As Gaza's children burn while the world watches, it becomes clear: only climate catastrophe, nuclear armageddon, or World War III may force humanity to abandon Western capitalism's suicidal path.
Brilliant, absolutely brilliant! Every utterance was pure, authentic, unaltered and unadulterated reality. We've surpassed the point of no return. IGNORANCE destroyed this world. How can this many people be this simple-minded and uninformed? Western civilization! Greed, belligerence, colonialism, exploitation, indoctrination, insecurity, extravagance and luxury, uncontrolled individualism, egomania, narcissism, tasteless unrefined materialism, immorality, valueless and the absolute worst, commercial education. Everything you see is focused on all of this. Everything!
A vicious cycle which hopefully is nearing it's end. WWIII and or nuclear war that destroys all media interaction and communication is the only way people will no longer be able to remain ignorant. As you've stated, there is no other alternative.
This piece is worthy of a Pulitzer because it speaks the truth with undeniable and factual accuracy. There is no denying any of this yet we continue to live in a world completely devoid of all reality. It's been written, denial is your strongest emotion and no truer words have ever been spoken. It's universal and worldwide.
Look at the list of US Presidents in the last two decades! It surpasses any and all comprehension, people have fallen for all of this. I have not nor will ever vote! To be part of this? To enable it? It's a dog and pony show. People are brainwashed
into believing this farce.
You buy a car from a dealership and it breaks down, do you go back year after
year after year after year and buy another vehicle from this very same dealership? Yet year after year they all march in solidarity going to the polls actually believing voting matters - being the good citizens they are believing the same lies. And then, when everything fails, blame the government? You hired them not me!
Biden was showing undeniable signs of senility back in 2018 and yet people voted for him and then swore he was competent to run for a second term? Where else do you see this profound magnitude of total ignorance and delusion? Obviously a rhetorical question.
It is atomic bomb blinding Donald Trump is intellectually disabled and yet they continue to buy into this mirage. The man is nothing more than a hologram. His entire existence is a bona-fide fabrication of all reality. Talk about the greatest ruse and diversion in the history of the world which is why he was inserted. Shall we then talk about Macron and whatever that is, he calls his wife? God help us all!
It is beyond imagination these same people will receive a diagnoses of a terminal illness and spend hours, days, weeks and months doing research and getting how many opinions? Yet they'll turn on the Boob Tube and believe everything they see and hear. I truly believe the woman on The View are really as intellectually disabled and even more delusional than even Trump is.
How many people bought into the Covid lie and injections even though they were told you had less than 1% chance of dying? How many people took these injections while they were pregnant but these same people wouldn't dare have even a sip of alcohol? Even worse, how many gave them to children? Just plain ignorance.
I've not owned a TV is decades nor do I even know how to actually turn one on. For the record I am also in my 60's and simply never got caught up in this monumental waste of time and brain cells. Do people not realize all of this is just marketing and
exploiting ignorance? All of it is propaganda.
How can anyone not see cell phones were a deliberate diversion and intentional dumbing down of society? A worldwide epidemic solidifying the entire world also suffers from addiction which is never mentioned yet also glaringly and abundantly obvious. Everywhere you go people are looking at one talking on one or holding one. The only thing it seems to have solved is lack of patience when it comes to long lines and/or traffic jams.
Tell me again how Social Media has solved anything and not deteriorated society even further and certainly faster. When was the last time you saw anyone reading an actual book? All of this was simply there for the taking. No one was forced but everyone was certainly stupid enough to join in with the masses.
I digress. Sadly, a revolution will never work, once again merely from the sheer magnitude of stupidity. How many college students have been expelled from school because of their pro-Palestinian stance? I only wish I'd had 1/10th of this power yet not one of them came up with a NO VOTING campaign? Stop the genocide now
or, we never vote again.
Instead of burning bra's they could've instituted a burning of voter registration cards. They didn't even have to leave their dorms. No violence no chanting yelling and screaming. Just join in solidarity, family members and parents. And yet nothing? How stupid are these people? Never mind. To ask a stupid question is
to get a stupid answer.
