The year is 2030. Forget about the flying cars, robot maids, and moving sidewalks we were promised. They’re not happening. But that doesn’t mean the future is a total unknown.
According to a startling Pentagon video obtained by The Intercept, the future of global cities will be an amalgam of the settings of “Escape from New York” and “Robocop” — with dashes of the “Warriors” and “Divergent” thrown in. It will be a world of Robert Kaplan-esque urban hellscapes — brutal and anarchic supercities filled with gangs of youth-gone-wild, a restive underclass, criminal syndicates, and bands of malicious hackers.
At least that’s the scenario outlined in “Megacities: Urban Future, the Emerging Complexity,” a five-minute video that has been used at the Pentagon’s Joint Special Operations University. All that stands between the coming chaos and the good people of Lagos and Dhaka (or maybe even New York City) is the U.S. Army, according to the video, which The Intercept obtained via the Freedom of Information Act.
“Megacities: Urban Future, the Emerging Complexity,” a video created by the Army and used at the Pentagon’s Joint Special Operations University.
The video is nothing if not an instant dystopian classic: melancholy music, an ominous voiceover, and cascading images of sprawling slums and urban conflict. “Megacities are complex systems where people and structures are compressed together in ways that defy both our understanding of city planning and military doctrine,” says a disembodied voice. “These are the future breeding grounds, incubators, and launching pads for adversaries and hybrid threats.”
The video was used as part of an “Advanced Special Operations Combating Terrorism” course offered at JSOU earlier this year, for a lesson on “The Emerging Terrorism Threat.” JSOU is operated by U.S. Special Operations Command, the umbrella organization for America’s most elite troops. JSOU describes itself as geared toward preparing special operations forces “to shape the future strategic environment by providing specialized joint professional military education, developing SOF specific undergraduate and graduate level academic programs and by fostering special operations research.”
Megacities are, by definition, urban areas with a population of 10 million or more, and they have been a recent source of worry and research for the U.S. military. A 2014 Army report, titled “Megacities and the United States Army,” warned that “the Army is currently unprepared. Although the Army has a long history of urban fighting, it has never dealt with an environment so complex and beyond the scope of its resources.” A separate Army study published this year bemoans the fact that the “U.S. Army is incapable of operating within the megacity.”
These fears are reflected in the hyperbolic “Megacities” video.
As the film unfolds, we’re bombarded with an apocalyptic list of ills endemic to this new urban environment: “criminal networks,” “substandard infrastructure,” “religious and ethnic tensions,” “impoverishment, slums,” “open landfills, over-burdened sewers,” and a “growing mass of unemployed.” The list, as long as it is grim, accompanies photos of garbage-choked streets, masked rock throwers, and riot cops battling protesters in the developing world. “Growth will magnify the increasing separation between rich and poor,” the narrator warns as the scene shifts to New York City. Looking down from a high vantage point on Third Avenue, we’re left to ponder if the Army will one day find itself defending the lunchtime crowd dining on $57 “NY Cut Sirloin” steaks at (the plainly visible) Smith and Wollensky.
Lacking opening and closing credits, the provenance of “Megacities” was initially unclear, with SOCOM claiming the video was produced by JSOU, before indicating it was actually created by the Army. “It was made for an internal military audience to illuminate the challenges of operating in megacity environments,” Army spokesperson William Layer told The Intercept in an email. “The video was privately produced pro-bono in spring of 2014 based on ‘Megacities and the United States Army.’… The producer of the film wishes to remain anonymous.”
According to the video, tomorrow’s vast urban jungles will be replete with “subterranean labyrinths” governed by their “own social code and rule of law.” They’ll also enable a proliferation of “digital domains” that facilitate “sophisticated illicit economies and decentralized syndicates of crime to give adversaries global reach at an unprecedented level.” If the photo montage in the video is to be believed, hackers will use outdoor electrical outlets to do grave digital damage, such as donning Guy Fawkes masks and filming segments of “Anonymous News.” This, we’re told, will somehow “add to the complexities of human targeting as a proportionally smaller number of adversaries intermingle with the larger and increasing number of citizens.”
“Megacities” posits that despite the lessons learned from the ur-urban battle at Aachen, Germany, in 1944, and the city-busting in Hue, South Vietnam, in 1968, the U.S. military is fundamentally ill-equipped for future battles in Lagos or Dhaka.
“Even our counterinsurgency doctrine, honed in the cities of Iraq and the mountains of Afghanistan, is inadequate to address the sheer scale of population in the future urban reality,” the film notes, as if the results of two futile forever wars might possibly hold the keys to future success. “We are facing environments that the masters of war never foresaw,” warns the narrator. “We are facing a threat that requires us to redefine doctrine and the force in radically new and different ways.”
Mike Davis, author of “Planet of Slums” and “Buda’s Wagon: A Brief History of the Car Bomb,” was not impressed by the video.
