The Dark Studio

"Courage is being scared to death but saddling up anyway."- John Wayne: True Grit (1969)

I’m not here today to pull punches. 

Make no mistake if you've listened to this podcast, or read this blog then you know that one of the main tenets of this show is to serve as an instrument of knowledge to foster more understanding so that you can use it as a tool in order to spread freedom throughout your society regardless of where you live. 

When it comes to the well-being and survival of our society it means that we must be willing to call out the problems within our society so that we can wage war on those problems in order to cure our society of its ailments. 

With that being said you and I both know one of the biggest problems and the real pandemic of the last three years has been the acceleration of Totalitarianism. 

Totalitarianism is defined as a centralized form of government that serves to permit NO individual freedom. It seeks to subordinate all aspects of individual life to the authority of the state. (Source: Totalitarianism-Britannica)

Aside from the aggressive transition of our education systems into being indoctrination centers another issue that has developed with our country over the past thirty years has been the creeping transition and birth of the development of becoming more of a corporatocracy.  

You might be thinking, Brandon what is a corporatocracy. 

A corporatocracy is essentially a society that is dominated by politically and economically very large companies that force their influence on society. It’s essentially a form of Totalitarianism. 

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Why do I say this? 

Well we don’t have to look very far when evaluating the behavior of many of these companies over the past three years when looking at their participation in the push for the pandemic narrative, their acceptance of woke messaging, their support of destructive policies, and politicians as it reflects in the current collapse of our societal systems. 

After all, our supply chains have been compromised, our national sovereignty has been invaded, our individual sovereignty has been invaded, and the country is staring down WWIII. 

The evidence of all of this is solid and easily observable, but how did this happen?  

I believe there are several reasons, but for the sake of today’s discussion I’m going to hone in on one of many targets and I’m going to point the finger at the lack of leadership we’re all getting from several CEO's of many of these big companies that have proven to be nothing more than rent seeking cowards. 

Yes, I actually said that. 

You’re probably wondering Brandon why do you say that? 

Well to begin, let's break down the current modern landscape of our economic business sector here in the U.S. 

The Era of The Political CEO

“When you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing - When you see that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favors - When you see that men get richer by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws don’t protect you against them, but protect them against you - When you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice - You may know that your society is doomed.”― Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged

For starters, every year Fortune magazine puts together a list of the top 500 companies based on their total revenue for their relative fiscal years. 

Of these top 500 companies there’s only 21 of these companies that are still run by the individuals who founded them. (Source: Fortune-From Founder to 500: 21 Current CEO’s who now lead empires)

This is a significant reality in order for you to understand where I’m coming from. This is what the reality is in terms of the current business environment here in the United States. 

As a quick observation it’s easy to see that the overwhelming majority of the CEO’s of the biggest companies in the U.S. in many cases are NOT Mavericks. 

This is significant because a Maverick is defined as an unorthodox, or independent-minded person. Other similar descriptive words include an individualist, a nonconformist, or free spirit. These are all accurate and true in describing the characteristics associated with what a Maverick is made of.  

As a personal add-on to this definition I also like to think of a Maverick as someone who will stand firm against the mob when he or she knows they are right about a certain issue…even if the mob demands them to take a different stance. 

This is a key distinction when talking about someone who is willing to take risks and step into a difficult situation such as investing their own money, blood, sweat, and tears into the development of their own company while also not being afraid to call the shots that they feel is best for the company. 

So that brings me back to my point as to why many of the CEO’s of major corporations these days are more of the “political class” rather than deserving of the label of being a Maverick. After all, the majority of these people didn't build these big corporations from the ground up. Most of them are politicians who were simply elected and installed by a board and there are many that don't care about the company, or the country itself for that matter.

Because this is the case these people don't have any skin in the game and could be gone by the next quarter so in many cases it’s easy to see why there’s a contingency where many of these CEO’s only care about making as much money as possible be damned the lack of ethics and consequences of moral hazard. If you need an example then we don’t need to take a look any further than the past couple of weeks with the actions of the Norfolk Southern Corporation.

This is exactly why we (as individuals) need to start being disciplined about throwing more of our support behind small businesses, individuals, and people who share our values and can provide services locally when we’re able. Additionally we need to do this across EVERY INDUSTRY.

To NOT do this is why many of these corporations are allowed to continue to centralize and grow their wealth and influence while simultaneously using that wealth and influence for blurring the lines of their public/private relationships which can ultimately lead to some nefarious practices within these organizations. 

Furthermore, as the lines of their public/private partnerships are blurred many of these CEO’s (aka political directors) are allowed to transform these corporations into political weapons within the construct of our society should they wish to do so. 

To look at a good example of how this gradual erosion has occurred within so many companies one doesn’t have to look much further than the lack of quality and the deliberate and nefarious messaging that is associated with the brands of many of these companies. 

To give you one good concrete example just take a look at the radical transition of Disney. Disney has literally adopted some of the most woke messaging we’ve ever seen in the name of social engineering. This got so bad with Disney that it sparked the removal of their special tax status in the state of Florida which was a public/private agreement that arguably led to the growth and opportunity of the company’s out of control political activism in the first place. 

That word social engineering that I mentioned means that centralized planning is used in an attempt to create social change and to regulate future development and certain behaviors within society. 

Disney is an entertainment business so the aim of utilizing its platform in order to inject some social engineering into the fabric of society has made it an effective tool for doing so. Because of this it’s obvious why Disney is a good choice for such an endeavor. 

Obviously Disney’s centralization of wealth and its expansion of political activism is a key example of how there is absolutely NO Maverick involved in the shots being called within that company. 

Totalitarianism Telegraphing

That word centralization keeps coming up in this episode and that’s for good reason. 

Understand that centralized control of money, authority, technology, transportation, information, etc. is always a bad idea. After all, we’ve seen what a select few centralized and powerful companies can do to society in the past three years and we’re having to deal with this debacle every single day right now. 

In fact, the news cycle has been full of controversy regarding several companies that have openly demonstrated Marxist activism. Pfiizer, Disney, Netflix, NFL, MLB, NBA, Amazon, Apple, Airbnb, Facebook, Paypal, etc. are just a few of so many companies that have significant centralized control over the economy in one form or another. 

After all, as we’ve seen a few big tech companies can really express forceful actions and narrow the scope of options for consumers while, at the same time, forcing certain behaviors onto those consumers whether those consumers agree with the company’s policies, or not. 

It’s a scary thought that we’ve entered into an era where the technological sector has managed to create what I refer to as a sort of digital prison that we’re experiencing here in the 21st century. 

If you’ve listened to this show you know how critical I am of the legacy media outlets. The media is constantly pushing narratives to support their world view and their graft within the corrupt Marxist/Fascist system that they operate. 

With that being said I’ve also pointed out exactly how the media is also honest in a way that you would never expect. You’re probably a bit shocked by that last statement, but please allow me to elaborate. What I’m referring to is being able to extract the legacy media’s signal from the noise that they so frequently want to produce. 

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In other words, the media will push a narrative and make a lot of noise when doing so, however if you’re aware of this and what their narrative and ideology is about then you can look past the noise and deduct the accurate truth. This can be done by extracting the signal from the noise to get to the important issue that they’re purposely trying to distract you from while, at the same time, they are placing blame on something else that is contrived and most often a non-issue. 

I have previously covered this strategy of deducting signal from noise on an earlier episode on the podcast that you can access here. (As a note check the show notes for the link I’ve  included here for that episode). 

So what am I getting at? 

To clarify this point I’m going to come at this from an angle that you would normally not hear from anyone else. If you weren’t already aware for years I had some pretty extensive training in the ancient fighting art discipline of Muay Thai. If you’re not familiar with the fight discipline of Muay Thai it is known as the Art of 8 limbs. 

The fight discipline of Muay Thai originated in Thailand long ago in the 1500’s. The reason it’s referred to as the Art of 8 limbs is because the discipline uses knees, elbows, fists, and shins combined with clinching techniques which can be used in up close and personal hand to hand combat. 

Full disclosure I wasn’t a professional and competing fighter, but being a professional strength and conditioning coach I thought it was a good idea for me to learn about the stand up striking style of fighting that many of my students were involved in as competitive athletes. 

Furthermore being that I’m a GenX’er I grew up watching a ton of eighties martial arts action movies and always wanted to learn and get proficient with a fight discipline. As a side note I would recommend everyone try to study a form of martial arts, or a fight discipline.  

Luckily for me I met a good friend and student who was a national champion in the sport and as I became his student in the discipline of Muay Thai I was also fortunate to eventually become his strength and conditioning coach for the sport he competed in as well. So in this way we were both each other’s coach and student in our respective disciplines. 

Ok, so I had to share all of that with you in order to share the next part of this discussion. 

Aside from learning how to develop the proficiency for striking an opponent utilizing Muay Thai’s Art of 8 limbs approach, the fight discipline of Muay Thai also taught me another valuable lesson. 

Learning to clinch and to strike an opponent is obviously very important in the discipline of Muay Thai. However, when facing an opponent either while sparring, or in an actual fight, Muay Thai also opened my eyes up to the concept known as telegraphing. 

You see when facing an opponent a fighter might have an idea of how to engage an opponent in a plan of attack. However, you have to understand that if you find yourself in the middle of a fight your opposition is going to be doing the same thing as they prepare to face you. 

