alternative culture jam

In the 2014 dystopian action film Divergent (PG-13), a postwar future world enforces a division into five factions. Spoiler alert for fans of the Covid Era, the army and police (the Dauntless), are mass injected with a chemical that subjects them to control by the Erudites, vying for a takeover of power. While the ruling faction of the old normal is benevolent in the mold of good old liberal social democracy, circa 2014, the Erudites aim to wipe them out (via the zombified Dauntless troops) and install a technocratic regime. To ensure public peace and safety, these new controllers also feel the need to target and hunt down any challengers of the system, the renegades called Divergents.

Needless to say, at the end the film the outcome shows the stereotypical flight from the city by the two teen heroes (he and she), to the wild and desolate lands beyond the Wall… presumably to join the Resistance—in today’s simulation, the Unjabbed.

Despite the struggle between factions, there is one operating mantra common to all: Faction before blood. So we see families torn by their caste allegiances, and the triumph of social ideology over kinship and friendship. “Human nature is the enemy” according to the Erudites, who by their own nature claim to know what is best for everyone. WEF Fuhrer Klaus Schwab, Israeli egghead Yuval Harari, or transhumanist Ray Kurzweil couldn’t have voiced that confession any more succinctly.

If the Hollywood screenwriters have their say, the social science is settled and the only hope for humans lies in returning to the forest—packing remnants of military hardware, reflective mylar capes to hide from infrared-tracking drones, and some dauntless drive never to give up.

Personally, I don’t think the Avatar-style shootout in the woods is the way to go, even with all of Gaia’s helpers. But with cape and bugout kit handy, there’s no going back to the urban matrix, the collective control grid, with its compliant subjects already denatured of their humanity.

The Silence of the Lambs

No, this is not another film review. But it follows a dystopian script, set in 2022, at an otherwise idyllic Northwest retreat center. Our hero arrives having paid his hefty deposit, with the terms and conditions accepted: for this week of Mindfulness Meditation, masks are “recommended.”

To each his own, thinks the hero: My body, my choice. But when he arrives, the front desk informs him the face rag is mandatory. He takes a deep breath… perhaps his last one unfiltered for the next ten days. Taking notice of the indignation raising his pulse, he finally negotiates a compromise. He will tuck his bandana over his nose when entering or leaving the hall.

During sessions the meditation room will be packed full of fifty masked Covidians—mindful of everything, one presumes, but the impact of the mask on each breath: oxygen deficit, increased viral load, harmful levels of once-demonized CO2. Nowhere in this realm of clear mind is there space for any of the 150 comparative studies and articles on mask ineffectiveness and harms.

For the first three days, our hero’s monkey mind revolves around the issues at stake with this muffled breathing, in, out. Safety versus freedom, truth versus politics, the individual versus the herd. There are no gurus in this spiritual practice, handing out dictates from on high. It’s just the leaders of the retreat, and the retreat center itself, following new normal mask policy, acting out of “an abundance of caution”—in compassionate consideration of the traumatized mindset of the paying clientele. Finally the resisting mind comes to relax, exhausted by its own struggle against What Is.

Perfection is within our grasp, if we only pause in the stillness, and accept our condition, witnessing the innumerable forces at play upon our unchanging nature, tempting us to get all worked up. In such a state of knowing, the mask is but a mask. The inner mask falls away. The mandates are but mental constructs.

By day six, our former, repressed rage has evaporated, and we can now take refuge in the measured rhythm of the breath. The world at war with itself is a perpetual motion machine, a theatre of the ego. As we attend to the stale taste and fetid warmth of our self-saturated breath, we go deeper into the Void. The cure, we have come to accept,  is not to rip the mask away, not to shout at the injustice and deceit of the whole charade, but to accept our fate, comply with the container of our enlightenment, and retreat further within.

On day nine, thoughts of the future intrude: the end of the retreat, the conversations that will ensue when speaking is allowed again. We wonder If our heart will start to race once more at the very mention of that hyper-politicized word, Freedom. No, the next breath tells us, we can abide and keep our silence when the fifty Covidians around us start the program loops  running again: The experts are keeping us safe. The CDC is our friend. The WHO is endorsed by the Dalai Lama. Bill Gates is a philanthropist. Our elected officials deserve our trust. The public health authorities are divine beings of infinite worth just like ourselves.

