Conversation No.7: A Serious Consideration Of The Zeitgeist Project:. I hope you will give the content of this post an open-minded review.

Conversation No.7: A Serious Consideration Of The Zeitgeist Project: (Enter).  I hope you will give the content of this post an open-minded review and thoughtful read.  The Cafe Camus Political Coffee House was created with such intellectual content in mind.

 

 

 We are entering a time of real possible change,  by design or necessity, either way the only constant in our lives today is change; our challenge will be how we manage or direct  the changing Zeitgeist.  I have intended for some time to address this matter, “The Zeitgeist Project” and an email response of late last evening from Emily (Emmy) Peyton posed the followed question:

 “Have you watched the zeitgeist addendum movie yet? Let me know what you think please.” I have watched it several times and have given the Project serious consideration as well as the controversy that surrounds the work.

 

To date the Zeitgeist project has generated serious interest as well as near Fanatic opposition determined to undermine its every thought, question and intellectual exploration.  Some have attacked the discussions and conversations as “Marxian” in their attempts to dismiss the projects efforts and still others fault the effort as “reaching wrongful conclusions or failure of understanding the current “Zeitgeist” and what it portends for our futures.

 

I find neither of the schools of attack of serious negation value.  The former I dismiss, and the opinion of the Alex Jones school of thought really only adds by way of dimension.  However, the manner in which he presents his vision of a “New Zeitgeist, A New World” is set out with flamboyance that tempts far too  many to a knee jerk “Conspiratorial School Of Thought” rejection. 

 

All one has to do these days is to make a label “Conspiratorial” stick and your every word becomes Gospel to those seen as lunatics and all serious consideration of your thought, viewpoint and vision is tossed into the intellectual trash dumpster of rejection by the vast majority. 

 

I do not find the work of The Zeitgeist Project to fall in that classification in any manner way shape or form.  It may well be controversial and deal with things we don’t want to think about or admit to, but intellectual integrity demands that one face at times some rather ugly facts.

 

Zeitgeist: Why Does YouTube Keep Removing This Video? Introduction

 

RESEARCHERS!!! Interactive transcript with citations at http://www.zeitgeistmovie.com/transcr...

http://www.zeitgeistmovie.com/

Zeitgeist was created as a non-profit filmiac expression to inspire people to start looking at the world from a more critical perspective and to understand that very often things are not what the population at large think they are. The information in Zeitgeist was established over a year long period of research and the current Source page on this site lists the basic sources used / referenced. Soon, an Interactive Transcript will be online with detailed footnotes and links so exact sources and further research can be relayed. 

Though many different frauds are addressed in Zeitgeist, at the present time the most important issue is exposing 9/11 and thus exposing government sponsored Terrorism. If we do not, they will erode all of our civil liberties and an oppressive, military style, surveillance based Police State will take firm root.

On Aug. 4th 2007, the Senate passed the Bush backed 'spy bill', which preserves & expands the illegal domestic spying program. I hope people are educated enough by this time to know that such legislations have nothing to do with Terrorism, and everything to do with monitoring and controlling American dissent.

Furthermore, on May 9 2007, Bush signed the National Security and Homeland Security Presidential Directive, which gives Bush near full dictatorial powers in the event of a "National Emergency". Bush, and the people he works for, will be able to do ANYTHING they want if a "National Emergency" is deemed. All they need is a "New 9/11". The US Constitution will no longer be applicable.

In regards to this Directive, Paul Craig Roberts, a former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury during the Reagan administration, has come out and said he feels the White House is preparing to STAGE A NEW 9/11 and the executive order is designed to capitalize on such an attack, specifically to impose Martial Law and Invade Iran.

In Order To Stop Martial Law And The Total Destruction Of The US Constitution, We Must Stop Another False Flag Attack. The First Step Is To Expose The 9/11 Fraud. This Is The Event That Is Being Used To Justify The Developing Police State, Not To Mention Worldwide Oppression.

It's important to point out that there is a tendency to simply disbelieve things that are counter to our understanding, without the necessary research performed. However, if one takes the time to read the sources provided, they will find that what is being presented is based on documented evidence. Any corrections, clarifications & further points regarding the film are found on http://www.zeitgeistmovie.com/.

 

Category:  News & Politics

Tags:

NWO  Terror  Terrorism  Bankers  IRS FRS  Federal  Reserve  

Rothschild Rockefeller  Bush  Cheney  911  Truth 

Internal  Revenue  WWI

 

I am including this selection of Kennedy materials at this point because our assassinated President shared many of the concerns addressed in this post and because the ongoing search for the truth, a truth that can be accepted, is one of those matters that many have their eyes glaze over at the very mention of yet another discussion as being somehow the product, automatically of the lunatic conspiratorial fringe.  It is a real problem that should not exist and when one group even dips its brush into that paint the entirety of their efforts all too often becomes covered with the label.

