Controllers wanted. Illuminati need not apply

Here it is, the very last day of 2011. What would you say was the biggest change in the world during this unforgettable trip around the sun?

• Climate Change?
  
• Health care?
  
• TSA atrocities?
  
• Increased police hostility?
  
• OWS?

Maybe, but I see something that has grown and covers all those topics, along with a few more:

• Smoking
  
• Mandatory seat belts
  
• Politics in general
  
• Religion in general
  
• Parental rights
  
• Civil rights
  
• Probably quite a few I forgot

That one change has been: the tendency of people to want to control the lives of others.

Every day I log onto ATS and see at least one thread talking about the Illuminati, the Powers That Be, the Elite... all of them bemoaning how our lives are rigidly controlled and regulated to the point that any one of us is at risk of being branded a 'terrorist' or a 'criminal' at any time for simply going about our daily lives the way we always have done. But who are these evil forces that want to control us so badly?

It's us.

Think about the arguments we all see (and most of us expound) daily... how many of them include "That shouldn't be allowed" or "that's not right" or perhaps the worst of all, "That should be illegal". Every time that is said, it is indicative of an attempt to control what someone else does. How in the world can we, how can any intelligent creature, expect to enact control over others and not expect, not welcome even, control of themselves by others?

Who can believe that it is perfectly fine to require everyone else to buy health insurance, then cry foul when they are required to only demonstrate in specified areas? Who can scream that others should not be allowed to smoke while in the next thread cry in disdain at being manhandled by the TSA? Who can bemoan regulations on the Internet itself and simultaneously rejoice at parents losing their children?

Only humans can apparently make those leaps of logic.

So in this, my final thread of 2011, I make one impassioned plea to every reader: the next time you think you have a solution to some heinous aspect of a free society, think about what control you are espousing over others, and how much you enjoy others exercising control over your life. The target does not matter; the action itself is what matters. One may not control others without relinquishing control of oneself. The more we control, the more we are controlled.

They may well exist, but we don't need an Illuminati to control us. We do it quite well ourselves.

A very happy and prosperous New Year to all of ATS. May 2012 be disappointing in its tragedies and rewarding in its triumphs.

TheRedneck

Awesome thread! To me, the biggest event/s that occured this year is definitely the Arab spring, so many uprisings, the fall of Muammar Gaddafi, something that no one was really expecting, a man that was demonized, when really he was the only man keeping Libya a float.

Another important occurence is definitely police brutality, in the US and over here in Australia, we seen the the real side of the law enforcement

Hello TheRedNeck....

Japan and Fukushima changed the face of our planet forever.....

To me, it is the single most destructive thing that has, and still is, painting the future of generations to come.

reply to post by TheRedneck


"its us" you say? Well FYI i have no need to control your life, what you do, and how you do it. I want to be left alone to live my life without someone telling me I cannot do something.

If I want to grow my own food and eat it hen who are you or anyone else to tell me different?

No its not us at all, the bankers want to and are going to implode the economic system, period. Thry have stolen trillions and destroyed the finincial way of life forthier own ends.

I had nothing to do woth that whatsoever and to be honest I feel offended that you suggest i have had something to do with it.

I have the god given right to go camping without showing proof of my id, why should I show my id to anyone? What have I done? Nothing.

The dicatatorship comming is not our fault, its been carried out in secret and we had no idea it was comming. We cannot be held responsible for some tyrannical psychopaths conspiring against us.

The only reason we are seeing tyranny is be ause those who have stolen all the wealth know, they have two choices, go to jail or enforce a dictatorship and get away with it.

A Happy and Prosperous New Year to you too.

If you presume folks on ATS are attempting to 'control' others, then you had only been less open in your mind.

On ATS, its about Democratic Discussion and Debate. One throws an idea or even a belief to challenge or seek for insights, and it is up to another to reply in kind or ignore. We are all ANNONYMOUS here, and don't expect receive a Nobel Peace prize or even being paid for efforts made.

But a far higher reward was the opportunity to read or participate, to help change/convince others with an insight (not an order) or be changed/convinced if we had been found wanting in our rationale, but entirely on one's own free will.

As for the biggest event to happened, I would say it had been the Occupy missions around the world. No mortal had ordered the missions. It simply came about on its own, based upon one's own free will, logic and reasoning. Some were persuaded to join in, but NONE was ORDERED.