On day ten, while the dining hall is alive with renewed chatter over the closing meal, our hero takes his plate outside and sits on the steps, removing the limp bandana and breathing deep of the clear island air. Reflecting on the overall experience of the retreat, his mind opens to a final insight, on behalf of the fifty Covidians; as if he is channeling the collective wisdom they have embodied: When the Buddhists say, “Meditate on death,” what better way to do so than with eyes closed, mouth masked, and ears encased in the silence of the tomb?

For our Divergent hero, this voluntary muzzlement of the self is indeed instructive as a ten-day reminder of our ultimate insignificance. He also knows that going from here back to the world, it is no way to live. To maintain true mindfulness, he realizes, Divergence is the way to go.

—

In Covid Narrative Remix: Two Years of Dissent, Nowick Gray critiques the global agenda with the voice of the natural human spirit. These compiled articles from The New Now/Agora (2020-2022) shed light on the narrative sabotage carried out as the primary strategy of the war on humanity. Against that weapon of moral destruction, pen turns to sword in the ongoing battle for truth and freedom.

Order now from Amazon.

Nowick Gray is a regular contributor to The New Agora and also offers perspectives and resources for alternative culture and African drumming. Subscribe to his Substack (New World Dreaming) or visit his  writings website at NowickGray.com.

Who or what will save us?

The Truth?

‘Speak truth to power.’ —Quaker maxim

‘The truth will set you free.’ —John 8:32

Digital warriors of the last two years and beyond take inspiration from a long tradition of principled resistance to tyranny. Going back at least as far as the sayings of Jesus, and certainly to the example of Gandhi, nonviolent freedom fighters operate from the assumption that knowing, speaking, and acting on truth is central to the liberation struggle: if not with any guarantee of success, at least with a moral imperative to stand up for natural justice.

Obviously, “truth” in this sense is not the ersatz variety conjured by propaganda ministries, global corporate think tanks, and fact-check factory workers. Neither does it refer to some post-postmodern theory of infinite subjectivity. Rather it is researched without conflicts of interest, grounded in deep personal intuition, and grasped as a universal principle of nature.

‘The man who reads nothing at all is better educated than the man who reads nothing but newspapers.’ ― Thomas Jefferson

Still, where has all this upstanding diligence got us? Some minds have opened; some lawsuits have been won; some protests have had the desired effect. But the information war goes on. The hypnotic smoke of media lies and government doublespeak continues apace; and while the digital warriors pause and take stock, their constituents remain slow to rouse from slumber.

‘I do not believe it’s a fault in those who fall for the narrative that they cannot see the lies. People want to believe that governments and experts, for all their well-known flaws and occasionally uncovered corruption, are trying to do the best they can. They cannot accept the truth, that there is a group of powerful people who regard the ordinary members of the public as surplus to requirements. They want to deny evil because it makes them feel bad, sad, and uncomfortable to think about the world this way.’ – Dr. Mike Yeadon, Covid Lies: Revised Definitions and Bizarre Statements

The real question at hand is not, “What is true?” but rather, “What can be done about it?”

Aliens?

‘At this point, it looks like only the aliens can save us.’ —a friend

While official sources dangle the UFO hypothesis like manna for our palates hungering for salvation, we should be wary that the stage is being set for a fake bogeyman, a new “common enemy.” And maybe they are.

We know something fishy happened six thousand years ago, with the sudden rise of the Sumerian civilization, “out of nowhere.” Perhaps the seeds were planted 50 thousand, or half a million or a million years before, with the sudden rise of Cro-Magnon, or homo sapiens. Was genetic engineering of humanity not only a pipe dream of the transhumanists, but a long-buried origin story of our own, otherwise inexplicable species? If so, where have all the Anunnaki gone? Or do they live on in the weaponized DNA of our ruling class, the bluebloods?

Infighting among the Elites?

A pessimistic view sees recorded history dominated by the rapacious rule of elites. But that story is skewed by the bias of those recording, preserving and disseminating that his-story. It paints a picture of a captive reality, to further captivate the minds of the masses.