  

John F. Kennedy On Secrecy From Zeitgeist (2 Versions) JFK WARNED US!      Version #2   How JFK Really Died   Recently released footage from the Zaprudder film, showing how JFK was actually shot. Category:  News & Politics   Tags: John  F.  Kennedy  JFK  Conspiracy Grassy  Gnole   Theory  Gun  Zaprudder Sewer  Super  Vintage   Fitzgerald Assasination

 

ZEITGEIST ADDENDUM MOVIE (PLUS)    http://www.zeitgeistmovie.com/    Zeitgeist Addendum - released free online Oct. 3, 2008   http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7065205277695921912     Full Screen Google Video Version:

Alex Jones Attacks The Addendum   The Alex Jones Vision And Orientation |  The New World Order     The YouTube File: Zeitgeist     Additional   Dobbs Problem (Immigration) Dobbs Is On The Right Track But As Usual His Thoughts Are Colored By His Obsessive Xenophobia.  Dismiss That And Consider The Issue On The Merit Of Its Substance And Not Bias.

 This is a global memorandum for those who seek societal transformation and a future that is defined by hope. If what is written below appeals to your intellect and intuition you may forward this memorandum to other likeminded people.

  

PART I: What is the Zeitgeist?

It is something everyone breathes. Something everyone is in . . . like a fog it obscures our vision. Until we are awakened we live with the delusion that we are immune to it. We think we are in control. We think we are autonomous. But this is only because we have forgotten. We have forgotten history and have forgotten to listen to the wisdom of the past . . . to our ancestors. They too were in it. And yet some enlightened souls saw through the veil. 

Ever since humans began to think beyond immediate needs, we have tried to transcend the Zeitgeist. For better or for worse, it can cause us to believe and act in certain ways. Sadly, we forget that each individual has power. Everyone has a choice. We can choose to follow the Zeitgeist blindly or we can choose to transcend it. We can go about living in our semi-conscious state by allowing others to think for us and be myopic and apathetic OR we can choose to transcend the Zeitgeist. WHAT IS THE ZEITGEIST? 

Every era, like every person, has its own personality. This is the Zeitgeist. It is not an esoteric concept. It is a simple word yet a very descriptive word that anyone can understand. The German word Zeitgeist (often capitalized and italicized) is comprised of two German words: zeit meaning "time" and geist meaning "spirit". The word denotes the spirit of a particular age . . . the milieu of a society or era. 

With hindsight we can understand the personality of any given era . . . what it did right . . . where it went wrong . . . and the people (influencers) who shaped it, for better or for worse. Whether it was the Zeitgeist of the 1960’s, the Renaissance or the Zeitgeist of pre-Nazi Germany, behind every era are people of influence who affect the masses and thereby define the personality of any era (e.g., musicians, poets, novelists, authors, philosophers, essayists, movie directors, etc.). 

Consider your own personality. It was partly shaped by your genetic makeup but also by your parents. What parents are to children, influencers are to the Zeitgeist. Not only is every person shaped and moulded by their parents but also by their culture, by the Zeitgeist. 

We are a product of our times, that is to say, we are a product of the Zeitgeist. Just as our parents can affect the way we think so too does the Zeitgeist affect the way we think and act. Our parents instil in us certain values and ideas and these ideas become part of our belief system, likewise with the Zeitgeist. The problem is, when we are IN the Zeitgeist we are often not fully aware of its manifestations; how it affects us and how it directs the future . . . sometimes for the better and sometimes for the worse. 

Consider, for example, how one particular Zeitgeist in North America promoted the ‘idea’ that woman were inferior to men. In fact, the Zeitgeist went so far as to say that woman were not "persons". To affect the Zeitgeist all it takes is one person to act as a catalyst. A Canadian woman, for example, by the name of Emily Murphy sought to be a Senator; however, she was unable to. Why? Because she was a woman. Recall the words of America’s third President, Thomas Jefferson: “The appointment of a woman to office is an innovation for which the public is not prepared, nor am I.” (The Works of Thomas Jefferson, vol. 10, par. 735)

Remember, the Zeitgeist of that time said (according to the British North American Act) women were not allowed to vote because they were legally not "persons" therefore a woman could not be Senator. Murphy’s motion to overturn this ‘idea’ – to overturn this one facet of the Zeitgeist – became known as the "Person’s Case". The most important constitutional case in Canadian history. Her motion was denied by the Canadian Supreme Court. In deviance, she courageously sailed to England in 1929 to appear before the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council of the British Empire, which at that time was Canada’s final court of appeal. 

Emily Murphy did not, like most of us, resign herself to the Zeitgeist. She saw through its veil and awoke. As a result, she challenged it and won. Five years later the Prime Minister of Canada, Mackenzie King, appointed the first female Senator. Unfortunately, it was not Emily Murphy. It should be noted, however, that Murphy was the first female magistrate in the British Empire. Ideas have consequences. Ideas are created by people. And ideas, for better or worse, shape the Zeitgeist. 

It was people of influence who moulded the Zeitgeist of Emily Murphy’s era and because most people are followers they uncritically accepted that woman were inferior. We should not be so foolish or arrogant to believe that today we are so much wiser than the past. Everyone, from time to time, needs to be awakened from his or her ideological slumber. 

Sometimes when influencers communicate their ideas they become ideologies. Ideologies affect how we think and as a result how we behave. For this reason, influencers have grave responsibilities. Their ideas will live on long after they die and potentially affect future generations. Consider, for example, people like Aristotle, Darwin, Marx, Gandhi, Hitler, and Martin Luther King, etc. These are people who, in one way or another, affected the masses and moulded the Zeitgeist (the ethos and milieu) of their era. 

