We are living in exceptional times. Scientists tell us that we have 10 years to change the way we live, avert the depletion of natural resources and the catastrophic evolution of the Earth's climate.
The stakes are high for us and our children. Everyone should take part in the effort, and HOME has been conceived to take a message of mobilization out to every human being.
Can earth be Earth when all it’s trees are gone,
And sudsy waters have become unfit,
And poisoned life no longer greets the dawn
With raucous sounds that death has caused to quit?
Will trees no longer wave, with limbs unfurled,
On hapless earth, that ever in orbit roams?
Will human ego sacrifice the world
To satiate its lust for pompous homes?
Will distant space look down on orb that’s bald.
I now can hear the mother say,
“I was once called Earth.
But now , bereft of mirth, I weep.
That treeless orb’s no longer Earth”
Can Earth Be Earth?
Prelude - Yann Arthus-Bertrand captures fragile Earth in wide-angle
Watch the full documentary here - HOME by Yann Arthus-Bertrand
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Fed is struggling so hard to protect their secrecy/independence!
According to the Bloomberg news, Federal Reserve General Counsel Scott Alvarez said audits of monetary policy by the U.S. Congress could lead to "higher interest rates and reduced confidence in central bank policy." Threaten to raise interest rate if the audit is passed?
Congressional audits of monetary policy could “cause the markets and the public to lose confidence in the independence of the judgments of the Federal Reserve,” Alvarez told the House Financial Services Committee. In fact, the markets and the public are already losing confidence in the independence of the Fed, that's why they want nothing else but a full audit. Why would 75% Americans support the audit if they have, namely, "confidence", in what the Fed is doing? I would say, however, that the so-called "confidence" does not correlate with reality at all, the reality of unresolvable unemployment, debt, and the weakness of the dollar. US unemployment rate is reaching an unprecedented level of 9.8% in government statistics, 16-20% in shadowstats, not to mention UK, Japan, and the rest of the world is also facing the same downturns as well.
"Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke and his colleagues are trying to persuade lawmakers not to pass legislation sponsored by Representative Ron Paul of Texas that would repeal the central bank’s immunity to audits of monetary policy."
Immunity? Can you say the Fed is above the law?
Alvarez said GAO audits of discount-window lending could reduce the effectiveness of “these facilities in promoting financial stability, maximum employment, and price stability.” The legislation could also “disrupt” the Fed’s relationships with foreign central banks, he said.
Rofl. They had already failed numerous times miserably to protect, namely, "financial stability, maximum employment, and price stability" since the Fed's creation in 1913, will this time be any different than what the history is recorded? What's more? Disruption of the Fed's relationships with foreign central banks? Fed as a private cartel, has immunity to audits and the ability to deal and make treaties with foreign governments and monetary policies? That sounds to me that the Fed is more powerful than any entities on Earth, including the US government itself. A secret government upon itself, perhaps? I don't see a single reason not to audit the Fed. It not only corrodes the values of the money, but also promotes moral hazard, violence, wars, social instabilities, distrustfulness, and most important of all, strip of liberty along the way. For who controls the money, controls the world. One phrase can sum it all - The Bankers Own The Earth. And Fed has all the power in the world to manipulate the money and move the market as it wishes.
Source: Fed’s Alvarez Says Audits Could Lead to Higher Rates
Congressional audits of monetary policy could “cause the markets and the public to lose confidence in the independence of the judgments of the Federal Reserve,” Alvarez told the House Financial Services Committee. In fact, the markets and the public are already losing confidence in the independence of the Fed, that's why they want nothing else but a full audit. Why would 75% Americans support the audit if they have, namely, "confidence", in what the Fed is doing? I would say, however, that the so-called "confidence" does not correlate with reality at all, the reality of unresolvable unemployment, debt, and the weakness of the dollar. US unemployment rate is reaching an unprecedented level of 9.8% in government statistics, 16-20% in shadowstats, not to mention UK, Japan, and the rest of the world is also facing the same downturns as well.
"Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke and his colleagues are trying to persuade lawmakers not to pass legislation sponsored by Representative Ron Paul of Texas that would repeal the central bank’s immunity to audits of monetary policy."
Immunity? Can you say the Fed is above the law?
Alvarez said GAO audits of discount-window lending could reduce the effectiveness of “these facilities in promoting financial stability, maximum employment, and price stability.” The legislation could also “disrupt” the Fed’s relationships with foreign central banks, he said.
Rofl. They had already failed numerous times miserably to protect, namely, "financial stability, maximum employment, and price stability" since the Fed's creation in 1913, will this time be any different than what the history is recorded? What's more? Disruption of the Fed's relationships with foreign central banks? Fed as a private cartel, has immunity to audits and the ability to deal and make treaties with foreign governments and monetary policies? That sounds to me that the Fed is more powerful than any entities on Earth, including the US government itself. A secret government upon itself, perhaps? I don't see a single reason not to audit the Fed. It not only corrodes the values of the money, but also promotes moral hazard, violence, wars, social instabilities, distrustfulness, and most important of all, strip of liberty along the way. For who controls the money, controls the world. One phrase can sum it all - The Bankers Own The Earth. And Fed has all the power in the world to manipulate the money and move the market as it wishes.
Source: Fed’s Alvarez Says Audits Could Lead to Higher Rates
Saturday, September 26, 2009
More Highlights on HR1207 Hearing 25.09.09
Ron Paul HR1207 Hearing Highlights Opening
Ron Paul HR1207 Hearing Highlights Ron's Best Part
Ron Paul HR1207 Hearing Highlights - Woods Testimony
Ron Paul HR1207 Hearing Highlights - Tom Woods Attacked
Ron Paul HR1207 Hearing Highlights: Bachman
Ron Paul HR1207 Hearing Highlights Ron's Best Part
Ron Paul HR1207 Hearing Highlights - Woods Testimony
Ron Paul HR1207 Hearing Highlights - Tom Woods Attacked
Ron Paul HR1207 Hearing Highlights: Bachman
Alan Grayson On Fire: Has the Federal Reserve Ever Tried to Manipulate the Stock Market?
Rep. Alan Grayson: "Has the Federal Reserve Ever Tried to Manipulate the Stock Market?"
Friday, September 25, 2009
Augmented Reality in a Contact Lens
A new generation of contact lenses built with very small circuits and LEDs promises bionic eyesight
The human eye is a perceptual powerhouse. It can see millions of colors, adjust easily to shifting light conditions, and transmit information to the brain at a rate exceeding that of a high-speed Internet connection.
But why stop there?
In the Terminator movies, Arnold Schwarzenegger’s character sees the world with data superimposed on his visual field—virtual captions that enhance the cyborg’s scan of a scene. In stories by the science fiction author Vernor Vinge, characters rely on electronic contact lenses, rather than smartphones or brain implants, for seamless access to information that appears right before their eyes.
These visions (if I may) might seem far-fetched, but a contact lens with simple built-in electronics is already within reach; in fact, my students and I are already producing such devices in small numbers in my laboratory at the University of Washington, in Seattle [see sidebar, "A Twinkle in the Eye"]. These lenses don’t give us the vision of an eagle or the benefit of running subtitles on our surroundings yet. But we have built a lens with one LED, which we’ve powered wirelessly with RF. What we’ve done so far barely hints at what will soon be possible with this technology.
Continue reading Augmented Reality in a Contact Lens via IEEE Spectrum
The human eye is a perceptual powerhouse. It can see millions of colors, adjust easily to shifting light conditions, and transmit information to the brain at a rate exceeding that of a high-speed Internet connection.
But why stop there?
In the Terminator movies, Arnold Schwarzenegger’s character sees the world with data superimposed on his visual field—virtual captions that enhance the cyborg’s scan of a scene. In stories by the science fiction author Vernor Vinge, characters rely on electronic contact lenses, rather than smartphones or brain implants, for seamless access to information that appears right before their eyes.
These visions (if I may) might seem far-fetched, but a contact lens with simple built-in electronics is already within reach; in fact, my students and I are already producing such devices in small numbers in my laboratory at the University of Washington, in Seattle [see sidebar, "A Twinkle in the Eye"]. These lenses don’t give us the vision of an eagle or the benefit of running subtitles on our surroundings yet. But we have built a lens with one LED, which we’ve powered wirelessly with RF. What we’ve done so far barely hints at what will soon be possible with this technology.
Continue reading Augmented Reality in a Contact Lens via IEEE Spectrum
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Federal Reserve faces more lawsuits
Counting down to the Fed's doomsday. I wonder how long can it last with all the pressures everywhere coming from the raging Americans, HR1207, S604, Bloomberg and GATA lawsuits to disclose their super highly secretive information? With that being said, they are getting more and more worried everyday and struggling so hard to protect their who-knows-what-they-are-smoking secrecy the world wants to know so badly. But do they really think that they can get away with their century-old secrets? Reversing everything back to pre-crisis level and let the housing prices keep bubbling up, and not to mention rewarding Wall Street bankers handsomely while everyone suffers? That certainly defies reality. I strongly believe, the time will come, one day, not in the too distant future that the Fed must come an end! Fed and it's "fractional reserve system" clearly cannot work in this economy anymore, at least not by simply printing pile of worthless papers. Enough said, keep pounding the Fed until it bursts! END THE FED!
BREAKING NEWS:
Bloomberg's Lawsuit - Court Orders Fed to Disclose Emergency Bank Loans
Bloomberg's Lawsuit - Fed Refuses to Disclose Recipients of $2 Trillion
Bloomberg's Lawsuit - Federal Reserve Appeals Court Order to Disclose Loans
Bloomberg's Lawsuit - Bloomberg Responds To Fed FOIA Appeal, Blasts Bernanke's "Hyperbolic Speculation" Of Economic Collapse
GATA's Lawsuit - Federal Reserve Admits Hiding Gold Swap Arrangements
BREAKING NEWS:
Bloomberg's Lawsuit - Court Orders Fed to Disclose Emergency Bank Loans
Bloomberg's Lawsuit - Fed Refuses to Disclose Recipients of $2 Trillion
Bloomberg's Lawsuit - Federal Reserve Appeals Court Order to Disclose Loans
Bloomberg's Lawsuit - Bloomberg Responds To Fed FOIA Appeal, Blasts Bernanke's "Hyperbolic Speculation" Of Economic Collapse
GATA's Lawsuit - Federal Reserve Admits Hiding Gold Swap Arrangements
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Preposterousness!
Today I came across 2 articles about the Fed on the internet. Due to the overwhelming supports of 75% US constituents and 2/3 majority in the House of Representatives and Senate, the Fed must come to a thorough crystal-clear audit. Fortunately, there will be a hearing for HR1207 Federal Reserve Transparency Act on the House Floor this coming Friday. Despite the assist of the Financial Services Committee Chairman, Barney Frank, he "reiterated his support for greater scrutiny of the Federal Reserve, but stressed it would not expose U.S. monetary policy to political sway." Does that mean he is going to compromise HR1207 with another legislation or water down the original bill? I hope better not, because that will ignite the furies of the Americans.
According to the Reuters news, the Massachusetts Democrat told reporters that he was in "general agreement" with a bill put forward by Republican Rep. Ron Paul to hold the Fed to a wider GAO audit, "provided that additional exposure came with clear limits." Additional exposure came with clear limits? How absurd! What are the "clear limits" is he talking about anyway? I don't think Americans and the rest of the world would ever want that "limits crap". The World WANTS NOTHING BUT A FULL AUDIT! Full audit means it must include all these:
1. transactions for or with a foreign central bank, government of a foreign country, or non-private international financing organization;
2. deliberations, decisions, or actions on monetary policy matters, including discount window operations, reserves of member banks, securities credit, interest on deposits, and open market operations
3. transactions made under the direction of the Federal Open Market Committee
4. a part of a discussion or communication among or between members of the Board of Governors and officers and employees of the Federal Reserve System related to clauses (1)-(3) of this subsection of US Code.
Barney Frank added, "One, we don't want anyone to think that monetary policy is being politicized. That would have a very bad effect on the dollar, and Ron Paul agrees with that, I believe," Frank said.
"It has also argued strongly that exposing Fed policy decisions to GAO audits, as Paul's bill would do as currently written, would be potentially harmful to the U.S. economy by politicizing monetary policy decisions."
