Morning Comrades!
My head is swimming a little still from yesterday’s “quiet” birthday drinks but I wanted to take a moment, take a big step back from a lot of the macro-focus on issues here and look at the big picture. With the war in Ukraine now well into a month, after 2 years of a pandemic the onslaught of information we are receiving and being subjected to is so immense, none of which at the very least feels as if it is trustworthy, that it’s become too overbearing to reach conclusions worthy of your very own action and planning.
Gramsci nailed this state of reality 100 years ago when he said:
The old world is dying, and the new world struggles to be born: now is the time of monsters.
It is, traditionally, and hopefully for the foreseeable future the role of story tellers like myself to offer some sense of clarity and direction, and that is what is happening here today.
The “western” world as we knew it is ending, more rapidly than even I had anticipated. The challenge to the western unipolarity of power - and once again for the record, I consider that to be not only overdue but good - is in full swing and as experienced and predicted for the last 100s of years, whenever political constructs of capitalism are threatened they resort to violence, usually outward but over the last 20 years increasingly inward as well. Inward predominately as the dictatorship of capitalism has now reached a point of wealth extraction from us that existence is becoming increasingly difficult and with that, an internal push back is rising, forcing our individual states to employ their weapons, the police, laws and propaganda/cultural warfare inward.
Daniel Baryon nailed when he articulated this response to the above.
Fact is, none of “this” is going to get better, on the contrary, it is going to get increasingly worse. Worse in the sense of poverty, repression, violence and division, especially here in the West. I don’t say this to offer any sort of costly salvation, I’ll leave that to the organized religions and conmen our there. Trust me, I would also rather be in peace- but as a wise old wizard once said:
“So do I, and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.” - Gandalf
Especially, with the big fuck off elephant in the room that is conveniently for the sake of the capitalists being ignored - aka, the looming ecological man-made disaster that is truly only solvable by radical systemic economic and social change, “things” will get insanely worse. If the western world is willing to sacrifice scores of people for made up economic reasons and ideology imagine what those lunatics are willing to do when drinking water runs short, or billions of non white people immigrate towards pastures that can still harbour human life. I dare not imagine, yet we have to, sticking our heads in the sand will only make the problem worse and as with all metaphysical realities, we do have a duty for being born, whether or not we were asked to or not. Our work, as always, remains multipolar. On one hand our work is to provide safety, inclusion and support, not online but in the real world, for those in our communities that are either the current scapegoat of the dying machine’s cultural warfare as well as acting by example in our convictions. Education remains a core priority in shaping the world that we want to see. Organizing into active, real world support networks is the other job. Not only to provide material help amongst ourselves - as whatever support systems we were made to believe exist from our governments genuinely will cease to exist in our lifetime - but also to actively become the cog in the machine that will bring down this capitalist hell the 1% has unleashed on the planet. That’s it my dearest of comrades, that’s the deal. Unlike my generation that upon learning the brutal realities of capitalism who then misunderstood Fight Club and did a bunch of real stupid shit, we now have a plan.
“Advertisements have them chasing cars and clothes, working jobs they hate so they can buy shit they don't need. We are the middle children of history, with no purpose or place. We have no great war, or great depression. The great war is a spiritual war. The great depression is our lives. We were raised by television to believe that we'd be millionaires and movie gods and rock stars -- but we won't. And we're learning that fact. And we're very, very pissed-off.”
With that, I have collected a number of articles that all tie into the above for your enjoyment and understanding. Make no mistake, all of these topics are part of the same picture that I painted above and need to be understood in that context.
One of the best and concise threads in regards to the insanity of geo-politics currently.
A very good analysis of where we are at in regards to propaganda, the truth(s) and us.
Peter Thiel is one of the most powerful and utterly deranged people in the West. Keeping tabs on this psychopath is vital and this article does a great job at it.
Speaking of systemic, radical change, Jason Hickel is always worth your time.
With that, thank you for your time and attention. This work lives thanks to your support and by word of mouth - which is easy online, if you can, please do feel free to share this.
Other than that, the mutual aid birthday drop is available until Sunday, with all profits being donated to Doctors Without Borders. If you are a paying subscriber to this newsletter your discount code is the same as always and applies here as well.
I’ll be back here tomorrow for the patreons of this newsletter and Friday for everyone. Smooches and I remain yours, without compromise,
V.