With hindsight, it is easy to understand past Zeitgeists like the 1960’s, for instance. Because we have hindsight we can see how certain people’s ideas, namely, influencers, affected the masses and thereby defined the Zeitgeist of the 1960’s. Ideas can be very powerful. And because ideas can change how people think, ideas can affect how people act. If we were to closely examine the 1960’s we could connect the dots, as it were, of those people who ‘created’ what we now call the Zeitgeist of the 1960’s. 

For example Michael Lang, the co-creator of Woodstock; 

Musicians like The Beatles, The Doors, Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, Led Zeppelin, & Jodi Mitchell;

Intellectuals like Isaac Asimov, Noam Chomsky, Carl Sagan, Jean-Paul Sartre, & Alan Watts; Activists like Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, Mario Savio, Gloria Steinem, & Abbie Hoffman; 

Directors/Producers like Ingmar Bergman, Woody Allen, Michelangelo Antonioni, & Dennis Hopper; Artists like Peter Blake, Bridget Riley, Sol LeWitt, & James Rosenquist; Poets like Robert Frost and Basil Bunting; 

Authors like William Faulkner, Truman Capote, Jules Ralph Feiffer, Louise Fitzhugh; John Steinbeck, & Betty Friedan; 

Playwrights like Joseph Heller, Gore Vidal, &; Tom Stoppard; 

Religious Leaders like Pope John XXIII, Paramahamsa Yogananda, Billy Graham, Franklin Merrell-Wolff, Irina Tweedie, Sri Aurobindo, & Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. 

This list of course is not exhaustive, but it at least illustrates how people’s ideas influence the masses and create what is known at the Zeitgeist. In short, ideas have consequences and actions are born from ideas and ideas/ideologies are generated by influencers. If we are aware of the current Zeitgeist then we can, with foresight, predict how the future will unfold. If we can operate with foresight then we could curb noxious ideologies. That is to say, harmful ideas of TODAY that can have negative ripple effects into the future. 

Since every particular age is cultivated by people of influence such people dictate the Zeitgeist and yet it is the masses who give power to influencers. For this reason, every person, like Emily Murphy, has power. Every person is like a drop of water and contributes to the vast ocean of our existence. And every person is like a word on a page . . . carefully placed by the dictates of grammar . . . the unforeseen laws of nature. As each page of history is turned by the wind of change it bears the weight of humanity’s theme. Although the plot of every era is different, the fine balance between life and death remains the same.     

Every person, one way or another, is framed by the Zeitgeist. We are all IN it. The question is, are we able to transcend it? Are we able to see it with our own eyes? Do we want to be preventive so that the future is one of hope and not destructive? Will we redeem our short existence by striving for what the ancient Greeks called arete (i.e., the drive for excellence/virtue) and attempt to reach our potential? 

It is everyone’s desire that as we get older we become wiser and learn from our mistakes (hindsight) in hope that we may operate with foresight. Reaching our potential and knowing ourself is not easy and yet this effort far exceeds the rewards of becoming whole and living in harmony. Just as it is difficult to know yourself, it is also difficult to grasp the Zeitgeist when you are in it. 

When we reflect on our personal history we often say, "I wish I knew then what I know now." This is the advantage of hindsight. What if we could apply hindsight to the future? This is foresight. 

If we are wise and prudent, then foresight operates like hindsight but of course foresight looks forward. 

Foresight allows us to live with less regrets because we are able to ‘see’ the future if were to continue on our current path. Unfortunately, all too often we want short term solutions to problems plaguing society. If we truly want societal transformation; if we truly desire a future that is defined by hope, then should we not give heed to the reigning Zeitgeist? Understand it? Listen to it? And wonder, given the current Zeitgeist, what will the future Zeitgeist look like? The future is ours to write. We cannot erase the past. We only have today. What we do today will define the future. And although the plot may change, the theme is always the same. 

 

We shall not cease from exploration

And the end of all our exploring

Will be to arrive where we started

And know the place for the first time.

Through the unknown, unremembered gate

When the last of earth left to discover

Is that which was the beginning;

At the source of the longest river

The voice of the hidden waterfall

And the children in the apple-tree

Not known, because not looked for

But heard, half-heard, in the stillness

~ T. S Eliot, Four Quartets

 

For additional information about the word Zeitgeist click here.

 

 

PART II: A GLOBAL CALL TO ACTION

 

Inequality and injustice are often a result of the lust for power and coupled with noxious ideologies breeds arrogance, causing unforgivable calamities. The Zeitgeist Project initiative desires to be a bridge between the chasms of opposing camps and those unforeseen causes (viz., ideas). It believes that authentic dialogue amongst influencers and people of power can be an important means to help ensure the Zeitgeist of the future is defined by hope. In other words, empathic dialogue can itself be efficacious in generating a Zeitgeist of equality, justice and peace. Organic change, in a spirit of equanimity, is possible by raising the consciousness and conscience of society.

 

For this reason, the Zeitgeist Project is arranging the first Zeitgeist Assembly where people who influence society artistically, spiritually, and intellectually will gather to address the State of the Zeitgeist to answer this question: given the current Zeitgeist what will the future Zeitgeist look like? Imagine what a critical mass of influencers could generate ... foresight, hope and what the ancient Greeks called arete (the desire and ability to reach our potential).

