Spiritual Renewal

I just returned from a 3-day visit to a Christian community who live a simple lifestyle out on a farm in the countryside. There are about 30 people, mostly couples with children, and the doors are open (literally - there are no locks on the doors) for anyone to stay, anytime. I met them at the local farmers' market where they sell bread and baked goods, had a few interesting conversations with them, and decided I'd go and visit to see what it's all about. Now seemed like a good time to get away from civilization after all the madness of Christmas.

There's a lot of hostility towards Christianity today, which is to some extent justified, given the well-publicised conflict and hypocrisy that permeates orthodox religion. But these aren't your typical Christians. They're very aware, many of them having come to the community via New Age or Theosophical backgrounds, and they know all about the subversion of Christianity, the Council of Nicea, the pagan elements that have infiltrated cultural Christianity (not hard to spot - what do Christmas trees and Easter bunnies have to do with Jesus?!). They stay true to the original Christian principles, referring to Yahshua instead of Jesus, and having the Sabbath on Saturdays instead of Sundays. They think the idea that all non-believers go to hell is a dangerous and terrible perversion of Christianity, and they condemn the alliance between church and state. To many Christians, they'd be heretics. But their religion is pure and simple: overcome selfishness through love and humility, and change the world by first changing yourself.

The typical day on their farm includes an early-morning gathering for music, prayers and discussion, three meals which are eaten together, and work for the adults or school for the children (they are home-educated - I couldn't help noticing right away how well-spoken and bright the kids seemed). The men are usually in the bakery or doing maintenance work on the house, whilst the women cook and look after the children who are too young to be in school. There's always something going on, and especially with the children around, there never seems to be a dull moment.

As I said, I was only there a short time, but I feel like I've come away a bit different from when I arrived. My ego has been diminished a little bit. It's quite humbling to be around people who are so committed to purifying their minds and hearts, and so open in sharing their defects as well as their insights. They literally don't want anything from you except to love you. I don't consider myself a Christian but I was still welcomed by and felt at home in this community, and I really feel they've got something special, like they're true followers of Christ. You can't say that about many Christians these days.

Would I choose to join them? Probably not, at least not yet - though I could certainly be happy living that life. We need forward-thinking and enlightened communities like theirs to set an example and act as a safe haven outside of society, but we also need spiritual people IN society, changing things from within. That's where I see my work - on the inside. At least for the time being. But I feel I've been spiritually renewed in some small yet important way by visiting this community. It's given me fresh hope and quietened the agitation I was feeling about all the negative shit going on in the world. It's faded into the background somewhat. I hope I can preserve this state of mind into the New Year and beyond.

A little update

So I've been thinking about stuff lately (what's new?!). Namely, where I'm going, where my site is going, and what my purpose is in all this. Do I want to target the mass consciousness and keep unravelling media lies? Should this be yet another conspiracy website reporting on the latest alternative news headlines, or should I take things in a different direction? At the moment I'm not sure, so I'm sort of stuck in the middle. But I'm thinking I would like to start veering away from hardcore conspiracy stuff in the New Year. I've had this debate with myself so many times - am I striking the right balance between being aware of what's going on, and yet still staying sane? Am I simply buying into another illusion by what I'm doing? I always tell myself I can handle all this conspiracy research, but then I keep reading shit like this and getting really upset/agitated..... and this agitation filters through into my day-to-day consciousness. It can't be healthy. I read a profound quote the other day that went: "You can be right in the outer things you criticize but not be right in your motives and vibration". That hit me hard, and it's something I will bear in mind when thinking about a possible new direction for my website. So watch this space!

Besides doing too much introspection, I also just spent two hectic but wonderful weeks at a little Steiner school doing observation and a little bit of teaching practice. All the children's activities are imbued with a sense of fun and personal development, rather than just pumping facts into their heads. It was lovely to watch. On the last day they made me a Christmas card and sang me some carols, which was very sweet. I must say though, I would love to just cancel Christmas this year. I keep trying to make myself buy cards and things for people, so as not to disappoint anyone, but as soon as I set foot in the shops I'm like "NOOO!" and want to run out again. The atmosphere is oppressive; going to the local shopping mall is like stepping into the inner circle of hell. Yeah, I'm becoming increasingly cynical in my old age. Until next time!....

