This month’s piece very much reflects the confusions of my own journey through these strange times. Thanks to a sense of increasingly clarity about what’s going on and what to do about it, it’s been a while since I titled a piece a Bafflement Essay. But in truth no subject has baffled me more than this one, so here we go again.
Fantastic piece of writing. I’d intended to come to that event, gutted I couldn’t—a friends lymphoma returned and the last 6 weeks have been hospital based—Ancient Futures is a good book, and Helena has been plugging away for decades. I need to have a think.
Nov 5, 2023·edited Nov 5, 2023Liked by Alex Klaushofer
Please - someone - make George Monbiot read this! If our global governments really cared about the planet, they would have banned single-use plastic, forever chemicals and switched over to organic farming decades ago. Net Zero is indeed an accounting trick that will let the polluters keep on polluting and stop us plebeians from travelling and eating what we want (and what’s actually good for us), all for the benefit of the WEF-following corporate psychos and amoral politicians. Here’s hoping the awakening is happening among the people who actually care about nature and each other.
Super piece! I just wrote a long comment and lost it, darnit! Basically, it was such a relief to hear so many voices expressing their awareness of the hijacking of "climate" for purposes of control, and the need to honour and have compassion for human beings rather than locking them down to save the planet.
Megalomania - just a wee typo!
I'm wondering if you can make this available to non-paying readers in a week or two, as I think this is a really important piece to share with others. Not just with George Monbiot though it would be great if he'd learn something from this! Dougald Hine mentioned the bizarre spat between him and Chris Smaje, who also spoke at the summit, in his recent Substack. https://dougald.substack.com/p/making-bad-ruins-or-how-not-to-do
Thanks for writing this, Alex! Many thoughts, and more after reading Helen's comments and becoming aware of the spat between Monbiot and Smaje. Discerning is so important. And experimenting, being honest - and seeing the big picture, having the right-brain view to accommodate the left. You make visible a lot of things that are easy to miss.
More great writing! People do need to "awaken" to what is going on!
In this context, we all need to lose our innocence, and to think for ourselves and question any kind of policy from any authority or influential individual worldwide. We need to exercise our faculties of discrimination, judgement, clear thinking and dispassionate focus in relation to information that's widely available via the general media. Consider independent journalism; this is far more likely to be truthful. This also applies to statements by any person in authority. We need to take charge of our own lives as far as possible and accept responsibility for our actions. This may sound burdensome but is actually liberating. It appears that society in general and individuals in particular are being increasingly isolated partly as a result of Government policy. What's even worse is that isolation of children at school from their parents appears to be happening. All this makes it far easier for any authority or influential individual to gaslight and control people, usually so said authority or individual can become richer and enjoy self-glorification and power over others.
Part of the reason why humanity is in such a bad way is loss of connection with Nature. We've lost our sense of connectedness, aided and abetted by over-emphasis on left brain thinking at the cost of our intuitive faculties and emotional expression. We've lost our ancient connection with ancestral insights. I have practiced nature spirituality in a general sense for many years and this provides a sense of belonging and connectedness, strengthens the character and engenders groundedness of being. It's perhaps more a matter of opening up and giving space to intuition than seeking. People enjoy walking in the countryside; what I do is simply going up a level. I lead a small group of friends that celebrates the eight "Celtic" festivals - the Solstices, Equinoxes, etc. These get-togethers are most enjoyable. Although I'm not a fan of religion, a good aspect is that it can also strengthen family life and give people of a given faith something in common which provides mutual strength and reduces societal isolation.
I believe that there is a "Great Spirit", an overarching entity that overlights all existance of which ourselves and all observable (and non-observable) phenomena are part. This includes the cosmos and space-time as we think we understand it. A problem with humanity is its tendency to monopolise, develop a religious practice, dictate their methodology to others, then kill others in the name of said overarching entity. Fanaticism in other words.
Banking as we know it most probably started during the Industrial Revolution, and so did the corruption associated with it.
The following link is to a most interesting video. If I had seen anything like it 3 or 4 years ago, I would have dismissed it as conspiracy theory. Not now. It starts with a brief history of the philosophy of warfare in order to put into context what is happening today. The video moves toward the nature of modern warfare and its increasingly widespread and horrific effects on civilians. Finally, the behaviour of governments as part of 5th generation warfare (which includes psychological warfare/gaslighting) both internationally and towards the citizenry is discussed.
For sure, "green" policies are being used as a pretext for authoritarian behaviour in the part of Western governments. I do wonder if there's a feeling of panic on the part of governments with regard to climate change that's partially triggering this, just as panic may have had a part in triggering pandemic lockdowns. Also, follow the money.
I recently sent an email to MP Esther McVey with fulsome praise for her speech on 20th October 2023, regarding severe side effects of a well-known injection and the manipulation of the English language used in relation to this by the authorities. I also agree with her stance on the World Health Organisation's attempted power grab. I hope Parliament wakes up to this. We need to! Both Ms. McVey and MP Andrew Bridgen are doing a great job in bringing these and related topics to Parliament. This doesn't mean I agree with all their viewpoints.
Dr. John Campbell produces excellent Youtube videos on how modern medicine is practiced.
I agree with Charles Eisenstein's ideas as described. Having just discovered he has a Youtube channel, I'm most impressed with his depth of understanding.
Sadly, I've largely lost faith in the "green movement". Although on the whole, they're nice, well meaning people, they tend to be naive and woke.
In the future, it seems likely that small and medium sized businesses across the board will be squeezed out by huge multinationals, which will carve up markets between themselves. Note that supermarkets squeezed out small,local food shops, and introduced their own small "local" shops some time ago in the UK and maybe further afield.
