Interesting analysis but I feel like there is an ocean-wide difference between FJB’s malevolent “pardons” of his criminal, greedy & treasonous family (not to mention the thousands? of some of the worst & most unworthy murderers, rapists & grifters) & Trump’s for a bunch of people wandering around outside or inside the capital on J6. People that weren’t even present that day but convicted of “incitement”, people who were waived in by capital police & wandered about like tourists, people who never even entered the building &/or were shot or beaten & died. There was no punishment for those abusers & virtually all of the J6-ers were falsely & unjustly convicted or forced to plead guilty of minor crimes twisted into lawfare felonies & falsely imprisoned in abusive conditions. A “bipartisan” committee that hid evidence, refused to release the tapes, that corrupted witnesses & outright lied to the country & prepared phony conclusions. J6 people have suffered enough under false pretenses (even those who destroyed property or assaulted police) & real justice is now served - esp compared to every criminal BLM & antifa criminal rioter who never served a day for their crimes & actually had the VP of the USA shilling for them to raise bail money….
I agree with you, Cindi. It was interesting, however, to hear Jane Ruby's interview by Doc Malik: https://rumble.com/v663f4m-278-dr-jane-ruby-is-on-fire.html. Jane was a passionate supporter of Trump in his first term, so much that she left her career to work in the 'correspondence' dept at the WH when he won. So her disillusionment struck me more than it would have with someone who never believed in him.
One of the biggest questions she asks is 'Why didn't he pardon the J6ers before leaving office?' Four years of rotting in prison. What a horrible quasi-death for something they were tricked into.
I think the answer is that Trump was in on it and wanted the outrage of their imprisonment to fuel his 2024 election. He was in on the game that gave the election to Biden and created all those extra Democrats in 2020. Biden had to take the fall for lockdowns, vaccines, Ukraine, economic collapse, Nordstream, etc. Now Trump can ride in on that wave of outrage and finish the job, which means Israel and crypto.
Just my opinion, but we certainly agree about Biden's disgusting nepotism in protecting his criminal dynasty.
That's a fascinating, all-too-possible take, Tereza. Thanks for offering it up here, and I'll be interested to listen to Ruby's interview. Somehow I've never heard of her before now.
Thank you, Mary. I'd only heard of (Dr) Jane Ruby because she was one of the defendants in Malone's group lawsuit for defamation, along with the Breggins. He never clarified who said what, as if that didn't matter for slander.
I'd actually dismissed her as a young attractive celebrity, not that envy had anything to do with it <smirk>. It turns out she's 70, went through traditional treatment for breast cancer--which she regrets--and is not in agreement with the network (Stew Peters) that gave her that platform. She was much more nuanced than I expected. And as you know, I consider a person who changes their mind to be the second-most powerful force in the universe.
'a person who changes their mind to be the second-most powerful force in the universe.'
I love this notion. In my jargon this is when intelligence becomes actionable. Sub-consciously everybody knows that we live in an ocean of lies and bullshit, and only when we change our minds will we be able to integrate information previously off limits for our conscious consideration.
Thanks Mary, top shelf as always. In regard to our roles and responsibilities and sloughing them off onto an external savior. We might be said to have a partnership or covenant with our creator. To the degree that soul reaches for spirit, spirit will reach to help us. So what happens is up to us, but we have a powerful assist if we learn better how to connect.
Beautiful comment, Sounder, and thank you for the compliment! We don't have good role models for changing our minds, especially in disagreement with someone else. I feel this is really key to how we're stuck. In any disagreement, if truth exists, one position is closer to it than the other.
Yet we see it as 'losing' to change our mind, we use the word 'concede' for adopting another's point, as if it's a battle. We talk about 'compromise' as if it's about egos rather than figuring out what's true. But a compromise just ends up with two half-truths. Being wrong means gaining a new truth, it's learning.
I was also thinking that if you can change a person's mind in a soundbite, they weren't using it to begin with. Any real question requires patience to go through the detail. And since you like the phrase, here's my episode on it: https://thirdparadigm.substack.com/p/when-did-you-stop-being-wrong?
And I love your last paragraph: "We might be said to have a partnership or covenant with our creator. To the degree that soul reaches for spirit, spirit will reach to help us. So what happens is up to us, but we have a powerful assist if we learn better how to connect." Yes!!
Nice episode Tereza, while you and I share similar sensibilities, we likely take them in different directions. That is fine. My sense is that the source of what appears to be wrong with the world can be traced to an idea that everybody agrees on. That being the idea that the spiritual and the material are fundamentally different. If we were to see that they in fact, are fundamentally similar we may begin the switch from the current object oriented understanding of reality toward a relationship based understanding. In my opinion if we are to en mass choose to connect, a clear path needs to be shown for folk to give up on their old ways.
Thanks for weighing in here with so much clarity and wisdom, Sounder. (You too, Tereza, since you're in this thread!)
My former yoga/spiritual teacher (with whom I wrote a book on Shaiva Tantra) used to say, "The winds of grace are always blowing, but you have to set the sail."
In Shaiva Tantra, god is inseparable from everything -- the material is spiritual, and vice versa. I loved your comment, Sounder: "If we were to see that they in fact, are fundamentally similar we may begin the switch from the current object oriented understanding of reality toward a relationship based understanding." YES.
Thanks Mary, After two years I still have few readers over at my stack. (I refuse to call folk 'followers'.) It may be that my writing is overly abstract for the 'wisdom' to produce actionable intelligence. I am working on showing more personality but am much more comfortable being anonymous and working behind the scenes. Maybe the book can be named; 'The Sounder Way Works' Improvement Strategy, for Yourself and the World.
Alright fine, I said so, so I better get cracking. But I need help.
Tereza, I agree about Trump. I have suspected for some time now that he was in on the whole game. I've always believed they were all in on it, all the factions of the political and governmental spectrum. Fool me once. You know how that goes.
Just from memory, I would say that most of the J6 people had not been rounded up and charged before Trump left office. So he would have had to pardon nameless people proactively, which I don't think was acceptable at the time. Note also that he didn't pardon himself and his people prior to leaving office, because it would make them look guilty. The pro-active pardons became a much bigger thing with Biden. Fauci is a prime example, pardoned for any possible crimes (not yet charged) back to 2014. And this year Trump actually had to name and pardon many J6 protesters proactively because they were in prison, or otherwise constrained, and had not yet been charged, and others had been charged but not convicted.
