The Cosmically Stressed Election of 2008

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[Michael]

Reality Sandwich
Barry C. Orr

Every four years, the global community of astrologers does its best to predict the outcome of the U.S. presidential election. Given that astrology can be as much a mantic art as it is a science, and that astrologers are as subject to political prejudices the same as anyone else, the results are sometimes mixed. Often the most interesting information gleaned from an astrological analysis of an election is not who will win, but a description of conditions surrounding the winning.

For example, in 2000, a number of astrologers clearly foresaw the uncertainty and "irregularities" surrounding the electoral process. Jim Shawvan, a San Diego astrologer, published the following on the astrological web site StarIQ.com:

“The election may be so close in some states that it may be several days before the actual electoral college votes can be tallied with accuracy. This could involve the counting of absentee ballots, and possible charges of fraud or irregularities in some places. As of election night, it may look very much like a Bush victory, but uncertainty may develop as the count goes on.”—Jim Shawyan

There were other notable hits. Astrologer Jacob Schwartz of Philadelphia predicted a long delay in the electoral decision, a situation not usually anticipated in a typical election. Uncannily, he also predicted that Gore would win the popular vote, yet still lose the election. Astrologically, the biggest factor behind these predictions was a profoundly screwed-up Mercury, the planet associated with communication, information processing, and, by extension, voting machines.

In 2008, astrologers are again energetically analyzing the astrological charts of the presumptive candidates, John McCain and Barack Obama. A big impediment has been the lack of reliable birth times for all of the candidates, but there is a bigger problem. This year, something doesn't seem right. No one feels good about the astrological conditions on election day, nor the conditions on inauguration day. There is a shadow looming over the charts.

A Primal Antagonism

In 2008, the major planetary configuration of interest is a Saturn-Uranus opposition that occurs on Election Day itself, November 4th. (From a geocentric perspective, the planets will be 180 degrees apart, or directly opposite each other.) This event begins a series of five such oppositions that end in July 2010. This is a combination that occurs approximately every 45 years. This year, the Saturn-Uranus combination is the astro-elephant in the room. It tells us quite a bit about the energies surrounding election day, and thus the next four years.

Astrologers see the Saturn-Uranus opposition as particularly problematical because the natures of the two planets are so different. While planets beyond Saturn relate to more unconscious and universal themes beyond our individual control, Saturn itself describes the structures and boundaries that define our limits within the physical world. In some sense, Saturn fits the definition of reality as given by Phillip K. Dick as, “that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away.” It is the leaden symbol of conservatism, resisting change and yearning for stasis, if not the past.

Conversely, Uranus is the archetype of change, deviance, and rebellion. Often acting in a lightning-fast manner, it seeks to tear down the type of restrictions that are represented by Saturn. In his writings, the philosopher and cultural historian Richard Tarnas sees Uranus as Prometheus, the figure who stole fire from the gods and gave it to men. He calls Prometheus the "Awakener."

While researching material on Ralph Waldo Emerson for a recent article, I received the gift of a synchronicity. Curiously, I found that Emerson used the Saturn-Uranus polarity in a cogent political analysis in which he describes the "primal antagonism" between Conservatives and Reformers. In his 1841 essay The Conservative, he relates the following:

“There is a fragment of old fable which seems somehow to have been dropped from the current mythologies, which may deserve attention, as it appears to relate to this subject.

Saturn grew weary of sitting alone, or with none but the great Uranus or Heaven beholding him, and he created an oyster. Then he would act again, but he made nothing more, but went on creating the race of oysters. Then Uranus cried, `a new work, O Saturn! the old is not good again.'

Saturn replied. `I fear. There is not only the alternative of making and not making, but also of unmaking. Seest thou the great sea, how it ebbs and flows? so is it with me; my power ebbs; and if I put forth my hands, I shall not do, but undo. Therefore I do what I have done; I hold what I have got; and so I resist Night and Chaos.'

`O Saturn,' replied Uranus, `thou canst not hold thine own, but by making more. Thy oysters are barnacles and cockles, and with the next flowing of the tide, they will be pebbles and sea-foam.'

`I see,' rejoins Saturn, `thou art in league with Night, thou art become an evil eye; thou spakest from love; now thy words smite me with hatred. I appeal to Fate, must there not be rest?' -- `I appeal to Fate also,' said Uranus, `must there not be motion?' -- But Saturn was silent, and went on making oysters for a thousand years.

After that, the word of Uranus came into his mind like a ray of the sun, and he made Jupiter; and then he feared again; and nature froze, the things that were made went backward, and, to save the world, Jupiter slew his father Saturn.” --Emerson

Emerson goes on to summarize the meaning of the passage:

“This may stand for the earliest account of a conversation on politics between a Conservative and a Radical, which has come down to us. It is ever thus. It is the counteraction of the centripetal and the centrifugal forces. Innovation is the salient energy; Conservatism the pause on the last movement.”--Emerson

Substituting John McCain for Saturn and Barack Obama for Uranus (and perhaps wars for oysters), the above dialogue make perfect sense in today's political context. If we work with Emerson's metaphors, we can see the 2008 election as a critical turning point in the face-off between the forces of stasis and change, which Emerson describes as the "two poles of nature." (Notice how often the already-tired phrase "agent of change" has been used in the campaigns.) But, this time, the perennial conflict between conservatism and reform seems to involve something more than the usual empty arguments, and the polarity seems likely to come to some kind of real denouement, perhaps resembling a sudden release of tension.

