The Dark Studio

"To understand the true quality of people, you must look into their minds, and examine their pursuits and aversions."-Marcus Aurelius

Given the times we are living in now there’s a lot of people on edge when it comes to discussing societal issues. 

Apart from the disastrous government, the rise of communism, policies, state of the country, and the so-called leadership in D.C. driving the country off a cliff I personally ask the question Why else is society on edge?  

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That question is rhetorical because I already know the answer and after my explanation if you’re intellectually honest then you will understand the answer to this question as well. 

Unless you’re from another planet then you already know the problems that the country is facing, as well as the entire planet for that matter…and no, it’s not global warming or climate change. 

To answer the question I just posed about why people are on edge we first must identify what the problems are in society in the first place before we are able to offer solutions to those said problems. 

However, in the current Colosseum of Provocation in which we reside, the battlefield is being blurred by the fog of war when it comes to getting people on the same page. 

This division is intentional and is being driven by an Administrative State Media (ASM) to satisfy their big advertisers and to use their platforms to drive the narratives of division to keep their falling ratings from completely hitting rock bottom. 

Due to the inability to properly identify the problems, and the reasons for those problems, is the reason why actual solutions can’t be obtained to remedy those problems. This is because society is too divided to even agree on what the problems consist of in the first place. 

It’s because of this division that we haven’t yet reached a desired synthesis, as I’ve mentioned before with Hegel’s dialectic that you can examine further here.

The thing you MUST understand is that you don’t have to respect the opinions of anyone who fails to back up their opinion with evidence and objective reality.  No, you didn’t misunderstand that last statement. 

In other words, I do respect everyone’s right to hold their opinions and to have their beliefs, HOWEVER this doesn’t mean I have to inherently respect the merit, or more specifically the lack of merit, of those opinions and beliefs automatically. There is no inherent, or automatic respect that is impulsively doled out to someone who simply has an emotionally strong opinion about something without backing up their theory of the case with a respectable, and yes I said respectable, logical, and evidentiary effort. 

Think about that for a minute. 

As one insane example of many with the societal issues plaguing us now regarding this Orwellian environment, if we've managed to understand the differences between a man and a woman since the dawn of mankind then why are we having such a difficult time with that known self-evident truth now? 

Once again, this is a problem because the advocates who can’t observe this self-evident truth have been demoralized by a campaign of social engineering, and what is more specifically referred to as ideological subversion. 

To understand the divisions in our society and the reasons why people are unable to agree on the problems and solutions as they exist is because we are fighting ideological subversion as the great KGB defector Yuri Besmenov pointed to in his eye opening interview with filmmaker and author G. Edward Griffin. 

Psychological Warfare

Yuri Bezmenov (alias Tomas David Schuman) was a former PGU and KGB informant who defected to Canada. 

In 1984 Yuri Bezmenov gave a harrowing and highly informative interview with American filmmaker and author G. Edward Griffin where he highlighted the significance and process involved with what he referred to as ideological subversion, or more specifically, a methodology recognized by Soviet intelligence as active measures. 

Bezmenov points out that unlike espionage active measures is a very slow, but powerful process of brainwashing that takes 15 to 20 years. Furthermore, active measures is also where the significant investment is within the intelligence community that he was a part of making up about 85% of the total investment with the intention being to expose a targeted population to the Marxist/Leninist propaganda with the specific goal and intention to overthrow that population. 

As a side note and observation to piggyback off of this explanation by Yuri Bezmenov if you think about that 15 to 20 year time cycle it was Barack and Michelle Obama who said the following…

“We are five days away from fundamentally transforming the United States of America.” — Barack Obama, October 30, 2008

“We are going to have to change our conversation; we’re going to have to change our traditions, our history; we’re going to have to move into a different place as a nation.” — Michelle Obama, May 14, 2008  (Source: National Review)

In short, from the time those two uttered those remarks to this current day we’re looking at a 15 year cycle where it’s obvious that the Crime Syndicate of Narrative has been implementing the active measures just as Yuri Bezmenov warned us about. 

The way active measures are achieved is through continuous propaganda that is pumped into the minds of young generations with the goal being to expose them to the enemy’s ideology. This long slow slog of propaganda and information takes several years, but the outcome is highly effective and the reversal of that outcome can take the same amount of time assuming the reversal process can even be successfully implemented. 

The infection of the mind, or what we would refer to now in this modern era as the woke mind virus, is something that can only be countered with patriotism and love of one’s country and customs according Yuri Bezmenov. (Source: YouTube) 

Bezmenov also points out that this entire process is carried out in four phases. 

* Demoralization: As stated before this is a 15 to 20 year process. He also points out that the demoralization process ends up taking on a life of its own with the majority of it happening with Americans doing it to other Americans due to a lack of moral standards and the addition of social pressures. 

According to Bezmenov a demoralized individual is someone who is immune to reality. Factual authentic documentation, photos, and even video evidence means nothing to this person. 

As Besmenov points out you can take a demoralized individual by force and drag him by the arm to show him the concentration camps in the Soviet Union and the demoralized person still won’t believe what is happening until the “Military boot crashes his balls,” according to Bezmenov, then this is the point the person will understand what is happening. 

* Destabilization: According to Besmenov the destabilization stage only takes two to five years to employ and the focus here is on foreign relations, defense, and the economy. We've already treaded water here. 

* Crisis: It can only take 6 weeks to bring a country to crisis. 

* Period of Normalization: Bezmenov says that this word normalization is a cynical expression and can last indefinitely. As he points out during this period things will not be under control even though they will give off this illusion. In fact, it will be disgustingly out of control as he points out with this phase of active measures. 

Besmenov warns us that the time bomb is ticking and that the world communist system is at war with the U.S.. When G. Edward Griffin asked Bezmenov during the interview what he recommends as the remedy for this he responds by saying the answer and solution is rather simple. 

As Bezmenov states the first step is educating the public about what is going on so that the Marxist/Leninist ideals that are being pumped into the system don't take hold to demoralize the younger generations. 

In addition to this he warns of something else that is key that the U.S. is already guilty of violating in this modern day globalist system. 

He says that the U.S. should not trade, finance, or give any money whatsoever to any communist regime. If it’s not obvious now with the relationship that we currently have with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) we have already violated this suggestion in a major way. 

With all the craziness going on in the world right now the cause of MOST all of these problems is due to the fact that we finance, trade, and do business with a communist government that wants to destroy us and the money they get from us is being weaponized against us every single day as a whole. 

Bezmenov says that these solutions aren’t complicated, but that if the American businessmen can’t curb their desire to profit from communist trade that they will beg to be killed after the communist takeover, but instead of being killed will most likely be shipped to somewhere like Alaska to oversee a prison labor camp. 

Bezmenov says that he defected to the west to be a part of this boat now (the boat of freedom) and if this boat goes down then there’s no better place to go down as the United States is the last place on earth that one can run to. 

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The Provocation From Within

Given what G. Edward Griffin was able to expose with his interview with Yuri Bezmenov this brings me back to the point of conflict that we currently find ourselves in with this society now as a whole. 

First of all, those of us who are Emissaries of Freedom are constantly being provoked by the American Bolsheviks in the public square. This is clearly being done by the American Bolsheviks advocating for censorship of dissident voices. The reason they want censorship is because the Emissaries of Freedom are taking direct ownership of Bezmenov’s advice regarding putting forward the correct education and pushing a culture of patriotism. 

As a specific example this very show is doing that very thing and is being censored and suppressed by the social media Oligarchs who are trying to control the battleground for the information war that is running white hot at this current time in our history. 

Furthermore, this Colosseum of Provocation also exists as American Bolsheviks who call for censorship are unable to accept a dissenting opinion and view a dissenting opinion as a provocation in and of itself.  This is problematic as such a reaction is only steeped in emotion.

This emotion is something that has been identified at a psychological and biological level. According to clinical psychologists Jordan Peterson a lot of what determines your political leanings is biological temperament. 

For my liberal friends and listeners  I’m going to use the misnomer “liberal” here to identify more left leaning people for the sake of this illustration just to keep the discussion consistent with what Jordan Peterson is pointing out in his explanation. This is not to imply that all liberals are far left Marxist because I understand that’s not the case and I want the readers and listeners to this show to understand that as well. 

So according to Peterson liberals tend to be high in the trait of openness, but are low in dutifulness and orderliness. Openness is associated with being more interested in the abstract and aesthetics. 

However, the conservatives are the opposite, being high in conscientiousness, being dutiful and orderly, but are low in openness. According to Peterson this is why conservatives tend to make good businessmen, administrators, and managers, but not such good entrepreneurs. 

As Peterson points out this is because the entrepreneurs are more often drawn from the more liberal type personalities. These are pretty opposite biological differences in temperament and each one is dependent on the other type. 

The important point is that the dialog between people of different temperamental types is how the two learn from each other through discussion. You see this is the thing that keeps the different temperamental types from being at each other’s throats according to Peterson. (Source: YouTube Note: To view this video scroll down the article on the Substack)

However, the problem here is that those who would probably be considered to be the far left are so open to openness, while being so closed off to conscientiousness that they advocate for closing down dialog, dissent, and free speech. 

If you look at Peterson’s last point, the reason the two temperaments would NOT be at each other’s throats is because they both need to have the ability of open discussion. Essentially this is free speech. 

However, the problem is that in this modern era of social media that we currently reside in, we are living in a Colosseum of Provocation. 

Why do I refer to this as the Colosseum of Provocation? 

The Colosseum represents the arena, or platform(s) that are made up of the social media public squares that so many people use to communicate and share ideas. 

The problem is that the social media platforms and their overlords have decided to create a digital barrier, or sort of a digital moat if you will, between people through the act of censorship, as well as through how the social media algorithms are designed to function. 

Keep in mind that social media algorithms involve a step-by-step procedure by platforms to collect specific data among a larger collection of data. 

Social media algorithms function in how they sort the posts in a particular user’s feed based on relevancy instead of publishing time. 

The social networks essentially prioritize what type of content a particular user sees on their feed by the likelihood that those people will actually want to see it. 

Now slow down and think about that for a moment. 

This is how they manage to divide groups of people into different social communication bubbles which results in these differing groups being isolated based on their ideologies. 

So when there is a provocation when two individuals of opposing viewpoints cross paths, after having been isolated for a significant amount of time on social media, the Colosseum proves to be more of a bread and circus show for those groups that have been isolated. 

Rather than having produced a healthier environment of conflict resolution the opposite occurs due to these groups having been isolated for quite some time. 

If you weren't aware that phrase bread and circus comes from the Satires which is a collection of satirical poems which were written by the Latin poet Juvenal in the first and early second centuries A.D.. 

