Ultimately the old order will lose the battle to preserve their privileged way of life, based on all prevailing scarcity, pseudo-democracy, and the rule of law. But in the interim, hundreds of millions of innocent people might lose their lives in bloody resistance to the changes being made by the Old World Order (OWO).. If such a terrible thing happens, it will all have been for nothing, because:
Innocent people might lose their lives
The CIA's Job Applicant Screening [134]
Since its inception, in the late 1940s, the US Central Intelligence Agency has screened applicants for its own agency, and other sensitive government positions, using a structured interview process. There are questions in the interview designed to identify individuals who, by reason of their beliefs or experiences, might not have a well-developed fear of death. Such people do not get jobs in the agency. There are few Buddhists or Animists working for the CIA. Nor are there any people who are known to have had near death experiences or drug induced visions of a non-material world. Folk like that could be impossible to control through a fear of death.
A similar set of questions is used by the Australian equivalents of the CIA; the ASIO and ASIS agencies. Indeed, most agencies of this type would take a similar approach to screening out applicants who might be prone to independent action. None of these organisations want independent people, they want total control; for life. Those who join the covert agencies, or the mob for that matter, can eventually retire but they can never unjoin.
The Three Control Levers [135]
Specialists who study such things have identified three control factors that are routinely used by governments and their covert agencies. The factors, or points of leverage over the populace, are:
*Corruption Bribes, whether direct or indirect, are used to influence the actions of target individuals or groups. Direct cash inducements are not used as frequently as indirect concessions, such as the awarding of contracts or waiving of rules and regulations. But both are important forms of control in today's Level 3 Civilization.
*Compromising Evidence
Information gathered by surveillance systems or from informers, is used to blackmail "guilty" parties. This form of leverage is particularly effective in relation to persons who have significant public reputations and profiles that they wish to preserve. Thus, judges, politicians, priests, company executives and other people in the public spotlight are far more susceptible than penniless students or powerless drifters. The latter are more readily bribed or coerced.
*Coercion
Threats of physical violence or death are made to target individuals in order to ensure their compliance with the wishes of the regime. Family members are often included in the threats. During the Vietnam war the CIA is known to have threatened Australian citizens, on the Australian mainland, in this manner. One promise used was, "We will burn out your children's eyes with a butane lighter." Covert agencies are always prone to such behaviour and no genuinely free society should ever tolerate their existence.
Recognised criminal organisations also use these same three control levers. However, covert agencies have more freedom to use the levers than the mob do. The greater freedom of Federal agents to act criminally stems from the fact that public perceptions, fed on a diet of TV series that glorify police and lawyers, identify organised criminals as the "bad guys" and government agencies, both overt and covert, as the "good guys." In fact, the overall category involved is better described as Organised Crime, with sub-categories of Government Crime and Non-Government crime. The former sub-category of crime is far more entrenched and damaging to a Level 3 Civilization than the latter.
Much the same situation applied at the time of the first Renaissance. The integrated secular and religious rule in Europe was starkly criminal, and this was one of the triggers for change and transformation in the society. Injustice and criminality were the drivers of reform on the secular side. On the religious side a major driver was the blasphemy inherent is the practice of the widespread selling of indulgences by the Roman Church.
Sources of Leverage [136]
The three levers of control above only work because they can act on particular sources of power. Three major sources are:
*Guilt and Sexuality
This source comprises guilt in general, including such sins as theft, fraud, etc. But sexual guilt is the major target of Federal agencies. Such guilt is largely manufactured, through the mores and evolved customs of our times. Few original religious texts from biblical times, condemn sex itself as sinful. Any biologist will tell you that none of the other animals behave in ways that might indicate that they are self-conscious about their sexuality, or ashamed of it. Only humans can go to the lengths of the prudish Victorians, and dress up table legs with modesty coverings. We are alone as a species that contrives complex social rules in relation to sexual phobias.
Anthropologists are aware, however, that most pre-taker tribal peoples, such as the Australian Aborigines and the natives of the Amazon basin, did not traditionally regard sex as having anything to do with sin or guilt. The concept of sexual sin, that is now so convenient a means of gaining leverage over influential or prominent members of society, is a fairly recent development in human history. But it is an important source of leverage for government agencies bent on capturing and controlling key individuals. Additionally, sexual smears are a common political tactic, whether they are true or not.
*Scarcity
Artificial scarcity is by far the largest and most significant source of leverage in the old Level 3 Civilization. In the context of gaining leverage over key individuals, such as judges, coroners, journalists, informers and the like, bribery is the tool most likely to be used by the alphabet agencies. On a wider plane, artificial scarcity is at the heart of takerism, as Daniel Quinn observes, "The food is under lock and key." Whole populations are rendered controllable by the need to spend the majority of their time engaged in working for a living. Even the well-off citizens of Western nations have to devote time to commerce and investment, so that they can maintain their living standards relative to their neighbours.
Despite the incessant lionising of capitalism and its corporate generals, the fact is that the entire system is based on maintaining scarcity, high prices and fat profits. If the dominant economies of the West were unable to maintain planned obsolescence, and so-called durable products were built to last for 50 years instead of 50 months, and if surplus production was given to people in Africa, Asia and Latin America, capitalism would collapse.
When new knowledge and technologies result in new conditions of abundance, this will surely happen. No one will starve or be worse off when capitalism and scarcity are banished, but the ability of military industrial elites to control life on this planet will be at an end. We are headed towards an uncontrolled economy that is based on leaving and giving, one that is worthy of our species. One that we in the West can be proud of; instead of deeply ashamed.