In his recent book Cosmos and Psyche, Richard Tarnas presents an exhaustive correlation of historical and cultural developments with planetary transit cycles. (See RS review by Daniel Pinchbeck.) Tarnas describes the Saturn-Uranus combination as follows:

“Historical periods in which Saturn and Uranus moved into dynamic aspect were marked by certain distinctive themes that were readily intelligible in terms of the archetypal principles associated with these two planets: the exacerbation of tensions between authority and rebellion, order and freedom, structure and change. Often the two archetypal principles combined and interpenetrated in contradictory ways: repressive revolution, erratically unpredictable authority, and so forth, as evident during the Terror in revolutionary France and the Cultural Revolution in communist China... Especially frequent with this cycle were crises and the sudden collapse of structures, crashes, and accidents, grim awakenings, and sudden breakdowns, whether political, economic, or psychological.” --Tarnas

Think 1965-1967, the time of the last Saturn-Uranus opposition. Unfortunately, Saturn-Uranus energies often manifest with all the subtlety of a grand mal seizure. This is not the kind of energy that is conducive to a smooth electoral process. We are entering a stressful time.

[Michael]

Part 2

The Election Day Chart: Can Everyone Lose?

In May, a panel of astrologers at the United Astrology Congress conference in Denver offered their opinions about the 2008 presidential election. The astrologers used a variety of approaches, but one topic that was discussed is a method commonly used to predict the outcome of an election: cast a chart for Election Day, then analyze the charts of the candidates in relation to that it.

In the case of the chart for November 4th, the astrological indicators were unfortunate for everyone. So, while panel members gave varying opinions as to whether McCain or Obama would win, the process was not unlike picking a winner in a horse race being run in a mine field.

For those who know a bit about astrology, here are some of the highlights of the planetary morass on Election Day:

*The Saturn-Uranus opposition, previously discussed, becomes exact at 8:33 AM EST. Significantly, on this day, it acts synergistically with a number of major structures in the chart, forming an uncomfortable relationship with the planet Venus, implying stresses on the social order or (perhaps) international tensions.

*Mercury, our trickster friend from 2000, moves from the sign Libra to Scorpio at 11:00 AM EST. This places it in something of an unsettled cosmic state, introducing the possibility of the kinds of information "irregularities" we saw in 2000.

*In the morning, the Moon is in a sign of its detriment (Capricorn), and is void of course. It changes signs about an hour before most of the polls close on the east coast (7:01 PM EST). This suggests, in the worst case scenario, that the public will not benefit from the election, and imparts a pointlessness to the day's activities.

*There is a Mars-Neptune square aspect (90 degree separation), symbolizing misdirected or exploitative energies as well as possible feelings of discontent or wasted effort.

So, what will be the outcome of the election? No one really knows -- all astrologers can do is lay out possibilities and describe the prevailing energy patterns in effect in that time. It's kind of like forecasting the psychic weather. Most astrologers don't accept determinism, and believe that one can consciously work with the symbolism of the planets to effect a desired outcome. It's a complicated subject, but the basic idea is that knowledge of upcoming patterns expands your range of future possibilities. (Or, to put in a Borgesian sense, it expands the number of paths to choose from in your garden.)

That being said, it is true that certain planetary energies are more difficult to handle than others. This is certainly the case with the Saturn-Uranus combination. The combination tends to build up tensions which are later released in sudden and sometimes disconcerting ways. The release isn't always destructive, but its exact nature is usually unexpected.

As befits the weird planetary energies of the day, there are some wild theories brewing about what might happen. These did not originate with astrologers, but can currently be found on the web. These theories primarily fall into three categories:

1. No Election

The election will be postponed or canceled due to some "national emergency." This is a fairly popular theory; it usually involves the occurrence of a terrorist attack on the US or US military action against Iran. Chris Hedges recently pointed out that, thanks to the spate of national security directives the Bush administration has quietly put into place, we are "one or two terrorist attacks away from a police state." The astrologer Robert Hand has noted that a solar eclipse that will occur on August 1st, 2008, falls on a very sensitive spot in George Bush's chart, one that personally connects him to the behind-the-scenes power structures in the government. The period of time at least a month before and after this date should be watched carefully. One hopes that the eclipse is just a harbinger of the president's peaceful transition into retirement, and not a signal to action given by Bush's "shadowy overlords."