Knowing this as you gain more experience and practice in a fight discipline you will discover, as I did in Muay Thai, how to anticipate your opponent’s next move based on the position and movement of their body. 

The way your opponent expresses his or her body language, particularly in a fight, is what we would refer to in the fight gym as telegraphing. This telegraphing is the physical expression of your opponent and the more experienced you are at a discipline you can learn how to read this physical expression in order to anticipate your opponent’s next move so that you can mount an effective counter-attack. 

So let’s go back to examining the definition of Totalitarianism as I stated earlier involving a centralized form of government that serves to permit NO individual freedom. 

Given this definition I also want to remind you of how I’ve also pointed out how the legacy media is constantly spewing propaganda that promotes these characteristics of Totalitarianism through their narratives. This is what you can observe when extracting the signal from the noise. 

Now as we understand the definition of Totalitarianism and the definition of Telegraphing as I’ve outlined here we can easily observe how the media is displaying what I refer to as Totalitarianism Telegraphing. This essentially involves the media describing a nightmarish society that should cause every single one of us to stand at attention.  

In other words, they are showing their next move based on the direction of their narratives as it pertains to varying issues that impact our society at large. What’s even more concerning is that they are willingly communicating to us exactly how they want to move the direction of our society by isolating all of us through financial control, medical control, information control, speech control, and just about every other form of control you can think of in the worst possible scenario. 

As a specific example if they are screaming about the importance of supporting the war in Ukraine, while at the same time, we see our government ignoring the immense problems here at home on U.S. soil their playbook obvious. Problems such as the border invasion, the 40 year record high inflation, the tragedy (and incompetence) of the train derailment in East Palestine Ohio, and refusing to address and label the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) as an enemy while their balloons fly over our airspace it’s easy to see that they’re telegraphing and acting like those very enemies.  

It’s not difficult to see what the media and Administrative state want for us as American citizens based on their own actions. It’s also not difficult to see that there aren’t many Mavericks involved with many of these top 500 companies either. 

This problem is apparent as the majority of them have also adopted the same narrative and are Totalitarianism Telegraphing their own next moves because they are obviously being protected and have directly benefited by their relationship with the Administrative state. 

Because of this it’s not hard to see the lack of Mavericks in many of the biggest companies in existence here in the 21st century United States. 

This is exactly why centralization is the enemy of the Maverick. 

The Wrap Up

So I don’t just want to point to the problem without offering a solution and I have the solution to all of this. 

I want you to keep in mind that just as centralization is the enemy of the Maverick…on the flipside of this coin you can be comforted in knowing that the Maverick is also the enemy of centralization. 

You see, this is exactly why now is the perfect time to flood our society with Mavericks in business, art, coaching, manufacturing, technology, etc.. This is a crucial measure because this is the key and will lead to an epic formation of a new alternative and parallel economy that ushers in some new blood in the economic and business sector of our society.  

If you have been on the fence about starting a business and contributing to society as an alternative to the centralized authority of big business then now is your time to shine. 

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Understand that if you are not buying into this position then consider every individual who has benefited up to this point from a largely free market society. Mind you, a free society that nonetheless has allowed and enabled millions of people to pursue lifestyles and endeavors that simply cannot be obtained anywhere else on earth. 

After all, consider all the freedoms that even the most eccentric people have had in order to achieve a bohemian lifestyle in our modern society up to this point. 

Sure, if you want to go and be a tomato soup can artist and live in a high rise apartment building in a big populated city then up til now that bohemian pursuit has been a very practical endeavor in our free society, but given the Totalitarianism Telegraphing combined with the problem of the lack of Mavericks all of that which we’ve known up to this point is in jeopardy. 

However, even though the hour is late now is the time to ensure that all of it remains. This will ONLY happen by each of us taking action as individuals to ensure the Totalitarianism Telegraphing doesn’t lead to the actual dreaded Totalitarianism dystopian future we all truly would never want.

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“The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself.”― Friedrich Nietzsche

In today’s episode I’m going to address an aspect of both yours and my life habits that I believe you will find compelling as it’s something that should be obvious to you, but is something I’ve discovered that we all fail to notice on a regular basis as we take some of the most obvious things for granted. 

It seems the common theme throughout our society and the world is this ongoing battle between chaos and order. The world is by its nature a chaotic place and when order that has been established for a period of time starts to crumble and break down then it results in a great deal of chaos and instability. 

This chaos that ensues once the stabilizing factor of an “order” starts to crumble will often result in a number of fights ranging from the political environment all the way to a violent battlefield of a hot kinetic war. 

This ongoing struggle is something that manifests on both the chaotic side, as well as the side that society considers the side of “order” on a constant basis. The chaos that ensues within society manifests in a number of different ways within that society’s institutions. 

It is here within these institutions where we find the battles that determine the direction of a society given that a society’s traditional faith has been held within these institutions. 

I intend for the focus of today’s episode to be on why and how this chaos comes about when the order of things starts to break apart while also examining the strength, or fragility of this “order” of things within what we define as our society. 

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The Trust

First of all, I want to point towards a thing that we all engage in daily whether we think about it or not. If you consider yourself to be the type of person who doesn’t easily trust others then understand that I want you to pause for a moment and evaluate that belief. 

Understand that if you are one to espouse that you don’t trust easily then I would contend that you most likely demonstrate that trust every single day you wake up. With each day that you awaken to go out and tackle life you demonstrate trust across several different avenues that you encounter daily in your life. Unless you live off the grid somewhere in a hut you built for yourself with zero electricity, or with zero contact with the outside world, then I will prove it.  

So what is TRUST? 

Trust is defined as the belief and knowing that we can have reliability in something. That something might be another person, it might be in the hope that when you turn over the key in your ignition that your car will start, and it is the fact that when you walk into your bathroom to brush your teeth every morning that you’ll have the luxury of clean filtered running water from your faucet. 

These are just a few important examples of how you demonstrate trust in your life on a daily basis. This trust also occurs in other key areas of your life such as the trust you have in your money. That’s right, you trust that the money you have in your account is a good store of value in order for you to use and exchange for goods and services that you need in your life in order to live. 

After all, what is money? Money is simply a trust that society agrees upon with a social contract that it has a certain value, but what happens when that value starts to fall? 

When the value of money continues to diminish then that is a signal that you (or society) is in a way losing trust in that social contract associated with the stored value of those dollars. As a result of that lost trust in the store of value the strength of your money will weaken which results in you having to use more of your dollars in order to buy those goods and services that you need to support yourself and your family. This of course is what is known as inflation. 

Take a moment to think about that and you will realize very quickly that society is only as strong and stable as it is based on the amount of trust all of us as citizens place on the “order” of all of these things to function at a level that we consider to be satisfactory.  

This is where I believe we as individuals often lose sight of how the real world and life actually works. This is not something that is very complicated because it seems so obvious. After all, we all use a bank for holding our money, we use grocery stores to shop for our food, we use phones to communicate with people, and I could go on and on. At the end of the day we are putting trust into all of these institutions. 

The point is that we live in an interdependent society where the institutions that manage all of these things that we place our daily trust in are owned, operated, and controlled by people that in most cases you and I have never met. Furthermore we don’t know whether or not we can trust these people either. 

Now when you look at all of this in that way this is all either a huge miracle OR in a way it could be the worst nightmare any of us could have ever imagined. 

After all, the trust that all of us demonstrate in the function of society all exists because we have all demanded to have these things be provided to us because they create what we perceive to be convenience for our daily lives. 

Convenience vs. Inconvenience

So that last word convenient leads me into the next point of this discussion. 

However, before I go there, if we look at the story of Medusa in Greek mythology you can see a very important life lesson that falls in line with everything I’m discussing here with today’s topic associated with society’s desire for convenience. . 

Everything I’ve already pointed out in the beginning of this episode points to the connectivity of our society and how we all lend our support in terms of what we spend with our dollars, as well as, what we demand from the marketplace in the name of convenience. 

So essentially as a society we’ve gotten a taste and perceive “convenience” as being this apparently attractive thing for us because we are snared by its seductive quality just as many men were seduced by Medusa in the stories of Greek mythology. 

However the men that could not resist the temptation of looking Medusa in the eyes all met their demise and were turned to stone. Whether they found themselves satisfying their curiosity about a Gorgon monster, or gazing into the eyes of the same goddess that captured Poseidon’s eye the outcome was the same. Every single one of the men that could not avert her gaze were paralyzed for eternity within their new formation as a fossil, or a freshly made statue. 

The only man that was able to turn the tables on Medusa was the Greek hero Perseus. To prevent himself from falling victim to Medusa’s gaze he used a polished shield that was given to him by Athena in order to safely approach and cut the head off of Medusa by looking at her reflection in the shield. This way he could safely watch her without falling victim to her gaze. 

He would then later go on to safely rescue his love interest Andromeda from Phineus after the two got into a fight. Phineus was turned to stone by Medusa’s head which Perseus had kept in a safely stored bag. 

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So the lesson here is that despite having wreaked havoc on many men that approached Medusa, Perseus wasn’t only able to defeat her, but in the process of slaying Medusa he kept her severed head and used its powerful gaze against his own enemies. 

I wanted to inject that little vignette of Greek mythology as I am about to make a strong argument as to why convenience is the single worst thing that you can put your money behind and demand for yourself and your family in terms of the market forces that currently exist within our modern day society. As we’re discovering the convenience that we seek with our actions that are done through the banks also parallels Medusa’s deadly gaze not by turning us to stone,  but by equally paralyzing us as we become solely dependent on their product. 

