Back to Work

Writing is an obligation, an honor, a duty and a calling...it's what I do. Looks like I'll have to start work on a fantasy-future-fiction series of novels. I just had a dream concerning the future (it's more of a vision really) that's pre-cognitive, and it would definitely be a far better future if it could be made to come about. So, how best to describe it? Well, the world will be entering into a new Neo-Romantic Age. I think writing a series of novels set in the future might best give birth to this better future that I've screed; rather than to simply make hundreds of predictions, which would be much easier to do. There are even some computer programs that predict the future; though, admittedly, not very well. So you can judge for yourself, if you wish, as to the accuracy and relevance of all or any of my predictions. Hopefully, if I write it well, the future fantasy series should be very entertaining. This entertainment aspect is important to my mission to effect real change; after all I'm a Druid. If it's not fun to read, who would read it then? Anything else you wish me to write about, my e-mail is at: oconnor.rothcroi.william@gmail.com What could be said and where can it be said? One should expect some real consequences from what one says, or there's no point in saying it after all. Everyone has the right to say anything, but none have a right to be heard; so what one says must entertain. But in order to entertain, it has to be said within some medium for entertainment. In my case, in a series of neo-noir fantasy novels that are set in the far future. The first book is set in the America of 2036. The title of the fantasy series is: In Dreams They Are Remembered. Because the series is fun, or it should be, and not work; I'll be writing as many works for the series as can be published on the Amazon KINDLE. Each work will cost one dollar. This I think is a fair price. Enjoy life! Do well to Be well.

Prediction No. 14

As we've stated before, some individual states, starting with the non-contiguous ones; shall be petitioning Congress for secession from the US. But what we didn't state clearly is why this shall happen. It's easy to predict the future when you do have visions. It's less easy to state why the future shall happen as it will. That's a separate ability. Anyone after all can make a prediction. Well, obviously, a state wishes secession because it's necessary for its survival as a state. States want to survive. What single event shall be the cause for such secession then? Well what would trigger the need, and it would have to be a necessity, for petitioning for secession? Health care costs! This is ironic, since normally a state thrives when its populace is healthy. When the US Congress passes its health care bill, America's Affordable Health Choices Act, as it shall do; its costs to the combined states shall exceed an additional quarter-trillion annually. The reason is: enormous expansion of medicaid (the bill mandates that any American not enrolled in another health care plan because he or she cannot afford the cost of premiums shall automatically be eligible for enrollment under Medicaid) to cover all the uninsured indigent and those who are nearly-indigent, whose numbers were greatly increased by the current credit crisis to more than forty million Americans, the same number currently receiving food-stamp assistance (many of whom suffer from chronic obesity-related diseases---again ironic, as they are receiving food-stamps). One-third of all Americans are obese, and amongst them are these uninsured indigent, and two hundred and fifty billion is spent each year on their obesity related chronic conditions. The Federal Government, mainly because of large increases in its military spending to cover its foreign wars, is broke. The USA runs trillion dollar deficits every fiscal year and can't pay for any additional costs for its medicaid programs; so it shall be passing the costs to the individual states, which will bankrupt the states. Of course, the solution is obvious---impose an excise tax of ten percent on all compensation in excess of $250,000. Since three-quarter trillion is already being spent on all health care in United States, each and every year, mainly paid by individuals and by businesses; these additional medicaid costs, to be borne by the states, is far too much to impose on the states' taxpayers (who because they are not indigent---they're taxpayers---won't benefit from expanded medicaid). They'll simply refuse to pay additional taxes. Although a rejection of additional taxation for the benefit of others shall be the nominal reason for taxpayers refusal to pay, the actual reasons for rejection will be religious, will be ethnic and cultural: many medicaid beneficiaries are of Hispanic (a quarter of Latinos in the USA are not insured now and as restrictions upon Latino emigration are lessened, the number of uninsured Latinos eligible for Medicaid enrollment increases) and/or African descent, and some practice Islam. The US Federal Government can't afford to make up for loss revenues to the states, as once the interest due to be paid on the USA's national debt equals or exceeds ten percent of any nation's GDP, interest on government debt becomes very difficult, almost impossible, to pay out to the owners of that debt---and in the US case, it's the Chinese and the Japanese sovereign wealth funds who own the federal US government's debt. It's not Americans. So, any state, if it wishes to survive as a state, hasn't any choice but to petition for secession from the union of all the states in order to remain solvent.

Why do we Write?

Every one who reads this Blog has an interest in improving their physical and psychic abilities, or else why would they be reading this Blog? Now, we do know that one sure way to do both is by engagement in creative activities, and since there are a plethora of such activities, it's actually a pretty easy task to increase abilities...just do it. For me, one of the better ways is by my writing. Aside from improving ability, why do we write (and I believe we should all write)? The reason one's writes is because one loves one's readers. Now, it seems sweet, but it's not nearly as clear cut as it sounds. One's ideal reader is the avatar of one's selfish self. For instance, just so as to illustrate this statement; the reason that one records one's visions as predictions, this Blog being itself a prophecy, is because this selfish avatar that's our ideal reader, is to be shared. And this shared aspect is the magical secret to all writing---even though one may consider oneself unique, there shall always be others who are like you psychically---always. Writing, when it's done well, shall lessen the suffering of this world...always a good and a noble deed. So, once that's accepted (and every creative person instinctively knows this truth---it's really why we're creative); and since the avatar of the writer is always collective (it's shared), this salutary aspect inherent in writing, its amelioration and reduction of world suffering, must also be shared. Suffering for the writer's readers is reduced. Suffering is lessened; always to the good. We know this. That's why this writer writes!

A Matter of Leadership

There is no such thing as a just war, although there can be necessary wars. Wars are waste, and waste can never be justified. The cause of war is a false sense of patriotism and mistaken loyalty to some leader who becomes the personification of the state. Such loyalty is unjustified, because a good leader attempts always to avoid war, and patriotism deals with a state's preservation and never with destruction of another state. The fact that any state finds itself involved in a conflict means the leaders of that state have failed in their duty to preserve the welfare of the citizenry and those foolish leaders, who've engaged the state in war, ought to be replaced with wiser ones.

Be your own Pundit

Ignorance shouts while wisdom whispers. There is no better verification of this ancient saying than listening to and reading the so-called "pundits" on economics and investing. The majority have no idea what they are talking about, but they'll be shouting their lack of knowledge loudly. It's important to know how and why markets work and to have had experience in their working before investing a single dollar on anything or in anything. If you can't read financial statements and don't know how and why financial statements are generated, you have no business being in the market. It's not for you. Accounting is the language of business, just as mathematics is the language of science. If you are unfamiliar with the language used, you can't understand what is being said or what is happening or why it's happening (the why is just as important as the how). So, the best advice that can be given is this: If you would invest (and you should if you have the disposable income), learn the language of business first: study accountancy. Then, once that is done, learn how to analyze statements. If you would be prosperous, learn to be an auditor of life.

Solutions for Stupidity

One of the problems, and it really is a problem, is the costly effort expended by governments to solve problems that have previously been solved, because some solution isn't acceptable to their political elite. A good example of this waste is in energy dispersion and transportation. Abundant energy and efficient transportation services are necessary for the existence of any civilization. Of course, there are those who state that civilization isn't necessary; but the people who've stated this have never been to those places where civilization doesn't exist, and I can assure you that unfortunately many such places still do exist today and there are many more of them every day. Natural gas is an abundant resource, and there are more than enough natural gas fields available to meet global energy needs for the next two hundred years or so (after that, fusion energy shall be readily available). Natural gas is also cheap and the distribution infrastructure for natural gas already exists and it is continually growing larger. Natural gas is easily converted into hydrogen for fuel cells, and the combination of fuel cells plus lithium-ion electric batteries has already been tested (Toyota Highlander FCHV), and it works quite well; so, that transportation problem has been solved. Thermal solar plants, those "power-towers," can be sited at natural gas conversion and distribution plants; so the energy problem has also been solved. Of course, more and greater efficiencies could be achieved, and soon shall be, from these existing technologies: Of natural gas conversion, hydrogen fuel cells, solar thermal, and of lithium-ion batteries (Nissan Leaf). Energy and transportation solutions are known; are now available and they should be implemented now!