2. Vanishing Candidates

One or more candidates will leave the race. The unfortunate Obama assassination meme is already out there, and despite being amplified by the artless comments of Hillary Clinton, is too disturbing to discuss. More likely is some kind of scandal involving one (or both) of the candidates that may cause him to quit the race. McCain seems to be more subject to this possibility than Obama, but remember that we are expecting the unexpected. Cape Cod astrologer Gary Christen has told me that he expects a dark horse candidate to materialize after some unfortunate event befalls the nation or the "orthodox" candidates. Jacob Schwartz, who did so well in calling the 2000 election, still publicly insists that Joe Biden will be the Democratic candidate. Now that would be unexpected.

3. Fraud, Flaws, or Voting Fiascoes

There will be rampant fraud or data foul-ups on Election Day, and yet another election will be stolen. Mark Crispin Miller is the editor of a new book, Loser Take All: Election Fraud and The Subversion of Democracy, 2000-2008. If you want to confirm your suspicion that things are worse than you think, read this book. The democracy is in trouble.

In these times of copious angst, it's illustrative that the above possibilities, which would have once fallen into the domain of conspiracy theories, are being given serious consideration in wide circles.

Riding the Timewave into 2012

Terence McKenna's Timewave concept, based in the metaphysics of Alfred North Whitehead, quantifies the ebb and flow of a process that culminates on December 21, 2012 -- the end of the Mayan Long Count. This process, called novelty, represents an invisible temporal quality that describes the degree of connectedness of entities within time, an idea described by Whitehead as concrescence. A novel entity exhibits newness and creativity -- an example might be a collection of people or ideas that have been brought together for the first time. Typically, periods of high novelty are marked by dynamic change and integration of new ideas. On the other hand, the lack of novelty connotes periods characterized by terms like stasis and habit -- times of low creativity and relative disjunction.

McKenna's description of novelty vs. habit sounds strikingly like Emerson's description of the "two poles of nature" encapsulated in the Saturn-Uranus polarity. If we entertain the premise that McKenna was on to something -- despite technical criticisms of the Timewave theory -- then the occurrence of the Saturn-Uranus oppositions from 2008 to 2010 may be the leading indicators of a final descent into novelty culminating in 2012.

Given that we will be in unfamiliar territory, how can we ensure the most positive possible future given the stressful nature of the next few years? On a recent YouTube video, Mark Crispin Miller makes some good practical suggestions:

“I don't want people to freak out, or stay home and lock the door. On the contrary: It's crucial for us all to keep our heads, and have our eyes wide open. If these things take us by surprise, we are that much more vulnerable to being manipulated [and] pushed around, maybe with fatal consequences. If, however, we can be well aware of the nature of the people in charge, and not be surprised by the steps they take, we'll be strengthened by that kind of preparation, and we'll be able to resist.”--Miller

His advice is based on a worst-case scenario view of where we're headed. However, in the opposing energies of Saturn and Uranus, there also exists the potential for positive revolutionary change, a new beginning.

Emerson writes:

“The boldness of the hope men entertain transcends all former experience. It calms and cheers them with the picture of a simple and equal life of truth and piety. And this hope flowered on what tree? It was not imported from the stock of some celestial plant, but grew here on the wild crab of conservatism. It is much that this old and vituperated system of things has borne so fair a child. It predicts that amidst a planet peopled with conservatives, one Reformer may yet be born.” --Emerson

Perhaps this is an eerie adumbration of a 2008 campaign speech written in 1841. But we will realize stranger things before the year is over.

[Jana]

John Hogue said it was going to be a two person shuffle but Hillary will get in which means they must be going to bump off Obama. www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Lk7ZPC4Z6M

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjALf12PAWc  —Naomi Wolf, Best talk on stages of fascism.   
   
The End of America: Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot by Naomi Wolf      
The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism by Naomi Klein

www.youtube.com/watch?v=amLDfAMnLVc —Ring of Power. ILLUMINATI Bloodlines part 1/31           http://www.youtube.com/user/teabowbraine

www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6QbKnpZCIY&feature=related John Anthony West, waking up in the asylum.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=zYClZ8Sr6dQ&NR=1  —Is there hope…civilization? Wesley Tarpley

[Michael]

Does the Outcome of the 2008 US Presidential Race Really Matter?

By Mike Byron

Will contributing time and money to the Obama campaign, or just voting for Obama make any meaningful difference as to how the future unfolds? Conversely, does time and energy spent working for an Obama victory simply detract from applying these assets towards working for real societal transformation? I believe that evaluating these questions from a systems theory perspective provides insight on their resolution.
Global society constitutes a complex adaptive system. All systems possess three fundamental attributes:

1) Interconnectedness. A set of units or elements are interconnected so that changes in any element or elements produce changes in all. A change in any part of such a system causes rippling changes throughout every part of a system.

2) Emergence. The system as a whole possesses collective properties which are qualitatively different from, and not reducible to, the properties of its constituent elements. The wetness of a water molecule is not reducible to the properties of its constituent hydrogen and oxygen atoms. Similarly, consciousness is not reducible to the properties of individual neurons.

3) Boundedness. All systems possess a definite boundary between system and not system. This boundary may be closed or open. For complex systems, it is open.