“This is a fantasy, the idea that there is a special military science of megacities,” he said. “It’s simply not the case. … They seem to envision large cities with slum peripheries governed by antagonistic gangs, militias, or guerrilla movements that you can somehow fight using special ops methods. In truth, that’s pretty far-fetched. … You only have to watch ‘Black Hawk Down’ and scale that up to the kind of problems you would have if you were in Karachi, for example. You can do special ops on a small-scale basis, but it’s absurd to imagine it being effective as any kind of strategy for control of a megacity.”
The U.S. military appears unlikely to heed Davis’s advice, however.
“This is the world of our future,” warns the narrator of “Megacities.” “It is one we are not prepared to effectively operate within and it is unavoidable. The threat is clear. Our direction remains to be defined. The future is urban.”
Dredd on Sun, 16th Oct 2016 11:28 am
See you in the camps (The 1% May Face The Wrath of Sea Level Rise First).
Cloggie on Sun, 16th Oct 2016 11:33 am
It is obvious that the admin(s) is/are spelling Davy’s posts.
Kenz300 on Sun, 16th Oct 2016 11:33 am
Too many people create too much pollution and demand too many resources
China made great progress in moving its people out of poverty One reason was slowing population growth.
If you can not provide for yourself you can not provide for a child.
CLIMATE CHANGE, declining fish stocks, droughts, floods, air water and land pollution, poverty, water and food shortages all stem from the worlds worst environmental problem OVER POPULATION.
Yet the world adds 80 million more mouths to feed, clothe, house and provide energy and water for every year… this is unsustainable… and is a big part of the Climate Change problem
Birth Control Permanent Methods: Learn About Effectiveness
http://www.emedicinehealth.com/birth_control_permanent_methods/article_em.htm
rockman on Sun, 16th Oct 2016 11:36 am
“According to a startling Pentagon video obtained by The Intercept…”. Startling??? I guess the folks at The Intersept have never seen a report on Detroit, Athens etc. Who knows how many $millions the Pentagon paid consultants to make that film. Could have just put a bunch of clips together they could have pulled off the net for free. LOL.
Go Speed Racer on Sun, 16th Oct 2016 11:36 am
So, move out to the country, to the farmland.
Now what have you got?
Toothless angry religious Donald Trump voters,
with pitchforks, torches, and shotguns.
How is that better than the city?
Cloggie on Sun, 16th Oct 2016 11:49 am
PARIS 2016: Scenes from the Apocalypse – African Mass Immigration ruins Streets of France:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ek1ENuEyWHE
This is the dystopian future of all western cities if we don’t radically change course.
the U.S. military is fundamentally ill-equipped for future battles in Lagos or Dhaka.
Why would the US army want to fight in Lagos or Dhaka??!! Incurable globalists, these folks in the Pentagon.
Pentagon video reminds me of the 2010 German Army video over the potential dystopian consequences of “peak oil” (still remember that concept?) as of 2020:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZyUe7w1gDZo
penury on Sun, 16th Oct 2016 12:08 pm
All right the future looks terrible.I am a firm believer that collapse is a certainty. But the result of the collapse is still in doubt, WWIII or just decay and rot. I am afraid the answer is yes. We shall have both but the timing will be the key and at this point whos on first?
Hello on Sun, 16th Oct 2016 12:09 pm
Ape/raghead immigration to europe seem unstoppable. Will europe wake up in time or is it too late?
Cloggie on Sun, 16th Oct 2016 12:10 pm
French author Jean Raspail saw it all coming as early as 1973 in his “Camp of the Saints”:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Camp_of_the_Saints
His vision is now becoming reality. The author interviewed in 2011 (English subs):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DW7s9Qi72dk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5pdk7OiqgM
The real avalanche began in 2015.
As long as we remain (secular) Christians, we are doomed in the long run.
As The Beatles sang: “Happiness Is A Warm Gun”
The only long term solution is that after WW3 (if someone is still alive by that time), the great Eurasian powers make a plan for Africa and recolonize it, with physical presence, in return for African resources and birth control program.
Hello on Sun, 16th Oct 2016 12:16 pm
Is it too late? Or does liberal, spineless europe get what it deserves? It almost seems like.
Northwest Resident on Sun, 16th Oct 2016 12:18 pm
By the time it gets that bad in the mega-cities, it will be just as bad everywhere else. It isn’t just mega-cities that will see strong militia and other groups who are not adverse to using violence to assert their dominance. In America, there are geographical areas where the locals are itching to band together, “purify” the ethnic mix in their locale, and give a big middle finger to any government authority who tries to stop them. There will be religious zealots who mobilize their acolytes to “spread the religion” and to enforce their “morals” on others in their area. A lot of already-existing criminal gangs in the mega-cities will expand their reach into the suburban and outlying areas to the maximum extent possible.