Wow, that is, perhaps the most ridiculous statement I have ever seen. Ron Paul never agrees with that AT ALL! The dollar is, in fact, already on the fall and Barney Frank talked like as if the Fed is not already politicized. If it's not politicized, who would appoint chairman for the Fed and it's 7 members in the Board of Governors? Wasn't that US President Barack Obama reappointed Ben Bernanke as second-term Fed chairman? The Fed was already politicized since its creation in 1913, however, in total secrecy. In reality, not only Ron Paul wanted to audit the fed, his final goal would be to abolish it for the sake of the world. Otherwise, he would not have written his new bestselling book called "END THE FED". Having said that, the Fed's lifespan is long overdue and IT MUST BE FULLY EXPOSED AND CEASED TO EXIST! Americans and the world must fight till the end, for the Fed is the single biggest threat in the world. It is, without doubt, the root of all evil and crises mankind has ever endured. END THE FED!
Ron Paul: The Federal Reserve Is Already Politicized
Source: "Top Democrat repeats support for more Fed scrutiny"
Another ludicrous news -
A letter to Senator Grassley from Mr. McAlister(US constituent) regarding the cosponsor issue of S604 Federal Reserve Sunshine Act.
I wrote Senator Grassley urging him to vote for S604 on it's own merits, a stand-alone basis. I received a reply from him explaining that he would gladly combine S604 with other legislation. It is insulting to receive a reply that blatantly differs with my request, but is written as if he is in total agreement. I wrote him today expressing my dissatisfaction with his reply.
Dear Senator Grassley,
I wrote you a while back to thank you for supporting S604, and to urge you to encourage a vote on the bill. I wrote expressing a need to vote on the bill on a stand alone basis, and not rolled into some other legislation. I received a reply from you written in a tone that was as if you were in agreement with me. However, as I read the reply it was clear that you are only interested in combining the bill with other legislation that would obviously weaken it's intended purpose, which is to require the Federal Reserve to be accountable and transparent. Senator Grassley, please understand that when someone writes you about the Federal Reserve, the chances are that the constituent is aware of the Federal Reserve's origin and is aware of what their influence is in this country. It is very disappointing, not to mention insulting, when you reply to my letter as if I am unaware and asleep. Senator Grassley, every day more and MORE people are waking up to what is happening in our country. NOW would be a good time to join the people.
Dear Mr. McAlister,
I understand your concern about the Federal Reserve not being accountable or transparent. However, their dark and powerful arm is far reaching, and can corrupt almost anyone, including myself. I would love to support S604 on a stand alone basis, however, if I did that, it may cause harm to the Creature from Jekyll Island, and I am in some way beholden to their interests, having been corrupted some time ago. Please read this letter as though I agree with you, and please go back to sleep and allow us here in Washington to take care of everything. Trust us! We care about you!!
I can't help but wondering what are the crooks in Washington really up to? "Trust them?" Have "faith" in US dollar as the world's reserve currency? So that they can continually corrupting almost anyone, any countries, any governments, and any corporations on Earth? Does ethic still exist anyway? What kind of preposterous world are we living in? Ultimately, I believe, the only way to solve all these unnecessary crises is to banish the very Creature from Jekyll Island, the founders and heirs of the Federal Reserve!
According to the Reuters news, the Massachusetts Democrat told reporters that he was in "general agreement" with a bill put forward by Republican Rep. Ron Paul to hold the Fed to a wider GAO audit, "provided that additional exposure came with clear limits." Additional exposure came with clear limits? How absurd! What are the "clear limits" is he talking about anyway? I don't think Americans and the rest of the world would ever want that "limits crap". The World WANTS NOTHING BUT A FULL AUDIT! Full audit means it must include all these:
1. transactions for or with a foreign central bank, government of a foreign country, or non-private international financing organization;
2. deliberations, decisions, or actions on monetary policy matters, including discount window operations, reserves of member banks, securities credit, interest on deposits, and open market operations
3. transactions made under the direction of the Federal Open Market Committee
4. a part of a discussion or communication among or between members of the Board of Governors and officers and employees of the Federal Reserve System related to clauses (1)-(3) of this subsection of US Code.
Barney Frank added, "One, we don't want anyone to think that monetary policy is being politicized. That would have a very bad effect on the dollar, and Ron Paul agrees with that, I believe," Frank said.
"It has also argued strongly that exposing Fed policy decisions to GAO audits, as Paul's bill would do as currently written, would be potentially harmful to the U.S. economy by politicizing monetary policy decisions."
Wow, that is, perhaps the most ridiculous statement I have ever seen. Ron Paul never agrees with that AT ALL! The dollar is, in fact, already on the fall and Barney Frank talked like as if the Fed is not already politicized. If it's not politicized, who would appoint chairman for the Fed and it's 7 members in the Board of Governors? Wasn't that US President Barack Obama reappointed Ben Bernanke as second-term Fed chairman? The Fed was already politicized since its creation in 1913, however, in total secrecy. In reality, not only Ron Paul wanted to audit the fed, his final goal would be to abolish it for the sake of the world. Otherwise, he would not have written his new bestselling book called "END THE FED". Having said that, the Fed's lifespan is long overdue and IT MUST BE FULLY EXPOSED AND CEASED TO EXIST! Americans and the world must fight till the end, for the Fed is the single biggest threat in the world. It is, without doubt, the root of all evil and crises mankind has ever endured. END THE FED!
Ron Paul: The Federal Reserve Is Already Politicized
Source: "Top Democrat repeats support for more Fed scrutiny"
Another ludicrous news -
A letter to Senator Grassley from Mr. McAlister(US constituent) regarding the cosponsor issue of S604 Federal Reserve Sunshine Act.
I wrote Senator Grassley urging him to vote for S604 on it's own merits, a stand-alone basis. I received a reply from him explaining that he would gladly combine S604 with other legislation. It is insulting to receive a reply that blatantly differs with my request, but is written as if he is in total agreement. I wrote him today expressing my dissatisfaction with his reply.
Dear Senator Grassley,
I wrote you a while back to thank you for supporting S604, and to urge you to encourage a vote on the bill. I wrote expressing a need to vote on the bill on a stand alone basis, and not rolled into some other legislation. I received a reply from you written in a tone that was as if you were in agreement with me. However, as I read the reply it was clear that you are only interested in combining the bill with other legislation that would obviously weaken it's intended purpose, which is to require the Federal Reserve to be accountable and transparent. Senator Grassley, please understand that when someone writes you about the Federal Reserve, the chances are that the constituent is aware of the Federal Reserve's origin and is aware of what their influence is in this country. It is very disappointing, not to mention insulting, when you reply to my letter as if I am unaware and asleep. Senator Grassley, every day more and MORE people are waking up to what is happening in our country. NOW would be a good time to join the people.
Dear Mr. McAlister,
I understand your concern about the Federal Reserve not being accountable or transparent. However, their dark and powerful arm is far reaching, and can corrupt almost anyone, including myself. I would love to support S604 on a stand alone basis, however, if I did that, it may cause harm to the Creature from Jekyll Island, and I am in some way beholden to their interests, having been corrupted some time ago. Please read this letter as though I agree with you, and please go back to sleep and allow us here in Washington to take care of everything. Trust us! We care about you!!
I can't help but wondering what are the crooks in Washington really up to? "Trust them?" Have "faith" in US dollar as the world's reserve currency? So that they can continually corrupting almost anyone, any countries, any governments, and any corporations on Earth? Does ethic still exist anyway? What kind of preposterous world are we living in? Ultimately, I believe, the only way to solve all these unnecessary crises is to banish the very Creature from Jekyll Island, the founders and heirs of the Federal Reserve!
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
The best kept secret in the race of US presidency - Ron Paul
Does anyone know who is Ron Paul? He was undoubtedly the best kept secret candidate by the media in the race of US presidency. Despite the fact that he was the most honest, bravest, and courageous presidential candidate in opposing pre-emptive wars, income taxes, big-spending government, huge military budgets, federal reserve's monetary policy and so on, the mainstream media had totally excluded Ron Paul in the global media broadcasts, leaving only a few candidates such as Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, John McCain who were totally incapable in understanding the US Constitution for voters to choose. Alas, there will certainly be another four more years of havoc in the middle east wars and the global economy as a whole.
Ron Paul, 74, a former physician, not only has consistent principles and integrities, he appears to be a lifelong proponent of hard and sound money-based economy, the gold standard. Being an advocate of the Austrian Economics instead of the big-spending Keynesian Economics, he has been long criticizing the independence and vast power of the ultimate "gold printing press", US Federal Reserve. In fact, not only had he correctly predicted numerous economic crises in the past few decades, thanks to the wisdom of Austrian Economics, he also wanted to audit and abolish the Fed for more than 30 years. However, things have changed dramatically due to the severity of the current financial meltdown. Moreover, the bills to audit the Fed, HR1207, proposed by Ron Paul now has 290 co-sponsors, more than 2/3 in the House of Representatives while the senate version, S604, has 27 co-sponsors. With that being said, the Fed can no longer hide from the public's scrutiny.
Thanks to Ron Paul, the Fed's days are numbered, and that will definitely have deep impacts around the world. I believe, if Fed collapses, the whole financial system will collapse as well like a house of cards, and that of course, will mark an end in the era of unsustainability. In reality, the revolution is already underway in America. When it does happen, the rest of the world will follow. It's just a matter of time. Ron Paul will unquestionably go down in history as the father of revolution in modern era. The Revolution is coming!
Ron Paul's affiliated sites:
Ron Paul Official Site, Campaign For Liberty, Daily Paul, Audit The Fed, Ron Paul Forums, Ludvig von Mises, Lew Rockwell, Young Americans For Liberty
The best kept secret candidate in the race of US president - Ron Paul!
For Liberty!, upcoming documentary about Ron Paul's Liberty Campaign! Highly recommended for anyone who loves free market, limited government, anti-war, sound money, and most importantly, freedom! It will be available on YouTube soon.
For Liberty Trailer: www.forlibertymovie.com
For Liberty Trailer - Let It Not Be Said We Did Nothing
FOR LIBERTY Excerpt #1 - The Ron Paul Rider
FOR LIBERTY Excerpt #2 - Showdown In Iowa
FOR LIBERTY Excerpt #3 - The Boston Tea Party
FOR LIBERTY Teaser Trailer
Yet another upcoming documentary about Ron Paul's Rally For The Republic. Very inspiring.
Ron Paul Rally for the Republic Trailer
Additional videos about Ron Paul
Ron Paul - A New Hope
Ron Paul A Campaign for Liberty
Ron Paul Ends His Campaign: Let the Revolution March Begin
Ron Paul C4L - End The Fed Minneapolis
Ron Paul Courageously Speaks the Truth
Ron Paul, 74, a former physician, not only has consistent principles and integrities, he appears to be a lifelong proponent of hard and sound money-based economy, the gold standard. Being an advocate of the Austrian Economics instead of the big-spending Keynesian Economics, he has been long criticizing the independence and vast power of the ultimate "gold printing press", US Federal Reserve. In fact, not only had he correctly predicted numerous economic crises in the past few decades, thanks to the wisdom of Austrian Economics, he also wanted to audit and abolish the Fed for more than 30 years. However, things have changed dramatically due to the severity of the current financial meltdown. Moreover, the bills to audit the Fed, HR1207, proposed by Ron Paul now has 290 co-sponsors, more than 2/3 in the House of Representatives while the senate version, S604, has 27 co-sponsors. With that being said, the Fed can no longer hide from the public's scrutiny.
Thanks to Ron Paul, the Fed's days are numbered, and that will definitely have deep impacts around the world. I believe, if Fed collapses, the whole financial system will collapse as well like a house of cards, and that of course, will mark an end in the era of unsustainability. In reality, the revolution is already underway in America. When it does happen, the rest of the world will follow. It's just a matter of time. Ron Paul will unquestionably go down in history as the father of revolution in modern era. The Revolution is coming!
Ron Paul's affiliated sites:
Ron Paul Official Site, Campaign For Liberty, Daily Paul, Audit The Fed, Ron Paul Forums, Ludvig von Mises, Lew Rockwell, Young Americans For Liberty
The best kept secret candidate in the race of US president - Ron Paul!
For Liberty!, upcoming documentary about Ron Paul's Liberty Campaign! Highly recommended for anyone who loves free market, limited government, anti-war, sound money, and most importantly, freedom! It will be available on YouTube soon.
For Liberty Trailer: www.forlibertymovie.com
For Liberty Trailer - Let It Not Be Said We Did Nothing
FOR LIBERTY Excerpt #1 - The Ron Paul Rider
FOR LIBERTY Excerpt #2 - Showdown In Iowa
FOR LIBERTY Excerpt #3 - The Boston Tea Party
FOR LIBERTY Teaser Trailer
Yet another upcoming documentary about Ron Paul's Rally For The Republic. Very inspiring.
Ron Paul Rally for the Republic Trailer
Additional videos about Ron Paul
Ron Paul - A New Hope
Ron Paul A Campaign for Liberty
Ron Paul Ends His Campaign: Let the Revolution March Begin
Ron Paul C4L - End The Fed Minneapolis
Ron Paul Courageously Speaks the Truth
Letting Go
"Its just letting go," the wise one said.
