Thank you, Jane. I personally know how important it is to hear your thoughts occurring in another mind outside your own--I shudder to think where we'd be without that.
Thank God for the internet, this really touched me deep in my heart. You are is my tribe, not the sleepwalking zoombies I’m surrounded by here in Norway. 70 years of socialism and a «mother-state» has made people here the most uncritical and trusting people in the world. It sure feels lonely to be a person with a different mindset. The last three years have been hellish, but I stand strong and proud of my ability to think for myself! Thank you for your eminent writing!
Well worded! Been struggling with these ideas for some time. And your article helps to line things up a lot. Still havent figured out what exactly makes ‘us’ different from the masses. Independent thinking? Are we wired like that, as you suggest? Maybe its that easy. Not quitw sure yet.
I suspect we're born with more-or-less the same nervous system, and our "wiring" gets shaped and re-wired by experiences, pain/pleasure, trauma, social rewards and punishments, injustices, ideas we're exposed to, etc., and our nervous system just "remembers" it all and shapes who we become. And I suspect it never stops. Some of us got "wired" to be suspicious of arguments from authority... and so here we are.
(Not discounting volition, either, since a certain amount of cognition involves becoming conscious of bad wiring and ripping it out.)
My mother told me I was extremely young when I asked 'do you believe all that?' after a sermon in the Catholic church we used to visit every Sunday. Very young means under 10, she said 6, but that's a bit too much I think. Cant ask her anymore. She died in 2019. Glad she did not have to go through the ordeal of the Covid period at the age of 93. Now, looking back, I guess there was always a pattern of forming my own opinion. The fearmongering towards kids which is done by various religions is quite alarming. As 11 or 12 years olds we were supposed to go to confession and pledge our sins to a 50+ man in a robe. Never really believed any of it.
But the real eye opener happened during Covid. It never made sense, never took a single jab either. Never will.
Glad to have this kind of communities on Substack and other places.
Thanks for sharing your view. It helps and triggered me again to ponder over other things.
I come from a long line of critical thinkers. My grandma thought the moon landing was a hoax and my dad was one of a kind. I am always the last one to follow the crowd and I take pride in being 'different'. Everyone has a tattoo these days. Not me, because everyone is doing it. It is hard wired in, but just now, at 59 years old, am I finally comfortable NOT being part of the go along crowd. I always felt my difference as I was standing alone, but I am finally embracing it as WHO I AM now. Instead of wondering what is wrong with me, I wonder what is wrong with everyone else. This thinking has kept me alive and skeptical to tell another tale. I have given up trying to convince anyone of anything anymore. I have my tribe and I am so grateful. Thank you JET for yet another great read and probably the best one yet. Well timed too. We all thought things would get back to 'normal'. Yep, this is the normal. Glad I am an abnormie.♥
About five years ago I did some "life coaching" (therapy, by a different name, I guess) and the coach talked about how, at some point, you simply stop giving a shit about what people think of you, and you start telling the world what you think of it. Based on her sessions with clients, she reckoned it was about age 50-55 for women (younger for men) so you're right on track :) Would that we could get there sooner, but I guess we struggle with a certain amount of trying to please the herd before we figure out that it's pointless and not a good use of a life.
Anyway, thanks for reading and glad you're a critical thinker, Sadie. Stay skeptical!
I could have written this. I am 58 and my dad always told us to march to our own drum. He wouldn't allow tv or newspapers in the house as he said it was bringing propaganda into the home. He wasn't a paranoid man, just wise and I have never ever felt the need to have the latest,watch the latest,follow the latest. It's hard as a teenager but becomes easier with time and I am so proud of not belonging to the herd. Meeting kindred minded people is always a blessing but I am happy enough with my mindset not to bend when in a crowd. My dad has been into looking after body and mind through simple exercise, food and supplements since the 1950s as was his mother before him. She was still doing yoga at 100.
The last few years have made me question daily why some of us can see through things for what they are and others can't.
It's also made me value for the first time ever virtual strangers ( I dislike sm and smart phones ).
“people that I have come to know and love during this time are those who are comfortable within their discomfort.”
No truer words.
I’ve lost so many friends and family members. But I would not ever give up my kindred spirits to have them back in my life.