*Superstition
Dictionaries tell us that superstition involves undue belief in and reverence for supernatural beings. But, as it is used here, the term is far broader. It covers fear of the unknown, in all its forms. The category of superstition also covers adherence to persistent myths and non-truths, and unwillingness to think and act in new ways that are, at first, likely to be strange and uncomfortable.
Throughout history fear of the unknown and fear of change have been exploited to control whole populations, whole industries and even whole continents.
During the first Renaissance the elites of the Roman Church and the leaders of feudal realms established during the Dark Ages, used the fear of witchcraft to keep control. As a consequence, many totally innocent women were cruelly tortured and burnt in bonfires, along with their companion cats. If those in power can convince the populace that they are in danger from dark and shadowy forces, or that mooted changes are a bad idea because they are sure to bring harm, the established elites can keep control for a while longer.
In their endeavour to stay in control, governments and the industrial-militarist elites are supported by the mass media networks. The mainstream media assiduously reinforces superstitions that assist governments to maintain the status quo. Conversely, unfettered forums of free speech, such as Freenet, enable dissemination and discussion of information that can break down superstitions and open minds to a new future. Along with porn come the keys to a Level 4 Civilization.
Inevitable Transformations Are Ahead [137]
In an address that he titled The New Renaissance (see the ishmael.com site on the WWW), Daniel Quinn correctly observes that no one can predict the future. He is right, however there are parallels with the first Renaissance that can help us make some informed guesses. However, the fact that our civilization will be transformed is not a guess, it is a certainty. Mass publication changed the old world, mass information that is accessible to everyone will transform the present world: - forever. The only conjectures are about how the changes will play out.
http://ishmael.com/index1.cfm
Consider the sources of leverage that the industrialist/militarist elites use to control the Level 3 Civilization. What forces are likely to erode them, and how long might it take to happen? Here are some informed guesses.
*Denying Sexual Guilt
While other forms of guilt, such as theft and fraud, will continue to provide a source of leverage into the new century, sexual mores and attitudes can be expected to change. More natural and liberal views on human sexuality will eventually remove one of the sources of leverage that government agencies currently tap into.
Although they will be transformed far more quickly than was the case during the first Renaissance, sexual attitudes will be modified more slowly than other sources of control. Because sexual mores are largely generational it could be three decades or more before the majority of the population becomes largely immune to the type of blackmail and smears that the alphabet agencies presently use as control levers.
But this should not give the Feds any reason to celebrate their continuing dominance of our lives. By itself, sexual guilt is a quite limited source of control. The other major sources, scarcity and superstition, are far more general. They affect everyone, whereas sexual guilt as a lever of control applies to small segments of society; albeit very influential ones.
*Abolishing Scarcity
Anyone who takes the time to research the exponential growth of knowledge and technology occurring now, can have no doubt that scarcity can and will be abolished. The question is how soon this might happen. Most people believe that the transformation will be far in the future, and well beyond their lifetimes. But many scientists and technologists think that the singularity, the point at which everything that can be known will be known, is much closer. One line of reasoning is that while the first scientific and technological Renaissance occupied a time span of some 300 years, it is not unreasonable to expect the 2nd Technological Renaissance to take place within as little as 300 months.
If we assume that the starting point for the 2nd Technological Renaissance corresponds to the introduction of mass-produced personal computers, sometime around 1981, we are presently close to the end of the 25 year period required to reach the singularity. Allow another eight to ten years for technologists to develop the means of ending scarcity, and the point at which the industrialist-militarist elites are facing a total loss of control is halfway through the next decade. Say 2014 to 2016. There is a group of scientists and technologists on the west coast of the US that argues strongly for the technological singularity theory of Vernor Vinge. They call themselves "The 2014 Club".
Vernor Vinge is Professor of Computer Science at San Diego University. In 1993 he publicly identified the exponential nature of scientific and technological advancement. Now that it is well and truly underway this explosion of knowledge and magic new technologies will prove impossible to contain.
No matter how the industrial/capitalist elites and those in control of institutionalised science might try, it is now too late to prevent the emergence of magic technologies that will ensure an abundance of energy and near-costless goods and services. Vinge summed up the position is the following line.
"We are on the edge of a change comparable to the rise of human life on earth."
Abundance at levels that will make capitalism irrelevant is probably less than a decade away. But before the enabling technologies are invented, adopted and widely utilised, it will be necessary to destroy old superstitions.
Destroying Superstitions
There are particular forms of superstition that must be broken down before a Level 4 Civilization can emerge. They concern our adherence to persistent myths and non-truths, and our unwillingness to think and act in new ways. In speaking about the New Renaissance, Daniel Quinn puts the issue in survival terms. He says, "The extraordinary thing that's going to happen in the next two or three decades is that a great second renaissance is going to occur. A great and astounding renaissance. Nothing less than that is going to save us."
Quinn explains how people in the Middle Ages took for granted a collective relationship with God that was mediated by the Roman Church. They also took for granted the notion that the universe was only a few thousand years old, and that it was fixed and immovable, with our world at its centre. Before science could progress, and a Level 3 Civilization could emerge, such thinking had to change. To us this is obvious, but to the people of Europe in the Middle Ages, it wasn't obvious at all. Today, Quinn says, "We're absolutely sure that people will go on thinking the way we think forever, and that people will go on living the way we live forever...We too believe the history of thought has come to an end with us."
Edward de Bono, of lateral thinking fame, is fond of identifying what he terms dominant ideas, in business and society. Once, he was asked to help solve a problem regarding high levels of complaints about the lifts in a city building. The lifts were too slow and it was too expensive to replace them with new equipment. Nobody could find a way to lessen or even satisfactorily address the complaints from people who were frustrated by the delay. Edward de Bono identified the dominant idea as speed. Good lifts were supposed to come quickly and operate rapidly. Nobody could find a way of making the old equipment meet the speed requirements. However, de Bono saw the problem as people being frustrated with the wait. He had the owners of the building install mirrors in the lift waiting areas, and in the lifts themselves. Because most people took time to look at themselves in the mirrors, they did not notice the time passing and they stopped complaining about the delay. Edward de Bono's advice is, "Unless one can pick out the dominant idea one is going to be dominated by it."