The U.S. military is of course aware of all these probabilities and have been preparing to contain domestic threats for quite a while now. The militarization of police departments and of Homeland Security and of other government agencies is all due to an acute awareness of what is coming down the pipeline.
But they’ll be spread thin, real thin. I imagine they will concentrate their security efforts on strategic areas — nuclear power plants, oil production/refining/transport, key industries, etc. — and let the rest go to dog-eat-dog. But that’s just a guess. They may have something more elaborate planned — one can only hope.
Anonymous on Sun, 16th Oct 2016 1:56 pm
RoFL, the uS military, or whats left of it, will likely be fighting in its own decaying amerikan mega-cities in 2030. Not in South Vietnam’s, or China, or Russia or anywhere else the pentopticon dreams of uS ‘force projection’.
Kenz300 on Sun, 16th Oct 2016 2:19 pm
People would not want to immigrate and leave their homes if life was good.
Unemployment, crime, pollution, wars and poverty are reasons for leaving.
The worlds poorest people are having the most children. They have not figured out the connection between their poverty and family size.
Endless population growth is not sustainable. If you can not provide for yourself you can not provide for a child.
Birth Control Permanent Methods: Learn About Effectiveness
http://www.emedicinehealth.com/birth_control_permanent_methods/article_em.htm
FNORD on Sun, 16th Oct 2016 3:06 pm
Future events such as these will affect you in the future.
Anonymous on Sun, 16th Oct 2016 3:16 pm
Yes, Kenzparrot. We know the poor are too stupid to figure the connection between their poverty and family size.
Instead of telling us about it here(for the 1000th time or so, we get IT). I have a better suggestion.
Why dont you hit the road, and visit the worlds shitholes, Africa, India, Missouri, w/e, and tell them yourself? I mean, you’ve only reminded us a 1000 times or so here, and whatever good its going to do here (none), youd think your message would be better received by the people you are actually talking about.
So, grab your bible, and a crate of condoms, and get out there and start preaching your message of ‘You’re poor, you’re stupid, and you’re having too many kids. Im sure your message will be well-received by the world’s downtrodden. Seeing as how they are all too dumb to figure it out on their own, having some dim-witted amerikan asshole tell them that to their faces is probably just what they need.
PS take boat and plantatard with you when you go would you? And maybe the exceptionalist as well. He can preach the virtues of amerikan goodness and purity while you are explaining to your target audience how poor and stupid they are. Be a good fit.
peakyeast on Sun, 16th Oct 2016 4:32 pm
USA and the West in general has completely dysfunctional deMOCKracies. Of course, this complete lack of coherence, honesty, decency and the will to lead in the governments will bring chaos.
I think Manning is a good example of how sick the US government has become. The government is caught in lies and random murders – and instead of fixing the problem they fight to avoid doing ANYTHING – even venturing further and inflicting both unreasonable levels of punishment (where reward should have been given) and direct torture and punishments to push people into suicide. In Denmark we have our own similar disgusting cases. I think most of the west has prosecuted, killed or otherwise destroyed those 1 in a million people who has REAL decency and honesty.
The people involved in those cases against the whistleblowers truly deserve to be killed. And I will readilly volunteer for the job.
In France they have already realized where these things are going… And still they import useless breeders…
https://www.rt.com/news/362507-france-national-guard-terrorism/
“France has approved legislation to create a National Guard as the government struggles to battle the terrorist threat. The guard is expected to include up to 85,000 service personnel by 2018. ”
85000… To combat a few terrorists? Not bloody likely. This is for something ENTIRELY different. Like a civil war.
Thank you cosmopolitans of Europe. You are mentally deficient and you cant even change your ideologies when they fucking blow up in your own ass.
This is truly leadership of the fossilized old people that cannot and will not update their world view.
The international refugee convention (amongst others) is clearly outdated – made in literally another era and world. They are NOT valid anymore and hasnt been for 20 years. Yet they are not being discussed and updated.
joe on Mon, 17th Oct 2016 1:02 am
The answer for large city warfare is there is none. The video answers its own question. Sun Tzu, avoid or besiege. Do not attack for the enemy is too big. Mosul is an example of whats coming. Its too big for one army, so they need to get several armies that are otherwise enemies too attack a pointless city. Then the victors will fight each other for control, its a waste of time. Aleppo is another, it was first under siege by civilians (the protestors), then al qaeda/isis went in and infiltrated the revolution and besieged the alawite portion hoping to get US help, it nearly worked until Russia stopped them, now al qaeda /isis are besieged and suffering, they use human sheilds and prevent the children from leaving making sure that every child is on camera when the tunnels under peoples homes is pulverised. It is so sad and in the end, so futile, humanity will not succeed.
oracle on Mon, 17th Oct 2016 7:25 am
What’s remarkable is the ability of humans to find ways to supply such dense populations. And as long as the system can keep supplying and sustaining such population densities, they will persist.
The human story is a tragedy — its inventiveness ultimately will lead to its own demise.
