17-09-2009, 11:22 AM
Just to add my two-penny-worth by echoing the congratulations and thanks to the forum founders for what is developing into an amazing reference archive. :birthday: :congrats:
I am hardly an "Alumni", but the term "refugee" - used somewhere above - is quite apt. There are many good alternative news sites around but most all are contaminated to some extent by "official narrative" influence so finding this forum has been a breath of fresh air for me.
I have found it refreshing to be among people who, almost to a man (and woman) are rigorous in adopting a deeply sceptical approach to any and all "officialdom" in its manifold guises (and disguises).
My problem is that I simply cannot see this approach doing much to effect worthwhile and desperately needed change. The great mass of humanity is just so mired in its self-destructive myths and illusions. Power has always accrued to corrupt psychopathic personalities (and that pretty much by definition) in near direct proportion to psychopathy and corruption. Myths and illusions are manufactured and cultivated entirely as control techniques of the institutions of power. The only real difference (progress??) today is in the global projection capabilities of Real Power, both in terms of the unprecedented destructiveness of its weaponry and its surveillance capabilities. That together with parabolic population growth (parabolic everything growth actually - and we all know what happens to parabolic graphs), peak resource extraction rates and environmental degradation, all off which are approaching (if not already at) tipping points. IOW, I fear that "civilisation" as we have come to define it (at least in the West) really is headed for apocalyptic change of an order so far unprecedented in history and which will be extremely unpleasant for those who survive it. Not that it bothers me greatly - if at all actually - other than out of concern for my own children and grandchildren, who face a very different future than our "civilisation' urges them to aspire to.
The real benefit of a place like this (for me anyway), is in confirming that I am not entirely insane to think, to see and to interpret events the way I do.
Also, it helps fine-tune an already well developed ability to spot bull-shit artists with agendas
PS - All the above dotty opinions my very own of course - and sorry it turned into a bit of a rant but - when the muse strikes an' all that.
I am hardly an "Alumni", but the term "refugee" - used somewhere above - is quite apt. There are many good alternative news sites around but most all are contaminated to some extent by "official narrative" influence so finding this forum has been a breath of fresh air for me.
I have found it refreshing to be among people who, almost to a man (and woman) are rigorous in adopting a deeply sceptical approach to any and all "officialdom" in its manifold guises (and disguises).
My problem is that I simply cannot see this approach doing much to effect worthwhile and desperately needed change. The great mass of humanity is just so mired in its self-destructive myths and illusions. Power has always accrued to corrupt psychopathic personalities (and that pretty much by definition) in near direct proportion to psychopathy and corruption. Myths and illusions are manufactured and cultivated entirely as control techniques of the institutions of power. The only real difference (progress??) today is in the global projection capabilities of Real Power, both in terms of the unprecedented destructiveness of its weaponry and its surveillance capabilities. That together with parabolic population growth (parabolic everything growth actually - and we all know what happens to parabolic graphs), peak resource extraction rates and environmental degradation, all off which are approaching (if not already at) tipping points. IOW, I fear that "civilisation" as we have come to define it (at least in the West) really is headed for apocalyptic change of an order so far unprecedented in history and which will be extremely unpleasant for those who survive it. Not that it bothers me greatly - if at all actually - other than out of concern for my own children and grandchildren, who face a very different future than our "civilisation' urges them to aspire to.
The real benefit of a place like this (for me anyway), is in confirming that I am not entirely insane to think, to see and to interpret events the way I do.
Also, it helps fine-tune an already well developed ability to spot bull-shit artists with agendas
PS - All the above dotty opinions my very own of course - and sorry it turned into a bit of a rant but - when the muse strikes an' all that.
Peter Presland
".....there is something far worse than Nazism, and that is the hubris of the Anglo-American fraternities, whose routine is to incite indigenous monsters to war, and steer the pandemonium to further their imperial aims"
Guido Preparata. Preface to 'Conjuring Hitler'[size=12][size=12]
"Never believe anything until it has been officially denied"
Claud Cockburn
[/SIZE][/SIZE]
".....there is something far worse than Nazism, and that is the hubris of the Anglo-American fraternities, whose routine is to incite indigenous monsters to war, and steer the pandemonium to further their imperial aims"
Guido Preparata. Preface to 'Conjuring Hitler'[size=12][size=12]
"Never believe anything until it has been officially denied"
Claud Cockburn
[/SIZE][/SIZE]