I'll reply to myself to catch Cindi, Kathleen and Ronnie. I just posted this regarding Trump on Conspiracy Sarah and wanted to get your thoughts. I agree with Cindi, there's something so deeply disturbing on both sides:
"One of the columnists I read, Pepe Escobar, calls Trump Mr. Disco Inferno. I like that but I keep going back to Ralph the Wrecker. I can't tell how much is intentional and how much he just doesn't care.
"On the other side of that, a long time activist in my town just self-immolated on the Black Lives Matter mural because ... Trump. He wasn't fully successful because a firefighter happened to be walking past (the fire station is around the corner). They haven't released his name for privacy. 'The names have been changed to protect the stupid.'
"Apparently others have been apprehended pouring gasoline on themselves. What are they thinking that would change, to give your life for it? And an excruciating death ... or life, if you survive it."
What is this world coming to? That's not a rhetorical question.
Thank you Tereza & Kathleen; I will look forward to hearing the Ruby discussion. I, too, wondered why J6-era were not pardoned at the time although arguably the whole sordid mess on the part of the government & there was so much hysteria from the still-in-control lame street media. They still had the megaphone - as with the scamdemic - but no longer do.
Was deeply disillusioned by Trump re OWS & his “beautiful vaccines” that “saved millions of lives” & am suspicious of his meeting w/ Gates for 3 hours to discuss MORE mRNA instead of having that psycho ARRESTED for crimes against humanity.
Its all so difficult to process without hating & distrusting almost everything & everyone in the world
Why didn't he pardon them? I've asked my Trump forever friend that and she says he couldn't - people needed to see the injustice in order to wake up. It's always some version of that answer with any objection to Trump. I can't argue it. Okay sure maybe that's true, but is it okay? Sacrificing supporters in order to wake up non-supporters?
Killing and harming people with the jab - same basic answer. I guess anything can be reasoned if you're a true believer. (And she's no dummy.)
And yes, I think he's was the better 'choice.'
Agree there is always a larger chess game going on we're not privy to.
Agreed -- Tereza is always asking good questions, and she doesn't disappoint here, either. What IS this world coming to?
Cindi, your comment, "Its all so difficult to process without hating & distrusting almost everything & everyone in the world" resonates. I think that difficulty you describe points to what I feel compelled to do, and what Kathleen talked about in her latest, excellent essay: love.
As simplistic as it may seem, I do think these times are calling out the very best we have, and that is... love. It's literally the only thing in the world that can counter hate. And sometimes it's so effing hard, it's like crawling over broken glass.
Thoughtful comments, as always Mary. I'll respond to this here and also your later comment that "If we have any shot as a society at healing a broken system, I think we have to level up enough to join together."
'Hate' and 'distrust' are two separate things, to me. I can only hate someone if I feel they've betrayed my trust. But what did I trust them for? To think for me? To do what I want? That's a projection.
I wouldn't say the game is beautiful, myself. The game forces each of us into a role, a side within it. I neither blame the player for a bad role, nor congratulate myself on my role, which was given to me.
I define love as giving others the benefit of the doubt that, behind the role, is always a person who wants happiness for others. The kindest thing I can do is call out their role and disempower it, so the person is freed.
Joining together, I think, has to be done at the level of the question, not the answer, the process, not the product. The system isn't a living thing to be healed--it's an artificial construct designed to break and enslave us, imo. The work right now is internal, at the level of research and imagination. It's not ready to be social. It's womb time.
Thanks for sharing your opinion, Cindi. Always welcome!
I'm late to responding -- was traveling all day yesterday -- and I appreciate your take on the J6ers. I hear your frustration (and that word probably is far too tepid, I'm guessing) ... yet when I read the comment sections of writers like Heather Cox Richardson, I hear the exact same frustration about how WRONG the pardons are for "all those criminals who stormed the Capital." Both sides are 100% convinced that the other is insane, misled, or just plain stupid.
My hope in this essay was to lift the view up off the playing field, so to speak, to see the game's inherent flaws AND its potential for beauty, simultaneously. If we have any shot as a society at healing a broken system, I think we have to level up enough to join together. That's where our power lies.
This post is a masterclass of art and freedom! Like a great haiku, you wove two ideas together from what I would normally file away in separate drawers, and created something unexpected and new. At least new for me.
Here and now, I am not in that place Ulbricht was speaking from. It appears to be that same rarified land that Nelson Mandela found, the same coastline being tread by Julian Assange and Edward Snowden. But I've seen enough of it to know it is authentic. Maybe I even felt pieces of that earth as it slipped through my fingers.
But as I was pondering 'deus ex machina', I could not help but recall what might be the opposite ... a YouTube podcast that popped up in my feed yesterday. For lack of a better term, "deus ex mundano" — god from the mundane?
Thanks so much for the kind words, Steve! I took a brief look at the video you linked, and can't wait to watch the rest. My cup of tea, for sure. And my back is doing SO much better, thank you. Amazing how the body pulls our attention to fix what's out of alignment -- and not just physically.
So many good points made here, Mary. Yes, pardons and executive orders are hardly a sign of democracy in action, are they? And yet in this insanely distorted terrain, they are used - to both good and bad ends. Short term as you say may feel good, but should we celebrate them?
So happy to see a post from you and that you're feeling better. Sharp and insightful as ever. You've been missed! XOX
Thanks, Kathleen! I spent the day traveling yesterday so I'm catching up on comments now -- including your gorgeous piece. Sounds like January was a time for hibernation of all sorts for many of us! xoxox
Mary, so nice to hear from you on such an important topic! Glad you’re feeling up to it.
Thanks for highlighting an aspect of our environment that’s subtle, and therefore easy to overlook, but the effects of Deus Ex Machina have been to slowly undermine our ability to see ourselves as key to positive change. Instead, we constantly appeal to outer authorities for our redemption when only we have the key to set ourselves free.
In every generation, there are “freedom pioneers” who model courage and a commitment to stand for human freedom regardless of the punishing consequences. Wow. Profiles in Courage.
