Friday, July 12, 2013

There IS Another Way...

"There are two kinds of people in this world - leaders and followers." Or so the prevailing cultural wisdom would have you believe. There's a fundamental problem with this 'truism,' namely that's it's not true at all. What's more, it's been mercilessly promoted because the people who fancy themselves either as 'leaders' or 'followers' MUST have your compliance for this mendacious mental programming to work. Well reality has a way of bulldozing though bullshit like a sledgehammer through a paper-mache' sculpture, so let's have a look at this 'conventional wisdom' and see why it's full of feces...
'Leaders' historically have been individuals who, through brute force, coersion, persuasion or manipulation have imposed their vision of the 'proper' social order upon others. Much propaganda has been made over the centuries lionizing the 'achievements' of most so-called 'leaders' in the form of poetry, songs, paintings, written works and the like. The problem is, in order for there to be 'leaders,' everyone else must be considered inferior, deemed incapable or unworthy of determining their own fates by the usually self-appointed 'leadership.' Essentially people who look down upon their fellow humans decide that they themselves are privileged by virtue of fiat (declaration), and this gives them the right to steal from, mislead, abuse, torture, imprison, kill and basically screw the lives up of everybody else. 'Leaders' are seldom chosen by those they actually rule over; they typically seize power by force or intrigue, or they are appointed by the true 'leadership' as figureheads to divert attention away from the real powers behind the throne. Either way, only the gullible believe that leaders have their best interests at heart. They don't. They're in it to feather their nests, game, set and match. People who need to be 'in charge' are from my own personal experience sociopaths who will lie, cheat and steal in order to maintain power. For them the domination of others is like heroin to a junkie - they just gotta have it! They see the world - with everyone and everything in it - as their own personal plaything.


'Followers' on the other hand are people for whom self-determination, motivation, innovation and self-respect have been either beaten or bred out of them for the most part. They have been indoctrinated with the belief that they are not smart enough, strong enough, good looking enough or 'hard' enough to be in charge of their own lives, much less 'important' tasks as defined by the 'leadership.' These 'followers' are actively conditioned through public/private education, advertising, marketing, stilted TV sitcom plots and movie themes that only 'special' people are meant to make the 'big' decisions, not 'little' people of lesser ability or intellect. Like themselves. Even though they rarely are privy to the facts which would show them that their 'leaders' aren't necessarily any smarter, stronger or better than they are themselves. 'Followers' differ from 'leaders' in just two basic points: followers are usually honest and timid, whereas 'leaders' are typically liars with huge amounts of cunning. Other than that, both parties have to eat, shit and get laid like everybody else. Therefore neither denomination can really be considered 'special.' Because they aren't special, only human.

So is that really all there is? Are we really slated to be either an asshole-type 'leader' or a sheep-like 'follower?' I. Don't. Think. So. Why? Because there ARE people who don't need the validation of their supposed 'superiors' to recognize when they did a good job. They don't need 'direction' from some 'boss,' king, president or supervisor to show them how to do what they do best. Neither do these people need the satisfaction of being worshipped by underlings or from knocking others down a couple of pegs so that they can get ahead. These people derive satisfaction from personal achievement, either through excellence in performance or through the appreciation of similar excellences. They rely upon their own critical thinking skills to determine the best course of action, not a bunch of half-baked edicts from some power-hungry douchebag. They blaze their own trails rather than swim like just another fish in the school or fly like another goose in the flock. These people in fact are natural leaders - not by coercion but by example, and unlike traditional so-called 'leaders,' these people have no desire to run the lives of anyone besides themselves.
These people I would characterize as REAL people, not hollowed out automaton 'followers' or piece-of-shit, hubristic 'leaders.' I call their outlook - where they don't need to lead others and don't need to follow others - a 'Third Way.' A way that I truly believe is the natural state of humanity, one prevalent before the advent of the organized, sociopath gangs known as governments. It will be the natural state of our species again when humans get this very simple idea down pat: The people who WANT to be in charge, THOSE are the people you need to shoot...

Sunday, July 7, 2013

Who Is John Galt?

John Galt started out as a fictional character around whom the plot coalesced in the novel Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. John Galt was an inventor and scientist who, when confronted with the overt intellectual tyranny of collectivism in his place of employment decides to not only quit on principle, but to drop out of society almost entirely. It was a classic textbook (pardon the pun) case of psychological reactance, which states that human beings will, when presented with conditions that limit or take away their freedom, take roughly equal and opposite measures to regain the amount of freedom they believe they have lost. John Galt was a hardened and adamant individualist, whose literary characterization by Ayn Rand could be considered a reaction against the spreading movement of progressive socialism in the US. The book itself is NOT a Sunday tea time read; fans of the written word can at times feel that Ms. Rand gave Nathaniel Hawthorne a run for his money in the verbosity department, but sometimes to make a new ideological omelette you gotta break a few eggs of easily digestible reading.