Grand Vizer on Mon, 17th Oct 2016 7:43 pm
Anonymous = Makati ?
makati1 on Mon, 17th Oct 2016 9:01 pm
GV, not likely. Makati1 is Makati1. No clones. No copies. One Makati1 in this world is enough. According to some, too many. Ask some of my detractors. LOL
Davy on Tue, 18th Oct 2016 4:20 am
Makati, you don’t have to have detractors. This is what you want. It gives you a sick pleasure. I have said for many years now we have much in common. If you would only show respect for others on this board and not make our daily experience one of you wishing war and claiming superiority. I don’t need constantly to be told my efforts are wrong and yours right. Most of us who are regulars are here because there is a degree of truth being revealed here. We are on to something and we know this because of who visits. We know this because over time the truth is revealed and with these revelations new mystery.
Moderation, empathy, and support are the hallmarks of community. We are in a small way a community here. Many of us here have a foot in and out of the status quo. We have few in our immediate world that share our more enlightened but alternative view of the world. The status quo is the most powerful human force I have ever experienced. If gives me life but it also threatens everything I have come to know as good. I am living a surreal existence of imagining what is next and trying to lay a foundation in a small way for a new and different future at the same time I try to survive in an increasing bizarre world of paradoxes. This is a world like Charles Dodgson’s “Alice in Wonderland”. We are living in a life gone mad. We can attempt to do what the leadership of the world can’t do and that is cooperate at a basic level with respect in the search of the truth. We can try to make sense of the madness.
We are not going to end our heated discussions, banter, and disagreements but we can share a belonging. Belonging is community and communities have some sort of framework for coexistence. Communities represent strength and are common in nature with higher level animals. Extremism, hate, and mental violence is not going to advance our community. We can acknowledge that many of us are old men who have had our asses kicked in life. Many of us have made it to an older age when so many we have known are gone. Those who are younger that are here are growing up fast and losing innocence and youth. This is the real deal it is not fantasy and it is not a joy ride. Too many young today are gone intellectually and emotionally. This is a societal issue and something we should fight. An army with high motivation is an army of strength. We are an army seeking truth.
You can laugh about what I said above. You can ridicule me but get a grip on what is ahead. Get a grip on what will be needed with what is ahead. Any of you that are not afraid of dying are not truly human. Any of you that don’t feel anxiety for your love ones who don’t have the same level of maturity as us have not advanced with human emotions. If you don’t agree with any of what I said above then you are here for purely narcissistic reasons. There are some psychopaths here who find pleasure in conflict and ridicule. There are also borderline personalities here. We all have mental illness and it is called modern life. In previous times mental illness was not allowed to progress very far. Your odds of survival from mental illness were much lower. Life was too demanding. If you were an alcoholic you died a younger death. Our way of life has allowed poor attitudes and behavior to advance much further than is healthy for a species.
Modern life has also given us a huge ability to meet as we are doing here with amazing tools at our instant disposal to explore life in deep contemplation. Let’s use these tools wisely in the advancement of wisdom. We are heading for what may be a very horrible time. Some may disagree with this but most will agree there are dangers ahead that could make life horrible. We can help humanity navigate this gauntlet of doom. This may be in our own small way but if everyone did this man would be less likely to visit disaster.
Davy on Tue, 18th Oct 2016 4:34 am
Transverse direction of humanities cooperation from tensions of the global and the local.
“Change Is As Necessary As It Is Impossible”: Deutsche Bank Explains Why The World Is At A Dead End”
http://tinyurl.com/zraebsf
“According to the DB strategist, having been repeatedly ignored for years as central banks took the reins in hopes of fixing the global economy, only to leave a world that is vastly better for the 1% and starkly worse for everyone else, “this has recently emerged as the main theme of public discourse.” More relevant, however, to the current presidential campaign, is the dead-end which as Kocic frames it, show “to what extent the Change is as necessary as it is politically impossible.”
“And while Kocic does not explicitly phrase it, the reality is that it is indeed globalization – with its focus on “global economic interests” – that has left ordinary people, affected by local issues, disenchanted and increasingly angry, to wit: “The underlying problem can be traced back to the fact that economic interests have become increasingly global while politics, the ability to decide, remained passionately local and, as such, unable to operate effectively at the planetary level.”
“The political landscape is no longer one-dimensional. Political manifold has developed a more complicated topology. In addition to the left and right, there is a “transverse” direction which represents the antagonism between the local and the global. This is illustrated in Fig 1. Double red lines represent antagonisms. The three corners are labeled metaphorically by the political representatives who had highest visibility during the campaign. Relative position of the three political expressions are no longer defined by the modes of proposed social organization (left/right), but also where they stand relative to the global capital interests. The two populist wings are opposed in terms of their preferred mode of social organization, but are unified in terms of their opposition to global capital as well as to the political center which is aligned with it. “
Davy on Tue, 18th Oct 2016 4:49 am
We have a Minsky Melt-up on our hands slowly unfolding into demand destruction and dysfunction.