Book Review: Ron Paul's "Revolution"

I just finished Ron Paul's eye-opening book "The Revolution: A Manifesto", and had to do a quick post on it to basically say YOU NEED TO READ THIS. Prior to reading it, I already knew the political establishment was corrupt as hell, I knew the media keeps us in the dark about everything, I knew America and the rest of the Western world was descending a slippery slope into a New World Order dystopia - yet this book still managed to impress upon me just how much we're being screwed over, every day of our lives. Paul goes into detail about American foreign policy, and how meddling in the rest of the world's affairs does the US no good at all (no shit); the real motivations behind terrorism and 9/11, i.e. protests against perpetual Western military presence in the Middle East (personally I find this more plausible than most of the "9/11 was an inside job" conspiracy theories, although I'm sure neither theory has the 100% truth); how America is surreptitiously straying ever farther from the sound ideals for a restrained government laid out in the Constitution; how the Federal Reserve creates inflation by printing money out of thin air and thus imposes a hidden tax on the people; and plenty more besides that. His solution, in a nutshell, is a return to the principles of the Constitution and a far more limited, decentralized form of government, which is the opposite of what America has got now. As Paul rightly points out, the people are only ever presented with false dichotomies by the media and politicians, so the debate is limited to "would you prefer an oppressive, highly centralized left-wing government or an oppressive, highly centralized right-wing government?" with no one ever asking the question: Does it have to be this way? Or was it always this way? And Ron Paul is basically saying no to both!

Now apparently this book is a #1 New York Times bestseller, so presumably that means a lot of Americans have been exposed to these ideas.... so the question I'm asking is, why is Barack "change = more of the same" Obama now President, and not Ron Paul?!?!?! (That is, of course, assuming the whole voting thing isn't a fix, which to my mind is quite possible - even likely.) Paul blows Obama's vapid hope-and-change bullshit out of the water. His ideas seem so on-target, in fact, that I'm actually slightly suspicious at the fact that this book was allowed to get as big as it has - and that Dr. Paul is even still alive. Would it simply raise too many eyebrows if he were to suddenly disappear? Is that why they haven't "got rid of him"? Or is he actually one of them? I've seen a few other conspiracy-heads suggest just that. The jury's out I guess. Either way, I still appreciate his ideas, and like the way he delivers them. READ THE BOOK!

...In other news, this is super lame, and this is scary.

This is why I'm not a feminist

Firstly, oh my God - are they for real????

This seems like a good opportunity to repost my write-up on feminism that was formerly hosted at my Dare.nu site. This, ladies and gentlemen, sums up why I will never call myself a feminist.














Thoughts on Feminism

Feminism masquerades as a grassroots movement promoting equality, women’s rights, progress, freedom and choice. But did it really arise as a spontaneous reaction to women’s oppression? Or could there be a hidden agenda behind the whole thing that most people are oblivious to? As with most "revolutions", I suspect this one was carefully orchestrated and engineered from the very beginning. I would like to take a critical look at some of the tenets (and implications) of feminism here, as well as the possible agendas behind the movement that have little to do with women’s rights and more to do with advancing the New World Order (NWO).

Abortion

Abortion being "a woman’s right to choice" is one of those memes that most people never really think deeply about (I didn’t at one time, either). I would like to shake people out of their apathy and get them to just question their beliefs for a moment. "Women should choose what they do with their own bodies." Maybe in most circumstances, but when it comes to pregnancy, they made the choice when they had sex. People want casual sex without the responsibility or consequences that follow...but you can't escape the consequences of your actions forever. Hello, is anybody listening - pregnancy is a natural consequence of sex! I'm not saying that is all sex is about, but it is a major part of it. But we are conditioned to trivialise that.