If you want to start a revolution you have to get ahead of "them" by making sure you remove all their power. You start first with educating the military and all law enforcement. Will you stand with US or them? I've been talking to with them
for years, asking that very question. Will you actually follow your commands or
use your head? If you think and hope all of this is coming sooner then you think,
then your job is to start spreading the word now. Talk to all your law enforcement.
Personally speaking I agree with this writer. It's over there is no turning back. The only thing that will save what little if anything is left of normalcy is a catastrophic war unlike anything imagined. Nuking Washington might also help. It's been written they could actually contain that area with no harm elsewhere.
I stopped reading everything because it's so obvious, everything is a lie. This was the first piece that spoke the truth. No showboating, grandstanding and or political theater.
Jesus H. Christ. For for almost two years now we read the same stories day in and day out. Where the hell are the solutions? We live in a world saturated in opinion and yet none of these academics and alleged experts are predicting and forecasting the future and myriad ways this can and will end. Like you say where are the outcries? It is beyond unfathomable - the ubiquitous narcissism.
Which is why your piece was so enlightening. Like me you have also analyzed everything and there is no hope. There is no way out of any of this. There is no turning back no un-ringing this bell. The damage is irreversible. There is no future, now it is just a matter of time who lights the match that sets the entire world ablaze.
When will people understand the US is a terrorist organization? At what point did human life no longer hold any value? There are seven billion people on this planet and yet no one can/will stand up to 15 million Jews who we are told, control the entire world? Tell me again, what the solution is? There isn't!
How can people truly be so blind and ignorant and self consumed. Tell me what other way this can be up-righted? I know I speak for many when I say I am so sick and tired of the platitudes and rhetoric. Visualize the death of one innocent child, toddler, infant or newborn Just one. Now multiply it by tens of thousands being slaughtered in Gaza and tell me how the human race is not the worst race?
I have no qualms whatsoever losing my own life when and if this comes down to WWIII and or nuclear war IF it means the generations that may follow will live in peace and prosperity. So often I think about how history will be written 200 + years from now and wonder how this could've happened. How an entire civilization became so ignorant and complacent.
A brilliant analysis. Depressing as hell, but a realistic view of the world we live in. I’ve said many times during the last few years that I’m glad I’m 82 years old, but I cry for my young great nieces. Nothing good lies ahead for them.
My mother and my father unexpectedly passed away in 2022 and 2023 (both far too young). I think they would not believe what the world looks like just 2 years after their passing.
It is truly a sad day for humanity if completely rational and deeply humane people feel that a war of catastrophic proportions is the only option to stop the slaughter of our own. As Susan, I cry for my two beautiful daughters that I helped to bring into this iniquitous world. But, I have to admit that nothing that we have done so far, has had the desired effect. And with each passing day more and more Palestinian people are killed in the most horrendous way possible.
“Yet within this terrible recognition lies a seed of possibility. If we understand the machinery of our destruction with unflinching clarity, if we abandon the comfortable myths that absolve us of responsibility, if we recognize that no external force will save us from ourselves – perhaps then we might begin the work of genuine resistance.”
After reading this brilliant chronology of imperial shame, I could only numbly contemplate the many ways in which we fail ourselves as human beings.
As western intellectuals who spurn the ways that power is manifested, I am curious if Peter and/or Karim is familiar with the work of Emmanuel Todd. His writings in English have recently become available right here on Substack, and I have to confess that I am referencing this now because Todd’s historical profiles deal directly with the social psyches of cultures in periods of profound transition.
Apologies if this is not work that you see related to yours, but I thought as social psychology professionals, that it might very well resonate.
Here’s a link to Jeff Rich, an Australian writer and former politician, detailing some salient points from Todd’s recent writings. FYI, Rich also can be found here on Substack.
I watched it, and I must say I always get icky when scholars and thinkers put forward 'transgenderism' as an argument for the fall of an empire.