Daniel Quinn says that three implicit ideas from the Middle Ages, that survive today, are:
*Humans are fundamentally and irrevocably flawed (and therefore in need of salvation).
*The way we live is the way we were meant to live (hence, nothing needs to be changed).
*Humans belong to an order of being that is separate from the rest of the living community (there's us and there's nature).
He contends that the third idea is particularly dangerous. It leads to rampant takerism and the destruction of as many as 200 species every day.
Although he did his pioneering work, in the 1960s, well before the start of the 2nd Renaissance, Edward de Bono developed breakthrough thinking tools. Tools such as these can help us to find ways to stop over 70 thousand species vanishing every year, due to the false notion that it is alright to pillage nature for profit and the so-called advancement of the industrial-capitalist system. But first, there has to be a realisation that many implicit assumptions in our thinking are wrong, and that they act to dominate our "solutions" and prevent real change from occurring. There will also need to be a majority of people around the world who want real change. Until people recognise the need to change nothing will happen. There will be a lot of rallies, a lot of speeches, a lot of activity and talk, but no real change. None.
Real change is essential to destroying the old superstitions that are standing in the way of a Level 4 Civilization. Changed attitudes need to respect other species right to exist and the right of traditional people to practice their forest medicine, without having the knowledge stolen and patented by global pharmaceutical companies and Western universities. It will take a fundamental shift in thinking before there are real changes in predominant attitudes and behaviours.
Daniel Quinn observes that, "People don't want more of the same. Yet, oddly enough, when they ask me what will save the world, they want to hear more of the same - something familiar, something recognisable. They want to hear about uprisings or anarchy or tougher laws. But none of those things is going to save us ......What we must have (and nothing less) is a whole world full of people with changed minds."
One thing is very important to note. Real changes in thinking have to happen first, before new technologies can provide abundance and before sexual guilt is expunged from society. Also, real changes in thinking have to happen soon. There is not a lot of time before the arrival of the technological singularity that Vernor Vinge has identified. If you and I, and millions like us, have not taken the initiative and the high ground of change well before then, the present elites will have turned magic new technology to their own ends. Those ends will include terrible new weapons, mass control systems, and "final solutions" to ethnic and racial problems that will dwarf anything that the Nazis did in Germany during World War II.
Ultimately the old order will lose the battle to preserve their privileged way of life, based on all prevailing scarcity, pseudo-democracy, and the rule of law. But in the interim, hundreds of millions of innocent people might lose their lives in bloody resistance to the changes being made by the Old World Order (OWO).. If such a terrible thing happens, it will all have been for nothing, because:
The power to change things right now exists right now.
We just have to recognise this and begin to go about real change, without delay and procrastination.
Changing What WE Control [138]
All over the world activist groups are using the wrong ideas to take on the Old World Order (OWO). Amnesty International, Greenpeace, Animal Liberation, and many other groups are often trapped by a wrong, but dominant, idea.
The idea involves changing what governments and corporations do.
A better idea is for us to change what we do. We still have control over many of our own actions, but almost no control over the actions of federal governments and global corporations.
Governments can easily ignore our attempts to make them change. They can also use the rule of law, and their considerable legal and financial resources, to defend whatever they do. Large corporations have similar capacities to resist pressures from ordinary people. Since the mid-eighties London Greenpeace has organised an annual World Day of Action against McDonalds. The protest takes place on 16th October. It attacks aspects such as the use of former rainforest land to graze cattle for beefburgers, the means of slaughtering chickens, the impact of fries and beefburgers on obesity, and the wages and conditions of employees. Greenpeace asks ordinary people to "..talk to friends and family, neighbours and workmates about these issues." Two activists, Helen Morris and David Steele were sued by the McDonalds corporation in 1990, for distributing a leaflet critical of McDonalds products and business practices. Although the pair came through the longest libel trial in British legal history with significant public support, and some favourable rulings, their leaflet did not change McDonalds products or practices at all.
Corporations like McDonalds can control what they do, and they can choose to ignore criticisms and use the legal system to silence those who speak out against perceived shortcomings in their operations and ethics. But individual citizens also have control over many aspects of their lives. You and I might not be able to travel internationally without visas, body searches, and currency restrictions, but we can still choose what we eat, what we watch, and who are friends are.
Withdrawing Our Support [139]
While we can't change governments and corporations, we can change what we ourselves control. Artificial scarcity is the bedrock of capitalism, but it is a two way street. By withdrawing our support for commercial products or government programs, we citizens can create scarcities of our own. We can cause a scarcity of consumers, a scarcity of program participants, and a scarcity of believers.
The latter form of scarcity is vital to diminishing the power and control of the Old World Order. Citizens, particularly those in the West, need to withdraw their support for official truths and the mechanisms that promulgate them. There might be good reasons to withdraw support from McDonalds products, but doing so would only harm that single corporation, and many of the people who work there. A wide refusal to consume McDonalds meals will never damage capitalism or hasten the transition to a Level 4 Civilization. However, a widespread withdrawal of support for the misinformation and lies disseminated by government and corporate spin-doctors, and the mainstream electronic media, can do so. Such a development can help us meet Daniel Quinn's key requirement for our survival as a species. "What we must have (and nothing less) is a whole world full of people with changed minds. "
Actions WE Can Take [140]
There are many actions that we can take to help the transition to a Level 4 Civilization. Some actions that are well within our power are suggested below, you can undoubtedly think of more.