The holy trinity is what I will cling to:
Father
Son
Holy Spirit
I will not live in fear. I will trust in God’s word to see me through.
Had the nightmare of this last 3+ years not happened, I would not have sought out my faith again. I highly recommend reading the one true book - the Bible.
The only advantage we have over the normies is the the reality of our actions. It is evident that we lead better, healthier lives (aside from all the struggle entailed in dealing with TPTB and their useful idiots). You cannot change people but you can model good behaviour and hopefully they will see that and wish to be like you.
Another excellent piece, James! I just love your thinking and your writing.
I read The Artist's Way and did all the exercises twice back in the 90s. It changed my life (and my now-husband's life, since I persuaded him to do it, too). My dedication with the book and its process helped me to earn great confidence in my creativity, or, even more so, in my life as a creator-being!
I can look back over my nearly sixty years on this planet and see my psycho-spiritual progress as I nurtured my inner warrior/artist.
All that said, my husband and I are in the last week of a 51-day road trip and will be performing a small private concert tomorrow evening in a town just south of Denver. Our host, with whom we are staying for three nights, met my husband in an online group. We have never met in person before yesterday, but he and his wife are organizing this concert. They gave us a house key. They are allowing us to hook up our travel trailer to their shore power during the hottest part of summer when we're running the A/C like 12 hours a day to keep our Persian cat cool!
We may have very different ideologies, but somehow, the music and desire for improved health are bringing us (and many more people) together. This gives me a shred of hope for a world without the wayward wizards and their cushy-job-keeping career clowns/grifters!
Love your thoughts, as always Sharine. Currently going through my 2nd round of the Artist's Way. The creative outpouring is coming, stand back... 😆
I had a good writer friend who claimed that "writer's block doesn't exist. You don't see truckers complaining of "trucker's block." I told him he was likely blocked in ways he couldn't even imagine and to go through the damn book. He wouldn't listen.
Great to hear you're playing music and connecting with friends and community. I'm doing much the same, playing locally in a small country band. It is good, life-affirming stuff. PS. do you guys need a drummer?🥁
Ooo, yeah, the second pass with The Artist's Way really increases the flow of creativity! I never had "the block," I would just keep writing songs until one was good enough to share. Actually, some I thought were simplistic and silly turned out to be my biggest hits.
So keep writing and playing! It's great that you're playing locally because doing it in front of an audience 1) can strengthen performing skills, 2) offers opportunities for more feedback to increase technical skills, and 3) generates that ineffable synergy with a receptive audience.
We have a drummer back home! As for tonight's concert, we're keeping it to a duet since it'll be outdoors in a really big neighborhood, and nothing sucks quite the same way as getting shut down by the cops. Also, I don't know if you were kidding or not about us needing a drummer, haha.
Also just wanted to leave this here: "Nature loves courage. You make the commitment and nature will respond to that commitment by removing impossible obstacles. Dream the impossible dream and the world will not grind you under, it will lift you up. This is the trick. This is what all these teachers and philosophers who really counted, who really touched the alchemical gold, this is what they understood. This is the shamanic dance in the waterfall. This is how magic is done. By hurling yourself into the abyss and discovering it's a feather bed."
Aug 19, 2023·edited Aug 20, 2023Liked by James Edward Taylor
The worse part of this is the true believers in my own family like my own mother. She is 80 years old and a cancer survivor, so I try not to argue with her, but it's galling when she comes to visit then takes over my living room and insists on watching the "news." One of these days I will choke from swallowing my tongue, and sometimes I do just say no, I can't stand it.
Yep, I still have friends who have "the news" on all the time in their home. It sounds so utterly, comically fake to me, both in content and in their overblown "serious newsroom" style. It's all I can do to keep from laughing. I usually ask politely if we can turn the propaganda machine off for a bit.
I can now literally tell propaganda by a certain way of speaking that will emphasize certain words in sentence. It's super obvious when you watch True Dough when he talks about "misinformation."
The one that really does my nut is NPR, where every male is coached to speak effeminately and never make a declarative sentence (which would be threatening, I guess?) and always speak as if thoughtfully questioning and coming up with the propagandistic lies on the spot, as if by revelation. It is laughably phony. I don't know how anyone takes it seriously.
