On creating positive change

(This is a longer and more complete version of this post, after I've had around four hours to think more about what I wanted to write here)

Originally posted by lordnightstalker
No one seems to "get it" anonymous has already won, this nation will go into revolution

This is the definition of real anarchy, right here. Although most of you aren't aware, in terms of what happened to Natalie Portman's character as a result of the concentration camp sequence, V for Vendetta actually mentions it. As powerful as it is though, and as realistic as that part of the movie really was, most in the audience would rather overlook it, and focus on safer, more comfortable, more enjoyable things, like V engaging in witty dialogue, having knife fights, and blowing stuff up.

The problem is that the above isn't what many of you really want to do. It's too hard. It's too scary. Worst of all, it involves individual responsibility.

Most people don't want personal sovereignty. They prefer to keep protesting. They prefer to keep rioting. They prefer violence. They prefer to keep sending the message that not only did someone else create the problem, but it's also up to someone else to fix it.

Contrary to what you might think, the wealthy minority didn't get that way by themselves. They got there with our consent. If we'd worked as hard at stopping them, as they were prepared to work to get there, or harder, they never would have been an issue to begin with. I used to play Capture the Flag in World of Warcraft, and in psychological terms, that game was like Sumo wrestling. We were on the mat with the other team, and it was a game of attrition, and pure will and endurance. Occupy are in the same situation with the 1%; and like WoW's CTF, and Sumo, the team that wins, is going to be the one that wants it more. It's quite literally that simple.

I had my first '___' trip last November, (during the first hours of 11/11/11 in fact) and during that experience I learned something. I learned that our problem isn't caused by peak oil. It isn't technological or scientific. It isn't even environmental.

Humanity's biggest problem is attitudinal. The two problems are that virtually none of us have personal sovereignty, and almost as few of us really love. If we were able to change that about ourselves, we wouldn't need to worry about either the technological or environmental issues at all; from that vantage point, we could solve them very, very easily. The acidification of the oceans, as one example; have you heard about the number of people who suffer from heartburn now? That is caused by excess internal acid. So it is all fractal; every last bit of it. What the Earth is suffering, is the same as what we are all suffering inside ourselves. Earth has quakes, we have heart attacks. We have cancer internally, but macroscopically, we also have civilians and the police (the society's immune system) fighting each other in the streets.

Anonymous won't win by hacking; and even if they did, it would be a case of someone else winning, while the rest of us stayed passive. That would make them the ones with the right to decide the future...not us.

I'm not doing what Ben Stewart advocates in Ungrip, in some ways. After living here in Nimbin for five months, I'm about to fly back to my mother's place, tomorrow; closer to a capital city. I'm going back to flouridated, chlorinated mains water, and mains power; at least temporarily. I'm going back to supermarket food. I'm going back to learn how to love my parents; which for too long, is something I haven't been willing to do. I'm also going back because I want to sit in front of the Internet and play Minecraft and write UNIX scripts, rather than spend as much of my time gardening. I might end up living with my mother until she dies, although I don't think that will be more than 15 years.

With respect to Michael Ruppert, I've decided that I do not want his future; irrespective of how difficult it might be for me to avoid.

I do not want the end of electricity. I do not want the end of mechanical or digital technology. That doesn't mean that I am going to stick my head in the sand about the difficulty of retaining these things, but I am going to retain them.

So I'm possibly not sovereign, in that context; and truthfully I might never be. I'm still on a disability support pension, as well. You might think that that makes me a hypocrite, but I actually think you'd be wrong.

Maybe I'm delusional. I think Michael Ruppert would tell me I am. I think he'd say that his future...peak oil, environmental collapse...is going to happen irrespective of whether we want it or not, and that if I think that it's as simple as just making a decision to change to a different timeline, then I'm juvenile and/or schizophrenic. I'll accept that. If his future comes, I might die. But with apologies again to him, I've realised that, in comparison with his future, death for me would actually be preferable.

The point is to make a choice. Make it honestly, make it consciously, make it with intent. Whatever it is that you want, choose it because it is your choice; not because you're blaming other people for it, and acting like a victim.