*Turn off TV, to reject the propaganda of the OWO.
Become a 2nd Renaissance resident by choosing to describe your address in terms that exclude national identity.
*Establish and support the new category of Freeright, as a foil to Copyright.
*Rediscover kinship principles and establish support mechanisms that are independent of government programs.
*Widen civil scepticism and challenge the official truth - everywhere, every time.
*Expect high-level corruption and help to identify and publicise it.
See the War on Terror in context. Spread the understanding widely.
*Reject military solutions to terrorism. Spread understanding that wars cannot prevail against non-state opponents. Work to stop support for the War on Terror, on the grounds of its poor cost-benefits potential.
*Challenge restrictions of civil freedoms. Support secessions from federal systems and democracies that are spiralling into decline.
*Learn about new science and share your understanding widely. Do the same in respect of ancient knowledge and suppressed inventions.
*Seek to understand new technologies and their impact on scarcity. Spread information about new social and economic choices that arise from abundance.
*Confront the doctrines and practices of economic scarcity. Understand and spread awareness of the flawed nature of taker philosophies, and the growing opportunity to live differently - as leaver-givers.
*Move house. Congregate in new centres of 2nd Renaissance thought.
Help to develop the 2R centres. Help them break free of federalism.
*Stop voting. Stop supporting pseudo-democracies. Where voting is compulsory, vote informal. Reduce the numerical mandate of the OWO to legitimately govern states and federations of states (by creating a scarcity of voter support).
*Become involved in highlighting the failures of capitalism, federalism and nationalism. Use Freenet and whatever other channels that are available to send the messages out; across the world.
*Maintain resolve and hope, no matter what the OWO might do or say. Remain non-violent but always focused and insistent on rapid change - towards a Level 4 Civilization by 2014.
Turn Off TV [141]
The acclaimed linguist and author, Noam Chomsky, reminds us that most of our communications technologies are exclusive to the West. He says, "The Internet is an elite organisation; most of the world has never made a phone call." People who don't have television or access to the WWW, are both winning and losing. They are being spared the deluge of propaganda that comes from the major TV channels, but they are also missing the wealth of valid information that is available on the Internet. We are more fortunate. If we so choose, we can keep the Internet but stop tuning into the TV propaganda of the Old World Order.
Keep your TV set for viewing rented movies if you like, continue to use the print media for sporting and other information of a non-propaganda nature, but disconnect the TV broadcast feed from the antenna or fibre-optic cable. Your children will be better off growing up without an ever-present propaganda medium in the living room.
In due course, there will be global TV broadcasts emanating from various free cities and regions, that will be unencumbered by federalist, nationalist, and capitalist doctrines. Such transmissions will come to your home through the earth, without using existing communication cables and channels. In the meantime your family can be spared the intrusion of the OWO into the home, by the simple action of disconnecting the conventional signal feed to your TV set.
Related:
Tales of Adam
Daniel Quinn*
http://ishmael.com/index1.cfm
2nd Renaissance -7
When coupled with the introduction of artificial scarcity and taker concepts of property ownership and legal tender, Western death-fearing religions played a significant role in subduing, otherwise independent, tribal peoples.
http://melbourne.indymedia.org/news/2006/02/106537.php
2nd Renaissance -6
The second route involves the setting up of entirely new living spaces on tribal lands that were previously seized by colonising governments that espoused and followed Taker philosophies. This route has greater credibility, in the sense of secession rights, where clear historical ownership of the land can be shown.
http://melbourne.indymedia.org/news/2006/02/106327.php
2nd Renaissance -5
Quinn contends that while governments can imagine a revolution they can't imagine abandonment. As he puts it, "..even if it could imagine abandonment , it couldn't defend against it, because abandonment isn't an attack, it's just a discontinuance of support."
http://melbourne.indymedia.org/news/2006/02/106136.php
2nd Renaissance -4
In due course, there is one achievement of overriding significance that Caral might well provide. One great contribution or lesson that can be applied to the 2nd Renaissance. How to live in peace, with spiritual meaning, and without warfare, for a thousand years.
http://melbourne.indymedia.org/news/2006/02/105935.php
The New Renaissance
Daniel Quinn*
http://www.mnforsustain.org/quinn_d_new_renaissance.htm
2nd Renaissance -3
Plichta writes of this model as follows. "There was a time I used to make fun of the Apocalypse of St John and believed it to be a totally unreliable historical source. Today I am filled with deep humility, perhaps because I am now able to give a concrete description of the foundation of the world as seen by St John with my mathematical discoveries, and thus possibly open a new way to all of humanity which has now reached a dead end."
http://melbourne.indymedia.org/news/2006/02/105799.php
2nd Renaissance -2
Georg Cantor (1845-1918), by his origination of modern set theory and his studies of the nature of infinity, left science a valuable legacy. Cantor was regularly admitted to a psychiatric clinic within the University of Halle, in Germany, where he lectured and worked as a Professor of Mathematics. On each occasion that he became ill he had been thinking about infinity and the continuum hypothesis. Such intense thought, at the boundaries of his comprehension, caused Cantor to suffer repeated mental breakdowns. Infinity drove him mad.
http://melbourne.indymedia.org/news/2006/02/105634.php
2nd Renaissance
This story was published in September 2004 and it was a big secret. I received it on disk but I think it should be public by now anyway. It is interesting to look back at it and in terms of today's world some two years on. I will link each chapter as I go along over the coming weeks.- The Old World Order - Happy reading!
http://melbourne.indymedia.org/news/2006/02/105519.php
Fight Iemma - Debnam
All they can say is 'lock em up'
It seems we are in the thick of it again - the stupid, heartless "Law & Order" auction.