Bankruptcy and the Military

When the only firm that's hiring happens to be the Army, the country is in big trouble. That is exactly what is happening in America today. Why? Even since the second world war, the USA has continuously invaded and interfered militarily in the domestic affairs of foreign countries in the mistaken belief that it has some exceptional providential right to do so. It does not. The US spends over a half trillion every year on its military, a sum that is more than the total combined defense spending of every other nation; every year US does this and wonders why it's bankrupt!

The Necessity for Change

Transformation, changing from one psychic state to another, is actually a physical process much like drinking and eating. It's instinctive. Just as some foods and drinks are wanted and needed as nourishment, the body has to be nourished physically by some process of change in order to transform into another psychic state. So, all transformation requires changes of some sort, and those changes are real physical ones---changing jobs, changing spouses, changing houses---as the very action of any physical change, whatever that change might be, triggers a corresponding change in one's psychic state. The need for change is genetic, and it's built into every cell of the body. We have to change to survive. Any belief system that restricts the ability to change is therefore evil, since all restriction must murder the soul. Beware then of any belief that comes in company with some matching set of commandments; such religion kills consciousness.

Druid Religion

Well now that those two books on the Druid religion and on Celtic culture were published on both MobiPocket.com and on Amazon KINDLE, I believe it should answer all of the queries that were posed. H-J Chang and Lou Reed had asked if I would put this all in writing; as it's never been explained properly before, and all that has been written about it previously was done so by those outsiders unfamiliar with Druid religion. And if you have read this blog and the books, you'll see there were many misconceptions, and that's why this blog and the books were written---to clear up those misconceptions. Hope so anyway, but if anybody still has questions, just ask! The e-mail address for HEART-HEALING Chariot Way blog is: oconnor.rothcroi.william@gmail.com

Prediction No. 13

States, which are artificial entities, survive as long as they serve their function of conserving the privileges of the elites which created them. Usually the state's elite consists of a single ethnic or cultural group which shares a common set of values, customs and beliefs. When the interests of the founding elite is no longer served by the state, or when another state more strongly serves the interests of the founding elite, the original purpose of the state has failed, and without that founding purpose, the state will also fail. If a new elite shall rise to replace the old, a new state arises with that new elite. It may well claim to be a continuance of the original state and might even use the same name; but, in reality, a new state has been formed to service the interests of a new oligarchy that has managed to replace the old. Such is the fate of all states and of all elites.

Druid Meditation Methodology

Meditation methods are used to excite the pre-frontal cortices of the brain. Druid meditational methods differ in that they focus on the process of change. If one imagines that there is a traffic light in front of one that's been changing from blue to green and back again, within a continuous pattern, one can get a good idea of how Druid meditation works. The same can be done with tones, with scents, with tastes, with touches---the idea being that there are two separate and distinct things that can change and may morph, one into another; so that this changing process creates new third things. Druid meditation teaches that the mind can create from two separate somethings, both distinct and separate, a third thing; just by using the power already innate in one's mind alone. The second step in this process of meditation is the mixture of the senses---a sound, for instance, can be changed into a hue, and so on; so that we have, as its product: a color tone. The third step in the meditation process is the creation of a new sense from nothingness: a new sense is to be created, rather than a combination of existing senses, expanding still further the entire repertoire of the senses; there's no limitation upon the process, just its daily exercise.

Prediction No. 12

Humanity happens to be a very boring species, and boring species may survive and might thrive for a while; but eventually they'll become extinct. Extinction is the fate for humanity, as it must be for all species. No species is immortal, although some might continue for a very long time. As we've pointed out, humanity is now splitting into two separate species: one, which lives a very short lifespan, but remains quite fertile, the majority of men; and one, which has a quite long lifespan, but is not as fertile, the minority of men. Now both of these groups do exist presently, but not as separate species (not yet anyway); yet the time is coming within the next twenty-five years when they shall split off from each other. What happens then? Those who are long-lived (having a life span in excess of a hundred, without any sign of either physical or psychological impairment or decrepitude) have very different attitudes and outlooks than those others, those who are short-lived. The concerns of the short-lived seem absolutely absurd and even frivolous to any who are long-lived. This is why the long-lived tend to abstain from the pursuits of those that don't live as long as they: they'll frankly find those pursuits, not only silly; but also boring.

Bare-Knuckle-Boxing: The Three Tines

The Celtic Fist in the Conn Style or in Wes tie Wall-Fighting (as it's known in New York City) is formed and made by bringing the ball of the thumb over to cover the nail of the ring finger, the finger that's next to the small finger, the pinkie finger. By pressing down upon the nail of the ring finger, the knuckles of the second joints of the middle finger, the ring finger, and of the index finger, will, all three knuckles of them, be pressed forward. This fist configuration of the three knuckles is called: three tines. This name comes from the shape of a spade that's used for the cutting of the peat-turf. And this is exactly what these three knuckles are used for: cutting and splitting---exactly then as my family's fish-head sword is so used, and it's very different from other styles of the bare-knuckle-boxing. The strikes are utilized against the opponent's body as if one were loudly rapping or knocking upon a door (that door being the torso of the opponent). By the way, the word is Wes-tie and not Westy. The reason is: one ties up an enemy by the combination of blows; clinching is a very clever methodology for locking with one's fists.

The Celtic Sword of Conn: The Fish-Head

There are many different styles of Celtic bare-knuckle-boxing. The one I know is from the Clan of Conn from Ballydavid Head. In New York City, this style is called Wes tie Wall-Fighting, and it's been modified from our old Conn Style (the main difference between our family style and the styles of other families, is that our style is a sloping system---it was developed to fight on the slopes of the hills and mountains of West Cork and Kerry against invaders) for the alleys and the air-shaft passageways of the City's tenements. It employs lots of difficult footwork, like leaps and hops and jumps. The actual techniques in the Conn style come from the usages of the sword. The swords that were used by my family are not the ones that are normally depicted as being Celtic. Those swords are fine weapons, but they are not the ones that my family used; usually those weapons are various modifications on Norse or Norman swords, which was a Viking weapon, or on various Teutonic and Germanic swords. The sword that my family used is called the fish-head or salmon-sword, and like its name, it is shaped like a fish swimming. It looks very much like the Iberian Falcata, except the hilt on the sword is not open. The hilt is entirely enclosed, so that the sword is gripped much like the lever on a lever-action Winchester rifle, four fingers on the inside with the backs of those fingers making contact, with the thumb on the outside. The reason for this particular grip is so that the sword can be shook when it makes any cut, rather than having to make a big swing with one's entire arm to achieve that same cutting action. This shaking action causes the sword to make a stabbing, as well as a cutting movement, with just a very small downward inclination of the elbow, rather than using the entire shoulder. The sword will literally leap forward, as an extension of the arm. This action is the whole basis for our style of bare-knuckle: three knuckles leap forward by a shaking of an elbow to knock on the enermy.

Prediction No. 11

The United States spends over a half-trillion each fiscal year upon its military, despite having an annual trillion dollar deficit; regardless of which political party happens to be currently in power. Because of this vast difference in what the US spends on its military (a half-trillion), compared to the discretionary funds available to be spent (nothing), the primary mission of the armed forces of United States has been drastically shifted from its original purpose of protecting the domestic US citizenry from foreign attack and encroachment to one of serving and catering to the needs and ambitions of the principal creditors of America; in effect, making its military into a foreign mercenary legionary force.