To put this into a political context the phrase means to generate public approval not by implementing good public policy or service, but rather by distracting the public with entertainment (circuses) and food (bread). The phrase also points to the erosion of and ignorance of civic duty as it is no longer the priority of the citizenry. (Source: Wikipedia)

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This is the issue with the lack of understanding due to groups being isolated from one another, as well as fueling a more bread and circus environment rather than an environment of conflict resolution, problem solving, and civic duty.   

In looking at the function of social media as it currently works, if you are more likely to want to see a post from a personality such as CNN’s Jake Tapper based on your social media algorithm then you will see posts that are similar to Jake Tapper. Likewise, if you’re more likely to see posts on your social media from the likes of Sean Hannity then you will see Sean Hannity. 

With my own goal regarding this platform I wanted to be able to create something that would cross the digital moat and to blast through the firewalls of censorship which is proving to be very challenging. 

As a fitness professional and author I’m obviously into fitness and health, but I’m also into philosophy, history, geo-politics, and culture. 

I’m a fan of both Steve Bannon and Tim Poole, but I also wanted to bring about my own approach to impacting the culture by stressing a more grounded and individual experience to demonstrate to you how we can impact culture together as a whole by first focusing on ourselves as individuals. 

This individual philosophical approach of me trying to do what I’ve always done within my industry involves helping you to recognize that you have agency. You have personal action and power to influence and directly impact your environment, instead of sitting back and allowing the environment around you to shape your life outcomes. 

The latter part of that statement combined with the digital moats that separate most of us that are reasonable and desire to learn are the reason we are currently feeling trapped inside this Colosseum of Provocation, but this platform is offering a way out. 

The Wrap Up 

I firmly believe the experiences that we respond to shape and prepare us for the world as it changes. However, I want to be very clear that how the world changes is up to each one of us as individuals. 

Our actions as individuals impact the culture and result in the desired change that we want whether we desire the status quo, OR if we desire a new thriving, free loving, and enlightened world. 

As far as my objective view of the direction of the world as I currently write this I see it going one of two directions. It’s obvious to me that if we continue moving in the direction that the current Biden regime has us on with rampant government corruption, censoring of dissident voices,  the destruction of the economy, the early years of World War III, and the continued growth and weaponization of the Administrative State we are on the fast track towards a 1000 years of darkness. 

However, I ALSO believe that with the Great Awakening that is occurring across the globe that people are starting to demonstrate their support and actions by putting their dollars where their values are located by supporting businesses and organizations that support freedom, prosperity, and individuality. 

It is for both of these reasons as to why this blog and podcasts exist. It was born to be an information source with action towards shaping the environment rather than allowing the environment to shape the outcome of the rest of us. 

Your support and understanding in this movement is critical and this is why together we can control the narrative in this Colosseum of Provocation in order to change its culture which will change our political structure.

I hope you enjoyed today’s article/podcast.

If so I hope you would choose to support this platform as part of the patriot economy as well. I really need your help to push this piece out to your friends, family, and coworkers.

In order for BOTH you and me to influence and strengthen our society we must not stay idle so please make sure you hit the subscribe and share buttons here below.

Spreading messages like this one is how we influence our culture and I need your help in order to do it.

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“A Good Plan, Violently Executed Now, Is Better Than a Perfect Plan Next Week.”

 –General George S. Patton 

Today I want to take a bit of time here to share with you a little bit of my own personal history in the business world.   

I was recently doing some thinking and realized that I probably needed to do a better job of sharing some personal experiences as it’s easy to fall into the trap of applying principles of philosophy and events of history when looking at the world while not focusing as much on sharing more of my own background. I realize it’s important to share more in order to illustrate how life has shaped my own perspective and how those experiences have fed into the creation of this very blog and podcast. 

To give you some insight on this I think I’ll start by diving into some of the struggles and failures I’ve personally encountered as a small business owner in order to give you a dose of objective reality in terms of the challenges that not only myself, but how most all small business owners face in the day to day of being inside the arena of business and life. 

Now keep in mind that I fully understand that everyone has their own perspectives and lived experience, but when it comes to individuals who choose to go out into the world in order to create something out of thin air, the world is not a friendly place for those people at times. 

Furthermore, I want to point out that individual’s being able to go out and create something from nothing, to pursue a dream (like the pursuit of happiness), and to create as much independence as possible within a free, or now a more quasi-free society, is something that is seemingly diminishing more and more by the day. 

The traditional American spirit of rugged individualism and pioneering is now giving way to a massive corporatocracy driven by centralized control of a big corporate and big government merger. 

This partnership gets many people in society to buy into that model while also getting those same people to diminish more and more of their support for that rugged individual who visualizes a world where he or she can blaze their own trail without getting resistance from those people who claim to believe the same things as they do. 

This problem continues to grow because  in reality much of society doesn’t recognize or demonstrate their support for many of these pioneering individuals with their dollars and their votes, or if they do that trailblazer must end up sacrificing a lot more in life in order to achieve that support from the observing consumer public. 

In other words, many small business owners may run the risk of experiencing a Pyrrhic Victory, or form of success in their very attempt to pursue the more difficult to achieve American dream in this day and age. 

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I can attest to this personally as when I started my fitness business back in 2005 I had to endure a bit of a rough start. 

In the first few months I had unknowingly gotten mixed up in some corrupt business relationships with dishonest and greedy people. These people couldn’t make intelligent decisions because they were so concerned about the money that they weren’t even capable of seeing their unethical and illegal breach of our contract as they were trying to broker a deal with me for renting some space. 

This was a huge wake up call for me as I had come in contact with this married couple who at that time were some of the worst people that I would ever encounter in my life in terms of business, but I wouldn’t learn that until later on at the point of negotiation. 

As the story goes I had gotten tied up in a sublease agreement to have a training facility in order to move my fitness and athletic students into in order to have some floor space to work with them.  

I had acquired these students from brokering a deal of my own with a previous facility, who I also had a previous sublease with, but they would ultimately fail at paying their lease to the building owner which resulted in me having to exit the premises because my lease was with the leasee, not the building owner. 

Because I found myself in a bind with having to get another training facility to now move three teams of athletes into in order to train, against my own best judgement I ended up agreeing to another sublease with this couple I had met who owned a baseball and softball facility with batting cages. 

Granted I was young and very ambitious, but I was probably a bit too honest and shared a bit too much with this couple up front as I had communicated that I needed to find a place to house my athletes due to the previous situation that placed me into the difficult circumstance I found myself in. 

However, I ended up signing a short term sublease with them and I had some space to work, but would have to share some of the space that these new owners used for their batting cages. 

The agreement was that I could use space from their cages for a designated period of time daily that we both agreed to with the signing of the short term lease which was only about a two month commitment. 

The owners, or the couple, of this new facility told me that they were renovating some new space across the parking lot from where we would agree to train my students in the short term. 

Their proposed idea was that we would negotiate another lease after the short lease had expired and I could move into the newly renovated space across the parking lot at that point. 

So what happened next? 

Well as the date approached for the expiration of our short term lease the new space was not renovated. It was basically just a metal building with no heat or air-conditioning, no facilities, no office, and the roof was leaking water down onto the floor where I’d theoretically be training my students once we would have made the move. 

However, the expiration of our old agreement came and went because our negotiations regarding the so-called renovated space across the parking lot would have to be postponed due to the fact that the husband of the husband and wife duo ended up getting diagnosed with cancer. 

However, going back to the beginning of our initial two month agreement I started noticing problems with this particular professional working relationship as the couple would violate our space and contract with the use of their side of the business regarding their batting lessons for the athletes that came in. 

This was problematic as we needed to use the space that we had agreed to pay for under contract to train the athletes we had at the time in order to operate my business. 

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Without getting too much into detail this immediately started causing a major problem and was something I recognized was an immediate breach of trust. This was an immediate red flag to me. 

As a result I made an executive decision to start looking for another space a couple months prior to the coming sit down I knew we were going to have regarding the negotiation of the space they had proposed I move into at the end of our first contract.

The Negotiation

It ended up being a smart decision on my part to move forward with finding an alternative space to settle into yet again.  

I was fortunate to be successful in finally meeting with a sane and grounded individual who would end up being a new tenant that I would negotiate a third space with in order to train my students. However, before this happened I still had to have the final sit down with the alarming couple that I was dealing with at the time. 

Because I had initiated the meeting with the third guy that offered me the best option I knew going into the negotiation with the questionable couple that I had some leverage that they were unaware of at the point of the meeting. 

However, when it came time for the meeting the husband did not show and instead sent his wife as he was allegedly getting medical treatment for his condition. 

I know that I already touched on some of the context of this negotiation, but what I didn’t touch on is that I also knew going into this that the so-called renovated space that wasn’t renovated was also considerably smaller in terms of square footage than the temporary space we had agreed to with our previous two month contract.  

So to sum this up the potential new space was smaller, it had no facilities, it didn’t have air-conditioning, it didn’t have heat, and it had a leaking roof that the couple said they would fix, but didn’t. 

As you may imagine this all was about to get very interesting at the coming negotiation. 

Having said that, when the time came for me to sit down with the wife she showed her true colors and had the nerve to write out on a piece of paper a proposed rent amount that was considerably higher than what we had previously paid for the temporary space. 

It was at this moment that I had calculated correctly ahead of time coming into the meeting where I believed that she believed that she would have me cornered. She believed that in order for me to run my business that she would put forth a totally unreasonable offer that she (and her husband) believed I would be forced to take. 

They were confident that they could leverage the situation because they believed that I had no other options and that I would have nowhere else to go. However, because I was proactive about the situation I did have somewhere else to go and as a result created leverage for myself. 

The look on her face was priceless when I counter-offered. Because of her ego she wouldn’t relent and then I made sure to laugh when I got up from the table and left to go and secure the deal with the guy I had already previously negotiated with to give me a fallback plan. 

Now why did I go to the trouble to tell you about all of this? 

Well, after the loss of having to move my students under pressure I wanted to communicate to you this process and to give you a deeper understanding as to how all of this actually worked throughout the experience. 

That night after I had sat with the wife, her husband called me on the phone to yell at me and felt the need to call me quite a few names. The next morning when I went to get my equipment to move out he confronted me there at the facility and yelled even more threats at me both personally and professionally.

It was at this moment that I reminded him how much he was in the wrong and that if he continued with his threats that I would be very determined to end his motivation for launching them. 

At this point the situation was neutralized. 

During that particular experience I learned a lot. I learned that not all people who pretend to be your friend are your friends and also learned that life threatening illness doesn’t always bring about the humble qualities of people even though they may be facing down their own mortality. 

I also learned that those people who are purely driven by greed will try to walk over anyone and everyone in their path until someone else pushes back. 

In short, the entire process was a reckoning that I realized was hurtling towards a terminus in which I had to determine on which point of the line it would end up. 

The Pyrrhic Victory

Oftentimes people will ignore, or just flat out fail to consider the possible outcomes of an objective reality when they believe they are in the right. However, the issue here is that the belief of one thinking they are in the right can often be confused by one simply trying to satisfy and prop up their own ego. 