That I was exposed to Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead before it during my college years probably innoculated me to a certain extent against the insidious global-statism promoted as accepted thought in academe. My professors publicly mocked the 'New World Order' in class but quietly covered up for the criminals after hours. I was to learn roughly 2 decades later that supposedly 'liberal' academics were aware of the Bush family's Nazi money-laundering activities during World War II but in fact SAT on that information...information that would have prevented that brood of vipers and thieves from getting elected as town dog catcher, much less allow 2 presidents to slither in through their ranks. It wasn't until I was firmly esconced among the 'black copter crowd' that I would understand that left and right were merely cheeks around the same fascist asshole. An asshole that strangles intelligence, innovation and ingenuity throughout all walks of life - the academic, the corporate, the political and the personal. It is THIS vampiric system from which I seek to free myself. And from which to free my brethren. 'Unplug them from the Matrix,' as it were.
John Galt also struggles against a similarly interlocking global system of top-down collectivism and rabid anti-humanity. He does so by going on strike, by withholding his intellectual creations from an unappreciative and undeserving social hierarchy. He took his toys and found another sandbox - one that he selected in a location difficult to get to, but rich in natural resources. This was the famous 'Galt's Gulch' in the novel, and it's the namesake of this blog. Decades before terms like 'strategic relocation' became a part of the underground lexicon, Ms. Rand was clueing in those with half a brain to reason about the wisdom of the idea. It was a voluntarily founded, anarco-capitalist town where former industry tycoons (unlike the pasty-white, mealy-mouthed, trust-fund promoted CEO vermin that infest our boardrooms today) and skilled workers of ability and ambition could ply their trades unmolested by a predatory looter entity known as the collectivist state. Everything was downsized with the enterprises within that enclave, but unlike the burgeoning Keynesian 'money multiplier' effect of the system they fled from, Galt's Gulch signified a reset against the tyranny of super-sized collective living.

It is my own personal suspicion that Ayn Rand liberally borrowed from the personage of Nikola Tesla to flesh out the character of John Galt. At least in regards to the intellectual brilliance AND vocations of choice for the character. John Galt invented a motor that drew electricity from the ambient environment - a 'free energy' system. Nikola Tesla was often credited with developing similar technologies. Where Galt and Tesla differed is in their approach, and ultimately in the manner of their ends. Tesla wanted to share his free energy creations with the world to elevate mankind; this was NOT in the interests of the insipid 'robber baron' anti-capitalist swine who dominated the political and business landscape of his day. They shut him out, minimized his achievements, prevented him from securing what he needed to continue his research, and he died alone and poor after playing an inestimable role in kick-starting the modern era. John Galt, however, took an opposite approach, and in retrospect the approach he took in Atlas Shrugged makes sense in a 'Why didn't Tesla do it like this' kind of way.
When John Galt quits his day job as a research and development scientist for a manufacturing company, it's during a company meeting where the new 'hierarchy' uses the sloganeering of collectivism to erase all incentives for excellence in the workplace. Everyone's feelings are to be taken into account but nobody's achievements are to be credited or rewarded. Essentially the workers were all ants now, to be 'nurtured and guided' by the newly 'enlightened' management. Where have we heard that before? Pretty much at every stinking job that I've worked at EVER, in one way, shape or form. Group-thinking, 'infallible' management fucktards are going to be the DEATH of this country. But I digress. John Galt, a man trained in the scientific method as well as logic and reason saw this incalculable clusterfuck coming down the pike and did what anyone with a modicum of common sense would do - he got the fuck outta there! On his way out he tells the preening managerial shitbags of his now former employer "I am going to stop you!" Since nobody dares talk to the management gods like that an infamous question arose from this incident, namely "Who is John Galt?"

