Keepin' it real.

I love Peter Schiff. He is one of very few actual educated individuals talking about the economy in our media. The preceding link is just him talking about our issues here and using an informed historical perspective to propose what's about to happen. Every time you see him speaking with a panel on the news or whatever, it's hysterical to listen to the other idiots around the table with the "US economy can't possibly collapse" attitude that is leading us over the cliff.

All you have to do with anyone that thinks they know what's going on with the economy and saying the stimulus will work is to ask them if they've ever read an economic history book, or if they understand how our monetary system works even at a basic level. They'll say, "no, that's boring," or "I listen to the news and understand finance" and they, too, will not have food to eat when the time comes.
I hope I have enough time to get out and become less reliant on the system, because if not, that will be sad. So here I go to find cheap land. And with that...

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Good luck to you all. I'm about to get out, at least in terms of my current involvement and methodology, of the education campaign that I've been trying so hard to further. I have mostly lost hope with people's current ability and willingness to learn and change anything without a massive catalyst for change, and it ain't Barack Obama's Change You Can Deceive In™, that's for sure. They will understand, eventually, and I think we all know this with our varying but nonetheless functional knowledge of this doomed system. I'm going to do what is right for myself and the people that I love which is to insulate myself from what is coming (which I believe is what is right anyway in this unsustainable world), ride it out with relative ease with some planning and execution beforehand, and to rebuild and reeducate when the time comes.

I do not intend on entirely giving up on the masses right now, because after all, I'm still deeply in the system and have the ability to get ideas out there, which is all that is really important anyway. There are folks out there who are listening to us! (although most just hear us, which is altogether different) On the other hand, I will no longer waste my time preaching to the choir or to people who are too blinded to pay any attention whatsoever. I intend on narrowing my target audience, blocking out those who I deem not to be listening, and focusing on those who are at least swayable. (defining these folks is something I'm thinking about lately)

So, my time will be spent reading history, economic theory, basic governmental structure, and mostly... sustainability and self-sufficiency measures that I began studying and got my degree in here at ASU. Honestly, an economy is no economy, a government is no government, and life on earth will not be life on earth for long without environmental sustainability. We have the ability to get there as a society, but the barriers currently hindering it are too great and must be allowed to fail before the rebuilding can really begin. So I will accept that real change must start with the individual and take action in my own life to make things happen. People will not, as a whole, open up their minds to real change through education and lifestyle readjustment until their existence is threatened. We are on our way to that, but are not quite at a point where critical mass can be achieved.

A question that I often struggle with in my mission to spread the word is "Why has the general public not woken up to the situation that they face? I came from the same or a similar background, and I changed my mindset. I realized our problems as a world, and gradually and through honest examination and a willingness to accept what is wrong I have become determined to change it because of a moral imperative to make the world a better (or at least livable) place from my children. The answers are there, staring us in our faces, yet collectively, we turn the other cheek."

My answer that I have arrived at over time is one that makes me very upset. And beware of some big-time generalities that I must use in an effort to describe my take on the situation. It is apparent to me that it is not simply a lack of information or education that we (C4L, Ron Paul, Peter Schiff, etc.) face, it is the prevalence of an apathetic, willfully ignorant mindset, coupled with people's overarching inability to believe that economic collapse and hardship can exist. And our method for achieving our goals of creating a better, sustainable and free world, so far, has been to try to educate people, when indeed we should have started by changing the mindset itself to even first open the door through which we can educate and inform. (And I'd argue that the methodology of our movement as yet, not just in Boone, has been too limp to make an impact, another reason I am distancing myself and attempting other approaches to this issue. Again, I believe the immediate issue that we face is not education but awakening. The latter must lead to the former, and that requires highly educated loud voices, widely reaching techniques, and sometimes startling tactics to achieve - of course all while not scaring people away. But remember, the whole point is to awaken them from a dream that does not represent reality, and this means opening them up to things that are sometimes scary or hard to swallow. You cannot be weak and yielding when raising children, and it is the same with educating those who are blind to the truth.)