Victory isn’t always something that is nice and shiny and perfect. Victory and the pursuit of victory can often be something that leads to one’s own destruction. 

In the case of that couple I found myself having to deal with, they believed they were pursuing and about to achieve a major victory, but at the end of the day they got absolutely nothing. However, I also recognized that in order for myself to succeed I had to put aside my ego and hit the ground running by working hard on a solution for the problem I was dealing with at that time. 

It wasn’t easy and it cost me a great deal of time and money, but at the end of the day I managed to work out a viable solution. 

In 280 BC King Pyrrhus of Epirus fought and defeated the Romans at the battle of Heraclea, as well as the battle of Asculum in 279 BC. (Source: Wikipedia). 

As it turns out even though the king was able to achieve victory he did so at such a great toll and strain that even as the victor it was viewed as being equivalent to a defeat. 

Such a victory is so costly that it negates any true sense of achievement and damages long-term progress. As a result this is where the term Pyrrhic Victory originated. Ah there’s that term again.  

After giving my own personal example of dealing with some of my own struggles in business, those struggles were costly and I was able to pull out a victory, or solution in that last scenario in the end. 

However, I knew that I had to take some serious action in order to create and/or find a solution that I could live with at the moment. I knew the entire experience would cost me a great deal even if I came out on top, but I had to make sure that even if that deal resulted in a victory that it wouldn’t be a Pyrrhic Victory. 

The Journey of Mankind

As I was brainstorming about ideas for a good blog and podcast topic I decided to share with you this experience I had when I started my fitness business. 

In my own journey in the fitness industry this particular experience that I’ve outlined for you here in this episode gave me a deeper understanding of human nature and certain people’s motivations. Granted this experience wasn’t pleasant in the least, however the value of the experience has proven to be a lifesaver for me on more than one occasion. 

As a result I have the opportunity to share that very experience with you here on this blog and podcast episode. 

With that in mind I’m going to shift gears on you for just a bit here.  

At the beginning of Stanley Kubrick’s iconic movie 2001: Space Odyssey there is a view of some open barren land with some prehistoric ape-like beings living within some caverns and out on the open fields. 

During this scene it shows a time of their struggles with hostile predators attacking them, as well as rival gangs of other ape-like beings aggressively running in on their territory and fighting them. 

After a few distressing encounters with various predators the ape-like beings were visibly shaken one night as they fell asleep in their caverns. 

The next morning they awakened in shock to see a huge monolith that was solid black sitting on the ground in the center of their dwelling. 

They were initially overcome by fear, but eventually would calm down and one of the ape-like beings would move close enough to the monolith to reach out with his hand to touch it. 

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The next scene shows this ape-being sitting in a field with bones of decomposed animals. As the creature is sitting there it starts looking really close at a thigh bone and grabs it with its hand to pick it up. 

At this point the apeman starts to somewhat swing the thigh bone down onto another pile of bones to hit them. As it sees how hitting the other bones breaks those bones it starts to realize how to use the thigh bone as a tool, an instrument, or weapon. In other words, there’s a clear advancement in intelligence with its discovery of the use of the bone as a tool. 

The next scene then shows how the apeman uses the tool to hunt for food and then again as a weapon to protect the family of his tribe being attacked again by the rival gang of apes as it managed to kill one scaring off the other invaders. 

From here the scene changes yet again by leaping ahead millions of years into the future with Dr. Heywood Floyd sleeping on a spaceship on a flight headed towards an American lunar outpost. 

The doctor awakens to have a couple of different meetings to discuss the purpose of his journey. He’s very secretive about the mission, but stresses to the crew that his secrecy on the issue is of utmost importance. 

Later we see this doctor exiting a base to walk out onto the surface of the moon with a group of other men to an excavation site on the moon. 

At the center and bottom of this excavation site is another similar monolith that appeared in the beginning with the apemen. The men gather around the monolith taking pictures and the doctor walks up close enough to reach out and touch the monolith. 

From here the scene changes yet again to a spaceship that is on a course heading towards Jupiter 18 months later. On this ship there are two astronauts, along with three others in suspended animation,  and a Heuristically programmed ALgorithmic computer (HAL) that uses its systems to pilot the ship. 

To shorten and simplify the plot HAL essentially makes what the astronauts determine to be an error aboard the ship which shakes the trust of the two astronauts Dr. Dave Bowman and Dr. Frank Poole. 

Later HAL causes the death of Dr. Frank Poole by sabotaging his attempt to replace an outside antenna by taking control of his mobile pod and setting him adrift into space. HAL also turned off the life support systems of the suspended crewmen, killing them. Dave responds by getting a pod of his own to go and retrieve Frank’s body, but upon his return HAL refuses to let Dave enter the ship bay. 

Dave releases Frank’s body and manages to successfully get onboard the ship by crossing the vacuum to enter the ship manually without his space helmet. 

Upon entry Dave immediately moves to disconnect HAL’s circuits and when he manages to do so receives a pre-recorded message from Dr. Heywood Floyd talking about the purpose of the mission. 

Dr. Heywood Floyd talks about the discovery of evidence of other intelligent life while referencing the monolith and how it was sending a strong radio signal towards Jupiter. 

Not long after this Dave discovers a third monolith orbiting the planet. Dave leaves the Discovery (the main ship) in his pod to investigate and immediately gets pulled into a bizarre vortex of colored light and observes very odd lighting and landscapes in colored light as he passes by. 

Then oddly he finds himself in a classical bedroom where he sees different versions of himself, then becomes those versions of himself, in three different instances each time with him getting older and older. 

The first time he’s in his space suit exploring the bedroom and place he finds himself in, the second time he sees an old man version of himself eating a meal, and finally he sees himself close to death on the bed. 

It’s at this final phase when he’s on his bed where he points to the foot of his bed to see the monolith floating just above the floor. 

At this point as he reaches towards the monolith he’s transformed into a fetus contained in a transparent sort of sphere of light floating above planet earth. 

Now why did I go to all the trouble to tell you about the plot of 2001: Space Odyssey? 

The answer to that is simple because it has to do with my interpretation of the movie’s plot which in my view is Stanley Kubrick’s explanation of mankind’s journey from the primitive, to the advancement, and ultimately with that advancement causing mankind’s ultimate destruction. 

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After the journey Kubrick goes a step further in 2001: Space Odyssey with the introduction of the fetus in a glowing sphere of light as the mark of another new beginning, possibly suggesting another cycle of advancement of mankind to come spanning over a long period of time from that very point. 

Granted for that new beginning to occur the cycle of mankind started out more primitive and ultimately advanced to a point that mankind’s advancement led to his own destruction. This cycle of mankind as visualized in Kubrick’s 2001: Space Odyssey is a sort of reckoning that ended up at its terminus, or endpoint, or beginning point. 

The Wrap Up

The cycle of my own journey early on in my business as I described here was a reckoning just as Kubrick’s 2001: Space Odyssey was a reckoning for all of mankind. 

I believe the big takeaway here is for all of us to be introspective and to ask where our actions within our daily lives are leading us? 

I ask this question both from the standpoint of us examining ourselves as individuals, but also directionally with society as a whole? 

In other words, there are real big problems that are coming down the track for our society as a whole across many fronts. 

For instance, we are facing another six to nine trillion dollars in national debt, we are depleting our ammunition by sending everything to Ukraine to worry more about their borders than our own. Meanwhile our border is dealing with a full-on invasion. 

The banks are being nationalized, the U.S. dollar currency is tanking from out of control spending, dissidents here in the U.S. are being imprisoned, our manufacturing is controlled by the CCP, the CCP is also showing military aggression, and the threat of AI is looming. 

Even Kubrick pointed out the dangers of AI with HAL turning on its human counterparts as the advancement of man led to the destruction of man in the end of the movie. 

All I’m saying is that we are at a precipice with all of these things reaching a point of critical mass. 

However, this is the point of this show to help all of us to realize how we must look inward at seeking the solutions to our problems by putting actions behind our daily lives to fix these problems. 

By recognizing these problems we can make the individual choice within ourselves to not support the institutional things that bring about these destructive problems. 

We can act and use our decision making and actions to garner more support for buycotts while simultaneously boycotting institutions that are bringing about more and more destruction to society as a whole. 

This is our reckoning and the question is which terminus do we want to end up at with our society as a whole? 

On that note if you want to use your actions to support an alternative media platform you can support this very platform for about the cost of a cup of coffee per month. To feel confident that you can trust this platform is working for you I have set up the subscription model here so that you can place your dollars behind a media platform that is going to be the counter-narrative to the Administrative State Media (ASM). 

I hope you enjoyed today’s article/podcast.

If so I hope you would choose to support this platform as part of the patriot economy as well. I really need your help to push this piece out to your friends, family, and coworkers.

In order for BOTH you and me to influence and strengthen our society we must not stay idle so please make sure you hit the subscribe and share buttons here below.

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“The most dangerous man to any government is the man who is able to think things out for himself, without regard to the prevailing superstitions and taboos. Almost inevitably he comes to the conclusion that the government he lives under is dishonest, insane, and intolerable...”― H.L. Mencken

I was talking with one of my good friends on the phone the other day who I would consider to be a solid intellectual even though he is too humble to admit it. As a side note I have to say that I’m blessed to be surrounded by people who are solid intellectuals in my life as this is the case with a lot of people in my life that are really close to me, but I digress. 

During our conversation he started pointing out something that I’ve always felt, but that we both feel like a lot of people tend to ignore when it comes to them looking at and planning out their life journey. 

For starters, if you’ve listened to my podcasts and read my articles you know that I am all about embracing the attitude of self-reliance and rugged individualism. 

After all, as an American those characteristics were central to the founding of this very nation from its beginning.  

My view of life is that we are here for our own individual journey and that everything that we do in that journey shapes the path of that journey based on the risks we take which originate from the choices that we make. 

This is not really complicated because if you really think about it, life is all about Risk vs. Reward, however in the past 10 to 15 years society has been brainwashed into believing the opposite of this. Society has been dumbed down by the prospect that we should entrust and finance the major governmental, medical, and educational systems to be the trustees of creating an environment that builds a risk averse society. 

This entire ecosystem that we live in operates only with the permission of our support as citizens while the so-called trusted overlords that we’ve somehow allowed to make our life decisions for us have convinced us that they know what’s best for us because they have removed all the risks. 

You might be sitting there thinking, "Brandon, how is the removal of the risks a bad thing?” The answer to that is simple because as goes the risks so goes the rewards. If that is our sentiment as a society then we are saying to the overlords that we don’t care about individual sovereignty, individual agency, and individual rights. 

If you’re agreeing to that model then you are saying that you want nothing more out of life than to be the equivalent of a Russian serf. This is the social contract that you’re creating and signing if you want a risk averse society. 

