Jim Grant's Post

The UN Millennium Ecosystem Report tells us that if we carry on as we are: the human race will be extinct within a few generations. It seems to be true enough that very few people in western civilisation have dared read it; more people in Asia seem to be aware of it.

One way to deal with it is to help the express train everybody is on just carry on till it crashes: then rebuild one's own family. Chancy, but it is at least as tricky trying to change the world.

Dear Jim,
While I agree there is tremendous work to be done in the political arena here at home I think there is ample evidence that the problem is pervasive not only in our government but around the world. I don't even think that politics is the core issue. What of corporate greed, the environment, genocide, slavery, to mention only a few. I think these are symptoms of a far greater problem and a precursor to a massive evolutionary shift that is inevitable.

I don't want to pour water on your fire because I too am feed up with the status quo but I'd rather address the cause than the symptom.
Russ

From Filip
Hi Jim,
Well put.
The United States first rocked my world with the assassination of President Kennedy. How could this happen?
Then again with the uncovering of the CIA and its actions around the world.
Then with 9/11 and further uncovering of government/corporate actions.
Then Bush/Cheney and the Iraq/Afganistan wars ETC

My answers are:
Yes
The Shift is going to happen because of the political arena.
I too, am curious where this discussion will go. It may be too close to the bone!

One step and about 8,000 km removed from the US political process I view it objectively and note elements of falibility common to our own Westminster system. We recently went through an national election in which we removed the Australian equivalent of the 4th Reich and voted in a mob, fronted by a charismatic and wide eyed can do type of guy, who are now behaving like cladding salesmen.

I believe that politics from the perspective of any political party is not about serving the people but winning and maintaining power. Further it seems that power is won and maintained not on behalf of common constituents but vested interests with the funding muscle to propel candidates into office - be that vested interest an independent contractor to defense forces in the US or the coal lobby in Australia.

Even if you had a saint running for office, his or her actions once the race is won are directed by the machine which put them there not by conscience or personal philosophies. Expecting individuals to withstand the normal pressures of party influence alone is a big call.

I think if things are going to change then campaign funding and the general influence of lobby groups need to be curtailed by stringent and stridently enforced legislation. The systems of representative government we each have may not be perfect but in their pure forms are currently the best options on the table, but for the machines to function efficiently the gremlins in the works must be eliminated.

Intend perfection

Chris

The scenario you lay out seems all too plausible, Jim.

That said, the notion that my actions in the ballot box are meaningful, gets stretched beyond plausibility.

I choose not to fight fire with fire, because it won't be a fair firefight, far as I can tell.

I do consider resistance, and advocate non-violent application of, ready?, Magick. Yes, old school spell casting, more specifically, counterspell casting, since we appear to be the subjects of some dark arts already.

I do wonder, what became of the propaganda savvy whipped up by Josef Goebbels and company? Still knockin' 'em dead? Gone underground and upscale?

I read your last line: "Where is this discussion going on in Shift in Action?" and can't point to any hotspot. Stephen Dinan has a good political head, but seems to soft-pedal it here. Google him for work posted elsewhere.

You started it, Jim, and I'm feral enough to jump in. (foolish?)

I read this American political situation as desperate, a plutocracy on steroids, trying to get off this rock and up into orbit so a little bloodletting can be performed.

I note that the dominant American religio-cultural template is derived from a pastoralist model. Shepherds, sheep, etc.

Are we coming up to Shearing Time? Remember 1929. 1941. 1945. 1972.