It is simplistic and hinges on the superficial conservative 'traditional values need to be reinstated' to save our society.
It completely bypasses the deep structural and material problems we have.
Now I get that Todd puts it forwards as a symptom, but I don't believe these superficial debates on what constitutes a 'proper' identity (such as gender) are of any concern in relation to the destruction initiated by capitalism and imperialism. In fact, when we had traditional values, colonialism, capitalism and imperialism were at their peak.
I get that you aren’t impressed by arms-length historical tracts. thought that transgenderism, as he characterized it, was intended as an example of excess. While it is draconian to prevent people from achieving their true gender identity, it’s something else to promote transgender options as a cornerstone of a neoliberal agenda that doesn’t address historic racial discrimination, or try to tackle gun proliferation. IOW, it fits neatly into the good vs evil category, which is the point. It will accomplish nothing, and sound like commitment.
I don’t disagree with your point, but I don’t read anything into Todd’s detached observer perspective. And his perspective is in the context of eons more than current policy. What struck a chord for me was seeing the arc of American-led global imperialism as similar in its rise and termination, to the path of Germany, once the center of art, commerce and culture, then when threatened, taking a swift descent into unprecedented, unjustified and unimaginable brutality. Eighty years hence, the ante for imagining mindless, irrational brutality is much higher because of the violent, amoral and racist manner in which American imperialism has been routinely deployed.
What do you make of the postulation that in the 1940’s, as now, the brutality existed and exists, because it couldn’t and cannot be imagined.? Does that have any psychological significance in your opinion?
There were a helluva lot of Nazis who escaped any legal judgements, and were spiritually rescued by American industrialists, who had already been financially backing the German war effort from before the start. The Marshall Plan combined with the leniency in the judgements yielded a contempt in America, for the very values that liberalism promoted. The seed of the regime that concocted the Holocaust, is identical to the principle that normalizes the eradication of the Palestinians.
Brilliant, absolutely brilliant! Every utterance was pure, authentic, unaltered and unadulterated reality. We've surpassed the point of no return. IGNORANCE destroyed this world. How can this many people be this simple-minded and uninformed? Western civilization! Greed, belligerence, colonialism, exploitation, indoctrination, insecurity, extravagance and luxury, uncontrolled individualism, egomania, narcissism, tasteless unrefined materialism, immorality, valueless and the absolute worst, commercial education. Everything you see is focused on all of this. Everything!
A vicious cycle which hopefully is nearing it's end. WWIII and or nuclear war that destroys all media interaction and communication is the only way people will no longer be able to remain ignorant. As you've stated, there is no other alternative.
Hear hear.
This piece is worthy of a Pulitzer because it speaks the truth with undeniable and factual accuracy. There is no denying any of this yet we continue to live in a world completely devoid of all reality. It's been written, denial is your strongest emotion and no truer words have ever been spoken. It's universal and worldwide.
Look at the list of US Presidents in the last two decades! It surpasses any and all comprehension, people have fallen for all of this. I have not nor will ever vote! To be part of this? To enable it? It's a dog and pony show. People are brainwashed
into believing this farce.
You buy a car from a dealership and it breaks down, do you go back year after
year after year after year and buy another vehicle from this very same dealership? Yet year after year they all march in solidarity going to the polls actually believing voting matters - being the good citizens they are believing the same lies. And then, when everything fails, blame the government? You hired them not me!
Biden was showing undeniable signs of senility back in 2018 and yet people voted for him and then swore he was competent to run for a second term? Where else do you see this profound magnitude of total ignorance and delusion? Obviously a rhetorical question.
It is atomic bomb blinding Donald Trump is intellectually disabled and yet they continue to buy into this mirage. The man is nothing more than a hologram. His entire existence is a bona-fide fabrication of all reality. Talk about the greatest ruse and diversion in the history of the world which is why he was inserted. Shall we then talk about Macron and whatever that is, he calls his wife? God help us all!