Prediction No, 10

Some of the programs that governments run to meet their citizens' health needs are already now bankrupt. For instance, in the United States, the medicare and medicaid funds have no monies because monies allotted to those funds have already been fully expended to meet the interest payments due on treasury obligations. Payments from these funds go to meet long-term chronic care needs of the elderly, disabled and the indigent. Payments are especially high for those who are in their final year of life due to some terminal illness. Because there are no longer any funds to expend, society shall attempt to shorten the final period of terminal illness of dying patients through fostering assisted suicide for the terminally ill: no patient---no payment. Gradually the impetus towards voluntary assisted suicide, which exists now, shall be shifting from a voluntary decision initiated by the patient to states mandating compulsory suicide for all those deemed terminally ill. For those who have long-term chronic debilitating diseases, such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's, state pressure to terminate life through suicide will be immense as the state shall have no monies available to pay for the extended care of those who are afflicted with these conditions.

Prediction No. 9

Because of the coming vast demographic changes, migration from the south to the north, the primary language spoken in the United States will have switched from American English to Mexican Spanish within twenty-five years. Many English speakers shall have already moved northward into Canada; so that Canadian English, with all of its spelling and pronunciation differences, will be the primary language for those Americans who do continue to speak English. Since, for all intents and purposes, the Chinese government will have ownership of America and of American assets (China is America's principal creditor and America will have defaulted on its treasury obligations), Mandarin will be taught in all public schools as a necessary part of the business curriculum. Naturally, in time, all three languages shall become synthesized; with a combination of Mandarin, Spanish and English becoming the common language for commerce.

Prediction No. 8

Once any nation's yearly fiscal deficit exceeds 120% of its yearly GDP, which would result in the interest to be paid on that government's total debt obligations exceeding twenty percent of its yearly GDP, that nation technically shall go into default. This is so because the interest on the nation's total debt can no longer be paid timely to all of the known owners of the nation's debt. And if this condition continues for several fiscal years, the country itself will have to go bankrupt, declaring its insolvency to all its debt owners, because the nation could never be able to pay off the entire principal on its obligations when they shall become due, and none would be willing to purchase any more of that nation's future debt obligations. This bankruptcy situation shall be happening in the US within the next twenty-five years. But because the owners of the US debt obligations won't be citizens of the United States (they'll be the sovereign funds controlled by other nations), the owners of US debt in default will effectively own the US and shall have an unobstructed access to all of the US A's national assets. USA assets will be auctioned off to pay these foreign creditors.

Prediction No. 7

People are fearful of liberty; they do desire immortality; however, fear of liberty and desire for immortality are directly contradictory. This contradiction will cause a divide amongst humanity; between those who desire security and those who desire immortality. The reason that some people, a very few, are not afraid of freedom is that they can see the future and this ability for foresight gives to them the opportunity to shape their own destiny, although they might choose not to exercise it for some reason (this is why religions and spiritual systems relying upon the will of a creator deity are inherently evil--there is no creator deity and the will that they are following is actually that of the clerics of this non-existent deity). It is also one reason why all socialistic systems of government are inherently evil. Even though a socialist state actually can exist (unlike the creator deity), total reliance upon any state for one's survival causes a loss to the individual immune response (literally, as the individual has not had an opportunity to protect himself or herself from destructive ideas, those consensus ideas of the socialist state. Since ideas do affect the brain and can cause lessening of immune responses, this loss can affect the body's ability to withstand future invasions by harmful virions and bacteria). Those who wish to live long then will migrate to states that give an individual greater liberty. This means a mass migration from some states, the socialist ones, to those of a more libertarian government. The result then is health administrating costs in socialistic states drastically rise, because more members of these states have poor immune systems. Costs skyrocket up, as most healthy members have already left, leaving the more vulnerable members remaining; resulting in state bankruptcy. Liberty is the necessary companion to life; they form a marriage: If you would live long; seek those states which are most free.

Prediction No. 6

Mixed martial arts, a misnomer as it doesn't contain all of the numerous weapons' techniques which had originally caused the origination of martial arts (boxing and wrestling having come from the usages of spear, staff and sword), will dominate world sports in the future. Families will be encouraged and subsidized to have children specifically bred and trained, so as to have ample numbers of participants willing to compete and to die within these simple contests, which shall become more and more dangerous to the lives and limbs of the contestants. Mixed martial arts contests shall become increasingly brutal, with many deaths occurring, because of government sanctioned public legal betting upon the outcomes of the contests, with a portion of that gambling revenue accruing and going to the state.

Prediction No. 5

Long term unemployment, people out of work five months or more, shall continue to rise in the United States; although it will level off in those other industrial nations whose primary language happens to be English. This rise in long term unemployment means that those with employable skills shall be seeking employment in countries other than the United States. The population of the United States shall continue to rise, particularly amongst those residents of America who are unable to converse in standard English and who are also unemployable. So, there shall be both a net migration leaving the United States of those employable and English speaking, and also a net immigration into the United States of those who're unemployable and are non-English speaking. In twenty-five years, a majority of those persons actually living in America shall be unemployed non-English speakers.

Prediction No.4

In a quarter century, most of the smarter people will have moved out from United States and up into Canada. This shall cause a drastic diminution in the mean score for intellectual ability in the United States (the average American will be dumber) and shall further accelerate the USA's economic decline, while simultaneously raising the status of Canada amongst the nations of the world. Because of its shale-nat-gas reserves, Canada will be the major exporter of natural gas in the world; not the middle eastern countries, as they are now. Natural gas is easily converted to hydrogen gas for further conversion for usage in transportation fuel cells, and Canada will be the main source for most natural gas. Alaska will have become an independent country in 25 years.

Prediction No. 3

In twenty-five years, most energy distribution will be accomplished through hybrid technology. There never was any energy shortage problem, but there was an energy distribution problem. The specific technology that will be employed is "thermal solar nat gas." Dynegy (DYN) and FPL Group (FPL) shall be the main wholesalers of this hybrid energy source in what will remain of the former America (states shall begin petitioning Congress to separate themselves off from the late United States). Both DYN and FPL are very good buys for all those interested in investing.

Prediction No. 2

In twenty-five years, a very small percentage of humanity (one percent of one percent) will have attained the age of 115 and above, and still be vigorous physically with all their mental faculties still intact. This will be due to tremendous advances in immunology. They will be acquiring the organs of others and shall be able to do so because of their affluence. In effect, they'll be in charge. They will be able to run for political office despite their advanced ages. The only advantage of age is experience, which gives one the ability to recognize recurring patterns; but because mental faculties decline so rapidly with age, experience is never any guarantee for wisdom. Now it can be.

Prediction No. 1

The world will look entirely different in twenty-five years. There will be many more wars over religion and over ethnicity. The United States will lose those states that are not continguous and a few that are. Canada will emerge as a dominant nation. United States will become increasingly poorer and far less influential. States will be petitioning for separation from the USA. Poverty shall be the norm there.

Official GMail Account Address for this BLOG

Now that The Chariot Way The Dream of Crom has finally been published on KINDLE, as an Q&A addendum to HEART-HEALING The Chariot Way, I believe I've finally answered all of the questions that were asked. Now is the time to allow others to also give their comments and their criticisms to either the topics raised in those two books or to all the topics raised in this BLOG itself. If you might wish to comment directly on the BLOG, let me know and I'll add your account so you can do so. I don't mind criticism. In fact, I kind of like conflict and controversy very much, as should be pretty obvious if you've read either of the two books (hopefully both), or have read the BLOG itself, which is also available on KINDLE and on Apple's iPhone. I could also add as many more topics as people might wish. HEART-HEALING The Chariot Way blog's GMail account address is as follows: oconnor.rothcroi.william@gmail.com So, please write to me there. I'll keep that email address just for this BLOG. Be well to do well. Thanks. Bill O'Connor

Rights and Responsibilities

One of the more common questions one gets, when people find out what one's religion really is, is an obvious one regarding ethics: what are the rights and responsibilities men have to each other, how well to treat one another; in short, how best to get along in an increasingly diverse, complex society. So, let's be clear here: no one has the right to be ignorant. I don't. You don't. Yes, many are indeed ignorant, and we are all of us ignorant about many things; but none have any rights to ignorance. No one has an inalienable right to be dumb. Liberty does not encompass stupidity. If someone expresses an ignorant opinion or vehemently adheres to an ignorant belief (usually it's the same person), that opinion and that belief shouldn't be respected. Ever! Because the person expressing the belief is human and therefore quite vulnerable; one ought to be civil and polite to the person, but most certainly that person's opinion and belief don't deserve this same courtesy. People should always be tolerated, yes, even the dumb ones, but stupidity is stupidity after all; so their dumb expressions need never be; and frankly, they ought not to be. The golden rule of treating others as we would wish to be treated ourselves is indeed a good one, but it applies only to persons; and not to those persons' opinions. Be discrete, yes, but do disagree. No one need ever have to put up with nonsense, nor should ever be forced to be polite whenever within its presence. Silence fosters the spread of stupidity. Speak up!