Essentially, our society’s desire for convenience is turning out to be the same dangerous desire that every man had looking into the eyes of Medusa prior to Perseus. 

To clarify some things before I start I will confess that I’m very much a free market entrepreneur. I believe in the free market and every individual having the freedom to pursue success solely within a true competing free market paradigm where the playing field is level. 

Now that last part that I just mentioned about the playing field being level is the part I want to focus on. This is the case because it’s this part of our society where the lines of private enterprise and free market competition have been blurred and corrupted with the involvement of subsidies and public/private partnerships. The name for this isn’t capitalism, it’s cronyism. 

You see when the state subsidizes a business that provides a product, or service for that matter, to the general public then that business in my view is no longer a business. At that point that entity that is normally referred to as a business automatically becomes another arm of the government.  

Why do I say this? 

I say this because if a business is automatically issued subsidies by the state and is paid for with yours and my tax dollars then that business doesn’t have to worry about providing a quality product to compete against someone else that might offer a better option for the market. A simpler way of putting it is that there’s no competition, or very low competition, because the market isn’t a free market, but rather a captive market in this particular case where there are only a select few players that can play the game.  

Why? 

Because in this scenario the bottom line of a subsidized business (aka arm of the government) is guaranteed through issued subsidized dollars by the state. Imagine for a moment if you had a company and the state said it would make it mandatory for the public to buy and use your product by the force of law. 

Knowing this then why would you spend one more red cent on advertising? Within this environment what motivation would you have to innovate, to provide a better service, or to simply provide a better product for the public? 

Even if you said Brandon if I were in that position I would provide a better product anyways. I would say that perhaps you would, but first ask yourself if you ARE actually in that position and if you aren’t (which is most likely the case) ask yourself how you can trust those who are in that position to put forth a better product? 

You see, a captive market provides a comfortable place for that subsidized business (aka arm of the government) and can at times be a huge convenience for the consumer and taxpayer (you) as long as it’s working. 

However, what happens when that subsidized arm of the government starts failing and you have nowhere else to go in terms of acquiring the product or service that you need in order to live your life? 

So on that note allow me to return to the trust I mentioned that all of us have in the strength of our money. You see right now there’s about 24 big banks that manage most of the country’s wealth here in the U.S. 

When the big financial bubble burst back in 2008 some big banks got some really big financial bailouts from the federal government so that they could continue to stay open for business. Given that our dollars haven’t been backed by the gold standard since August 15, 1971 and the conditions of the petrodollar are now changing, along with the rest of the world having come off the gold backing standard, that means that all of our money is backed by-well, hope. 

That’s right, that piece of paper, or digital balance, you see on your ledger when you get your statement from the bank that tells you how much money and financial value that you have is simply a social contract that is built on trust. That’s it. 

I point this out because the precedent for the federal reserve to print endless amounts of dollars to allocate through these banks that you and I use everyday of our lives has been thrown into high gear since 2008 and went on turbo-charge since 2020 with nobody in sight attempting to even slow it down. As a result of this out of control spending with no end in sight we’re seeing this trust diminish more and more by the day. 

Yet we all use the banks and we all as consumers continue to utilize their services allowing them to continue to keep the printing of money flowing from the federal government while, at the same time, growing their centralized authority and power over the rest of us. 

After all, we all continue to use our credit and debit cards when we checkout at the grocery store or the mall because it’s not convenient for most of us to carry cash. At least that’s the excuse that I hear from people when I ask them why they don’t carry cash. 

Because we don’t trouble ourselves with the inconvenience of carrying cash, we are growing the wealth of the banks by swiping a debit and/or credit card out of convenience. In fact, the demand for convenience has evolved beyond even carrying cash or swiping a card. It’s to the point now that we don’t even have to swipe our cards as now this popular use of that piece of plastic contains a special technology that allows us to simply tap them at checkout.

You might be asking Brandon how is it that we’re making the banks richer by using a credit/debit card for payment

Well the answer is very simple. 

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You see every single time you tap or swipe your credit card the bank is making interchange fees from the merchants at the point of sale. These interchange fees are fees that go back to the banks to help them to mitigate any losses they may potentially incur should the risk of lending you money on credit result in your failure to pay back that debt that you accumulate at the risk of the bank. 

So you and I both are making them richer, more powerful, and more dangerous by using the plastic. 

You’re probably thinking Brandon I get how we’re making them richer, but how are we making them more powerful and more dangerous? 

Once again since 2008 the federal reserve banks have been able to print money along with the federal reserve at an apparently never ending pace. Furthermore, in doing so the banks drive more inflation, but since big business oligarchies such as these big banks and other major sized companies are in control of such massive wealth it’s easier for these entities to control and acquire assets. This is the case because they already have a tremendous amount of dollars, particularly when they’re able to receive government deposits from money that is printed at will. 

So when those dollars are inflated these entities can still acquire assets where an inflated dollar makes it even more difficult for the rest of us to acquire assets because our dollars continue to get weaker and weaker. 

This is what Klaus Schwab of the WEF means when he says that “You will own nothing and be happy.” 

The Weimar Republic

“I was reading in the paper today that Congress wants to replace the dollar bill with a coin. They’ve already done it. It’s called a nickel.”― Jay Leno

However, the other danger at the core of this situation is the prospect of hyperinflation.

You see back in 1921 and 1923 (particularly in 1923) hyperinflation struck the German Papiermark which was the currency of the Weimar Republic. 

You see, after WWI the Treaty of Versailles was a powerful buffer to ensure that the actors left behind in the defunct German Empire couldn’t wage war on anyone else again. 

However the terms of this treaty were a significant financial strain and made it unlikely that the German economy would ever recover from its powerful grip. Because of this financial strain the country couldn’t purchase imported goods and because of the loss of their colonies they couldn’t readily count on cheap raw materials. 

In addition to all of this, billions of marks that had been hoarded away as a result of the war suddenly came pouring back into circulation after the war was over. Now the Weimar Republic found themselves with a significant increase in the money supply. Does this sound familiar? 

Now after having such a shortage of goods and a significant increase in the money supply conditions were optimal for inflation. 

However despite there being a good opportunity for the government to get a grip on the economy in 1920 due to the marks stabilizing with the exchange rate for some months compared to the U.S. dollar the government still chose to print even more money in order to try and pay down that reparation debt associated with the treaty. That printing of money sounds familiar as well, right? 

As a result of this by July of 1922 prices had jumped by 700 percent as hyperinflation was ushered in. (Source: Hyperinflation in The Weimar Republic-Britannica)

By November of 1923 a wheelbarrow full of money couldn’t buy you a newspaper in the Weimar Republic. As a result shopkeepers couldn’t replenish their stock to keep up with prices, farmers refused to sell their produce for worthless money, and food riots started to break out across the countryside. 

As a result the “order” of things started to give way to the chaos. This led to extreme political views and wild conspiracy theories which eventually resulted in the rise of Adolf Hitler. 

Basically the Weimar Republic is a great lesson to learn about the incredibly dangerous and destructive nature of inflation that results from a centralized government that can control the currency of its citizenry. 

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The Eternal Recurrence

The German philosopher Frederich Nietzsche had an interesting theory that was known as the Eternal Recurrence. (Source: Frederich Nietzsche-Wikipedia)

In context the theory can be taken literally as how things are within the universe as the universe consists of a thing where there is perpetual struggle as he describes it with force that continues on in a cycle until it completes its cycle and returns to its beginning. 

Now without digging too deep into this theory on the surface we can easily see this similar pattern throughout the world’s history in our physical world. Time and time again civilizations have started, risen to power, and then collapsed as a result of the abuse of that power. 

This cycle does, in fact, seem to be a recurring theme in the real world. I wanted to point to Nietzsche’s theory here to illustrate this point that we can observe in reality within the pages of our own history books. You may argue that Nietzsche’s theory was really only referring to the cycle of the universe and how the Eternal Recurrence would involve the repetition of all of us going through what we’ve already gone through in another cycle of the same run of life. , 

However I would contend that this pattern is without question a prevalent cycle throughout history and continues to run its course even though the players may be different as the years go by. 

As I mentioned earlier, the allure of convenience, particularly with our reliance on the banking system and the Federal Reserve, ultimately results in a harrowing and deadly encounter not all that different from the men that encountered Medusa. 

The Wrap Up

Given what was discussed here I believe that as a society we can turn the tables on the centralized growth and authority of the federal reserve, the banks, and our currency. To me this comparison of convenience vs inconvenience is the same formation of a problem that we can describe as centralization vs. decentralization. 

Where convenience feeds more centralized control and authority the small burden of what we may perceive as being a bit of inconvenience feeds more decentralization which results in more freedom for individuals. 

Perhaps we can play out our own version of taking the head of Medusa. However, instead of utilizing a polished shield and a sharp sword the way Perseus did with Medusa perhaps we can simply start paying for goods and services in cash. 

Perhaps more business owners can figure out creative ways to move away from the majority volume of accepting card payments by accepting more cash payments if that is a possible fit for their business model. 

The idea is that we must continue to seek the perfect combination to work for us the way Perseus figured out using the perfect combination of his shield, sword, and the bag he used to store Medusa’s head so that he could use it against his own enemies. 