Premier Morris Iemma and Opposition leader Peter Debnam are trying to outdo each other with idiotic "tough on crime" policies.
Original Article
http://sydney.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=64701&group=webcast
Since its inception, in the late 1940s, the US Central Intelligence Agency has screened applicants for its own agency, and other sensitive government positions, using a structured interview process. There are questions in the interview designed to identify individuals who, by reason of their beliefs or experiences, might not have a well-developed fear of death. Such people do not get jobs in the agency. There are few Buddhists or Animists working for the CIA. Nor are there any people who are known to have had near death experiences or drug induced visions of a non-material world. Folk like that could be impossible to control through a fear of death.
A similar set of questions is used by the Australian equivalents of the CIA; the ASIO and ASIS agencies. Indeed, most agencies of this type would take a similar approach to screening out applicants who might be prone to independent action. None of these organisations want independent people, they want total control; for life. Those who join the covert agencies, or the mob for that matter, can eventually retire but they can never unjoin.
The Three Control Levers [135]
Specialists who study such things have identified three control factors that are routinely used by governments and their covert agencies. The factors, or points of leverage over the populace, are:
*Corruption Bribes, whether direct or indirect, are used to influence the actions of target individuals or groups. Direct cash inducements are not used as frequently as indirect concessions, such as the awarding of contracts or waiving of rules and regulations. But both are important forms of control in today's Level 3 Civilization.
*Compromising Evidence
Information gathered by surveillance systems or from informers, is used to blackmail "guilty" parties. This form of leverage is particularly effective in relation to persons who have significant public reputations and profiles that they wish to preserve. Thus, judges, politicians, priests, company executives and other people in the public spotlight are far more susceptible than penniless students or powerless drifters. The latter are more readily bribed or coerced.
*Coercion
Threats of physical violence or death are made to target individuals in order to ensure their compliance with the wishes of the regime. Family members are often included in the threats. During the Vietnam war the CIA is known to have threatened Australian citizens, on the Australian mainland, in this manner. One promise used was, "We will burn out your children's eyes with a butane lighter." Covert agencies are always prone to such behaviour and no genuinely free society should ever tolerate their existence.
Recognised criminal organisations also use these same three control levers. However, covert agencies have more freedom to use the levers than the mob do. The greater freedom of Federal agents to act criminally stems from the fact that public perceptions, fed on a diet of TV series that glorify police and lawyers, identify organised criminals as the "bad guys" and government agencies, both overt and covert, as the "good guys." In fact, the overall category involved is better described as Organised Crime, with sub-categories of Government Crime and Non-Government crime. The former sub-category of crime is far more entrenched and damaging to a Level 3 Civilization than the latter.
Much the same situation applied at the time of the first Renaissance. The integrated secular and religious rule in Europe was starkly criminal, and this was one of the triggers for change and transformation in the society. Injustice and criminality were the drivers of reform on the secular side. On the religious side a major driver was the blasphemy inherent is the practice of the widespread selling of indulgences by the Roman Church.
Sources of Leverage [136]
The three levers of control above only work because they can act on particular sources of power. Three major sources are:
*Guilt and Sexuality
This source comprises guilt in general, including such sins as theft, fraud, etc. But sexual guilt is the major target of Federal agencies. Such guilt is largely manufactured, through the mores and evolved customs of our times. Few original religious texts from biblical times, condemn sex itself as sinful. Any biologist will tell you that none of the other animals behave in ways that might indicate that they are self-conscious about their sexuality, or ashamed of it. Only humans can go to the lengths of the prudish Victorians, and dress up table legs with modesty coverings. We are alone as a species that contrives complex social rules in relation to sexual phobias.
Anthropologists are aware, however, that most pre-taker tribal peoples, such as the Australian Aborigines and the natives of the Amazon basin, did not traditionally regard sex as having anything to do with sin or guilt. The concept of sexual sin, that is now so convenient a means of gaining leverage over influential or prominent members of society, is a fairly recent development in human history. But it is an important source of leverage for government agencies bent on capturing and controlling key individuals. Additionally, sexual smears are a common political tactic, whether they are true or not.
*Scarcity
Artificial scarcity is by far the largest and most significant source of leverage in the old Level 3 Civilization. In the context of gaining leverage over key individuals, such as judges, coroners, journalists, informers and the like, bribery is the tool most likely to be used by the alphabet agencies. On a wider plane, artificial scarcity is at the heart of takerism, as Daniel Quinn observes, "The food is under lock and key." Whole populations are rendered controllable by the need to spend the majority of their time engaged in working for a living. Even the well-off citizens of Western nations have to devote time to commerce and investment, so that they can maintain their living standards relative to their neighbours.
Despite the incessant lionising of capitalism and its corporate generals, the fact is that the entire system is based on maintaining scarcity, high prices and fat profits. If the dominant economies of the West were unable to maintain planned obsolescence, and so-called durable products were built to last for 50 years instead of 50 months, and if surplus production was given to people in Africa, Asia and Latin America, capitalism would collapse.
When new knowledge and technologies result in new conditions of abundance, this will surely happen. No one will starve or be worse off when capitalism and scarcity are banished, but the ability of military industrial elites to control life on this planet will be at an end. We are headed towards an uncontrolled economy that is based on leaving and giving, one that is worthy of our species. One that we in the West can be proud of; instead of deeply ashamed.
*Superstition
Dictionaries tell us that superstition involves undue belief in and reverence for supernatural beings. But, as it is used here, the term is far broader. It covers fear of the unknown, in all its forms. The category of superstition also covers adherence to persistent myths and non-truths, and unwillingness to think and act in new ways that are, at first, likely to be strange and uncomfortable.