Beware the Zombies!

Beware the Zombies! Hopefully, all these posts (and there's a hundred of them) have helped someone somewhere at sometime. None of these posts are there for you to agree with them. They are all there to make you think about certain topics. You should be forming your own opinions and arriving at your own solutions. These posts are intended as spurs to thought. Remember: Without your own, independently wrought, thought-out opinions; you'll be just another zombie...so don't be one. Make your own.

The Duty of the Druid

Humanity, which is now but a single species, is splitting into two. This split is both profound and psychic and shall result in much future conflict. Roughly speaking, it will result in two separate sub-species of humanity: the creative and those who can't be creative. Creativity employs a strong psychic element. One has to be able to step outside of space and time. One can do this easily because space and time are constructs. They are illusions. Men made them up. But most people are unable to recognize the fact of the illusion since they've trapped themselves inside it. We who can step outside do have a duty to the others who have an latent ability to step outside. To the rest of humanity, to that vast remainder of humanity, we have no such obligation. The Druid future shall stay with the creative. All those others have their own clerics to assist and to protect them. They lack even the knowledge of our existence. Druids should remain the clerics and counselors for the creative. That's our duty; we serve genius and we serve ourselves alone.

The Future and Our Place in IT

As has often been pointed out, most people manage to waste their lives. Since their life is really all they can truly own, life's lost for them. They have stole it from themselves. Far better to spend one's life doing something one loves; as, at least in this way, even if one remains permanently impoverished, one can be happy and have a real chance to do something that's well worthwhile. So, what do we Druids do in today's world, where the clan system is no longer a factor in deciding one's position in life? One can no longer be counselor for the clan. Well, one can. But one has to create the clan one counsels, which means one has to identify those people with whom one shares common interests and then be of some service in some way to this elite group. Well, how to do this then? What common interests do we share with others? Well, there is one: Through our creativity obviously. Creative people shall always identify with other creative people. We Druids, by definition, are creative people. We'll identify with other creative people (whether they'll be fellow Druids or not). This then shall be our new mission: To serve as counselors for the creative for they now constitute our clan.

Dismissing false Experts

One of the problems one has in life is dealing with people who know nothing whatsoever about the subject they are most aggressive in discussing; in particular, those people who supposedly occupy positions of authority and have academic credentials in their fields of alleged expertise. The others one can safely ignore, but "experts" usually have to be responded to in some polite manner. People who have true knowledge have wide knowledge. This is because they are all naturally curious, and also have an ability to associate many diverse ideas and facts into a coherent structure. As we say, in martial arts terminology: they have "strong foundation" (in the arts, the saying is that a boxer's legs go first, meaning that they are no longer able to step, slip and slide, side to side, quickly in the ring); so, for any scholar, the same truth shall apply---knowledge is based, literally, on deep, strong roots that have multiple sources of nourishment. The trick then in dealing with these false, faux scholars is to divert them onto another detour to see if their knowledge is broadly based: talk to a carpenter about plumbing and a writer about mathematics, or a physicist about biology. If they lack knowledge in another field somewhat related to their own field; they shall then lack a deep knowledge in their own field. It's an easy and non-threatening way to deal with "experts." One then can safely dismiss their false opinion.

Bare-Knuckle-Boxing

One of the questions asked in the recent survey taken of readers is: Why do you people spend so much time studying martial arts? Well, the short answer is: It's fun. The long answer is that we each feel we are morally obligated to protect our own persons and those persons whom we're responsible for, emotionally; and, also, martial training is necessary for character development. Which martial system one studies is dependent upon one's age, gender, physique and skill level; as just as not every religion is right for everyone else (and for some, no religion is right), martial systems are all designed as they are, in order to meet expressed needs of very specific groups. One has to find what is the right one for oneself. But there is an even broader question and that is: What impels us to study any martial art? Self-survival is the straightforward answer. We believe that the inclination to violence is a genetic trait. Note that the word is "inclination" and it means the inclination could be controlled within some beneficial environment. However, in the United States, for instance; a million and a half children, at an early adolescent age, have one or more parents currently incarcerated and are now being brought up by close relatives, usually a grandmother. These children have exhibited very violent and destructive behaviors. The fact that a parent is in prison for violent behavior is an indicator that the parent's children will exhibit similar traits. These adolescents have already left the public school systems prior to the end of the ninth grade, usually by their fourteenth birthdays. By any standard, these are unemployable persons who won't be able to learn a trade or a skill. So, their only means of earning a living is by illegitimate methods; mainly by aggravated assaults upon others. It is because of these persons we should feel a moral obligation to study and to learn martial art systems: We want to survive.

Companions on the Road

Reality has many paths. It doesn't run in a straight line from event to event in a linear sequence. It detours and it turns back onto itself. Some detours run to dead ends. It might seem that the path is heading in the right direction; but it turns out to end abruptly, without warning. The problem isn't so much in avoiding taking detours; everyone takes some during life, but to be able to recognize that one is upon a detour and not the true path early...before the path has run out. One sure way to know one is on a dead-end detour is by noticing who else is on that same path. If people taking the path are people one dislikes and doesn't admire, the path is a dead-ended detour. Companions upon any pathway are sure giveaways as to whether the path is one that is heading in the right direction. If people on any path are ones not deserving of respect; get off the path immediately; turn around; take another way. Choice of companions is the same as the choice for a path; the better take the better paths and the worse take the worse. Take the best.

Energy and Existence

Energy is a big topic. There's a misunderstanding that energy has something to do with strength and it doesn't. This is not to put down strength. It's just that energy is different. Energy comes out of Nothingness, an absolute Void. How to describe this then? Existence is energy: just to be. So when we talk of energy, we are speaking about being; an ability to be in existence. This is an ability, but not a right. No thing has the right to existence but every thing has an ability to exist. What makes a thing, a thing; is this ability, this potential, for existence. Now, one would say: is there not some neutrality; a thing exists simply because it exists? Yes, that's true. A thing does exist because it exists; but it exists because it is contained within a potential for its existence. If it lacked the potential for existence, it wouldn't exist. What gives it this potential? Energy. We can describe energy then as a potential for existence and the ability to continue with its potential so that it doesn't disappear from existence. So, energy has two parts: a potential for existence, and an ability to continue in existence. There's a third part: an ability to cause its own potential. It's this third part that we shall be discussing in future posts: how does one create this potential?

Morphology and State Survivability

Luckily the survival of the state has nothing whatsoever to do with the survival of the person; or else, we would all be in big trouble. The United States has twenty-five years left to exist. What one sees in the state of California now (issuance of IOU warrants as the state lacks currency to pay its debts) will be happening to US nation in a quarter century. It means failure of America. Many commentators have spoken on this; mainly to the point that once the fiscal deficit exceeds the GDP of any state, the interest payments on the debt of the state cannot be satisfied, even if all the income in the state were to be taxed at an exorbitant hundred percent rate. This is true because taxes are always a burden upon commerce so when one's in a global economy, successful companies simply move all of their operations over to any nation that has a lower tax burden. It is certainly a good reason for failure. However, although it's certainly accurate; this is not at all the real reason for America's coming failure. The reason is far more obvious, though most wish to hide it. The real reason is this: in USA, the worse people have the most offspring, and it's as simple as that. Look around you. Instead of the tall, the thin, the strong, having offspring; who now is having children? Yes, it's the short, the squat, the fat; and their children resemble their parents. These children are the next US generation and their offspring will be predominant in America in the next quarter century. The USA won't be able to survive because of its citizens.