Yes, conditioning is what divorces sex from reproduction. And if you want to see where that divide leads to in society, read Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. That book (which everyone should read, by the way) takes this perspective on sex - i.e. as being divorced from reproduction - to its logical conclusion...and the resulting dystopian society doesn't look too pretty. One of the consequences of having sex is pregnancy; if you aren’t willing to face that, then perhaps you shouldn’t be having sex at all, much less unprotected sex.

And yes, rape is a separate issue, but all too many proponents of abortion mention worst-case scenarios ("WHAT IF YOUR DAUGHTER WERE GANG-RAPED BY 15 MEN AND GOT PREGNANT??? OMG, WOULD YOU MAKE HER KEEP THE BABY??!!?") in an illogical attempt to legitimise abortion in the majority of cases, i.e. healthy and happy women who just find the pregnancy "inconvenient".

People don’t want to admit that abortion is an INDUSTRY. It comes down to big money. Who’s going to put a stop to that? And don’t forget the other major factor - population control. It’s evident that the elite want to keep the population down (understatement, they actually want a 90% reduction in population and numerous high-level public figures have said so explicitly) and if abortion weren’t commonplace (something like 1 in 3 babies being aborted in the US) then the population would eventually grow to the extent that the elite couldn’t survive; either a new elite would rise up and replace them, or the masses would be so sick of poverty due to unfair distribution of wealth (i.e. most of the world’s wealth and resources concentrated in the hands of a few) that they would revolt. Do you really think the elite want that kind of hassle? Do you think they could withstand it? No, it’d spell the end of the current order and the system as we know it. The Elite want just enough people to serve as slaves or cogs in the machine, and any more than that is surplus. Indeed a huge population is actually a threat to their survival. More people are harder to control after all.

Besides all that, I think the spiritual consequences of abortion are of primary importance, and the most overlooked factor in the debate. I believe in reincarnation and karma as legitimate spiritual laws. I believe that certain souls are meant to be born to certain women under certain conditions. There is now extensive screening available for serious physical handicaps like Down’s syndrome and even non-serious ones (e.g. cleft palate). Increasingly, parents are choosing not to keep their babies under such circumstances. But what if these conditions are present to help the child’s soul pay back severe karma from a past life? What if the parents are meant to pay back karma by raising a child under difficult circumstances? I challenge the prevalent view that embryos are just a bunch of cells. If that’s the case, why are many women so distraught following an abortion or a miscarriage? Look at this powerful series of photos of a developing foetus. Amazing, isn't it? I also love Ron Paul's argument in his excellent book, The Revolution: A Manifesto (p59) - why didn't I think of this one?!: "People ask an expectant mother how her baby is doing. They do not ask how her fetus is doing, or her blob of tissue, or her parasite. But that is what her baby becomes as soon as the child is declared to be unwanted. [...] we try to make human life into something less than human, simply according to our will."

Look, I’m not interested in getting involved in the circular, futile abortion debates that I've seen on the internet and elsewhere, and I understand why many people are closed to spiritual/religious arguments when it comes to a sensitive topic like this one. But let me just say this. The human mind can justify absolutely anything. All I know is that when I am most spiritually connected, high-vibe, feeling Godly and filled up with such a pure energy that I cannot even describe, certain things just seem abhorrent to me. I get a strong intuitive feeling for what is right and wrong (what is of God and what is not of God). I just know. And abortion is not of God. It is a sin in the sense that it carries karmic consequences.

Gender a fabricated concept?

Feminists claim that "natural gender roles" are a myth, that men and women are fundamentally the same and should act as such. I see them as having equal value and equal rights; that I can support 100%. However, that women and men have different and complementary qualities (like the yin and yang) is plainly obvious to me, and their roles should be adapted and suited to those qualities. (Not that all women should be forced to wear dresses and like flowers if that’s not their personality - but feminists fight against the natural order just for the sake of it, that’s what I object to.) So women are generally more feeling-oriented, more intuitive, more nurturing, whereas men are protective, providers, go-getters.