The Critical Dangers of Being Risk Averse

Life is a tricky phenomenon. Granted, both myself and my guests talk about many different aspects of life here on this blog and podcast and are always identifying problems while offering solutions to those problems on a regular basis, but I’m not going to sit here and act like it’s all easy. Easy can at times factor into the equation, but for the majority of the time it doesn’t factor in at all.  

Now given that, let's take a look at the root cause of most of society’s problems because the thing about solving problems is being able to go to the root cause in order to cut to the heart of the problem rather than playing around with treating symptoms of a particular problem. 

Now if you’re still reading this I am not about to lead you down a path by spouting off some cliche’ self help message that you would normally hear from all the so-called self help internet business influencer gurus. 

You’re probably very familiar with the usual type that want to engage in happy talk about life coaching and grinding 24/7 on your business and career while they sell you more of their noise in order for you to wear their t-shirts and attend their seminars. 

Now please don’t misunderstand me. I'm not bashing those people. I would actually  applaud their success, however I am establishing the point that the message here in this article and on this podcast isn’t the same as the message of those people. The message you’re getting here is quite different. 

After all, speaking for myself I’m as much free market and pro-business as the next guy, but the root of society’s problems go much deeper than what any of the usual self help gurus would traditionally ever care to address, or even bring up in a discussion on their respective YouTube channels with their millions of followers. 

Why? 

Because none of what these so-called self help gurus are selling is addressing the root cause of the problems that are plaguing our society. With as many of these so-called gurus that exist if they were addressing the root causes then there would probably be no need for this platform and my explanation for all of this. 

Sure, you can start a business and make it successful and reach a lot of people. That’s a huge positive and should be part of the American dream, however the reality of that vision is that it’s happening less and less now because it’s getting harder and harder for people to even get off the launching pad with a new business venture in the first place. 

No, this isn’t a whining session or a complaint. This is objective reality.  My goal here is to talk about the deeper issue and that deeper issue is the environment in which ANY prospective business may start in order to try and gain a foothold so that it can become successful in the first place. 

After all, what is the reality that we’ve seen put on supercharge in the past three years? We’ve seen the following… 

* The mass exodus of people from big cities 

* The collapse of the medical industry. 

* The destruction of your currency. 

* A real estate housing bubble. 

* A commercial real estate crisis. 

* 40 year record high inflation. 

* Increased rolling power outages. 

* The rising cost of fuel. 

* A mass invasion at the southern borders. 

* Out of control crime rates. 

I could go on and on. 

Every single thing that I mentioned there is 100% accurate. Those issues are NOT some made up story that only exists in someone’s imagination. No, every single one of those issues I mentioned is happening in reality right now. 

So why did I bring them up? 

Well if it’s not already obvious how do any of those issues serve to enhance the environment for anyone to start a small business? How do any of those issues create a secure economic environment where there are assurances that a respective business looking to grow can be confident in its environment to grow? 

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The answer is that most businesses can’t grow in an environment like the one I described let alone even make an attempt to start out right at ground zero. 

To make this all worse the irony of it is that every single one of the issues I listed above resulted from the promise that the government was trying to eliminate all the risks for you to keep you safe. The action of supposedly removing all the risks for you was carried out by telling you what medicine you should put into your body, by telling you that a check from the government for a few thousand dollars would help your business after they closed it down, and by telling you that police should be defunded in major cities because that was best for society and would somehow serve as a remedy for racism.  

Yet, every single one of these resulted in the complete opposite outcome being the complete destruction of our institutions all in the name of mitigating risks for society. 

Being risk averse is a clear and present danger. 

The Critical Reliance Upon The Forge

When looking at any system of governing, or any process where a business must start the process of willing itself into existence the very existence of either of these endeavors begins much like the blacksmith relies upon the forge.  

Keep in mind that a blacksmith, as you’re probably familiar with in older times, could shape and bend iron. A blacksmith could build a sharp blade that was worthy of combat, a shield that would protect a soldier, and a suit of armor that could deflect any passing blow coming from an enemy combatant. 

In this way the blacksmith was very skillful and in an older society possessed a valuable trade and a successful business. However the skills of that blacksmith were only as good as the resources he would have at his disposal. 

To clarify this further, in order for a soldier in older times to prepare for war that soldier had to have been instructed and trained. The soldier needed a plan from a commanding officer and the soldier also needed a blacksmith for the armor and the weaponry.  Additionally for the warrior to be successful the commanding officer, the soldier, and the blacksmith all relied on the forge being able to function in order to heat up the iron for the blacksmith to shape it for its purpose in order to aid everyone in their respective endeavors.  

Without the forge there are no weapons, no armor, and a vulnerable warrior if there’s even a warrior at all with the absence of a forge. Furthermore, the more direct impact would be that there would be no blacksmith which meant there would be no tools for farmers which meant there’s no civilization. The reliance upon the forge would be critical for the very existence of the civilization. 

So I chose to use the analogy of the forge to simplify how the flow and existence of that civilization would originate from the function and existence of the forge . Granted, in this example I’m imagining  an older civilization, but with this example of using the forge and the blacksmith you can more easily grasp how significant the forge would be in the context of our older hypothetical civilization. 

So what is my point here? 

If you look back on the disastrous issues I pointed out earlier in this article regarding the fleeing of people from the big cities, the medical system collapse, the currency collapse, etc. all of these institutions have traditionally been stalwarts that create a civilization because they serve to be assurances to the citizens of a society that these institutions will be there to function for them, to function for you, and to function for me. 

However, the issue that we’ve seen in the past three years is that those in power are actually Communist that are insane enough to remove the forges of society, or to render them inoperative. What did we establish earlier that would happen to the critical function of society without the forge? 

Let’s take a look at a concrete example of how this sort of dysfunction has impacted our modern society with one of today’s major institutions involving police. The thing I’m trying to communicate is that if you have been a police officer, particularly in the past three years, then you were demonized by the Administrative State Media (ASM). 

They championed a message for defunding you in the biggest cities in the U.S and on top of that many of your employers, or the mayors of those cities, were not standing shoulder to shoulder with you, but rather standing shoulder to shoulder with the ASM. 

In short, they removed your forge, metaphorically speaking, so that you would be rendered inoperative. 

The authoritarians exist for the purpose of control. Because of this with you being honorable and demonstrating the faith in the institution that you took an oath to serve you would unknowingly end up placing yourself into a vulnerable position. Just like the rest of society you would also be underneath the boot of the authoritarians that run the government which also signs your paychecks. 

Now please don’t misunderstand me because I’m not blaming you…at least not directly. What I’m trying to say is that all of us collectively as citizens that make up society are to blame because we didn’t vet these people close enough. We also weren’t critical enough of the education systems that taught the Marxist ideology that would indoctrinate those people who continue to vote for and support these authoritarians that create these hostile environments for the police. 

There’s no question that the issues that plague our society run very deep which is why I am framing the problem in this way in order to put forth a solution. 

You’re probably thinking Brandon “What solution do you have in mind?” 

Well the solution that I have in mind parallels that rugged individualism I was speaking about earlier at the beginning of this episode. 

After all, I started this podcast and blog because I wanted to address these issues after the unlawful and authoritarian lockdowns that impacted my business directly three years ago. 

You see this is exactly why I’m always hammering away at the importance of continuing to develop an alternative parallel economy. By doing so we create our own forge so that we don’t have to rely on the forge of what’s been provided to us by our long standing, but now failing and corrupt institutions. 

Because I’m independent I’m not beholden to anyone, or anything, which gives me the freedom to create this platform so that I can communicate this message. I guess I shouldn’t say I’m not beholden to anyone because I am beholden to the subscribers and members who financially support this show, but that is a decentralized solution. 

In reality I’m not beholden to a centralized authority that wants to dictate my speech here which arguably, with a message like this one, would be suppressed and censored on most other platforms in this day and age. 

Now is the time for all of us to create something new and to leave the corrupted failing rot of the communist infected institutions to die on the vine financially speaking. 

The Dictum

Now you’re probably thinking well Brandon “How would I do that if I’m a police officer, or government worker?” 

If you happen to be in that position you are at the tip of the spear for some major change. 

First of all, if you happen to be a police officer, or government worker, and you believe in and love freedom and liberty then you can continue to create change in the very position you’re in. 

Look for opportunities to promote liberty by influencing your coworkers and friends. Make them aware of the problems that are going on as you have firsthand knowledge and experience given your position and experience in your work environment.

Additionally, when it comes to your individual life save your money and make the smartest financial decisions you can possibly make. No, this isn’t some normal self-help message like I was saying earlier. 

This is about you making a declaration with yourself, or dictum, to be very intentional with your actions in order to create an environment for yourself so that if you find the institution turning on you then you can simply tell the institution to go pound sand. 

Use your position to make sound investments to improve both your own station in life, as well as using your dollars to support the institutions, businesses, and organizations that you know for a fact will improve the freedom and liberty movement. You can do both of these at the same time. 

By being conscious of this and by laying this foundation you can create a situation for yourself to easily pull out of the institution you’re in should it be compromised by communist infiltration. This way you can exit as painlessly as possible should the situation call for such an extreme measure. This is exactly why I operate independently and am self-employed because I never enjoyed being in a position where I had to be under the control of a centralized authority. 

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Granted, no situation is perfect, but as we grow independent wealth and savings we enable ourselves the ability to have mobility. The key to doing this is by making sure we grow that independent wealth as individuals by supporting and investing in the institutions that can help us get there while knowing that those institutions we invest in are also supporting the freedom and liberty movement. Both of these criteria must be met. 

Remember that independent wealth is great, but if you achieve that wealth by investing your dollars into institutions that will destroy the forge, or render it inoperative, then you’re only creating an environment where you’re back at square one beholden to a centralized authority. 

This is yours and my dictum, or intentional action, to truly create change within society. 

The Wrap Up 

“Do not let your fire go out, spark by irreplaceable spark in the hopeless swamps of the not-quite, the not-yet, and the not-at-all. Do not let the hero in your soul perish in lonely frustration for the life you deserved and have never been able to reach. The world you desire can be won. It exists.. it is real.. it is possible.. it's yours.”― Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged

If you live daily by a dictum of intentional action then I promise you (we together) can save the United States of America from the communist invasion. 

What exactly is the parallel, or patriot economy? 

It’s simple because the patriot economy consists of individual American citizens (You) paying attention and being informed on where you spend your dollars. 

Because where you spend your dollars is where you place your support. If you want to support companies that are promoting and advocating for more and more silencing of dissident voices, forcing people to choose between their jobs and a medical procedure, and pouring their money into supporting enemies like the CCP that hate and want to destroy us then you’re feeding the problem. 

However, the good news is that if you do believe in liberty and freedom you don’t have to feed the problem. You do have a choice to feed the solutions and that is the MOST POWERFUL vote you have at your fingertips every single time reach for your wallet. 