 

There are many positive aspects of the Zeitgeist, however, we are always on the brink of either devolving or evolving. Issues inflicting the Zeitgeist cannot be addressed exclusively within the realm of philanthropy, which primarily deals with effects. To do so creates redundancies and a lack collaboration within philanthropic circles. By exclusively treating effects this means dependency for recipients. Consequently, the original issue being addressed, for example, becomes epidemic and cyclical. For this reason, the Zeitgeist Project seeks to redress issues as opposed to only addressing them.

 

The Zeitgeist Project is, of course, not a panacea, however, it will play a critical role on the international stage. It will speak to a concern that has lingered across the ages. A concern that has inspired poets, philosophers and artists. A concern that transcends all ideologies and cultures. What does it mean to be human in the face of our mortality? This is what has always and will forever define the Zeitgeist.

 

A pathologist is one who studies the nature of disease and its causes, development, and consequences. A psychologist is one who is concerned with the well-being of an individual and assists one in becoming whole. TheZeitgeist Project has similar concerns except it is concerned with the collective psyche; with society at large and in understanding those psyche/spiritual ‘diseases’ inflicting society. In particular, it is concerned with how the future will unfold given the current Zeitgeist. It seeks to anticipate and prevent a future Zeitgeist that might be destructive. How? To encourage dialogue amongst people of influence and thereby discover how the Zeitgeist is affecting us and ask how influencers are shaping the growth or decline of the Zeitgeist. 

The Zeitgeist Project recognizes the great potential in humans to create a Zeitgeist of harmony; for people to live with hope and for each person to realize that his or her life is significant. Consider how the Zeitgeist is analogous to one’s own body. How we treat our body will determine how long we live. How we feed our minds will determine the quality of our lives. Likewise, the life span of humanity is determinative on the Zeitgeist. This is because the Zeitgeist represents the heartbeat and soul of any society and given globalization it will affect how we collectively evolve.  

If you look at world history and compare it to today we have in many ways collectively matured, but of course we still face many challenges. What complicates matters further is that we are always on the verge of devolving. We are not always consciously in pursuit of what the Greeks called arete . . . the notion of striving for excellence/virtue in the attempt to reach our potential. And since the Zeitgeist tends to be fragile and fickle, not unlike ourselves, the Zeitgeist has the potential to perform unthinkable evils. If you think about the Zeitgeist, the collective personality of a nation, it operates in a very similar way as an individual. The Zeitgeist operates at the macro level while individuals operate at the micro level. They are mirror images of each other.

 

Another function of the Zeitgeist Project is to have an impact on philanthropy. Philanthropy attempts to correct injustices in society and increase the well-being of humanity. Unfortunately, there does not exist a balanced approach to philanthropy which currently focuses its attention on addressing the micro level of our existence. If we want societal transformation then we must also be concerned about the macro level (i.e., the Zeitgeist).

 

Every era attaches on to something. Often the Zeitgeist is reactionary and will rally around a particular cause. For example, the ‘cause’ a few decades ago was overpopulation, now it is the environment. On a much more fundamental level, it could be argued that what has always driven the Zeitgeist is one of the most basic of all human desires. It is a desire that has many manifestations like the desire for power, fame, money or popularity, etc. It is a desire everyone shares . . . a desire that defines humanity.

 

What unifies people of all races is not simply our anatomical and physiological attributes, but also the fact that we are all desire the same thing. As we mature, we begin to wake up and ask more of life . . . ask more of our ephemeral existence. We desire a WILL TO LIVE in the midst of suffering, paradox and contradictions. We want to justify our existence. We humans, unlike animals (who only follow their instincts), are always trying to make sense of things. The most common question, for example, of child is . . . “Why?”

 

This universal desire to find a “will to live” often divides us because we have different ‘answers’ to what each person defines to be his or her raison d’etre. As a result, different Zeitgeists have emerged throughout the ages.

 

Understanding past Zeitgeists is far easier than grasping our current Zeitgeist. Why? Because we are IN it. The question is, do we want to lift the veil of the Zeitgeist. It has for better or worse matured, but has it lost its innocence forever? Can we go back? Do we want to go back?

 

Too often, we not only LIVE vicariously but also BELIEVE vicariously and allow the Zeitgeist to control us. If we could appropriate our ephemeral natural and our common angst in find a will to live within our fragmented existence we might realize how it is possible to transcend the Zeitgeist. However, as history demonstrates again and again and again . . . most of us are not courageous to lift its veil. Instead, we become resigned. Eventually we loose hope. Why? Because we forget we have power to impact the Zeitgeist. We forget we can contribute to the whole by being part of humanity’s collective growth like Emily Murphy.

 

Today it appears that we have entered an “event horizon” and life has become like listening to an orchestra tune up. Sometimes it seems that we have everything to live WITH but nothing to live FOR. In physics an event horizon is the area surrounding a black hole where time essentially stands still and what happens next is anyone’s guess. Never before has the Zeitgeist become global and never before has it reached the potential to collapse in on itself.