Throughout history fear of the unknown and fear of change have been exploited to control whole populations, whole industries and even whole continents.
During the first Renaissance the elites of the Roman Church and the leaders of feudal realms established during the Dark Ages, used the fear of witchcraft to keep control. As a consequence, many totally innocent women were cruelly tortured and burnt in bonfires, along with their companion cats. If those in power can convince the populace that they are in danger from dark and shadowy forces, or that mooted changes are a bad idea because they are sure to bring harm, the established elites can keep control for a while longer.
In their endeavour to stay in control, governments and the industrial-militarist elites are supported by the mass media networks. The mainstream media assiduously reinforces superstitions that assist governments to maintain the status quo. Conversely, unfettered forums of free speech, such as Freenet, enable dissemination and discussion of information that can break down superstitions and open minds to a new future. Along with porn come the keys to a Level 4 Civilization.
Inevitable Transformations Are Ahead [137]
In an address that he titled The New Renaissance (see the ishmael.com site on the WWW), Daniel Quinn correctly observes that no one can predict the future. He is right, however there are parallels with the first Renaissance that can help us make some informed guesses. However, the fact that our civilization will be transformed is not a guess, it is a certainty. Mass publication changed the old world, mass information that is accessible to everyone will transform the present world: - forever. The only conjectures are about how the changes will play out.
http://ishmael.com/index1.cfm Consider the sources of leverage that the industrialist/militarist elites use to control the Level 3 Civilization. What forces are likely to erode them, and how long might it take to happen? Here are some informed guesses.
*Denying Sexual Guilt
While other forms of guilt, such as theft and fraud, will continue to provide a source of leverage into the new century, sexual mores and attitudes can be expected to change. More natural and liberal views on human sexuality will eventually remove one of the sources of leverage that government agencies currently tap into.
Although they will be transformed far more quickly than was the case during the first Renaissance, sexual attitudes will be modified more slowly than other sources of control. Because sexual mores are largely generational it could be three decades or more before the majority of the population becomes largely immune to the type of blackmail and smears that the alphabet agencies presently use as control levers.
But this should not give the Feds any reason to celebrate their continuing dominance of our lives. By itself, sexual guilt is a quite limited source of control. The other major sources, scarcity and superstition, are far more general. They affect everyone, whereas sexual guilt as a lever of control applies to small segments of society; albeit very influential ones.
*Abolishing Scarcity
Anyone who takes the time to research the exponential growth of knowledge and technology occurring now, can have no doubt that scarcity can and will be abolished. The question is how soon this might happen. Most people believe that the transformation will be far in the future, and well beyond their lifetimes. But many scientists and technologists think that the singularity, the point at which everything that can be known will be known, is much closer. One line of reasoning is that while the first scientific and technological Renaissance occupied a time span of some 300 years, it is not unreasonable to expect the 2nd Technological Renaissance to take place within as little as 300 months.
If we assume that the starting point for the 2nd Technological Renaissance corresponds to the introduction of mass-produced personal computers, sometime around 1981, we are presently close to the end of the 25 year period required to reach the singularity. Allow another eight to ten years for technologists to develop the means of ending scarcity, and the point at which the industrialist-militarist elites are facing a total loss of control is halfway through the next decade. Say 2014 to 2016. There is a group of scientists and technologists on the west coast of the US that argues strongly for the technological singularity theory of Vernor Vinge. They call themselves "The 2014 Club".
Vernor Vinge is Professor of Computer Science at San Diego University. In 1993 he publicly identified the exponential nature of scientific and technological advancement. Now that it is well and truly underway this explosion of knowledge and magic new technologies will prove impossible to contain.
No matter how the industrial/capitalist elites and those in control of institutionalised science might try, it is now too late to prevent the emergence of magic technologies that will ensure an abundance of energy and near-costless goods and services. Vinge summed up the position is the following line.
"We are on the edge of a change comparable to the rise of human life on earth."
Abundance at levels that will make capitalism irrelevant is probably less than a decade away. But before the enabling technologies are invented, adopted and widely utilised, it will be necessary to destroy old superstitions.
Destroying Superstitions
There are particular forms of superstition that must be broken down before a Level 4 Civilization can emerge. They concern our adherence to persistent myths and non-truths, and our unwillingness to think and act in new ways. In speaking about the New Renaissance, Daniel Quinn puts the issue in survival terms. He says, "The extraordinary thing that's going to happen in the next two or three decades is that a great second renaissance is going to occur. A great and astounding renaissance. Nothing less than that is going to save us."
Quinn explains how people in the Middle Ages took for granted a collective relationship with God that was mediated by the Roman Church. They also took for granted the notion that the universe was only a few thousand years old, and that it was fixed and immovable, with our world at its centre. Before science could progress, and a Level 3 Civilization could emerge, such thinking had to change. To us this is obvious, but to the people of Europe in the Middle Ages, it wasn't obvious at all. Today, Quinn says, "We're absolutely sure that people will go on thinking the way we think forever, and that people will go on living the way we live forever...We too believe the history of thought has come to an end with us."
Edward de Bono, of lateral thinking fame, is fond of identifying what he terms dominant ideas, in business and society. Once, he was asked to help solve a problem regarding high levels of complaints about the lifts in a city building. The lifts were too slow and it was too expensive to replace them with new equipment. Nobody could find a way to lessen or even satisfactorily address the complaints from people who were frustrated by the delay. Edward de Bono identified the dominant idea as speed. Good lifts were supposed to come quickly and operate rapidly. Nobody could find a way of making the old equipment meet the speed requirements. However, de Bono saw the problem as people being frustrated with the wait. He had the owners of the building install mirrors in the lift waiting areas, and in the lifts themselves. Because most people took time to look at themselves in the mirrors, they did not notice the time passing and they stopped complaining about the delay. Edward de Bono's advice is, "Unless one can pick out the dominant idea one is going to be dominated by it."