John Galt REALLY sticks it to the poobahs when he takes his pre-Timothy Leary dropout roadshow to the people. He convinces the movers and the shakers one-by-one that there is no way to fix the terminally cancerous social order from within, and that it needs to collapse from its own internal inconsistencies before the people can be free again. Sort of like what happened with the collapse of the Soviet empire, only with a complete institutional enema, not just a name change from the communist party to the Russian mob. But again, I digress. These 'men of the mind' all resettled in Galt's Gulch, leaving their fortunes and estates behind for the government vultures to pillage while they opted to start fresh, making an honest, downsized living as free individuals. HOPELESSLY TARDY SPOILER ALERT - Eventually the great ponzi schemes of the state and its corporate collaborator minions fall apart and society utterly collapses. THEN the 'men of the mind' come out from Galt's Gulch and into a world that finally might appreciate what they have to offer. Who is John Galt? I AM John Galt. I AM Spartacus. YOU are John Galt. YOU are Spartacus - if you choose to be. Our criminal ruling aristocracy uses the prison societies of 1984 and Brave New World as a roadmap for the future. I reject that roadmap, and choose the path to Galt's Gulch instead...now who's with me?
"I swear by my life and my love of it, that I shall never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine."   -John Galt

Saturday, July 6, 2013

On the Virtues of Self-Sufficiency...



 Take a look at this picture, what does it evoke in you? When I study it, I get the impression of a dynamic mind looking to expand its horizons. Everything here is a component of something, having a purpose either overt or yet to be consummated. You don't see a bunch of shopping mall detritus or the typical hallmarks of pointless consumerist rope-a-dope existence, you see the application of thought towards an ongoing goal. A goal driven by the mind itself, as opposed to being 'helpfully suggested' through the use of B.F. Skinner operant conditioning built into media marketing, for example. No, this display is NOT that of a couch potato who vegetates in front of the digital behavioral programming and surveillance screen interface called television. THIS is a manifestation of self-sufficiency. You know, the spirit that put our country on the map in the first place, at least on an intellectual level.

As a musician and composer for roughly 3 decades I have over the years carefully and conscientiously gathered what I deemed to be the essential tools of my trade: quality instruments, each customized for optimal utility and convenience, analog and digital modulation of all types, amplification to cover from bedroom rehearsal to stadium show venues, and multiple, redundant means of recording that which I create. I have backups of backups, but each piece of gear has a purpose, and eventually it all gets used. I don't have to rent my means of production, and the only services I need to outsource are professional services like mixing and mastering of audio production which allows me the freedom to concentrate on my content and execution. In other words, other than for putting the finishing touches on a new product that I'm bringing to market, I have pretty much everything I need to get the job done. It's taken me a couple of decades and a couple of independent releases to get to this point, but the journey has been well worth the effort.

 When I'm in 'mad scientist mode' during the recording process, I can't help but feel a kinship with trailblazers like Tesla, Edison and the like, who took their expertise and creativity and brought new creations to the world. Not that I presume my contributions are at all on par with their achievements, mind you, it's the spirit of 'Boldly going where no man has gone before' that gets me every time. I don't make music to compensate for my perceived penile deficiencies or to rustle up some extra notches on my bedpost, I make music because creating is what I do. Nothing more, nothing less. And thanks to Providence I have learned over the course of my journey what I need to continue and nurture my hobby and what I don't. Better still, I have learned that the more I keep my internal operations separate from the modern Babylon media Shoggoth, the purer my creations remain and the saner my disposition remains. I don't create for the adulation of others, I create for the virtue of personal achievement. If I'm not happy with the result, I could care less who considers it to be 'art.' You don't get quality creations without a whole lot of honesty. Period. End of fucking story. Bitchez.

Unfortunately from a practical standpoint I started on this road towards self-sufficiency from the top of Maslow's pyramid down, instead of from the ground up. Hence in most other areas of everyday life I am woefully deficient in many areas of sufficiency:  I don't grow my own food, I rely upon city water to survive, my electricity is beholden to the whims of state granted monopolies, and my transportation relies upon fuel derived from a number of questionable sources - questionable as to whether there was foul play involved in its extraction. Okay, that's a LOT of negatives. Fortunately, knowing is half the battle, and I have made modest provisions towards rectifying those absences; I've set aside seeds for the day when I have access to arable land, and I've acquired water filtration that will allow me to survive even if the city water spigot is shut off. The not-too-distant future may see me cashing in my rainy day pennies for some fine solar and other exotic power generation gear. Long term the goal is to align my transportation needs more with that which I can provide for myself. So the next vehicle purchase could be diesel powered if I'm able to grow my own fuel, or electric if I have sufficient abundance in home power generation. The less have to I rely on the capricious whims of others, the better...

Friday, July 5, 2013

Get The F@#k Off The Grid! Part 2 - Why Do It?


