I woke up this mornin
Took a look in the mirror
Saw somethin starin back at me
I was frozen with fear
Put a hand to my face
When what to my surprise
Five claws scratchin mandibles
And a pair a compound eyes
And I said ah christ
Gotta seek some advice

Went and asked my ol lady
Oh how can this be
She said man you got some nerve right here
To come cryin to me so why don’t you just
Put on your coat and hat right now
And crawl yourself out the door
These gears ain’t gonna grease themselves
And you don’t wanna be poor
So get off the floor

Oh what can I do

You sleep with the rest of the vermin
Vermin

Before you had changed
You knew every boss was a bastard
Bastard

Have you given up
Or did you not know that cockroaches fly
So fuck it

Doombrass

The Gregor Samsa Blues (Pandemo Version)

Our civilization is built upon lies and obfuscation to such an extent that advocating for transparency and the democratization of information can be a complete political position, all by itself.

Rather than claiming to know what's best for society (whether we should move left or right, whether we should espouse this model or that model), it is perfectly legitimate to simply support giving humanity the information tools necessary to know the truth about what's happening so that they can collectively determine for themselves what direction to take.

Reading by Tim Foley.

Information Anarchism

The US government views the American people as an annoying distraction from its real job of managing a globe-spanning empire. They couldn't be more obvious about it. The only thing keeping Americans from seeing it are the media spinmeisters telling them daddy loves them all day.

Reading by Tim Foley.

The US Government Hates Americans

Boris Johnson resigning would only be interesting in an alternate universe where there was some remote chance that he won't be replaced by another depraved sociopath.

Reading by Tim Foley.

UK To Swap Out Top Sociopath For A Different Sociopath

And then one day we just couldn't anymore.
Couldn't keep up the maintenance on our shouldn'ts and shoulds.
Couldn't pay the contractors to keep building our skyscrapers of spin.
Could no longer hold up the weight of a world made of lies
and so we let it splatter on the floor
and sprout night orchids.

And that was when the Forgotten Ones rushed in.
No longer staved off by propaganda and pain,
no longer contained by our cages made of mind,
they set to work with sharp claws and great mandibles of ivory
slicing away the steel bands wrapped around our soft hearts
and cutting the bolts on the door of the old grandmother magic.

And they taught us— no!
They reminded us
how to walk on this earth as they walk.
How to step with a pregnant tenderness
in communion with the planet.
How to grow our hair long so it makes love with the wind
and listens for the whispers that are too quiet for our ears.
How to work with the land not in dominion but in friendship
and to extract the thorns of dogma and punditry from our flesh
and to vomit up the madness of millennia of civilization.

And we forgot our old stories of separateness and shame,
our minds now too life-sized and world-shaped for falsehood.
And we strode in companionship with the Forgotten Ones back to Eden,
untamed beings in an untamed world.
Untamed beings in an untamed world.

_____________________

_____________________

_____________________

Reading by Tim Foley.

The Forgotten Ones

And what's interesting is that underneath all the babbling propaganda stories about what's happening in our world, humanity is indeed showing signs that we are collectively slipping out of our old relationship with mental narrative. It's happening in the usual sloppy, awkward, two-steps-forward-one-step-back shamble which has always marked all of human progress, but it's happening.

It's happening in the way people are moving away from religion as we collectively discover that those ancient narratives which so long transfixed our ancestors are not necessary or helpful for finding meaning, morality and fulfillment in our lives, and as we collectively notice that doctrines about eternal reward for obedience and eternal damnation for disobedience sound made-up.

It's happening with the rise of cryptocurrencies as people figure out that money is made up and we can change the rules whenever we want. Money is nothing more than an agreed-upon story that's only as true as we all continue to pretend it is, a collective narrative that we can collectively rewrite at any time.

It's happening as people figure out that a romantic relationship doesn't need to look the way they've looked throughout most of our recorded history; that it's only narrative which says one man and one woman must love and have sex with only each other throughout their lives, or even throughout their relationship. That those rules have only ever been made of empty narrative fluff and can be replaced with an entirely different set of guidelines.

It's happening as people figure out how much narrative overlays things like gender and sexuality, that there's nothing inscribed upon the fabric of reality which prescribes our longstanding models of men and women and what their roles are and how their sexualities should express. Rearranging societal narratives that deeply entrenched in our culture is causing a lot of chaos and confusion, and the arguments it's bringing up are very upsetting for a lot of people, but it's gradually working itself out as people pick through the narratives and sort out fact from story.