“Financial Repression Is Now “In Play”
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-10-17/financial-repression-now-play
“A FALLING MARKET CANNOT BE ALLOWED – at any cost! The Central Bankers have clearly painted themselves into a corner as a result of their self-inflicted, extended period of “cheap money”. Their policies have fostered malinvestment , excessive leverage and a speculative casino approach to investments. Investors forced to take on excess risk for yield and scalp speculative investment returns, must operate in an unstable financial environment ripe for a major correction. A correction because of the high degree of market correlation that likely would be instantaneously contagious across all global financial markets.”
“Any correction more than 10% must be stopped. If Collateral Values were to fall with the excess financial leverage currently in place, it would create a domino effect of margin calls, counter-party risk and immediate withdrawals and flight to areas of perceived safety. The already massively underfunded pension sector (which is now beginning to experience the onslaught of baby boomers retiring) would see their remaining assets impaired. This could lead to social and political pressures that would be simply unmanageable for our policy leaders. A falling stock market is the surest way of alarming consumers and signaling that things are not as “OK” as the media mantra has continuously brain washed them into believing. In a 70% consumption economy, a worried consumer almost guarantees a further economic slowdown and a potential recession.”
“MARKETS TEMPORARILY HELD UP The markets are presently, temporarily held up due primarily to three factors: Historic levels of Corporate Stock Buybacks, The chasing of dividend paying stocks for investment yield in a NIRP environment, Unusual Foreign Central Bank buying (example: SNB)”
“The markets have become so correlated (think of this as everyone on the same side of the boat) with asset correlations not only being higher, but the correlations themselves are becoming more correlated. While traditionally rising cross-asset volatility has resulted in volatility spikes that is no longer the case due to outright vol suppression by central banks. While central banks may have given the superficial impression of stability by pressuring volatility, they have also collapsed liquidity in the process, leading to less liquid markets, a surge in “gaps”, and “jerky moves” that are typical of penny stocks. The greater the cross asset correlation, the lower the vol, the greater the repression, the more trading illiquidity and wider bid ask-spreads, and ultimately increased “gap risk”, which becomes a feedback loop of its own.”
peakyeast on Tue, 18th Oct 2016 5:02 am
@Davy: That flash trading is even allowed is a sure sign that the markets are not just rigged, but simply used as a sorta “tax” base.
But thanks for your comments here. I liked reading them.
peakyeast on Tue, 18th Oct 2016 5:04 am
@Davy: Oh and by the way: What you are doing is in the top 1% of right. 🙂
peakyeast on Tue, 18th Oct 2016 5:13 am
Actually I think we all on this board should be nicer to each others.
That we extensively use time to research, care about and discuss these subjects and on top of that has changed or are working to lessen our pressure on the earth at personal costs makes everybody here waaay better than the ordinary drone.
Yep – I am not blushing from saying this – I dont believe in “Janteloven”.
Davy on Tue, 18th Oct 2016 5:16 am
We have smart people worried about the moral failures of a person when what we are facing is the end of this nation from a person and her backers. It is ending anyway but how quickly and how nasty do you want that end to be. Criminality is much worse than poor political correctness and improper moral activity. This is about life and death not grabbing pussy. Men talk about that and many women are worse at the art of vulgar. This is a highly polarizing time and one that is intensely important like no other election in US history or likely world history for that matter.
Be apathetic if you like. Be upset with vulgar uneducated Trump and his crowd but be warned that a criminal is taking over and this criminal is more than a person it is a system. This is the mechanization of criminality of all that is nasty and subhuman disguised by the politically correct with a veneer of fake compassion. This is essentially about corruption and hate.
This is happening at a time when man needs to more than ever navigate between bad and worse. I was not going to vote but I am having second thoughts. I am experiencing existential disgust and trying to come to terms with two candidates that are horrible but one that is a known danger to the world and another that could be. Or should I put my head in the sand? Would I be voting for a possible Hitler or the other worse?
“A Vote For Treason”
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-10-17/vote-treason
“A vote for Donald Trump is not a vote for the person at all, that is why despite the media onslaught of negative stories about him as a person carries no weight with those who support him, because they don’t support him at all, they support what he represents, which is a chance to hold Hillary Clinton responsible for her crimes”
“The outcome is bigger than that. The next president will likely be a true war-time president. As Vladimir Zhirinovsky claimed a vote for Hillary Clinton would be a vote for war. War with Russia may be inevitable and irrespective of the election as it seems likely that war will begin before the next president can take office. But, there is the question of who would be more likely to effectively fight that war. More than that, would our military leaders be willing to follow the orders of a criminal like Hillary Clinton running a crime organization out of Washington? Would they put their lives in jeopardy knowing the cold-blooded actions she demonstrated in Benghazi? Or, would they likely recognize that their lives meant nothing to the Commander in Chief?”