This is how we defeat the communist and build a strong renewed United States of America.

I hope you enjoyed today’s article/podcast.

If so I hope you would choose to support this platform as part of the patriot economy as well. I really need your help to push this piece out to your friends, family, and coworkers.

In order for BOTH you and me to influence and strengthen our society we must not stay idle so please make sure you hit the subscribe and share buttons here below.

Spreading messages like this one is how we influence our culture and I need your help in order to do it.

Also listen to this episode here on…

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Stay strong. Stay focused. Stay active.

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Thank you

Brandon

“But if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought.”― George Orwell, 1984

Since the dawn of man the use of fire has been seen as the key defining factor in terms of identifying intelligence that separates humans from the rest of the other animals. 

Fire obviously has ancient origins and is in a major way even referenced in Greek mythology.  When we look at Greek mythology the Titan Prometheus was seen as the Supreme Trickster and granted mankind the gift of fire. 

He did this by tricking Zeus to eat bone and fat that was undesirable and by doing so it angered Zeus and Zeus would retaliate by forcing humans to eat their meat raw by denying mankind the gift of fire. 

As the story goes it was at this point that Prometheus saw this as an opportunity to swoop in and earn favor from mankind and to give mankind the gift of fire after what Zeus had done with stripping away that very gift. 

This would obviously anger Zeus which resulted in him chaining Prometheus to the side of Mount Caucasus where a huge eagle would fly in daily to eat the immortal liver of Prometheus only to have the liver regenerate for the eagle to return to eat it again and again for eternity. 

Later, with Zeus’s permission,  Promotheus would be rescued by Hercules who would free him from his torment. 

Since the discovery of fire it’s easy to understand even now in the present day how fire can be used for a variety of reasons and for a variety of different causes. 

On one hand, fire can be one of the most destructive forces in nature using its unquenchable appetite to spread across forest land, towns, cities, and a significant portion of an entire countryside for that matter incinerating everything in its path. 

At the same time, fire can be used as an instrument for good and for healing. Fire can be used to keep us warm in the cold, to provide light in the darkness, and to cook our food for the purpose of nourishment. 

To me this shifts the focus from the fascination of the element of fire back to the focus of how man ultimately chooses to end up using this element for his own purpose.

In other words, the real focus isn’t the intriguing discovery of a fascinating element such as fire by itself, but rather man’s nature and behavior in how he uses this element for his own self-interests just like Zeus and Prometheus used it for their own self-interests in that story of Greek mythology.  

Bumper Music Credit: Prazkhanal

I hope you enjoyed today’s podcast.

If so I really need your help to push this piece out to your friends, family, and coworkers.

In order for BOTH you and me to influence and strengthen our society we must not stay idle so please make sure you hit the subscribe and share buttons here below.

Spreading messages like this one is how we influence our culture and I need your help in order to do it.

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If you like this podcast and the message please take a moment to give it a Five Star ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ rating on the Spotify platform.

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“When eating fruit, remember the one who planted the tree.”-Vietnamese Proverb

When you look around and observe your environment what do you see? 

For years I’ve witnessed a society that at one time would support and encourage freedom, economic growth, and opportunity, but over the past 15 years our society has steadily allowed the worst politicians and elements of government to consistently ruin and set fire to those honorable pursuits with the exception of the years between 2016-2020. 

I have come to the conclusion that I personally have some different views on society and the world compared to a lot of people, at least more than most that I meet and talk to on a daily basis. 

Granted all of us as individuals have different perspectives and different views on society, relationships, personal beliefs, etc. However, I must ask what is it that has traditionally connected all of us that are Americans, or those of us who are just freedom loving people regardless of where we may reside? 

I would say that the definitive thread that connects ALL of us as individuals is enjoying the freedom to pursue dreams and opportunity. Granted I would agree that there are a lot of lazy and unambitious people in the world, however I would argue that’s because of two factors. 

The first is that much of society has bought into and has been sold a belief that the growth of the federal government is the solution to our problems and as Ronald Reagan so accurately pointed out and proved with his policies the government isn’t the solution, but is in fact THE actual problem. 

The second reason there’s a growing segment of the population that is unambitious is because with this shared attitude of dependency on the government we’ve also created a culture of dependency within our society at large. 

In fact, culturally speaking much of the American citizenry has been weakened and infantilized to the point that a rising number of boys grow up to be soft and weak and a large percentage of young girls grow up confused and depressed. (Source: Northwestern-Institute For Policy Research) 

Now I’m not going to dive any deeper into this problem because the reality is that the data is there and any of us with any intellectual honesty understands that the infantilization and weakness of the youth in our society has been a growing problem now for years. 

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Not only are depression rates up among young adults, but so is the obesity rate. As a professional strength coach who’s worked in the fitness industry now for over 20 years I can attest to the fact that the obesity rate has risen at a rapid rate over the past 10 years. 

Once again, if you’re intellectually honest about the weakening and lack of focus on self-optimization in terms of the lack of development of fitness within our society you can see it with your own two eyes. 

However, if you happen to be one of those people who deny reality then I’ll lay out the statistics for you right here directly from the NIH. If you claim to be one of the follow the science people then you should trust the science, right? Yes, that was me being sarcastic, but I digress. 

According to the NIH data from 2017 and 2018 the prevalence of obesity measured out at a whopping 40% of young adult men and women between the ages of 20-39. (Source: NIH-Overweight & Obesity Statistics). 

As a fitness professional I will tell you that this is ALL completely cultural. We’ve managed to create a culture of weakness by infantilizing our youth and many young adults who grow up without being disciplined with respect to their work, education, and obviously a failed lack of learning of the importance of commitment towards a consistent and robust personal fitness plan.  

The Creation and Destruction of The Bohemian

So you’re probably wondering why I bothered to highlight the physical and mental issues of young men and women in our society along with pointing out the issue with the growing number of unambitious people that exist in society. 

To clarify I want you to understand that there are natural cycles like this that occur and have occurred in societies and civilizations throughout history. 

As an example, if we wanted to take the time to look beyond the modern day United States all we have to do is to look at the rise and fall of the Roman Empire. 

Political corruption and greed were major factors that resulted in the fall of the Roman Empire. Corruption and greed fed the growth of a culture of excess decadence in Rome which is naturally an opposing force to the tenets of a strong society that are rooted in discipline and strength. 

“Hard times create strong men. Strong men create good times. Good times create weak men. And, weak men create hard times.”― G. Michael Hopf

Based on G. Michael Hopf’s quote here I would say that we’re currently in the cycle of where weak men have created the beginning stage of hard times that are already here right now with a lot more trials and tribulations to come. 

You see we were strong as a nation at one time and I do believe we can save the country and become strong again, but we must first recognize what constitutes a strong nation, as well as, recognizing the freedom that a strong nation and a people who are unified can produce for a society at large. 

I thought about this extensively and probed my mind to see what I could come up with in order to illustrate the power and variety of things that a truly free society that was committed to free market ideals, fiscal responsibility, and love of country could produce. Truthfully it’s not hard to come up with examples, but I wanted to use an example that would really stand out so I chose to use the bohemian as the centerpiece to examine in today’s episode. 

A Bohemian is defined as someone who is a bit socially unconventional and perhaps is frequently associated with being involved with the arts. 

When I think of a bohemian I typically think about someone who is eccentric and perhaps can come across as a bit odd, but has also managed to survive and possibly even thrive with their unconventional pursuits in a modern day society, particularly here in the United States. 

Now why am I pointing this out? 

The reason I’m pointing this out is because it all goes back to understanding your environment which is what I’m always working to communicate to you as a member of this audience. 

The environment that exists in order for a bohemian to have such freedom to pursue and build a life of success in the most unconventional and possibly even in a way that, for the most part, simply doesn’t exist anywhere else in the world. 

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When I think of a bohemian I tend to think of the well known artist Andy Worhol. 

Looking at the life of Andy Worhol there were a lot of characteristics about him that might be considered unusual and possibly even abnormal to many. 

Not that it should matter, but Worhol was an openly gay man that also managed to build a reputation in the 1950’s as being both a very influential and controversial artist. (Source: Wikipedia)

I know I normally go into a deep historical dive on certain personalities to put things into context, but with Worhol I think we can readily come to the conclusion that he was definitely an unusual and wildly successful individual in the artistic world regardless of what you thought about him and his personal lifestyle. 

Why am I pointing this out? 

I’m using Worhol as a key example to illustrate the powerful environment of creativity that a free market, freedom loving, and strong nation can produce in order for someone of Andy’s talents and unusual skillset can live and choose such pursuits. 

After all, if Andy were born pretty much anywhere else in the world I could easily make a strong argument that he would not have ever existed in the capacity that he did as a professional artist here in the U.S.. 

You see that’s the beauty of the free market and for keeping the government out of the lives of individuals so that they can pursue the dreams and opportunities that they all wish to pursue. 

This is what the American Bolsheviks don’t understand because they’ve had the veil pulled over their eyes in regards to how the world actually works. 

You see that’s what’s so frustrating about the Marxist/Left. They don’t care to understand because they’re fully indoctrinated into the victimhood mindset and the irony of it is that they are completely ABLE to be victims by choice particularly when a free society allows you the freedom to pursue whatever you want. 

These wants also include subscribing to a victimhood mindset and what’s even crazier and even more ironic is that they can adopt this belief when supporting anti-individualistic and anti-freedom beliefs such as Marxism in order to destroy the very freedom that allows them to pursue it in the first place. Take a moment and allow that to sink in. 

In a thriving free market and a country that is devoted to freedom and one’s love of country you can choose to indoctrinate, insulate, and shroud yourself in a blanket of lies that hides your eyes from learning how to see ethical opportunities to help both yourself and your fellow man to succeed in life. 

If you want to engage and pursue a life of creating unusual paintings and pictures of Campbell’s tomato soup cans while living in a high rise apartment in the center of a metropolitan city then you can absolutely do that, BUT you can ONLY achieve that in the environment of a free society. 

Where else in the world could  Andy Worhol in the era of the 1950’s, or even in the current day for that matter,  pursue such a life? China? Cuba? Venezuela? Russia? 

The problem with our modern society is that many people don’t understand the true meaning of freedom and understand even less how it’s being steadily destroyed by the current regime in power. 

I’ll elaborate a bit further on that next by referencing a post I recently published on Facebook explaining how our freedoms have been under attack in a death by a thousand cuts scenario. 

The Cathedral of The Time Destruct

The most important resource that all of us have in our possession is the resource of time.

Time is the MOST valuable commodity because time is the one commodity that cannot be replaced.

Everything requires the investment of your time, after all, time is life.

So what do I mean when I talk about The Cathedral of The Time Destruct?

When I talk about that I'm referring to how both yours and my environment is being consumed by an intentional and manufactured effort to eat up and destroy our time...which in turn is an attempt to destroy individual ambitious energy, effort, and achievement. 