For another (heartbreaking) example check out the Bitcoin Jesus documentary:
Katie, this comment nails it. "the effects of Deus Ex Machina have been to slowly undermine our ability to see ourselves as key to positive change. Instead, we constantly appeal to outer authorities for our redemption when only we have the key to set ourselves free." YES, a thousand times, yes.
I will check out the documentary -- looking forward to it.
Big hugs and thank you for your insight, always. xox
It occurs to me that the Shift in Consciousness I talk about is somewhat of a Deus Ex Machina, since it doesn't solve the woes of Society, but kind of flies over and past them.
However, we each have the choice to continue to move in directions of limitation, or heal and Shift. So, in a sense, there is solution, but it happens for each individual, and by their own struggle. And it is no small feat.
I just love you, Mary. Such a thoughtful analysis.
I've also come to believe Lord of the Flies is a key part of the psyops that says human nature is violent and only authority can save us. We internalize fiction as if it's truth, as if there's no meta-message to the narrative. I ended this video talking about LotF: https://thirdparadigm.substack.com/p/truth-is-like-a-chamelion.
"Letting go of the trauma is in recognizing that the stories we were told were lies. Lies told for the purpose of inflicting psychological trauma and a belief in our own wickedness. I too was VERY traumatized by LotF. It was 'proof' that people are inherently bad ... and that only gov't and authorities are what keep us from killing each other. What a crock of shit!
"It may have been the exact story where I started recognizing 'this is a story.' The teacher is making us analyze it as if it's reality but it's just a story. And those other traumas we've talked about--Night and Fog was categorized as fiction. When asked by his rabbi if it was true, Elie Wiesel said, 'sometimes a story is more true than the truth.' Fiction!
"I think that every time one of these stories is defused, depotentiated, a trauma evaporates and isn't passed on. Do you want revenge or to end it? That's the only question."
You and I are in total agreement, Tereza. It IS a crock of shit. Thank you for these links -- I will take a look, to see if my own thoughts are worth putting into an essay or whether you guys have covered it!!😂
I loved this piece Mary. So interesting and fun to connect to stories from my past, and then to be shown how they intertwine with today's concerns. And, it begs the question for me--What could be the next happy ending/scene changer? Could it be Deus Ex Homo Sapien?
I enjoyed reading this with a hot beverage and wanted to share a Ko-fi with YOU, but when it was time to pay, I could not enter my security code. Alas! But, wanted you to know in case there is a fix on that end.
At any rate Mary, I am soon coming out of the closet with the Epic Musical Project. My dream come true would be you and Kathleen coming to my cabin this summer to get our hands dirty in this messy writing extravaganza! I'll likely be sharing on Substack this month. I'm nervous!
Thank you for your continuing inspiration in our times!!
Thank you so much, elle. YES to Deus Ex Homo Sapien as the game changer. That's brilliant.
Not sure why the Ko-fi didn't work... I was able to use it -- though tipping myself was 😂. Thank you for the impulse, though!
I'm VERY interested in your dream coming true, and will look for more news. Nerves can be such a great indicator of the right path, no? You know that better than anyone. 😉 xox
Has flawed humanity gamed the system of self-governance that was the Constitution or was the Constitution a way to game the self-governance of the Confederation? There's a bigger question here than whether the Constitution is flawed or even whether it was designed to undermine self-governance, as I've said: https://thirdparadigm.substack.com/p/the-constitution-coup.
The fundamental question is whether we are good, whether we're capable of self-governance, or if the better people need to be in charge. When we accept the story of the Founding Fathers, we come to the latter. But it doesn't withstand scrutiny. We're drawing the wrong conclusion.
I don't think secret relationships are the answer. Rather than avoiding banks and taxes, we should own the banks and tax systems. It should be legal to have P2P exchanges w/o tax under the rules that we design. That's my two-cents.
And I'm SO sorry to hear about your back relapse, prolapse, lapsed discs, whatever it is. My heart goes out to you!
Oh the places you’ll go…. on your inward journey. I spent so much time over the holidays sick too and in a way it was cleansing. Also y hanks for including my piece on Ross’s pardon. Sending you strong healing vibes for your back and energy for all fresh creative endeavors. 💗
I think there were quite a few of us needing to step away and regroup in January; I'm glad you're mended, SF. And thank YOU for your terrific piece. (I've fixed the link so that it takes my reader to it.) I'm so grateful you transcribed his words.
My back is way, way better and I appreciate the vibes. Same energy coming your way... xox
just ketchin' up--I HOPE yer back's on the mend--I once went ta a "crackerjack" chiropractor that had me laid up too! (the ones I like ain't crackers, they do it gently!) red light of course is gentle!
I have one on DJT in the "woiks" an' I too mention the Deus Ex Machina... a bit differently but indeed it's a DEVICE (an' he's gotta few plots goin' on)! ha ha I remember McKee too...been a long time... but ta some degree I disagree... Sometimes the full out ARTIFICE or pagentry of a device shows up the entire "operation"... First a Hollywoodian example--how many films have we seen with fantabulously strong women that only at the end--are scooped up by a deus ex machina Man/Husband/Punishment ta subdue 'em or tamp down the "laydee threat" of power & agency (this is old skool semiotic feminism talkin'). TROO tho'! An' y'know what? We in the audience never buy it! In His Girl Friday we know "Hildy" ain't gonna be no good little wifey--re-marryin' ain't gonna stop her force. The "RULES" of society couldn't have her SINGLE so they had ta make the appearance (deus ex machina) of her bein' sub-DOO'd. But we all see thru the DeVICE, no? True of near-every Kate Hepburn flick too.
Now then, I'll argue that it's the same in Lord of the Flies an' I'll stand by that endin' fer JUST that reason. It's not a weakness or cheap shot b/c there wuz no solution--imho, it shows up the fact that the ALLIES comin' in ta SAVE the VICTIM(s) are a bandaid on the real problem of genuine evil that kin lie in the hearts of the most banal humans--children! (Good Germans). Lookin' at the story thatta way--as a post war CAUTIONARY tale!