Davy on Tue, 18th Oct 2016 5:44 am
Peaky, anyone here is likely of the World 1% with 6BIL below us without much hope of better. Yes, I was once 1% but now I come in from a hard day’s work with goat shit between my toes. Yea, I wear chacos in the summer like a peasant in the third world with cheap flip flops. I do this to remind me of shit.
If there is a place where the greatest of 1%er’s are it is your northern Europe. I lived there and it is the highest 1% standard of living man has known. You all are efficient and clean but you are still thieves. I live among third world fat and ugly Walmart people. Yes there are some 1%’ers here but few. Most shiny American people move to where the luxury is not where the cattle and goat shit is on rocky hardscabble land. These are the people we complain about every day here on this board because they represent the failure of the American dream or should I say the hijacking of it. This is especially true of the anti-Americans here who somehow think their shit don’t stink. Yet, these people are not 1% nor will they ever be.
I am a devolving 1%’er. I walked away from 6 figures 13 years ago and now I am barely making it with permaculture grass-fed goats and cattle. I am barely making it because the status quo wants me to be large scale and industrial. I am not bragging. I am happy and that is worth it. I got lucky and got out of the rat race. For many of you that are so critical of the 1% but you have never been there. It is a Hollywood fantasy. Some of you are wanna-be 1%’ers and since you can’t be 1%’ers you don’t want others to be. Many don’t know what you wanna-be but it ain’t what they are. So many people hate themselves so they hate others. Do you think I would have left that way of life if it was a higher way of life? Don’t you think that maybe being like one of them is truly a failed way of life?
If you base your life system on money and affluence without reflection on the truth then you are failing as a human. Being human is about survival. Survival is about wisdom. Being rich in today’s world is about driving in a nice car to your early death. It will be those who embrace stoicism and spartan living that may survive. It will not be the elites except for the very well connected and lucky. This number is likely the .001%’ers and nature will eventually get them anyway. This has always been the case so get over it. The 1% are walking to their slaughter just like the poor.
We are all walking to our slaughter but at least some have reasoned through it. Hell is likely only here on earth and the most hellish thought I can imagine is waking up to the fact that I was living a lie and that lie represented what is less than human. We know what is more human and we know what is less. What we don’t know sometimes is we are living less human thinking we are more human. That is madness and it is the absurd. It is mental illness and it won’t end well in a world where nature rules through reality not fantasy.
peakyeast on Tue, 18th Oct 2016 5:52 am
@Davy: You may have misunderstood me. I meant the top 1% that actually tries to make the world a better place and do something personal about it. Its not about the money.
What Ghung, you and others are doing: Producing food locally, minimizing CO2 footprint, trying to see what is really right and wrong, estimating which way the civilization goes.
That is what makes the people at this site great and Heroes in my world view.
I am trying to go the same way… I would also “love” goat-shit between my toes 😀
So far my house is just about CO2 neutral (producing all the heating, water and electricity myself)- now the effort will come to producing my own food and the transportation afterwards.
Davy on Tue, 18th Oct 2016 6:08 am
Sorry, I am pissed off about this election. Maybe I should just stop worrying about it but that is defeatism.
Sissyfuss on Tue, 18th Oct 2016 9:52 am
I’ve found any large city to be dystopian in nature ever since Denver in the 70’s when it would take me a couple of hours to go a few miles during rush hour. We didn’t evolve to be smashed together like bacteria in a corked test tube but that’s where we are until we ram up against the cork. Me, I’m heading for the wilderness soon.
GregT on Tue, 18th Oct 2016 11:35 am
“This is especially true of the anti-Americans here who somehow think their shit don’t stink.”
Still having problems figuring it all out Davy?
Not anti American. Anti the corruption that has taken control of America, and is well into the process of bringing the entire world to it’s knees. Hillary is not where that corruption began, but she will likely be where it finally meets it’s demise, and it is going to take America down with it. Patriotism has nothing to do with believing in the indoctrination, or the propaganda, it has everything to do with standing up against it.
Live by the sword, die by the sword. It doesn’t get much easier to understand.
Davy on Tue, 18th Oct 2016 12:41 pm
Doing better than you Gregor. You are caught up in your west coast Canada extremism. I don’t need a lecture from a Canadian with a bad attitude about what I already know. You need only review what is going on in Hongcover to realize that but of course you might not want to talk about that being directly connected with it.
peakyeast on Tue, 18th Oct 2016 1:35 pm
@Davy: Yeah – I can understand that. I am also pissed about it – well actually more saddened – and I am not even a citizen or living nearby.
I am equally disgusted about the Danish election. The biggest loser got to be prime minister and make government. The one nobody wanted – who didnt get many votes. A person who has a long history of fraudulent activity wherever he has been.