"If you want to be at peace, if you want to feel the love in your heart, if you want to savor the present moment, then just let go of all the constraints you have put upon yourself."
"That's all there is to it."
"Simple, isn't it?"
But oh how difficult it is...
Years of personal experience,
combined with centuries of cultural learning,
have taught us the importance of holding on.
We hold on to our desires
We hold on to what we think we need.
We hold on to what promises us happiness.
We hold on to our possessions.
We hold on to our image of who we are
We hold on to our ideas of what is right.
We hold on to our theories.
We hold on to our beliefs.
We hold on to our attitudes.
We hold on to our judgements.
We hold on to the past
We hold on to the future.
We hold on to our grievances.
We hold on to our fears.
We hold on to our loves
We hold on to our lovers.
We hold on to money.
We hold on to our thoughts.
We hold on to our illusions.
We hold on to our gods.
We hold on to our bodies.
We hold on to our lives
Maybe we believe that our safety lies in holding on,
That losing our grip could spell disaster,
Or we may believe that holding on is the way to salvation.
But do we really know it is safer to hold on?
Would letting go really be so bad?
Do we really gain from holding on?
"If you want to be at peace, if you want to feel the love in your heart, if you want to savor the present moment, then just let go of all the constraints you have put upon yourself."
"That's all there is to it."
"Simple, isn't it?"
But oh how difficult it is...
Years of personal experience,
combined with centuries of cultural learning,
have taught us the importance of holding on.
We hold on to our desires
We hold on to what we think we need.
We hold on to what promises us happiness.
We hold on to our possessions.
We hold on to our image of who we are
We hold on to our ideas of what is right.
We hold on to our theories.
We hold on to our beliefs.
We hold on to our attitudes.
We hold on to our judgements.
We hold on to the past
We hold on to the future.
We hold on to our grievances.
We hold on to our fears.
We hold on to our loves
We hold on to our lovers.
We hold on to money.
We hold on to our thoughts.
We hold on to our illusions.
We hold on to our gods.
We hold on to our bodies.
We hold on to our lives
Maybe we believe that our safety lies in holding on,
That losing our grip could spell disaster,
Or we may believe that holding on is the way to salvation.
But do we really know it is safer to hold on?
Would letting go really be so bad?
Do we really gain from holding on?
Do Not Believe
Do not believe because you read it in a book,
Do not believe because you saw it on television,
Do not believe because science says so,
Do not believe because a famous person says so,
Do not believe because a wise person says so,
Do not believe because a wise person believes it,
Do not believe because your best friend believes it,
Do not believe because everyone else believes it,
Do not believe because others have believed it for a thousand years,
Do not believe because you've heard it many times before,
Do not believe because you are told you must,
Do not believe because others expect you to,
Do not believe because it gets you accepted
Do not believe because it will make your parents happy,
Do not believe because it will get you noticed,
Do not believe because you want to believe,
Do not believe because you can't afford not to,
Do not believe because it helps you cope,
Do not believe because you'd go mad if you didn't,
Do not believe because you must believe something
Do not believe because there's nothing else to believe,
Do not believe because it feels good to believe,
Do not believe because it makes sense,
Do not believe because your eyes tell you it is so,
Do not believe because it is your own experience,
Do not believe because it feels true,
Do not believe because you know it is true,
Do not believe any of this, Believe only that you are,
And do not even believe that,
For that is beyond belief.
Do not believe because you saw it on television,
Do not believe because science says so,
Do not believe because a famous person says so,
Do not believe because a wise person says so,
Do not believe because a wise person believes it,
Do not believe because your best friend believes it,
Do not believe because everyone else believes it,
Do not believe because others have believed it for a thousand years,
Do not believe because you've heard it many times before,
Do not believe because you are told you must,
Do not believe because others expect you to,
Do not believe because it gets you accepted
Do not believe because it will make your parents happy,
Do not believe because it will get you noticed,
Do not believe because you want to believe,
Do not believe because you can't afford not to,
Do not believe because it helps you cope,
Do not believe because you'd go mad if you didn't,
Do not believe because you must believe something
Do not believe because there's nothing else to believe,
Do not believe because it feels good to believe,
Do not believe because it makes sense,
Do not believe because your eyes tell you it is so,
Do not believe because it is your own experience,
Do not believe because it feels true,
Do not believe because you know it is true,
Do not believe any of this, Believe only that you are,
And do not even believe that,
For that is beyond belief.
Retire
Retire
No, not at the end of your working life, when you finally retire from that incessant doing, from earning a living, and take more time for yourself. Retire now, in everyday life.
Let the mind retire.
Let your attention step back from the thought occupying your mind. Become aware of what is already there, before the thought caught hold. Maybe it is an emotion, a feeling, sensations in the body, your breath, sounds around you. Whatever is already there, but passed unnoticed. It doesn't matter what it is. Different things become apparent at different times.
Then retire again. Let the attention step back to become aware of what is already there, beneath the sensations and feelings. Again, there is no right answer. It is the process itself that is valuable. Just pause and notice whatever is always there.
And then, retire again.
And again.
No, not at the end of your working life, when you finally retire from that incessant doing, from earning a living, and take more time for yourself. Retire now, in everyday life.
Let the mind retire.
Let your attention step back from the thought occupying your mind. Become aware of what is already there, before the thought caught hold. Maybe it is an emotion, a feeling, sensations in the body, your breath, sounds around you. Whatever is already there, but passed unnoticed. It doesn't matter what it is. Different things become apparent at different times.
Then retire again. Let the attention step back to become aware of what is already there, beneath the sensations and feelings. Again, there is no right answer. It is the process itself that is valuable. Just pause and notice whatever is always there.
And then, retire again.
And again.
Monday, September 21, 2009
World Builder
A strange man uses holographic tools to build a world for the woman he loves. This is a short by filmmaker Bruce Branit known also as the co-creator of 405. Pretty inspiring.
World Builder
World Builder
Leap!
Leap! The Movie, features many brilliant visionaries, scientists and authors in the world today (including Peter Russell, Fred Alan Wolf, Dan Millman, Cynthia James, James Twyman and many others), is a very profound and insightful look at life from the view of its illusory nature. It takes you on a journey that questions everything you may have called ‘reality’ and opens up a space for possibility beyond the limitations of preconceived ideas and philosophies. A sweet and earthy walk through rather illusive concepts that is both inspiring and heart-warming.
This film has somehow attracted me in an extraordinary yet inconceivable way. But unfortunately, I haven't gotten my copy of the movie yet. I am trying to get it as soon as possible. Please take a look at the movie trailer. It is food for the mind and soul.
Leap! Trailer
This film has somehow attracted me in an extraordinary yet inconceivable way. But unfortunately, I haven't gotten my copy of the movie yet. I am trying to get it as soon as possible. Please take a look at the movie trailer. It is food for the mind and soul.
Leap! Trailer
Sunday, September 20, 2009
Singularity University - Where Big Brains meet the Future
Singularity University (SU) is an interdisciplinary university whose mission is to assemble, educate and inspire a cadre of leaders who strive to understand and facilitate the development of exponentially advancing technologies in order to address humanity’s grand challenges. With the support of a broad range of leaders in academia, business and government, SU hopes to stimulate groundbreaking, disruptive thinking and solutions aimed at solving some of the planet’s most pressing challenges. SU is based at the NASA Ames campus in Silicon Valley.
However, Singularity University is no run-of-the-mill academic institution, and its students are not the usual breed of dreamers with good intentions. Founded by leading futurist and "The Singularity is Near" author Ray Kurzweil, X Prize chairman and CEO Peter Diamandis, and former Yahoo Brickhouse head Salim Ismail, the nine-week course examines exponentially growing technologies like biotechnology and bioinformatics, nanotechnology, AI, robotics, and cognitive computing as well as future studies and forecasting, and finance and entrepreneurship.
What's more? The chosen lucky students will have access to superstar teachers like George Smoot, a professor at the University of California at Berkeley and winner of the 2006 Nobel Prize in Physics; Dan Kammen, co-director of the Berkeley Institute of the Environment and a member of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change team that shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with Al Gore; Vint Cerf, Google's chief Internet evangelist; and Stephanie Langhoff, NASA Ames' chief scientist. And speakers include PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel, Ethernet co-inventor Bob Metcalfe.
With the supports of Google, NASA, X-Prize, Zero Gravity Corp. and all the unusual ingenious lecturers, Singularity University is truly an astounding one of its kind to cultivate big brains and leaders to prepare humanity for the next stage of evolution. In the era of information explosions and uncertainties like this, we ought to prepare and enhance ourselves, physically and mentally, in order to keep up with the pace of the information and technological exponential growth for the future is not very far away from us and get ready for the radical change. The Singularity is near!
For those who are interested and can just dream of entering this prestigious university, you need not to worry about that, because they will post their lectures and study materials online for free like TED.com in the not too distant future. Thus, everyone will have the equal opportunity to learn from the top scholars. Embrace the future.
Ray Kurzweil: A University For The Coming Singularity
Singularity University Presentation
Singularity University - FT Article Video
However, Singularity University is no run-of-the-mill academic institution, and its students are not the usual breed of dreamers with good intentions. Founded by leading futurist and "The Singularity is Near" author Ray Kurzweil, X Prize chairman and CEO Peter Diamandis, and former Yahoo Brickhouse head Salim Ismail, the nine-week course examines exponentially growing technologies like biotechnology and bioinformatics, nanotechnology, AI, robotics, and cognitive computing as well as future studies and forecasting, and finance and entrepreneurship.
What's more? The chosen lucky students will have access to superstar teachers like George Smoot, a professor at the University of California at Berkeley and winner of the 2006 Nobel Prize in Physics; Dan Kammen, co-director of the Berkeley Institute of the Environment and a member of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change team that shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with Al Gore; Vint Cerf, Google's chief Internet evangelist; and Stephanie Langhoff, NASA Ames' chief scientist. And speakers include PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel, Ethernet co-inventor Bob Metcalfe.
With the supports of Google, NASA, X-Prize, Zero Gravity Corp. and all the unusual ingenious lecturers, Singularity University is truly an astounding one of its kind to cultivate big brains and leaders to prepare humanity for the next stage of evolution. In the era of information explosions and uncertainties like this, we ought to prepare and enhance ourselves, physically and mentally, in order to keep up with the pace of the information and technological exponential growth for the future is not very far away from us and get ready for the radical change. The Singularity is near!
For those who are interested and can just dream of entering this prestigious university, you need not to worry about that, because they will post their lectures and study materials online for free like TED.com in the not too distant future. Thus, everyone will have the equal opportunity to learn from the top scholars. Embrace the future.
Ray Kurzweil: A University For The Coming Singularity
Singularity University Presentation
Singularity University - FT Article Video
Ron Paul: Current Conditions or Just a Bad Dream?
Can US still reigns as the supranational country in the world by creating endless delusions and distorting reality? I think that's inconsistent with reality.
Ron Paul - Current Conditions or Just a Bad Dream?
Ron Paul - Current Conditions or Just a Bad Dream?
Saturday, September 19, 2009
Logic flaws in "Faith" and "Open-mindedness"
Faith has no place demanding agreement or punishing disagreement. Because "faith", benevolently speaking, has nothing to do in correlating with reality. As simple as that, period.
Logic flaws in "Faith"
Logic flaws in "Open-mindedness"
Logic flaws in "Faith"
Logic flaws in "Open-mindedness"
Siftables, the toy blocks that think
MIT grad student David Merrill demos Siftables - cookie-sized, computerized tiles you can stack and shuffle in your hands. These future-toys can do math, play music, and talk to their friends, too. Is this the next thing in hands-on learning?
David Merrill: Siftables, the toy blocks that think
David Merrill: Siftables, the toy blocks that think
The Space Elevator - From Concept to Reality
The Space Elevator, is a proposed structure designed to transport material from a celestial body's surface into space. It would nevertheless be a giant leap for humanity to explore the universe if the "stairway to the heaven" is made possible in the future. The question remains - is it a sci-fi concept or a reality? However, I think there is probably some good chance at achieving this grand dream due to the discovery of carbon-nanotube which is 10 times lighter and 500 times stronger than the steel. Hence, I believe it will be just a few decades away before this grand tour de force is achieved. Hail to the future!
The Space Elevator
The Space Elevator
Artificial Paradise, Inc (Artwork)
Artificial Paradise, Inc is an experimental film anticipating a future where a major corporation has developed an unique software, based on organic virtual reality, which holds all the lost memories of humankind. A user connects to this database of the forgotten…what is he searching for?
