western nations continued to accumulate, excluding even the vast sums of other financial obligations, like the pensions those governments would be obliged to meet sooner rather than later.

That private company, which had been over-non-printing the US money supply, were playing sugar daddy to the other Central Banks, and keeping interest rates as close to 0% as was inhumanly possible. This unsustainable scheme was continuing to inflate a bubble-based pseudo-stock market, in order to keep a quadrillion or so dollars of derivatives from imploding, while sacrificing the bond market to do this. How ever would the debt get paid off if there was no one willing to buy the debt? Because the moment interest rates would begin to climb, would most certainly be the moment the stock market would inevitably plunge, right?

Wars on several continents, in distinctly brown-skinned third world nations, were being fomented not only for the acquisition of vital resources, but as a method of obfuscation from the impending demise of our economic/financial system.  

Those entities then known as 'Keynesian economists' had proven themselves to be at worst 'charlatans' and at best 'alchemists', given their complex methods of money printing, bond creation, bundling of securities, and tinkering with interest rates. Yet their schemes only seemed to work in an economy fuelled by cheap petroleum. Once prices for that once precious, now obsolete, commodity began to skyrocket, the large energy corporations, engaged in their frenzied drilling bonanzas in geographically hostile environments, had engaged their crusade to extract as much black gold necessary to keep 'we simple folk' from turning in our minivans and 4x4's for skateboards and razor-scooters.

The 'Powers that Had Been' hadn't the gold nuggets to tell us that they didn't know what the fuck they were doing. What was even worse was they were fomenting as much chaos (shit disturbing) around the globe as possible, to confuse us, and help obfuscate blame.  

At that point, the methods of petroleum extraction had reached 'loony tune' proportions; from deep water drilling to the folly of fracking, the surmounting ecological disasters were being relatively ignored by their desperation to maintain an economy based on insatiable consumption and debt. It wouldn't be long before Porky Pig would be giving us his final: "tha-tha-that's all folks".

We all knew, except for those sailing blissfuly up 'de-Nile', that everything was quickly going to 'hell in a hand-basket'. The 'Powers that Had Been' had planned for this by slowly transforming western nations into neo-police states. The largest of these nations even endorsing the torture of both perceived and real enemies in their diabolical prison camps based in foreign countries. Other law makers were thumbing their nose at 'due process', and opening the door for the indefinite detention of any citizen the rightfully elected leader had deemed sympathetic to enemy combatants. This shade-tree morality continued to escalate in the form of predator drone strikes and hand signed 'kill-lists', all in breach of international law.

The 'Powers that Had Been' had at some point realized, probably sometime in the late nineteen nineties, that the 'gig' was just about 'up'. An infamous event, presaged by a document entitled: Project For The New American Century, had called for 'a new pearl harbour', necessary to advance the insatiable appetite of western imperialism.

Alright, enough about the past, It's beginning to depress me quite frankly. Besides, I've got a whole barrel of potatoes to peal for our communal supper tonight, after which those who haven't already passed out from our feast, are going to attempt to build themselves the biggest damn card-house ever seen here among the gentle slopes of Temperance Valley.

Future CT     Village 5,  Nova Avalon.      Year 17 P.T.E.

Fear, Desire and the 'Friend Zone'

Not Mr.Spock

Fortunately, the years I've spent living here, in our vibrant community of Nova Avalon, has given me a fresh perspective in which to view not only my past, but our collective one, in a way no meteor blast over Chelyabinsk, nor the close flyby of a 150 foot-wide asteroid ever could. 

Self-Knowledge has become for us, to use a loaded term, a bit of a religion in these here parts. To understand anything about our history as a species, we eventually realized that we first needed to understand two things:  Fear and Desire. Once those two components were fully understood, only then could we transition our inquiry into one of understanding. Once achieved, we then learned how to use our Power, which ultimately, is the understanding and mastery of those two primal forces.

I used to think, as many people did in your day, that Fear was the opposite of Love, But really, Fear is the opposite of Desire. Love's opposite is in fact Hate;  I think that's pretty straightforward! 

The word Love is a verb, it's purpose is to fulfill the needs and desires of others, and is the state achieved by the fulfilment of our own needs and desires. Love could also be substituted in action for the word Giving, or as recipient, with the word Gratitude. Conversely, Hate could be substituted for the word Anger, usually stemming from disappointment, due to unfulfilled desires.

Alas, there's an intimate link between Fear and Desire, and to understand one, one always needs to understand the other.

Now all this brings me to the most important of questions: What is it that 'turns us on' about the opposite sex? For many of us, we will often chose a more exciting potential partner, over a loving, yet more benign one... Pour-quoi?

Let's face it, it's not all about 'looks' for men, nor is it all about 'resources' for women (in what each finds attractive in the opposite sex). How one carries themselves, their moral fabric, and compassionate nature play a huge factor, yes... but still, it's often not the predetermining seX-factor for most of us.

So what is it that tickles our fancy? I maintain: it's an escape from the mundane, and a chance to go on a 'wild ride'. Despite my general pontificating in previous writings about virtuous behaviour, and the importance of morality in society, I've come to humbly admit that morality and virtuous behaviour do not a swollen appendage make.