Who one day tells the people that paying 500$ for a pair of shoes is nothing and the next day it being discovered that he doesnt buy even his own underpants, but is in reality a beggar – getting the political party to buy all his clothing.
Davy on Tue, 18th Oct 2016 1:44 pm
Yea Peaky, a little corruption I can understand because let’s face it that is how political expediency is achieved. Yet, when it becomes a criminal enterprise like the. Klintons it is getting me politically energized. The problem is a vote for Trump as a anti-Klinton vote carries its own political baggage. Let’s face it Trump is a wack job. WTF
Apneaman on Tue, 18th Oct 2016 2:53 pm
Davy, you and your white supremacist buddies like douchey and clogged seem to be highly concerned about “Hongcouver”. That must be based on the vast lengths of time y’all spent living in the area and not on 50000 ZeroHedge clickbait for retards articles.
Why is there no updates and cheering from y’all in the last few months ? Seems like the BC government has made some effort to address this, y’alls most pressing of life’s problems.
Province to tax foreign buyers of Metro Vancouver homes – Posted: Jul 25, 2016 10:42 AM PT
“The B.C. government took steps Monday to reduce some of the pressure in Metro Vancouver’s overheated real estate market, introducing legislation that would add a 15 per cent property transfer tax for foreign nationals buying real estate there.”
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/metro-vancouver-home-sales-foreign-buyers-tax-1.3694167
Third round of real-estate data shows Vancouver sales to foreign buyers plummeted after new tax took effect
http://www.straight.com/news/793546/third-round-real-estate-data-shows-vancouver-sales-foreign-buyers-plummeted-after-new
One would think white supremacists would be doing cartwheels over this (3 months ago), yet not a peep. Not a story conducive to retard zerohedge click bait. Only “stories” that make already raging white rage all the more (confirmation bias enhancing) are allowed on there.
There are a number of reasons why the Chinese want to park their money in Canada and not the US – that’s what is really at the core of the anger is it not?
GregT on Tue, 18th Oct 2016 2:55 pm
“Yet, when it becomes a criminal enterprise like the. Klintons it is getting me politically energized.”
The criminal enterprise is not of the Clintons’ making Davy. All one really needs to do is to take a look at Hillary’s campaign contributors. Of course to really make sense of things one should also look at who actually controls these organizations. While I’m sure that there have been other studies done, this one should be of particular interest, even if it is over 4 decades old.
PROBING THE ROCKEFELLER FORTUNE,/b>
A Report Prepared for Members of the United States Congress
November 1974
http://socrates.berkeley.edu/~schwrtz/Rockefeller.html
This might also be of interest:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rockefeller_family
And finally, a couple of quotes from David Rockefeller himself:
“We are grateful to the Washington Post, the New York Times, Time Magazine and other great publications whose directors have attended our meetings and respected their promises of discretion for almost 40 years……It would have been impossible for us to develop our plan for the world if we had been subjected to the lights of publicity during those years. But, the world is more sophisticated and prepared to march towards a world government. The supernational sovereignty of an intellectual elite and world bankers is surely preferable to the national autodetermination practiced in past centuries.”
― David Rockefeller
“For more than a century ideological extremists at either end of the political spectrum have seized upon well-publicized incidents such as my encounter with Castro to attack the Rockefeller family for the inordinate influence they claim we wield over American political and economic institutions. Some even believe we are part of a secret cabal working against the best interests of the United States, characterizing my family and me as ‘internationalists’ and of conspiring with others around the world to build a more integrated global political and economic structure–one world, if you will. If that’s the charge, I stand guilty, and I am proud of it.”
― David Rockefeller, Memoirs
GregT on Tue, 18th Oct 2016 2:56 pm
Sorry about the bold text, forgot the <.
Davy on Tue, 18th Oct 2016 3:04 pm
Not really ape man. Brought the issue up becuase your dumbass west coast Canada buddy decided to lecture me today about maple syrup and a Canadian Bacon.
GregT on Tue, 18th Oct 2016 3:04 pm
From the Wiki entry above, for those so inclined not to read it:
The family has been awarded the annual UNA-USA’s Global Leadership Award, along with other recipients over time, including Bill Clinton and Michael Bloomberg. Members of the Rockefeller family into the fourth generation (especially the prominent banker and philanthropist David Rockefeller, who is the present family patriarch) have been heavily involved in international politics, and have donated money to, established or been involved in the following major international institutions:
The Council on Foreign Relations – David, David Jr., Nelson, John D. III, John D. IV (Jay), Peggy Dulany, Rockefeller Foundation, Rockefeller Brothers Fund.
The Trilateral Commission -David, Rockefeller Brothers Fund.
The Bilderberg Group – David, John D. IV.
The Asia Society – John D. III, John D. IV, Charles, David.
The Population Council – John D. III.
The Council of the Americas – David.
The Group of Thirty – The Rockefeller Foundation.
The World Economic Forum – David.