 

In the last 200 years, humanity has experienced unprecedented change. It is debatable if we have paused long enough to generate enough foresight to ensure that the future IS what we envision it to be. Perhaps, as the religious studies scholar Huston Smith observes, "We have withdrawn ourselves so that we have as little emotional attachment to the world as possible. What we see is not very comforting. We find it far simpler to not be engaged with the outside world."

 

Regrettably, there appears to be little concern about the Zeitgeist. We tend to want short-term solutions. Look at the world of philanthropy, for example. Most philanthropy, as well as a lot time, money and resources go towards stop-gap measures (i.e., band-aid solutions). In other words, much of the philanthropic world address issues as opposed to redressing problems.

 

Philanthropy tends to treat the effect and not the cause of issues. This means all the good that philanthropy does do will have to be addressed again the following year. In other words, philanthropy is cyclical in nature. It is being proffered that equal amount of time must be spent redressingissues so that we may be preventive and remedy the causes of oppression, suffering, injustice, apathy or anomie.§

 

What if we could operate with foresight, instead of waiting until it is too late to act? Ideas have a domino effect and can spread like a virus . . . and some ideas, once they gain momentum, can take centuries to contain and overcome. What ideas TODAY are being generated that will have dire consequences for the future?

 

What if leading influencers could gather to discuss what the future Zeitgeist will look like given current trends? What if influencers made a conscious effort to use their influence to advance civilization? This is what the Zeitgeist Project is all about in its goal to orchestrate the first Zeitgeist Assembly . . .  a bi-decade assembly where a nation’s and then world’s leading influencers gather to understand the current Zeitgeist, how we are being affecting by it and how we can move forward to ensure that we do not create a degenerate future.

 

A critical mass of influencers could generate enough foresight so that we could “see” the future. Although we cannot predict with 100% accuracy what the future will look like, this does not mean we should not try to direct its path.

 

What will come out of the Zeitgeist Assembly? It is believed that empathy, dialogue, awareness and the sharing of ideas are essential components in initializing change especially if those dialoguing are the most influential people of a nation or the world. From the Assembly a summary will be generated called the Zeitgeist Report. This report will serve to disseminate what is discussed at the Assemblies. The report will also be published on the internet to allow people from all over the world to comment on the Zeitgeist Assembly and the insights it generates. The Zeitgeist Report will also be distributed to policy makers, artists, government officials, think-tanks, the media, educators, and the UN, etc.      

 

We can choose to let the future take its course OR we can choose to sculpt it. If we want the future to be defined by hope then this requires that we move forward cautiously.

What we do today can redeem the past. What we do today can ensure that all our striving will not be for not. And that what we think IS good does not END like Mary Shelley’s provocative and revealing novel Frankenstein.

 

As we reflect on our own mistakes, we readily admit we have made decisions in haste. Society is no different. We must not let the Zeitgeist go unchecked. TODAY we must concern ourselves with much larger issues. Issues like harmful ideologies which affect how we think and thereby how we act. We must not ONLY be concerned about extending our mortality but the mortality of civilization. If we want societal transformation then we must start thinking organically as opposed to stop gap measures.

 

The future is ours to shape, but this depends on every single human being playing their part. As Shakespeare uttered, “All the world's a stage/And all the men and women [are] players/They have their exits and their entrances. . . .”

 

If we do nothing the Zeitgeist will continue to control us or worse destroy us.

 

Remaining neutral is no longer an option given globalization.

 

We must attempt to lift the veil of the Zeitgeist and break free of its grip so that we can begin to operate with FORESIGHT and HOPE in pursuit of ARETE.

 

Every effect has a cause. How we THINK today and what we to DO today will have ripple effects into the future. The Zeitgeist Project seeks to operate like a catalyst by causing people to be increasingly conscious of the reigning Zeitgeist and the myriad ways it affects us. We can choose to capitulate to the Zeitgeist, compromise our integrity and believe vicariously OR as Shakespeare penned we can,

 

take arms against a sea of troubles,

And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep;

No more; and by a sleep to say we end

The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks

That flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation

Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep;

To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub;

For in that sleep of death what dreams may come

When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,

Must give us pause . . .

 

Since the Zeitgeist is the character of any given era it can either devolve or evolve over time. Collectively we are always on the verge of evolving or devolving. By bringing together those people who impact the Zeitgeist this initiative called the ZEITGEIST PROJECT seeks to influence influencers and empower people to rise above the “heart-ache” that Shakespeare speaks of and reach our potential (arete).

 

To comment on Part II please visit Impact the Zeitgeist. 

 

§ Anomie was coined by the French sociologist Emile Durkheim to express the idea of social instability caused by steady erosion of values and a sense of alienation and purposelessness experienced by a person or a society.

Conversation No. 6: Indictments Against Cheney, Gonzales Dismissed, Prosecution Of Torturers Seen As Unlikely Leaving Us The Road To The Hague

 Indictments Against Cheney, Gonzales Dismissed, Prosecution Of Torturers Seen As Unlikely Leaving Us The Road To The Hague And War Crimes Proceedings, As I Am Sure That Pardons Ahead Will Only Bury More Of The Road So Many Have Traveled To Pursue Justice In This Nation.

 

 

"It's amazing how people can get so excited about a rocket to the moon and not give a damn about smog, oil leaks, the devastation of the environment with pesticides, hunger, disease.

 

When the poor share some of the power that the affluent now monopolize, we will give a damn."