Hollyhocks and Holiness

In the Levant, on the Eastern Mediterranean, it was a tradition amongst the Neanderthals (those who were called ''others" by Atlantic Celts) to bury the most prominent people with hollyhocks and ochre, with flowers and with the same color as those flowers. Few realize today that when they'll attend funerals, they are actually observing a Neanderthal ritual, far older than humanity. But only the prominent were so buried. One of the more pernicious myths that humanity has are the false concepts of equality and democracy. By nature, men are naturally aristocratic, continuing in a very long hominid tradition. Better men have always been treated in better ways, even in and by their burials. The problem is: what constitutes the better? Hominid tradition (humans are only a couple of hundred thousand years old after all) is that; what constitutes the better is holiness. That's it. The idea that men are equal is absurd. They are not. They never have been. They never shall be. The idea that men are created is absurd. They are not. They are born of their mothers who were impregnated by their fathers, even if it's a test tube that's their womb. Now men do create their character, and it's how men are honored and it's how men ought to be honored; that is, by their character alone: such is real equality and democracy.

Zombie Nation

One of the problems that one constantly encounters is false knowledge and the claimants to false knowledge. Knowing is very important just in itself. If one doesn't know, it's very easy to be fooled and one then is forever at the mercy of fools. That's never a good place to be. Many people lack knowledge of anything that is outside of the small expertise they might have in the field in which they are making their immediate living. Some even lack that. A lot lack that. Some people have wide knowledge in many fields. If one isn't curious, one is a zombie. Beware of zombies. America is a zombie nation. Almost any problem can be solved if one has sufficient knowledge of all the facts, but many facts that are necessary to the solution are not the obvious ones. They usually aren't. That's why it is so necessary to have a very wide range of expertise and knowledge. All knowledge, no matter how arcane, is going to be useful; as some fact, that's seemingly irrelevant, can be brought in from far afield in order to solve some problem. That's what facts are for: to solve problems. Don't be a zombie. Learn.

State Survivability vs. Personal Survival

One of the questions that everyone must face eventually is whether or not personal survivability is dependent upon a state's survivability. It's not. If one looks at any old map of the world, one can see the nations of the world have changed dramatically over the last century, yet people who inhabited and were citizens of those long-gone, vanished nations have survived and thrived. It's in any state's interest to convince the habitants of the state that their survival depends upon the state surviving. We know that it doesn't nor shall it ever. All states are controlled by plutocratic oligarchies and those oligarchies wish to keep their affluence and position (which maintains their affluence). This is understandable. But if one is not a member of the state's oligarchy (and most can't be, that is why it's an oligarchy); the fate of any state has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with the fate of an individual: they're completely separate and not dependent upon the other.

The Origin of Sin

The two main psychic diseases are schizophrenia and bi-polar disorder and both are immune response diseases triggered by the hormonal environmental changes taking place in adolescence. Both diseases are chemical ones caused by genetic triggers responding to the person's internal environment. Both of the diseases are directly related and both fall on the same spectrum of cognitive malfunction. All the founders of religions suffered from these diseases to some extant, and in the case of the Abrahamic religions; they suffered profoundly. These psychic diseases cause an inability to differentiate between the external and the internal. External events that are not even remotely connected with the perceiver of the events, are attributable to actions either taken or not taken, by the perceiver of the events. This then is the origin of the concept of sin: false attribution between internal and external caused by a genetic chemical imbalance that results in the profound psychic malfunction of perception...sin doesn't exist but bad people do. The actions of any person, whether they be good or bad, stem from the person's character and every person is solely responsible for creating their own character.

Predictions and Markets

Investing deals with prediction and some people are far better predictors than are others. They are able to see patterns and trends before others do. These people are very valuable to any culture; and in fact, they are the most valuable people in the culture, as the culture depends upon them for its survival. The problem is that they are very rarely listened to at the time that they make the prediction. Why is that? Because predictions are opinions and everyone values his or her opinion above the opinions of all others and if an opinion is contradictory to a belief, especially if that belief is so ingrained that it has never been challenged before, the prediction, no matter how perceptive, will be ridiculed. In practical matters, it is fairly easy, for instance, to predict trends in stocks and securities in financial markets; but because the predictions won't be listened to, it's best to keep the prediction to oneself and to act upon it immediately by oneself; rather than in trying to make the prediction public where it would not be listened to anyway.

Evolution and Devolution

Evolution isn't moral in the sense that it's negative or positive. Human evolution does reflect cultural values as the more attractive mates are those which more closely align themselves with a culture's ideal, but the culture itself may be one another culture deems immoral. However, all cultures idealize intelligence, psychic abilities and longevity. The reason that they do is because these three are absolutely necessary for the survival of the culture, any culture. Some cultures might prize one aspect more than the others, but all three are prized. In contrast to this is devolution, where other values might be prized...values regarding reproductive abilities and aggressiveness. Sexually aggressive and physically aggressive persons do have a distinct selective advantage in some societies because their rate of reproduction is much higher; they'll have more offspring. So these are two tendencies that travel in opposite directions---one where aggressiveness is more prized and one where intelligence is more prized. And, of course, one could be both aggressive and intelligent, and that's a third direction evolution could take and now does.

Sacred Texts and Interpretation

One of the problems with the Abrahamic faiths is who has been given the right of interpretation of the sacred texts of those religions. Most religious systems have such texts (the Old Belief doesn't). Usually, the interpretation of texts is left to clerics, those who have accreditation by their faith's educational system in interpreting the faith's texts. The texts themselves were defined as being sacred because they are considered divinely inspired and dictated by divine emmissaries, angels and prophets and deities. When one reads the texts, they seem nonsensical and contradictory; and that's because they actually are. However, if the texts are read instead in an allegorical manner and are interpreted as allegories, some parts of the texts do make some sense. We know there are no such entities as gods or angels; but there were men who wrote the texts and men who are interpreting them, and sometimes those men actually know what they're speaking of; not often, true, but sometimes. Interpretation is reflective of the person who does the interpretation. A good person interprets wisely in a life affirming manner, and a bad person shall interpret the texts as mandating violence and conflict. Texts themselves can't change, as they are fixed; but interpretations could change radically, depending upon who is interpreting.

Science and Religion

Science is about obtaining a more accurate description of reality, while religion is about actually living in reality; so the two can't contradict each other. Science isn't a religion, as description is not existence. One should help the other. A religious person would make for a better scientist and the more science one knows, the more religious one should be. Any religion that rejects the findings of science is simply a bad religion and any scientist that rejects religion is a bad scientist. Of course, the findings of science can be wrong---anything that can't be subjected to empirical review is not science; it's simply opinion, and a scientist's opinion is only that: an opinion and not anything more. Religions can be judged by their veracity: a religion that mandates and demands unquestioned obedience from its adherents is obviously false, as it means the religion is afraid of the truth, and being afraid of the truth means only one thing: that it, itself, has to be untruthful.

Physical Immortality

Psychic immortality is proven by our experience: we've all met ghosts whether we wanted to or not and most of them have proven to be our other selves; but what about physical immortality?
Well, it's possible; but not probable. IPS are induced pluripotent stem cells taken from the skin of a patient, treated with genes and proteins to reprogram them into other kinds of cells (this makes them pluripotent), and injected back into the patient. At most, humans live to 115, but any at that age are both decrepit and incoherent---both. It is possible, with IPS treatments, for people to regenerate dying organs and tissues, as this has already been done successfully. The problem is the expense. IPS injections are prohibitively expensive and only for the very rich. However, the cost of the injections will decrease. For instance, in New York State, $600 million is being spent by New York State Stem Cell Foundation mainly through SUNY for IPS research. What this research means is that, eventually, immortality may be possible, if not probable; but longevity will be for the rich at the beginning and not for everyone. As IPS research grows, and its advantage is that injections are not rejected by the patient's immune system, availability of IPS will grow and people will be living much longer lives and perhaps, even lives of immortality.