To open a wider lens does not exclude the atrocities and genocides perpetrated upon us, but rebalances an understanding of human nature that is gentler and more peaceable than mere history would lead us to believe. Another hopeful fact arises, too, from the bloodthirsty battles fought falsely in our name. In the perpetual rise and fall of empires and warring states, not only is oppression and collateral damage a given, so is the counterweight of forces vying with each other for the most power, the position of top dog.

If the subject populations lack the fighting spirit to defend our lives, liberty and pursuit of happiness, then we may yet be spared as one supervillain takes on the other. For the psychopaths taking charge, it’s never enough simply to control their own populations. They must rise to the challenge of the other rogue actors, as the stakes continue to escalate with each conquest, on each contested terrain.

The Stakes

At stake in this global war is the next phase of human evolution, which must account for both the integrity of our Earthly lineage—even if it was once raped, hijacked, compromised—and the right and power to determine our future. In practical terms, much hinges on what’s left of the rule of law.

Compared to natural law, the codes of the rulers are yet another imposition. Yet certain benign statesmen set in place charters and constitutions, safeguards and guarantees, so that at least a modicum of civil order could be maintained, and redress gained against abuses of power.

All of that got thrown out the window by the Covidian crisis/opportunity—by design, as the old, national and even international basis of “rule of law” needed to be dismantled and replaced by a monopolar model, with new rules imposed from on high, by the likes of the World Health Organization and the World Economic Forum. In this new world order, national sovereignty is superseded by the interests of global stakeholders; errant local judges are bought off, threatened or overruled by higher courts; and the buck doesn’t stop until it gets to the top of the pyramid.

The Stakeholders

So who are these stakeholders whose interests now hold sway over policy, property, and definitions of truth itself?

The Property Titlists

Seeking to preserve the aesthetics of the Earth domain they claim for their own enjoyment, the property titlists favor a policy of eugenics: a euphemism for democide.

The Rabble

The rest of us are mere rabble. Deprived of our own stakes in the ground and fenced off from the preserves of the masters, we are indulged at best in the role of compliant livestock, or slaves, or servile workers. Resisting our subjugation and awake to the source of it, we take up stakes with a different purpose. Stirred to action by brave rabble rousers, we aim for the hearts of the vampires who suck our lifeblood.

Title Match Contenders

The silver lining of the title sweepstakes is that the contenders feel compelled (to the extent they have any feelings at all) to vie with one another for supreme power on this planet, or at least eminent domain in their own regional fiefdom. Their names and associations are legion, beginning with the usual suspects: WEF (Fourth Reich), British Crown, City of London, Vatican, CIA/Five Eyes, Rothschilds, Soros, Gates, US, Russia, China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, India, Brazil, Korea, Japan, EU, NATO…

Ourselves?

‘The military is not going to save us…. Control what you can control.’ (General Flynn)

Ultimately, if we need salvation we need to rely on ourselves. Yes, acting as Digital Warriors matters… because it’s an information war, a psyop; so learning and sharing is crucial. We need to represent our truth where we stand—at the local level, or whatever level we can participate in, whether through media, networking, or live.

At the most basic level it comes down to survival. What will it take, individually and collectively, to live through the tribulation? In a time of holocaust, it means getting out of the way of the train to the camps. In the time of the dinosaurs, it meant the small jungle mammals (our ancestors) had to scurry for cover, to watch the titanic reptiles battle and fall.

We will recognize we have no choice but to take matters into our own hands. We can take inspiration and guidance from the example of indigenous peoples, with their skills, values, worldview, wisdom, lifestyle: a sustainable model of natural human nature.

Refusing to partake in the shadow play between the alphas (leaders) and betas (followers), we can be sigma cats, observing, licking, biding our time.

—

In Covid Narrative Remix: Two Years of Dissent, Nowick Gray critiques the global agenda with the voice of the natural human spirit. These compiled articles from The New Now/Agora (2020-2022) shed light on the narrative sabotage carried out as the primary strategy of the war on humanity. Against that weapon of moral destruction, pen turns to sword in the ongoing battle for truth and freedom.

Order now from Amazon.

Nowick Gray is a regular contributor to The New Agora and also offers perspectives and resources for alternative culture and African drumming. Subscribe to his Substack (New World Dreaming) or visit his  writings website at NowickGray.com.