Golding (not jooish btw) saw EVIL in the heart of man an' had NO SOLUTION thus the "stamped on" solution at the end is NO solution--even as a disheartened kid it wuz clear ta me, the arrival of the naval officer was not really a solution--it was only BY CHANCE that an adult "in the room" showed up.) Golding himself wuz in the Royal Navy an' sawr action durin' WWII. He came back disheartened an' developed a drinkin' problem. He admitted in his post-HUMUSly published writin's that he tried ta rape a young lady mistakin' her reaction of rejection for desire makin' him a monster himself (by his own admission). We all are (in his view) capable of playin' ALL THE ROLES in Lord of the Flies which is hard ta admit. To test out his theories, in his role as a professor "Golding described setting his students up into two groups to fight each other – an experience he drew on when writing Lord of the Flies."
I believe all his writin's cover "group think" an' followin' vs makin' up yer own mind... just DOING not THINKING (likely his own war-trauma/experience). Nearly all his works seem ta explore the dark side of human nature... not redemption (sadly). I DO believe only we-as-readers are ta take in the message... his characters remain lost... So (imho) I don't think the "arrival of last minute help" is anything other than the magician showin' his trick to the audience on purpose--as if ta say... "here I can stop it--but ya see it wuz random, literally out of the blue!"--an' TRULY the only way to save the human race starts way before the situations like this one arise... the accident & rescue are just brackets fer real lives which might not have the same signals... I think fer him, this is a reflection on the war... an' his fellow humans... an' the endin' is no more "real" or happy or solves anythin' any more than the fake machine/plot device. (That said, the guy loved Greek lore & history an' read Ancient Greek!)
NOW that DJT is usin' his pen fer the Deus Ex Machina "solutions" is clear ta me--an' in contrast ta Golding... I DO believe he isn't intendin' for others to "read into" these "GRAND GESTURES" as fakery. I'm castin' a gimlet eye on ALL the proceedin's before us... not throwin' out the baby with the bathwarter yet but NOTING upon close inspection that the bathwarter is velly velly doity!
I like the lesson from history on “God from the machine”. I will be on the lookout in books and movies now. It is a cop out in a sense, I agree. So easy as a writer to have an outside force save you, instead of doing the hard work of delaying gratification and discipline that come from the heroes personal journey of growth. Summoning an inner strength to get through it with your Hod given resources and creativity of working with others to accomplish great things.
I agree on that device being used in Lord of the Flies. I enjoyed the book, however, in that a society without transcendent objective norms makes a morality of its own. This descends into factions and tribalism. Or if each person has his own morality, then it falls into atomism. Every man for himself. This is anarchy. If everything is reduced to a naturalistic philosophy, then Darwinian Lord of the Flies it is.
Welcome back and thanks for the terrific read. This hit home because I censor myself constantly in real life! I'm a classic conflict-avoidant. Next time I have that urge I will think of Ross. Here I am, zipping my lip because I'm worried my neighbor will freak out if I disagree with her -- ok, it's unpleasant, but it's not the same as being thrown in "the Hole" now, is it? lol
Thanks and you're welcome! I'm glad it hit home; Ross inspired me so much when I read his speech. You're right -- every repercussion pales in comparison to the Hole 😳
Oh, totally different thread, is your play about Emilia Bassano? A commenter elsewhere just told me that my friend Joe Atwill has a book called Shakespeare's Messiah about her. I had thought your work was fiction and didn't realize there was a history to support it.
Here's his book: https://www.amazon.com/Shakespeares-Secret-Messiah-Joseph-Atwill/dp/1497579619. I connected with Joe over his book Caesar's Messiah, which I first rejected and then kept reading other Bible historians who unwittingly confirmed his hypothesis--that the story of Jesus is a psyop. It set the course of my research.
Joe lives south of me in Santa Barbara, and I've stayed with him and his wife. He's been a real fan of mine and, knowing my history of no one taking me seriously, you can imagine how much that meant.
Oddly, the night I realized Robert Malone really was a CIA asset, I scoured the internet to see if I was alone in suspecting him. One of the places I checked was WikiSpooks, a repository of shared information coordinated by a different friend of mine. Robert's entry was squeaky clean and had been edited by Liam, who worked for Mathew at the time. There was only one person to whom Robert was a 'person of interest'--Joe Atwill.
So I called Joe and we chatted. Without his observations of the same clues, I don't know if I would have gone out on the limb to do my first post on Malone. But it was such a strange coincidence that the one person on the wide world internet who also suspected him happened to be in my contact list.
An amazing string of events/synchrodestinies. That seems to be continuing, with Aemilia Bassano Lanier! Your timing on this is beyond perfect... I just recently decided to open the play back up after months away, to re-work it so that I can get it into the world. It's been waiting for me. Thanks for the link to his book!
I ordered it too and it's coming tomorrow. I'll definitely read it and put it into an episode ... or two. That's very cool on the synchronicities. He takes this into a totally new direction, so you and I are the right team for it. I have all the background on his Caesar's Messiah, and this builds from it. And you are so so SO the right person to be fictionalizing this incredible story.
Interesting analysis but I feel like there is an ocean-wide difference between FJB’s malevolent “pardons” of his criminal, greedy & treasonous family (not to mention the thousands? of some of the worst & most unworthy murderers, rapists & grifters) & Trump’s for a bunch of people wandering around outside or inside the capital on J6. People that weren’t even present that day but convicted of “incitement”, people who were waived in by capital police & wandered about like tourists, people who never even entered the building &/or were shot or beaten & died. There was no punishment for those abusers & virtually all of the J6-ers were falsely & unjustly convicted or forced to plead guilty of minor crimes twisted into lawfare felonies & falsely imprisoned in abusive conditions. A “bipartisan” committee that hid evidence, refused to release the tapes, that corrupted witnesses & outright lied to the country & prepared phony conclusions. J6 people have suffered enough under false pretenses (even those who destroyed property or assaulted police) & real justice is now served - esp compared to every criminal BLM & antifa criminal rioter who never served a day for their crimes & actually had the VP of the USA shilling for them to raise bail money….
Just my opinion, of course.
The insurrection so dangerous, they forgot to bring their weapons.
😂
I agree with you, Cindi. It was interesting, however, to hear Jane Ruby's interview by Doc Malik: https://rumble.com/v663f4m-278-dr-jane-ruby-is-on-fire.html. Jane was a passionate supporter of Trump in his first term, so much that she left her career to work in the 'correspondence' dept at the WH when he won. So her disillusionment struck me more than it would have with someone who never believed in him.