OMG yes. I remember very clearly the last day I stopped listening to NPR, it was the Bush II Presidency and the news wench on "All Things Considered," was gushing about how "strong and sexy" Donald Rumsfeld looked during "shock and awe," our new American blitzkrieg. That was enough for me and I never listened again, though the snippets I have heard during other media presentations tell me I made the right decision.
NPR seriously lost the thread from the 70s and 80s when they would sponsor classical and jazz public radio stations and mostly steered clear of politics.
It's like Russians who still believed Pravada in the mid 80s. Propaganda sadly works. And Goebbel's was unfortunately correct that a big lie repeated over and over will work.
I have just met up with my elderly parents (in their 80's) for the first time in over 3 years. It's amazing how historical hindsight allows everyone to forget how they treated those of us who chose to stand our ground and not be bullied. But what can you do? My 20 year marriage broke down - we have 'opposing' views! He is 20 years older than me. Now we live in the same house but separately - I am his carer as he was vax injured.
That's tragic, April. It'll make you sick, thinking about the way a wedge was driven between loving partners and families. I have heard so many of these stories from readers and I feel it every time.
It is all so sad isn't it. Such heart breaking stories people have. I am currently writing a post and cross posting your amazing article and urging people to read this comments section. My post is called 'Friending the Enemy' - my husband and I are on different 'sides' but we have found a way to be good friends and support each other.
Thank you. I also wrote a post called 'Go cheerfully amongst the vax'd and sheep' - yes I did use a derogatory term !! but I hope the post helps us to understand that we must find genuine compassion. We are not each others enemy. I understand how hard it is... I got called all the granny killers under the sun.. but if we are more aware, then we must also learn to dig into ourselves and find our better qualities.
So let me get this straight he was vax injured and still shilling for the regime? How is that possible? Is he just in denial about what happened? I mean hell I used to be a leftist too, but come on now, there are limits.
I know I know!! He knows that he was injured by it. He hasn't had any more. His GP won't acknowledge it. (of course) But he just doesn't want to see the big picture and you can't make someone open their eyes..... Sigh.
I understand your frustration. Really I hear you! But once you start seeing the big picture, everything reveals itself like a horror show and you have to be pretty brave to look at that. It can mean for some people that their whole life has been lived in a sort of lie. It can mean that people who served in the forces or felt they were doing the right thing in some way or another with sacrifice to themselves, are made to feel really betrayed. You and I may want to look that full in the face and learn about the whole shit show, bring it on we say. But many many people just can't do that. It feels too dark and painful. We have to live our best lives and show our greatest understanding in the hopes that one day.... maybe... they will be ready. But maybe they won't.
I was pretty lucky I guess I grew up with countercultural hippy parents, so I always knew the establishment system was a lie from an early age. Sadly my mother does buy the regime propaganda now, there isn't much to be done about it, shrug.
“Can the global pathocratic totalitarians be defeated politically?” seems to be a mighty important question for those of us who have escaped from the Cave (in Plato’s allegory). I’m left wondering “What if those who have escaped from the Cave haven’t yet understood that the world’s governing system is a pathocracy?”
Thank you for this wonderful piece of work that sums up everything myself and my like minded friends think,feel and shake our heads at.
I can't express how much I love reading your work. It can be a lonely place in 2023 and surrounded by the cult of stupid.
Thank you, Jane. I personally know how important it is to hear your thoughts occurring in another mind outside your own--I shudder to think where we'd be without that.
Thank God for the internet, this really touched me deep in my heart. You are is my tribe, not the sleepwalking zoombies I’m surrounded by here in Norway. 70 years of socialism and a «mother-state» has made people here the most uncritical and trusting people in the world. It sure feels lonely to be a person with a different mindset. The last three years have been hellish, but I stand strong and proud of my ability to think for myself! Thank you for your eminent writing!
Sorry to hear that about a land of former Viking warriors. Happy to have you in the tribe. Stay strong and keep questioning!
Great articles!
Remember; there's NO PROFIT in HEALTHY PEOPLE!
and If it's SAFE and EFFECTIVE why do they need to dictate NO LIABILITY for vax related injuries & Vax induced DEATHS?