Thursday, September 17, 2009
The Substance of Things Not Seen
The Substance of Things Not Seen by John Lloyd at TED Oxford. Pretty hilarious!
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Truth matters
Have you realized what kind of world we are living in? Have you realized what's true and what's false? Have you ever wondered what you once believed in might be wrong? If so, how can we break the illusion of the false sense of reality? Today, in reality, we are living is what is being called an Orwellian's world where everything is upside down. As you can see, the world is suffering through perpetual wars, poverty, hungers, hatreds, terrors, fears, chaos and so on. However, we are constantly being told that "War is Peace, Slavery is Freedom, Ignorance is Strength, Foolishness is Wisdom" by the our leaders in charge and the mainstream media. What a joke. With that being said, this perennial illusion can never be break free without connecting the little dots and realizing the truth. In the final analysis, truth is what matters in our life.
"Truth is not told, it is realized."
"Truth is the treason in the empire of lies." -Ron Paul
"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is opposed. Third, it is regarded as self-evident." -Arthur Schopenhauer
The Twin Verses
What we are is the result of what we have thought,
is built by our thoughts, is made up of our thoughts.
If one speaks or acts with an impure thought,
suffering follows one,
like the wheel of the cart follows the foot of the ox.
What we are is the result of what we have thought,
is built by our thoughts, is made up of our thoughts.
If one speaks or acts with a pure thought,
happiness follows one,
like a shadow that never leaves.
"They insulted me; they hurt me;
they defeated me; they cheated me."
In those who harbour such thoughts,
hate will never cease.
"They insulted me; they hurt me;
they defeated me; they cheated me."
In those who do not harbour such thoughts,
hate will cease.
For hate is never conquered by hate.
Hate is conquered by love.
This is an eternal law.
Many do not realise that we must all come to an end here;
but those who do realise this, end their quarrels at once.
Whoever lives only for pleasures,
with senses uncontrolled,
immoderate in eating, lazy, and weak,
will be overthrown by Mara,
like the wind throws down a weak tree.
Whoever lives not for pleasures,
with senses well controlled,
moderate in eating, has faith and the power of virtue,
will not be overthrown by Mara,
any more than the wind throws down a rocky mountain.
Whoever would put on the yellow robe
without having cleansed oneself from impurity,
disregarding self-control and truth,
is not deserving of the yellow robe.
But whoever has cleansed oneself from impurity,
is well grounded in all the virtues,
and is possessed of self-control and truth,
is deserving of the yellow robe.
Those who imagine truth in untruth
and see untruth in truth
never arrive at truth but follow vain desires.
Those who know truth as truth and untruth as untruth
arrive at truth and follow true desires.
As rain makes its way into a badly roofed house,
so passion makes its way into an unreflecting mind.
As rain does not make its way into a well roofed house,
so passion does not make its way into a reflecting mind.
Wrong-doers grieve in this world,
and they grieve in the next; they grieve in both.
They grieve and are afflicted
when they see the wrong they have done.
The virtuous find joy in this world,
and they find joy in the next; they find joy in both.
They find joy and are glad
when they see the good they have done.
Wrong-doers suffer in this world,
and they suffer in the next; they suffer in both.
They suffer when they think of the wrong they have done.
They suffer even more when going on the wrong path.
The virtuous are happy in this world,
and they are happy in the next; they are happy in both.
They are happy when they think of the good they have done.
They are even happier when going on the good path.
Even if the thoughtless can recite many of the scriptures,
if they do not act accordingly,
they are not living the holy life,
but are like a cowherd counting the cows of others.
Even if the faithful can recite
only a few of the scriptures,
if they act accordingly,
having given up passion, hate, and folly,
being possessed of true knowledge and serenity of mind,
craving nothing in this world or the next,
they are living the holy life.
David Icke - Live At The Oxford Union Debating Society
"Truth is not told, it is realized."
"Truth is the treason in the empire of lies." -Ron Paul
"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is opposed. Third, it is regarded as self-evident." -Arthur Schopenhauer
The Twin Verses
What we are is the result of what we have thought,
is built by our thoughts, is made up of our thoughts.
If one speaks or acts with an impure thought,
suffering follows one,
like the wheel of the cart follows the foot of the ox.
What we are is the result of what we have thought,
is built by our thoughts, is made up of our thoughts.
If one speaks or acts with a pure thought,
happiness follows one,
like a shadow that never leaves.
"They insulted me; they hurt me;
they defeated me; they cheated me."
In those who harbour such thoughts,
hate will never cease.
"They insulted me; they hurt me;
they defeated me; they cheated me."
In those who do not harbour such thoughts,
hate will cease.
For hate is never conquered by hate.
Hate is conquered by love.
This is an eternal law.
Many do not realise that we must all come to an end here;
but those who do realise this, end their quarrels at once.
Whoever lives only for pleasures,
with senses uncontrolled,
immoderate in eating, lazy, and weak,
will be overthrown by Mara,
like the wind throws down a weak tree.
Whoever lives not for pleasures,
with senses well controlled,
moderate in eating, has faith and the power of virtue,
will not be overthrown by Mara,
any more than the wind throws down a rocky mountain.
Whoever would put on the yellow robe
without having cleansed oneself from impurity,
disregarding self-control and truth,
is not deserving of the yellow robe.
But whoever has cleansed oneself from impurity,
is well grounded in all the virtues,
and is possessed of self-control and truth,
is deserving of the yellow robe.
Those who imagine truth in untruth
and see untruth in truth
never arrive at truth but follow vain desires.
Those who know truth as truth and untruth as untruth
arrive at truth and follow true desires.
As rain makes its way into a badly roofed house,
so passion makes its way into an unreflecting mind.
As rain does not make its way into a well roofed house,
so passion does not make its way into a reflecting mind.
Wrong-doers grieve in this world,
and they grieve in the next; they grieve in both.
They grieve and are afflicted
when they see the wrong they have done.
The virtuous find joy in this world,
and they find joy in the next; they find joy in both.
They find joy and are glad
when they see the good they have done.
Wrong-doers suffer in this world,
and they suffer in the next; they suffer in both.
They suffer when they think of the wrong they have done.
They suffer even more when going on the wrong path.
The virtuous are happy in this world,
and they are happy in the next; they are happy in both.
They are happy when they think of the good they have done.
They are even happier when going on the good path.
Even if the thoughtless can recite many of the scriptures,
if they do not act accordingly,
they are not living the holy life,
but are like a cowherd counting the cows of others.
Even if the faithful can recite
only a few of the scriptures,
if they act accordingly,
having given up passion, hate, and folly,
being possessed of true knowledge and serenity of mind,
craving nothing in this world or the next,
they are living the holy life.
David Icke - Live At The Oxford Union Debating Society
The Paradox of Choice and the Loss of Wisdom
In times of crises like this, wisdom is desperately needed by most of the people, if not all. But unfortunately, wisdom is often ignored as foolishness. In today's world, knowledge and intelligence is not sufficient enough to survive in this cruelty ruthlessness world. Whether we are working or learning, we ought to not abandon wisdom. Because without wisdom, you will make dumb and foolish decisions, and it will certainly do more harms than good. As Barry Schwartz said, "rules and procedures maybe dumb, but they spare you from thinking." Therefore, think more and be wise! In the long run, wisdom will prevail.
Barry Schwartz - Our Loss of Wisdom
Barry Schwartz - The Paradox of Choice
Barry Schwartz - Our Loss of Wisdom
Barry Schwartz - The Paradox of Choice
World's English Mania
Unbelievable! China, the largest population country, is turning itself to the biggest English speaking country in the world at an unprecedented rate. Just look at how they learn English in a gigantic massive scale will blow you away. Very impressive. You might wanna learn harder after watching this clip.
Jay Walker on the World's English Mania
Jay Walker on the World's English Mania
Marvelous Scientists' Perspectives On The Cosmos
Where are we now? What is our place in the cosmos? How big is the universe? Is there any extraterrestrial's life out there in the seemingly infinite universe? These are the really big questions in today's science community. Let's listen to what they, the marvelous scientists, have to say.
David Deutsch: What Is Our Place In The Cosmos?
Richard Dawkins - The Universe Is Queerer Than We Can Suppose
Jill Tarter: Why The Search For Alien Intelligence Matters
David Deutsch: What Is Our Place In The Cosmos?
Richard Dawkins - The Universe Is Queerer Than We Can Suppose
Jill Tarter: Why The Search For Alien Intelligence Matters
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Housing Bubble Boom And Bust
Are we not facing the same bubble? Can property prices keep going up endlessly? Can the game keep going on without questions? Doubt it.
STOP THE BAILOUT!
STOP THE BAILOUT!
Who was the prophet of the financial meltdown? and who wasn't?
Peter Schiff Was Right 2006 - 2007 (2nd Edition)
Bernanke - Why are we still listening to this guy?
Bernanke - Why are we still listening to this guy?
Great speeches on the Fed from the author of "Meltdown", Tom Woods
Thomas E. Woods Jr., is a senior fellow at the Ludwig von Mises Institute. He holds a bachelor’s degree in history from Harvard and his master’s, M.Phil., and Ph.D. from Columbia University. He is the author of nine books, including the New York Times bestseller - Meltdown: A Free-Market Look at Why the Stock Market Collapsed, the Economy Tanked, and Government Bailouts Will Make Things Worse.
Dynamics of the Fed
Highly Recommended - 5 Stars
Tom Woods at Seattle Campaign for Liberty Conference
Tom Woods (1/3) - Seattle Campaign for Liberty Conference 05-22-09
Tom Woods (2/3) - Seattle Campaign for Liberty Conference 05-22-09
Tom Woods (3/3) - Seattle Campaign for Liberty Conference 05-22-09
Tom Woods at Ron Paul's Rally For The Republic
Tom Woods (1 of 2) Ron Paul Rally For The Republic
Tom Woods (2 of 2) Ron Paul Rally For The Republic
Dynamics of the Fed
Highly Recommended - 5 Stars
Tom Woods at Seattle Campaign for Liberty Conference
Tom Woods (1/3) - Seattle Campaign for Liberty Conference 05-22-09
Tom Woods (2/3) - Seattle Campaign for Liberty Conference 05-22-09
Tom Woods (3/3) - Seattle Campaign for Liberty Conference 05-22-09
Tom Woods at Ron Paul's Rally For The Republic
Tom Woods (1 of 2) Ron Paul Rally For The Republic
Tom Woods (2 of 2) Ron Paul Rally For The Republic
A Review of "End the Fed" by Ron Paul
Today, it is very crucial, if not important, to understand what has happened to our world, our once "prosperous" world. As many of you know, this financial crisis has greatly affected people around the world, adding 100 million people to the poverty range. No country is escapable, especially US and Japan, are the hardest hit countries in the world with the highest recorded unemployment in decades. However, this crisis was happened by no accident. In fact, economic crises have been happening and iterating throughout decades, or perhaps century. So who/what was the culprit? Was that "human nature", "the common fundamental source of crisis", that caused all these financial crises as Alan Greenpan put it? Well, to examine it, we need to go back to the fundamental economic 101 and and learn a bit of the nature of the money and the history of central banks.
There are 2 books of which you must read in order to understand the crisis in complete details. One I would definitely recommend is the Meltdown: A Free-Market Look at Why the Stock Market Collapsed, the Economy Tanked, and Government Bailouts Will Make Things Worse by Thomas E. Woods Jr and the other one is what I am currently reading now, End The Fed by Ron Paul. The knowledge and insights of these 2 books are far superior than any other economic books you can find in school or library, except Ludwig von Mises Institute, the Austrian school of economics.
Meanwhile, I have found a great review of "End The Fed" on the web. Here's what it all about.
“The entire federal government,” laments Congressman Ron Paul in his newest book, End the Fed, “is one giant toxic asset at the moment. It certainly has no business telling the private sector how to run its affairs. It is in worse financial shape than all the companies in the private sector put together.”
Hard words, but Congressman Paul knows whereof he speaks. It was Ron Paul, unique among congressmen for his understanding of how a free-market economy is supposed to work, who warned repeatedly of the coming economic calamity. It was Ron Paul, too, who warned both the Bush and Obama administrations that attempts by the government to bail out failing corporations with taxpayer dollars and passing massive stimulus packages would only make things worse. And it has been Ron Paul who has warned of disastrous long-term consequences of the inflationary activities of the Ben Bernanke-led Federal Reserve.