One of the biggest questions she asks is 'Why didn't he pardon the J6ers before leaving office?' Four years of rotting in prison. What a horrible quasi-death for something they were tricked into.
I think the answer is that Trump was in on it and wanted the outrage of their imprisonment to fuel his 2024 election. He was in on the game that gave the election to Biden and created all those extra Democrats in 2020. Biden had to take the fall for lockdowns, vaccines, Ukraine, economic collapse, Nordstream, etc. Now Trump can ride in on that wave of outrage and finish the job, which means Israel and crypto.
Just my opinion, but we certainly agree about Biden's disgusting nepotism in protecting his criminal dynasty.
That's a fascinating, all-too-possible take, Tereza. Thanks for offering it up here, and I'll be interested to listen to Ruby's interview. Somehow I've never heard of her before now.
Thank you, Mary. I'd only heard of (Dr) Jane Ruby because she was one of the defendants in Malone's group lawsuit for defamation, along with the Breggins. He never clarified who said what, as if that didn't matter for slander.
I'd actually dismissed her as a young attractive celebrity, not that envy had anything to do with it <smirk>. It turns out she's 70, went through traditional treatment for breast cancer--which she regrets--and is not in agreement with the network (Stew Peters) that gave her that platform. She was much more nuanced than I expected. And as you know, I consider a person who changes their mind to be the second-most powerful force in the universe.
'a person who changes their mind to be the second-most powerful force in the universe.'
I love this notion. In my jargon this is when intelligence becomes actionable. Sub-consciously everybody knows that we live in an ocean of lies and bullshit, and only when we change our minds will we be able to integrate information previously off limits for our conscious consideration.
Thanks Mary, top shelf as always. In regard to our roles and responsibilities and sloughing them off onto an external savior. We might be said to have a partnership or covenant with our creator. To the degree that soul reaches for spirit, spirit will reach to help us. So what happens is up to us, but we have a powerful assist if we learn better how to connect.
Beautiful comment, Sounder, and thank you for the compliment! We don't have good role models for changing our minds, especially in disagreement with someone else. I feel this is really key to how we're stuck. In any disagreement, if truth exists, one position is closer to it than the other.
Yet we see it as 'losing' to change our mind, we use the word 'concede' for adopting another's point, as if it's a battle. We talk about 'compromise' as if it's about egos rather than figuring out what's true. But a compromise just ends up with two half-truths. Being wrong means gaining a new truth, it's learning.
I was also thinking that if you can change a person's mind in a soundbite, they weren't using it to begin with. Any real question requires patience to go through the detail. And since you like the phrase, here's my episode on it: https://thirdparadigm.substack.com/p/when-did-you-stop-being-wrong?
And I love your last paragraph: "We might be said to have a partnership or covenant with our creator. To the degree that soul reaches for spirit, spirit will reach to help us. So what happens is up to us, but we have a powerful assist if we learn better how to connect." Yes!!
Nice episode Tereza, while you and I share similar sensibilities, we likely take them in different directions. That is fine. My sense is that the source of what appears to be wrong with the world can be traced to an idea that everybody agrees on. That being the idea that the spiritual and the material are fundamentally different. If we were to see that they in fact, are fundamentally similar we may begin the switch from the current object oriented understanding of reality toward a relationship based understanding. In my opinion if we are to en mass choose to connect, a clear path needs to be shown for folk to give up on their old ways.
More at my sub-stack
Thanks for weighing in here with so much clarity and wisdom, Sounder. (You too, Tereza, since you're in this thread!)
My former yoga/spiritual teacher (with whom I wrote a book on Shaiva Tantra) used to say, "The winds of grace are always blowing, but you have to set the sail."
In Shaiva Tantra, god is inseparable from everything -- the material is spiritual, and vice versa. I loved your comment, Sounder: "If we were to see that they in fact, are fundamentally similar we may begin the switch from the current object oriented understanding of reality toward a relationship based understanding." YES.
Thank you both for the enlightening convo! xox
Thanks Mary, After two years I still have few readers over at my stack. (I refuse to call folk 'followers'.) It may be that my writing is overly abstract for the 'wisdom' to produce actionable intelligence. I am working on showing more personality but am much more comfortable being anonymous and working behind the scenes. Maybe the book can be named; 'The Sounder Way Works' Improvement Strategy, for Yourself and the World.
Alright fine, I said so, so I better get cracking. But I need help.
Tereza, I agree about Trump. I have suspected for some time now that he was in on the whole game. I've always believed they were all in on it, all the factions of the political and governmental spectrum. Fool me once. You know how that goes.
Entirely possible. My challenge has been to hold that possibility among all the others and not let it close my heart.
Just from memory, I would say that most of the J6 people had not been rounded up and charged before Trump left office. So he would have had to pardon nameless people proactively, which I don't think was acceptable at the time. Note also that he didn't pardon himself and his people prior to leaving office, because it would make them look guilty. The pro-active pardons became a much bigger thing with Biden. Fauci is a prime example, pardoned for any possible crimes (not yet charged) back to 2014. And this year Trump actually had to name and pardon many J6 protesters proactively because they were in prison, or otherwise constrained, and had not yet been charged, and others had been charged but not convicted.
That's helpful info, thanks!
Yes, good point. That had occurred to me also.
I'll reply to myself to catch Cindi, Kathleen and Ronnie. I just posted this regarding Trump on Conspiracy Sarah and wanted to get your thoughts. I agree with Cindi, there's something so deeply disturbing on both sides:
"One of the columnists I read, Pepe Escobar, calls Trump Mr. Disco Inferno. I like that but I keep going back to Ralph the Wrecker. I can't tell how much is intentional and how much he just doesn't care.
"On the other side of that, a long time activist in my town just self-immolated on the Black Lives Matter mural because ... Trump. He wasn't fully successful because a firefighter happened to be walking past (the fire station is around the corner). They haven't released his name for privacy. 'The names have been changed to protect the stupid.'
"Apparently others have been apprehended pouring gasoline on themselves. What are they thinking that would change, to give your life for it? And an excruciating death ... or life, if you survive it."