Complex systems have unpredictable outputs. They process information and transform themselves in accordance with the results of their information processing. This is particularly true for complex systems composed of conscious elements such as human beings.

Because global human society is a complex adaptive system, its configuration is determined by the results of its information processing. All such systems may be said to evolve along a fitness landscape. As such they possess trajectories through this landscape or, as I usually call it, through learning space.

Above, I’ve included examples for a fitness landscape and its associated trajectory for human civilization from a paper I presented in 1997 at a conference on sociocybernetics at the University of Amsterdam. Once a complex system such as human civilization is reduced to a computer simulation, its fitness landscape and trajectory become readily apparent. The full text of the paper is available at: http://www.michaelpbyron.com/SystemicaArt.htm for anyone interested in following this topic up in more depth. [Note: If these images do not appear above, they can be found at: http://www.michaelpbyron.com/image022.gif and at: http://www.michaelpbyron.com/image023.gif .]

Because people learn and have goals, society as a whole has goals and attempts to “learn” its way towards the attainment of these goals. Security, comfort of life, and health are fundamental goals for all humans. Attempts at ordering society through law, fairly and impartially enforced by a government, which is responsive to the citizenry, represent one such goal. Another goal has been the provisioning of public goods. Basically, we have sought both to develop ever greater organizational “software” for governance, in conjunction with ever more powerful “hardware” for the provision of material goods.

In a system everything that happens causes rippling changes throughout the system. Consider our present day world: We have had limited success with developing the “software” needed to create what we would intuitively recognize as a just and humane society. We have recently been somewhat more successful at the provisioning of material goods, thanks primarily to cheap hydrocarbon energy. This material success has led us to the point where nearly seven billion humans are artificially sustained by the rapid release of chemical energy stored in oil and other hydrocarbons. However, availability of these resources must begin to decline ever more precipitously, and beginning soon.

Further, this decline of availability of cheap fuel is triggering ever more rapid use of the “dirtiest” of these energy sources because it exists in the greatest abundance: coal. This is triggering increasingly rapid climate change. Record setting droughts in some areas, record floods in others. As I write, a hundred blocks of Cedar City Iowa are under water due to historically unprecedented flooding.

The net effect of these climatic changes is to decrease agricultural production; and this is occurring at a time when world food reserves are already at an all time low for modern times. However, expensive oil, due to nearly flat production in the context of rising global demand, leads to increasing conversion of food crops to ethanol production, further lowering food reserves.

Global industrialized agriculture is almost completely dependent upon petroleum. Fertilizers are derived from natural gas. Pesticides are derived from petroleum. The entire agricultural production, processing and distribution system depends upon petroleum. The industrialization of agriculture across the planet had led to the majority of humanity becoming, for the first time, city dwellers. More than ever before in history, people are dependent upon the system of industrialized agriculture for their food.

As far as our governmental “software” is concerned, political power is fragmented into numerous nation states of varying power and affluence. Wealth and opportunity are inequitably distributed in all of them. Two thirds of the planet’s remaining petroleum reserves, along with forty percent of its natural gas, are located in the Persian Gulf. The United States is the only nation on the planet with the capability to project large amounts of military power globally. It is bogged down in the Persian Gulf nation of Iraq, in the sixth year of a war to control these resources.
As the energy situation becomes ever more desperate, what will the US and other major powers do, knowing that most of the remaining oil and gas are located in this small portion of the planet?

Consider that this region is roughly contiguous with the “Holy Land.” Also consider that the Middle East is the confluence of geostrategic interests with religious beliefs of the monotheistic religions, particularly the apocalyptic-oriented fundamentalist version of Christianity that is so prominent in the USA at present. Consider the near stranglehold of multinational corporations over the government, information dissemination system (the mass media), and economy, of the USA, the West, indeed, most of the planet.

Now ask yourself: Can it make any meaningful difference who becomes president of the USA at this point?
From a systems theory perspective we have acquired a trajectory through learning space, or alternately, have moved to a position on our fitness landscape from which we are now inevitably locked into movement towards what is called a “strange attractor.” The effect is like what happens when a marble rolls over the lip of a depression—it is inevitably forced to roll down hill into the depression. We are at such a point now.

I want to stress that we are, so to speak, already rolling “downhill” to whatever fate awaits us. Moving “uphill” away from the peak oil-climate change-corporatized government attractor is no longer possible. We are locked in for massive climate change now. Because we failed to transition away from hydrocarbon energy when there was sufficient time to do so—back in the 1970’s—it is now too late. Peak oil is upon us. Anyway governments—ours in the USA in particular—are largely subject to the will of multinational corporations. The interests of these soulless corporate entities—which possess the legal right of “persons”—center on short term profits. Planning for the long term is not good for short-term profit making.

So the bottom line is, we’re heading towards our crisis attractor no matter what we do now, and neither Obama nor McCain can change that reality.