Diplomacy and Reality

One of the problems with a country like North Korea is that it has been engaged in a civil war with South Korea for fifty years (an armistace was signed in 1953), and technically both these nations are still at war. South Korea is clearly capable of defeating North Korea anytime that it so wants and to end the war. But it does not wish to do so; because, by so doing, it would end a potential threat to Japan and South Korea regards Japan as an enemy because of its occupation. Much as the problems in the Middle East should stay solely amongst the nations in the Middle East, problems on the Korean Peninsula are problems for the nations situated on that peninsula.

Real Religion

Religions are created by men for men. The purpose of religion is mainly a conservative one: to preserve the professed values of a particular culture through the mechanism of both a belief and practice system. Sometimes those values are actually worth preserving: compassion, charity and civility, for instance. The world certainly needs more of those three. But some values don't deserve preservation, like submission and subservience to authority. Real religion, as opposed to the fake faux kind, deals with transcendent transformation, going from one state of existence to a far better state, through the daily practicing of an intense spiritual discipline. The disciplines differ in different religions, but this same goal is desired to be attained: transformation. If the religion is a real religion, one ought not to be at all that same dull dumb person as one was before one entered upon practice of the religion's spiritual discipline. One changes. If there's no change, seek out another discipline, as the test of religion's virtue is in its ability to transform adherents.

Origin of Religion

Religions originate through the actions of inspired schizophrenics. Some person, always acting as an outsider to his or her tribe because of some difference, physical and psychological, conceives himself or herself as a transmitter of some transcending truth and tries to convey that truth to the tribe. Because the tribe knows the person and that the person is peculiar, the tribe rejects the person and his or her truth. In most cases, because the person is truly insane, that's the end of the story. However, some persons, because they are so charismatic, are able to convince some other tribe, not as familiar with the strange peculiarity of the person, to buy into his or her truth. All religions start this same way with one inspired person. The question then is: what makes for inspiration? The answer is: that person's peculiarity. Not being accepted by the tribe causes the person to seek for approbation from within their own psyche, rather than from approval by the tribe (which wasn't forthcoming anyway).

Myths and Origins: The Red and the White

In my latest work, I included a short poem: The Dream of Crom, which is a Druid cosmology. I thought it might be of interest for all those who may be unfamiliar with our traditions. I'm now working on a rather long poem: The Red and the White, which describes the origins of man from the Druid perspective. Of course, this is only our mythology and it's not at all intended as a scientific treatise; any more, for instance, than the cosmology is, but I think it is instructive of a certain way of thinking. It's how we've long perceived how origins came about, and it includes a famous love story from my family's history. Luckily, I'm a good poet; so its verse isn't as insipid as most contemporary poetry. All Druids think and dream in poetry. It's just how we're made.

Psychic Power and the Trap of Time

If we look at time, not as a sequence of events, but as separate distinct moments, all of which are existing simultaneously, like pixels in a picture on a smart-phone that could be rotated this way and that with swipes of a finger; we can approximate how time is maneuvered and manipulated. The mind is that finger. The thing is this: the mind can be moved. The mind is not imprisoned within the skull, but centered in it. The mind can extend outside the skull. There are methods of meditation to allow for this extension to take place. Every culture has such methods, and has developed formal training disciplines to accomplish extension of the mind outside the head. Just as you can access blogs on a web, provided you know their respective addresses, these isolated moments in time can be accessed if you can locate their respective locations. Even further, just as you can rotate the picture on the smart-phone, all those isolated moments in time can also be rotated, changed and modified from their separated locations. They can be moved, just as your mind can be moved. This does not mean they can be deleted. They cannot be extinguished, but they could be edited so each moment is placed into a different sequence. They can be positioned differently so that the sequence of events is no longer linear. They'll become part of a hologram.

Pragmatic Idealism

It's common to preface any observation of strange behavior or hearing of a statement of belief with a brief comment: whatever works, works, and I usually do so myself to avoid controversy. One does so for several reasons, the chief of which is this: Never argue with ignorance. The fact is that many people, when discussing some topic that doesn't directly affect how they make their living, hold completely inane opinions about almost everything. But if one were to attempt to try to correct their arguments with facts, they will be offended and would become even more adamant in their absurd opinions---one has accomplished absolutely nothing by arguing. So, don't. Consider their complete statements and arguments in silence and nod your head and give some non-committal reply to their arguments. After all, it just might be that one's own facts and assumptions were incorrect. And it never is worth the losing of a friend over some little foolish disagreement. When dealing with strangers, it's quite different. Although all have the absolute right to express opinions in public; none have an absolute right to be heard, nor do they possess a right in any fashion to a response to what they say. So those fools then can simply be ignored.

Thinking with the Third Eye

One thing that all Druids have is a lot of ideas, answers and solutions; not all of which make much sense but we do have a lot. It sort of sets us apart from others (that and our psychic ability---we actually see, feel, smell, taste and hear the lines of energy in the universe). So, how do we do it? Easy! It has to deal with triple vision. The eyes are binocular and are designed to focus at some point in the distance, probably a tree limb, from which we swung when we were hominids. The way to get lots of ideas (the quality of any idea is dependent upon the character of its creator), is to focus the sight of the two eyes in such a way that vision is no longer binocular---one eye looks at the inside of the head while the other looks at the outside of the head, and to vary which eye is doing the inward focus and which does the outward focus. This process of looking inwards, and of also looking outwards, simultaneously, is what makes the "third eye" in the center of a forehead. From a purely neurological perspective, what the brain does is shift from alpha wave production which accompanies binocular focused vision to a gamma wave production, of out-of-focus vision. It's an old trick known to every meditative man. Once gamma wave production begins, that will accompany an inner vision, ideas flow very easily. Whether ideas are good ones depends on who has them. This has to deal with character. Character comes from heredity: Have good parents!

Value Addded Tax (VAT)

One proposed solution to America's fiscal deficit problems (they're many---there may be failure of imagination---but never of answers) is imposition of thirty-percent value added consumption tax (VAT), with a repeal of all other federal taxes---income, employment and estate. How VAT works (most countries already have VAT taxes) is: a flat excise tax is imposed at each stage of production, rather than at the final retail distribution, as is done with sales tax. Because VAT is consumption tax, rather than an income tax, it keeps inflation low and discourages credit debt accumulation. Some items, such as housing, medical care, education and groceries, are normally excluded from VAT taxation. It's also a simple tax to administer and to audit, because of its flat rates of taxation. VAT taxation encourages greater efficiencies in production of goods and from a conservative viewpoint, VAT is a far better tax structure, provided the income tax structure and employment tax structure are repealed: the worse things any state may wish to penalize within its economy are the production of income and greater employment, which the imposition of both income and employment taxes certainly does. If a state must tax, a VAT is the better way to go.

Relativity and Creativity

Creativity is misunderstood because the creative rarely speak about it as they are far too busy actually doing than conversing. The non-creative often speak about persistence and fortitude, but that has nothing whatsoever to do with creativity itself; rather these both have to do with success. The successful have persistence and fortitude; the creative have inspiration. Now, how does this inspiration come about---by an ability to see relationships in dichotomies. The merely talented expect reality to be logical and reasonable. It never is and it can never be so. Reality is reality. There are no laws, either natural or otherwise. They're descriptions only and the more accurate of these descriptions can be termed as science, because they're far more probable and possible; but there shall always be exceptions even to the most accurate of descriptions. Science is not science because it is true. What makes science something that can be relied upon in most instances is that it has descriptive consistency. The creative are able to perceive relationships in differences. Something contradicts something else. Rather than discarding one alternative for the other, a creative person accepts a contradiction and finds within contradiction: relationship.