Daniel Quinn says that three implicit ideas from the Middle Ages, that survive today, are:
*Humans are fundamentally and irrevocably flawed (and therefore in need of salvation).
*The way we live is the way we were meant to live (hence, nothing needs to be changed).
*Humans belong to an order of being that is separate from the rest of the living community (there's us and there's nature).
He contends that the third idea is particularly dangerous. It leads to rampant takerism and the destruction of as many as 200 species every day.
Although he did his pioneering work, in the 1960s, well before the start of the 2nd Renaissance, Edward de Bono developed breakthrough thinking tools. Tools such as these can help us to find ways to stop over 70 thousand species vanishing every year, due to the false notion that it is alright to pillage nature for profit and the so-called advancement of the industrial-capitalist system. But first, there has to be a realisation that many implicit assumptions in our thinking are wrong, and that they act to dominate our "solutions" and prevent real change from occurring. There will also need to be a majority of people around the world who want real change. Until people recognise the need to change nothing will happen. There will be a lot of rallies, a lot of speeches, a lot of activity and talk, but no real change. None.
Real change is essential to destroying the old superstitions that are standing in the way of a Level 4 Civilization. Changed attitudes need to respect other species right to exist and the right of traditional people to practice their forest medicine, without having the knowledge stolen and patented by global pharmaceutical companies and Western universities. It will take a fundamental shift in thinking before there are real changes in predominant attitudes and behaviours.
Daniel Quinn observes that, "People don't want more of the same. Yet, oddly enough, when they ask me what will save the world, they want to hear more of the same - something familiar, something recognisable. They want to hear about uprisings or anarchy or tougher laws. But none of those things is going to save us ......What we must have (and nothing less) is a whole world full of people with changed minds."
One thing is very important to note. Real changes in thinking have to happen first, before new technologies can provide abundance and before sexual guilt is expunged from society. Also, real changes in thinking have to happen soon. There is not a lot of time before the arrival of the technological singularity that Vernor Vinge has identified. If you and I, and millions like us, have not taken the initiative and the high ground of change well before then, the present elites will have turned magic new technology to their own ends. Those ends will include terrible new weapons, mass control systems, and "final solutions" to ethnic and racial problems that will dwarf anything that the Nazis did in Germany during World War II.
Ultimately the old order will lose the battle to preserve their privileged way of life, based on all prevailing scarcity, pseudo-democracy, and the rule of law. But in the interim, hundreds of millions of innocent people might lose their lives in bloody resistance to the changes being made by the Old World Order (OWO).. If such a terrible thing happens, it will all have been for nothing, because:
The power to change things right now exists right now.
We just have to recognise this and begin to go about real change, without delay and procrastination.
Changing What WE Control [138]
All over the world activist groups are using the wrong ideas to take on the Old World Order (OWO). Amnesty International, Greenpeace, Animal Liberation, and many other groups are often trapped by a wrong, but dominant, idea.
The idea involves changing what governments and corporations do.
A better idea is for us to change what we do. We still have control over many of our own actions, but almost no control over the actions of federal governments and global corporations.
Governments can easily ignore our attempts to make them change. They can also use the rule of law, and their considerable legal and financial resources, to defend whatever they do. Large corporations have similar capacities to resist pressures from ordinary people. Since the mid-eighties London Greenpeace has organised an annual World Day of Action against McDonalds. The protest takes place on 16th October. It attacks aspects such as the use of former rainforest land to graze cattle for beefburgers, the means of slaughtering chickens, the impact of fries and beefburgers on obesity, and the wages and conditions of employees. Greenpeace asks ordinary people to "..talk to friends and family, neighbours and workmates about these issues." Two activists, Helen Morris and David Steele were sued by the McDonalds corporation in 1990, for distributing a leaflet critical of McDonalds products and business practices. Although the pair came through the longest libel trial in British legal history with significant public support, and some favourable rulings, their leaflet did not change McDonalds products or practices at all.
Corporations like McDonalds can control what they do, and they can choose to ignore criticisms and use the legal system to silence those who speak out against perceived shortcomings in their operations and ethics. But individual citizens also have control over many aspects of their lives. You and I might not be able to travel internationally without visas, body searches, and currency restrictions, but we can still choose what we eat, what we watch, and who are friends are.
Withdrawing Our Support [139]
While we can't change governments and corporations, we can change what we ourselves control. Artificial scarcity is the bedrock of capitalism, but it is a two way street. By withdrawing our support for commercial products or government programs, we citizens can create scarcities of our own. We can cause a scarcity of consumers, a scarcity of program participants, and a scarcity of believers.
The latter form of scarcity is vital to diminishing the power and control of the Old World Order. Citizens, particularly those in the West, need to withdraw their support for official truths and the mechanisms that promulgate them. There might be good reasons to withdraw support from McDonalds products, but doing so would only harm that single corporation, and many of the people who work there. A wide refusal to consume McDonalds meals will never damage capitalism or hasten the transition to a Level 4 Civilization. However, a widespread withdrawal of support for the misinformation and lies disseminated by government and corporate spin-doctors, and the mainstream electronic media, can do so. Such a development can help us meet Daniel Quinn's key requirement for our survival as a species. "What we must have (and nothing less) is a whole world full of people with changed minds. "
Actions WE Can Take [140]
There are many actions that we can take to help the transition to a Level 4 Civilization. Some actions that are well within our power are suggested below, you can undoubtedly think of more.
*Turn off TV, to reject the propaganda of the OWO.
Become a 2nd Renaissance resident by choosing to describe your address in terms that exclude national identity.