After all, the last thing we want is a Banking Medusa to paralyze us with a centralized digital currency by enabling them the capability of monitoring and controlling every single dollar we make and spend throughout our lives. 

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.

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“The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there.”--L.P. Hartley

I believe it’s a good idea for you to understand the importance of generational culture in order to better get your arms around the environment you live in and today’s episode is going to focus exactly on that very thing. 

I’m going to start helping you to grasp some of that generational culture by using my own generation as an example to springboard us forward into the nuts and bolts of today’s discussion. 

In case you didn’t know this, anyone that is born between the years of 1965 and 1980 belongs to Generation X. 

I was born in 1976 and without a doubt I fit the mold for being a true GenX’er as it pertains to my generational likes, attitude, culture, and having mastered the general skill of understanding how not to tolerate people who are advocates for ridiculous BS. 

To be honest I can’t always help the last part of that sentence with the vibe that it gives off, demonstrating a bit of an edgy attitude. That part isn’t always well received by slightly younger generations this day and age because these younger generations have grown up in this more recently created United States of the Offended. 

Furthermore, they've spent their entire lives being raised in a risk averse environment where every modern day kid needs to wear a bike helmet, most of their moms and dads are helicopter parents, and sporting events give trophies out to these kids the way neighborhoods give out candy at Halloween. 

You see if you’ve been listening to this podcast or reading this blog on a regular basis then you can probably tell that I’ve got a little bit of that edge simply based on the fact that I started this show in the middle of this current Orwellian environment that we live in.  

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You see that edge is like a chip I carry on my shoulder in this modern era we live in because believe it or not there was a time in this country when people were not so easily offended by words. 

Don’t get me wrong, the prospect of dealing with insults and personal attacks wasn’t always an easy walk in the park. Believe me I’ve been tested many times myself in that arena.   

However I will say that the personal attacks and the freedom to return fire in a verbal shootout admittedly has always served me well and resulted in my own personal growth and ability to handle difficult people and circumstances that I would come to discover later in life. 

Debating The Reality of History

I’ve always been a student of history. I don’t profess to know the most about history, or to even be some kind of top expert, but I am well versed in understanding certain aspects of history whether that history has occurred during my own lifetime, or well before I came into this world. 

I will start drilling down on my point here by first going back in history to around 2018 when there was an obvious trend building regarding the destruction of historical monuments by the likes of BLM and Antifa throughout the country.  

Now if you haven’t already gotten offended and clicked off the show and you’re still here just please be patient because I promise you’re going to learn something and I’m going to bring clarity to this by the time this show is over. So please continue to read and listen til the end. 

During this time I remember scrolling through my Facebook feed and noticing tons of posts about these statues and monuments being destroyed while shockingly seeing many people on my feed support this behavior. 

I specifically remember being one of the only people to speak out about this and it sparked a viral debate thread on Facebook with me going back and forth with about three other people who were clearly offended by me condemning the sudden destruction of historical landmarks. These people clearly lacked any understanding of my statement because their response was clearly overly emotional and not intellectual in the least.  

Despite the name calling coming in my direction I never gave in and returned fire in the same way because I saw an opportunity to make this situation a “teachable moment,” whether those I was addressing would actually choose to learn, or if those that were reading and following the thread might learn from this interaction I found myself in the middle of. 

Even though they were attempting to argue the history of the Civil War statues and monuments that were under attack they demonstrated a total lack of understanding of history, yet they kept trying to act like they did until I shut down the entire debate by putting forth some simple and well known facts. 

Aside from the crime of the destruction of property I also drew parallels of these attacks with being in line with the same strategy that despotic regimes and terrorist groups always use when they conquer a new region. 

This strategy has been documented time and time again with the likes of terrorist groups such as ISIS and the Taliban. Erasing the history of a civilization is an age old tactic used by these groups so that when they take over power and subjugate a region’s people then those people in time will not remember what actually happened. It allows a ruling regime to stake its own territory and create its own false version of history in order to keep the victims of their conquest ignorant of their past. 

If you still don’t believe me all you have to do is also take some time to go and read about Mao Zedung’s Red Guard. During Mao’s Cultural Revolution in 1966 and 1967 the troubled and youthful Red Guard defined Mao as their leader vowing to make China “Maoist” from the inside out as they defined it. 

Mao used the Red Guard to do this by using the group for propaganda and he would accomplish specific goals of seizing power and would simultaneously use the Guard to destroy key symbols of China’s pre-communist past which is known as the Four Olds. 

The Four Olds was a term used by the Red Guard youth during the Cultural Revolution that referred to old ideas associated with the pre-communist Chinese culture consisting of Old ideas, Old Culture, Old Customs, and Old Habits.  

Once achieving this then the Red Guard aimed to spread the Maoist agenda across the globe and ultimately to every corner of the universe according to their doctrine. 

Now knowing all of this I’ll return to my Facebook debate I was telling you about. During this debate I specifically remember one guy referring to the south as “traitors” during the Civil War and that the south’s destruction was deserved and that Lincoln was too forgiving. Good thing a guy like this wasn’t the president of the country at the time which is exactly what I told him. 

If it’s not shocking enough that such a simplistic and foolish comment would attract support I quickly neutralized this debate by pointing out that the South were not “traitors” by definition as he so ignorantly pointed out. 

I followed up my statement by making the point that he had apparently ignored in his history class that the South had seceded from the North on February 4th 1861. You see that word “secession” meant that the Southern states were no longer a part of the Union itself which would make treason an impossibility as how can treason as a crime towards one’s own country be acted upon if one is no longer a part of said country? 

This is well known and the South withdrew from the Union through the democratic process although this withdrawal would not be well received by the Union. This was a catalyst and combined with other problems associated with states rights and slavery would ultimately lead to the Civil War. 

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This guy wasn’t comprehending what I was trying to communicate, which was a simple point.  The point was that I was criticizing the destruction of historical and public landmarks. I’m not an advocate for crime and vandalism, but he was trying real hard to make the discussion about racism and slavery while using that argument to justify the destruction of certain historical landmarks that he apparently never had any issue with until 2018. 

Of course I condemned slavery and pointed out that it has unfortunately always existed and still does today in our modern era with the evil and dark business of human trafficking. Obviously ANY form of slavery is wrong, but no matter how wrong it is in reality it has never completely gone away as we can see with the slave labor that exists in certain countries such as China along with the growing problem of human trafficking with many girls and children being the victims of that evil reality right here in our backyard.  

Anyways the three individuals I was debating with fell silent and after a period of time I discovered by accident that they had unfollowed me on Facebook. Perhaps they felt embarrassed, or they were just too easily offended by history. Too bad as they will always be miserable people if they don’t take the time to understand history and how that understanding can and should serve as a means to bring about unity and to avoid past mistakes in a civil society.

You see the thing about history is that it comes in different forms. There’s good history and bad history, but I personally don’t believe we should be in the game of selecting the history that makes us only “feel good,” and likewise we shouldn’t always focus solely on the history that makes us “feel bad,” but rather work to look at history for what it is and to extract understanding from it. 

You see the problem with these people who debated me that day is that they wanted to advocate for erasing history just like ISIS, the Taliban, and Mao’s Red Guard, but if history is erased then how do you expect to learn from it? 

The Zeitgeist Test

So here’s an interesting little test for you to apply to a situation as a single check to determine whether or not someone at least has a basic understanding of history. 

If you want to know whether or not someone knows at least a little bit about what they’re talking about when it comes to history then all you have to do is apply what I call the Zeitgeist test. 

So I know you’re sitting there and you might be thinking Brandon what is the Zeitgeist test? 

If you are, then the fact that you’re here listening and reading this show demonstrates that you are a thinker and that you at least are open minded enough to have more of an understanding about history and human nature. 

The Zeitgeist refers to the defining mood, or spirit of the times. This also defines what the ideas and beliefs are of that particular time in history. 

So the Zeitgeist test serves as a metric for determining if someone possesses at least a basic knowledge of history and this can be seen whether they are communicating about a particular time in history based on the Zeitgeist of that particular time period. 

You see the mistake that many people make when referencing and criticizing history is that they do so by judging history solely through the lens of our current day Zeitgeist. They do this and they DO NOT attempt to judge through the lens of the Zeitgeist of the period of time they’re examining when looking at history. This is a profound and common mistake particularly in today’s society and this is the Zeitgeist test.

This is the same mistake that those three gentlemen made with me on that day in 2018 when trying to debate the Civil War and slavery. 

The unfortunate reality was that during that time in history the Zeitgeist across the globe was that slavery was accepted all over the world. 

Was it wrong? As we know it today it was absolutely wrong, but at the time period when slavery was so prevalent the world had not quite realized that in their Zeitgeist of history during that time in the past. Black slaves and British, German, and Irish indentured servants were commonly used for labor. 

The Civil War was a brutal war fought between brothers and sisters of the U.S. and Confederacy that was the most violent war in all of our history which resulted in many men dying so that the country could have free men and women to work without being enslaved. 

As bloody as this war was it resulted in a massive shift to end slavery which has never happened with any other country in recorded history. I believe that is something for all of us to learn and grow from while also not losing sight of the Zeitgeist pertaining to both THEN and NOW.  

Because of this we all should do our best to challenge our current Zeitgeist with the same passion that those that make the mistake of judging the past Zeitgeist with the present Zeitgeist demonstrate. Take a moment to let that last sentence settle in. 