 

Cesar Estrada Chavez Biography - Farm Workers' Union Founder, Human Rights Activist, 1927-1993

 

 

1.)  Indictments against Cheney, Gonzales dismissed

 

2.)  Indictments against Cheney, Gonzales dismissed

 

3.)  Indictments against Cheney, Gonzales dismissed

 

 

 

4.)  Full Report Here: (The Rest Of The Reports)

 

Olberman_Dean Discussion Of Torturers!

 

John Dean tells Keith Olbermann the torturers couldn't be prosecuted because of the Detainee Treatment Act the Military Commission Act. But not all lawyers agree with John Dean on this point; and I sure as hell do not!

Support Nadler House Resolution 1531; Now Essential!

 

Confronting the Terrorist Within | By Chris Hedges

 

December 01, 2008 "Truthdig" -- - The Hindu-Muslim communal violence that led to the attacks in Mumbai, as well as the warnings that the New York City transit system may have been targeted by al-Qaida, are one form of terrorism. There are other forms.

 

The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, when viewed from the receiving end, are state-sponsored acts of terrorism. These wars defy every ethical and legal code that seek to determine when a nation can wage war, from Just War Theory to the statutes of international law largely put into place by the United States after World War II. These wars are criminal wars of aggression. They have left hundreds of thousands of people, who never took up arms against us, dead and seen millions driven from their homes. We have no right as a nation to debate the terms of these occupations. And an Afghan villager, burying members of his family’s wedding party after an American airstrike, understands in a way we often do not that terrorist attacks can also be unleashed from the arsenals of an imperial power.

 

Barack Obama’s decision to increase troop levels in Afghanistan and leave behind tens of thousands of soldiers and Marines in Iraq—he promises only to withdraw combat brigades—is a failure to rescue us from the status of a rogue nation. It codifies Bush’s “war on terror.” And the continuation of these wars will corrupt and degrade our nation just as the long and brutal occupation of Gaza and the West Bank has corrupted and degraded Israel. George W. Bush has handed Barack Obama a poisoned apple. Obama has bitten it.

 

The invasions and occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq were our response to feelings of vulnerability and collective humiliation after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. They were a way to exorcise through reciprocal violence what had been done to us. 

 

Collective humiliation is also the driving force behind al-Qaida and most terrorist groups. Osama bin Laden cites the Sykes-Picot Agreement, which led to the carving up of the Ottoman Empire, as the beginning of Arab humiliation. He attacks the agreement for dividing the Muslim world into “fragments.” He rails against the presence of American troops on the soil of his native Saudi Arabia. The dark motivations of Islamic extremists mirror our own.

Robert Pape in “Dying to Win: The Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism,” found that most suicide bombers are members of communities that feel humiliated by genuine or perceived occupation. Almost every major suicide-terrorist campaign—over 95 percent—carried out attacks to drive out an occupying power. This was true in Lebanon, Sri Lanka, Chechnya and Kashmir, as well as Israel and the Palestinian territories. The large number of Saudis among the 9/11 hijackers appears to support this finding.

 

A militant who phoned an Indian TV station from the Jewish center in Mumbai during the recent siege offered to talk with the government for the release of hostages. He complained about army abuses in Kashmir, where ruthless violence has been used to crush a Muslim insurgency. “Ask the government to talk to us and we will release the hostages,” he said, speaking in Urdu with what sounded like a Kashmiri accent.

 

“Are you aware how many people have been killed in Kashmir? Are you aware how your army has killed Muslims? Are you aware how many of them have been killed in Kashmir this week?” he asked.

 

Terrorists, many of whom come from the middle class, support acts of indiscriminate violence not because of direct, personal affronts to their dignity, but more often for lofty, abstract ideas of national, ethnic or religious pride and the establishment of a utopian, harmonious world purged of evil.  The longer the United States occupies Afghanistan and Iraq, the more these feelings of collective humiliation are aggravated and the greater the number of jihadists willing to attack American targets. 

 

We have had tens of thousands of troops stationed in the Middle East since 1990 when Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait. The presence of these troops is the main appeal, along with the abuse meted out to the Palestinians by Israel, of bin Laden and al-Qaida. Terrorism, as Pape wrote, “is not a supply-limited phenomenon where there are just a few hundred around the world willing to do it because they are religious fanatics. It is a demand-driven phenomenon. That is, it is driven by the presence of foreign forces on the territory that the terrorists view as their homeland. The operation in Iraq has stimulated suicide terrorism and has given suicide terrorism a new lease on life.”

 

The decision by the incoming Obama administration to embrace an undefined, amorphous “war on terror” will keep us locked in a war without end. This war has no clear definition of victory, unless victory means the death or capture of every terrorist on earth—an impossibility. It is a frightening death spiral. It feeds on itself. The concept of a “war on terror” is no less apocalyptic or world-purifying than the dreams and fantasies of terrorist groups like al-Qaida.

 

The vain effort to purify the world through force is always self-defeating. Those who insist that the world can be molded into their vision are the most susceptible to violence as antidote. The more uncertainty, fear and reality impinge on this utopian vision, the more strident, absolutist and aggressive are those who call for the eradication of “the enemy.” Immanuel Kant called absolute moral imperatives that are used to carry out immoral acts “a radical evil.” He wrote that this kind of evil was always a form of unadulterated self-love. It was the worst type of self-deception. It provided a moral façade for terror and murder. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are a “radical evil.”