What is this world coming to? That's not a rhetorical question.
Thank you Tereza & Kathleen; I will look forward to hearing the Ruby discussion. I, too, wondered why J6-era were not pardoned at the time although arguably the whole sordid mess on the part of the government & there was so much hysteria from the still-in-control lame street media. They still had the megaphone - as with the scamdemic - but no longer do.
Was deeply disillusioned by Trump re OWS & his “beautiful vaccines” that “saved millions of lives” & am suspicious of his meeting w/ Gates for 3 hours to discuss MORE mRNA instead of having that psycho ARRESTED for crimes against humanity.
Its all so difficult to process without hating & distrusting almost everything & everyone in the world
Really good questions, Tereza.
Why didn't he pardon them? I've asked my Trump forever friend that and she says he couldn't - people needed to see the injustice in order to wake up. It's always some version of that answer with any objection to Trump. I can't argue it. Okay sure maybe that's true, but is it okay? Sacrificing supporters in order to wake up non-supporters?
Killing and harming people with the jab - same basic answer. I guess anything can be reasoned if you're a true believer. (And she's no dummy.)
And yes, I think he's was the better 'choice.'
Agree there is always a larger chess game going on we're not privy to.
Agreed -- Tereza is always asking good questions, and she doesn't disappoint here, either. What IS this world coming to?
Cindi, your comment, "Its all so difficult to process without hating & distrusting almost everything & everyone in the world" resonates. I think that difficulty you describe points to what I feel compelled to do, and what Kathleen talked about in her latest, excellent essay: love.
As simplistic as it may seem, I do think these times are calling out the very best we have, and that is... love. It's literally the only thing in the world that can counter hate. And sometimes it's so effing hard, it's like crawling over broken glass.
My two cents.
Thoughtful comments, as always Mary. I'll respond to this here and also your later comment that "If we have any shot as a society at healing a broken system, I think we have to level up enough to join together."
'Hate' and 'distrust' are two separate things, to me. I can only hate someone if I feel they've betrayed my trust. But what did I trust them for? To think for me? To do what I want? That's a projection.
I wouldn't say the game is beautiful, myself. The game forces each of us into a role, a side within it. I neither blame the player for a bad role, nor congratulate myself on my role, which was given to me.
I define love as giving others the benefit of the doubt that, behind the role, is always a person who wants happiness for others. The kindest thing I can do is call out their role and disempower it, so the person is freed.
Joining together, I think, has to be done at the level of the question, not the answer, the process, not the product. The system isn't a living thing to be healed--it's an artificial construct designed to break and enslave us, imo. The work right now is internal, at the level of research and imagination. It's not ready to be social. It's womb time.
Just my thoughts.
Thanks for sharing your opinion, Cindi. Always welcome!
I'm late to responding -- was traveling all day yesterday -- and I appreciate your take on the J6ers. I hear your frustration (and that word probably is far too tepid, I'm guessing) ... yet when I read the comment sections of writers like Heather Cox Richardson, I hear the exact same frustration about how WRONG the pardons are for "all those criminals who stormed the Capital." Both sides are 100% convinced that the other is insane, misled, or just plain stupid.
My hope in this essay was to lift the view up off the playing field, so to speak, to see the game's inherent flaws AND its potential for beauty, simultaneously. If we have any shot as a society at healing a broken system, I think we have to level up enough to join together. That's where our power lies.
I totally agree there is "an ocean-wide difference"
Thank you. Ten hearts.
Thanks, Transcriber B 🙏🏼
Whewww Mary!
This post is a masterclass of art and freedom! Like a great haiku, you wove two ideas together from what I would normally file away in separate drawers, and created something unexpected and new. At least new for me.
Here and now, I am not in that place Ulbricht was speaking from. It appears to be that same rarified land that Nelson Mandela found, the same coastline being tread by Julian Assange and Edward Snowden. But I've seen enough of it to know it is authentic. Maybe I even felt pieces of that earth as it slipped through my fingers.
But as I was pondering 'deus ex machina', I could not help but recall what might be the opposite ... a YouTube podcast that popped up in my feed yesterday. For lack of a better term, "deus ex mundano" — god from the mundane?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxr2hjEsySE&t=25s
That podcaster briefly mentioned his own chronic sickness in connection with his analysis. I wished him well.
And I hope your own back pain will soon be a distant memory.
Cheer Mary.
And again ... wow!
Thanks so much for the kind words, Steve! I took a brief look at the video you linked, and can't wait to watch the rest. My cup of tea, for sure. And my back is doing SO much better, thank you. Amazing how the body pulls our attention to fix what's out of alignment -- and not just physically.
Cheers to you, friend. xox
So many good points made here, Mary. Yes, pardons and executive orders are hardly a sign of democracy in action, are they? And yet in this insanely distorted terrain, they are used - to both good and bad ends. Short term as you say may feel good, but should we celebrate them?
So happy to see a post from you and that you're feeling better. Sharp and insightful as ever. You've been missed! XOX
Thanks, Kathleen! I spent the day traveling yesterday so I'm catching up on comments now -- including your gorgeous piece. Sounds like January was a time for hibernation of all sorts for many of us! xoxox
Mary, so nice to hear from you on such an important topic! Glad you’re feeling up to it.
Thanks for highlighting an aspect of our environment that’s subtle, and therefore easy to overlook, but the effects of Deus Ex Machina have been to slowly undermine our ability to see ourselves as key to positive change. Instead, we constantly appeal to outer authorities for our redemption when only we have the key to set ourselves free.
In every generation, there are “freedom pioneers” who model courage and a commitment to stand for human freedom regardless of the punishing consequences. Wow. Profiles in Courage.
For another (heartbreaking) example check out the Bitcoin Jesus documentary:
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/15gswrk8oh9jp2mfedy7s/Bitcoin-Jesus-Documentary-5GB.mp4?rlkey=y8j5933nua5ppgeovz5j29dvq&e=1&st=0pd0k3wy&dl=0
Katie, this comment nails it. "the effects of Deus Ex Machina have been to slowly undermine our ability to see ourselves as key to positive change. Instead, we constantly appeal to outer authorities for our redemption when only we have the key to set ourselves free." YES, a thousand times, yes.