*Establish and support the new category of Freeright, as a foil to Copyright.
*Rediscover kinship principles and establish support mechanisms that are independent of government programs.
*Widen civil scepticism and challenge the official truth - everywhere, every time.
*Expect high-level corruption and help to identify and publicise it.
See the War on Terror in context. Spread the understanding widely.
*Reject military solutions to terrorism. Spread understanding that wars cannot prevail against non-state opponents. Work to stop support for the War on Terror, on the grounds of its poor cost-benefits potential.
*Challenge restrictions of civil freedoms. Support secessions from federal systems and democracies that are spiralling into decline.
*Learn about new science and share your understanding widely. Do the same in respect of ancient knowledge and suppressed inventions.
*Seek to understand new technologies and their impact on scarcity. Spread information about new social and economic choices that arise from abundance.
*Confront the doctrines and practices of economic scarcity. Understand and spread awareness of the flawed nature of taker philosophies, and the growing opportunity to live differently - as leaver-givers.
*Move house. Congregate in new centres of 2nd Renaissance thought.
Help to develop the 2R centres. Help them break free of federalism.
*Stop voting. Stop supporting pseudo-democracies. Where voting is compulsory, vote informal. Reduce the numerical mandate of the OWO to legitimately govern states and federations of states (by creating a scarcity of voter support).
*Become involved in highlighting the failures of capitalism, federalism and nationalism. Use Freenet and whatever other channels that are available to send the messages out; across the world.
*Maintain resolve and hope, no matter what the OWO might do or say. Remain non-violent but always focused and insistent on rapid change - towards a Level 4 Civilization by 2014.
Turn Off TV [141]
The acclaimed linguist and author, Noam Chomsky, reminds us that most of our communications technologies are exclusive to the West. He says, "The Internet is an elite organisation; most of the world has never made a phone call." People who don't have television or access to the WWW, are both winning and losing. They are being spared the deluge of propaganda that comes from the major TV channels, but they are also missing the wealth of valid information that is available on the Internet. We are more fortunate. If we so choose, we can keep the Internet but stop tuning into the TV propaganda of the Old World Order.
Keep your TV set for viewing rented movies if you like, continue to use the print media for sporting and other information of a non-propaganda nature, but disconnect the TV broadcast feed from the antenna or fibre-optic cable. Your children will be better off growing up without an ever-present propaganda medium in the living room.
In due course, there will be global TV broadcasts emanating from various free cities and regions, that will be unencumbered by federalist, nationalist, and capitalist doctrines. Such transmissions will come to your home through the earth, without using existing communication cables and channels. In the meantime your family can be spared the intrusion of the OWO into the home, by the simple action of disconnecting the conventional signal feed to your TV set.
Related:
Tales of Adam
Daniel Quinn*
http://ishmael.com/index1.cfm 2nd Renaissance -7
When coupled with the introduction of artificial scarcity and taker concepts of property ownership and legal tender, Western death-fearing religions played a significant role in subduing, otherwise independent, tribal peoples.
http://melbourne.indymedia.org/news/2006/02/106537.php 2nd Renaissance -6
The second route involves the setting up of entirely new living spaces on tribal lands that were previously seized by colonising governments that espoused and followed Taker philosophies. This route has greater credibility, in the sense of secession rights, where clear historical ownership of the land can be shown.
http://melbourne.indymedia.org/news/2006/02/106327.php 2nd Renaissance -5
Quinn contends that while governments can imagine a revolution they can't imagine abandonment. As he puts it, "..even if it could imagine abandonment , it couldn't defend against it, because abandonment isn't an attack, it's just a discontinuance of support."
http://melbourne.indymedia.org/news/2006/02/106136.php 2nd Renaissance -4
In due course, there is one achievement of overriding significance that Caral might well provide. One great contribution or lesson that can be applied to the 2nd Renaissance. How to live in peace, with spiritual meaning, and without warfare, for a thousand years.
http://melbourne.indymedia.org/news/2006/02/105935.php The New Renaissance
Daniel Quinn*
http://www.mnforsustain.org/quinn_d_new_renaissance.htm 2nd Renaissance -3
Plichta writes of this model as follows. "There was a time I used to make fun of the Apocalypse of St John and believed it to be a totally unreliable historical source. Today I am filled with deep humility, perhaps because I am now able to give a concrete description of the foundation of the world as seen by St John with my mathematical discoveries, and thus possibly open a new way to all of humanity which has now reached a dead end."
http://melbourne.indymedia.org/news/2006/02/105799.php 2nd Renaissance -2
Georg Cantor (1845-1918), by his origination of modern set theory and his studies of the nature of infinity, left science a valuable legacy. Cantor was regularly admitted to a psychiatric clinic within the University of Halle, in Germany, where he lectured and worked as a Professor of Mathematics. On each occasion that he became ill he had been thinking about infinity and the continuum hypothesis. Such intense thought, at the boundaries of his comprehension, caused Cantor to suffer repeated mental breakdowns. Infinity drove him mad.
http://melbourne.indymedia.org/news/2006/02/105634.php 2nd Renaissance
This story was published in September 2004 and it was a big secret. I received it on disk but I think it should be public by now anyway. It is interesting to look back at it and in terms of today's world some two years on. I will link each chapter as I go along over the coming weeks.- The Old World Order - Happy reading!
http://melbourne.indymedia.org/news/2006/02/105519.php Fight Iemma - Debnam
All they can say is 'lock em up'
It seems we are in the thick of it again - the stupid, heartless "Law & Order" auction.
Premier Morris Iemma and Opposition leader Peter Debnam are trying to outdo each other with idiotic "tough on crime" policies.
Original Article
http://sydney.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=64701&group=webcast 
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