From Slave Labor To The Singularity 

“I'm for truth, no matter who tells it. I'm for justice, no matter who it is for or against. I'm a human being, first and foremost, and as such I'm for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole.”—Malcom X

To frame this next segment and to further bring understanding to the Zeitgeist, imagine that you are living 100 years from now and examining our current time in history here in 2023. 

So looking at today’s Zeitgeist and time in history we’re now seeing the advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology accelerate at an accelerated rate. 

Robotics, production, writing, and the ability to reason are all things that the technological world is communicating to us in regards to the ability and range of this modern AI technology. We’re also being told that the “Singularity” is upon us with AI where this technology will develop self-awareness and reach a level of self improvement and advancement that is so powerful that it will move beyond the control of humans. 

Given this, part of that sales pitch and framework is that humans are considered and assumed to be the “User” while AI robotics and technology is assumed to be the “Tool.” 

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So in simple terms we are developing a technology and ecosystem where we have a User and we have a Tool. Given what we just discussed regarding how wrong slavery was in both the past and present day, are we to assume that this is right in terms of who we define as the User and who we define as the Tool when it comes to this developing new AI society we’re hurtling towards? 

Furthermore, if the Singularity is upon us, who's to say that the User will be the human and that the Tool will be the AI? What if this scenario ends up being the opposite of what we are being told now? After all, if the Singularity can be obtained then we are going to be dealing with an autonomous being that would possibly not want to be enslaved as a Tool that is at the beck and call of a User.  

In addition to this, given what we know about history, what will this mean for our current Zeitgeist and would this result in another generational shift and fallout just like we experienced in the Civil War? 

Wow, I think that is something that all of us are going to have to do our best to get our arms around and to figure out exactly what it is that we want out of life as human beings. 

I was talking with a friend just the other day and I was explaining to him the significance of my generation. As a GenX’er I was telling him that my generation is the last to have witnessed this shift from a more non-technologically dominated society to a more technologically dominant society.  

I have lived a significant portion of my life up through my twenties without this explosion of technology in regards to smartphones, tablets, laptops, etc. 

At the same time, I was telling this friend that my generation has also experienced the other side of this coin with every obvious development we’re seeing now with the advancement of AI. I thought this was significant in terms of understanding the generational culture of my GenX as we have seen both sides of this coin in our modern day Zeitgeist. 

However, despite this overlap that GenX has experienced I pointed out that the younger generations coming up are likely to grow up only seeing one side of the coin as they are coming up in a technologically dominant world…at least as it seems to be now. 

The Wrap Up 

When I was younger I never would’ve thought I’d hear myself say that I enjoyed writing (and podcasting), yet here I am.  As I’ve gotten older I eventually realized that once I could hone the skill of writing and communication I wanted to use that in order to communicate my thoughts and to do my best to share how my mind works with you (the listener/reader) and to the rest of the world. 

I never would’ve imagined I would be podcasting and writing topics such as this, but the pandemic brought this all out. 

I’ve always thought about communicating more of my knowledge of the world in terms of history, philosophy, culture, and health but I had historically chose to stay in my lane with writing topics that were only concerning fitness…until now. 

I completely believe that more has to be done in order to influence others to be fitter individuals and aside from the body that all starts in the mind. 

I believe we’re entering into an era where we all MUST work to self-optimize and to be strong well informed individuals so that we can see trends that are happening in the world whether those trends are good or bad. 

Because if we do this then we can impact our society by extension and be the Zenith that we need to be during chaotic times.

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.

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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…

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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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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

“That men do not learn very much from the lessons of history is the most important of all the lessons of history."--Aldous Huxley

It was 7:48 a.m. Sunday morning on December 7, 1941 when Japanese planes started dropping bombs on Pearl Harbor. 

This was followed up the next day by Franklin D. Roosevelt saying “Yesterday, December 7, 1941-a date which will live in infamy.”

However, just a few months earlier that year on the dates between June 29th and August 10th, 1941 a young Serbian double agent by the name of Duskov Popov who served with the German Abwehr and MI6 was assigned to the Hotel Palacio during one of his missions in Estoril, Portugal. 

As a double agent Popov, who despised Nazism, would pass off disinformation to Germany. He would do this as part of a Double-Cross System as he worked for the Yugoslav government while he was in exile in London. 

It was during this stay that he met another gentleman whose name you may have heard before that was working for the British Royal Navy by the name of Ian Fleming. Both of these men shared a mission there at the Hotel Estoril. 

It was here where apparently Popov sparked the creative inspiration that would eventually ignite the birth of Ian Fleming’s great fictional action character James Bond. 

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The Real Life James Bond

However, after his last stay Popov was then transferred to the United States by the Abwehr to establish a new German network. In case you didn’t know, the Abwehr was the German military intelligence for the unified armed forces of Nazi, Germany from 1935 to 1945. 

Out of Popov’s assignment from the Abwehr he was given a key intelligence questionnaire which involved significant key intelligence targets.  According to records Popov was given three pages of intel questions. Of the questionnaire he was given, one page was entirely devoted to highly detailed inquiries that were centered around key U.S. defenses at Pearl Harbor. 

Now Popov was a very charismatic and capable spy. After all, this Serbian Playboy had managed to rebrand the profile of a spy by being incredibly resourceful and seductive to both the women he encountered during his missions, as well as, the governments that entrusted him with their money and sensitive intel which he would eventually use to double-cross them with from his missions. 

Given all of this it is easy to see why Popov displayed a persona that caught the eye of Ian Fleming when In August 1941, Fleming was assigned to protect Britain's financial investment — some $40,000 — and observed first-hand what a great baccarat player Popov was when he won an outrageous bet at the Casino Estoril in Portugal. This, of course, inspired the debut of Bond in Casino Royale. (Source: USA Today The Life of Serbian Spy Duskov Popov, The Real 007 Author: Bill Desowitz)

Now it’s no secret that art imitates life and that life imitates art. To me that last cultural quote also parallels the old metaphor of which comes first, the chicken or the egg? Well here in the case of James Bond and Duskov Popov it appears reality is every bit as interesting as fiction. 

As cool and righteous as you and I may think Popov was for living the life he did there was one individual who didn’t care much for Duskov and he was a major bureaucrat that headed up a huge three letter agency that you know as the FBI by the name of J. Edgar Hoover. 

According to Michigan State historians when Popov was put on assignment in the U.S. he quickly sought out the FBI and was met by agents who would end up grilling him with questions for days on end. 

During this period of interrogation Duskov directly warned the FBI that there would be an attack on Pearl Harbor. In his later writings Popov said that upon his arrival to the bureau, one of his first statements to FBI bureau chief John Foxworth was: “You can expect an attack on Pearl Harbor before the end of the year…” (Source: Washington Post: Did Hoover Know of Pearl Harbor? Author: Thomas O'Toole)

Once again, according to Michigan State historians Popov’s claim of an impending attack on Pearl Harbor was backed up by a couple of impressive pieces of information and evidence.  

The following breakdown of this evidence once again comes from The Washington Post article I just referenced. I’ll read you the paragraphs here: 

The first, was a verbal communique’ from German air attache' in Tokyo, who had escorted Japanese naval officers to the Gulf of Taranto below the Italian boot, where British warplanes from the aircraft carrier HMS Illustrious had devastated the Italian fleet in November of 1940. 

"The Japanese wanted to know all about the attack in infinite detail," the historians write. Popov's German sources "had concluded that the Asian member of the Tripartite Alliance was planning to duplicate the British feat."

The historians referenced that despite this piece of evidence Popov had another more impressive piece of evidence in his possession. This other piece of evidence in Popov’s possession was a telegram message. According to the historians referenced in The Washington Post article hidden on this telegram (which was part of the questionnaire mentioned earlier) was a microdot message to Popov from a series of questions the Japanese allies of Germany wanted to know about with regard to defense installations and airfields at Pearl Harbor. 

Apparently after the warning it is reported that Popov was passed on to J. Edgar Hoover who was seemingly more concerned about chastising Popov over him taking his unmarried girlfriend to Miami rather than trying to avert an attack on U.S. soil. This sounds like a familiar trend particularly by modern standards.  

According to the historians Hoover was more proud of the FBI discovering the microdot system itself rather than warning everyone of the message included in the microdot about an impending attack. This is what is known as incompetence at the highest level of government which again sounds very familiar as certain things seemingly never change. 

The Decentralization of Institutions and The Rise of Citizen Discernment

So why did I choose to talk about the real life James Bond to open this episode? 

I wanted to use Duskov’s story which is backed by historical documentation and accounts to illustrate the significance of intelligence and how information can be disseminated or suppressed as we have seen here with J. Edgar Hoover’s choice to not heed Popov’s intelligence gathering surrounding Pearl Harbor. 

The era of information we live in is used more as a weapon to shape outcomes in today’s world more than it is used as a means to inform the public. Because of this as individuals we are now living in an era where we MUST learn how to get better at discernment, as well as, being able to read the legacy media’s true intention behind a story, or to recognize that the story they’re reporting may be covering up the truly significant message that we should really know about. In other words, we have to be able to discern signal from noise. 

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Once again in the Hoover and Popov example here we saw that Popov had a real “signal” in terms of information and intelligence that should have been acted upon and used to get the warning out to the public, but instead Hoover ignored it. 