The argument is so obvious I'm in disbelief that so many pretend to hide from these glaring travesties!
Mick from Hooe (UK) Unjabbed to live longer!
Yep, obvious to you and me, Mick. But "obvious" implies the act of "observation" and the narrative-believer will not do that.
Well worded! Been struggling with these ideas for some time. And your article helps to line things up a lot. Still havent figured out what exactly makes ‘us’ different from the masses. Independent thinking? Are we wired like that, as you suggest? Maybe its that easy. Not quitw sure yet.
I suspect we're born with more-or-less the same nervous system, and our "wiring" gets shaped and re-wired by experiences, pain/pleasure, trauma, social rewards and punishments, injustices, ideas we're exposed to, etc., and our nervous system just "remembers" it all and shapes who we become. And I suspect it never stops. Some of us got "wired" to be suspicious of arguments from authority... and so here we are.
(Not discounting volition, either, since a certain amount of cognition involves becoming conscious of bad wiring and ripping it out.)
My mother told me I was extremely young when I asked 'do you believe all that?' after a sermon in the Catholic church we used to visit every Sunday. Very young means under 10, she said 6, but that's a bit too much I think. Cant ask her anymore. She died in 2019. Glad she did not have to go through the ordeal of the Covid period at the age of 93. Now, looking back, I guess there was always a pattern of forming my own opinion. The fearmongering towards kids which is done by various religions is quite alarming. As 11 or 12 years olds we were supposed to go to confession and pledge our sins to a 50+ man in a robe. Never really believed any of it.
But the real eye opener happened during Covid. It never made sense, never took a single jab either. Never will.
Glad to have this kind of communities on Substack and other places.
Thanks for sharing your view. It helps and triggered me again to ponder over other things.
I come from a long line of critical thinkers. My grandma thought the moon landing was a hoax and my dad was one of a kind. I am always the last one to follow the crowd and I take pride in being 'different'. Everyone has a tattoo these days. Not me, because everyone is doing it. It is hard wired in, but just now, at 59 years old, am I finally comfortable NOT being part of the go along crowd. I always felt my difference as I was standing alone, but I am finally embracing it as WHO I AM now. Instead of wondering what is wrong with me, I wonder what is wrong with everyone else. This thinking has kept me alive and skeptical to tell another tale. I have given up trying to convince anyone of anything anymore. I have my tribe and I am so grateful. Thank you JET for yet another great read and probably the best one yet. Well timed too. We all thought things would get back to 'normal'. Yep, this is the normal. Glad I am an abnormie.♥
Abnormies of the world, unite! (Haha, love that).
About five years ago I did some "life coaching" (therapy, by a different name, I guess) and the coach talked about how, at some point, you simply stop giving a shit about what people think of you, and you start telling the world what you think of it. Based on her sessions with clients, she reckoned it was about age 50-55 for women (younger for men) so you're right on track :) Would that we could get there sooner, but I guess we struggle with a certain amount of trying to please the herd before we figure out that it's pointless and not a good use of a life.
Anyway, thanks for reading and glad you're a critical thinker, Sadie. Stay skeptical!
Interesting. I estimate that I stopped giving a shit about what people think of me when I was in my teens. It has served me well.
I could have written this. I am 58 and my dad always told us to march to our own drum. He wouldn't allow tv or newspapers in the house as he said it was bringing propaganda into the home. He wasn't a paranoid man, just wise and I have never ever felt the need to have the latest,watch the latest,follow the latest. It's hard as a teenager but becomes easier with time and I am so proud of not belonging to the herd. Meeting kindred minded people is always a blessing but I am happy enough with my mindset not to bend when in a crowd. My dad has been into looking after body and mind through simple exercise, food and supplements since the 1950s as was his mother before him. She was still doing yoga at 100.
The last few years have made me question daily why some of us can see through things for what they are and others can't.
It's also made me value for the first time ever virtual strangers ( I dislike sm and smart phones ).
At least we have each other.
I'm a part-time drummer, and I briefly considered titling this newsletter "march to your own beat/drum" or some variation of that.