 

The tactic of suicide bombing, equated by many in the United States with Islam, did not arise from the Muslim world. It had its roots in radical Western ideologies, especially Leninism, not religion. And it was the Tamil Tigers, a Marxist group that draws its support from the Hindu families of the Tamil regions of Sri Lanka, who invented the suicide vest for their May 1991 suicide assassination of Rajiv Ghandi. 

 

Suicide bombing is what you do when you do not have artillery or planes or missiles and you want to create maximum terror for an occupying power. It was used by secular anarchists in the 19th and early 20th centuries, who bequeathed to us the first version of the car bomb—a horse-drawn wagon laden with explosives that was ignited on Sept. 16, 1920, on Wall Street. The attack was carried out by an Italian immigrant named Mario Buda in protest over the arrest of the anarchists Sacco and Vanzetti. It left 40 people dead and wounded more than 200.

 

Suicide bombing was adopted later by Hezbollah, al-Qaida and Hamas. But even in the Middle East, suicide bombing is not restricted to Muslims. In Lebanon, during the attacks in the 1980s against French, American and Israeli targets, only eight suicide bombings were carried out by Islamic fundamentalists. Twenty-seven were the work of communists and socialists. Christians were responsible for three. 

 

The dehumanization of Muslims and the willful ignorance of the traditions and culture of the Islamic world reflect our nation’s disdain for self-reflection and self-examination. It allows us to exalt in the illusion of our own moral and cultural superiority. The world is far more complex than our childish vision of good and evil. We as a nation and a culture have no monopoly on virtue.

 

We carry within us the same propensities for terror as those we oppose.

 

The Muslim Indian Emperor Akbar at the end of the 16th century filled his court with philosophers, mystics and religious scholars, including Sunni, Sufi and Shiite Muslims, Hindu followers of Shiva and Vishnu, as well as atheists, Christians, Jains, Jews, Buddhists and Zoroastrians. They debated ethics and belief. Akbar was one of the great champions of religious dialogue and tolerance. He forbade any person to be discriminated against on the basis of belief. He declared that everyone was free to follow any religion. His enlightened rule took place as the Inquisition was at its height in Spain and Portugal, and in Rome the philosopher Giordano Bruno was being burnt at the stake in Campo de’ Fiori for heresy.

 

Tolerance, as well as religious and political plurality, is not exclusive to Western culture. The Judeo-Christian tradition was born and came to life in the Middle East. Its intellectual and religious beliefs were cultivated and formed in cities such as Jerusalem, Antioch, Alexandria and Constantinople. Many of the greatest tenets of Western civilization, as is true with Islam and Buddhism, are Eastern in origin. Our concept of the rule of law and freedom of expression, the invention of printing, paper, the book, as well as the translation and dissemination of the classical Greek philosophers, algebra, geometry and universities were given to us by the Islamic world. The first law code was invented by the ancient Iraqi ruler Hammurabi. One of the first known legal protections of basic freedoms and equality was promulgated in the third century B.C. by theBuddhist Indian Emperor Ashoka. And, unlike Aristotle, he insisted on equal rights for women and slaves. 

 

The East and the West do not have separate, competing value systems. We do not treat life with greater sanctity than those we belittle. There are aged survivors in Hiroshima and Nagasaki who can tell us something about our high moral values and passionate concern for innocent human life, about our own acts of terrorism. Eastern and Western traditions have within them varied ethical systems, some of which are repugnant and some of which are worth emulating. To hold up the highest ideals of our own culture and to deny that these great ideals exist in other cultures, especially Eastern cultures, is made possible only by historical and cultural illiteracy.

 

The civilization we champion and promote as superior is, in fact, a product of the fusion of traditions and beliefs of the Orient and the Occident. We advance morally and intellectually when we cross these cultural lines, when we use the lens of other cultures to examine our own. The remains of villages destroyed by our bombs, the dead killed from our munitions, leave us too with bloody hands. We can build a new ethic only when we face our complicity in the cycle of violence and terror. 

 

The fantasy of an enlightened West that spreads civilization to a savage world of religious fanatics is not supported by history. The worst genocides and slaughters of the last century were perpetrated by highly industrialized nations. Muslims, including Saddam Hussein’s brutal regime, have a long way to go before they reach the body count of the secular regimes of the Nazis, the Soviet Union or the Chinese communists. It was, in fact, the Muslim-led government in Bosnia that protected minorities during the war while the Serbian Orthodox Christians carried out mass executions, campaigns of genocide and ethnic cleansing that left 250,000 dead. 

 

Those who externalize evil and seek to eradicate that evil through violence lose touch with their own humanity and the humanity of others. They cannot make moral distinctions. They are blind to their own moral corruption. In the name of civilization and high ideals, in the name of reason and science, they become monsters.

 

We will never free ourselves from the self-delusion of the “war on terror” until we first vanquish the terrorist within.

 

Chris Hedges was Middle East bureau chief for The New York Times. His Truthdig column appears on Mondays.

 

And How About Ending On A Positive Note For A Change?