Changing the mentality of the populace is a goal that is much harder to achieve than education, for a person's outlook or philosophy in life is created over a long period of time experiencing life in a certain way. And we face an audience with a very cushy idea of the way the world works and how easy it is to get by. Indeed it has been easy for us. Our generation (really baby boomers on up) was raised, in large part, in a "strong" economy and by parents that were financially capable. And financial capability even now is the most important aspiration for most people, even though it often means nothing about what the person actually contributes to the survival of society or themselves. (eg. farmers, manufacturing personnel, construction workers, and programmers actually contribute whereas accountants, day traders, fractional reserve bankers, and speculators only leech off of the rest of us, skimming from the top and making society as a whole worse off) It is even worse that this financial capability of our countrymen (even the productive ones) is inflated by both a banking system that creates artificial prosperity through a false currency and through the theft of resources from the rest of the world. Of course as we all know, it must stop. But anyway, if you look at it hard enough, you'll see that it will stop, and not necessarily (probably not) from the intervention of the enlightened minority, but based on inherent flaws in the system making life very difficult for the sheepish majority. Among these flaws are the aforementioned false economy, people's eventual acknowledgment of TRUTH that has been kept from them all along, and HOPEFULLY NOT resource and environmental degredation.

So we face the task of educating a generation of people that have no understanding of how hard the world really is without our fake economy, and who through this basic ignorance have adopted an expectation of given success without true enlightenment of the world's workings (eg. science, economics). Of course this problem is not created only by the life that has been given to us, as I mentioned earlier, but from a system of primary education and other ineffective or often irrelevant institutions which conveniently leaves out or poorly covers a few important things (basic economics, science, math, technology, critical thinking, reason, logic, a real and not biased overview of history) and that doesn't do enough to really nurture education and psychological growth. (Why is it that kids going through school simply don't seem to enjoy it? No one wants to go to school, do homework, or even read books for cryin' out loud! It's not some inherent quality of human beings, it is created in the system in various ways. And here's a funny clip saying the same thing. RIP George Carlin. You were a prophet and made terrible things seem at least funny in some sick way. Thank you)

These folks simply don't know how important it is for them to be educated on those things, and so they must first be reminded of this. And how do we do that?
That's a toughie, and one for which I am beginning to think the answer is, "just let the SHTF, they'll then learn."

And that's why I'm slowing down my involvement in the liberty propaganda machine to get ready for what is surely to come. This is no "the sky is falling" madness. This is history staring us in the face and saying, "learn from me or you'll be sorry." And our elected leaders are either absolutely ignorant of said history and economic fact (this is not opinion) or think that they stand to gain in some way from the ensuing chaos. And I'd argue that they're probably right in the latter attitude. The Obama administration's big gov't policies, for instance, will surely have more backing from the populace when they are scared and hungry. (and actually I'd say this is already true in our current economic state, I only fear for what it might mean when things get worse) And it is my belief, and I think this is shared by others, that even if all government officials were switched out for those with the people's interests in mind TOMORROW, we would still be heading down a dark road, the exit for which is miles away.

So off I go to use the machine for as long as it still stands to get prepared, so that I can live beyond the chaos and emerge as an educated, morally sound, and inspirational leader so we can get back on our feet again and actually move forward as a civilization. We have the ability to succeed as a species, to maintain this earth for future generations of individuals to enjoy, if we only apply the knowledge and technology we have gained though the past. We cannot allow our past mistakes to be repeated once again in the future. It has already happened in monetary policy; we have had many chances to get to a real gold standard, for instance, (a good monetary system is the foundation for the responsible growth of society) and move forward, but we have allowed contrary interests to take hold each time we have had a good chance to get on track. Never again.

This system will fall, without question. What is important now is that we nurture within ourselves a very, extremely, immensely thorough understanding of why it is failing and how to best tackle the issues in our future efforts to build a new society with the goals of equality of opportunity, liberty, strong education, and sustainability guiding every single decision. As I always say, the answers are there, whether it be economy, technology, or government; the groundwork is laid for us to build upon. This is right now the most frustrating part of it all, but later it will be the most uplifting force humanity has ever seen... if we promote it effectively.

Let us continue to educate ourselves, as I know we have all been doing, and focus hard on determining the most effective use of our energy, time, and intelligence on fixing these problems. We all have different ways of doing this, for sure, and that is what makes things so interesting.

Keep it real, and I'll see you guys at the next meeting to talk about this rally. I'll be in town for a bit longer, for sure.

Ever questioning reality,
Cory