The Brookings Institution – Junior.
The Peterson Institute (Formerly the Institute for International Economics) – David, Monica.
The International Executive Service Corps – David.
The Institute for Pacific Relations – Junior.
The League of Nations – Junior.
The United Nations – Junior, John D. III, Nelson, David, Peggy Dulany, Rockefeller Brothers Fund.
The United Nations Association – David. Monica.
GregT on Tue, 18th Oct 2016 3:08 pm
“Not really ape man. Brought the issue up becuase your dumbass west coast Canada buddy decided to lecture me today about maple syrup and a Canadian Bacon.”
Still can’t rise up above nationalism, eh Davy? Some of us outgrew that a very long time ago. Canada is also controlled by the internationalists, same shit, different pile.
Apneaman on Tue, 18th Oct 2016 3:26 pm
yabut Davy once again we are here for y’all with our obsessive cheeriness and moral support.
America, you’re great, says Canada in #TellAmericaItsGreat campaign
“NEW YORK (FOX 5 NY) – There is a social media campaign orchestrated by people all over Canada to raise the American spirit in light of the current political climate.
Advertising firm The Garden came up with the idea using #TellAmericaItsGreat.
“Seems America could use some cheering up right about now. As their closest friends and neighbours, we thought we should take a minute to help remind them that no matter how bad things might seem at the moment, there are lots of reasons why we think they’re still pretty great.”
The campaign seems to be taking off.”
http://www.fox5ny.com/news/212182474-story
Tell America It’s Great
“Seems America could use some cheering up right now. Check out what some Canadians are saying about what’s happening down south.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=stGhjokq57U
Ahhhh…..ain’t that sweet of us?
Boat on Tue, 18th Oct 2016 3:32 pm
greggiet,
Ahhhhhhh yes. Those 100-50? or so Jews that control the world. Run some string tied to cans for a low cost security system. Support 1 Elizabeth Warren, that would be worth at least 20 of them.
GregT on Tue, 18th Oct 2016 3:38 pm
I suggest that you stock up on string and tin cans then Boat, if it helps you sleep better at night. 🙂
Apneaman on Tue, 18th Oct 2016 3:44 pm
The World Is Run by Folk Theories
“[T]he “folk theory of democracy” – the idea that citizens make coherent and intelligible policy decisions, on which governments then act – bears no relationship to how it really works. Or could ever work…”
“I find it endlessly amusing to see all the “Trump/Pence” signs in the white separatist enclaves and rural exurbs outside of the city given that four years ago those same signs were for Mitt Romney, someone who believed the 180-degree opposite than what Mr. Trump currently espouses on any number of issues. Heck, Mr. Romney’s very business was carving up American companies and offshoring jobs!”
“In reality, the research summarised by Achen and Bartels suggests, most people possess almost no useful information about policies and their implications, have little desire to improve their state of knowledge, and have a deep aversion to political disagreement. We base our political decisions on who we are, rather than what we think.
In other words, we act politically not as individual, rational beings, but as members of social groups, expressing a social identity. ”
“The “Folk Theory of Democracy” reminds me of the “Folk Theory of the Market” that I always like to bring up. It’s just as much of a fairy tale”
“Markets do not lead to “rational allocation of goods and services,” but are fueled by “animal spirits” and driven by things like the cognitive biases, the herd mentality, Ponzi dynamics, and the Greater Fool Theory. This is what history shows outside of economic textbooks and academic papers. The other thing that economists spend a lot of time doing is trying to get markets to work the way the textbooks say they should, while simultaneously extolling “private enterprise” and berating government “distortion.””
http://hipcrimevocab.com/2016/10/15/the-world-is-run-by-folk-theories/
Davy on Tue, 18th Oct 2016 4:33 pm
Tell America it is great Canadians – Thanks so much all you Canadians that love us so much. You guys do a jam up job of showing how much you care. With friends like that who needs ex wives and asshole uncles!
makati1 on Tue, 18th Oct 2016 8:43 pm
Ap, watching the human monkey is much more entertaining than anything he could possible put on the boob-tube, Democracy, capitalism and all the other stories we tell ourselves are just that, impossible stories. Religion is proof that we will believe anything that makes us feel good. I prefer a good glass of wine myself. Stories are for children.
GregT on Tue, 18th Oct 2016 11:09 pm
“Tell America it is great Canadians”
America is great Davy!
Considering how pissed off you’ve been lately, I sincerely hope that makes you feel better.
“You guys do a jam up job of showing how much you care.”
The first step in coming up with a workable solution, is to identify the problem. People who don’t care, seldom say anything.
Hubbert on Wed, 19th Oct 2016 4:37 am
Crap future is already here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Df7j_b4CkI
Davy on Wed, 19th Oct 2016 5:16 am
GregT I don’t need your pre-school lectures or your disingenuous support. You are here on this board to belittle and discredit people that don’t see things your way.