Still, we do have some control over our trajectory as we move towards this self-inflicted crisis-attractor. We could “crash” head on into it—an outcome corresponding to the total collapse of civilization worldwide and the deaths of billions. Or we could rapidly reconfigure ourselves so that our trajectory moves past the attractor with its “momentum” carrying it through and out of the basin of attraction towards, a new zone of stability—corresponding to level ground in our fitness landscape. This “level ground” represents a new stability corresponding to a reconfigured human system which is sustainable with respect to energy and environment.
So does the choice of Obama versus McCain represent any meaningful difference with respect to our finessing our systemic trajectory towards the level ground and away from the smash-up outcome?

Possibly it does. Consider that Obama has made it clear that he will not authorize the national government to prosecute medical marijuana users in states which have passed medical marijuana statutes. [See: http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2008/05/12/18498714.php] This is indicative of a greater emphasis on federalism, on decentralization of power away from the national government on the part of an Obama administration. As the crises come upon us this decentralization is exactly what is needed.

Similarly, Obama would not be likely to nominate a fifth vote on the Supreme Court for a unitary presidency. On the other hand the only probable vacancies all come from the Court’s elderly “liberal” wing” so the status quo would be unchanged—the continues existence of Constitutional government in the USA hangs on the whims of Justice Anthony Kennedy.

A McCain administration would represent continued corporatist consolidation over our political system. It would herald the consolidation of the imperial presidency, ratified by a solid five, or even six, vote majority on the US Supreme Court. This because elderly “liberal” justices would be replaced by Federalist Society vetted hard right Scalia clones. Such an administration would inaugurate corporatist designed programs to address energy and climate change. These would worse than doing nothing, as these programs would waste resources while preventing effective local and regional efforts from even occurring. The overall effect of a McCain presidency would be to accelerate the crash while “steering” us at the crisis attractor dead-on. This as I’ve noted, could end global civilization and kill most of humanity.

Still, the net difference between the possible effects on our overall trajectory caused by the election of one or the other candidate at this late date would likely be quite small. Also McCain’s agenda would likely lead more rapidly to the collapse of national government, thereby perhaps freeing up local areas and regions to act in a somewhat timely manner.

We also have to consider the possibility that rhetoric aside, Obama might not fundamentally alter existing policies. This is because, here in the USA at least, we the people do not rule. Rather we are ruled by multi-national corporations. In this scenario, supporting Obama would definitively represent a waste of time and energy.
So what to do?

All in all, it is an individual decision each of us needs to make. Is a possible slight gain in political decentralization and the corresponding possibility of adjusting our systemic trajectory very slightly worth the cost of investing time and effort into an Obama campaign, or is this time and energy better spent organizing at the state, local, and interpersonal level? Would the latter strategy facilitate a more effective trajectory adjustment? It is hard to say.
As for me, I think that my time and energy as far as campaign ’08 is concerned, will go into local campaigns, particularly City Council campaigns, in conjunction with writing, permacultural experimentation, and working towards the consolidation of a movement for change that is not beholden to any particular political party, or to the corporatocracy.

That said, I will vote for Obama.

[Jana]

At this point black men are saner than white men, so I say vote for the black man!

Honda's FCX Clarity, a sporty-looking fuel-cell sedan, came off the production line in Tochigi, north of Tokyo. The assembly line is Honda's first to be dedicated to building fuel-cell vehicles. The vehicle, which uses a lithium-ion battery, can run 620 km (385 miles) on a single fuelling as measured under Japan's fuel efficiency test method, and has a top speed of 160 km per hour (99 mph).

[Michael]

Black Cats vs White Cats:

[Michael]

[jimtzu]

that pretty much sums it up Michael.  i'm going to vote for a 3rd party candidate as a protest and to de-emphasize the so called two party system.

[Jana]

Yea, show a lack of confidence in falsehood...that is the conscience vote.

America is not America anymore. The Democrats have failed to put a break on the bankercorpmilitary agenda. Happily I have no hope for the human species, but something might emerge "out" of the species. You see even if religion was outlawed on a starship heading to another planet...individuals would spontaneously have "spiritual chemistry" and start a click around the importance and validity of that and religion and exclusion of nonbelievers would start all over again. The species in its present state is not rational, lucid or objective enough to survive. There are individuals that "are" evolved enough, but this does not translate to the larger structures and modes of human endeavor such as countries. Knowing that the species itself is on self-destruct mode helps us as individuals to get through our lifetime with greater mastery. What do we do during the death throws of a species...do we attempt to make the patient comfortable, reassure it that everything is ok, or do we assist in its suicide to make the pain and suffering less.

We can outlaw religion, countries, war and aggression...we can outlaw business for profit...but I doubt that would alter the nature of the species itself...and as such the old stupid powerball game would start up over and over again.

The awakened live in an existental purgatory of the awareness of the dying light of a species in a world of plenty and space for all. In full illumination of beauty during a dying age. Does grief turn to joy when we realize that it cannot be any other way. Efforts to save ourselves or the species might be the height of hubris and folly.

