Today’s Menu
On the Knife Edge – Small Steps, Front Lines – Sky Valley View – Being the Best You Can Be – The Trouble with People – Freedom Riders – Propaganda Takedown – Grateful, or Dead?
On the Knife Edge
We stand atop a knife-edged pinnacle of despair and hope, as the force of totalitarianism, trickling down from global elite to local school board, vies for universal power with the free and natural human spirit. The entire thrust of our known history of civilization is embodied in this daily struggle now infecting the planet.
Forget the virus: independent and even mainstream official science are in agreement that that danger is ordinary, and that measures in place to combat it cause more harm than good. The heavily subsidized dominant narrative is (and was from the start) a tin-ear sales pitch for a needle in every arm—backed by strongman coercion, and lust for a gigantic wealth transfer from the great many to the tiny few; enforced by a program of total control, with a dark underside of long-planned depopulation.
“Hope for the best, expect the worst, and take what comes with grace.”
This was the wisdom I heard from the Quaker elders at the height of the cold war, when every day seemed similarly poised on the brink of MAD (“Mutually Assured Destruction”) by the world’s nuclear superpowers.
Now that advice rings too passive, weakly submissive. I will never, for example, take a mandated death jab, neither with grace nor even rage. Burn me in the public square instead, a neo-Buddhist witness to genocide, so to shock awake the compliant and the duped.
“Plan for the best and prepare for the worst” seems more appropriate today in the shifting prognoses of our terminal condition at the end of an age. This civilization, too, will pass: even in our time. What comes after, we can already glimpse.
The Great Reset, or the Age of Aquarius? A thousand-year Reich, or a revival of tribes of the earth? The abolition of all sovereignty, or of all slavery? The outcome, believe it or not, is up to each and all of us, at this precise moment.
Small Steps, Front Lines
We are all on the front lines now. Whether at the rally downtown, or cowering in our home under lockdown. Whether sharing on social media, or engaged in new world dreaming. Whether informing ourselves and others, or attempting to reimagine nature’s human from the inside out.
Every community is under assault. Every day provides opportunities to reach out, to call out the madness, to share concerns and air injustice. Every action, however small, asserts our integrity and supports that of our fellow beings under fire from the forces of coercion.
The following is offered as one such daily contribution, that you or anyone could adapt for use in your own place of business, residence, or association. What small step could you take, today?
Dear [local fire chief],
I understand our island fire board is receiving public input on the proposed decision to require injection of all staff and firefighters with the experimental product known as the Covid-19 vaccine. While appalled that the board would consider such a dangerous and unethical measure, I appreciate the board’s willingness to consider the weight of evidence and opinions against it.
For authoritative presentation of such evidence, by over 500 independent Canadian doctors, scientists, and health care practitioners, I urge you and the board to view the video or PDF of the Canadian Covid Care Alliance. In short, the evidence shows these inoculations “cause more illness than they prevent.”
To you and the board, I appeal to your human morality and common sense in this matter:
- Legally and ethically, medical decisions should be left in the hands of individual patients and their doctors. You may be personally liable for harm caused by the mandated injections of your workers.
- As natural immunity is proving stronger than that afforded by vaccines, the proposed staff turnover would have a net adverse effect on staff health and readiness to respond to real emergencies in the community.
- Injections leading to unprecedented incidents of heart problems in athletes worldwide should be worrisome for a profession such as firefighting, with its high demands of physical exertion and stress.
- Staff shortages from layoffs will put all our islanders at greater risk from fires, accidents, and emergency medical care.
- Firing unvaccinated workers is discriminatory against those workers’ civil, constitutional, and human rights. Expecting to replace them with “scab” labour is offensive and detrimental to civic harmony and respect.
In conclusion, there is no credible rationale for mandating Covid vaccination of island firefighters. Rather, every consideration of scientific evidence, legal and medical principles, community safety, and human conscience suggests rejecting such a mandate.