Congressman Paul’s concerns about the Federal Reserve are nothing new. The gynecologist-turned-eleven-term congressman from Texas has spent a long political career promoting liberty and limited constitutional government as the American Founders understood them and exposing the mischief at the Federal Reserve. With the unexpected success of his presidential campaign and his recent best-selling manifesto on liberty, Dr. Paul’s uncompromising, consistent, and thoroughly principled stances on limited, constitutionally legitimate government are well known around the world. Now, thanks to End the Fed, his views on paper money, fractional-reserve banking, and the Federal Reserve and its manipulation of the money supply are summarized for a mass readership. Under a single cover and on just 212 readable pages are assembled philosophical, economic, and constitutional arguments for abolishing the Federal Reserve, a succinct history of banking, and a number of fascinating recollections and snippets of telling dialogue between Dr. Paul and various chairmen of the Fed as far back as Paul Volcker.
Finances and Freedoms
For Dr. Paul, an understanding of economics and finance is absolutely crucial to understanding liberty fully; one cannot embrace liberty while rejecting free-market economics in any degree. Yet it has become characteristic of many on the right — otherwise eloquent partisans of liberty and free-market economics, like the late Milton Friedman — to set aside certain free-market principles where money and banking are concerned. Laissez faire for factories, mines, retailers, and agriculture, indeed, say apologists for the Fed, but for banking, money, and finance, we must have regulation, currency manipulation, the fixing of interest rates, and other characteristics of a command economy.
Unfortunately, many people have allowed themselves to be persuaded that economics, banking, and finance are numinous, abstract disciplines best left to the experts. But we ignore these topics to our considerable detriment. Dr. Paul writes: “Everyone should have an intense interest in what money is and how it’s manipulated by the few at the expense of the many. Money is crucial for survival. It is necessary for maintaining a free society. A healthy economy depends on it. Limiting political power is impossible without it. Sound money is essential for preventing unnecessary wars. Prosperity and peace in the long run are impossible without it. To understand money, one absolutely must understand what a central bank is all about.”
America’s central bank, the Federal Reserve or “Fed,” was established in 1913, and according to Dr. Paul, has been complicit in — indeed, has been the driving engine for — the supersizing of the federal government that has transformed America since the First World War, and not for the better. This is because the Federal Reserve, with its ability to artificially increase the money supply (especially after the gold standard was abandoned), has largely emancipated Washington decision makers from the risky politics of raising revenue via direct taxation.
Heavy, direct taxation we certainly have, but the income tax and other federal taxes, obnoxious though they are, pale beside the Fed’s ability to raise money for the federal government simply by printing it (or, which amounts to the same thing, making a computer entry). Only thus has the federal government been able to finance hugely unpopular projects, like international wars, that Americans would never consent to if the monies were extracted up front via direct taxation. Thanks to the inflationary magic of so-called fiat money, the Federal Reserve (and other central banks like it around the world) can print money as needed, and the bill will come later, in the form of reduced purchasing power resulting from inflation. Inflation, by the way, is also a kind of tax, but one so subtly (and dishonestly) administered that few are able to diagnose its origin.
Those “in the Know”
The various Fed chairmen of Congressman Paul’s acquaintance have all been well aware of what the Fed does. Paul Volcker, the most forthcoming of the lot, assured the congressman at a private breakfast that he would never use the Fed’s powers to inflate recklessly, although he acknowledged that such actions lay within the Fed’s purview. “As we were leaving,” Paul recalls, “I said that, although I didn’t expect that he [Volcker] would use these extreme powers, who knew if in the future we might just have someone who would.”
Congressman Paul’s relationship with Volcker’s successor, Alan Greenspan, was long and tempestuous. In his youth, Greenspan himself favored the gold standard, not paper money, a position he made clear in a 1966 article, “Gold and Economic Freedom.” In that piece, Greenspan pointed out that “in the absence of a gold standard, there is no way to protect savings from confiscation through inflation. There is no safe store of value. If there were, the government would have to make its holding illegal, as was done in the case of gold [in the 1930s through the 1970s]…. The financial policy of the welfare state requires that there be no way for the owners of wealth to protect themselves.”
So how did a one-time champion of the gold standard and free-market economics come to preside over the largest experiment in fiat currency and monetary manipulation the world has ever seen? According to Ron Paul, Greenspan came to believe that “central bankers essentially had become smart enough to achieve all the benefits of the gold standard without its limitations” — those being limitations that the gold standard imposes on governments, not private citizens. In June 2000, Greenspan told Congressman Paul:
What we find over the generations is that the underlying forces which engender economic change themselves are changing all the time, human nature being the sole apparent constant throughout the whole process. I think it is safe to say that economists generally continuously struggle to understand which particular structure is essentially defining what make[s] the economy likely to move in one direction or another in the period immediately ahead, and I will venture to say that the view continuously changes from one decade to the next…. The general elements which contribute to stability in a market economy change from period to period as we observe that certain hypotheses about how the system works do not square with reality.
In other words, somewhere along the line, Greenspan the theorist and moral philosopher yielded to Greenspan the pragmatist, whose highest aim as Fed chairman was not to safeguard the liberties of Americans, but to promote “stability” — stability for the elites, at least, who, having reaped the benefits of free-market profits, are unwilling to hazard the instability associated with losses.
Sadly, Greenspan also seems to have rejected any notion of permanent economic laws, preferring instead to believe that economic constants change over time. But in admitting human nature to be “the sole apparent constant,” Greenspan betrays his lack of understanding. According to the ideology of Ludwig von Mises and the rest of the so-called Austrian economists who have always been the most vigorous and ideologically consistent foes of central banking, economics, as evaluated by the methods of “praxeology,” or the study of human action, is human nature. The laws of economics are nothing more than universal, apodictic axioms of praxeology applied to economic behavior. As such they defy quantitative but not qualitative analysis.
But this is not what the Alan Greenspans of the world want to believe. For central bankers and their apologists, the money supply, optimal interest rates, price indexes, unemployment forecasts, and economic cycles all ought to submit to the statistician’s tools of trade. There must be a way, they fervently believe, to predict quantitatively what the economy is going to do (or else the entire notion of monetary manipulation is without intellectual foundation). The fact that such calculations are impossible for would-be economic planners has unfortunately failed to deter the Greenspans and Bernankes of the world from continuing to act as though the economy can be reduced to a mathematical formula or computer program.
Alan Greenspan was succeeded in February 2006 by the sphinx-like Ben Bernanke, whose periodic verbal sparring with Congressman Ron Paul has become the stuff of YouTube legend. On March 24 of this year, for example, Congressman Paul asked Bernanke whether he laid the blame for the crisis on the markets or on “crony capitalism.” Bernanke replied that he did not think the meltdown was “a failure of capitalism per se,” and that the free markets should remain “the primary mechanism for allocating capital.” But not surprisingly, the Fed chairman went on to defend the need for “mechanisms like deposit insurance and lender of last resort” to avert panics, bank runs, and the like. Asked whether such mechanisms are the source of moral hazard — the tendency of people to act irresponsibly when they know they will be shielded from the full consequences of their actions — Bernanke merely added that the Fed was created to avert financial panics and make for more orderly markets.
So End the Fed
Now, with Congressman Paul’s bill H.R.1207 calling for a congressional audit of the Federal Reserve gaining traction in the House with more than 284 cosponsors, Ben Bernanke is beginning to feel real political heat. For the first time in the Fed’s nearly century-long history, large numbers of Americans and not a few political leaders, led by Ron Paul, are waking up to the realities of central banking and the Fed’s role in causing the value of the dollar to depreciate and the economy to oscillate between boom and bust.
But why take so drastic a measure as to end the Fed, after so long? Is it not better, as so many of Paul’s detractors have argued, to merely reform the institution? No, declares Paul, since the Fed, with its power to destroy the dollar and fund the operations of government by other means than up-front taxation, is, like all modern central banks, a fundamentally dishonest and immoral institution. The Founding Fathers understood very well the evils of paper money, and while granting Congress the authority in the Constitution to “coin [not print!] money,” forbade the states from making “anything but gold and silver coin a tender in payment of debts.” Entries in the journals of the Continental Congress observed that “paper currency … is multiplied beyond the rules of good policy. No truth being more evident, than that where the quantity of money … exceeds what is useful as a medium of commerce, its comparative value must be proportionately reduced.”
Unfortunately, Congressman Paul notes with rare cynicism, “the two weakest arguments for any issue on the House floor are moral and constitutional.” The immorality of the Fed should be evident to everyone, since “the moral principles that would guarantee sound money, and our not needing a central bank to manage it, are honesty, which would reject fraud, and keeping one’s word. Contracts [meaning monetary contracts, whose integrity depends on a sound dollar] should be protected, not undermined by government.”
Nor does Paul mince words about his congressional colleagues: “Members of Congress, when they knowingly endorse this system of fraud because of the benefits they receive, commit an immoral act. Financing spending in an irresponsible manner, through Fed action or future debt burdens, provides immediate political benefits to politicians.”
But all of this would come to an end if the people themselves held their political leadership to a higher moral standard. Americans have become accustomed to a government that promises them security and benefits instead of merely protecting their freedoms and enforcing their contracts. End the Fed is a plea to Americans to educate themselves about money and free-market economics — and then demand an end to the system that has systematically devalued the dollar and held ordinary Americans in thrall for several generations. If we do not soon abolish the Federal Reserve and return to sound money, we will likely experience national insolvency and an end to our dwindling political liberties. End the Fed is, simply put, a must-read for every American who can spell his name.
Source: A Review of "End the Fed" by Ron Paul
Current Amazon.com Bestsellers Rank: #7 dated on Sept 17
There are 2 books of which you must read in order to understand the crisis in complete details. One I would definitely recommend is the Meltdown: A Free-Market Look at Why the Stock Market Collapsed, the Economy Tanked, and Government Bailouts Will Make Things Worse by Thomas E. Woods Jr and the other one is what I am currently reading now, End The Fed by Ron Paul. The knowledge and insights of these 2 books are far superior than any other economic books you can find in school or library, except Ludwig von Mises Institute, the Austrian school of economics.
Meanwhile, I have found a great review of "End The Fed" on the web. Here's what it all about.
“The entire federal government,” laments Congressman Ron Paul in his newest book, End the Fed, “is one giant toxic asset at the moment. It certainly has no business telling the private sector how to run its affairs. It is in worse financial shape than all the companies in the private sector put together.”
Hard words, but Congressman Paul knows whereof he speaks. It was Ron Paul, unique among congressmen for his understanding of how a free-market economy is supposed to work, who warned repeatedly of the coming economic calamity. It was Ron Paul, too, who warned both the Bush and Obama administrations that attempts by the government to bail out failing corporations with taxpayer dollars and passing massive stimulus packages would only make things worse. And it has been Ron Paul who has warned of disastrous long-term consequences of the inflationary activities of the Ben Bernanke-led Federal Reserve.
Congressman Paul’s concerns about the Federal Reserve are nothing new. The gynecologist-turned-eleven-term congressman from Texas has spent a long political career promoting liberty and limited constitutional government as the American Founders understood them and exposing the mischief at the Federal Reserve. With the unexpected success of his presidential campaign and his recent best-selling manifesto on liberty, Dr. Paul’s uncompromising, consistent, and thoroughly principled stances on limited, constitutionally legitimate government are well known around the world. Now, thanks to End the Fed, his views on paper money, fractional-reserve banking, and the Federal Reserve and its manipulation of the money supply are summarized for a mass readership. Under a single cover and on just 212 readable pages are assembled philosophical, economic, and constitutional arguments for abolishing the Federal Reserve, a succinct history of banking, and a number of fascinating recollections and snippets of telling dialogue between Dr. Paul and various chairmen of the Fed as far back as Paul Volcker.
Finances and Freedoms
For Dr. Paul, an understanding of economics and finance is absolutely crucial to understanding liberty fully; one cannot embrace liberty while rejecting free-market economics in any degree. Yet it has become characteristic of many on the right — otherwise eloquent partisans of liberty and free-market economics, like the late Milton Friedman — to set aside certain free-market principles where money and banking are concerned. Laissez faire for factories, mines, retailers, and agriculture, indeed, say apologists for the Fed, but for banking, money, and finance, we must have regulation, currency manipulation, the fixing of interest rates, and other characteristics of a command economy.
Unfortunately, many people have allowed themselves to be persuaded that economics, banking, and finance are numinous, abstract disciplines best left to the experts. But we ignore these topics to our considerable detriment. Dr. Paul writes: “Everyone should have an intense interest in what money is and how it’s manipulated by the few at the expense of the many. Money is crucial for survival. It is necessary for maintaining a free society. A healthy economy depends on it. Limiting political power is impossible without it. Sound money is essential for preventing unnecessary wars. Prosperity and peace in the long run are impossible without it. To understand money, one absolutely must understand what a central bank is all about.”