[Michael]

I don't think any Democrats in power have much interest in putting the brakes on the corporatocracy.  Power seeks and follows Power.  It's an extremely rare individual who has power, knows the way of power, and seeks to dismantle power structures.  Is Obama such an individual?  I sure hope so, but doubt it like hell.  But I try to keep an open mind.

But I feel quite confident at this point, that no organization holding/exercising power can seek to dismantle power structures.

The species in its present state is not rational, lucid or objective enough to survive.

I think the species is about as rational and lucid as it's ever been, and probably more so now.  The problem isn't in the survivability of the species, but rather in the "fit" or match between the species capacities in relation to changing life conditions.  (shades of Spiral Dynamics  )

What do we do during the death throws of a species...do we attempt to make the patient comfortable, reassure it that everything is ok, or do we assist in its suicide to make the pain and suffering less.

Species suicide? Death throes?  Ah, metaphors...  Actually since there are so many metaphors available in these postmodern times...I prefer such metaphors as death-BIRTH-throes and metamorphosis (as in caterpillars to moths).  Leaves more wiggle-room in interpretive possibilities doncha-know....

 

[Jana]

In full illumination of beauty during a dying age.

I like my terms better...considering the nature of the species at present, I think we are more like a catapillar eating itself...rather than transforming at this point. But such a release from hope allows one to give up the perpetually disillusionment and stop being depressed...because anything less that total obliteration of the globe in nuclear holocaust is a good day...see.
I don't think my piece was pessimistic...more a functional realism which allows for greater functionality in the real world as is.  In order to meta-adapt one needs the most peripheral...birds eye, nonanthropomorphic view of what is going down.

[Michael]

I didn't take your words as overly pessimistic. 

I agree that hope is by and large, a mug's game.  Much like certainty is...

Hope is useful only in terms of how functional it actually is...how well it actually serves the REAL.  Same for certainty.

Hope and certainty are so often used in service of the unreal.  To serve as some kind of buffer from the onslaught of the real.

As for the metamorphosis metaphor; the caterpillar in transition looks identical to a self-destructing caterpillar.  It may well be a flawed metaphor, but I like it anyway, and use it to occasionally remind myself of alternative interpretations to current events.  I don't NEED to believe in it, God forbid!  But I let it serve me anyway...sans belief.

I am entirely uncertain (and proud of it!) of what the future holds in store for our noble, benighted species.  I have little hope as such, and less investment.  In fact I have just as much investment in our outcome as I have courage to face the worst, and no more.  That is my equilibrium.

[Jana]

"This tendency to persist inflexibly at hopeless tasks was observed whether or not the women were actuely depressed. Even at their best, the dysthymic women lacked the necessary quality--adaptability, optimism, aggression, sense of self-worth--to move on from a present, visible taske that is like to fail to other, imagined, unseen tasks that might possibly succeed."

"The environment no longer rewards the full range of temperaments that were necessary for human survival in prior settings." Listening to Prozac, Peter Kramer

[jimtzu]

The Hedonists of Power

By Chris Hedges

23/06/08 "Truthdig" -- -- Washington has become Versailles. We are ruled, entertained and informed by courtiers. The popular media are courtiers. The Democrats, like the Republicans, are courtiers. Our pundits and experts are courtiers. We are captivated by the hollow stagecraft of political theater as we are ruthlessly stripped of power. It is smoke and mirrors, tricks and con games. We are being had.

The past week was a good one if you were a courtier. We were instructed by the high priests on television over the past few days to mourn a Sunday morning talk show host, who made $5 million a year and who gave a platform to the powerful and the famous so they could spin, equivocate and lie to the nation. We were repeatedly told by these television courtiers, people like Tom Brokaw and Wolf Blitzer, that this talk show host was one of our nation’s greatest journalists, as if sitting in a studio, putting on makeup and chatting with Dick Cheney or George W. Bush have much to do with journalism.

No journalist makes $5 million a year. No journalist has a comfortable, cozy relationship with the powerful. No journalist believes that acting as a conduit, or a stenographer, for the powerful is a primary part of his or her calling. Those in power fear and dislike real journalists. Ask Seymour Hersh and Amy Goodman how often Bush or Cheney has invited them to dinner at the White House or offered them an interview.

All governments lie, as I.F. Stone pointed out, and it is the job of the journalist to do the hard, tedious reporting to shine a light on these lies. It is the job of courtiers, those on television playing the role of journalists, to feed off the scraps tossed to them by the powerful and never question the system. In the slang of the profession, these television courtiers are “throats.” These courtiers, including the late Tim Russert, never gave a voice to credible critics in the buildup to the war against Iraq. They were too busy playing their roles as red-blooded American patriots. They never fought back in their public forums against the steady erosion of our civil liberties and the trashing of our Constitution. These courtiers blindly accept the administration’s current propaganda to justify an attack on Iran. They parrot this propaganda. They dare not defy the corporate state. The corporations that employ them make them famous and rich. It is their Faustian pact. No class of courtiers, from the eunuchs behind Manchus in the 19th century to the Baghdad caliphs of the Abbasid caliphate, has ever transformed itself into a responsible elite. Courtiers are hedonists of power.