It is beyond imagination these same people will receive a diagnoses of a terminal illness and spend hours, days, weeks and months doing research and getting how many opinions? Yet they'll turn on the Boob Tube and believe everything they see and hear. I truly believe the woman on The View are really as intellectually disabled and even more delusional than even Trump is.
How many people bought into the Covid lie and injections even though they were told you had less than 1% chance of dying? How many people took these injections while they were pregnant but these same people wouldn't dare have even a sip of alcohol? Even worse, how many gave them to children? Just plain ignorance.
I've not owned a TV is decades nor do I even know how to actually turn one on. For the record I am also in my 60's and simply never got caught up in this monumental waste of time and brain cells. Do people not realize all of this is just marketing and
exploiting ignorance? All of it is propaganda.
How can anyone not see cell phones were a deliberate diversion and intentional dumbing down of society? A worldwide epidemic solidifying the entire world also suffers from addiction which is never mentioned yet also glaringly and abundantly obvious. Everywhere you go people are looking at one talking on one or holding one. The only thing it seems to have solved is lack of patience when it comes to long lines and/or traffic jams.
Tell me again how Social Media has solved anything and not deteriorated society even further and certainly faster. When was the last time you saw anyone reading an actual book? All of this was simply there for the taking. No one was forced but everyone was certainly stupid enough to join in with the masses.
I digress. Sadly, a revolution will never work, once again merely from the sheer magnitude of stupidity. How many college students have been expelled from school because of their pro-Palestinian stance? I only wish I'd had 1/10th of this power yet not one of them came up with a NO VOTING campaign? Stop the genocide now
or, we never vote again.
Instead of burning bra's they could've instituted a burning of voter registration cards. They didn't even have to leave their dorms. No violence no chanting yelling and screaming. Just join in solidarity, family members and parents. And yet nothing? How stupid are these people? Never mind. To ask a stupid question is
to get a stupid answer.
If you want to start a revolution you have to get ahead of "them" by making sure you remove all their power. You start first with educating the military and all law enforcement. Will you stand with US or them? I've been talking to with them
for years, asking that very question. Will you actually follow your commands or
use your head? If you think and hope all of this is coming sooner then you think,
then your job is to start spreading the word now. Talk to all your law enforcement.
Personally speaking I agree with this writer. It's over there is no turning back. The only thing that will save what little if anything is left of normalcy is a catastrophic war unlike anything imagined. Nuking Washington might also help. It's been written they could actually contain that area with no harm elsewhere.
This writer is called Karim ;). But thank you for the great compliment.
I stopped reading everything because it's so obvious, everything is a lie. This was the first piece that spoke the truth. No showboating, grandstanding and or political theater.
Jesus H. Christ. For for almost two years now we read the same stories day in and day out. Where the hell are the solutions? We live in a world saturated in opinion and yet none of these academics and alleged experts are predicting and forecasting the future and myriad ways this can and will end. Like you say where are the outcries? It is beyond unfathomable - the ubiquitous narcissism.
Which is why your piece was so enlightening. Like me you have also analyzed everything and there is no hope. There is no way out of any of this. There is no turning back no un-ringing this bell. The damage is irreversible. There is no future, now it is just a matter of time who lights the match that sets the entire world ablaze.
When will people understand the US is a terrorist organization? At what point did human life no longer hold any value? There are seven billion people on this planet and yet no one can/will stand up to 15 million Jews who we are told, control the entire world? Tell me again, what the solution is? There isn't!
How can people truly be so blind and ignorant and self consumed. Tell me what other way this can be up-righted? I know I speak for many when I say I am so sick and tired of the platitudes and rhetoric. Visualize the death of one innocent child, toddler, infant or newborn Just one. Now multiply it by tens of thousands being slaughtered in Gaza and tell me how the human race is not the worst race?
I have no qualms whatsoever losing my own life when and if this comes down to WWIII and or nuclear war IF it means the generations that may follow will live in peace and prosperity. So often I think about how history will be written 200 + years from now and wonder how this could've happened. How an entire civilization became so ignorant and complacent.