If one is ordered, you would had been in the streets too or be placed in jail for refusing to do so. You are not in jail, nor were in any of the occupy missions, so, can you claimed you were ordered in any way?

For once, Humankind stood as one on their own free accord peacefully, some even braving instant death such as those in Libya and Syria, to seek accountability with their masters for the sake of mankind's common aspirations There can be no greater and more inspiring event than this.

reply to post by TheMindWar

You're right; I have no right to tell you what you can do with your life, and you have no right to tell me what to do with mine. That's the point.

You're also right that the Elite want to control us, but why do so many help them out? Think back over the past year and all the posts about wanting to say what is right and wrong for others you have seen. Why would the bankers want to try and control us directly when we jump to control each other through their laws and restrictions?

Illuminati is not required as long as there are so many ready and willing to do for them.

Enjoy that home-grown chow, my friend.

TheRedneck

reply to post by SeekerofTruth101

I would say ATS members are, overall, less controlling than the rest of society. But still, there is a definite and (apparent to me) increasing trend even here to control others lives.

How many people here would like smoking to be outlawed?

How many people here are in support of mandatory health insurance?

How many people here want wage controls on certain others?

How many people here argue for children to be removed from parents?

How many times have you seen someone on ATS say "I wish religion were illegal"?

Every single one of those examples is an example of one person desiring to control other people. The only difference between them and the big bankers, the Illuminati, the oil companies, or the government, is their ability to do so. The intent is still there.

And I am not saying everyone here has that intent. I am saying the amount I see of it has increased during 2011, and I personally believe we have quite enough control and legislation and regulation in our lives already.

Happy New Year!

TheRedneck

reply to post by TheRedneck


I think I understand what you are saying TRN. My thoughts on the subject are coming from personal observations.

I think as the world in general, and what is happening in it, is having a psychological effect on people.

The more they feel things in their life, they really have no control over, like having a job, or making enough money to support themselves, spiral out of control. The more they grasp at anything that makes them feel like they have some control...no matter if it's illogical or not.

I too, have seen what you are saying here on ATS. Especially with younger members. Maybe the younger generation just has more passion, or energy. I don't know.

Is there a solution? That I don't know either.

reply to post by Destinyone

Well, I know from my younger days (back when dinosaurs roamed the planet), it always frustrated me when I thought up some new and wonderful plan to make things better... like maybe guaranteeing everyone a job, or making wages more even... and the older folks would smile and shake their heads in apparent dismissal of everything I had just said. They seemed so darn sure of themselves that it wouldn't work. But they weren't even willing to give my ideas a try!

I tried doing a few things a different way, a better way it seemed to me, and I fell flat on my face each time. And each time, those old guys would chuckle and shake their heads again.

Then, as I got older, I saw younger guys than me coming along and talking about doing the same things I had tried. I tried to warn them it wouldn't work, tried to tell them where they had gone wrong, but they didn't listen or wouldn't believe me.

Now I'm the older guy and I find myself shaking my head at these young upstarts who think they have it all figured out. When they fall flat on their face, I help them back up, still shaking my head. It's not in dismissal or disgust; it's in amazement at how hard it is for one generation to learn from another. Just like those old guys were actually doing back when I was young.

The true irony is that each generation has no idea why their ideas don't work until they fail and learn from the School of Hard Knocks. And there is something in the human animal that refuses to listen to those more experienced, more knowledgeable than they. If only there were some way to change this dynamic of falling into the same traps over and over again, perhaps we could all have a better life someday,

I just don't know how to do this.

TheRedneck

reply to post by TheRedneck


The solution is to keep a record of what had been tried with every parameter and environment listed, and then education for others so that they may not make the mistakes, or avoid certain parameters with a better environment to retry those theories or experiments again. That's how mankind progress - by making mistakes, acknowledging them, to progress and evolve.

The lightbulb was not conceived and manufactured within or on first single try, nor was Athenian Democracy. Whatever that we this generation had failed, we must NEVER hinder the next from trying again, but from a different angle, to see if there could be a better result, at least until all angles had been covered, every stone uncovered.

Some say 'never to re-invent the wheel'. But we mankind had progressed and evolved beyond the stone carved wheel into rimless or run flat tyres of today, with more today. Point is, we need not re-invent. We only need to improve, and through the differing offshoot results, much WILL be learnt, so long as we mankind never give up trying to improve.