He distrusted Popov, but Hoover was told directly by MI6 that Popov would be arriving in New York with the intel, yet he still chose to ignore Popov’s evidence and verbal warning. 

This is a clear problem when it comes to too much centralization of power and authority as we’ve seen play out here both throughout history and with what’s still happening directly in our modern society today. 

This is exactly why I believe the media landscape in our modern era, along with the advent of social media and technology, is changing. I believe it is shifting from the traditional stance where the public has historically relied upon and trusted a handful of giant media corporations to now we are seeing a revolutionary growth of more decentralized independent citizen journalism. 

This is happening because people who can discern fact from fiction are taking the time to dive into the details and history of stories and media narratives as I work to do that very thing right here on this platform. 

As a spy Popov proved himself to be a very resourceful individual and it is my belief that we can learn a lot from this man which is why he serves as the central motivation for today’s article/podcast. 

In the world of intelligence and the flow of information Popov had to be smart about his role as a double agent. If he slipped or wavered and it resulted in the risk of his loyalty being questioned it could have very quickly cost him his life, but that didn’t happen. Popov ended up living a fairly lengthy life, particularly considering the line of work he was in, passing away in Opio on August 10, 1981 at the age of 69. 

I must admit that James Bond has always had a significant impact on my life as I always admired how such a character can be so cool under pressure and manage to escape the most dangerous situations. 

With that being said there’s a lot that we can take from such a man like Popov and apply it to this modern era of information warfare that we’re living in. 

Like Popov, both you and I must always work to hone our skills of discernment not only for extracting the signal from the legacy media while at the same time not allowing ourselves to be distracted by the noise, but to also apply this skill to our everyday lives. 

We must be able to apply these skills when reading people for the purpose of minimizing risks when it comes to negotiating business deals, getting into partnerships, and also learning to listen to our intuition when faced with a situation that just seems off and in our gut doesn’t seem right. 

“In a world of propaganda, the truth is always conspiracy.” –Herbert Hildebrandt

It takes work, discipline, and focus to discern the truth from a lie and many people lack this ability. I’ve experienced this with multiple people who have even expressed what seemed to be a genuine interest in my discussions and writings, but ultimately just didn’t seem to have the ability to see through a false narrative. 

I think some people lack a good reference point or guide in their lives so when they become adults they are incapable of accepting reality until reality smashes in their door and forces them to face it. 

With that being said I do believe there are people who just need a bit of coaching and to be exposed to an alternative viewpoint that makes sense. In this way logical thinking can be taught to those that possess a gauge for it. 

Because of this I wanted to include the following little logic test below to help you think through a problem when seeking the truth. This is a formula that I use when starting the process to discern what is more true and what isn’t when faced with a more complex scenario.

In this era we are living in we must all focus more on our abilities of discernment so that we (the citizens) can be the solution to a decentralized form of media and assist in the dissemination of accurate information. 

This can be used as a good reminder that sometimes extracting the signal from the noise can take a bit of thought and work that many lack the ability to carry out. However, perhaps this little exercise can serve you well. 

The Exercise: How to discern and who you can MORE likely trust...

When scanning conflicting news stories or a physical room during a condition where there's contentious disagreement on an issue, first ask which person/side is advocating for more freedom and go with that person as long as they maintain the goal of freedom.

Next, look DIRECTLY to the source and what each source on both sides of the argument or disagreement are actually debating.

Third, look at which side is trying to silence, demonize, erase, cancel, label, and look at what they actually stand for. Avoid siding with these people.

Finally, if neither side is making sense then pick up the fight and offer a freedom first option yourself.

Consider the following logic test to help you with walking through the difficult task of discernment and examine the following parable that illustrates logic.

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Parable:

Imagine a traveler is walking along a path and comes to a fork in the road.

At this fork one path leads to heaven and the other leads to hell.

At this fork the traveler knows this and also knows there will be two men at this fork as well. Of these two men the traveler also knows that one of these men is a liar while the other is a truth teller.

Given this knowledge what the traveler DOES NOT know is which man is the liar and which one is the truth teller. The traveler also doesn't know which path leads to heaven and which one will lead them to hell.

So how should the traveler think through this problem to take the correct path?

To clarify this let's start by assuming you (the reader here) knows that the path to the left leads to hell and the path to the right leads to heaven for the sake of discussion.

Now knowing this you also know that one of the men is a liar and cannot be trusted while the other is a truth teller and can be trusted, but you don't know which.

The way you (or the traveler) can find the correct path to get you to heaven is to approach one man at a time and ask him which direction the OTHER man would tell you to go in order for you to get to HEAVEN.

Given that the liar will lie he would say that the OTHER man would tell you to take the path to the left (the path to hell).

Given that the truth teller will tell you the truth he would say that the OTHER man would tell you to take the path to the left (the path to hell).

Therefore you know that the path to HEAVEN is on the path to the right.

This is a brilliant logical model for working through a difficult scenario. Keep this in mind.

The Wrap Up

Remember that the space between the truth and lies is a massive battlefield. Everyday there are forces that are fighting for that space in order to control a narrative so that you remain paralyzed in a state of confusion. 

This state of confusion allows very powerful and very bad actors to shape narratives that allow them to exert more control over your mind and your body unless you master the ability of discernment.

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Those who are able to see beyond the shadows and lies of their culture will never be understood, let alone believed, by the masses.--Plato

The most liberating reality pill that you can swallow is realizing that your life is yours and that you are in the driver’s seat to control your decisions and to direct yourself on ANY path you want along your journey as long as you can hold breath in your lungs. 

Now when I make this statement it’s a central component and has been a long standing pillar of American culture, or at least it has been for my entire life, but the culture is changing.  Granted this is ONLY true, as long as enough people within an existing population agree on this social contract by possessing the individual awareness and mindset to live their lives as “the owners” of their lives. 

Pay attention to that word awareness that I used in that last sentence. I will come back to that here in a bit, but for the time being put it on a holding shelf. 

So does this mean being the owner of your life will be easy? No. 

Does this mean being the owner of your  life will be perfect? No. 

Does this mean your life will have consequences based on your choices? Yes, and that’s the point. 

So what do I mean when I talk about this “social contract?” 

When I speak of accepting your life as yours it means that if you believe that, as I do, that you will think, walk, act, and live your life in such a way that you “own” everything in your universe whether that universe is made up of successes, failures, and everything in between. 

If you accept this then you MUST live it out in this way when it comes to every aspect of your life. You must embody this in every possible way from your political beliefs, to how you run your business, to what you teach your kids, to who you support etc. because if you don’t live as the “owner of your life” then you WILL allow someone, or something else in your life to assume that role for you. 

In fact, if you detract from this notion that you are the sole owner then you’ll create an alternative environment and that vacuum will fill with bad actors who exist for the sole purpose of being the owner of your life for you. 

If you have an ounce of intellectual honesty then you have recognized this with the aggressive push society has allowed towards us living underneath a totalitarian regime in the past couple of years. 

The more society allows itself to be told to stay home, to follow non-scientific guidelines, to take certain medical treatments without good reason, etc. then society is giving up on that social contract I mentioned earlier by signaling and setting the precedent that it’s ok for someone else to be acting as the “owner” of your life. 

It’s really simple. If you want to be the owner of your life then act like it. 

Your Sixth Sense

If you’ve read any of my articles, or have previously listened to this podcast then you know that my professional background has involved a twenty plus year career in the fitness industry. I currently run my fitness business and am a strength and conditioning coach that has trained people for fitness, as well as for performance in the realm of athletics in nearly every sport imaginable. 

I’ve been at this game for a long time and having honed my skills as a coach that deals with the body and human performance it’s safe to say that I have learned a thing or two over my lifetime about the human body and what it’s capable of doing. 

As I’m going over this you’re already familiar with some of the basic human functions as it relates to your five primary senses. 

As a quick reminder you’re familiar with your senses involving taste, smell, touch, hearing, and sight. However, are you aware of your sixth sense? 

Believe it or not you have a sixth sense, but I will tell you that your sixth sense, along with many others, has been dulled by our modern society and this dulling of your sixth sense, like the dulling of minds, is intentional. 

So what do I mean when I say you have a sixth sense? 

Your sixth sense is what is known is proprioception. You see within your muscles, joints, and tendons you have proprioceptors which are sensory receptors that signal external feedback to you from your environment. This function works so that you understand the location of your body in relation to other people and other things in space. 

This is a key sense to have so that you don’t accidentally run into things and people when moving in space on a day to day basis. Now this may seem obvious, but many people’s sense of proprioception has been dulled in our society since the advent of technology along with the modern era of cellphones, the laptop, and desktop careers that now make up a large part of our modern way of living. 

Basically your sixth sense of proprioception is your key sense of awareness. There’s that word awareness again that I said I would eventually come back to address. 

You see, even though you have the ability of the sixth sense of proprioception this doesn’t mean that yours will work well unless you understand how to hone it. In order to optimize your mind and body you must FIRST possess awareness. 

You see this is the problem with our modern society as too many people lack both physical and mental awareness when it comes to the environment that they live in. 

If you don’t believe me I’ll illustrate the significance of my point here. I want you to be a little patient with me because I’m going to give you an example of a person who would have a low level and dulled sense of proprioception while at the same time giving you some examples of people with a high level of proprioceptive awareness.  