America’s central bank, the Federal Reserve or “Fed,” was established in 1913, and according to Dr. Paul, has been complicit in — indeed, has been the driving engine for — the supersizing of the federal government that has transformed America since the First World War, and not for the better. This is because the Federal Reserve, with its ability to artificially increase the money supply (especially after the gold standard was abandoned), has largely emancipated Washington decision makers from the risky politics of raising revenue via direct taxation.
Heavy, direct taxation we certainly have, but the income tax and other federal taxes, obnoxious though they are, pale beside the Fed’s ability to raise money for the federal government simply by printing it (or, which amounts to the same thing, making a computer entry). Only thus has the federal government been able to finance hugely unpopular projects, like international wars, that Americans would never consent to if the monies were extracted up front via direct taxation. Thanks to the inflationary magic of so-called fiat money, the Federal Reserve (and other central banks like it around the world) can print money as needed, and the bill will come later, in the form of reduced purchasing power resulting from inflation. Inflation, by the way, is also a kind of tax, but one so subtly (and dishonestly) administered that few are able to diagnose its origin.
Those “in the Know”
The various Fed chairmen of Congressman Paul’s acquaintance have all been well aware of what the Fed does. Paul Volcker, the most forthcoming of the lot, assured the congressman at a private breakfast that he would never use the Fed’s powers to inflate recklessly, although he acknowledged that such actions lay within the Fed’s purview. “As we were leaving,” Paul recalls, “I said that, although I didn’t expect that he [Volcker] would use these extreme powers, who knew if in the future we might just have someone who would.”
Congressman Paul’s relationship with Volcker’s successor, Alan Greenspan, was long and tempestuous. In his youth, Greenspan himself favored the gold standard, not paper money, a position he made clear in a 1966 article, “Gold and Economic Freedom.” In that piece, Greenspan pointed out that “in the absence of a gold standard, there is no way to protect savings from confiscation through inflation. There is no safe store of value. If there were, the government would have to make its holding illegal, as was done in the case of gold [in the 1930s through the 1970s]…. The financial policy of the welfare state requires that there be no way for the owners of wealth to protect themselves.”
So how did a one-time champion of the gold standard and free-market economics come to preside over the largest experiment in fiat currency and monetary manipulation the world has ever seen? According to Ron Paul, Greenspan came to believe that “central bankers essentially had become smart enough to achieve all the benefits of the gold standard without its limitations” — those being limitations that the gold standard imposes on governments, not private citizens. In June 2000, Greenspan told Congressman Paul:
What we find over the generations is that the underlying forces which engender economic change themselves are changing all the time, human nature being the sole apparent constant throughout the whole process. I think it is safe to say that economists generally continuously struggle to understand which particular structure is essentially defining what make[s] the economy likely to move in one direction or another in the period immediately ahead, and I will venture to say that the view continuously changes from one decade to the next…. The general elements which contribute to stability in a market economy change from period to period as we observe that certain hypotheses about how the system works do not square with reality.
In other words, somewhere along the line, Greenspan the theorist and moral philosopher yielded to Greenspan the pragmatist, whose highest aim as Fed chairman was not to safeguard the liberties of Americans, but to promote “stability” — stability for the elites, at least, who, having reaped the benefits of free-market profits, are unwilling to hazard the instability associated with losses.
Sadly, Greenspan also seems to have rejected any notion of permanent economic laws, preferring instead to believe that economic constants change over time. But in admitting human nature to be “the sole apparent constant,” Greenspan betrays his lack of understanding. According to the ideology of Ludwig von Mises and the rest of the so-called Austrian economists who have always been the most vigorous and ideologically consistent foes of central banking, economics, as evaluated by the methods of “praxeology,” or the study of human action, is human nature. The laws of economics are nothing more than universal, apodictic axioms of praxeology applied to economic behavior. As such they defy quantitative but not qualitative analysis.
But this is not what the Alan Greenspans of the world want to believe. For central bankers and their apologists, the money supply, optimal interest rates, price indexes, unemployment forecasts, and economic cycles all ought to submit to the statistician’s tools of trade. There must be a way, they fervently believe, to predict quantitatively what the economy is going to do (or else the entire notion of monetary manipulation is without intellectual foundation). The fact that such calculations are impossible for would-be economic planners has unfortunately failed to deter the Greenspans and Bernankes of the world from continuing to act as though the economy can be reduced to a mathematical formula or computer program.
Alan Greenspan was succeeded in February 2006 by the sphinx-like Ben Bernanke, whose periodic verbal sparring with Congressman Ron Paul has become the stuff of YouTube legend. On March 24 of this year, for example, Congressman Paul asked Bernanke whether he laid the blame for the crisis on the markets or on “crony capitalism.” Bernanke replied that he did not think the meltdown was “a failure of capitalism per se,” and that the free markets should remain “the primary mechanism for allocating capital.” But not surprisingly, the Fed chairman went on to defend the need for “mechanisms like deposit insurance and lender of last resort” to avert panics, bank runs, and the like. Asked whether such mechanisms are the source of moral hazard — the tendency of people to act irresponsibly when they know they will be shielded from the full consequences of their actions — Bernanke merely added that the Fed was created to avert financial panics and make for more orderly markets.
So End the Fed
Now, with Congressman Paul’s bill H.R.1207 calling for a congressional audit of the Federal Reserve gaining traction in the House with more than 284 cosponsors, Ben Bernanke is beginning to feel real political heat. For the first time in the Fed’s nearly century-long history, large numbers of Americans and not a few political leaders, led by Ron Paul, are waking up to the realities of central banking and the Fed’s role in causing the value of the dollar to depreciate and the economy to oscillate between boom and bust.
But why take so drastic a measure as to end the Fed, after so long? Is it not better, as so many of Paul’s detractors have argued, to merely reform the institution? No, declares Paul, since the Fed, with its power to destroy the dollar and fund the operations of government by other means than up-front taxation, is, like all modern central banks, a fundamentally dishonest and immoral institution. The Founding Fathers understood very well the evils of paper money, and while granting Congress the authority in the Constitution to “coin [not print!] money,” forbade the states from making “anything but gold and silver coin a tender in payment of debts.” Entries in the journals of the Continental Congress observed that “paper currency … is multiplied beyond the rules of good policy. No truth being more evident, than that where the quantity of money … exceeds what is useful as a medium of commerce, its comparative value must be proportionately reduced.”
Unfortunately, Congressman Paul notes with rare cynicism, “the two weakest arguments for any issue on the House floor are moral and constitutional.” The immorality of the Fed should be evident to everyone, since “the moral principles that would guarantee sound money, and our not needing a central bank to manage it, are honesty, which would reject fraud, and keeping one’s word. Contracts [meaning monetary contracts, whose integrity depends on a sound dollar] should be protected, not undermined by government.”
Nor does Paul mince words about his congressional colleagues: “Members of Congress, when they knowingly endorse this system of fraud because of the benefits they receive, commit an immoral act. Financing spending in an irresponsible manner, through Fed action or future debt burdens, provides immediate political benefits to politicians.”
But all of this would come to an end if the people themselves held their political leadership to a higher moral standard. Americans have become accustomed to a government that promises them security and benefits instead of merely protecting their freedoms and enforcing their contracts. End the Fed is a plea to Americans to educate themselves about money and free-market economics — and then demand an end to the system that has systematically devalued the dollar and held ordinary Americans in thrall for several generations. If we do not soon abolish the Federal Reserve and return to sound money, we will likely experience national insolvency and an end to our dwindling political liberties. End the Fed is, simply put, a must-read for every American who can spell his name.
Source: A Review of "End the Fed" by Ron Paul
Current Amazon.com Bestsellers Rank: #7 dated on Sept 17
Monday, September 14, 2009
Ron Paul: The answer to the financial crisis is to END THE FED!
Ron Paul, CNN - END THE FED 9/14/09
END THE BLOODY FED!
END THE BLOODY FED!
I’M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I’M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!
This famous clip is provided in conjunction with the crises we are currently facing now. The title says it all.
I don’t have to tell you things are bad. Everybody knows things are bad. It’s a depression. Everybody’s out of work or scared of losing their job. The dollar buys a nickel’s work, banks are going bust, shopkeepers keep a gun under the counter.
Punks are running wild in the street and there’s nobody anywhere who seems to know what to do, and there’s no end to it. We know the air is unfit to breathe and our food is unfit to eat, and we sit watching our TV’s while some local newscaster tells us that today we had fifteen homicides and sixty-three violent crimes, as if that’s the way it’s supposed to be.
We know things are bad – worse than bad. They’re crazy. It’s like everything everywhere is going crazy, so we don’t go out anymore. We sit in the house, and slowly the world we are living in is getting smaller, and all we say is, ‘Please, at least leave us alone in our living rooms. Let me have my toaster and my TV and my steel-belted radials and I won’t say anything. Just leave us alone.’
Well, I’m not gonna leave you alone. I want you to get mad! I don’t want you to protest. I don’t want you to riot – I don’t want you to write to your congressman because I wouldn’t know what to tell you to write. I don’t know what to do about the depression and the inflation and the Russians and the crime in the street. All I know is that first you’ve got to get mad.
You’ve got to say, ‘I’m a HUMAN BEING, Goddamnit! My life has VALUE!’ So I want you to get up now. I want all of you to get up out of your chairs. I want you to get up right now and go to the window. Open it, and stick your head out, and yell,
‘I’M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I’M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!’ I want you to get up right now, sit up, go to your windows, open them and stick your head out and yell – ‘I’m as mad as hell and I’m not going to take this anymore!’ Things have got to change. But first, you’ve gotta get mad!… You’ve got to say, ‘I’m as mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this anymore!’ Then we’ll figure out what to do about the depression and the inflation and the oil crisis. But first get up out of your chairs, open the window, stick your head out, and yell, and say it:
“I’M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I’M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!”
I don’t have to tell you things are bad. Everybody knows things are bad. It’s a depression. Everybody’s out of work or scared of losing their job. The dollar buys a nickel’s work, banks are going bust, shopkeepers keep a gun under the counter.
Punks are running wild in the street and there’s nobody anywhere who seems to know what to do, and there’s no end to it. We know the air is unfit to breathe and our food is unfit to eat, and we sit watching our TV’s while some local newscaster tells us that today we had fifteen homicides and sixty-three violent crimes, as if that’s the way it’s supposed to be.
We know things are bad – worse than bad. They’re crazy. It’s like everything everywhere is going crazy, so we don’t go out anymore. We sit in the house, and slowly the world we are living in is getting smaller, and all we say is, ‘Please, at least leave us alone in our living rooms. Let me have my toaster and my TV and my steel-belted radials and I won’t say anything. Just leave us alone.’
Well, I’m not gonna leave you alone. I want you to get mad! I don’t want you to protest. I don’t want you to riot – I don’t want you to write to your congressman because I wouldn’t know what to tell you to write. I don’t know what to do about the depression and the inflation and the Russians and the crime in the street. All I know is that first you’ve got to get mad.
You’ve got to say, ‘I’m a HUMAN BEING, Goddamnit! My life has VALUE!’ So I want you to get up now. I want all of you to get up out of your chairs. I want you to get up right now and go to the window. Open it, and stick your head out, and yell,
‘I’M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I’M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!’ I want you to get up right now, sit up, go to your windows, open them and stick your head out and yell – ‘I’m as mad as hell and I’m not going to take this anymore!’ Things have got to change. But first, you’ve gotta get mad!… You’ve got to say, ‘I’m as mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this anymore!’ Then we’ll figure out what to do about the depression and the inflation and the oil crisis. But first get up out of your chairs, open the window, stick your head out, and yell, and say it:
“I’M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I’M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!”
Amazing Earthrise Seen From Moon
Super amazing spectacular Earth set in motion. Superb!
JAXA/KAGUYA Earth-Rise and Earth-Set image over the moon
JAXA/KAGUYA Earth-Rise and Earth-Set image over the moon
Ancient Chinese Wisdom on Crises
唐寅詩集 叹世篇 警世篇
嘆世之一
萬事由天莫強求，
何須苦苦用機謀？
飽三餐飯常知足，
得一帆風便可收。
生事事生何日了？
害人人害幾時休？
冤家宜解不宜結，
各自回頭看後頭。
嘆世之二
富貴榮華莫強求，
強求不出反成羞；
有伸腳處須伸腳，
得縮頭時且縮頭。
地宅方圓人不在，
兒孫長大我難留；
皇天老早安排定，
不用憂煎不用愁。
警世
世事如舟挂短篷，
或移西岸或移東；
幾回缺月還圓月，
數陣南風又北風。
歲久人無千日好，
春深花有幾時紅？
是非入耳君須忍，
半作癡呆半作聾。
嘆世之一
萬事由天莫強求，
何須苦苦用機謀？
飽三餐飯常知足，
得一帆風便可收。
生事事生何日了？
害人人害幾時休？
冤家宜解不宜結，
各自回頭看後頭。
嘆世之二
富貴榮華莫強求，
強求不出反成羞；
有伸腳處須伸腳，
得縮頭時且縮頭。
地宅方圓人不在，
兒孫長大我難留；
皇天老早安排定，
不用憂煎不用愁。
警世
世事如舟挂短篷，
或移西岸或移東；
幾回缺月還圓月，
數陣南風又北風。
歲久人無千日好，
春深花有幾時紅？
是非入耳君須忍，
半作癡呆半作聾。
Sunday, September 13, 2009
In Times of Crisis
A great review of the financial crisis. See how the collapse of Lehman Brothers Financial Bank triggered a worldwide chain reaction effects of company failures, home foreclosures, bankruptcies, rises in unemployment and how it affected all people around the world. Highly recommended.
