Friday, June 24, 2022

Links — 24 June 2022

Moon of Alabama
Ukraine SitRep - Zolote Cauldron Closes - Lysichansk Blocked
https://www.moonofalabama.org/2022/06/lysichansk.html

Asia Times
Ukraine – the situation June 24, 2022
Uwe Parpart
https://asiatimes.com/2022/06/ukraine-the-situation-june-24-2022/

The Dreizin Report
Lisichansk sector disintegrating
Jacob Dreizin
https://thedreizinreport.com/2022/06/24/lisichansk-sector-disintegrating-likely-100s-of-ukr-prisoners-taken-1000s-more-coming-ukraine-general-staffs-new-position-not-kidding-is-roughly-severodonestk-we-dont-know-anything-abo/

Zero Hedge
EU & NATO Appear To Be Forming A Bloc For War Against Russia: Lavrov
Tyler Durden
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/eu-nato-appear-be-forming-bloc-war-against-russia-lavrov

Brzezinski's Proxy War Playbook
Patrick Macfarlane via The Libertarian Institute
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/brzezinskis-proxy-war-playbook

WSWS
Eighty-one years after the war of annihilation: German Chancellor Scholz makes new war threats against Russia
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2022/06/25/cbud-j25.html

CaitlinJohnstone.com
Imperial Narrative Control Has Five Distinct Elements
Caitlin Johnstone
https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2022/06/24/imperial-narrative-control-has-five-distinct-elements/

The World Is Ruled By A Backwards Puritanical Regime: Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix
Caitlin Johnstone
https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2022/06/25/the-world-is-ruled-by-a-backwards-puritanical-regime-notes-from-the-edge-of-the-narrative-matrix/





18 comments:

Matt Franko said...

“ EU & NATO Appear To Be Forming A Bloc For War Against Russia: Lavrov”

#duh 😂😂😂😂😂

Peter Pan said...

Humans are storytelling creatures. If you can control the stories humans are telling themselves about the world, you control the humans, and you control the world.

Bingo.

If that ain't line one in volume one of perennial wisdom, then it's time to revise the original.

Matt Franko said...

“ storytelling”

Yo, It’s called Figurative Language…

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literal_and_figurative_language



Peter Pan said...

Adults taking stories literally is a real problem.

Peter Pan said...

Scott Ritter with RealTruthTalk on Russia vs Ukraine - PolitiCrooks YT channel
https://youtu.be/OmC1cp-USA0

Matt Franko said...

“ Humans are truth-seeking creatures.”

No they’re not… some are but to say that applies to all is completely false..,

Peter Pan said...

Humans only seek control because they want to experience something.

The want to experience food in their bellies, clothes on their back, and a warm, dry place to sleep. And they will destroy the planet to order to obtain it for a day, a week, or another billion years. That is what all living things do. The extraction of energy from the external is a function of life. Procreation is another.

The story-telling always denies the ugly imperatives of evolution. Humans are "special", we have souls, we are created in God's image, we are separate and above other life forms. There was even a time when the Sun, the planets and the stars revolved around Earth as a testament to our importance.

Questions about our existence have been answered, but we don't like the answers. So the story-telling continues. There is life after death, reincarnation, judgement, heaven and hell. There are gods and goddesses, divine mortals and villainous immortals, and fallen angels.

When the stories we tell ourselves say that life is a test, and culture says that it is a test, then people live their lives as if it were a test. Other perspectives are suppressed. That isn't truth-seeking, that is prison-making.

Tell people that resources are scarce and they must compete... and lo and behold, that is what they do. Where stories fail to illicit the desired behavior, physical coercion begins.

The control of the god worshipers is waning; control by technology worshipers is ascendant. The ability of the mind to conceptualize, was instrumental for conceiving all sorts of notions, including god. But we have better tools now... namely science and technology. They will allow us to transform the material world to our liking... onward and upward until we become gods... space-faring deities... masters of the universe.

Sounds like an amazing story about a bright future, doesn't it? As good as any tale found in the Bible, or holy book. What could go wrong?

If you disagree, there are plenty of people who will agree. Technology will solve our problems. The naysayers are Doomers, Malthusians, Communists. That's the thing about perspective: it doesn't subscribe to the notion that there is a single truth, or one way of looking at things.

Peter Pan said...

Actually, the perennial wisdom is really simple: ‘what you are looking for is inside of you.’

I know what I like, and I like what I know.