Again, thanks for your openness to hear from your community.
with respect,
[signed]
Sky Valley View
Meanwhile, back at the ranch of self…
A perfect picture, in words, is challenging to draw. A winding road through trees, fall colors, in late afternoon light, with small clouds on a pastel blue wedge of sky…
It reminds me of scenes of my youth: Kentucky, West Virginia… a simpler, pastoral time; a vision of the peaceful life. Beaming with clarity, completeness.
Yet this quality of vision is held not in the details of the visual scene, the coordinates in time and space. It’s not about getting attached to manifesting that particular snapshot somehow in a permanent way; to build a cabin with that exact view.
Rather, if that sky valley view appears ideal, just keep it rolling, holding that frequency of intention. Let the quality of perfection and grace continue to pervade the shifting scene, the movie reel of the real, as it unrolls in front of the feet, step by step.
Being the Best You Can Be
Ambition, hailed as so necessary and good in our acquisitive culture, is fraught with pitfalls, regardless of whether we appear to succeed in it or not. From the outset it entails karmic contracts and responsibilities, results both predictable and unforeseen. We know for certain it risks the taint of ego trips, pride pratfalls, and other carnival attractions suitable for comedy or tragedy. Nevertheless, we seek to do our best.
In elementary school I played the trumpet for three years but only rose to second chair. Since I could not be among the best, I figured what was the point? This was America, where you’re told you can be president (or failing that, a dentist). I quit so I could join the football team rather than play in the halftime band. Alas, I only made second string. In college I started learning guitar, but then there was Hendrix.
So it goes, in the world of competition. You can indeed be best… if you are the best. For the rest of us… maybe we can do better then best. Or rather, be best at being you.
The problem with best is its hierarchy of status and privilege. “Best” implies, not only “worst,” for the most deplorable, but also “not good enough” for everyone else. So many give up trying, and simply succumb to mass distraction: digital entertainment, social media, fast food and its mind-numbing cousin, packaged news.
Lost in the shuffle for likes is the will to be different. In the pen of the herd is apparent safety, while the top of the flock is reserved for stud service and prize display, and the young and the aged are culled. Raise too much of a ruckus and you’ll be first (if that appeals to you) on the chopping block.
Besides, goes the law of the herd, being an individual is selfish. Tribal taboos are sacred for a reason; overstep and you’ll be cast out, so ordered life can go on. The official ideology of the world today paints self-determination as selfish, freedom as quaint, the right to say “no” as naïve. If you fail to kneel you’re a racist; if you advocate Palestinian rights you’re antisemitic; if you’re not a designated color or gender you’re a target. Because everything is political, everything must be correct. Since best is not available to all, conformity will have to do: it’s best for all.
I just want to know, who is this all? And who decides what is best for each and all?
For your own life pursuits, you are free (given sufficient privileges and dues paid to rules) to try your luck and skill at whatever; to aim to be the best, or simply to enjoy playing the game or instrument of choice. When you reach your limits on the avenue of competition, you still have a creative medium to turn to: yourself.
You have the power and capacity to be the best you can be. It probably won’t be the socially recognized top of any chart. It might be scraping the top of a niche you discover, carved out to suit your particular talent. You can define it even now, retroactively: you are the best friend, companion, parent, business owner, craftsperson, caregiver, highway flagperson you can be. Or maybe, not yet, but tomorrow…
Ultimately the matter is subjective. “The Best” is a test we can devise and revise, to serve our own most fundamental desire and ambition. When those, too, become verboten, then maybe, as neoliberal thought leader Francis Fukuyama prophesied, we will have arrived at the End of History.
The Trouble with People
The trouble with people is…
We try too hard to be perfect,
Or we don’t try hard enough.
We ask too many questions,
Or we forget to ask the ones that matter.
We’re stubborn to a fault,
Or we refuse to take a stand.
Calling other people nonpeople,
We forget the fate of our children.
Forgetting the ancestors,
Forgetting to respect Mother Earth.
We think everything is permitted.
We forget we’re not in charge.
And we forget we are.