Indeed each issue I'm describing here has brought in its own set of quandaries, challenges, bad faith actors and abuses that had previously been avoided under the old models, but it's not like the old models have been free of those things either. And as we all discuss, argue, push and pull and muddle our way through these obstacles with each other, we are collectively sinking into the real important insight which underlies all those more superficial areas of contention: that our society is made of narrative, and we can change the rules whenever we want.

Reading by Tim Foley.

Humanity Is Learning That The Rules Are All Made Up And Can Be Re-Written At Any Time

In short, there is no exit strategy to this proxy war. There are no plans in place to deliver Putin a swift defeat, and the Biden administration remains steadfastly dismissive of even the slightest gestures toward diplomacy with Moscow. Boris Johnson has reportedly been buzzing around admonishing Ukraine's President Zelensky, France's President Macron and who knows who else not to work toward peace in Ukraine. The doors to ending this war quickly by either winning it or negotiating a peace settlement are both bolted shut, all but guaranteeing a long and bloody slog. 

Reading by Tim Foley.

This Proxy War Has No Exit Strategy

Two powerful leaders met beneath the hot Jeddah sun to discuss oil and killing and friendship.

One of the leaders rules a tyrannical regime which funds terrorists, murders journalists, suppresses civil rights and commits war crimes. The other, the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, is no better.

They greeted not with the traditional handshake, nor with a stern finger wag from the American for the assassination of Jamal Khashoggi, but with the most epic fistbump in the history of civilization.

Since the invention of the fistbump there have been none so pure, so affectionate, so expressive of perfect union and harmony. Observers said they thought they heard angels singing.

Where their two fists connected, their souls merged. Their eyes locked with an intimacy poets and lovers have spent their whole lives trying to capture. Their dick chakras burned with the intensity of a thousand stars.

"This is who we are," the fistbump roared to the heavens. "This is who we have always been. Our sacred bond presides over an empire that is fueled by oil and blood, and we rule as one in holy communion with the great kings of old. Nothing shall ever come between us: not bone saw nor mass beheading nor strained lip service to human rights values on the presidential campaign trail."

Time froze as the two joined fists in genocidal matrimony, flashing coy grins at each other upon a mountain of Yemeni corpses and the tortured bones of Syria. Their faces turned to skulls. Doves with red-stained feathers filled the air.

And the Marxists of the world say "If only we could one day capture that kind of class solidarity."

And the wives of the world say "If only he would one day look at me like that."

And the arms manufacturers of the world say "Hoo hoo yeah buddy boy this is gonna be great let's go snort coke off a Tomahawk missile."

And the hidden saints say "Something's gotta give here."

And the world rotates on the axis of those two joined fists into ecocide and atrocity and Google Hollywood McDystopia.

And the imperial juggernaut marches on, and the Earth spins off into the blackness, and we all hold hands and look to providence as we plunge into an increasingly strange Unknown.

________________

________________

________________

Reading by Tim Foley.

The Fistbump Heard Round The World

All of human civilization is being organized around a "great power competition" between the US-centralized empire and the China/Russia/Iran bloc, and that "competition" stands to benefit ordinary humans in no way, shape or form. It will hurt all of us and help none of us.

There's no valid reason why powerful nations can't simply work together toward their mutual benefit. But it would mean the US empire giving up its plans of total global domination, so it's not even being considered.

This conflict is slated to last throughout the 21st century, and it already has a massive body count. The war in Ukraine is a direct result of this "great power competition", and the economic warfare between the empire and Russia will starve many more. This is a terrible thing. 

Our world is being steered toward a dark and dangerous path full of impoverishment, starvation and proxy warfare, and fraught with the possibility of nuclear exchanges. They're playing games with our lives, and because we've bought into the propaganda, we're letting them.

Reading by Tim Foley.

When They Announce WW3 Let's Just Say 'Nah'

This civilization is the set of the Truman Show, and we are all Truman.

Reading by Tim Foley.

We've Been Lied To Our Whole Lives About Everything That Matters

The Times has published an article titled "Lady Gaga embodies everything China fears," subtitled "The singer’s uncompromising individuality makes her a serious threat to the mass imposition of cultural conformity through censorship," and its contents are exactly as horrifyingly idiotic as you would imagine.

Reading by Tim Foley.

Westerners Think They Are Free-Thinking Individualists And It's Effing Adorable

Readings of all Caitlin Johnstone's articles, usually by her co-writer Tim Foley.

Information Anarchism

Caitlin Johnstone

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