Our Versailles was busy this past week. The Democrats passed the FISA bill, which provides immunity for the telecoms that cooperated with the National Security Agency’s illegal surveillance over the past six years. This bill, which when signed means we will never know the extent of the Bush White House’s violation of our civil liberties, is expected to be adopted by the Senate. Barack Obama has promised to sign it in the name of national security. The bill gives the U.S. government a license to eavesdrop on our phone calls and e-mails. It demolishes our right to privacy. It endangers the work of journalists, human rights workers, crusading lawyers and whistle-blowers who attempt to expose abuses the government seeks to hide. These private communications can be stored indefinitely and disseminated, not just to the U.S. government but to other governments as well. The bill, once signed into law, will make it possible for those in power to identify and silence anyone who dares to make public information that defies the official narrative.

Being a courtier, and Obama is one of the best, requires agility and eloquence. The most talented of them can be lauded as persuasive actors. They entertain us. They make us feel good. They convince us they are our friends. We would like to have dinner with them. They are the smiley faces of a corporate state that has hijacked the government and is raping the nation. When the corporations make their iron demands, these courtiers drop to their knees, whether to placate the telecommunications companies that fund their campaigns and want to be protected from lawsuits, or to permit oil and gas companies to rake in obscene profits and keep in place the vast subsidies of corporate welfare doled out by the state.

We cannot differentiate between illusion and reality. We trust courtiers wearing face powder who deceive us in the name of journalism. We trust courtiers in our political parties who promise to fight for our interests and then pass bill after bill to further corporate fraud and abuse. We confuse how we feel about courtiers like Obama and Russert with real information, facts and knowledge. We chant in unison with Obama that we want change, we yell “yes we can,” and then stand dumbly by as he coldly votes away our civil liberties. The Democratic Party, including Obama, continues to fund the war. It refuses to impeach Bush and Cheney. It allows the government to spy on us without warrants or cause. And then it tells us it is our salvation. This is a form of collective domestic abuse. And, as so often happens in the weird pathology of victim and victimizer, we keep coming back for more.

Chris Hedges, who was a Pulitzer Prize-winning foreign correspondent for The New York Times, says he will vote for Ralph Nader for president.

[VerDarLuz]

Home Sweet Home: New Moon in Cancer, Alien Disclosure and the Forthcoming American Revolution

VerDarLuz

This month, the New Moon occurs in Cancer, the sign of the all-giving Mother. This is an especially nurturing New Moon, overflowing with four planets conjunct including the Moon, Sun, Venus, and the asteroid Ceres -- which represents the urge in us to feel a sense of belonging and fertility in our lives. All week long, we should be feeling extra sensitive, empathic, and intuitive. This should attune us to what provides inner security and soul-nourishment. Now is a great time to decorate your roots by adding creature comforts to your home and extra loving embraces to your friends and family.

If you know your rising sign, you can simply follow the signs around your chart until you find the house occupied by Cancer. This will then specify the area of life which is seeking comfort and needs maternal attention. This house is also an area where we can nurture others. Six months from now, when the Full Moon occupies this same house, we seek fulfillment in that same area.

This new Moon falls within two days of the the Fourth of July, a holiday typically celebrated with friends and family. Cancer always asks us to investigate our familial threads, genetic lineage, ancestral roots, as well as the concept of Home. Since this New Moon falls on many of the USA's personal planets, including the Sun, Venus, and Jupiter, I thought we could discuss what it means for us as a nation to consider our roots and our sense of "security" and Home. In Boulder the other day, I glimpsed a bumper sticker which said "Homeland Security is Renewable Energy." This striking statement emphasized the movements of Jupiter and Pluto thru sustainable Capricorn this year, as well as Saturn's continued venture thru ecological Virgo. The Earth trine relationship between these planets this year heralds a new age of priority -- where efficiency of energy eclipses the archetypical, self-destructive American urge of unchecked expansion.

This question of HOME? will keep arising over the next coming years with various intense reflections, many uncomfortable. As the bubble of the American Dream continues to pop, questions of U.S. American identity will continue to reflect back on the population here, most strikingly represented by this year's elections. On the very day of the elections, an exact Saturn-Uranus opposition takes place. In a nutshell, Saturn is the superegoic status quo, conservative, hard-working, responsible, symbolized by government and banking, while Uranus is the maverick, the rebel, the Promethean urge towards freedom, change, and liberation. I think the candidates pretty obviously symbolize these two planets, but the candidates are more a reflection of the U.S.'s own identity crisis. Caught in its self-obsession, "in-dependence" of consumerism-as-way-of-life, unchecked freedom thru debt, while enslaved to conveniences, where do we go from here? How do we adapt? (For an excellent article on election day astrology, please see Barry Orr's piece on Reality Sandwich.)