Source: Reuters: Times of Crisis - Watch The Introduction
*Make sure you have Adobe Flash Player installed to view the short clip.
Source: Reuters: Times of Crisis - Watch The Introduction
*Make sure you have Adobe Flash Player installed to view the short clip.
The Beginning of the End - 9.12 Gazillion Mass Rally in Washington, DC
9.12 What a historical event in US. Perhaps, Americans are the true hope for the "change we can believe in" for US and the rest of the world. Can you smell the coming Revolution?
Seeing is believing.
Source: Up to two million march to US capitol to protest against Obama's spending
9/12 Protest Washington DC Time Lapse Footage 0800 - 1130
9-12 Tea Party Protest in Washington DC - STOP out-of-control spending
Tea Party March On Washington DC, 9/12, CNN MSNBC FOX
Tea Party Express Inside the Crowd D.C. part 1
Tea Party Express Inside the Crowd D.C. part 2
Tea Party Express Inside the Crowd D.C. part 3
MORE HIGHLIGHTS & UPDATES!
9/12 Taxpayer Tea Party March on Washington, DC Highlights
9/12 Project - Tea Party at the U.S. Capitol - Washington,DC 9/12/09
1.5 MILLION at DC Tea Party
9/12 March on Washington DC 2009
John Tate of Campaign for Liberty: 9/12 Address
Seeing is believing.
Source: Up to two million march to US capitol to protest against Obama's spending
9/12 Protest Washington DC Time Lapse Footage 0800 - 1130
9-12 Tea Party Protest in Washington DC - STOP out-of-control spending
Tea Party March On Washington DC, 9/12, CNN MSNBC FOX
Tea Party Express Inside the Crowd D.C. part 1
Tea Party Express Inside the Crowd D.C. part 2
Tea Party Express Inside the Crowd D.C. part 3
MORE HIGHLIGHTS & UPDATES!
9/12 Taxpayer Tea Party March on Washington, DC Highlights
9/12 Project - Tea Party at the U.S. Capitol - Washington,DC 9/12/09
1.5 MILLION at DC Tea Party
9/12 March on Washington DC 2009
John Tate of Campaign for Liberty: 9/12 Address
The Zeitgeist Movement
I assumed that many of you have already watched "The Zeitgeist" documentaries on the second post of my blog. Here comes the movement. What is The Zeitgeist Movement? The Zeitgeist Movement is a global-scale movement that helps to create worldwide awareness about our current outdated model of reality. If you are aware of the unprecedented crises we are currently confronting, such as the global financial meltdown, new height of unemployment rates, global pandemic H1N1, perennial wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, increasing poverty and the gap between rich and poor, endless greed and corruptions, homelessness, distrusts of each others, resources misallocations, global political instabilities, global warming, unusual lethal disasters, gazillion tons of wastes dumping, disappearing coral reefs and rainforests, destruction of environments and threatening the survivability of wildlife species, melting icecap in arctic and greenland, and ever increasing crime rates and social insecurities.
Pause and contemplate for a second, ask yourself. Is that really the world we want to live in? Can ever enlarging governments, religions, "economic growths", and global dictatorships like banks and coming totalitarian world government solve all these major problems we are currently facing with? If your answer is yes, then you might go on and live the way as it was. If no, then what can we do about it? The answer is we cannot really do much about it unless we, first, change ourselves in the sense of consciousness. Despite of the fact that these major problems need to be solved as soon as possible, but the momentum of power in governments and banks are too great to resist the changes. What they haven't realized is that if they keep going on with the ways they were without addressing these problems, the world will no doubt stand face to face with greater disastrous floods, droughts, hurricanes, earthquakes, violence, shortage of foods and so on in the not too distant future. What, then, is the point of growth that leads to the breakdown? Will possessing more materials, more houses, more cars, more gadgets, more money, more fames, more powers really make us happy and complete as human beings? The world is sicken, and we are the ones who caused this high entropy state of the Gaia. However, crisis comes opportunity, the opportunity to emerge as a social super-organism and breakthrough to a whole new level of evolution. Lastly, breakthrough or breakdown, the choice is in our hands.
The Goal:
The Means is the End.
We intend to restore the fundamental necessities and environmental awareness of the species through the advocation of the most current understandings of who and what we truly are, coupled with how science, nature and technology (rather than religion, politics and money) hold the keys to our personal growth, not only as individual human beings, but as a civilization, both structurally and spiritually. The central insights of this awareness is the recognition of the Emergent and Symbiotic elements of natural law and how aligning with these understandings as the bedrock of our personal and social institutions, life on earth can and will flourish into a system which will continuously grow in a positive way, where negative social consequences, such as social stratification, war, biases, elitism and criminal activity will be constantly reduced and, idealistically, eventually become nonexistent within the spectrum of human behavior itself.
This possibility is, of course, very difficult for most humans to consider, for we have been conditioned by society to think that crime, corruption and dishonesty is "the way it is" and that there will always be people who want to abuse, hurt and take advantage of others. Religion is the largest promoter of this propaganda, for the "us and them" or "good and evil" mentality promotes this false assumption.
The reality is that we live in a society that produces Scarcity. The consequence of this scarcity is that human beings must behave in self preserving ways, even if it means they have to cheat and steal in order to get what they want. Our research has concluded that Scarcity is one of the most fundamental causes of aberrant human behavior, while also leading to complex forms of neurosis in other ways. A statistical look at drug addiction, crime and incarceration statistics, finds that poverty and unhealthy social conditions comprise the life experience of those who engage in such behavior.
Human beings are not good or bad... they are running, forever changing compositions of the life experience(s) that influences them. The "quality" of a human being ( if there was such a thing ) is directly related to the upbringing and thus belief systems they have been conditioned into.
This simple reality has been grossly overlooked and today people primitively think that competition, greed and corruption are "hardwired" elements of human behavior and, in turn, we must have prisons, police and hence a hierarchy of differential control in order for society to deal with these "tendencies". This is totally illogical and false.
The bottom line is that in order to change things for the better fundamentally, you must begin to address root causes. Our current society's system of "punishment" is outmoded, inhumane, and unproductive. When a serial killer is caught, most people jump up and down and scream for the death of that person. This is backwards. A truly sane society, which understands what we are and how our value systems are created, would take the individual and learn the reasons behind his or her violent actions. This information would then go to a research department which considers how to stop such conditions from occurring through education.
It is time to stop the patchwork. It is time to begin a new social approach which is updated to present day knowledge. Sadly, society today is still largely based on outmoded, superstitious dispositions and resolutions.
It is also important to point out that there are no utopias or endings. All evidence points to perpetual change on all levels. In turn, it is our personal actions everyday of our lives that mold and perpetuate the social systems we have in place. Yet, paradoxically, it is also our environmental influences which create our perspectives and hence world views. Therefore, true change will come not only from adjusting your personal understandings and decisions, but equally from changing the social structures that influence these understandings and decisions.
The elite power systems are little affected in the long run by traditional protest and political movements. We must move beyond these 'establishment rebellions' and work with a tool much more powerful:
We will stop supporting the system, while constantly advocating knowledge, peace, unity and compassion. We cannot "fight the system". Hate, anger and the 'war' mentality are failed means for change, for they perpetuate the same tools the corrupt, established power systems use to maintain control to begin with.
The Distortion and Paralysis:
When we understand that all systems are Emergent and constantly in a state of evolution, along with the reality that we are all Symbiotically connected to nature and each other in the most simple yet profound ways, forcing the realization that our personal integrity is only as high as the integrity of the rest of society, we then see how twisted and backwards our social establishments are and how their perpetuation is largely the cause of the social instability in society. For example, the Monetary System has been long deemed a positive force in society due to its claim to produce incentive and progress. In actuality, the monetary system has become a vehicle for division and totalitarian control.
It is the ultimate form of "Divide and Conquer" for at its very core are the assumptions that (1) We must fight each other in order to survive. (2) Humans must have this reward "Incentive" to do anything meaningful.
As far as Number 1 (We must fight each other in order to survive.), this characteristic of 'competition' in the system guarantees corruption in society on every level, for the basis is "us against them". Many argue that the "free market system" is good... but it is corrupt in the modern day due to bad policies, favoritism, bailouts, etc. They assume that if a "pure" free market was allowed to flourish then it would be okay. This is false, for what you are seeing today IS the Free market at work, with all its differential advantage and corruption. No laws will ever stop the insider trading, collusion, monopoly, labor abuse, pollution, planned obsolescence or the like... this is what the competition based system produces without fail, for it is based on the premise of taking advantage of others for profit. Period.
We must begin to transition out of these oppressive ideals and move towards a system which is "designed" to support human beings... not force them to fight in order to survive. As far as Number 2, (Humans must have this reward "Incentive" to do anything meaningful.) this is just a sad and an incredibly negative perspective of the human being in general. To assume that a person must be "structurally motivated" or hence "forced" into doing anything, is just absurd. Think back to when you were a child and had no idea what money even was. You played, were curious and did many things... why? Because you wanted to. However, as time goes on in our system, that natural curiosity and self-motivation is stripped away from people, as they are forced to conform to the specialized, compartmentalized, nearly predefined labor system in order to survive. This, in turn, often creates a natural rebellion within the person due to the forced obligation, and this is how we came up with "leisure" and "work" separations. The laziness assumed to exist by the monetary system proponents (who claim it produces incentive) do not recognize this. In a true society, people would follow their natural inclinations and work to contribute to society not because they are "paid" for it, but because they have a greater awareness which recognizes that contributing to society helps them just as much as everyone else. This is the heightened state of awareness we hope to communicate. Your reward for contributing to society is the well being of that society... which, in turn, furthers your well being.
Now, putting things into perspective, it is important to understand that our world is currently run, undeniably, by a small group of dominant men in high positions of those institutions which are most dominant in society- Business and Finance. The establishment of government is in tandem with the influence and power of corporations and banks. The life blood is money, which is, in fact, an illusion that now has little relevance to society and serves as a tool for manipulation and division along a kind of social organization that guarantees elitism, crime, war and social stratification.
Simultaneously, individuals are taught that being "correct" is what creates their value as human beings. This state of being "correct" is directly related to the prevailing values of society itself. Therefore, those who accept and support the social system's views are considered "normal", while those who disagree are considered "abnormal" or even "subversive". Whether it is the dogma of a unique social tradition, or the alignment with a worldwide establishment religion, the basis is the same: Intellectual Materialism.
As we realize that knowledge and hence our institutions are always evolving, we see that any belief system which claims to "know" anything, without allowing for dispute, is a failed perspective. Religion, with its foundation in faith, is the king of this distortion, as it claims to know something definitively about the most complex and elusive origins of human kind, and this simply is not possible in an emergent universe.
That being said, it is then realized that equally as dangerous as the Establishment Power Structures, are the people who have been conditioned to completely accept the static understandings put forth by these systems... therefore becoming: "Self Appointed Guardians of the Status Quo". This applies to every system, especially political, financial and religious systems. Since people's identities become associated with the doctrines of a Country, Religion or Business ethic, it often becomes very difficult for a person to change, for his or her identity has become combined with the ideologies which have been imposed upon them.
Therefore, they perpetuate the doctrine of the institution, simply to maintain their personal integrity, as they see it.
We must break this cycle, for it paralyses our growth not only as individuals, but as a society.
The Truth and Transition:
Once we understand that the integrity of our personal existences are directly related to the integrity of the earth, life and all other human beings, we then have our path predefined for us. In turn, once we realize that it is science, technology and hence human creativity which creates progress in our lives, we are then able to recognize what our true priorities are for social and personal growth and progress. These points denoted, we can then see that Religion, Politics and the Money/Competition based Labor system are outdated modes of social operation, which must now be addressed and outgrown. Our avocation is to achieve a social system which operates without money or politics, while allowing superstition to work itself out as education flourishes. It isn't the right of any person to tell another what to believe, for no human has a full understanding of anything. However, if we pay attention to the natural processes of life, we then see how we can align with nature and thus our path becomes more clear.