Talent and Creativity

Almost everyone has talents (some don't because of brain damage and that some is increasing because of methamphetamine), but very few are actually creative. Most talented people are good critics but bad creators. Why this is so is because of evolutionary function. Criticism is the necessary adjunct to conservatism and conservatism is absolutely necessary for the continuance and preservation of culture. Creators don't build museums, but critics do so; because critics are concerned with preservation of past. No creative person is concerned with preserving anything; because creators, by their natures, rebel and they rebel against everything, particularly the past (including their personal pasts---that's why they constantly reinvent their own pasts). Critical and creative functions are both necessary, but they'll never congregate together. The creative despise critics, although they recognize their cultural function in society. Opportunities for the creative are thwarted often by critics and creative people know this, and this is why they'll try their best to avoid the critics. Judgments of others and ourselves only deters the production of new work. If one wishes to be creative, don't criticise; and in particular, don't criticize yourself. Find what you love to do and do it. Find your happiness in your own work and your own effort.

Martial and Mental Training

Martial Training has always been an integral part of mental training and encouraging psychic abilities. Although few have true psychic ability (most claimants to ability are either delusional and schizophrenic or simply outright frauds), everyone has a mind and it can be trained. Public educational systems are designed to benefit the state by inculcating its citizenship values, and so have very little to do with actually training the child's mind. This is why the affluent will pay for their children to go to private institutions and not to public ones. All private schools place a great deal of attention upon physical education as an an elite is superior to others not just because they may have social skills and intellectual skills others might not possess but because physically they are superior. The affluent live longer and are healthier than the poor. This is no accident. In all countries, the elites received martial training from a very early age in boxing, wrestling and the usage of the sword. Boxing, wrestling and sword-play require immense mental skills, as well as immense physical skill. Unfortunately, the common view of martial training has been corrupted from viewing films and mixed-martial-arts events. All of these have very little to do with actual martial training. There's no such thing as submission or tapping-out in real combat; there's just death and maiming. Martial training deals with the preservation of the warrior's life in combat.

Origins and Mythologies

Belief systems, faiths and religions, originate in the minds of men. They are not handed down by gods or angels. This does not make the belief systems less valid. Just because men are creators is no proof that creation originated with a Creator. One thing is sure though and that is the kind of deities created by men is a deep reflection upon the character of the men creating them. Men make gods and not the other way around but the gods that men make are true subtle mirrors of those men who made them. Jealous gods are made by jealous men and fearful gods are made by fearful men. God is made in image of Man and Man can be measured by the worth of this image.

Energy and Power

Energy and Power are synonymous in Druid terminology, and are not separate as in many other systems of mysticism. There are no there or here, no masculine and feminine, no white and black, no before-life and no after-life. There is only the IS, which could possibly be best defined as the state of existence, of being; although it's far better described as a potential for transience, of becoming, of evolving. To add a little clarity, we could then say that the state of existence is actually a state of change. If a thing cannot change, that thing is dead and that includes us. We change so that we might continue to be in existence. Once we can't change, that's it: we are no longer in existence. We are dead.

The Secular and the Sacred

Becoming involved in any conflict between Allah and Jehovah is not a wise policy. There is much pressure being exerted for the western democracies to get involved in the domestic politics of Middle Eastern countries, in particular the conflict between Iran and Israel. Both nations have evolved from their secular origins into semi-theocratic states because the more orthodox portions of their populations have reproduced at much higher rates than the more liberal portions and have greater say in the politics of their respective countries. The religious systems of both states stem from a single common source in Zoroastrianism, which pits humanity as being in eternal enmity between those forces aligned with the light and the dark. This is nonsense of course, but it worked for thousands of years to bring unity to tribes within their respective cultures and it eventually evolved into Islam and Judaism. What one has in Middle East culture are class conflicts, that are essentially secular in nature, under the guise of sacred wars. A ridiculous situation to be sure, but it's one that involves the whole world because of its dependence on petrol sources. Best to simply stay out and avoid such conflicts, as there can never be a winner in a war over religion. Particularly important, is for the United States and Great Britain not to allow their armed forces to be used as mercenaries to serve the interests of nations in the Middle East; as they have already done in Iraq and Afghanistan, to the economic ruin of western democracies.

National Socialism

When any government owns major manufacturing and financial services industries, through its control of companies' common stock, national socialism is introduced into the economy. Whether or not socialism works depends upon the abilities of those in charge. If those in charge were the very same ones who previously failed at regulating and in ensuring accounting accuracy in those industries, it should not be beyond our predictive abilities to assume any failed regulator would also have to be a failed manager. It is unlikely that any company run by any government could prosper or would even survive. Simply because of known government ownership, the shares of stock in controlled companies would have to drop in value, as the public will no longer have any incentive to invest in the government controlled entities. In short, national socialism can't work.

Selling the USA

The United States has had to issue three and a quarter trillion in additional treasury obligations in the current fiscal year and will be issuing the same amount of new debt in the next fiscal year. Naturally, that debt pays interest, or no one would be buying it. Russia, Brazil and China have notified the Treasury that they are now diversifying, which is a polite way of stating they don't wish to purchase many more debt obligations of the United States. US domestic purchasers, the citizens of the United States, are unable to purchase debt as they are leveraged out. Americans already owe more than one third of what they can make: the ratio of personal debt to personal disposable income for an average American is one-hundred-and-thirty-three percent of income. The average American is broke; so he or she shall not be purchasing any US government bonds. A government has two ways to secure the income necessary to continue its day-to-day duties: it can sell its debt and it can collect taxes. Of course, in order to collect tax, there must exist some income from which collection can come and there isn't. If the main buyers of government debt decide not to buy any more (Russia, Brazil and China); that source of income is also lost. There is always a third way to secure income of course: Sale of public assets, like land and rights that can be readily disposed. This appears to be the only viable option remaining to the government.

Carbon Taxation and Rationing

Carbon taxation and lessening emissions through cap and trade rationing cannot work to reduce pollution, because taxation and rationing decrease economic activity, and a decrease in economic activity actually increases pollution---it has an adverse affect. The poorer the society, the more polluted it shall be. Although there is much talk of climate change (climates always change...it is why they're called climates), climate change is but a single symptom of an underlying problem of pollution: pollution of air, soil and water. Pollution has to be prohibited to be reduced and harsh penalties imposed upon polluters. If some global carbon tax were implemented and imposed; for each year the tax were to be in effect, global economic consumption would be reduced a percent.
There never was an energy shortage. There never will be an energy shortage. And in a hundred years, laser-fusion shall become practical and economically efficient. The real problem is one of distribution---the smart grid problem, and there's many entities working to solve the problem. If governments desire to reduce pollution and they do, the efficient economic way to do so is to fund those projects that employ the best and quickest methods, and to fine and to jail polluters.

Extremist Activity

There seems to be great concern today about a possible return of extremist activity by persons who commit unprovoked violence upon others solely due to their ethnic origins. Obviously there is nothing new about such activity. Ethnic cleansing is an ancient hominid activity which has long preceded the advent of human evolution. Chimpanzees practice it. But why does it exist? The short answer is: sex. By preventing other males from having access to females within a group's territory, the group ensures its survival as a group. War is good example of this group survival. So too is gang activity. In war, an army is the gang...better trained, better armed; but it's still a gang. When societies speak of extremist activities, they are usually referring to members of one group attacking other members of the same group; say Americans of one ethnic origin attacking other Americans of a different ethnic origin: a tribe within a tribe attacking another tribe within that same tribe. Since tribes were originally formed as extensions of families, family cohesion is broken when one member of a tribe attacks another member of the same tribe. So why do these events occur; if such events cause a lack of cohesion within the group? Extremist acts occur as a result of peer group pressure to conform to the sub-group's standards of worth. Cohesion, all by itself, causes extremism because humanity is programmed to be loyal only to an extended family of individuals: two hundred or less, that can be recognized (the original tribal clan family). When the group becomes larger than this recognizable two hundred, sub-groups shall form and loyalty is then shifted to a sub-group and away from the greater group, of which a sub-group forms just a small part. What happens in extremist cases; is this sub-group doesn't actually exist. It is an idealized sub-group, a fantasy, a phantom. The extremist strives to become a loyal member of a psychic sub-group that can't actually exist: the martyrs, the rebels, the true believers. And to secure membership in a non-existent sub-group, an extremist must prove worthiness: He kills.