A propaganda-free and health-conscious environment--sounds like you were raised right!
Current title is perfect
The best summation of the situation I’ve read James! Your precision of thought is awesome. Keep up the great work! Thank you!
Hard to do better than "best", haha. Thanks!
Oh James - thank you for this!
“people that I have come to know and love during this time are those who are comfortable within their discomfort.”
No truer words.
I’ve lost so many friends and family members. But I would not ever give up my kindred spirits to have them back in my life.
The holy trinity is what I will cling to:
Father
Son
Holy Spirit
I will not live in fear. I will trust in God’s word to see me through.
Had the nightmare of this last 3+ years not happened, I would not have sought out my faith again. I highly recommend reading the one true book - the Bible.
The only advantage we have over the normies is the the reality of our actions. It is evident that we lead better, healthier lives (aside from all the struggle entailed in dealing with TPTB and their useful idiots). You cannot change people but you can model good behaviour and hopefully they will see that and wish to be like you.
Another excellent piece, James! I just love your thinking and your writing.
I read The Artist's Way and did all the exercises twice back in the 90s. It changed my life (and my now-husband's life, since I persuaded him to do it, too). My dedication with the book and its process helped me to earn great confidence in my creativity, or, even more so, in my life as a creator-being!
I can look back over my nearly sixty years on this planet and see my psycho-spiritual progress as I nurtured my inner warrior/artist.
All that said, my husband and I are in the last week of a 51-day road trip and will be performing a small private concert tomorrow evening in a town just south of Denver. Our host, with whom we are staying for three nights, met my husband in an online group. We have never met in person before yesterday, but he and his wife are organizing this concert. They gave us a house key. They are allowing us to hook up our travel trailer to their shore power during the hottest part of summer when we're running the A/C like 12 hours a day to keep our Persian cat cool!
We may have very different ideologies, but somehow, the music and desire for improved health are bringing us (and many more people) together. This gives me a shred of hope for a world without the wayward wizards and their cushy-job-keeping career clowns/grifters!
Love your thoughts, as always Sharine. Currently going through my 2nd round of the Artist's Way. The creative outpouring is coming, stand back... 😆
I had a good writer friend who claimed that "writer's block doesn't exist. You don't see truckers complaining of "trucker's block." I told him he was likely blocked in ways he couldn't even imagine and to go through the damn book. He wouldn't listen.
Great to hear you're playing music and connecting with friends and community. I'm doing much the same, playing locally in a small country band. It is good, life-affirming stuff. PS. do you guys need a drummer?🥁
Ooo, yeah, the second pass with The Artist's Way really increases the flow of creativity! I never had "the block," I would just keep writing songs until one was good enough to share. Actually, some I thought were simplistic and silly turned out to be my biggest hits.
So keep writing and playing! It's great that you're playing locally because doing it in front of an audience 1) can strengthen performing skills, 2) offers opportunities for more feedback to increase technical skills, and 3) generates that ineffable synergy with a receptive audience.
We have a drummer back home! As for tonight's concert, we're keeping it to a duet since it'll be outdoors in a really big neighborhood, and nothing sucks quite the same way as getting shut down by the cops. Also, I don't know if you were kidding or not about us needing a drummer, haha.
Also just wanted to leave this here: "Nature loves courage. You make the commitment and nature will respond to that commitment by removing impossible obstacles. Dream the impossible dream and the world will not grind you under, it will lift you up. This is the trick. This is what all these teachers and philosophers who really counted, who really touched the alchemical gold, this is what they understood. This is the shamanic dance in the waterfall. This is how magic is done. By hurling yourself into the abyss and discovering it's a feather bed."
Terence McKenna
Great quote, thanks!
https://rumble.com/v38g1gv-wef-declare-we-are-gods-if-you-stand-in-our-way-you-will-die.html
when they tell us who they are, we should believe them. Since they want to murder all of us, they will have to be executed first.
The worse part of this is the true believers in my own family like my own mother. She is 80 years old and a cancer survivor, so I try not to argue with her, but it's galling when she comes to visit then takes over my living room and insists on watching the "news." One of these days I will choke from swallowing my tongue, and sometimes I do just say no, I can't stand it.