For me, getting off the grid - 'going underground ' in older hip parlance - is a choice driven by moral imperatives. The system which I was born into is designed to exploit the vast majority of my fellow humans for the benefit of a few who have done less than most to deserve such benefits. Every penny of tax extorted from my labors with the implicit threat of uniformed thugs coming to take my freedom and property from me goes towards paying the interest on a national debt that I had no say whatsoever in incurring. This interest goes right into the pockets of an inbred aristocracy, all of whom are related by bloodlines to the LAST sack of bastards we kicked out of management positions in these parts about 230-ish years ago. NONE of these pointy-headed frontclowns related to the Queen through Burke's Peerage have produced a single invention, innovation, piece of art, scientific theory or any other thing that might be remotely useful to humans in general.

The only thing bankers, politicians and corporate CEOs are good for is the accumulation of unearned power and privileges. They're quite talented regarding the feathering of their own nests in an inverse proportion to their professional competences. That's why you see Citigroup CEO's leave their jobs with a golden parachute worth several million despite the fact that they LOST the company a few billion in capital net worth. That's why they will cut food assistance to the poor while the president awards himself a raise during 'austerity measures.' That's why there are two sets of laws in this country - one for the slaves, the other for the slave masters. And the whole system is predicated and underpinned by the implicit threat of force. All the trumpeted platitudes about freedom and liberty are just cheap marketing slogans designed to keep the slaves on the plantation without having to whip them so frequently. Whipping slaves interrupts Massa's beauty sleep.



The same financial interests behind the extermination of the relatives of my ancestors in Europe still hold the reigns of power in America today. Every cent I pay into the system guarantees that someone halfway around the world will be killed by a drone for no better reason than having been born around natural resources that some Wall Street asshole doesn't want to pay a fair market price for. Some homeless person is going to get beat up by the police, some inventor is going to get threatened if their technology makes competition for existing monopolies, some reporter is going to get murdered for getting a little too close to the truth - all because I am contributing to the current system. You cannot with any semblance of a straight face tell me that if you rob me at gunpoint, then take my money and build a school somewhere that you have somehow done a moral thing. You haven't, and if anything you only involved the innocent to provide sanction for your crimes. I have to look at myself in the mirror every day and like what I see. And I can't do that if my actions invariably lead towards the unjustified suffering of others with whom I have no quarrel whatsoever.

Since I believe in the non-initiation of force, then violent revolution is not the solution I seek. I am prepared to defend myself if necessary but I'm not going around trying to start shit. I feel the only honorable way to go is to bow out of this system, take my toys and find another sandbox to play in, preferably with playmates who have similar inclinations. I intend to starve this beast of my efforts and my labors, and Providence willing my example may join with the efforts of those looking to forge a new path for our species. We've long since evolved past the need for sociopath societal jailers in my opinion, and with a little introspection, common sense and determination I am confident we can step out from behind the shadows of state and corporate slavery and reclaim our lives for ourselves...

Get The F@#k Off The Grid! Part 1 - Leaving the Intellectual Plantation

So you're probably wondering: "Okay you loudmouth bastard, talk is cheap; what are YOU actually doing about it? Well, since you decided to waste your precious time inquiring so far, you might as well know the answer - which is whatever I can, whenever I can. Pretty nebulous, politician-speak garbage, you might say. To which I reply that even the smallest movement in the right direction is positive work against inertia.


The most discernable and easiest thing I've done to extricate myself from the cultural sewage swamp is stop partaking of media that work against my interests. I stopped listening to commercial radio decades ago as I have absolutely no use for the retread bullshit the bankers called record company executives call music. They destroy what little music of quality they happen to present by overplaying it to the point of nausea, and more often than not the lyrical and instrumental content of the so-called 'songs' leaves much to be desired. Filled my ears with rot, NOT working in my interest. At all. Stopped listening to that shit, jumped on the 'Create your own internet radio station' technology bandwagon.  I have a MUCH richer musical experience as a result. True, I still have to endure asinine attempts to sell me a bunch of bullshit products in between song sets, but when I can determine the content of my experience - NOT some Hollywood marketing douche - I can put up with the inspid adverts with much greater aplomb.

Ditching the cathode ray nipple known as 'TV' was actually a lot easier than most would imagine. By the time I stopped watching it altogether I was only sitting in occasionally when the roommate would be watching a weekly live action sitcom. Long gone were shows that actually made you think, like the X-Files, NoWhere Man or The Prisoner. No, TV degenerated into a venal propaganda fountain of vomit in praise of the collaborator class: Doctors, Cops and Lawyers. 9/11 apparently gave Hollywood a Washington DC license to stretch reality to a breaking point where nothing but bullshit flows freely. We have perfectly groomed super-soldier state minions in stylish slacks who are dead shots in a pinch, never mess their hair up, and lounge around in science labs being just awesome on their free time. Fucking gag me with a hammer. Wake me the fuck up when the three losers they have repackaging Third Reich memes as sitcoms remember what the fuck country they supposedly were born in. Or reality for that matter.