I will check out the documentary -- looking forward to it.
Big hugs and thank you for your insight, always. xox
It occurs to me that the Shift in Consciousness I talk about is somewhat of a Deus Ex Machina, since it doesn't solve the woes of Society, but kind of flies over and past them.
However, we each have the choice to continue to move in directions of limitation, or heal and Shift. So, in a sense, there is solution, but it happens for each individual, and by their own struggle. And it is no small feat.
Nice to see you "back."
Thanks, Phillip!
The Big Shift can only happen through our own internal little shifts, no? Or am I misreading your comment? xox
Meaning we each need to do the work, yes. But we are also getting a big leg up if we simply place ourselves in the right frame to receive it.
Agreed 👍
😂
I just love you, Mary. Such a thoughtful analysis.
I've also come to believe Lord of the Flies is a key part of the psyops that says human nature is violent and only authority can save us. We internalize fiction as if it's truth, as if there's no meta-message to the narrative. I ended this video talking about LotF: https://thirdparadigm.substack.com/p/truth-is-like-a-chamelion.
It was responding to Guy Duperreault here: https://gduperreault.substack.com/p/the-war-between-the-evil-of-good. This was my comment there:
"Letting go of the trauma is in recognizing that the stories we were told were lies. Lies told for the purpose of inflicting psychological trauma and a belief in our own wickedness. I too was VERY traumatized by LotF. It was 'proof' that people are inherently bad ... and that only gov't and authorities are what keep us from killing each other. What a crock of shit!
"It may have been the exact story where I started recognizing 'this is a story.' The teacher is making us analyze it as if it's reality but it's just a story. And those other traumas we've talked about--Night and Fog was categorized as fiction. When asked by his rabbi if it was true, Elie Wiesel said, 'sometimes a story is more true than the truth.' Fiction!
"I think that every time one of these stories is defused, depotentiated, a trauma evaporates and isn't passed on. Do you want revenge or to end it? That's the only question."
You and I are in total agreement, Tereza. It IS a crock of shit. Thank you for these links -- I will take a look, to see if my own thoughts are worth putting into an essay or whether you guys have covered it!!😂
P.S. I love you, too!
I loved this piece Mary. So interesting and fun to connect to stories from my past, and then to be shown how they intertwine with today's concerns. And, it begs the question for me--What could be the next happy ending/scene changer? Could it be Deus Ex Homo Sapien?
I enjoyed reading this with a hot beverage and wanted to share a Ko-fi with YOU, but when it was time to pay, I could not enter my security code. Alas! But, wanted you to know in case there is a fix on that end.
At any rate Mary, I am soon coming out of the closet with the Epic Musical Project. My dream come true would be you and Kathleen coming to my cabin this summer to get our hands dirty in this messy writing extravaganza! I'll likely be sharing on Substack this month. I'm nervous!
Thank you for your continuing inspiration in our times!!
Thank you so much, elle. YES to Deus Ex Homo Sapien as the game changer. That's brilliant.
Not sure why the Ko-fi didn't work... I was able to use it -- though tipping myself was 😂. Thank you for the impulse, though!
I'm VERY interested in your dream coming true, and will look for more news. Nerves can be such a great indicator of the right path, no? You know that better than anyone. 😉 xox
Has flawed humanity gamed the system of self-governance that was the Constitution or was the Constitution a way to game the self-governance of the Confederation? There's a bigger question here than whether the Constitution is flawed or even whether it was designed to undermine self-governance, as I've said: https://thirdparadigm.substack.com/p/the-constitution-coup.
The fundamental question is whether we are good, whether we're capable of self-governance, or if the better people need to be in charge. When we accept the story of the Founding Fathers, we come to the latter. But it doesn't withstand scrutiny. We're drawing the wrong conclusion.
Ross Ulbricht's story breaks my heart and makes me hyperventilate, as I said on Neshma's post. Yet is an anonymous, untraceable form of monetary exchange the system that will save us? Or is it another way to game the system, as the crypto Trumpcoin and Bitbet are doing: https://thirdparadigm.substack.com/p/bitcoin-vs-the-caret. Is it another deus ex machina: https://thirdparadigm.substack.com/p/mathew-crawford-and-digital-god.
I don't think secret relationships are the answer. Rather than avoiding banks and taxes, we should own the banks and tax systems. It should be legal to have P2P exchanges w/o tax under the rules that we design. That's my two-cents.
And I'm SO sorry to hear about your back relapse, prolapse, lapsed discs, whatever it is. My heart goes out to you!
Oh the places you’ll go…. on your inward journey. I spent so much time over the holidays sick too and in a way it was cleansing. Also y hanks for including my piece on Ross’s pardon. Sending you strong healing vibes for your back and energy for all fresh creative endeavors. 💗
I think there were quite a few of us needing to step away and regroup in January; I'm glad you're mended, SF. And thank YOU for your terrific piece. (I've fixed the link so that it takes my reader to it.) I'm so grateful you transcribed his words.
My back is way, way better and I appreciate the vibes. Same energy coming your way... xox
🙏🏽
Thank you for this. I'm so out of touch with things, I never heard of Ulbricht!
What courage...
🤔Your link here appears broken:
"thoughtfully transcribed by Sane Franciscan in this recent post"
Thank you, SBW!
And fixed!
just ketchin' up--I HOPE yer back's on the mend--I once went ta a "crackerjack" chiropractor that had me laid up too! (the ones I like ain't crackers, they do it gently!) red light of course is gentle!
I have one on DJT in the "woiks" an' I too mention the Deus Ex Machina... a bit differently but indeed it's a DEVICE (an' he's gotta few plots goin' on)! ha ha I remember McKee too...been a long time... but ta some degree I disagree... Sometimes the full out ARTIFICE or pagentry of a device shows up the entire "operation"... First a Hollywoodian example--how many films have we seen with fantabulously strong women that only at the end--are scooped up by a deus ex machina Man/Husband/Punishment ta subdue 'em or tamp down the "laydee threat" of power & agency (this is old skool semiotic feminism talkin'). TROO tho'! An' y'know what? We in the audience never buy it! In His Girl Friday we know "Hildy" ain't gonna be no good little wifey--re-marryin' ain't gonna stop her force. The "RULES" of society couldn't have her SINGLE so they had ta make the appearance (deus ex machina) of her bein' sub-DOO'd. But we all see thru the DeVICE, no? True of near-every Kate Hepburn flick too.