No Escape for USA

Some people have asked for comments on the financial crisis. Well, I've audited and worked for most of the banks involved; so here goes: Simply put, the government doesn't know what it's doing. Neither do the banks, of course. Not that I know what I'm doing either: but no one is dependent upon me---luckily for them. Let's take a small example: the US Treasury set up the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) because banks were undercapitalized and illiquid. The idea behind TARP was for Treasury to acquire bank's bad assets: loans; hence the name TARP. Of course, it didn't do that; instead the Treasury purchased bank preferred stock, convertible to common with warrants to purchase more bank common stock. As soon as Treasury placed some restrictions on executive compensation, the more solvent banks (J.P. Morgan Chase, Goldman Sachs and others) decided to repay immediately monies received from Treasury, plus interest. The government, being the government, announced success---TARP succeeded! The other less solvent banks will convert the government's preferred stock to bank common stock, making the government the largest shareholder. Of course, if they couldn't repay the TARP funds taken, it would mean that any non-repayer was practically insolvent so their common stock is worthless. But let's look at the institutions who do repay because their executives want their bonuses. The reason that government got involved is clear; if government didn't get involved, and as USA is a credit economy lead by financial institutions, government must fall along with all its banks. The reason government got involved was and is: its own self-survival. Reasonable enough. But the early repayment of funds actually worsens the situation. Everyone now knows which banks are truly insolvent: those that could not repay the TARP funds. Those that did, did so; so that they wouldn't be subject to compensation restriction: multi-million dollar bonus will live on. Nothing has changed. Systemic failures shall still occur because all those bad assets have not gone away.

Democracy and Theocracy

All democracies are theocracies, although they'll fail to admit it. Let's take, as an example, one state from each supposedly adverse national system and then compare them: Iran and USA.
Iran has many political parties and all those political parties are Islamic and it has elections. The USA has only two political parties that have any clout at a national level and it has elections too, and any candidates for national election are expected to be excellent fund raisers, or else they will not be nominated by their respective parties; presidential elections in US cost over a billion.
Power in both countries resides in the hands of plutocratic oligopolies as it does in all countries. The big difference between Iran and USA is that one country, Iran, requires a specific religious affiliation (to Islam in its case and specifically Islam's Shia version) and the other country, USA, in its Constitution, specifically prohibits a religious affiliation or lack of affiliation as requirement for public office. Big difference one would say. But, not so. What is required for holding public office in the USA is a swearing by an allegiance to and defence of, its USA's Constitution. In Iran, a same swearing of an allegiance to and a defence of, is required; but in it's case it's to Ar Qur'an.
Differences in interpretations of both documents, Constitution and Koran, are decided by black- robed panels, judges and clerics, and judgments can be appealed to higher levels of black-robed. So where is the difference? After all, in Iran, you don't have to spend your billion to be elected! The difference is this: The Constitution can be amended and The Koran can't. USA can change.

The Quest for the True Self

The difficulty in determining one's real identity (in the sense of giving birth to one's True Self) is that identity is tied to one's relative position in time and, as we know, time is an illusion. At first, then, it seems impossible to ascertain what one truly is; since our image of ourselves has to be an illusion if it can only be ascertained through yet another illusion (in this case, our relative position in time). So, let's ponder our problem: we're trying to determine our real identity, what we truly are. We cannot determine real identity, because it can only be ascertained relative to a position in time; in present time, NOW; but time is an illusion, so we're unable to position our self. Step back and away from the problem. What are we trying to do? Find our True Self. And why are we trying to do that? Because the self we think we know seems somehow false to us. We don't think who we're now is who we really are. Why? Because we think our self to be somehow better than this self that we now know. We believe our True Self lost, as it has become hidden from us. But what if identity itself is an illusion? Identity deals with distinction from other identities. We are different, yes. But what is it we think we differ from? From others. People. Things. Ideas. Ideas? Yes, ideas: Beliefs. Concepts. But what if Self itself is an Idea? That's our true identity.

Digital Future

One of the problems any writer or any artist faces is in what format should his or her creations be composed? One feels compelled to create and actually feels physically sick when not creating (I do anyway), so what format is best for creation? Since creation is communication with other persons sharing similar interests, one needs to find the common medium where one's work could best be shared. Clearly, today, that medium is digital. People like myself are drawn to digital media and it's why my work is in electronic format; as, after all, I'm writing for people like me.

State Survivability

Depending upon the size of its annual GDP, states cannot survive once their annual fiscal deficits exceed its GDP.  The reason for this, is that the interest payable upon its treasury obligations becomes so high its tax revenues can no longer sustain interest payments that are due, and because the revenues are less, taxes are raised to pay for interest payments, and those taxes serve to further reduce the GDP of the state---those that are so taxed moved to states with lower tax rates, and since these are the persons and entities contributing to the state's GDP, state GDP falls upon the loss of their contribution.  So, at the same time that more state revenue is needed to pay for interest on debt, three simultaneous events all happen:  interest rates on the state's debt rise because the state's credit rating has to fall; state's GDP decreases because those entities producing state GDP have moved on to other states; state fisc decreases because the entities contributing revenues via taxes are no longer doing so.  In short the state becomes bankrupt and so must liquidate its state powers to those other states which were fiscally more prudent and farsighted. 

Belief Systems and Evolution

Does humanity have any future?  Shall it survive?  Well, yes, but not in its present form.  What shall cause it to change?  Belief systems shall.  How?
We know that any isolated human breeding group separated from others for a sufficient period of time (a few hundred years) must undergo profound change within the human accelerated region (HAR) of the human genome's DNA.  The HAR is responsible for most of the rapid evolutionary changes in humanity.  So, given this scenario of a necessary prolonged isolation; is it then possible for human evolution to continue?  We already know where and why evolution happens: an isolated breeding community and the HAR of the human genome.  But given the extremely rapid technological advances in communication and in transportation, is it possible to have isolated communities in today's world?  We know we need isolation for HAR changes to happen.  The answer is: yes, because isolation occurs in humanity for psychic as well as physical reasons.  For instance, some religions prohibit sexual relations outside of their faiths.  They prohibit inter-marriage (and inter-breeding) with anyone outside their faith or religious sect.  The also encourage early marriage among members of their faith communities, and some faiths even encourage multiple marriages.  Given sufficient isolation, adherents of these belief systems undergo genetic changes.  Some have already done so.  So, some people of some beliefs are indeed different from others not of their belief; not just because of difference in the customs of the belief, but because they are truly genetically different:  Real purpose behind religious belief is enhancement of evolutionary change!  

Future of Humanity

Contrary to the popular notion humanity is becoming similar, interchangeable ethnically and culturally; just the opposite has happened.  People are more different than they have ever been before and they are growing even more different.  People are not the same; not that they ever were.  So no single system can possibly work for everyone.  There could never be a universal anything.  All humanity could never subscribe to the same faith or to the same belief.  What does this imply?   It implies: conflict is the natural state of Man.

Dangerous Belief Systems

Dangerous belief systems treat their adherents like merchandise in order to sell and to market the belief system to others.  Their adherents are praised for not questioning the "mysteries" of the belief system and for their loyalty in following the practices and the customs of the belief system.  Beneficial belief systems encourage questioning of all the tenets and practices of the system.  Since all belief systems have to be man-made, there can't be any tenets that can't be questioned; nor could there be customs that cannot ever be changed.  Good systems change and evolve.  Bad systems are static and stuporic.  If the tenets of a belief system seem stupid and non-scientific, they truly are dumb. 

Belief Systems and their Dangers

Belief systems were invented to preserve vanished cultures and unless the belief system is capable of change and evolving, so it can become reflective of contemporary culture, the belief system itself will eventually vanish.  Some belief systems are inherently extremely dangerous as they refuse to recognize their human origins.  There is nothing wrong with having been invented---all art is.  There is something terribly wrong with denying that a system of belief was invented and in stating the system of belief may have had a non-human origin.  That frankly is insane and insanity is dangerous.  That's my belief.