Thanks for the report and glad to see that the third path, one where knowing not what it looks like but what it feels like is the underpinning for systemic change.
Fantastic piece of writing. I’d intended to come to that event, gutted I couldn’t—a friends lymphoma returned and the last 6 weeks have been hospital based—Ancient Futures is a good book, and Helena has been plugging away for decades. I need to have a think.
Please - someone - make George Monbiot read this! If our global governments really cared about the planet, they would have banned single-use plastic, forever chemicals and switched over to organic farming decades ago. Net Zero is indeed an accounting trick that will let the polluters keep on polluting and stop us plebeians from travelling and eating what we want (and what’s actually good for us), all for the benefit of the WEF-following corporate psychos and amoral politicians. Here’s hoping the awakening is happening among the people who actually care about nature and each other.
Super piece! I just wrote a long comment and lost it, darnit! Basically, it was such a relief to hear so many voices expressing their awareness of the hijacking of "climate" for purposes of control, and the need to honour and have compassion for human beings rather than locking them down to save the planet.
Megalomania - just a wee typo!
I'm wondering if you can make this available to non-paying readers in a week or two, as I think this is a really important piece to share with others. Not just with George Monbiot though it would be great if he'd learn something from this! Dougald Hine mentioned the bizarre spat between him and Chris Smaje, who also spoke at the summit, in his recent Substack. https://dougald.substack.com/p/making-bad-ruins-or-how-not-to-do
Also want to draw your attention to this Substack: https://stirfrombelow.substack.com/p/seriously
Thanks for writing this, Alex! Many thoughts, and more after reading Helen's comments and becoming aware of the spat between Monbiot and Smaje. Discerning is so important. And experimenting, being honest - and seeing the big picture, having the right-brain view to accommodate the left. You make visible a lot of things that are easy to miss.
More great writing! People do need to "awaken" to what is going on!
In this context, we all need to lose our innocence, and to think for ourselves and question any kind of policy from any authority or influential individual worldwide. We need to exercise our faculties of discrimination, judgement, clear thinking and dispassionate focus in relation to information that's widely available via the general media. Consider independent journalism; this is far more likely to be truthful. This also applies to statements by any person in authority. We need to take charge of our own lives as far as possible and accept responsibility for our actions. This may sound burdensome but is actually liberating. It appears that society in general and individuals in particular are being increasingly isolated partly as a result of Government policy. What's even worse is that isolation of children at school from their parents appears to be happening. All this makes it far easier for any authority or influential individual to gaslight and control people, usually so said authority or individual can become richer and enjoy self-glorification and power over others.
Part of the reason why humanity is in such a bad way is loss of connection with Nature. We've lost our sense of connectedness, aided and abetted by over-emphasis on left brain thinking at the cost of our intuitive faculties and emotional expression. We've lost our ancient connection with ancestral insights. I have practiced nature spirituality in a general sense for many years and this provides a sense of belonging and connectedness, strengthens the character and engenders groundedness of being. It's perhaps more a matter of opening up and giving space to intuition than seeking. People enjoy walking in the countryside; what I do is simply going up a level. I lead a small group of friends that celebrates the eight "Celtic" festivals - the Solstices, Equinoxes, etc. These get-togethers are most enjoyable. Although I'm not a fan of religion, a good aspect is that it can also strengthen family life and give people of a given faith something in common which provides mutual strength and reduces societal isolation.
I believe that there is a "Great Spirit", an overarching entity that overlights all existance of which ourselves and all observable (and non-observable) phenomena are part. This includes the cosmos and space-time as we think we understand it. A problem with humanity is its tendency to monopolise, develop a religious practice, dictate their methodology to others, then kill others in the name of said overarching entity. Fanaticism in other words.
Banking as we know it most probably started during the Industrial Revolution, and so did the corruption associated with it.
The following link is to a most interesting video. If I had seen anything like it 3 or 4 years ago, I would have dismissed it as conspiracy theory. Not now. It starts with a brief history of the philosophy of warfare in order to put into context what is happening today. The video moves toward the nature of modern warfare and its increasingly widespread and horrific effects on civilians. Finally, the behaviour of governments as part of 5th generation warfare (which includes psychological warfare/gaslighting) both internationally and towards the citizenry is discussed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0p10G1m3ZfU 5th Generation Warfare: History, Modern Context, and (Some) Solutions
For sure, "green" policies are being used as a pretext for authoritarian behaviour in the part of Western governments. I do wonder if there's a feeling of panic on the part of governments with regard to climate change that's partially triggering this, just as panic may have had a part in triggering pandemic lockdowns. Also, follow the money.
I recently sent an email to MP Esther McVey with fulsome praise for her speech on 20th October 2023, regarding severe side effects of a well-known injection and the manipulation of the English language used in relation to this by the authorities. I also agree with her stance on the World Health Organisation's attempted power grab. I hope Parliament wakes up to this. We need to! Both Ms. McVey and MP Andrew Bridgen are doing a great job in bringing these and related topics to Parliament. This doesn't mean I agree with all their viewpoints.
Dr. John Campbell produces excellent Youtube videos on how modern medicine is practiced.
I agree with Charles Eisenstein's ideas as described. Having just discovered he has a Youtube channel, I'm most impressed with his depth of understanding.
Sadly, I've largely lost faith in the "green movement". Although on the whole, they're nice, well meaning people, they tend to be naive and woke.
In the future, it seems likely that small and medium sized businesses across the board will be squeezed out by huge multinationals, which will carve up markets between themselves. Note that supermarkets squeezed out small,local food shops, and introduced their own small "local" shops some time ago in the UK and maybe further afield.
Thanks for the report and glad to see that the third path, one where knowing not what it looks like but what it feels like is the underpinning for systemic change.