You're probably thinking Brandon how and why would you say this?

Well, I would say that if it's not obvious at the moment then let's take a look at what is obvious.

I'll start by listing out some Time Destruct mechanisms that are being employed at an aggressive rate right here below.

* Inflation

* Propaganda

* Tax Code

* Bureaucracy

* Censorship

Now before you express your apathy, or you happen to be a Marxist and choose to click off I would challenge you to stay and finish reading this first.

If we look at each one of these 5 concepts every single one of these are MAN MADE and totally avoidable, yet they're a real problem and issue for individuals across the globe.

How?

Let's begin with an examination of each of these, but I’ll lead off with inflation.

Inflation involves the devaluation of your currency. Essentially the dollars that you work hard to earn become weaker and weaker because your currency is being devalued ON PURPOSE by the actions of your Federal government and the Federal Reserve choosing to print a seemingly endless amount of dollars.

Because of the added amount of the circulation of these dollars into the market the purchasing power of your dollars continues to get weaker, therefore you MUST work harder to earn MORE of those dollars because those dollars are worth less and less. This is a classic time destruct.

Secondly, let's look at propaganda.

Propaganda is basically a partial truth or series of lies promoted by a centralized legacy media machine that is designed to get you to buy into a particular narrative so that you will support something that those who are pushing the propaganda want you to support.

On that note you may say well Brandon everything is propaganda and on that observation I'd agree with you.

However, you have to ask yourself what the propaganda is pushing and if it's a big lie then once that lie is out it takes more effort, energy, and...you guessed it time in order for you to get the underlying meaning and purpose of the propaganda that was spread.

Meanwhile the propaganda was able to do the damage it was intended to do and could've possibly persuaded either yourself, or your loved ones to support whatever narrative it was selling...such as a reason for your government to print more dollars further resulting in the devaluation of your currency as a single example.

This is another time destruct.

The tax code is another big one particularly for small business owners. Small business owners and mom and pop stores wear many hats and take on the responsibility of many roles that must be played in the small business in order to make sure the small business can keep its doors open.

As if running the day to day of a business isn't hard enough the small business owner MUST also pile on other burdensome responsibilities such as the adherence to bookkeeping, the tax code, paying accountants, and constantly working at keeping a running journal of everything in case a legal matter were to arise unexpectedly.

Trust me, the tax code is a time destruct.

The bureaucracy ties into everything and expands into every aspect of your life even more so than the tax code.

The bureaucracy of government encapsulates everything.

Therefore the bureaucracy is a time destruct.

Censorship, particularly mass censorship, as we've seen enacted by the Big Tech oligarchs forces those who express dissenting viewpoints to work three and four times as hard to get their content out into the public square.

In fact, as I'm writing and recording this very article/podcast my Facebook page is currently on restriction due to censorship and I work hard and spend a lot of time, at least 30 to 40% more time, trying to get my content in front of people to spread a message of freedom.

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Censorship is a major time destruct.

So why do I refer to it as a Cathedral?

I used the term Cathedral because those authoritarian forces that control the narrative and illusion of what goes on inside the Cathedral have the masses convinced that everything is great and that their loss of time, energy, and freedom is merely either the result of things outside the control of man, or is because of those "dissenting" voices that are rocking the boat and making everything difficult for the rest of society.

Of course both of those are lies driven by the Cathedral's propaganda and you had to spend the extra time to read this post in order to understand the lies and the illusion created by the Cathedral.

Granted here your time was invested for the added understanding, but nonetheless your time was still spent just the same. 

You see how this works now?

The Wrap Up

Now the understanding that is required to navigate these current waters we find ourselves in with modern society is invaluable, but at the same time, it’s going to frustrate you like no other time in your life. 

However, don’t allow that frustration to cause you despair. 

Keep in mind that if you happen to consider yourself to possess more bohemian type qualities now you understand how the system is eradicating the free market which will result in the eradication of the bohemian as well. 

This is exactly why it is vital for you to understand that The United States is the last stand of freedom that we have on planet earth. 

If you don’t see all that is wrong with the world and question the government then you’re creating a dangerous environment, especially if you’re a bohemian.  

If you’re not demanding that the endless wars come to an end, demanding the government to stop devaluing your currency, demanding that the justice system should be equal and not a two-tier system, and regularly work to expand your knowledge in order to see these corrupt and nefarious issues then you’re setting your environment up for disaster. 

This is a time like no other. 

We are at a major turning point in history and we will either come out of this as a stronger nation with a greater love of country devoted to more free market ideals, or we will go the way to begin the journey of a thousand years of darkness.

I hope you enjoyed today’s article/podcast.

If so I really need your help to push this piece out to your friends, family, and coworkers.

In order for BOTH you and me to influence and strengthen our society we must not stay idle so please make sure you hit the subscribe and share buttons here below.

Spreading messages like this one is how we influence our culture and I need your help in order to do it.

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In the movie Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story there’s a powerful scene where Bruce takes his wife Linda into his martial arts studio to show her the result of following his dream to teach his craft in the U.S. 

In this scene Bruce illustrates a powerful lesson in both human potential and human agency with Linda. 

Bruce said, “When I came over on the boat I knew this was an ‘idea’ place. Ideas make this country great. Here a good idea makes a man anything he wants to be.” 

He continues, “You drop a pebble into a pond, you get ripples. Soon the ripples cross the whole pond.” 

It was at this moment Bruce emphasized the power of his message in the scene when he placed a pebble into Linda’s hand and told her to drop it. 

After she dropped the stone he said, “See, it has begun.” (Source: The Way of The Awakened Warriors)

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This illustration is going to be the central message of today’s episode because I want more than anything in this world for you to grasp the overall purpose of this show which is for you to understand that for the moment you still have enough freedom to have choices in your life, but to maintain that freedom you must choose wisely.  

So what do I mean when I say choices? 

That word choices within the context of the message I’m trying to convey to you here means that you have choices that you can make that will significantly impact both your life and your culture. 

If you want to make choices that support and enhance the growth of an environment that transfers control of your life from you to someone else, that's also a choice that you can certainly make, however is that a choice that you want to make? 

My guess is that most people would NOT want to make this choice, however in order to recognize what the choice is you FIRST have to understand your environment and how you can avoid making such a bad decision. 

In order to do that you will have to learn how to discern fact from fiction. You also need to have a sense of purpose and understand where and how to aim that purpose as you venture out into life to pursue it. 

The Impact of Dynamis

The Greek origin of the word Dynamis means strength and fortitude. However through the time of Aristotle it also carried the meaning of ‘potential’ as well. 

To dive deeper, in its most common meaning, dynamis means the ability to generate effects as in the ability to exert force. (Source: Hidden Hub)

Another extension of this meaning can also be surmised when we look at the prospect of an acorn that becomes an oak tree. In this example, how can something such as an acorn that you can fit into the palm of your hand and carry around in your pocket eventually become something that towers over buildings and weighs several tons? 

The answer here is that this includes the process of both potentiality and actuality. In short, the acorn possesses the potential to become the oak tree and the oak tree itself is the actualization of that potential that was held within the acorn from the very start. (Source: Hidden Hub) 

Keep that in mind for the moment and place the concept of dynamis on a holding shelf as I will address this concept again later in this episode to illustrate a larger point.   

Having said that, I want to switch gears and talk about another concerning challenge in today's world. These days I believe most of us can agree that it takes a conscious effort for an individual to muster up the courage to speak up about current events and to speak truth in the face of a hostile mob in the public square who is willing to attack you with the threat of being ridiculed and canceled. 

However, I believe the way I framed that last sentence is something we should examine at a deeper level.  

So you’re probably thinking Brandon, where are you going with this? 

I’m talking about the fact that when we commonly hear about the act of speaking out against certain radical ideas, or radical groups, it’s as if most of civilized society takes on the timid position of self-censorship. 

Why do so many people do this? 

Well the fear and discomfort that comes with the active decision of self-censorship is due in part to the fear of loss, the fear of ridicule, or the fear of one being “othered” by their peers. 

As an example when far leftist Marxists, or the more recently labeled American Bolsheviks, rail against us when we try to voice our opinions we often view ourselves as being the person that’s constantly sitting at a defensive position while the radical Marxists, Socialists, or American Bolsheviks are often the ones seen by us as being on the offensive side of a particular narrative.  

As most people see this they may find themselves sitting there and examining whether they want to muster up the courage to speak up and set the opposition straight when they spew lies and propaganda in the name of Mao’s second Cultural Revolution. 

However the issue with the self-censorship can best be described here with a concept that German political scientist Elizabeth Noelle-Neumann coined as the Spiral of Silence. 

Examining The Element of Self-Censorship

In Elizabeth’s Spiral of Silence theory she basically points to how people’s opinions change or go unspoken as a result of them wanting to fit in with the day’s popular ideologies in an effort to stay hidden and to avoid being singled out for holding an opposing ideology that goes against the grain of society. (Source: Wikipedia) 

A really powerful and effective way to illustrate why this happens is to look at Hans Christian Anderson’s tale of The Emperor’s New Clothes. 

In this folktale a couple of swindlers approach the emperor and successfully sell him on the idea that they can provide him with some magnificent new clothes that would be invisible to people who were stupid or incompetent. 

After giving the swindlers the approval to proceed with the deal of making the emperor’s magnificent new clothes officials would check in on the swindlers only to see that no clothes are being produced on the swindler’s looms, but none would say anything for fear of being singled out as being a fool. When the emperor walked through the middle of the city in his new clothes everyone could see that he was completely naked, but no one would dare be the one to say it. 

However a child in the crowd would come along and in the child’s naivete would defy the mob mentality and speak out that the emperor was, in fact, not wearing any clothes. 

Now the powerful lesson here wasn’t that the child actually spoke up and said it, or even that other people heard it, but the biggest thing was that everyone all at once knew right then and there that the child had said it. The message was profound and the absurdity of the narrative was immediately exposed and came rapidly crashing down all at once. (Source: Foundation Against Intolerance & Racism)

It’s my opinion that we are living in the same situation here today when we look around at the news cycle and see a corrupt government and regime that continues to fail masterfully with one policy after the next. On top of that this same government lies and gaslights the American public directly to their face on a daily basis trying to convince us that the Emperor does have clothes when, in fact, he’s completely naked with every new outfit, or narrative, that he tries to wear and parade around in front of the American public on a daily basis.  

You see just like in the story about the Emperor’s New Clothes much of our society decided to go along with one ridiculous narrative after the next such as with all of the absurd policies associated with the pandemic, the absurd policies associated with the economy, the absurd policies associated with the invasion of our southern border, the absurd policies associated with the Ukraine war, and I could go on and on.

As a result of the continued silence by a large portion of the population we’re seeing the country fall deeper and deeper into a collapse that parallels the collapse of the Roman Empire. 