And the method for discovering that, is experience.

But you can't rule the peasants that way.

Matt Franko said...

“ For me, it’s a matter of understanding what it means to be human: what is human existence?”

Well the Genesis account teaches that we are created in the image (simulate) of god and that all (panta) is out of god…

So we collectively represent all that exists… good/evil… truth/false… order/chaos.. judgement/caprice… Art/Science… and every combination thereof…

Christendom (that I’m a member of) represents (well, it’s supposed to represent) a judgmental cohort… But it’s been turned into mostly a coercive behavior modification program…

Peter Pan said...

Energy from the Sun began to be stored when organic material was buried and compressed by geologic forces. Most scientists believe that hydrocarbons on Earth have an organic component, and that this is necessary for their formation.

Organic material (most of this will come from plant life) + geologic process (which takes a lot of time) = hydrocarbons in sufficient quantity for exploitation

Hydrocarbons can form on worlds inhospitable for life. Saturn's moon Titan is a famous example. So there can be formation through inorganic inputs.

The diversity of life on Earth, evolved without having to access the energy stored in hydrocarbons. It had no other choice. Only a few bacteria have access, or are a part of, Earth's lithosphere.

The dreamings of mind began before humans had fire, stone tools, or language. They looked at the stars at night, and may have wondered what they were. They observed the world around them, and may have had musings beyond the practical, immediate need for survival.

The development of language gave these dreams a boost.

Language is required for perennial wisdom. But hydrocarbons?

The impact from fossil fuels has liberated human creativity. Now our dreams are grander, and can be shared in the form of science fiction novels. Take away easily accessible energy, and those dreams are dashed. Civilization as we are accustomed to, fades away.

The Sun will warm the Earth for billions of years to come. Long before then, humans will have gone extinct, or evolved into other forms. I would guess they will have hands. Given our rapacious and reckless nature, we are surely a flash in the pan.

That is my answer, as to what 4.6 billion years of evolution has begotten - a flash in the pan. That is, if I focus solely on what humans are up to.

Matt Franko said...

https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidbressan/2022/06/25/baby-woolly-mammoth-found-in-the-klondike-most-complete-mummified-ice-age-animal-found-in-north-america/?sh=5a2485841e08

mike norman said...

There is no truth. It's all perception.

Matt Franko said...

“ Truth is in perception”

Give me an example….

Peter Pan said...

With faith, you can find God in all sorts of places. Faith is experienced by many people, and faith is lost by many of the same people. I'm one of those people.

There is no truth. It's all perception.

And there is no reality that can be experienced outside of perception.

Truth, reality, are noetic constructs.

Peter Pan said...

But anyway, I know people are hypnotised by matter and the world - cue Russia!

Scott Ritter hypnotized me.
I wasn't interested in this conflict until I listened to his analysis.
He made it interesting.

Peter Pan said...

Beliefs that are meaningful and nourishing constitute faith.
God is often the subject of faith since that is what we are introduced to by parents, peers and culture. Some say they believe, and some explain their belief in terms of faith.

Without faith, belief is closer to 'not knowing' than 'knowing'. Doubt creeps in.

Faith doesn't have to be about God, but it has to be about something meaningful.

Strong atheists aren't nourished by their 'knowledge' that there is no god. There is no such knowledge - none that can be arrived at scientifically.

What is known, and unknown, tends to become spiritually meaningless. When we know the sun will rise in the east, we stop having faith in the Sun god, Ra. What remains, are the aesthetics of sunrises, or its role in the larger narrative of what is known.

The unknown may or may not cause anxiety. Yet who among us finds nourishment in the unknown, in 'not knowing'?

Yet if everything were known, life would be boring.

Peter Pan said...

In religious traditions where life is a test, faith is like a shield that ensures you will endure and pass the test.

Peter Pan said...

If you do know, the funny thing is - faith is no longer required. Something to think about...

If you do know, faith is precluded. You will never experience it.
The same will happen if you delude yourself, by transforming believing into knowing.
The only control you have over faith, is to rule it out.

So, in regard to faith, nothing was really lost? Nothing was really found?
That’s the power of belief


Belief prior to experiencing faith is what it is.
Belief bolstered by faith flourishes.
Belief after losing faith will never flourish, or remain what it was.

When I was 9 or 10 years old, I experienced the reward of faith gained; then paid the price of faith lost. I imagine that experience is preferable to living your entire life with unchanging beliefs.