Freedom Riders
Propaganda Takedown
‘All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.’ —Arthur Schopenhauer
‘Polling has also been dreadful for Democrats, with Biden’s approval rating sinking to a new low as just 15.5% of Americans say they trust the president when it comes to information about COVID-19.’ —Paul Joseph Watson
‘Now, what used to be considered a flaw, having a conflict of interest, is considered a virtue… If you’re on the inside now, where the conflicts of interests are, you’re considered an expert. Conflict of interest is considered evidence of your having been read in, of being knowledgeable. So we have taken what was the first commandment in journalism — Thou shalt police for conflict of interest! — and turned it upside-down. We’ve said, you should seek out those who have the most conflict. The intelligence person is reporting on war, the pharmaceutical spokesman is reporting on the effectiveness of a vaccine. The pharmaceutical CEOs, you go to them first. —Walter Kirn
‘Are we ignorant boobs like the public in Don’t Look Up? Or is it that we intuit what the public eventually wakes up to: “They’ve been lying to us.” Recent developments indicate the latter. Today Covid cases are as high if not higher in the vaxxed as in the unvaxxed; the vaccinated still spread the disease, and in many places hospitalizations and deaths among the vaccinated are overtaking those among the unvaccinated.’ See here, here, here, and here. —Charles Eisenstein
‘If the vaccine does not prevent people from spreading or contracting COVID; being hospitalized; or dying from COVID, what possible justification can you provide for involuntarily detaining individuals and families in quarantine facilities? And that’s only part of the story. The other part of the story—the one the propagandists don’t show you—is the CDC’s vaccine surveillance system has just surpassed a historic 1 million adverse event reports (1,016,999 as of 12/31/21) for the COVID vaccines, including 21,382 deaths—5,252 of which occurred within the first forty-eight hours following injection. Contemplate that for a moment—nearly a quarter of reported deaths occurred within the first two days after vaccination.’ —Margaret Anna Alice, Letter to the Washington State Board of Health
‘When you read an announcement in corporate media that reports a new decision or action by the federal pharmaceutical agencies (FPA’s for short), simply ask yourself “is that what a pharmaceutical company would do?” Perfect example of this exercise was 2 days ago when it was announced that the “FPA” had authorized boosters for 12–17-year-olds against omicron (a generally mild cold in kids), using a vaccine designed for older, fundamentally different variants that have already spectacularly failed at giving protection against omicron given ever-increasing data of “negative efficacy” (i.e., vaccinated people are getting omicron more frequently than the unvaccinated). Yet the FPA “doubles down” with yet another “non-scientific policy” so that Pharma can increase the total market size of those eligible for a vaccine… and who cares if this decision ends up sending more kids to hospital than the disease ever would. Another brutal assault on public health. Another day in the United States of Pharma.’ —Dr. Pierre Kory, Saturday Night Fight… At The Pharmacy\
Grateful, or Dead?
Be careful what you’re grateful for. Is it for Life, the source and the earth? Or is it for false protection, false promises, submission to the digital matrix? In this brief presentation John Lash upacks the murderous intent of our would-be gods, against the healing wisdom of the earth goddess. The path back to her realm, Lash concludes, is that of living gratitude, honoring her gifts we have forgot. (YouTube)
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Further research: Quarantine Reading List
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Now available in one volume, Nowick Gray’s collected essays from The New Agora, 2019-21.
Talking Spirit: Essays and Inspirations, by Nowick Gray
Essays spanning three decades—reflective yet contemporary, philosophical and practical—address human nature and environmental ethics; personal and metapolitical intention; radical insight and live freedom in thought, emotion and action.
See more of Nowick Gray’s writings at NowickGray.com, or subscribe to his Substack – New World Dreaming. Nowick is a regular contributor to The New Agora and also offers perspectives and resources for alternative culture and African drumming. He helps other writers as a freelance copyeditor at HyperEdits.com.
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image credits:
(feature) sky valley cafe: NG
liberty: facebook
fear: The Telegraph
dark age: James Lindsay, Twitter
control: Philosophers-stone.info
imagine: facebook/R. Trout
sky valley: artist unknown (Lake Atitlan, Guatemala)
convoy: facebook
tide turning: facebook
truth-lie: Steve Kirsch
v & unv: Kim Usbourne
transmit: facebook
obit: NG
anothercon: facebook
mass formation: twitter