Now then, I'll argue that it's the same in Lord of the Flies an' I'll stand by that endin' fer JUST that reason. It's not a weakness or cheap shot b/c there wuz no solution--imho, it shows up the fact that the ALLIES comin' in ta SAVE the VICTIM(s) are a bandaid on the real problem of genuine evil that kin lie in the hearts of the most banal humans--children! (Good Germans). Lookin' at the story thatta way--as a post war CAUTIONARY tale!
Golding (not jooish btw) saw EVIL in the heart of man an' had NO SOLUTION thus the "stamped on" solution at the end is NO solution--even as a disheartened kid it wuz clear ta me, the arrival of the naval officer was not really a solution--it was only BY CHANCE that an adult "in the room" showed up.) Golding himself wuz in the Royal Navy an' sawr action durin' WWII. He came back disheartened an' developed a drinkin' problem. He admitted in his post-HUMUSly published writin's that he tried ta rape a young lady mistakin' her reaction of rejection for desire makin' him a monster himself (by his own admission). We all are (in his view) capable of playin' ALL THE ROLES in Lord of the Flies which is hard ta admit. To test out his theories, in his role as a professor "Golding described setting his students up into two groups to fight each other – an experience he drew on when writing Lord of the Flies."
I believe all his writin's cover "group think" an' followin' vs makin' up yer own mind... just DOING not THINKING (likely his own war-trauma/experience). Nearly all his works seem ta explore the dark side of human nature... not redemption (sadly). I DO believe only we-as-readers are ta take in the message... his characters remain lost... So (imho) I don't think the "arrival of last minute help" is anything other than the magician showin' his trick to the audience on purpose--as if ta say... "here I can stop it--but ya see it wuz random, literally out of the blue!"--an' TRULY the only way to save the human race starts way before the situations like this one arise... the accident & rescue are just brackets fer real lives which might not have the same signals... I think fer him, this is a reflection on the war... an' his fellow humans... an' the endin' is no more "real" or happy or solves anythin' any more than the fake machine/plot device. (That said, the guy loved Greek lore & history an' read Ancient Greek!)
NOW that DJT is usin' his pen fer the Deus Ex Machina "solutions" is clear ta me--an' in contrast ta Golding... I DO believe he isn't intendin' for others to "read into" these "GRAND GESTURES" as fakery. I'm castin' a gimlet eye on ALL the proceedin's before us... not throwin' out the baby with the bathwarter yet but NOTING upon close inspection that the bathwarter is velly velly doity!
Mend fast, welcome back!
I like the lesson from history on “God from the machine”. I will be on the lookout in books and movies now. It is a cop out in a sense, I agree. So easy as a writer to have an outside force save you, instead of doing the hard work of delaying gratification and discipline that come from the heroes personal journey of growth. Summoning an inner strength to get through it with your Hod given resources and creativity of working with others to accomplish great things.
I agree on that device being used in Lord of the Flies. I enjoyed the book, however, in that a society without transcendent objective norms makes a morality of its own. This descends into factions and tribalism. Or if each person has his own morality, then it falls into atomism. Every man for himself. This is anarchy. If everything is reduced to a naturalistic philosophy, then Darwinian Lord of the Flies it is.
Welcome back and thanks for the terrific read. This hit home because I censor myself constantly in real life! I'm a classic conflict-avoidant. Next time I have that urge I will think of Ross. Here I am, zipping my lip because I'm worried my neighbor will freak out if I disagree with her -- ok, it's unpleasant, but it's not the same as being thrown in "the Hole" now, is it? lol
Thanks and you're welcome! I'm glad it hit home; Ross inspired me so much when I read his speech. You're right -- every repercussion pales in comparison to the Hole 😳
Trump & Netanyahu are meeting in DC right now planning the $final solution" to the Palestinian "problem."
Trump has given Israel another $$1B to carry out their plan for ethnic cleansing & slaughter.
Please review the following plea & do what you can.
https://alonmizrahi.substack.com/p/resist-now-this-is-how-you-disrupt?post_id=156412452&r=tcf1w&utm_source=substack
Oh, totally different thread, is your play about Emilia Bassano? A commenter elsewhere just told me that my friend Joe Atwill has a book called Shakespeare's Messiah about her. I had thought your work was fiction and didn't realize there was a history to support it.
Yes, it is! So Joe Atwell wrote a nonfiction book about her? And you know him?
Here's his book: https://www.amazon.com/Shakespeares-Secret-Messiah-Joseph-Atwill/dp/1497579619. I connected with Joe over his book Caesar's Messiah, which I first rejected and then kept reading other Bible historians who unwittingly confirmed his hypothesis--that the story of Jesus is a psyop. It set the course of my research.
Joe lives south of me in Santa Barbara, and I've stayed with him and his wife. He's been a real fan of mine and, knowing my history of no one taking me seriously, you can imagine how much that meant.
Oddly, the night I realized Robert Malone really was a CIA asset, I scoured the internet to see if I was alone in suspecting him. One of the places I checked was WikiSpooks, a repository of shared information coordinated by a different friend of mine. Robert's entry was squeaky clean and had been edited by Liam, who worked for Mathew at the time. There was only one person to whom Robert was a 'person of interest'--Joe Atwill.
So I called Joe and we chatted. Without his observations of the same clues, I don't know if I would have gone out on the limb to do my first post on Malone. But it was such a strange coincidence that the one person on the wide world internet who also suspected him happened to be in my contact list.
An amazing string of events/synchrodestinies. That seems to be continuing, with Aemilia Bassano Lanier! Your timing on this is beyond perfect... I just recently decided to open the play back up after months away, to re-work it so that I can get it into the world. It's been waiting for me. Thanks for the link to his book!
I ordered it too and it's coming tomorrow. I'll definitely read it and put it into an episode ... or two. That's very cool on the synchronicities. He takes this into a totally new direction, so you and I are the right team for it. I have all the background on his Caesar's Messiah, and this builds from it. And you are so so SO the right person to be fictionalizing this incredible story.