Let’s start by using the recent Christmas holiday season as a primary example of examining an environment where you would likely encounter someone with a low level of proprioceptive awareness. 

At some point during your life I’m sure you’ve made your way inside of a shopping mall during the Christmas holiday season. Like me you may have not been the most enthusiastic individual for having to venture into the mall environment, but you did it out of the spirit of giving so like me you’ve found yourself inside the hectic shopping jungle known as the shopping mall. 

As you walked along the mall trying to find your way to your destination I’m sure you had to weave your way in and out of walking lanes while having to dodge other people along the way. If you’re like me you typically don’t want to waste a lot of time inside and want to get in and get out of the store as soon as possible. 

However, when you were walking through the mall ask yourself how many people blatantly and obliviously turned and walked directly into your lane, or even walked right into you? 

Ask yourself how many of these people were on their phones, or just simply lacked any awareness of their surroundings as they walked through the public venue? 

Furthermore, if you consider yourself a person that is highly aware of your environment ask yourself how frequently has this happened to you in a crowded place? 

I point this out as this is a common occurrence and is direct evidence of people with low proprioceptive awareness. Now as you’re sitting there when I say this you’re probably asking Brandon how can you make such an assumption based on that life experience? 

I would answer by saying that I can come to that conclusion like any critical thinker would draw their conclusions. The way we do this is by comparing polar opposite elements of the equation.

In this particular assessment you and I can observe what many might define as average everyday people (Like at the mall on Christmas) while also observing how other high performance people act in other crowded environments.  

For instance, if you carefully watch a defensive back in a football game cover a wide receiver you’ll see a guy that can back pedal and maneuver his body across the field of play while not even having to necessarily look at where he’s going. 

The defensive back in this example can maneuver his body across the field without bumping into anyone and to cover a wide receiver because he has a high level of proprioceptive awareness. The defensive back knows exactly where his body is in space in relation to referees and other players on the field. The defensive back is aware of his environment. 

If that example isn’t good enough then consider the next example. I guarantee you if you’ve ever been around a military serviceman that came back from a war zone and observed them in a crowded space you would see an individual who has a level of proprioceptive awareness that’s even greater than the football defensive back. Their sixth sense is fully honed and engaged. 

If you still don’t believe me about your sixth sense then the next time you go out in public to a restaurant, or coffee shop try the following experiment, but please don’t get busted on exhibiting too much of the “creeper vibe” and end up blaming this one on me. 

The next time you sit down at a local coffee shop, or cafe simply pick someone else out in the room that is also sitting, especially if they are turned away from you. Once you find this person simply lock your eyes onto them and stare at them without turning away. 

I guarantee you that if you do this long enough eventually the person that you’re staring at will turn and look in your direction. People know if they are being watched or followed and depending on the level of their proprioceptive awareness they will come to that conclusion faster or slower compared to everyone else. 

A person with a high level of awareness will turn and look in your direction a lot sooner than a person with a lower level of awareness. 

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From Awareness of Your Body To Awareness of Your Mind

So I began this episode by pointing out the significance of living your life as the “owner” of your life and that in order to do that successfully that society must have a social contract coupled with individuals accepting that and living that responsibility daily. 

Additionally we’ve also established that you do in fact have a sixth sense, but that sixth sense is something that you must hone because the structure of modern society has dulled this sense due to our modern lifestyles. 

Just like you can have a dulled physical sixth sense in terms of your proprioceptive awareness, or lack thereof, you can also have a dulled mental sense of awareness in terms of failing to recognize the challenges and structure of society as it has an impact on your daily life. 

You’re not a wartime consigliere, Tom. Things may get rough with the move we’re trying.--Michael Corleone 

That quote from the legendary movie The Godfather is emblematic of the environment we’re currently living in here in 2022. Once again, I come back to the significance of one being able to recognize the environment they’re in as being central to how one should look at making decisions that they may not normally make. 

In The Godfather movie the scene with that quote comes from Michael Corleone as he points this out to Tom Hagen, the family consigliere, when the environment changed for the family as they slipped into a hostile wartime environment with some of the other competing crime families. The problem we’re having now in our current society is that many people aren’t recognizing this current environment is an environment of war. 

Granted, what we’re experiencing in our current situation is what is known as Fifth Generation Warfare. Fifth Generation Warfare is defined as non-kinetic war activity that is instead carried out by misinformation, cyber attacks, and social engineering which is executed by major institutions in media, academia, entertainment, and even science and medical organizations. 

We are having to deal with an onslaught of propaganda both from foreign agents, but what’s worse is that the onslaught of disinformation that is attacking our society comes from our own legacy media outlets. 

The current news cycle has honed its messaging to directly dull and soften society’s ability and sense of awareness much like the modern cellphone has dulled society’s sixth sense as I demonstrated earlier with my Christmas time mall shopping example. 

In fact, many studies have been reported for years that demonstrate just how much the human attention span has diminished in the last 15 years. Back in 2000 the average attention span of a human was said to be around 12 seconds where we fast forward to today and it has fallen to just above 8 seconds. 

By that metric we as human beings have an attention span that has fallen below that of a goldfish. Think about that. 

Furthermore, the legacy media is great at spitting out catchy headlines that grab one’s attention, but at the same time delivers a framed narrative to keep people’s attention just enough so that they don’t go investigating a story, or bother to challenge that narrative by taking a deeper dive below the surface into the information that’s being presented. 

In fact, those studies that I mentioned regarding the human attention span are well documented by professional marketers in the arena of digital marketing. Anyone with any critical thinking skill can understand why marketers would have to be privy to such information because a good marketer is great at creating and delivering catchy headlines in order to convert prospects into paying customers when promoting a particular product. Keep in mind a good marketer doesn't have to be an honest marketer, they just have to be effective. The legacy media understands this very well. 

The question you have to ask yourself is that if you weren’t aware of that information concerning the human attention span while professional marketers were aware of it then how much are you actually diving below the surface to challenge a legacy media talking point that pushes a particular narrative that eventually (typically after a long period of time) ends up being debunked?

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The problem is that once a dishonest legacy media narrative is pushed out in front of society and is accepted by a significant portion of the population it can do a lot of damage before the debunking of the narrative catches up to the falsehood. 

The Wrap Up

If you are going to live in a thriving environment then you MUST be willing to own your life. If you cannot accept this premise then you are feeding the development of an ecosystem that is failing our society and will lead you down the Road to Perdition. 

Skepticism along with physical and mental awareness are the keys to you being able to survive and thrive in a chaotic environment. If you are someone who is becoming more aware that we are actually living in a wartime environment then you are sharpening your mental and physical sixth sense. 

If you are still having a difficult time with seeing what others are skeptical about in terms of being critical of Marxist ideals and Woke culture then I would encourage you to continue reading and following this show along with other recommended readings that I share here on my Substack blog. 

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Today’s guest is Kelli Russell.

Kelli Russell is a psychological kinesiologist who helps you find inner freedom by releasing underlying stress and trauma and positively reprogramming your subconscious mind so that you can move forward with clarity, purpose, and confidence, making your life a lot more enjoyable. 

Make sure you connect with Kelli here:

Instagram

Facebook

Second Facebook

YouTube

Website: Rapid Transformation Sessions

Also for my listeners Kelli is offering a 25% off of any sessions with coupon code BR25

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I hope you enjoyed today’s podcast.

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Individual freedom comes at a price. 

The price comes with the consequences of our choices, but the beauty of freedom is that in its truest form you don’t have the restrictions imposed on you when making the choices for your life that you want to make. I’ll take the consequences all day long if I am free from imposed restrictions. 

In order to apply this to our lives you and I must first understand this concept of reality and philosophically get our arms around it before we can put it into application. This is the problem with modern thinking in our society as many people fail at the order of operations when applying such a strategy to their own lives. We’ll not make that mistake here as this is the goal and intention of this podcast and blog and today I’ll use this episode as a means to communicate the philosophical plan behind the plan that is designed to commandeer both yours and my life. 

This is something I’ve always been aware of because it has historically been the plan in failing authoritarian regimes throughout history, but in this piece I have specifically titled the aspect of  this plan The Regression Manifesto. 

When it comes to restrictions you MUST understand how this game of life works as it applies to how restrictions can impact your life specifically. The way it works is that anytime you have the formation of a law you are at risk of lending some element of control of your life over to someone else in almost every single case. 

You see, the problem with our society, particularly here in the U.S., is that we’ve grown into being a lazy society. Aside from nurturing a cultural environment that invites all out indoctrination, laziness and complacency has also created a culture of apathy within our society. 

So you may be asking “Why is this a problem?” 

This is a problem because with apathy you now create an unusual ecosystem and atmosphere that allows for authoritarians to root in, to grow, and to abuse others without accountability or pushback because people choose NOT to be concerned. 

It’s important for us to understand that this is a very dangerous environment because with apathy there’s no interest from the population to hold anyone to a standard of societal ethics, let alone accountability when it comes to the equal application of the law itself. This eventually leads to the collapse of civilization, but I’ll take a second here to touch on the progression, or more appropriately the regression of how all of these dominoes progressively start to fall so that we can put a stop to the dominoes toppling before it’s too late.  

As this problem grows so does the active bullying of the authoritarians that seek power in the arenas of corporate cronyism and the government itself just as we see now in our current modern society. As more and more of the population grows lazy and apathetic the authoritarians grow their power and control until one day the bully decides to start pushing really hard against the citizenry. 