Besides this, humanity's Home is continuing to be destroyed. Worldwide catastrophes of unparalleled proportions (70,000 dead in China's recent earthquake) and global warming, as profoundly and eloquently explained in the highly recommended film The 11th Hour, are increasing desperation in the global consciousness. Recently, my sister told me she wanted to experience an Alaskan cruise "before all the glaciers melt," while my father's email summarized a creeping sense of impending helplessness:

"Well the stock market dropped 352 points today. It is such an interesting time for everyone. Food prices, oil prices, 800 fires in CA, floods in the midwest, and life goes on! The air in the Bay Area is so bad due to all the fires, they are recommending staying inside. I want to say more, but I am lost for words..."

When considering "Home," I am reminded of an experience in Calcutta many years ago. I was asked by a fellow volunteer where I was from. For simplicity's sake, I answered "America." The person who asked me was Chilean. He shot me a glaring look and responded with the striking rebuttal, "You know, there's more than one America?" Is ignorance as American as apple pie? If the following information is new to many people, we must ask why we have remained ignorant of it.

How is this possible that we are not all discussing the proposed North American Union, a merger of the United States, Mexico, and Canada into a single unit similar to the E.U., using a singular currency called the Amero. The former presidents of Mexico and Canada, in addition to Mr. Bush agreed to a North American Union a few years ago and rumor has it that the Amero is already under production at the Denver mint. With the falling dollar, this merger may be sold to the U.S. populace as a saving grace to the dissolving economy. But with a North American Union, it will be harder to track people and so surveillance technology, including implantable chips, may be slowly introduced to the populace. Is it really so hard to imagine a severe amount of people willing to chip themselves for 'safety,' given another "terrorist" attack on the "Homeland?" This is not far-fetched, nor far off.

Attempts at a Total Surveillance society will continue to increase during the Pluto in Capricorn tenure thru 2024, but so will the dissolution of the nation-state itself, evidenced by the increasing number of secessionist movements, local economies, and ecovillages erupting in this country. Remembering that the American and French Revolutions occurred during the last journey of Pluto thru Capricorn, we can very acutely paint the picture of a complete birth and death cycle for the United States, a constitution ratified under Pluto in Capricorn in 1776 and a constitution dissolved in its hybridization into the North American Union in the coming decade.

We must ask ourselves, is our Home the borders around our white picket fence, the borders with our neighboring nations, the edges of the Biosphere, this stretch of Galaxy, or the entire multidimensional matrix of Spirit itself? Fundamentally, Home is a question of identity and a function of our will-towards-consciousness. How vast am I willing to divine myself and define my family? It is helpful to remember that not only the Earth, but every other planet in the Solar System is heating up at extreme rates, and if a massive Coronal Ejection (solar flare) is to take place (due for peak output in 2012), then every planet is going to feel the effects.

We are our Father Star as much as our Mother Earth, and beyond and before this, our roots lie in Grandfather Nebula and Grandmother Galactic Center. Dark Matter is the spider-web of the Unconscious which links us eternally to our anceStars. With this holistic, Cancerian awareness of our entire universal family, we may finally be able to peaceably invite to our table our interstellar and intergalactic kindred. We have nothing to fear from our cousins - if their intent was malicious, we would be gone long ago. If their intent is to help us heal our Home, then it is likely that they would seek to provide us with the means to free us from our energy dependence and cataclysmic descent. And this would only threaten one tiny pocket of the population: the wealthiest, most powerful fossil fuel corporations and oil-sponsored governments.

With 30 nations ready to disclose E.T. presence, with UFO files released in the last two years from France, Brazil, and the U.K and millions of these documents downloaded, with Vatican astronomers announcing their acceptance of other intelligences in the universe, with a ballot initiative in Denver this fall to form an Extraterrestrial Affairs Commission, there is no doubt a collective preparation and positioning taking place for our long-awaited Encounter at the moment of greatest Human turmoil.

If the energy and oil crisis continue to escalate, as they appear they will, the disclosure of viable energy alternatives, whether from E.T. intelligence or not, may in fact be the cause of the next American Revolution. In the summer of 2010, as Uranus move into Aries, and begins its intense, decade-long square with Pluto in Capricorn, an insurrectionist movement of epic proportions is highly likely. We will be using innovative technology (Uranus) to liberate and re-idenify ourselves (Aries) in ways unfathomable to most of us now, to completely dissolves the current systems of dominance, control, and enslavement (Pluto in Capricorn). Let each decision now pave the way towards an unknown and wholly radical freedom.

Welcome Home.

For a listing of Active Secessionist movements in the U.S., please see the following links:

http://middleburyinstitute.org/registrynorthamericanseparatists.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_active_autonomist_and_secessionist_movements


For professional activism about Exopolitics and Alien Disclosure:

disclosureproject.org
http://www.x-ppac.org/
http://www.paradigmresearchgroup.org/ExopoliticsUnitedStatesLinks.htm

and well, you need to see this one for yourself:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWfkP6-VF24

Another good one from Reality Sandwich: 2008: The Return of Chicken Little