For example, many people are worried about population growth on the planet, while very spooky comments by despotic figures like Henry Kissinger claim that some kind of "reduction" is needed. This is, of course, very scary. However, the real question remains: Is population growth really that bad? The answer is that from a scientific perspective the earth can handle many, many times more people if need be, once high technology is harnessed. 70% of our planet is water and cities in the sea ( one of many projects by Jacque Fresco ) are the next step. In turn, education about life operations will inform people as to the ramifications of their reproductive interests and population growth will naturally slow as people begin to realize how they are related to the planet and its carrying capacity.
In fact, the only true "government" that can possibly exist is the earth and its resources. From there, all possibilities can be assessed. This is why an intellectual unification of all countries is needed, for the most important information we as a species can have is a full, highly detailed assessment of what we have on this planet. Just as you would examine the land and resources of an acre of land to see what you could do or grow on it, this is what needs to happen with the planet in order to optimize what we are capable of as a species, resource wise.
Of course, many who consider the ideas presented above will often ask: "How can we do this considering the distorted value systems which are currently in operation.? How do we make such a move or transition?" This is, of course, the most difficult question. The answer: We have to start somewhere. There are many things that can be done by a single person or community that can begin to shape this vision. The most important step is education.
"The consciousness with which we approach the world, is an unsustainable mode of consciousness."
"It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change." -Charles Darwin
"Suppose your brain said I'm the most important organ and the liver said I am and I want to grow a free enterprise system, you'll rot away in a month if every organ in your body went out for itself." - Jacque Fresco
Download a copy of TZM Activist and Orientation Guide.
The Zeitgeist Movement Orientation
Zeitgeist Transition Plan
The Venus Project
Designing The Future
Pause and contemplate for a second, ask yourself. Is that really the world we want to live in? Can ever enlarging governments, religions, "economic growths", and global dictatorships like banks and coming totalitarian world government solve all these major problems we are currently facing with? If your answer is yes, then you might go on and live the way as it was. If no, then what can we do about it? The answer is we cannot really do much about it unless we, first, change ourselves in the sense of consciousness. Despite of the fact that these major problems need to be solved as soon as possible, but the momentum of power in governments and banks are too great to resist the changes. What they haven't realized is that if they keep going on with the ways they were without addressing these problems, the world will no doubt stand face to face with greater disastrous floods, droughts, hurricanes, earthquakes, violence, shortage of foods and so on in the not too distant future. What, then, is the point of growth that leads to the breakdown? Will possessing more materials, more houses, more cars, more gadgets, more money, more fames, more powers really make us happy and complete as human beings? The world is sicken, and we are the ones who caused this high entropy state of the Gaia. However, crisis comes opportunity, the opportunity to emerge as a social super-organism and breakthrough to a whole new level of evolution. Lastly, breakthrough or breakdown, the choice is in our hands.
The Goal:
The Means is the End.
We intend to restore the fundamental necessities and environmental awareness of the species through the advocation of the most current understandings of who and what we truly are, coupled with how science, nature and technology (rather than religion, politics and money) hold the keys to our personal growth, not only as individual human beings, but as a civilization, both structurally and spiritually. The central insights of this awareness is the recognition of the Emergent and Symbiotic elements of natural law and how aligning with these understandings as the bedrock of our personal and social institutions, life on earth can and will flourish into a system which will continuously grow in a positive way, where negative social consequences, such as social stratification, war, biases, elitism and criminal activity will be constantly reduced and, idealistically, eventually become nonexistent within the spectrum of human behavior itself.
This possibility is, of course, very difficult for most humans to consider, for we have been conditioned by society to think that crime, corruption and dishonesty is "the way it is" and that there will always be people who want to abuse, hurt and take advantage of others. Religion is the largest promoter of this propaganda, for the "us and them" or "good and evil" mentality promotes this false assumption.
The reality is that we live in a society that produces Scarcity. The consequence of this scarcity is that human beings must behave in self preserving ways, even if it means they have to cheat and steal in order to get what they want. Our research has concluded that Scarcity is one of the most fundamental causes of aberrant human behavior, while also leading to complex forms of neurosis in other ways. A statistical look at drug addiction, crime and incarceration statistics, finds that poverty and unhealthy social conditions comprise the life experience of those who engage in such behavior.
Human beings are not good or bad... they are running, forever changing compositions of the life experience(s) that influences them. The "quality" of a human being ( if there was such a thing ) is directly related to the upbringing and thus belief systems they have been conditioned into.
This simple reality has been grossly overlooked and today people primitively think that competition, greed and corruption are "hardwired" elements of human behavior and, in turn, we must have prisons, police and hence a hierarchy of differential control in order for society to deal with these "tendencies". This is totally illogical and false.
The bottom line is that in order to change things for the better fundamentally, you must begin to address root causes. Our current society's system of "punishment" is outmoded, inhumane, and unproductive. When a serial killer is caught, most people jump up and down and scream for the death of that person. This is backwards. A truly sane society, which understands what we are and how our value systems are created, would take the individual and learn the reasons behind his or her violent actions. This information would then go to a research department which considers how to stop such conditions from occurring through education.
It is time to stop the patchwork. It is time to begin a new social approach which is updated to present day knowledge. Sadly, society today is still largely based on outmoded, superstitious dispositions and resolutions.
It is also important to point out that there are no utopias or endings. All evidence points to perpetual change on all levels. In turn, it is our personal actions everyday of our lives that mold and perpetuate the social systems we have in place. Yet, paradoxically, it is also our environmental influences which create our perspectives and hence world views. Therefore, true change will come not only from adjusting your personal understandings and decisions, but equally from changing the social structures that influence these understandings and decisions.
The elite power systems are little affected in the long run by traditional protest and political movements. We must move beyond these 'establishment rebellions' and work with a tool much more powerful:
We will stop supporting the system, while constantly advocating knowledge, peace, unity and compassion. We cannot "fight the system". Hate, anger and the 'war' mentality are failed means for change, for they perpetuate the same tools the corrupt, established power systems use to maintain control to begin with.
The Distortion and Paralysis:
When we understand that all systems are Emergent and constantly in a state of evolution, along with the reality that we are all Symbiotically connected to nature and each other in the most simple yet profound ways, forcing the realization that our personal integrity is only as high as the integrity of the rest of society, we then see how twisted and backwards our social establishments are and how their perpetuation is largely the cause of the social instability in society. For example, the Monetary System has been long deemed a positive force in society due to its claim to produce incentive and progress. In actuality, the monetary system has become a vehicle for division and totalitarian control.
It is the ultimate form of "Divide and Conquer" for at its very core are the assumptions that (1) We must fight each other in order to survive. (2) Humans must have this reward "Incentive" to do anything meaningful.
As far as Number 1 (We must fight each other in order to survive.), this characteristic of 'competition' in the system guarantees corruption in society on every level, for the basis is "us against them". Many argue that the "free market system" is good... but it is corrupt in the modern day due to bad policies, favoritism, bailouts, etc. They assume that if a "pure" free market was allowed to flourish then it would be okay. This is false, for what you are seeing today IS the Free market at work, with all its differential advantage and corruption. No laws will ever stop the insider trading, collusion, monopoly, labor abuse, pollution, planned obsolescence or the like... this is what the competition based system produces without fail, for it is based on the premise of taking advantage of others for profit. Period.
We must begin to transition out of these oppressive ideals and move towards a system which is "designed" to support human beings... not force them to fight in order to survive. As far as Number 2, (Humans must have this reward "Incentive" to do anything meaningful.) this is just a sad and an incredibly negative perspective of the human being in general. To assume that a person must be "structurally motivated" or hence "forced" into doing anything, is just absurd. Think back to when you were a child and had no idea what money even was. You played, were curious and did many things... why? Because you wanted to. However, as time goes on in our system, that natural curiosity and self-motivation is stripped away from people, as they are forced to conform to the specialized, compartmentalized, nearly predefined labor system in order to survive. This, in turn, often creates a natural rebellion within the person due to the forced obligation, and this is how we came up with "leisure" and "work" separations. The laziness assumed to exist by the monetary system proponents (who claim it produces incentive) do not recognize this. In a true society, people would follow their natural inclinations and work to contribute to society not because they are "paid" for it, but because they have a greater awareness which recognizes that contributing to society helps them just as much as everyone else. This is the heightened state of awareness we hope to communicate. Your reward for contributing to society is the well being of that society... which, in turn, furthers your well being.
Now, putting things into perspective, it is important to understand that our world is currently run, undeniably, by a small group of dominant men in high positions of those institutions which are most dominant in society- Business and Finance. The establishment of government is in tandem with the influence and power of corporations and banks. The life blood is money, which is, in fact, an illusion that now has little relevance to society and serves as a tool for manipulation and division along a kind of social organization that guarantees elitism, crime, war and social stratification.
Simultaneously, individuals are taught that being "correct" is what creates their value as human beings. This state of being "correct" is directly related to the prevailing values of society itself. Therefore, those who accept and support the social system's views are considered "normal", while those who disagree are considered "abnormal" or even "subversive". Whether it is the dogma of a unique social tradition, or the alignment with a worldwide establishment religion, the basis is the same: Intellectual Materialism.
As we realize that knowledge and hence our institutions are always evolving, we see that any belief system which claims to "know" anything, without allowing for dispute, is a failed perspective. Religion, with its foundation in faith, is the king of this distortion, as it claims to know something definitively about the most complex and elusive origins of human kind, and this simply is not possible in an emergent universe.
That being said, it is then realized that equally as dangerous as the Establishment Power Structures, are the people who have been conditioned to completely accept the static understandings put forth by these systems... therefore becoming: "Self Appointed Guardians of the Status Quo". This applies to every system, especially political, financial and religious systems. Since people's identities become associated with the doctrines of a Country, Religion or Business ethic, it often becomes very difficult for a person to change, for his or her identity has become combined with the ideologies which have been imposed upon them.
Therefore, they perpetuate the doctrine of the institution, simply to maintain their personal integrity, as they see it.
We must break this cycle, for it paralyses our growth not only as individuals, but as a society.
The Truth and Transition:
Once we understand that the integrity of our personal existences are directly related to the integrity of the earth, life and all other human beings, we then have our path predefined for us. In turn, once we realize that it is science, technology and hence human creativity which creates progress in our lives, we are then able to recognize what our true priorities are for social and personal growth and progress. These points denoted, we can then see that Religion, Politics and the Money/Competition based Labor system are outdated modes of social operation, which must now be addressed and outgrown. Our avocation is to achieve a social system which operates without money or politics, while allowing superstition to work itself out as education flourishes. It isn't the right of any person to tell another what to believe, for no human has a full understanding of anything. However, if we pay attention to the natural processes of life, we then see how we can align with nature and thus our path becomes more clear.
For example, many people are worried about population growth on the planet, while very spooky comments by despotic figures like Henry Kissinger claim that some kind of "reduction" is needed. This is, of course, very scary. However, the real question remains: Is population growth really that bad? The answer is that from a scientific perspective the earth can handle many, many times more people if need be, once high technology is harnessed. 70% of our planet is water and cities in the sea ( one of many projects by Jacque Fresco ) are the next step. In turn, education about life operations will inform people as to the ramifications of their reproductive interests and population growth will naturally slow as people begin to realize how they are related to the planet and its carrying capacity.
In fact, the only true "government" that can possibly exist is the earth and its resources. From there, all possibilities can be assessed. This is why an intellectual unification of all countries is needed, for the most important information we as a species can have is a full, highly detailed assessment of what we have on this planet. Just as you would examine the land and resources of an acre of land to see what you could do or grow on it, this is what needs to happen with the planet in order to optimize what we are capable of as a species, resource wise.
Of course, many who consider the ideas presented above will often ask: "How can we do this considering the distorted value systems which are currently in operation.? How do we make such a move or transition?" This is, of course, the most difficult question. The answer: We have to start somewhere. There are many things that can be done by a single person or community that can begin to shape this vision. The most important step is education.
"The consciousness with which we approach the world, is an unsustainable mode of consciousness."
"It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change." -Charles Darwin
"Suppose your brain said I'm the most important organ and the liver said I am and I want to grow a free enterprise system, you'll rot away in a month if every organ in your body went out for itself." - Jacque Fresco
Download a copy of TZM Activist and Orientation Guide.
The Zeitgeist Movement Orientation
Zeitgeist Transition Plan
The Venus Project
Designing The Future
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