When will the silent finally decide to speak out and declare that the Emperor is naked? 

The Maverick Understands Dynamis

So that last part leads me back to the central piece of today’s episode. I personally believe that one of the biggest problems with our society in this day and age is that too many people have lost their sense of purpose. In fact, I can make the powerful case that sense of purpose has been sold out by our politicians in Washington D.C. 

I recently watched a sobering video online with the comedian Theo Von who took a moment to step away from the comedy act to break down, in his humble opinion, as to why our society produces and has to deal with the sad and tragic reality of school shooters. The central point of his theory revolves around how the sense of purpose has tragically been lost and sold out within our society and I would completely agree. 

You see, having a sense of purpose is the most powerful thing for every individual because purpose brings fulfillment and fulfillment brings contribution to both a society and to individuals within a society. Eventually that contribution leads to self actualization. In short, purpose fosters dynamis. 

Ah, there’s that word dynamis I said I would eventually come back to revisit in the episode. You see when an individual understands and truly has their hands wrapped around their purpose then that individual will transform his or her potential into actuality. This is the definition of dynamis and this happens just like the example I referenced earlier with the acorn that eventually becomes the oak tree. 

My perspective is aligned with Theo Von’s perspective when it comes to society having lost its sense of purpose which in turn funnels down directly and leads to individuals losing their sense of purpose. 

This sense of purpose is lost because the family structure has also drastically changed, or more specifically has been destroyed, over the past 50 to 60 years due to the growth and size of the federal government and the federal government's ever expanding menu of social programs. 

Furthemore, with this ever expanding massive federal government the size of the national debt has reached a 31+ trillion dollar debt and counting. This seemingly endless massive debt has caused steady, continuous, and unrelenting inflation that has devalued the dollar and decreased the purchasing power of the dollar by as much as 96% since the federal reserve was enacted in 1913. (Source: The End of The Dollar Empire) 

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Additionally this has resulted in the problem where there are too many single parent households and understand I’m not saying that, or making that accusation as a criticism, but rather saying it as a statistical and objective fact. 

When you combine the growth of the federal government with its relationship to the continuing devaluation of the dollar it makes it more and more difficult for society to produce trailblazing Mavericks who might otherwise start their own business and use their agency for a purpose that society would deem to be a great contribution. 

Instead you get a society that is stripped of this opportunity with the family structure being damaged over the cycle of multiple generations, particularly since Lyndon B. Johnson’s Great Society began in 1964. 

You get a more centralized bureaucratic federal government that is hostile towards creativity and individuality. The federal government in turn fuels its existence by continuing to spend more and more money that the country doesn’t have by printing more and more dollars with the press of a button at the Federal Reserve.  

This in turn kills the purchasing power of your money making it more difficult for every new generation to build a life, start a family, and set themselves up for retirement savings. 

Instead you get strapped with debt, broken family structures, loss of hope, loss of purpose, and an ever growing federal government that by its very nature sucks the oxygen out of society to perpetuate its growing reach. Meanwhile the individual at ground level is stripped of his or her purpose, opportunity, and most importantly the will to create something of value that society would otherwise deem to be a positive and powerful contribution. 

If you’ve read this blog or listened to this podcast then you’ve probably heard me use that term Maverick on multiple occasions. To be a Maverick means that one is a nonconformist, and individualist, and is not afraid to blaze his or own trail in life by building a life that they want to pursue and grow. 

However, the creation of the Maverick is becoming less and less possible because the Federal Government continues to grow bigger and bigger, centralizing its authoritative control over society while stripping the wealth away from society to foster its own existence. 

The Maverick understands dynamis very well, but if the Maverick is unable to foster in the environment that he or she resides then the Maverick will cease to exist and with that the potential and self-actualization, or dynamis, will die with the Maverick in the dreaded dystopian environment of despair. 

Now my intention is NOT to communicate pessimism, but rather to communicate REALITY to you as you sit and absorb everything I’ve laid out before you. 

So what is the prevailing message here? 

To me it’s simple. There are several steps to take, but we need to start by not being afraid to say that the Emperor is naked. 

Additionally, for the Mavericks that do currently exist and that do know their purpose it’s up to you to also leverage your influence in order to encourage the voices of those who desire to build a new environment of hope, freedom, and change..and I’m not talking about the Orwellian dystopian idea of hope and change that Barrack Obama touted during his tenure in government. 

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I’m talking about drastically diminishing the size of the federal government leviathan by defunding it and eliminating corrupt institutions that have done nothing more than wage a war of pain and suffering onto the individuals and families that have lived, worked hard, and played by the rules right inside the borders of the United States as its own abused citizens. 

I’m talking about change to eliminate the abuse and to create a healthy political, social, and economic movement that is absent of Marxist radical agendas and corruption. 

I told you that the choice I was talking about earlier hinges on you understanding your environment so that you could know how to make wise decisions. 

Well what I just laid out before you and explained about the environment the federal government has created with the economic and political harm it’s caused is exactly the environment that I was referring to . 

Your choices are simple. You either want more of the harm that’s been dropped into your lap with more hardship to come, OR you don’t. That’s your choice. 

The Wrap Up

The central motivation of today’s episode is to give you a wake up call. 

You must understand that the situation you find yourself in right this very minute is one where if you’re under 35 years of age you are now the equivalent of a Russian serf meaning that your ability to invest in and own assets along with growing a nest egg worthy of retirement does NOT exist right now. 

Furthermore, the Emperor is telling you that he is fully clothed on a number of fronts and that everything is going to be ok. I’m simply here to tell you that the Emperor is playing you for a fool. All I’m saying is that you don’t have to accept that narrative, or go along with it like a puppet would go along with a Puppet Master. 

If a child can call out the Emperor then you can do the very same thing. If you don’t want a toxic environment to continue to foster that would kill the dynamis of the Maverick then you need to understand the power of your dynamis now and express your agency by getting behind those who support the efforts to create more freedom. 

Be aware of where you spend your dollars.

Be aware of the media you support.

Be aware of big business corporate centralization and furthering your dependence on those corporations.

Be aware of the politicians who are telling you the Emperor has clothes when he is clearly naked. 

Be the change by not being afraid to engage and speak up by putting your dollars exactly where your values are located. 

It’s time for you to drop your pebble into the pond and start making some ripples that will eventually become tidal waves just as the great Bruce Lee showed us.

I hope you enjoyed today’s article/podcast.

If so I really need your help to push this piece out to your friends, family, and coworkers.

In order for BOTH you and me to influence and strengthen our society we must not stay idle so please make sure you hit the subscribe and share buttons here below.

Spreading messages like this one is how we influence our culture and I need your help in order to do it.

Also listen to this episode here on…

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Apple Podcasts

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If you like this podcast and the message please take a moment to give it a Five Star ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ rating on the Spotify platform.

Also to connect with me please make sure you join me here on Twitter, Facebook, and GETTR

Stay strong. Stay focused. Stay active.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit brandonrichey.substack.com/subscribe

“The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist”—Charles Baudelaire

“The second greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he is the good guy”—Ken Ammi

Human nature seems to be an element of reality that most humans have seemingly failed to learn about, or at least have chosen to forget about. I’ll expand this discussion on the manipulation of human nature in other ways here later into this episode, but for now I’ll give you some examples of how human nature can be taken advantage of here. 

Speaking of which, here's a question for you to ponder. How odd is it that an entire species at large is unaware of its own inherent nature and selfish motivations so much so that this species not only gravitates towards self extinction, but by and large will even pay to finance it? Talk about insanity. 

Here’s another question for you to consider. 

What is the single biggest mistake that people make when major problems arise in society? I would say that people forget to acknowledge that one of the fundamental traits that is inherent within the nature of all people is the desire of people to seek and pursue their own self-interests. 

It is my personal view that the lack of understanding of this very thing is one of the main reasons we witness so many people that lack the ability to discern truth from fiction when it comes to certain scenarios in our modern day society. 

I’m always baffled when politicians, media, and Hollywood actors go out in front of people and continuously scream about certain political issues to the point that such issues grow into these massive financial burdens on society that become so big that the movements reach a global scale. 

One such example of a movement is the so-called environmental climate change hoax, YET when one of the biggest environmental disasters ever witnessed in the United States with the likes of the East Palestine Ohio incident occurs none of the loudest proponents of the climate change movement are anywhere to be seen, or even heard for that matter. 

After all, have you seen or heard any statement on the East Palestine Ohio incident from the likes of Al Gore or Greta Thunberg? I’m asking honestly. Have you seen or heard anything from these people who have made their names and faces the central brand of the climate change and environmental movement? 

I guess I should confess that I’m really not baffled because I know what the REAL motivation is behind the media, Hollywood, and these politicians that get behind certain large political movements such as this. They get behind such movements because such movements simply provide them with power and money because they get to take advantage of the graft involved in the politics of money. 

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After all, it was former White House Chief of Staff of the Obama administration Rahm Emanuel that said ‘You never want a serious crisis to go to waste’ and they do this by implementing the following three point plan involving problem, reaction, and solution. 

* The Problem-The crisis that is offered which is sometimes natural and sometimes manufactured. 

* The Reaction-Society’s reaction to the problem.

* The Solution-The solution that the crooks offer in order to benefit from the graft in the politics of money. 

After all, when the government implements a plan that plan only furthers the size and scope of the federal government which further increases the government’s authoritative power over the citizenry. 

How do I know this? 

It’s easy. You see the government doesn’t create wealth, it only consumes wealth, therefore in order for ANY plan to be put into action this means the government needs more money in order to do so. Therefore, this money is acquired from people like you and me in one form or another through the cloak of bureaucracy and taxation. 

If you’re still not convinced then look at the reality of how the seemingly endless printing of money by the Federal Reserve certainly hasn’t led to more wealth creation for society, hence the 40 year record high inflation, the collapse of capital markets, ongoing banking failures (See Silicon Valley Bank), the theft of your money from the bailouts of these banks that follow, and societal instability at large.  

You see this is part of the deception of the government. 

Ah, now that’s an interesting word…deception. 

Deception is defined as an act or statement that hides the truth, misleads, promotes a certain belief or concept, and is something that flat out isn’t true, but is sold as and is insinuated as being the truth. 

Deception is in effect sold as something that sounds like a good idea on the surface, but as the old saying goes The devil is in the details. This is true for everything. 

How Media and Society’s Criticisms Seldom Involve The Actual Source

One of the most common themes I’ve observed over the years when it comes to people that criticize other people is that more often than not the critics always draw their conclusions about a topic based on what they heard or read from a third party. 

When it comes to the legacy media this is done on a daily basis. To clarify my point here you must first understand that the legacy media is all about narrative and when it comes to shaping a narrative it’s all about presenting only a portion of information while neglecting to present the rest of a piece of information in order to provide you with the whole story. 