Don't even get me started on network 'news.' Makes me wish I never studied some mass communications in college. Every time I even watch that shit now I feel dirty. The fucking voice of the fucking collaborators of the fucking establishment assholes, sitting in every night in your home, telling you what your masters deem is acceptable to think. The last event of significance I even remember from network news was in 2002 during the run-up to the Iraq War, when Tom Brokaw, the aristocracy's turd-licking douche monkey called the millions of people demonstrating around the world to stop Dubya's bloodlust in the middle east 'Horrible War Protestors.' Little snippy bastard snuck that one in RIGHT at the end of the broadcast, he did. NOBODY in the profession called his sycophant ass out on it either. Which pretty much convinced me beyond the shadow of a doubt (believe me - there was a LOT more leading up to this) that all news media were whores - only these whores just had to look pretty instead of provide an actual service.

Their presstitute service also includes subtly inserting the opinions of their establishment asshole paymasters into my alpha-wave addled cerebral cortex. NOT working in my interest. Neither were the psychologically structured commercials all designed to tell me what a loser, social retard and fuckup I am because I'm not buying THEIR pissant and mostly useless products. Or just because I have a penis. I don't have people in my everyday life telling me what a piece of shit I am; I cut those fuckers out of my life a LONG fucking time ago. Why would I let some crafty shitbags assault my self esteem just so they can take their latest trophy whores on a Caribbean cruise on my dime? Why would anybody? So I get my information regularly from about half a dozen news aggregators on the internets; if I don't trust what one continent's perspective is on an issue, I can clue myself in with perspectives from several others. My news sources wear their slants on their sleeves, so I know at least they're not selectively filtering out key data while pretending to be 'objective and balanced.'

In other words - I took PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY for the information and entertainment that I indulge in. Now I have a much more grounded outlook on things and have a MUCH lower tolerance for bullshit. It's a small and then again a HUGE step in the right direction. For me, anyway...

How 'Murikans Celebrate Sin-Dependence...

...With lots of pointless displays of looter power and prowess. I currently reside in a small town in the Rocky Mountains - one just large enough to have a stadium for the local state college. While the annual fireworks display happened last night there was a new addition to the fireworks: a pair of police helicopters, both of which flew circular patterns around the stadium and over adjoining neighborhoods. They flew just high enough to be out of reach from indignant retorts of buckshot.

Law enforcement is one of the many looter institutions operational in this country; they physically produce nothing of value, and the only service they provide is revenue generation through the armed theft of private property through ticketing and asset forfeiture seizures. That and of course, providing protection for the looter hierarchy of government and its fascist business overlords. Lest we forget, they sell more drugs than most drug dealers, giving rise to the old joke 'What's the difference between the cops and the Mob in New York? The cops sell more dope!" Laws in this country are selectively enforced depending on the looter pedigree of the perpetrator; Joe Sixpack will get the book thrown at him almost every time but politicians and connected CEOs like John Corzine can steal billions without getting into much trouble at all.

 
Now what possible purpose could TWO police copters have in a town where the worst crimes include liquour store robberies by poor college students? I'll tell you what - it's to show the sheep that they can be sheared at any time, for any reason. Airborne snipers and spies are just what a professional looting organization needs to remind its victims that it is big, bad, and still in charge. The crazies with black uniforms, a license to kill, steroid prescriptions from the station chief and those sharp, skinhead haircuts have eyes in the sky - be on your best behavior slave, I mean citizen! The police drive better cars than most of the working class stiffs in these parts, showing the slaves what is possible when you live off of other people's money. Looting celebrated as an institution - that's what July 4th has degenerated into, and it's one of may reasons I'll be 'Going Galt' as soon as resources allow...

An Introduction...

“You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.”

-R. Buckminster Fuller


This is a blog about what happens when a person decides they cannot in any kind of good conscience support the system which enslaves them. It's about personal choice and the paramount importance of individual liberty in the realm of human relations. Here you will find the rationalizations behind one man's desire to divorce himself from a system he never asked to live under, from the ideological to the idiosyncratic. Why would anyone want to leave this wonderful western civilization behind and start something new? You may find some answers in the words that follow, but you certainly may also find a perspective or two to help you start your own personal journey towards self-liberation...