Yep, I still have friends who have "the news" on all the time in their home. It sounds so utterly, comically fake to me, both in content and in their overblown "serious newsroom" style. It's all I can do to keep from laughing. I usually ask politely if we can turn the propaganda machine off for a bit.
I can now literally tell propaganda by a certain way of speaking that will emphasize certain words in sentence. It's super obvious when you watch True Dough when he talks about "misinformation."
The one that really does my nut is NPR, where every male is coached to speak effeminately and never make a declarative sentence (which would be threatening, I guess?) and always speak as if thoughtfully questioning and coming up with the propagandistic lies on the spot, as if by revelation. It is laughably phony. I don't know how anyone takes it seriously.
OMG yes. I remember very clearly the last day I stopped listening to NPR, it was the Bush II Presidency and the news wench on "All Things Considered," was gushing about how "strong and sexy" Donald Rumsfeld looked during "shock and awe," our new American blitzkrieg. That was enough for me and I never listened again, though the snippets I have heard during other media presentations tell me I made the right decision.
NPR seriously lost the thread from the 70s and 80s when they would sponsor classical and jazz public radio stations and mostly steered clear of politics.
It's like Russians who still believed Pravada in the mid 80s. Propaganda sadly works. And Goebbel's was unfortunately correct that a big lie repeated over and over will work.
I have just met up with my elderly parents (in their 80's) for the first time in over 3 years. It's amazing how historical hindsight allows everyone to forget how they treated those of us who chose to stand our ground and not be bullied. But what can you do? My 20 year marriage broke down - we have 'opposing' views! He is 20 years older than me. Now we live in the same house but separately - I am his carer as he was vax injured.
That's tragic, April. It'll make you sick, thinking about the way a wedge was driven between loving partners and families. I have heard so many of these stories from readers and I feel it every time.
It is all so sad isn't it. Such heart breaking stories people have. I am currently writing a post and cross posting your amazing article and urging people to read this comments section. My post is called 'Friending the Enemy' - my husband and I are on different 'sides' but we have found a way to be good friends and support each other.
Thanks for helping to get the word out! All those cross posts and shares really do help.
That sounds like an important post. Your experience might help some people heal some divides.
Thank you. I also wrote a post called 'Go cheerfully amongst the vax'd and sheep' - yes I did use a derogatory term !! but I hope the post helps us to understand that we must find genuine compassion. We are not each others enemy. I understand how hard it is... I got called all the granny killers under the sun.. but if we are more aware, then we must also learn to dig into ourselves and find our better qualities.
So let me get this straight he was vax injured and still shilling for the regime? How is that possible? Is he just in denial about what happened? I mean hell I used to be a leftist too, but come on now, there are limits.
I know I know!! He knows that he was injured by it. He hasn't had any more. His GP won't acknowledge it. (of course) But he just doesn't want to see the big picture and you can't make someone open their eyes..... Sigh.
Incredible! Propaganda truly does work. What is wrong with people?
I understand your frustration. Really I hear you! But once you start seeing the big picture, everything reveals itself like a horror show and you have to be pretty brave to look at that. It can mean for some people that their whole life has been lived in a sort of lie. It can mean that people who served in the forces or felt they were doing the right thing in some way or another with sacrifice to themselves, are made to feel really betrayed. You and I may want to look that full in the face and learn about the whole shit show, bring it on we say. But many many people just can't do that. It feels too dark and painful. We have to live our best lives and show our greatest understanding in the hopes that one day.... maybe... they will be ready. But maybe they won't.
I was pretty lucky I guess I grew up with countercultural hippy parents, so I always knew the establishment system was a lie from an early age. Sadly my mother does buy the regime propaganda now, there isn't much to be done about it, shrug.
You are not alone.
This is a Masterpiece!
🎯👀
“Can the global pathocratic totalitarians be defeated politically?” seems to be a mighty important question for those of us who have escaped from the Cave (in Plato’s allegory). I’m left wondering “What if those who have escaped from the Cave haven’t yet understood that the world’s governing system is a pathocracy?”
https://www.systemsthinker.com/interests/systemsthinking/humansystems/pathocracy.shtml
By the way, J E Taylor, great Substack. Subscribed.