Keep in mind that this is exactly how propaganda works. It’s not always about what is said, BUT the real power of propaganda is more often about what is NOT said when it comes to the reporting of a story. It’s this total understanding by the media combined with the lack of this understanding by the general public that makes the art of deception an effective and easy plan to employ. 

So what do I mean about reading or hearing something from a third party? As an example let’s say for the sake of argument that a well known legacy media personality wanted to take aim and criticize this very podcast and blog. 

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For some perspective let’s say that a propagandist from the legacy media grabbed the prevailing message from this episode involving deception and went on air to tell you (the listener) that I was spreading disinformation about the legacy media, or even a specific episode for that matter. 

Keep in mind that they may even selectively grab a few lines of this article and episode to play or read out when doing the reporting. One such line might be the line you read three paragraphs prior to this one where I said The legacy media is all about narrative. 

As this example plays out to make my point that line would be where the reporting ends in our hypothetical example here. However, in this example many people might be viewing the legacy media saying this and would take that statement at face value without visiting the direct source of information. 

In this specific example that direct source would only require the viewer to come directly to this website and episode to read the article and listen to the podcast for themselves to get the whole truth rather than taking the word of some talking head spinning a narrative on cable television. 

I’ve always wondered why people just accept a third party opinion? Why not find out the truth for yourself by going directly to the source?

Those previous two questions were rhetorical. I already know the answer. The answer is because of human nature. Remember at the beginning of this episode when I said I would come back to discuss more about the manipulation of human nature? Well the previous two questions are the perfect lead to dive right into that topic.  

You see when society has allowed itself to fall victim to deception then society sets itself up for some serious pain and suffering. One such narrative involving deception is this idea that we as a society need a lot more government to fix our problems. This belief is a huge fallacy and is, in fact, the very thing I was referencing when I said that humans, as a species, are so insane that they will line up to finance their own destruction. 

The centralization of power and authority has gotten completely out of control here in the United States (and with the world for that matter)  with the federal government and legacy media outlets. This by its very nature is the perfect example of the manipulation of human nature and the level of insanity it can lead to when people fall asleep at the wheel of reality…which also happens to be a key attribute in the makeup of human nature. 

If you don’t believe me then you don’t have to look any further than the Federal Treasury pointing out that federal spending totaled 6.27 trillion dollars in 2022 which was equal to a whopping 25% of the entire GDP of the United States. (Source: Treasury.gov)

This is an absolute staggering number particularly when comparing it to the fact that it’s increased at almost 5% from 21.8% since 1990. 

In order to absorb the gravity of this you need to think about the fact that the federal government has grown to be 1/4th of the size of the entire GDP with a standing national debt of 31+ Trillion dollars and counting. 

By the way, that national debt number increases by a million dollars literally every 40 seconds. If you don’t believe me simply click here on the U.S. National Debt Clock (For my listening audience check the article/podcast to grab this link by scrolling down)  and watch the U.S. National Debt ticker on the top left hand side while breaking out your stopwatch to time it for yourself. I’ve literally done this and it takes about 40 seconds for our country to accrue another million dollars in national debt. 

The REASON that the federal government is 25% of the entire GDP of the United States is because of the 31+Trillion dollar debt. So we’ve spent this amount of money and it’s resulted in a more centralized bureaucracy which has led to a LOT of deception and trouble towards the American public.

If it’s not clear and obvious to you by now this deception has to exist because the federal bureaucracy is clearly dependent on the massive spending of yours and my money in order for this Leviathan to continue along on its seemingly endless growth pattern. 

Cogito, Ergo Sum

The latin cogito, ergo sum in English translation means that “I think, therefore I am.” This concept is the lead off principle of the famous French philosopher Rene’ Descarte. (Source: Wikipedia)

Descarte points out in this well known tenet of Western Philosophy that we cannot doubt our existence while we doubt. Basically he’s pointing out that by our basic ability to doubt we are thinking and because we are thinking we are existing. 

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This served to dismantle the philosophical thought of radical doubt that existed at the time. Radical doubt involved an extreme skeptical model of philosophy that served to question the possibility of knowledge and would even reject very plausible knowledge that would fall under what most of us would consider to be very common sense. 

In my own view and interpretation Radical Doubt has seemingly risen again with the likes of Postmodernism and the Rise of Orwellian Culture in our current environment. In short, as a philosophy postmodernism looks to reject concepts of rational thought, objectivity, and widely accepted universal truths. 

Basically postmodernism is simply a philosophy that has picked up the mantle in our modern era where radical doubt had left off. 

It is my view that the reemergence of philosophies with the likes of radical doubt and postmodernism serve to be weapons that are used by corrupt opportunist in order to push forward a variety of narratives that sow the environment of division and ignorance into the public square so that it’s then easier for corrupt opportunist to inject the concept of a problem into society. 

Of course this introduction of a “problem” by corrupt opportunists will naturally lead to a societal reaction and ultimately that will result in the corrupt opportunist being able to offer their own solutions to impose on the divided populace. 

Remember the plan of problem, reaction, and solution. In terms of societal structure and societal systems this serves to be the blueprint for bad actors to leverage and weaponize certain philosophical perspectives in order to obtain goals that benefit the corrupt and powerful. 

If you don’t believe me then all you have to do is evaluate the prevailing false narratives of the past three years and look at which of these narratives were/are accurate. 

I don’t have the bandwidth to list all of them, but ask yourself which of these few narratives that have been sold hard to the public live up to their “sold to the public” meaning by the Administrative state…

* Safe and effective. 

* Inflation is transitory. 

* Questioning the definition of a woman. 

* Questioning the definition of a man. 

* Safe drinking water in East Palestine Ohio. 

* Student loan forgiveness. 

* Two weeks to slow the spread. 

* The southern borders of the U.S. are safe. 

The answer is that none of the “sold to the public” meanings of these narratives make any sense. It’s because these narratives were leveraged in the same way as the Orwellian Newspeak was carried out as George Orwell explains in his infamous dystopian novel 1984. 

From Enlightenment To Regression

“There is a war being waged against our way of life. That is progress in today’s world. If it’s progress you want, then don’t vote for me. I am the opposite of progress. I’m the wall that it bashes against, and I will not be the one who breaks.”--John Dutton

The period during the English Civil Wars brought about the Age of Reason. During this time the thought process of how society should be structured in terms of the scientific, political, and philosophical discourse was completely turned on its head. (Source: British Library)

If we look at the strides western civilization has made as a result of the period considered to be the Age of Reason it’s absolutely incredible. 

I mean during this time you have to understand the reason behind this was because those very two words consisting of “reason” and “understanding” very much became part of the time period’s lexicon as it pushed back on older traditions and ways of doing things to usher in this entirely new way of thinking. 

I mean in order for you to better grasp the significance of this during the Enlightenment there were major shifts in culture happening that had not ever been seen or considered before. The results of these changes during this period of time were immense in bringing forward the emphasis on individualism, exploration, and scientific endeavors which completely brought about the emergence of the modern world as we’ve come to know in much of our lifetimes.  

Many of these great minds of this era were starving to escape what they saw as centuries of political and governmental tyranny and were hungry to break away from this horrific model to instead place the emphasis on personal freedoms and happiness which would center around society’s smallest minority being the individual. 

One such thought leader that wanted to usher in this new era was John Locke. Locke’s writings in his Two Treatises of Government (1689) strongly advocated for the separation of church and state. It also emphasized and advocated for religious toleration, property ownership rights, and the hard agreements on governments to recognize the rights of people which falls directly in line with the thought process of protecting the individual from the mob. 

Now if you live in the Western Hemisphere given what I just explained, if you didn’t know before you now know that you most likely have been able to, at least partially, enjoy living in the type of society as Locke envisioned for many years up until the past three years. 

Contrast Locke’s advocacy and vision to the direction that the current political and cultural environment is trying to move society underneath the watchful eye and physical boot of big brother, big tech, big medical, and big AI. 

This is a huge attempt to shift society from an Era of Great Enlightenment back to an Era of governmental tyranny that’s even far more intrusive and worse than anything Locke advocated against during his time in history. 

Unlike the tyranny most of the great thought leaders such as Locke had studied and witnessed in their time the current Zeitgeist of our time is ushering in a type of tyranny that is completely cloaked under the veil of technology, so-called medical necessities, manipulated and controlled currency, and information warfare. 

What I just explained by comparing the Enlightenment with the Current direction of global Totalitarianism perfectly illustrates how powerful the Art of Deception can be. This can easily be observed when the partnership of government and media end up driving a narrative so powerful that they manage to lull the world populace to sleep while they are actively trying to usher in a one world government that is nothing less than completely hostile to the rights of the individual. 

The Wrap Up

When examining the current landscape of information and how that information is disseminated there’s no question that major players in the industry of media are utilizing the Art of Deception at every turn to move and shift the narrative that they want to thrust upon the rest of society. 

Their efforts have been surprisingly effective. This has been particularly true over the past three years with their efforts to persuade the general public to give up on their freedoms, their money, and even threatening their very existence by getting the populace to trust in the growing centralized control of all of our major institutions.  

They’ve even succeeded in getting people to treat their fellow citizens who’ve been skeptical of these institutions in government, medical, finance, etc. as enemies. They did this by sowing that very seed of division and ignorance that I mentioned earlier in the episode with the weaponization of certain nefarious philosophies that are hostile towards the great philosophies that John Locke and Descarte ushered in during the Age of Reason from the Enlightenment. 

With that being said it is my goal to be a contributor in helping to push and shape the narrative of the next Enlightenment, or this current Great Awakening to remind you and the rest of society the importance of our ability to strive towards understanding and reason so that we can cut the corrupt opportunists off at the knees to prevent us from going backwards into another era of Governmental Totalitarianism. 

This will require discernment and it’s my belief that if we can continue to spread this message of the Great Awakening that we will win more people over to seeing and understanding exactly what the great thought leaders of our past were able to discover.

I hope you enjoyed today’s article/podcast.

If so I really need your help to push this piece out to your friends, family, and coworkers.

In order for BOTH you and me to influence and strengthen our society we must not stay idle so please make sure you hit the subscribe and share buttons here below.

Spreading messages like this one is how we influence our culture and I need your help in order to do it.

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Bumper Music Credit: Prazkhanal

I hope you enjoyed today’s podcast.

If so I really need your help to push this piece out to your friends, family, and coworkers.

In order for BOTH you and me to influence and strengthen our society we must not stay idle so please make sure you hit the subscribe and share buttons here below.

Spreading messages like this one is how we influence our culture and I need your help in order to do it.

Also listen to this episode here on…

Spotify

Apple Podcasts

Stitcher

Tune In

Pocket Casts

If you like this podcast and the message please take a moment to give it a Five Star ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ rating on the Spotify platform.

Also to connect with me please make sure you join me here on Twitter, Facebook, and GETTR

Stay strong. Stay focused. Stay active.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit brandonrichey.substack.com/subscribe