 

First couple-to-be could be relationship role models for nation, experts say

Conversation No. 5: The Tyranny Of Oil The Real News Network Video

Conversation No. 5: The Tyranny Of Oil The Real News Network Video

 

Conversation No.4: Impeachment Is Still On The Table! It Is Still Not Too Late To Have The Confrontation With The Bush Administration ...

Conversation No.4: Impeachment Is Still On The Table! It Is Still Not Too Late To Have The Confrontation With The Bush Administration That The Constitution Provides For And Justice Begs For…Impeachment.  It Is The Only Weapon We Have To Stop Them In Their Tracks At The Moment. 

 

http://www.newschannel5.tv/ See Video Here.

 

Just In: Judge to remain on Cheney indictment case

By CHRISTOPHER SHERMAN Associated Press Writer © 2008 The Associated Press |  Dec. 1, 2008, 3:15PM

 

RAYMONDVILLE, Texas — A judge who has been overseeing criminal charges against Vice President Dick Cheney and other officials will remain on the case despite the prosecutor's attempts to oust him.

 

Willacy County District Attorney Juan Angel Guerra accused Administrative Judge Manuel Banales of being part of a vast conspiracy involving the alleged abuse of inmates at privately run prisons.

 

Guerra won indictments against Cheney, former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and other officials, alleging they conspired to stop his investigation of abuses at the private prisons.

 

Guerra had asked that Banales be removed from the case, saying he could not remain impartial, but another judge ruled Monday that Banales would stay on the case.

 

In a hearing Monday, Guerra accused Banales of conspiring against him, saying that Banales let him languish under another indictment for 18 months before finally dismissing the charges.

 

Guerra also argued that Banales had improperly named a temporary replacement to handle five of the cases for Guerra because Guerra could not be the victim and the prosecutor.

 

The judge hearing the case Monday, state District Judge Michael Peden, said he heard nothing to make him believe Banales could not be impartial.

 

Banales was scheduled to hear motions to dismiss the indictments later Monday.

 

(Resume)

 

If We Fail To Do So We will be placed in the position of waging a war of our own on multiple fronts ( Post Departure Impeachment if available, or the pursuit of War Crimes Proceedings while we would rather be advocating for and supporting  the change  made possible by a new administration),with diminished numbers in our ranks.

 

Impeachment can be swift and not encumber the essential actions of the Congress demanded by the Iraq/Afghanistan quagmire, the necessity of restoring sanity to our foreign policy revitalization of a collapsed economy.  Stay the course , remain in contact with all who are dedicated to our cause and use every resources we have left…no pun intended.

 

 

The Perils of Non-Impeachment

 

WASHINGTON — The Labor Department is racing to complete a new rule, strenuously opposed by President-elect Barack Obama, that would make it much harder for the government to regulate toxic substances and hazardous chemicals to which workers are exposed on the job.

The rule, which has strong support from business groups, says that in assessing the risk from a particular substance, federal agencies should gather and analyze "industry-by-industry evidence" of employees' exposure to it during their working lives. The proposal would, in many cases, add a step to the lengthy process of developing standards to protect workers’ health.

Public health officials and labor unions said the rule would delay needed protections for workers, resulting in additional deaths and illnesses.

 

With the economy tumbling and American troops fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, President Bush has promised to cooperate with Mr. Obama to make the transition “as smooth as possible.” But that has not stopped his administration from trying, in its final days, to cement in place a diverse array of new regulations.

 

More last minute shenanigans from Bush : Lame duck President George W. Bush may be going but he's far from gone.

 

Bush is papering the federal government with last-minue executive orders putting his stamp on everything he can and paying off debts to those who supported him during his controversial Presidency.

 

Outgoing Presidents often issue last minute rules that they not only hope will last long after they leave office but that will also not be immediately overturned by the incoming resident of the White House.

 

But Bush's last-minute glut of rules goes far beyond what has been done by other departing Presidents and often stretches the boundaries of what may or may not be legal.

 

It's typical Bush and shows the outgoing President is not going quietly. He will be defiant to the end.  IF WE ALLOW HIM TO BE!

 

 

Impeachment-pushers will be disappointed
The Times of Trenton - NJ.com - Trenton,NJ,USA
For at least the last six years, The Times has been running letters calling for the impeachment of President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney. ...

 

 I would comment to the writer that the only delusional folks running around on the loose  are those who do not recognize the criminality of the current administration and its actions, so much am I fed up with their nonsense that I can no longer accept it with toleration and have to simply say of them that: “They are stone cold stupid mental midgets capable of only verbal vomit of verbal lint hair balls!”

 

Sophia A. Nelson: A black Republican reflects on her party
The Union Leader - Manchester,NH,USA
According to one senior aide, McCain had been polling close to 20 percent of the black vote before theprimaries ended. But then his “Forgotten America” ...See all stories on this topic

 

Mr. Bush and the Pardon Power
New York Times - United States
President Bush has issued one troubling commutation, of I. Lewis Libby’s 30-month prison sentence. Mr. Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney’s former chief of ...
See all stories on this topic

 

If You Are Serious About Changing The World Click On This Site!

This Widget was difficult to fashion but it will be reformatted shortly and will appear in the news resources site “Ed’s Online News Room”.

Thank You Amy Harlib!

 

Consider This A Work In Progress

 

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