Also, it strikes me that some of the implications of feminism are only possible due to the nature of fast-paced consumer-driven modern society. Feminists would balk at the idea of cooking or knitting or sewing or any of those stereotypically feminine tasks. But if we couldn’t buy pre-packaged meals from the supermarket shelves and cheap clothes off the rack and pay for childcare services, what would we eat? What would we wear? Who would look after our children? Has anyone thought this through?

Feminism and the family

Feminism has brainwashed women to believe that having a career is the ultimate source of fulfilment in life, whereas staying home to look after the family while your husband works is parasitical, worthless and degrading. The other day one of my friends said in conversation, "I know it's terrible to say this, but in some ways it is better for mothers to stay at home to look after their children...". I was like, NO! It's not terrible to say it! It's flipping SENSIBLE, once you strip away the layers of brainwashing. Also, I've chatted to so many women of older generations who lament the fact that their grandchildren are being shoved in daycare or stuck in front of the TV by their career-driven mums, showered with fancy toys but deprived of true nurturing. But then they'll try to negate their feelings by saying, "Of course, I'm probably just old-fashioned..." and once again I'm like NO! You're not old-fashioned - your generation got it right, or at least they were more on target in many ways than we are now.

The whole welfare state we have in the UK also serves to undermine the traditional family and engenders total dependence on the state. Government childcare centres, government schools and government nursing homes...children and the elderly, the most vulnerable citizens, are increasingly in the care of the state instead of being looked after by their families as used to be the case. The family unit as a support system is losing relevance. Hmm...how very communistic. I don’t have a utopian vision of what family life is like, I know they can be dysfunctional, but really...a strong, close-knit, healthy family probably has the best defence against the NWO. Could this be a key hidden agenda behind the feminist movement: weakening of the family in preparation for a totalitarian state?

Feminism, Sex & Relationships

Feminists believe women should be allowed to be as sexually promiscuous as men, without being stigmatized. Well I say: why should women stoop to their level, just to prove a point? Who gets the most out of no-strings sex? Men. Women generally just get screwed over. When sex is freely available, men have no motivation to settle down, whereas women are more likely to get emotionally attached and seek a long-term relationship. And men are unlikely to consider an easy girl as long-term relationship material. Sad but true. Men used to work hard to court women, now they can get sex easily - where’s the fun in going from one-night stand to one-night stand, never really finding true satisfaction? Of course this links in with the destruction of the traditional family and with increasing political control (see links below). In the foreword to the aforementioned book "Brave New World" (did I mention that you should READ IT?!), Aldous Huxley tellingly writes: "As political and economic freedom decreases, sexual freedom tends compensatingly to increase. And the dictator...will do well to encourage that freedom. In conjunction with the freedom to daydream under the influence of dope and movies and the radio, it will help reconcile his subjects to the servitude which is their fate." I think what he's getting at is that sex is a powerful distraction tool. When the masses are out getting drunk and hooking up or watching porn 24/7, who’s going to notice as our civil liberties are being whisked away? Who's going to take enough time out from pleasure-seeking to figure out that they are slaves to an evil system? And that’s not even to mention the spiritual aspects of sex like the squandering of sexual energy... that could be a whole other essay.

What’s more enslaving: motherhood or the rat race?

In addition to taking women away from babymaking duties (thus reducing the population) and destabilizing the family unit, feminism also helped double the workforce by driving women to seek careers first and foremost. I’m all for women having choices and equal rights and being innovative and having ambitions - but when I think of what is usually meant by "career", I think of "upholding the system". I think of "cog in the machine". And I think of this backwards ego-based society that judges people by their job title and annual income. Men AND women do the rat race thing and chase that high-profile career that will validate them and make them "somebody", and I have rarely seen it bring true happiness or fulfilment. I’ve met so-called career women through my work and they are NOT people to aspire to at all. If being a career woman means being a self-important, money-driven corporate robot, I’d rather stay out of that world and raise a healthy and happy family, thanks.