Any staunch Feminist (a breed now only existing in certain biospheres of the Martian Colonies) could tell herself that a 'nice man', one who is considerate, respectful, attentive, and even submissive, has the character traits sought after in a partner. Often though, when men behave in this politely pasteurized manner, the woman in question is just simply not attracted to him… Warum?

A man, having been placed in a woman's 'Friend Zone', can be viewed as being either 'needy' or even sometimes 'creepy', simply due to his natural desire to exchange sexual-intimacy with the Friend/Woman in question, however she may not, and usually doesn't (due to his pathologically benign nature), have any desire for him… and those are the breaks!

Since this paradox may be in obvious contradiction to what this Friend/Woman says, or more importantly 'believes' she desires, a standard human response is to vilify or develop a contemptuous attitude toward the subject in question (in this case, the man who desires to be intimate with her, despite her lack of attraction to him).

The one thing we humans, regardless of sex or political ideology, hate above all, is carrying the weighty stone of guilt.  If someone's very presence reflects back to us our own inconsistencies or hypocrisies, the standard unconscious human response is to create for ourselves a narrative to vilify the subject who is reflecting back the said imperfections. We con ourselves with lies, and proceed onward in our rudderless course into Self-Ignorance. Taking responsibility, or 'owning your own shit', is definitely the course less sailed here… or at least that was until our inevitable rendezvous with destiny.

I realized many years ago what excites me about women has very little to do with Love, and everything to do with Desire. Does this mean I require a partner who induces in me fits of lust? Well, If we're talking 'short-term', then the answer is definitely 'Yes'!  But if 'long-term' is the desired goal, then the answer is a resounding 'No' (Sadly though, when you're younger, you're less inclined to see this truth and tend to manifest unwanted 'responsibilities' long before you know who the hell you are, and what the f**k it is you want from life).

I certainly won't blame the entire female gender for any negative experiences I've had with women over the years. I realize that the qualities I'm attracted to in a woman, say as much about ME as it does HER. Any resulting 'heartbreak', or 'blue balls' acquired due to romantic misadventure, can probably a be chalked-up to having chosen Desire (the exciting, toxic and narcissistic qualities), over a partner possessing more virtuous ones.

How about you?

Future CT         Village 5,  Nova Avalon.        Year 17 P.T.E.

Pope On The Ropes

Joe Da Rat?

It wasn't long after the second to last Pope stepped down that things started to get really crazy. The Greenland ice was melting fast, and the polar vortex had just collapsed a month prematurely, affecting no less the Super Bowl, causing it to have a blackout. (forgive me, it's been a long time, and maybe I'm confusing these events a bit) 

Anyway, it seemed like 'Glory of the Olive' had more than a pit in his stomach. Perhaps he just didn't have the belly for the job. Instead, this papal poser decided to cash in his lottery winnings and buy himself 'two picketts to Tittsburgh', or was it a 'Bird's Nest' in Bavaria?

Holy Strawsack, I'm quitting in the morning!

The Pontiff who had served before him, that old polish guy who could barely sit up straight, had at least managed to tough it out on behalf of the billions of devoted Roman Catholics worldwide, despite his apparent drug-induced catatonic sub-narcoleptic trance.

Sure there had been a few black eyes delivered to the catholic church in those years… Butlers, banking practices, and other 'indiscretions' had been a point of serious contention among those who had looked to the 'holy see' as a role model for institutionalized spirituality.  Fortunately for those occupying the halls of the Vatican in those days, their competition (that is to say: the clowns within Governments and Banking), weren't looking much better either.

St. Malachy had ultimately been right though. That 12th century Irish monk had foreseen all 112 popes who would follow, and although he had scored a big hit calling the Petrus Romanus thing, what he hadn't foreseen was precisely how 'The End' would actually play out.

In order to not breach the laws of causality, I will refrain from revealing to you what exactly unfolded during 'The End Times'. What I can say though, as I'm sure more than a few of you may have already surmised is: 'The End' is relative. 'Beginning and End' are not like 'Good and Evil', because they are transcendental states which tend to blend into one another, in a spiritual/cosmic sense.

Suffice it to say, the last Pope, 'Peter of Rome', would go on to become a pretty popular guy, despite Comet ISON, the monetary crisis, TSHTF, and anything related to these or other apocalyptic phenomenon. 

Note: I can safely mention the monetary crisis because the basic arithmetic causing this event will already have been pre-determined by the time you read this…it had to do with QE something?

So back to Bavaria went Pope 111 (his name escapes me now, as do the names of most of the other so-called 'leaders' of your era) alone and content with his massive lottery winnings, and an extensive collection of photographs and memorabilia coming from his brief stint as head of the largest and wealthiest religious institution of your time period. 

Nobody remembers much about whatever ultimately happened to that odd German chap, to that fishy guy who wore the fish hat, and maybe that's because nobody other than his barber, banker, or the merchant who sold him the 'winning ticket' really cared all that much.

Taken moments after the Pontiff's fateful announcement.
 Was this a harbinger?

Future CT    Village 5,  Nova Avalon.    Year 17 P.T.E.