Greed knows no boundaries, it is the disease that is consuming our world.
A brilliant analysis. Depressing as hell, but a realistic view of the world we live in. I’ve said many times during the last few years that I’m glad I’m 82 years old, but I cry for my young great nieces. Nothing good lies ahead for them.
Thank you for writing this.
My mother and my father unexpectedly passed away in 2022 and 2023 (both far too young). I think they would not believe what the world looks like just 2 years after their passing.
It is truly a sad day for humanity if completely rational and deeply humane people feel that a war of catastrophic proportions is the only option to stop the slaughter of our own. As Susan, I cry for my two beautiful daughters that I helped to bring into this iniquitous world. But, I have to admit that nothing that we have done so far, has had the desired effect. And with each passing day more and more Palestinian people are killed in the most horrendous way possible.
“Yet within this terrible recognition lies a seed of possibility. If we understand the machinery of our destruction with unflinching clarity, if we abandon the comfortable myths that absolve us of responsibility, if we recognize that no external force will save us from ourselves – perhaps then we might begin the work of genuine resistance.”
After reading this brilliant chronology of imperial shame, I could only numbly contemplate the many ways in which we fail ourselves as human beings.
As western intellectuals who spurn the ways that power is manifested, I am curious if Peter and/or Karim is familiar with the work of Emmanuel Todd. His writings in English have recently become available right here on Substack, and I have to confess that I am referencing this now because Todd’s historical profiles deal directly with the social psyches of cultures in periods of profound transition.
Apologies if this is not work that you see related to yours, but I thought as social psychology professionals, that it might very well resonate.
Here’s a link to Jeff Rich, an Australian writer and former politician, detailing some salient points from Todd’s recent writings. FYI, Rich also can be found here on Substack.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=5SM4sM7wngw
I watched it, and I must say I always get icky when scholars and thinkers put forward 'transgenderism' as an argument for the fall of an empire.
It is simplistic and hinges on the superficial conservative 'traditional values need to be reinstated' to save our society.
It completely bypasses the deep structural and material problems we have.
Now I get that Todd puts it forwards as a symptom, but I don't believe these superficial debates on what constitutes a 'proper' identity (such as gender) are of any concern in relation to the destruction initiated by capitalism and imperialism. In fact, when we had traditional values, colonialism, capitalism and imperialism were at their peak.
I get that you aren’t impressed by arms-length historical tracts. thought that transgenderism, as he characterized it, was intended as an example of excess. While it is draconian to prevent people from achieving their true gender identity, it’s something else to promote transgender options as a cornerstone of a neoliberal agenda that doesn’t address historic racial discrimination, or try to tackle gun proliferation. IOW, it fits neatly into the good vs evil category, which is the point. It will accomplish nothing, and sound like commitment.
I don’t disagree with your point, but I don’t read anything into Todd’s detached observer perspective. And his perspective is in the context of eons more than current policy. What struck a chord for me was seeing the arc of American-led global imperialism as similar in its rise and termination, to the path of Germany, once the center of art, commerce and culture, then when threatened, taking a swift descent into unprecedented, unjustified and unimaginable brutality. Eighty years hence, the ante for imagining mindless, irrational brutality is much higher because of the violent, amoral and racist manner in which American imperialism has been routinely deployed.
What do you make of the postulation that in the 1940’s, as now, the brutality existed and exists, because it couldn’t and cannot be imagined.? Does that have any psychological significance in your opinion?
There were a helluva lot of Nazis who escaped any legal judgements, and were spiritually rescued by American industrialists, who had already been financially backing the German war effort from before the start. The Marshall Plan combined with the leniency in the judgements yielded a contempt in America, for the very values that liberalism promoted. The seed of the regime that concocted the Holocaust, is identical to the principle that normalizes the eradication of the Palestinians.
Thanks, I will check it out.
Interesting! -K.
Ps. People can use AI these days if they want to translate.