UPDATE: Feminism has its own agenda and it’s not women’s rights (some more about abortion)

Feminists harp on about women’s rights - but only when it suits their overall agenda. What about the rights of the women in China who are forced to have abortions by the government? Why isn’t this issue getting more attention from feminists? Because feminism has its own anti-life, anti-motherhood agenda, that’s why. Some have even branded pregnancy "unnatural" and "a disease". Please - if creating a life and nurturing it in your womb for nine months isn't an integral and beautiful part of being a woman, then I don't know what is.

Along the same lines, I read a great quote recently that illustrates how the feminist stance on abortion allows for more serious violations of women’s rights to be overlooked. It was something like: "If a woman is raped and becomes pregnant, the problem is that she was raped, not that she is pregnant. If a starving woman gets pregnant, the problem is that she is starving, not that she is pregnant. If a woman in an abusive relationship gets pregnant, the problem is that she’s in an abusive relationship, not that she is pregnant." I also read about family planning clinics in the US performing abortions on young girls who were victims of (ongoing) sexual abuse - and they did not report the abuse, thus allowing it to continue. Essentially abortion makes it all too easy to tackle the EFFECT of societal problems without dealing with the ROOT CAUSE. So these serious issues get swept under the rug, yet feminists continue to rant and rave about the "right" to abortion as if it would be the biggest crime against women EVER if they were NOT allowed to kill their babies.

Rethinking feminism

Of course women should have options in life and not be subjugated and treated as objects or slaves by men (a phenomenon which has arguably become worse since the sexual revolution anyway!), but they also shouldn’t be programmed to believe that being a full-time mother & wife is worthless and unfulfilling while being a corporate slave is respectable and the path to happiness. What would the next generation be like if young children were cared for at home instead of being stuck in a nursery 8 hours a day? What if children learned values from their parents instead of being programmed by government schools and the Disney Channel? What if children were given love and attention instead of toys and television? People are taught that kids are a financial burden, that they tie you down, put a strain on your relationship, cry all the time, keep you up all night, throw tantrums...some of which may be true, but what about the positives of having a family? Children are not little brats unless they are brought up to be that way, or they’re not getting what they really want: genuine love and attention.

In conclusion: in a sane, non-corrupt society, women would not be brainwashed to act like men or look androgynous (see high-fashion models) OR commended for imitating the worst of male behaviour, being "emancipated" and sleeping around, but would be celebrated for their femininity, their ability to nurture and give life. Mothers and wives would be honoured and respected for the work they do in upholding a happy family, not likened to parasites and concentration camp victims (as mentioned in this article). Men/"patriarchy" would not be used as a scapegoat for all society’s ills. And dubious political/philosophical movements like feminism would not be used as a front for social engineering and political control. I can dream...
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Further Reading:

http://www.abortionfacts.com

http://www.henrymakow.com/obama_planned_parents_negro_pr.html

http://www.savethemales.ca/the_real_patriarchy_is_plutocr.html

http://www.henrymakow.com/the_decline_of_western_women.html

http://www.savethemales.ca/000817.html

http://www.savethemales.ca/180302.html

http://www.savethemales.ca/000950.html

http://www.plannedparenthood.org/health-topics/abortion-4260.htm [Planned Parenthood was founded by eugenics advocate Margaret Sanger, and makes a lot of money from performing abortions as well as receiving government funding. Note that on the above page they state: "Abortions are very common. In fact, more than 1 out of 3 women in the U.S. have an abortion by the time they are 45 years old." In other words, "it’s OK because everyone’s doing it!" On their "Pregnant - now what?" page, it also says: "If you are pregnant, you have three options to think about - abortion, adoption, and parenting" as if abortion is the top priority and parenting is an afterthought?! Just 2 things I spotted on a quick critical analysis.]

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Whew! That was a long one. But in case you haven't noticed, this is a topic I feel very deeply and strongly about.