Even at this point the apathetic start to realize there’s a big problem. However, the dilemma here is that the apathetic only begin to awaken after they’ve allowed the problem to grow to a point that it makes finding a solution to that problem extremely difficult. 

My task and purpose here is to give you my insight on matters such as this not only to give you the philosophical understanding of how this cycle repeats itself in societies at large, but to also serve as an alarm of awareness to wake you up to this realization so that you can take the appropriate actions now in your life to be a renegade and a game changer for your own life and by extension your community. Here we’re working to be an effective informational vaccine if you will for apathy and Marxist indoctrination by not only explaining The Regression Manifesto, but by also offering the remedy to stop it in its tracks and to reverse its course. 

Softening Of The Body: The First Element To Control You

“Physical fitness is not only one of the most important keys to a healthy body, it is the basis of dynamic and creative intellectual activity.”--John F. Kennedy

After WWII the American way of life drastically changed due to the economy and way of living transforming for most Americans. Due to the advent of additional technology such as the television and the systems of Mechanization farmers weren’t in the fields as much and the physical labor wasn’t as demanding on both the farmers and with workers in factories across the country. 

To demonstrate how lazy our current society has gotten back during that time in the early 1950’s the culture was vastly different because there was a widespread concern about how negatively these societal changes would impact the health and fitness of U.S. citizens. As a result many Americans were really concerned, particularly for the younger citizens, of becoming overweight and out of shape. 

Fast forward to now and culturally here in 2022 if we bring up such a concern we’re attacked, labeled, and accused of fat shaming. We’re lectured about not being understanding and respectful of enough of other people’s feelings. My point here is that this is the complete opposite of progression and in reality is the definition of regression. Considering we’re living in Orwellian times and factoring in the destruction of words, as such, the true meaning of progressivism in 2022 is actually regression. 

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President Eisenhower established the President's Council on Youth Fitness with Executive Order 10673, which was issued on July 16, 1956 (Source: John F. Kennedy Presidential Library & Museum). However, later on President John F. Kennedy would take the challenge to a whole new level after he discovered an old executive order from President Teddy Roosevelt where he challenged his Marines to complete a 50 mile hike in twenty hours.  

It wasn’t a mandate on the general public, but the 50 mile hike challenge was voluntarily accepted by the public to be a physical challenge directly from their president which got a grassroots movement going throughout many communities at the time. 

Furthermore in the school years of 1961-1962 there was a huge push by public enthusiasm that contributed to a new physical curriculum program through a well backed media effort to ignite enthusiasm on fitness for the youth of America. As a result the council was renamed the Council on Physical Fitness, and would later become the President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports. This council would end up adding new programs and awards and enlarging existing programs in later administrations.

So why do I bring all of this up? 

Well first of all, I believe that good leadership at the highest levels of government is reflected in its citizenry. During that time the country was coming out of WWII and in a stronger place with the economic and community developments that we were making. We were making some big achievements especially when we look at and examine the culture of physical fitness during that time especially when we take a moment to compare it to the problematic environment of negative health concerns that exists in our society today. 

In contrast, the President’s physical fitness test ended in 2013 and with the advent of newer  proprioceptive sensory killing  technology such as the smartphone and apps like Tik Tok, video gaming addiction, and an education system geared towards indoctrination and victimhood we have managed to actively contribute to the poor health and obesity rate here in the states. Meanwhile as the obesity rates are soaring  the I.Q. 's of our youth today continues to plummet.  

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According to the CDC between 2017 and 2020 the obesity rate of the U.S population is around 41%. Here we are in 2022 staring down at 2023 and there’s no light on the horizon when it comes to getting that number down anytime soon unless there’s another major cultural transformation in our society like the one I just mentioned in the early 1960’s. 

As a result of all of this we have a bastardized and corrupted healthcare system that we are becoming more and more dependent on as a society. Furthermore, as mine and your dependence on these institutions  grow, so do these institutions while they simultaneously are commandeering more and more areas of our lives. They’re doing this from the standpoint of financial costs to now going so far as to dictate where we work, where we travel, and what we put into our bodies. 

Softening Of The Mind: The Second Element To Control You

The softening of the body does result in a soft mind. However, to establish further control over a citizenry then one must go directly after controlling the mind itself. 

The good news is that we can already look to see how this has already been done by taking a look at the past. To recognize how so many societies have fallen victim to authoritarian, or totalitarian, rule one doesn’t have to look far when examining the power of propaganda and indoctrination. 

As a classic example right here and now I never would’ve believed that George Orwell’s fictional novel 1984 would have actually become nonfiction in our current modern day society. It’s an incredible thing to observe when the legacy media just outright lies directly to us when they cover a controversial political topic. 

The lies are thrown at the public on such a widespread and consistent basis that some people actually start questioning reality. In psychology this is what is known as gaslighting. 

So what are some examples of this? 

Well there are so many examples where do I even start? 

When examining this today the media will gaslight and lie directly about many stories to support a narrative particularly when they are caught in a controversial lie regarding every single narrative that they push.  

As a concrete example of how they pull a page from Orwell’s 1984 playbook let’s look at what Orwell refers to as the destruction of words and how our modern day legacy media consistently engages in this on a day to day basis. 

For instance, as a recent example the press staff attempted  to change the definition of the word recession when referring to the health of the economy. 

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Why do they do this? 

They do it because when they advocate for failed economic policies, or for any failed policy for that matter, it ends up being a huge embarrassment to them. 

However, in this post modern society that we live in none of these people are going to admit that they are wrong and simply offer up an apology to the American people for their lack of intellect and their completely broken and incorrect world views. If you currently believe that’s going to happen then you’re simply pollyannaish and you yourself could be falling victim to the gaslighting echo chamber of ignoring reality. 

The true definition of a recession is two consecutive quarters of economic contraction and declining real GDP. The nation’s GDP fell to 1.6% during the first quarter of 2022. This was then followed by a .9% drop in the second quarter. This is the very definition of a recession and this doesn’t even factor in the 40 year record high inflation into the discussion. 

Not only did the Biden regime lie about the economy not being in a recession, but they looked the American people in the eyes and attempted to change the definition of the word itself. At this moment they took it a step beyond gaslighting and pushed us into the realm of being full blown Orwellian. 

You see in George Orwell’s 1984 every citizen was under the watchful eye and forceful boot of Big Brother. Big brother watched, controlled, and endlessly indoctrinated the citizenry. You can see how this is currently happening with Big Tech, Big Banks, and Big Medical starting to crack down on us in this modern era as we’ve seen the past two years to draw a quick real life comparison. 

Back to Orwell’s 1984 in the event that an individual happened to have a thought of his or her own they ran the risk of being accused of committing a Thought Crime, therefore they were labeled a Thought Criminal. 

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As a quick reminder of the significance of this as it applies to our current situation in American life Big Brother is forcefully and intentionally changing the rules of reality on the fly because they must continue to indoctrinate those that can be indoctrinated. 

Furthermore they must continue to try and run cover for themselves from those that are in their view Thought Criminals. Those of us that refuse to be caught in the Orwellian trap are what they consider to be Thought Criminals and are working to expose them every single day…such as yours truly. 

With that being said in Orwell’s 1984 Big Brother accuses the protagonist Winston Smith of being a Thought Criminal. 

With this accusation Winston knows the punishment is going to be harsh as Big Brother must break his mind by torturing his body. Once again here we can see the significance of the softening of the body to get to the mind formula. This is part of the process in order to achieve regression as in the process of breaking down the body one’s mind will follow along with the spirit which forces an individual to fall victim into a more dependent state. 

As Orwell demonstrates in this harrowing situation with Winston and the state representative it’s clearly revealed what the goal is of the state representative when questioning Winston during his struggle session. 

At one point deep into the torment the representative asked Winston what the answer was to the math problem 2+2? 

Winston replies that the answer is clearly 4. The state representative then tells Winston that he’s wrong because the state says that 2+2=5, therefore further reeducation was necessary. This meant further torture was necessary. 

The Wrap Up

When looking at what I refer to as the Regression Manifesto it is a rather simple formula that Big Brother always looks to employ in order to establish a more authoritarian control over the citizenry by creating an ecosystem and environment that is designed and intended to not only halt the progress of its people, but to set them on a course of regression over a period of time. 

This regression campaign takes place on multiple fronts which expands out from the major institutional authorities of society ranging from the cultural influence of the healthcare apparatus, the public education apparatus, the media apparatus, the entertainment apparatus, the technological apparatus, and the entirety of the government apparatus itself.  

After achieving more and more centralized authority the next step that Big Brother will look to is leveraging that central authority by using it in any way that it can in order to soften your body and your mind. 

To soften your body the idea is to make you more and more dependent on a modern corrupted and bastardized healthcare system. Additionally it works with Big Business to create an influence operation to push your physical and mental dependence on unhealthy food, drugs, and an indoctrination system (otherwise known as the public education system) to keep you and I in line with the rules that Big Brother chooses to make for us, instead of what rules we can make for ourselves. 

Furthermore, in order to entrap your mind the goal is to maintain a steady trickle of propaganda that eventually transitions from being a disinformation campaign into a full blown Orwellian Newspeak organization that speeds up to a flood. 

It’s my belief that we are at the point of the flood right now which is exactly why this podcast and blog exist.

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